Four wakes up early in the morning, his body feeling rested from the exhaustion that had creeped in over the past few days. He eased himself out of the bed, letting Tris continue to sleep. He had woken up to her tossing a few times in the night but calmed her down from whatever nightmare she was having. He slipped in the shower and when he finished, peeked out but saw her still sleeping.
He didn't want to wake her but his face was in desperate need of a shave so he turned on his shaver and breathed a sigh of relief removing the scratchy beard that had begun to grow. He heard her stir and checked out of the bathroom after he finished the tricky spot along his jawline.
He saw her sitting up watching him and he was brought back to the morning after she had been attacked, how good it had been to see her in his bed. He wanted to rush over and join her, picking up where they left off last night, but he could tell he wouldn't make it far.
"Good morning. How did you sleep?" he asked her. "Okay," she responded as she got out of bed. Four turned back to the mirror and finished up one last spot as he felt her arms wrap around him. He loved the feel of her touch and would stay in her arms all day if life allowed for it. He set the razor down and covered her hands with his, enjoying the silence, a stillness their life had not allowed for in the past days. Eventually Tris breaks it and Four feels like press back in on them.
"I should go get ready." He can tell she doesn't want to leave. Four sees her hesitate and realizes she doesn't want to walk the halls without pants and he doesn't either. "I'll get you something to wear." He grabs her a pair of shorts and watches her walk away, wanting so badly to follow her.
Four finishes up grooming, his body relaxing slightly after removing the grime that had built up after they escaped the city. He felt as if it was all a dream, now that it wasn't coating his skin so heavily. He thought of grabbing some food and eating outside with Tris, enjoying their last moments before they head back into whatever they will find in the city. He quickly finds some clean clothes and heads toward her room, hoping she will want to go with him. He was nervous, wondering if this would technically be their first official date. In Dauntless, people tend to skip the ritual of getting to know one another and just jump into bed with each other but in Abnegation it's quite different. People take the time to court, experience life together and that's what Four wanted with Tris.
As he approached her room, he heard shouting and began to walk faster. As he turns into her hallway, he sees fighting and recognizes that tiny hand flying at someone's face. He sprints forward, not wanting her to start anything due to the rules enforced on them and sees her attacking Peter. Four jumps in the middle and hauls her off from him, as she fights back trying to get at him.
"Tris! Calm down!" Four shouts at her. She doesn't even turn but yells back at him, "He has the hard drive! He stole it from me, he took it from my room!" Four let Tris go, walked over to where Peter was lying on the ground and stepped on his chest. He did it a little harder than he needed to but he realized with the rules in place, Peter felt safe and he had to remove that feeling. He stared down at him, shifting back into instructor mode, a person he knew Peter was afraid of. As Peter glares back at him, Four reaches into his pocket, removes the hard drive and leans in close to his face.
"We won't be in a safe house forever and this wasn't very smart of you. Don't think I won't find you if you put your hands on her again." He steps away from Peter and slowly approaches Tris, understanding how dangerous she is when her mind is in this mode. He thinks back to her fight with Molly, how she can get lost in anger when she feels she had been wronged.
"That wasn't very smart of you either, do you want to get us kicked out?" He stares into her eyes and tries to silently tell her to calm down, she doesn't obviously. An Amity man grabs her arm and begins to drag her down the hallway. Four sees her fighting the man and realizes she isn't going to calm down any time soon. "Let go of me!" He wants to remove that hand from her, hating to see anyone touching her when she doesn't want to be touched, but he knows that will only make it worse.
The man responds to her, "You violated the terms of our agreement. We must follow protocol." Tris looks at Four for help but if he gets her out of this, she will just attack Peter again when he looks away. Instead he sighs and gives her a small smile. "Just go, you need to cool down." Tris scans the crowd looking for someone to help her out but finally she relaxes and goes with the man.
Four walks toward Peter and helps him up, only to drag him toward his room. He throws him inside and closes the door. "I'm going to say this fast and then you are going to leave. If you ever go near her again, know that you are out of warnings from me. I don't care if they ship me back to Jeanine herself, if I see you even look at her wrong, I will break every bone in your body. I still have not forgiven you for attempting to kill her and it would be in your best interest to remember how dangerous I can be."
Peter squared his shoulders to Four and tried to look taller but couldn't match Four's height. "You think you scare me? Just because you came in first? That means nothing anymore. You and your little girlfriend better watch your backs." With that Peter left Four's room and Four realized he was going to have to keep Tris in his sight at all times.
He decides to head outside even though he and Tris won't be sharing lunch out there. He finds a nice tree to lean against and he lets his thoughts wander. He thinks back on Dauntles and wonders if the factions are still running. He wonders if the Candor have joined forces with Erudite yet and what is being done with Abnegation. As he feels himself start to drift to sleep he hears a sing song voice call his name.
"Four! Four where are you?" He stands up and looks around the tree, unable to connect that voice with the girl he knows and loves. She sounds so gentle, unthreatening and he can't believe it when he sees her.
"Tris?" He sees her giggle and realizes he has never heard her make that sound before. She runs toward him and he sees her lurch to the side as if she has no balance. His arms reach out and catch her, settling on her waist. Before he can react, she grabs him and pulls him to her, crashing her lips onto his.
"What the-" is all he can get out before she is kissing him. He gives her a quick peck and pulls away, seeing the look of utter disappointment cross her face. Four begins to get angry, wondering what they did to her when they took her away. He should never have let them take her, she seemed to be under some simulation.
"That was lame, well not really, but yes…" Tris said, again using a girly voice Four remembers all the females in Dauntless using when trying to get his attention. She stands on her toes to try to kiss him again but he blocks her with his hand, needing to find out what has happened to her before he goes any farther.
"Tris, what did they do to you? You're acting like a lunatic!" Four realized that wasn't the best thing to say to her but there was no other way to describe how she was acting. Tris' lip shot out in a pout and Four's stomach turned in revulsion, he couldn't stand how girly she was acting.
"That's not very nice to say. They put me in a good mood is all, they relaxed me. And now I really want to kiss you but you won't relax."
He cut her off, "I'm not going to kiss you. I'm going to figure out what's going on." Four had to get Tris back, he couldn't stand this fake version of her. He saw her face light up as if she just realized the most important thing in the world.
"That's why you like me! You aren't a nice person either and you like that I am mean." Four couldn't help but laugh at Tris, she was definitely on something and he needed to get her to Johanna to figure out what.
"We're going to see Johanna, let's go." He moved to grab Tris and she tried to wrap her arms around his neck, attemping to kiss him again. "Don't worry Four, I like you too."
He had about enough of this, "That's nice, let's go." She refused to move and Four was really getting agitated, he couldn't handle having Tris act all helpless.
"Oh for God's sake, I'll just carry you," he said while trying to get her to walk. She kept trying to kiss him so he finally just swung her up in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. As they walked, she was kicking her feet and Four wanted to yell at her but kept it inside. This wasn't her fault and he had to find out what was causing her to act this way.
He finally reached Johanna's office, after having almost dropped Tris three times. She kept squirming around and trying to kiss him or swinging her legs. Four had about enough when he pushed through her door.
As they enter the office, Tris shows just how little of a filter she has at this moment. Before Four can even ask what is happening with her, she blurts out, "You really shouldn't cover up your scar, you look prettier with your hair out of your face." Her voice was so sickly sweet, Four could barely stand to be near her.
He set her down a little rougher than normal and turned toward Johanna. He hears Tris laugh behind him and has no idea what caused it but he decides not to ask. "What did you do to her?" Four looked at her in desperation, needing his tough girlfriend back, not this sappy whiny one.
Johanna looked at Tris in surprise, Four understood that look. Her voice now didn't match her body. Her short haircut and tattoos needed a tough personality not this girly girl one. Johanna sighed, "They must have given her too much, not taking into account her height and weight."
Either it was the fact that the past few days had been filled with dangerous things being injected into his body or that whatever Tris had been given turned her into this but Four became very angry at the thought of her under the influence of an unknown substance. He barely contained his anger when he shouted at Johanna, "They must have given her too much of what?"
Tris steps into his line of sight and says in a sweet voice, "You have a nice voice." Four lets out an exasperated sigh, "Tris, please be quiet." He can barely look at her with her eyes all big and doughy and the sickly sweet smile on her lips.
Johanna replied with a slight smirk Four wanted to wipe off her face. "The peace serum, in small doses it has a calming effect and improves the mood. The side effect is some dizziness. We give it to members of our community who have trouble keeping the peace."
Four feels anger boil up in him, why did people think they could just inject a chemical into people and control them? "I'm not an idiot! Every member of your community has trouble keeping peace, because they are all human. You must dump it in the water supply here."
Johanna doesn't respond to that but then folds her arms. "Well that isn't the case here or there would be no conflict. If I could give the serum to everyone in the city, I would. You would certainly not be in the situation you are now if I did."
Anger continued to boil in him, wondering why drugs were the solution instead of just working problems out. "Oh yes, let's drug everyone, that is the best solution. Great plan."
"Sarcasm isn't necessary Four. Now I am sorry about the wrong dose being given to Tris but she violated the terms of our agreement and you may not be able to stay here much longer because of that. This conflict between her and Peter is not something we can forget."
Four wondered if she felt that was an appropriate apology for over-drugging someone but decided to let that argument go. "Well good news for you we won't be staying much longer anyway. We plan to leave as soon as possible."
"Good, peace between our two factions only happens with distance." Four huffed at that, "That explains a lot."
It was Johanna's turn to get angry, Four noticing how red her face got at that comment. "What are you insinuating?"
"Well, it explains how you left us to die at the hands of Erudite, just to remain netural." Johanna turned away from him and looked out the window, ignoring Four's presence. He heard Tris speak, almost forgetting she was in the room.
"The Amity wouldn't do that, they are too nice." Johanna looked at both of them before starting to say, "Peace is why we remain uninvolved-"
Four didn't let her finish, "Peace? Yes I'm sure it will be very peaceful when we are all either dead or cowering in submission under the threat of serums that control our minds."
He sees how angry Johanna is and wonders if it's smart to goad this woman, but then he hears Tris giggle behind him and he is reminded of what this woman did to her.
She speaks slowly, carefully, "The decision wasn't mine to make. If it was, we would be having a different conversation right now. I am not saying I disagree with my faction but in my heart we made the wrong choice."
Four sighed, letting go of some of his anger. "Tris and I will be gone in two days, I hope your faction doesn't change their decision to make this compound a safe house."
"Our decisions are not easily unmade. What about Peter?" Four raised an eyebrow at her, surprised she would assume he was going with them.
"You'll have to deal with him separately, he won't be coming with us." Four stared at Johanna with a fierce look in his eyes, letting her know how he felt about Peter.
He grabs Tris' hand and begins to leave the room as he quietly hears Johanna say, "Four, if you and your friends would like to remain untouched by the serum, avoid the bread."
He thanks her and leads Tris out, heading back to his room, trying to ignore her as she hums and skips along behind him. He hopes this serum wears off fast, he doesn't know how much more of this he can take.