Chapter Two
Vesta looked up at him and shook her little head her tangle of brunette hair swaying over her back, Four motioned once more trying to get her to come over to the shower in the transfers barracks. She shook her head again a little fear in her eyes as she looked at him and that shower before going back to him and watching as the man sighed in exasperation he was only trying to help her after all. He couldn't tell her that though, she wouldn't have understood him since she couldn't hear him to begin with. He grumbled out, he couldn't help it… how could this girl be so stubborn. Then again she had let him pick her up and carry her just days before so surely if he showed her he wasn't going to hurt her she would trust him to get her cleaned up.
He stood for a moment before turning the shower off; maybe that was why she was freaking out. He didn't know if she'd ever had a bath in the time that she could remember, not after being alone for so long. Yet as he looked at her when the water was off she did seem to calm down or at least she didn't look like she was about to run any second. Okay Four you need to go slow, maybe comb out her hair first, he thought and stooped down grabbing the comb from where he'd left it on the floor. He made his way over to her before sitting on the floor so he was closer to eye to eye with the little one. Four held the comb out to her just letting it sit in his palm so she could see it and know that it wasn't something to be afraid of. The child reached out her tiny fingers moving over the tines of the comb before she watched him bring the comb up to his head and show her what the comb was for. Vesta watched him for second her sweet little face thinking of it for a moment before she nodded.
The male reached up gently turning her so he could easily see the side of her head, he'd never combed long hair before though so when he tried to start from the top of her head he was nearly shocked to see how much it pulled and yanked at her head and he didn't realize how much it was hurting her until his hand brushed against one of her little cheeks getting a little hot tear on the back of his hand. Four took her little arm in a gentle grip turning her to face him he saw the tears on her cheeks; he hadn't meant to hurt her in the least. She was quiet as she let those fat tears drip down from her big brown eyes though and Four could feel a pain growing in his chest, his heart breaking for this poor little creature. She was a circumstance of her own birth. He gently brushed the tears from her cheeks and wasn't surprised at all when doing so left a clean streak over her face.
Vesta looked at him and he was surprised she didn't run from him for him hurting her even if he didn't mean too. The tiny child kept her eyes on him though which was a good thing for her since one of the Dauntless born initiates came into the room, Shauna knew what he was doing for the little girl. Zeke hadn't tried to hide it from the girl at all; he was impressed by Four trying to stick up for the little girl even if he was worried that Max would do something against him because of it. "She knows me I've been here and I didn't help her then so she won't trust me now, but you need to start from the bottom of her hair and work your way up Four. Like this," she told him and picked up a lock of her own hair holding tight to the middle of it. "Hold it tight so if it yanks on a tangle it doesn't yank on her scalp. When you finish with the bottom part move your hand up and brush out the middle section then you can carefully brush out the top part without hurting her too much."
Four reached out taking her hair how Shauna told him and brushed out the end right in front of Vesta's face so she could see he was doing it again and it wasn't hurting her this time. The little girl watched the comb snag on a tangle but she still didn't feel it as he worked the knot out of her hair so she nodded again and turned sideways like she had been before so he could do what he needed to her hair. "Thanks Shauna, I didn't mean to hurt her but at least she didn't run. Do you know why she wouldn't want to get in the shower?"
"Well like most of the factions Dauntless kids take baths until they are about five or six so the last time she was cleaned it was in a tub and her mother tried to drown her Max had been visiting her dad and stopped her mother just short of killing her. That was when Max said they needed to kick her out of the house to fend for herself. Then her brother held her over the chasm and she was staring down at the river, I think she is afraid of all water unless it's in a cup. I mean I would be too if that happened to me when I was so young. You got lucky that she stayed in the room I think," Shauna told him as she sat on one of the beds in the room watching as Four slowly got through the first lock of hair without hurting the little girl more than she had been already. "You are braver then most Four, taking care of her like this. I'll help you get her cleaned up though; she is going to fight us when it comes to her hair though since her head will be under the water it'll scare her…"
Her own mother had tried to drown her? Fuck his heart was breaking for this little girl, no matter what Marcus had done to him; he'd never tried to kill him. So far the only one of her family that he hadn't been told tried to kill her was her father and he was to the point that he was just waiting for that one to fall into his lap too. If two of her family members had tried to kill her, what had her father tried to do to her? She was trusting him though and she even trusted Amar to a point so it couldn't have been too terrible, right? "People will talk when she is cleaned up."
"Let them, she needs to be clean and to learn that not everyone is out to kill her. That and the fact that not all water is bad," Shauna informed him with a grin. "You know unless you plan for her to run around looking like a mud-pie for the rest of her life." The girl opened the trunk at the end of the bed she was sitting on searching for another comb, she didn't find one in that trunk so she moved to a different one before she found a comb and moved over to help. Vesta jumped slightly her little heart hammering in her thin chest to a painful rhythm. She quickly twisted her head jerking the hair in Four's hand; the poor thing had nearly jumped out of her skin and he didn't know how to make it better. He'd just pulled her hair even if it was because of her but at least she hadn't run, that would have been horrible.
Vesta stood there staring at Shauna who just smiled and gently combed at the little girl's hair. The girl looked like a rabbit about to dart away for a few minutes until she realized that at least for the moment Shauna wasn't going to try to hurt her. With the both of them working on her hair though it was all combed out within an hour which at least wasn't as bad as it could have been if it had been just him working on her hair. "How do we get her in the shower now?"
"I suggest turning the shower on putting the wash cloth under it and clean her as much here as possible, slowly get her to move closer to it, maybe try and play with her splash her a little bit…" Shauna suggested it would probably be the only way to get her comfortable before they had to get her under the water to take care of her hair and then she would probably be screaming at the top of her lungs even if she couldn't hear it, everyone had heard her when her brother Veles had held her over the chasm yet it was only Amar who'd stepped in. Vesta had run as fast as she could to her hiding place when Amar had saved her.
"Keep combing even if we are done so she doesn't run when the shower starts," Four told the older girl and watched as she went back to combing the child's hair.
He got up and started the water once more waiting for it to get warm before he got a cloth wet and scrubbed some soap into it until he had a good lather going and he moved back to the girl taking a little hand in one of his taking it in for a second. His hand was so much bigger than hers it felt like he was holding onto a breakable doll's hand. He could hurt her so easily, didn't she know that? He ran his thumb over her soft little hand, what if he turned up like his father? He wasn't sure any of this was a good idea but he knew she needed someone to protect her and care for her and he'd been the only one so far that had been up for the job. It wasn't until he'd really started to try and help her that even the Dauntless his own age had tried to help her out. Amar and Max had saved her life and left her to a dismal existence, though Amar tried to help her the most he could. "Four?"
"I don't want to hurt her…" he whispered softly before he gently started to clean her little hand in his palm. Poor sweet little girl, he couldn't risk becoming his father with her around and yet if he stopped caring for her who would?
He moved over to the table Amar was at sitting next to the man like he normally had, Vesta came in shortly after him. The girl was clean including her hair which was curly when not tangled and dirty, that had surprised both him and Shauna yet according to the older female it was the most adorable thing she'd seen in a long time. It had made Four smile and she was in new clean clothes that he'd begged Amar to get for the girl, the child looked so sweet and innocent even if she was in a little black dress. Little did Four know that Tori had been the one to make that dress for the little girl and she had a few more pieces in the making since he was going to be keeping her clean with Shauna's help.
"Shoes are big on her…" Amar said with a little smile.
"She'll grow into them before we know it," Tori said softly. "I think she is adorable in it though." She looked at the girl once more and smirking she may have been wearing a cute little dress but the shoes were an old pair of Shauna's that she gave to the girl. Not like she was going to get her feet to fit back in them anyhow, still she was wearing little combat boots with her dress and it was so cute it wasn't even right.
Four smiled to the little girl as she looked around, people were staring at her. Amar saw the look on the younger man's face; Four already loved the little girl. She was good for him that sweet little deaf girl, she didn't trust many people and she had every right not to. At the same point though she was trusting Four more than she had anyone else in the year she had been out of her home. She saw Four and smiled before running right to him wrapping her scrawny little arms around his middle before he lifted her up onto the bench seat. Shauna smiled at Four, "you won't hurt her."