"You're telling me I'm damaged?" Eric's voice thunders throughout the control room.
"You're not Divergent," David says, as if that's answer enough.
Eric walks out.
"Wait!" David calls out.
"He needs time," Jen says. She glances at me sympathetically. "It's a lot to take in. You can go after him. I'll show you to your rooms later."
I nod gratefully and run after Eric. It doesn't take long to catch up to him, despite how quickly he's walking.
"I need to be left alone," he says angrily.
I jog to keep up. He might think he needs to be left alone, but he's wrong. What we've just learned is earth shattering. For him especially, because he just learned his nature is to be hard and cruel, and there's nothing he can do about it.
"You're not damaged," I tell him.
He rounds on me. "The leader just made it pretty clear I am."
"He's wrong," I say. "You might struggle with being cruel, Eric, but you don't have to be that way. These past few days have proven you can be different. It might be difficult, but you can choose to be better."
"You really believe that?" he asks hotly.
I step closer to him, so close I can feel how he practically vibrates with constrained energy. "I do. Now you need to believe it too. Screw being Divergent. Screw being genetically healed. You are more than your genes," I say. "You're Eric, the man who spared Peter, the man who has stuck by my side when it would've been so much easier to walk away."
His breathing turns ragged. His eyes burn with a fire that will consume me if I'm not careful. He falls into me, his arms encircling my waist. "Help me," he whispers in my ear.
He bends to rest his forehead on my shoulder. "Help me when I lose my way," he says.
"Always," I promise.
Always and forever, and even past that. I'll help him in any way I can, for as long as I can.
I listen to the beating of his heart. It's enough to ground me. Too soon, he raises his head. "Okay," he says, taking a deep breath.
A throat clears behind us. "David wanted me to make sure everything's okay," Jen says, giving us an apologetic look.
"You mean he wanted to make sure I didn't do anything harmful in my anger?" Eric asks sarcastically.
"He believes you to be unstable," she admits. "You're a high risk in his opinion."
She's honest.
"Am I going to be allowed to stay here?" he asks.
"We don't believe in turning the genetically damaged away. It isn't your fault you are the way you are," she says.
Eric stays quiet with his eyes glued to the wall.
"You said something about showing us to our rooms," I remind her.
I don't want to hear anymore about how their science experiment went wrong. Eric doesn't need to hear anymore either.
"Yes, we have a room for you both," she says, smiling. "Follow me.
Eric's POV
The beds leave a lot to be desired. The only redeeming quality about our room is that no one else is occupying it.
"If you plan to stay, we will find somewhere more permanent for you," Jen says.
We have nowhere else to go, and if we did, I'd be there by now. This place isn't for me. I'm less in their eyes because I'm not like them. My brain is obviously limited to being Dauntless and to them that's a weakness.
I used to be proud of my faction...
"Dinner's at 5," Jen says, shutting the door gently.
"I can't stop thinking about how they've been watching us," Tris comments, choosing the bed next to mine.
"Talk about creepy," I grumble.
"They saw everything," she murmurs. "They saw what me and those like me were going through and they did nothing."
"Like everyone else, they have an agenda, and it would seem their agenda doesn't include heroic rescue missions."
There are tears in her eyes when she looks at me. "My parents might be alive if they had just helped."
No one has ever wanted my comfort before, and Tris probably doesn't either, but I can't sit back and watch her be in pain.
"I'm sorry," I say, wrapping her up in my arms for the second time today.
"You once said it was wrong to miss our families, but I do," she says. "I miss them so much I can't breathe sometimes. It's a constant ache I'm learning to deal with. It never goes away though."
Her words break me. "I was wrong," I tell her. "I was selfish. I'm sorry."
I'm so sorry. And I'm frightened. Tris thinks I can make good choices, but I'm worried I won't. I'm worried I'll revert back to my old self. I'm worried I'll somehow end up hurting her.
I can't allow that to happen.
Eric's POV
The dining hall is silent. Faces are turned to us, their stares curious. I wonder how many of them know who we are.
Fingers grasp mine and I smile at Tris. She's been doing that a lot today. It's nice.
The line isn't long and we end up grabbing what the kitchen staff called spaghetti. It doesn't look appetizing, but it's all they have and I'm starving.
"Let's sit here," Tris suggests, setting her tray on a table in the corner.
It turns out that I like spaghetti. I'm able to eat despite everyone's eyes on us. I'm Dauntless and their opinions don't matter.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a young man walk up to our table. "Hey," he says, awkwardly putting his hands inside his lab jacket.
"Hello," Tris replies.
"My name is Matthew. I work in the genetic department," he says. "I'd love to do some testing on you two if that would be okay. Fairly standard stuff. Nothing too invasive."
He's ignoring me in favour of Tris. His smile is just a little to wide, a little too bright. I don't like him.
"I'm okay with it," Tris says, grinning back at the stupid blonde.
"I am too," I say.
I'm not really, but there's no way in hell I'm going to leave Tris alone with this guy. He's eyeing her like she's his next meal.
"Fantastic," he exclaims, his blue eyes shining at Tris. My Tris.
I glare at him as he leaves. "I don't trust him," I say.
"He seems nice enough," she replies, going back to her food.
Yeah, I definitely don't like him.