Wow! Time is flying this year. Hard to believe that here in America it will be Thanksgiving on Thursday.

I'm sorry my publishing has been very sporadic. I'm working on another book, and it is take a little while to get all the details worked out so that I can start publishing it.

This is a Random Voice that I've worked on awhile ago, wasn't completely happy with it, put it on the back burner and now I'm pulling it out again. I decided that I like it after all! Leave me a review and let me know what you think of it, please.

Thank you to both Bahrfamily (who edited it the first time) and BK2U (who edited the final version). I appreciate both of you taking the time to help improve my writing.

From Allegiant Chapter 13:Tris

"We work for the same organization that founded your city," Zoe says as she glares at Amar. "The same organization Edith Prior came from. And . . ." She reaches into her pocket and takes out a partially crumpled photograph. She holds it out, and then her eyes find mine in the crowd of people and guns. "I think you should look at this, Tris," she says. "I'll step forward and leave it on the ground, then back up. All right?"

She knows my name. My throat tightens with fear. How does she know my name? And not just my name—my nickname, the name I chose when I joined Dauntless?

"All right," I say, but my voice is hoarse, so the words barely escape.

Zoe steps forward, sets the photograph down on the train tracks, then moves back to her original position.

I leave the safety of our numbers and crouch near the photograph, watching her the whole time. Then I back up, photograph in hand.

It shows a row of people in front of a chain-link fence, their arms slung across one another's shoulders and backs. I see a child version of Zoe, recognizable by her freckles, and a few people I don't recognize. I am about to ask her what the point of me looking at this picture is when I recognize the young woman with dullblondhair, tied back, and a wide smile.

My mother. What is my mother doing next to these people?

Something—grief, pain, longing—squeezes my chest.

"There is a lot to explain," Zoe says. "But this isn't really the best place to do it. We'd like to take you to our headquarters. It's a short drive from here."

"They're coming!" Amar's exclamation from the doorway catches me off guard. He's been full of nervous excitement ever since the Allegiant picked the group to brave the world outside the fence. He claims to be excited by the thought of seeing Uriah again. "He was like the kid brother I never had," he declares, but I wonder if it is his old initiate, Four, that he is the most excited to see again.

I look up from the paperwork on the recent events in Chicago that I need to review before my meeting with David tomorrow. "Already?" We know the Allegiant plan to send the group out tonight to find out what is on the other side of the fence; I just didn't realize it had gotten late enough for them to be headed out already.

"Yes, they're on their way to find us." Amar has always driven me a little crazy with his cheerful attitude, but his joy over the group from Chicago has definitely put him over the top.

I stand up quickly. "They've left the experiment?" I verify as I start to walk around my desk.

Amar grins. "Johanna and some other Amity are driving them out as we speak."

"Let's go meet them." I'm almost to the door when I think about it. "Go on!" I call to Amar, who is so excited he's already headed down the hall without me. "Get a truck that will hold everyone. I'll be right behind you." I open the thin middle drawer and pull out the picture I think I'm going to need for Tris. Amar should be all the proof we need for Four, but something tells me we're going to need more for Tris. And I still haven't decided if he follows her lead or if they just always seem to be headed in the same direction.

Amar is in a hurry to get to the meeting place, that long-used point that David has never let us pass. The road isn't that good. Not that any of the roads are that good these days, but Amar seems to be in such a hurry that he doesn't even attempt to miss any of the potholes or bumps. Instead, he plows into each of them, tossing me back and forth each time.

I wish I could pull out the picture and study it one last time before I hand it over to Tris, but it is too dark for me to make out the picture, even though I know it by heart. It's over a decade and a half old, but I remember the excitement of Natalie's last visit like it was last week. When she originally left for the Chicago Experiment, she took a little bit of the life and energy away from the Bureau. Just knowing she was headed back gave the place a buzz.

Back then, there were several Divergent that she had pulled out that were still here: Ava, Lucas, Allie, George. Of that group, George is the only one left. Ava died from cancer a couple of years ago. She was a tireless advocate for the factions and protecting them until the end. Lucas and Allie tried to fit in at the Bureau, but both left in the next two years. Each of them found it too hard to watch friends and family members continue on with their lives without them.

The people Natalie saved were numerous. There are people the Abnegation helped to hide inside Abnegation when they could, and the people who hid in their birth factions when they didn't want to go to Abnegation.

There are the people she pulled out that she couldn't hide.

Absentmindedly, I pat the pocket I stuffed the picture in. There was always a fine line, at least for me, when it came to Natalie. It was a line I walked from the first day she joined us at The Bureau of Genetic Welfare, before we even met. It was a line between friendship and spying that David asked me to balance.

It was easy and fun to be her friend.

It was challenging and important to be a spy. I never figured out exactly why David didn't completely trust her when he clearly adored her. The only theory I was ever vaguely happy with was that they didn't agree about GDs, and her belief that they should be treated as equals made him distrust her. The truck rocks violently, throwing me towards Amar, before knocking me into the window. "Watch it!"

"Sorry," Amar mutters. "I keep thinking about my journey with… Natalie." He trips over her name, like all of us have since we watched as she was gunned down while saving her daughter's life. "It was tough to make that journey and process my new reality with her by my side explaining the truth of the world to me as we walked from the familiar to the unknown. I can only imagine how much harder it is to make that journey without her, or anyone else, to guide you."

"David always felt that she told her kids the truth about the Experiment. If he's right, Tris knows what is going on."

I barely make out Amar's shrug in the dim light from the instrument panel. "Call it a hunch, but from what Natalie and I talked about as she guided me to the meeting place, I don't think she did. If either of them had stayed in Abnegation, I'd maybe think she would have, but they both left…" Amar's voice trails off, and we're both quiet for the last few miles.

If I had to guess, both of us are thinking about Natalie. Amar is remembering back to his great escape. I'm drawn back to the last time I saw Natalie. She came in person, with a Divergent named Marj, who has since died on a patrol in the fringe. When David found out she was coming, he suggested to me that we should get a picture while Natalie was here. It was an unspoken order for me to suggest it.

It took a day to get everyone together for the picture, but we took it by the fence. All of us were so happy to have her back. It shows on each of our laughing and smiling faces. I had assumed that since the picture was officially my idea, that I would be one of the people to stand by Natalie, but David is next to her, not me.

We put our arms around each other, like the family that we are — that we were — and grinned for the photographer. It wasn't even four hours later that I heard Natalie had left without saying goodbye. She never came back. She dropped a few people off, like Amar, at the meeting spot, but she never came back the whole way again. The first thing I heard about her after she disappeared from the Bureau was that she was pregnant.

My fingers slip into my pocket and trace the edges of the picture. David has never been quite the same since then. I keep my suspicion — that she was more to him than just the loss of a potential council member or spy — to myself. I think David always saw her as something more.

And now, Natalie is dead. I was in David's room, bringing him some paperwork, when the attack on Abnegation started. He had the feed from the attack onscreen in his office when it happened. He must have given someone in our control room the order to monitor Natalie's every move, because his monitor always changed cameras when she did. His response to her death was hardly more than a whisper. "I warned her."

As soon as my brain registered what had happened, I excused myself. I didn't want to break down in front of David. I didn't want to take the chance of seeing him break down in front of me.

The truck lurches to a halt by the small group that is stopped in front of us. I've watched Tris and Caleb grow up on the monitors, and now here they are in front of me, the children that she left us for. Tris has always been the one who grabbed my attention. She doesn't look much like Natalie, but I noticed even before she left Abnegation that she has Natalie's fire, her spirit.

"Are you ready?" Amar's apprehensive voice breaks into my thoughts. He is still excited, but at the same time it seems to have dawned on him that Uriah and Four may not be as excited to experience his resurrection as Amar is for it to occur.

Taking a deep breath, I look back at him and try to smile. "Are you?"

Amar tries to look unconcerned as he gives a dry chuckle. "Of course. People come back from the dead all the time, right?"

I return a similar laugh. "Right. Let's do this." I hop out of the truck with my hands in the air, letting them see that I have nothing in them. "Hello. My name is Zoe. This is Amar." I nod my head over towards him to draw their attention to Amar without making any threatening movements with my hand.

"Amar is dead," Four's voice is hollow.

Amar gives a bright smile and answers him. "No, I'm not. Come on, Four," Amar encourages Four to acknowledge him.

Four's face is set. His fear is evident by the stern set of his jaw.

I glare at Amar. This isn't the time for joking. It's time to convince this unlikely group of heroes that we are here for them. "We work for the same organization that founded your city. The same organization Edith Prior came from. And…" I purposefully look at Tris, not Caleb. Caleb may be the older child, but Tris is the leader in this group. The rest of them would have let Caleb die. He is here because of Tris. She is the one I have to convince.

Slowly, so as not to startle her, I reach into my pocket and pull out the picture. My copy of the picture. I hold it out wondering if, after I hand it over to Tris, I will ever see it again, but it doesn't really matter. This is the best way to convince her that I am telling her the truth.

I take a deep breath and attempt to smile as I keep my gaze focused on Tris. Searching for a trace of her mother, my friend. "I think you should look at this, Tris. I'll step forward and leave it on the ground, then back up. All right?"

I hope it's all right. I hope she is Natalie's daughter and worthy of our trust. Things are getting worse in Chicago every day. I've heard David mention the possibility of a reset when he didn't think I was around.

"All right," Tris's voice is soft and low, but rougher with emotion then I ever noticed it when I saw her on the screens.

I step forward, set the picture on the track, and move back to my position. As I do, I wonder if I can get David to make another copy of the picture for me since I am suddenly convinced that I will never get mine back. I can only hope that like Natalie, Tris is the type to take action and change things.

Tris picks up the picture and walks back to her group. I study her face as she studies the picture and know the instant she sees Natalie in it. "There's a lot to explain," I tell her softly. "But this isn't really the best place to do it. We'd like to take you to our headquarters. It's a short drive from here." I hope she agrees.

It doesn't matter, I guess, if there is a reset. Tris is now on this side of the fence. She won't lose her memories of her mother. Hopefully she'll come with us, and soon I'll be able to share my stories about Natalie with her. That would be nice... if she'll let me. Something tells me that Tris doesn't make herself vulnerable very often. She is more like her mother than she will ever realize.