p style="text-align: center;"strong Chapter two here.../strong/p
p style="text-align: center;"span style="text-decoration: line-through;"strongI own everything/strong/span/p
p style="text-align: center;"strongI own nothing, all rights go to Veronica Roth/strong/p
p style="text-align: center;"strongI'm trying to stick to a new chapter at least once a day./strong/p
p style="text-align: center;"strongEnjoy, beautiful readers - I love you all (platonically) - please review./strong/p
hr /
p style="text-align: center;" /p
p style="text-align: left;"The doctor isn't very helpful./p
p style="text-align: left;"And he's as approachable as a bed of nails./p
p style="text-align: left;"I remember Tris once used that as an insult to me, back when I was just her instructor. I deserved it, making a kneejerk reaction to hide my past from her. Hiding things felt so trivial now./p
p style="text-align: left;"It's been four days since Tris was shot, four days that felt like four months. I haven't left her bedside, except for ten minutes yesterday when Cara accused me of stinking up the place and threw me into a shower. People come and go, Christina reads poetry every night for an hour, trying desperately to get a response. I sit, I stare and I cry./p
p style="text-align: left;"The doctor, despite being pessimistic and boring, tells me straight. "She was shot three times." He tells me, a robotic voice listing off her injuries. "Twice in the abdomen, one hit some tissue and didn't cause much damage, the second pierced her kidney and we had to remove it. The third injury was in her chest, luckily it missed her heart but it has ruined her tattoo. There isn't much chance she'll make it, so if we don't get any improvement by this time tomorrow, we will have to pull the plug."/p
p style="text-align: left;"The words empull the plug /emrattle around in my head, bouncing off my skull and ricochet around my brain. It sounds so inhumane, empull the plug, /emlike she's an electronic device that won't charge properly. She'll wake up, she's Tris Prior; Abnegation-turned-dauntless badass and first jumper, she won't give up this easily. Three bullets isn't enough to kill off emmy /emTris./p
p style="text-align: left;"I hadn't looked at the damage done to her body yet, scared that seeing it would make it real. I swallow my fear and pull the sheets away from her body. Her stomach is wrapped tightly in bandages and blood - now dry - has seeped through to the outer layers of the material. I then look at her chest, the bandage covering the scar there was removed while I showered yesterday, leaving a scar running through two the black birds signalling her mother and her father, but leaving Caleb's bird untouched. Ironic I think, how it runs through those two, as if the bullet knew that if she died, she'd be returning to them./p
p style="text-align: left;"Twenty-four hours, that's all the time left for a miracle. But if anyone could do it, Tris could./p
p style="text-align: left;"The day merges into night and I don't fall asleep on the uncomfortable grey chair like I usually do, instead I watch Tris, still on every form of life-support available to her. I know that this could be the last time I see her, sleeping seemed like a waste of time. I memorise her; the shape of her face, the colour of her hair and the feel of her hand in mine, but I don't want to remember her like this. I want to remember the real Tris, with undeniable bravery, a contagious smile and indisputable selflessness./p
p style="text-align: left;"The next day approaches too fast, and soon Debbie - the nicer of the nurses - has come in to tell me that they're going to 'empull the plug' /emin fifteen minutes./p
p style="text-align: left;"Everyone said their goodbyes earlier this morning, leaving just me, Caleb and Christina to ours./p
p style="text-align: left;"Christina goes first. She's crying, mumbling about how she'll never forget her best friend, how unfair it is that she's lost both Will and Tris in such a short space of time, how she doesn't know if she'll cope./p
p style="text-align: left;"Caleb is next, he kisses her forehead and apologises for everything, for the big things like letting her sacrifice herself for him and for assisting in Jeanine's torturing, he also says sorry for the little things, for telling her off at the dinner table when she asked her father questions, for forgetting to wait for her once after school when they were much younger, for doubting her when she chose Dauntless./p
p style="text-align: left;"Then they leave me with her, both in tears and me soon to join them. I struggle with words to say, doubting that she can hear me. With only five minutes left, I decide to just talk./p
p style="text-align: left;""I don't know what to say," I tell her. "I don't want to say goodbye to you." I stroke her head, giving myself some comfort more than her. "I can't live without you Tris, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I love you and I always have. I wish I could take your place, I wish for a lot of things. I just want to see you smile one more time, hear your laugh again. I can't believe you sacrificed yourself for Caleb, but I suppose you wouldn't be the woman I love if you hadn't. Everyone's got you wired wrong Tris, you're not a little girl, you are the bravest, most selfless, smartest, most honest and kindest person I have ever met, you are everything I have ever wanted to be and I promise to live the rest of my life in your inspiration. I will never forget you Beatrice, and if you can hear me I know you'll be cursing me for calling you that but I once promised you I would only use that name under the worst circumstances, this has got to be the worst thing in the world. You're part of me Tris, you always will be."/p
p style="text-align: left;"I close my eyes to keep the tears in, if she can hear, she'll hear me cry and I want to be strong for her in her final moments. When I'm sure the tears are hidden for now, I open them,/p
p style="text-align: left;"And I stare into a pair of beautiful grey eyes./p
p style="text-align: center;"span style="text-decoration: line-through;"strongI own everything/strong/span/p
p style="text-align: center;"strongI own nothing, all rights go to Veronica Roth/strong/p
p style="text-align: center;"strongI'm trying to stick to a new chapter at least once a day./strong/p
p style="text-align: center;"strongEnjoy, beautiful readers - I love you all (platonically) - please review./strong/p
hr /
p style="text-align: center;" /p
p style="text-align: left;"The doctor isn't very helpful./p
p style="text-align: left;"And he's as approachable as a bed of nails./p
p style="text-align: left;"I remember Tris once used that as an insult to me, back when I was just her instructor. I deserved it, making a kneejerk reaction to hide my past from her. Hiding things felt so trivial now./p
p style="text-align: left;"It's been four days since Tris was shot, four days that felt like four months. I haven't left her bedside, except for ten minutes yesterday when Cara accused me of stinking up the place and threw me into a shower. People come and go, Christina reads poetry every night for an hour, trying desperately to get a response. I sit, I stare and I cry./p
p style="text-align: left;"The doctor, despite being pessimistic and boring, tells me straight. "She was shot three times." He tells me, a robotic voice listing off her injuries. "Twice in the abdomen, one hit some tissue and didn't cause much damage, the second pierced her kidney and we had to remove it. The third injury was in her chest, luckily it missed her heart but it has ruined her tattoo. There isn't much chance she'll make it, so if we don't get any improvement by this time tomorrow, we will have to pull the plug."/p
p style="text-align: left;"The words empull the plug /emrattle around in my head, bouncing off my skull and ricochet around my brain. It sounds so inhumane, empull the plug, /emlike she's an electronic device that won't charge properly. She'll wake up, she's Tris Prior; Abnegation-turned-dauntless badass and first jumper, she won't give up this easily. Three bullets isn't enough to kill off emmy /emTris./p
p style="text-align: left;"I hadn't looked at the damage done to her body yet, scared that seeing it would make it real. I swallow my fear and pull the sheets away from her body. Her stomach is wrapped tightly in bandages and blood - now dry - has seeped through to the outer layers of the material. I then look at her chest, the bandage covering the scar there was removed while I showered yesterday, leaving a scar running through two the black birds signalling her mother and her father, but leaving Caleb's bird untouched. Ironic I think, how it runs through those two, as if the bullet knew that if she died, she'd be returning to them./p
p style="text-align: left;"Twenty-four hours, that's all the time left for a miracle. But if anyone could do it, Tris could./p
p style="text-align: left;"The day merges into night and I don't fall asleep on the uncomfortable grey chair like I usually do, instead I watch Tris, still on every form of life-support available to her. I know that this could be the last time I see her, sleeping seemed like a waste of time. I memorise her; the shape of her face, the colour of her hair and the feel of her hand in mine, but I don't want to remember her like this. I want to remember the real Tris, with undeniable bravery, a contagious smile and indisputable selflessness./p
p style="text-align: left;"The next day approaches too fast, and soon Debbie - the nicer of the nurses - has come in to tell me that they're going to 'empull the plug' /emin fifteen minutes./p
p style="text-align: left;"Everyone said their goodbyes earlier this morning, leaving just me, Caleb and Christina to ours./p
p style="text-align: left;"Christina goes first. She's crying, mumbling about how she'll never forget her best friend, how unfair it is that she's lost both Will and Tris in such a short space of time, how she doesn't know if she'll cope./p
p style="text-align: left;"Caleb is next, he kisses her forehead and apologises for everything, for the big things like letting her sacrifice herself for him and for assisting in Jeanine's torturing, he also says sorry for the little things, for telling her off at the dinner table when she asked her father questions, for forgetting to wait for her once after school when they were much younger, for doubting her when she chose Dauntless./p
p style="text-align: left;"Then they leave me with her, both in tears and me soon to join them. I struggle with words to say, doubting that she can hear me. With only five minutes left, I decide to just talk./p
p style="text-align: left;""I don't know what to say," I tell her. "I don't want to say goodbye to you." I stroke her head, giving myself some comfort more than her. "I can't live without you Tris, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I love you and I always have. I wish I could take your place, I wish for a lot of things. I just want to see you smile one more time, hear your laugh again. I can't believe you sacrificed yourself for Caleb, but I suppose you wouldn't be the woman I love if you hadn't. Everyone's got you wired wrong Tris, you're not a little girl, you are the bravest, most selfless, smartest, most honest and kindest person I have ever met, you are everything I have ever wanted to be and I promise to live the rest of my life in your inspiration. I will never forget you Beatrice, and if you can hear me I know you'll be cursing me for calling you that but I once promised you I would only use that name under the worst circumstances, this has got to be the worst thing in the world. You're part of me Tris, you always will be."/p
p style="text-align: left;"I close my eyes to keep the tears in, if she can hear, she'll hear me cry and I want to be strong for her in her final moments. When I'm sure the tears are hidden for now, I open them,/p
p style="text-align: left;"And I stare into a pair of beautiful grey eyes./p