Cara
Caleb's phone has been buzzing over and over again for the last five minutes but he is in the shower.
Eventually curiosity gets the best of me and I glance at the caller ID.
"Four" is flashing across the screen.
My heart sinks into my shoes.
The buzzing stops and starts right back up again seconds later.
It is obviously important.
I bite down on my bottom lip.
"Hey, Caleb?" I call, but there is no answer except the sound of the running water.
I take a deep breath and answer Caleb's phone.
"Hello?"
There is no answer from the other end.
"Um…hello?" I try again.
"…Cara?"
He sounds completely broken.
My stomach squeezes uncomfortable.
"Yeah, it's me."
I haven't heard his voice in so long and I hate that it makes me feel warm inside.
"…Where's Caleb?"
"Um…he's in the shower, can I take a message?"
"I don't know what to do…" He whispers.
I don't say anything. I don't know what to say. I don't want to get sucked into this. I can't. I need distance, and time and…
God damn it.
It doesn't matter.
None of it matters.
He needs me.
"What happened?"
"Its Tris…She's gotten worse and I…I don't…"
Caleb had mentioned something about Tris not feeling well earlier.
I let out a little sigh.
"I need help. I need Caleb to examine her."
"Okay…um…I'll let him know when he gets out of the shower. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Four? It's going to be fine. She's going to be fine."
I would've said anything to make him stop sounding like that.
"Will you come?" He says softly.
I close my eyes. He has no idea what he's asking me.
"Four…"
"Please, Cara. I don't…" He pauses. "I can't do this by myself."
"Okay…yeah, we'll be right over."
The other line clicks and I know that he hung up, probably to comfort Tris.
I take a deep breath and then yell for Caleb, I hear the water shut off and then the sound of his feet running into the bedroom to find me.
He is still all wet from the shower and there is nothing but a tiny towel wrapped around his waist.
My eyes can't stop staring at the water dripping down his chest, and the way his hair is plastered to his face because it's damp.
Since when did Caleb get attractive?
"Christ Cara! Don't do that, I thought you'd fallen out of your chair or something. What is it?"
I roll my eyes thinking of the one and only time I'd fallen out of my chair when I was still getting used to it and Caleb had come rushing out of the shower to come help me, but that time he'd been fully clothed.
"For the record, that only happened once." I mumble.
"Okay, what's going on?"
I sigh a little.
"Four called. He needs us to come over. You should bring your medical books. It's Tris. She's not getting any better."
"You talked to him?"
I close my eyes and nod a little bit.
Caleb knows that this is the first time I've spoken to him in a month and a half.
"Hey…you don't…you don't have to go. I can…I can just go."
It's amazing that he's more worried about me talking to my ex-boyfriend than his sick sister.
"I'll be fine. We should go though. It sounded urgent."
"Alright, just let me get dressed." He says quietly.
I wheel myself out of the bedroom to give him some privacy even though a part of me…a really deep down part of me, doesn't really want to.
Tobias/Four
By the time the doorbell rings, I've managed to get Tris calmed down again.
She's lying on the couch her whole body shaking like she's freezing regardless of the fact that I'd wrapped five blankets around her.
I answer the door and I am so relieved to see Caleb that I have to resist the urge to hug him.
"Thank you so much for coming." I breathe.
He nods a little a stack of books in his hand.
"I'll do the best I can, but I'm not a doctor yet." He says and then he moves past me into the house.
It is then that my eyes fall on Cara.
"…Hi…" I say softly. She looks good, better than when I'd seen her in the hospital. Her cheeks are full of color and her hair is full and back to its regular shade of blonde.
There is a thin tube hooked into her nose and wrapped around her face. I follow the tube and see a tiny oxygen tank hooked into her wheelchair.
"You still need extra help with breathing?" I ask curiously.
She nods a little bit. "Yes, but um…only for another week or so and then they're going to let me try it all on my own."
I nod a little bit. "That's great."
"I guess…" She says softly.
"Thank you for coming. I know…" I pause for a moment because I don't know what to say. She didn't have to be here, and I appreciate that she is so much more than she'll ever know.
"Look," she says softly. "This doesn't mean we're friends. I understand that you need help right now. That's all this is. Okay?"
Just like that, my heart breaks into about a million tiny little pieces.
"Okay."
She wheels herself past me and I watch her go for a few moments and then I follow her into the living room with Caleb and Tris.
Tris is sitting up now, but she's still shaking. Caleb sticks a tongue depressor in her mouth and shines a flashlight down her throat.
He has a medical book open on his lap and every time he sees something he looks down at his book to fact check it.
Cara looks up at me. "Don't worry. He knows more than half my doctors, really."
Her ability to comfort me with such simple words is why I miss her so much.
Caleb shines the light in her eyes and Tris makes a groaning sound.
"I know, I know. I'm sorry." He whispers and then he takes his fingers and feels along her neck.
Caleb pauses and flips a couple pages in his book.
"My mom thinks its Marcus." I whisper, mostly to Cara.
Cara looks up at me.
"What?"
I nod "Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but…I think she might be right."
"Wow, as far as fathers go, Four, you really got the bottom of the barrel."
"Tell me about it." I mumble.
Caleb turns towards us then, shaking his head.
"Okay, here's the weird thing. There's nothing wrong with her physically. I mean, not that I can tell from the outside, except…" He lifts Tris' T-shirt a little and beckons me forward.
"Touch right here." Caleb says brushing his fingers along her rib cage.
I do as he asks, pressing my palm flat against her ribcage. The skin is hot to the touch.
"What does that mean?"
Caleb lets out a little sigh and then he pushes on her rib cage and Tris lets out a little scream, and then he moves his fingers and does the same thing to her stomach and then he presses his fingers into her neck.
Each time he does so, Tris lets out a moan or a scream.
"She shouldn't be that hot, and it's not everywhere it's just…where her organs are located."
I shake my head, not really understanding.
"My professional opinion?" Caleb says uncertainty coating his voice.
"Her organs are liquefying."
My head is spinning.
"Her organs are what?"
Caleb looks scared and that makes me feel even more terrified than I had been originally.
"Liquefying. There's…honestly nothing we can do about it. I mean, it's happening at a really fast rate and…"
I blow out a breath. "That son of a bitch. He has the cure."
"Who?" Caleb asks.
"Marcus." I say, but the word is practically a growl.
No one says anything. What can they possibly say to make this better?
Nothing.
There is nothing.
"Will you guys stay with her? I have something I need to do."
Caleb nods, "Yeah…of course."
"Four…" It's Cara's voice and I turn a little to face her.
"Don't do anything stupid, Okay? Just…keep your head."
I nod at her before grabbing my keys and my jacket and leaving the house.
…
It's late so the politics building is empty. I am grateful because I had just gotten my all-access pass because of my political leader status. I swipe my badge at the entrance and the gates swing open.
Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to say to him. He obviously has some ulterior motive. He isn't going to make this easy for me, but I have to try.
Tris dying is not an option.
I slide the key into the lock and swing the door open.
Marcus is lying in the center of the room.
He looks just like Tris does right now, the only difference is he deserves it.
I cross the room and nudge him with my shoe.
"Get up." I say in a low voice.
"Get up!"
Marcus's eyes flutter open and his dry lips stretch into a smile.
"The prodigal son returns!" he exclaims excitedly.
"Shut up." I say as Marcus pulls himself to a seated position.
"What brings you here? Let me guess, Tris has started having hallucinations? Oh, no? Not there yet. It'll come. Just you wait."
"What the hell are you doing to her?"
"The same thing I'm doing to myself." He says in a tired voice.
"Why?"
"Why else, Tobias? Keep up, I want something."
"Okay, tell me what it is that you want then."
"You'll be happy to know, that this illness is completely curable. I know where the cure is, and I know how to have it administered, but in order to do that. I need out of this wretched room."
I let out a bitter laugh.
"I will never let you out of this room. Are you insane?"
Marcus sighs. "If I don't cure myself, Tris is going to die."
I reach down and grab him by the shirt, slamming him against the wall, and jamming my arm against his throat to hold him there.
"Tell me where the cure is. Now."
Marcus laughs, despite losing air.
"Even if told you…" he croaks out. "It wouldn't matter. It won't work on Tris. Just me." I release my arm and he slides to the floor.
"We'll find another way." I say through my teeth.
"You'll just be wasting time, and then one day her organs will all be liquidized and she will die and the blood will be on your hands."
I stare at him because I can't believe that this man is my father.
I close my eyes for a moment.
"Was there ever a time that you cared about me at all, even for just a moment?"
I don't know what makes me ask it.
Maybe because I have always wondered.
Maybe because I'm just tired of all of this.
Marcus looks up at me his head tilts slightly.
"Tobias, I've always wanted to make you better."
"That's not what I asked you! Me. Just me, the way that I am right now. Did you ever love me?"
"Love is a lie people tell themselves so that they can sleep at night."
I close my eyes. I don't know what I had been expecting.
Maybe for him to express his love for me, call the whole thing off.
But he will never do that.
"Go to hell." I say, and then I walk out of the room closing and locking the door behind me.
