Dr. Odyssey and Savanah Rose: thanks again! And I think Tobias is acting like he is just because he wants to shelter himself, but he has to use his full name Tobias Eaton so he can be more convincing in his career as an politician. And I continue his side little more, last night I got tired before I had finished his part...

oOoOoOoOoO

- Tobias pov -

We walk in silence and it starts to rain heavy. Water is pouring down from sky in big drops and we run. It's a short run to hotel where I'm staying but when we get to lobby we are soaked. "How did you get here, do you live near or do you have a ride or something?" I ask from Alexa. "No, I live in quite far away. I was spending time with my friends and we got some drinks at this hotel bar. Then I saw you coming there and got an idea to come over and talk, I have wanted to talk with you in private but at same time I have been too afraid to contact you. First you had company so I couldn't come over to talk and then you left so I followed you. When I got from elevator I saw you enter to this room, some detective work, I think. I heard that you went to shower so I had to wait before I knocked to door and realized at same moment what I was doing. I nearly run away. And it's so late now that I cannot go to my friends and all buses have gone and..." She looks worried, sighs "well, I just have to walk to home, it takes about an hour or so".

I look out, see the rain just getting heavier and heavier. She is already soaking wet, wearing high heeled boots. No, gentleman in me refuses to let her go. "you can come upstairs and spend the rest night with me" I offer and she looks to me like she cannot believe what she hears. "I don't mean it like that, I give a gentleman's word... Look, I'm not interested in having sex with you nor going to rape you or interested in killing you. I just can't let you walk in that rain, you'll get a pneumonia at least. You are safe with me, I promise." She hesitates for a while, then smiles "Okay, thanks".

When we get to my room I get dry clothes from my bag and give a t-shirt to her. "You can wear this, you need something dry to wear. Leave your wet clothes there to dry. And take a warm shower first!" She rushes to toilet and I hear the shower go on. I change my clothes to dry ones and go to bed, just leave lights on bedside tables on. Lucky for us that I have king size bed with separate blankets. Then I see her standing there on the toilets doorway. Light behind her back is making my t-shirt, oversized for her, little transparent. I have to look away before I will forget what I said in the lobby, about not wanting her. I cannot understand why she mixes my hormones. She isn't my type of girl. She turns off the light and I can hear her quick footsteps, then feel how she gets to bed.

I turn off light from my side, she from her side and we are in a total darkness. I hear raindrops beating windowsill. I hear her breathing, I feel that she turns around, heading to me. "Tell me about my daughter." I ask and I can sense that she smiles. "Her name is Kiara. She has blond hair, similar eyes than you have. She is quite tall and very smart. She loves all funny things, she is good in sports, loves to run and climb. I think that she's most brave little girl I have ever known. She never shows if she fears something, she is looking everything with keen interest. It's like fear only make her more alive, more active, more... present." I smile. "I can't wait till I meet her" I say.

I haven't slept with anyone since Tris died and I have feared I never will. She is silent but I can feel her, sense her presence with every nerve of my body. Before this I haven't realized how big and empty my bed has been, how cold. Alexa being here feels just like a normal thing, like she had been here before, like we had done this thousand times. I have been alone so long that I need some company I think, someone to be with, someone to love. Maybe Alexa isn't the one for me but she had helped me to realize that my life have to go on. And now I know how; I have a daughter that I have to find, I have a daughter to love. With Alexa I can meet her and I won't stop it there, I want to be her dad, Kiara's dad. Kiara Eaton. I smile in dark. I wonder if I can give some name to her myself, would it be Natalie or Beatrice, which one would Tris have liked. I think Natalie is better...

"Tell me about her foster parents." Now she hesitates a while before answering with sleepy voice "they are my fathers friends, educated people. They couldn't have children of their own so they were searching other options. They are just foster parents, they haven't adopted her, I haven't let that happen. I'm her mother in papers, even I'm not the biological mother. It's kind of complicated... I don't know what my father has told about her origins to foster parents, they must think that I'm the biological mother and a slut." She sounds bitter somehow. "Well, if it helps, I don't think that you are. You made just a wrong choice. Why didn't you get money elsewhere? Did you ask from your father or if you had your aunts apartment, you could have sold that." I'm wondering and she sighs "I tried everything else first and my father refused to help and because I was only 17 years then I couldn't sell anything I owned, I turned 18 one week before I entered to Welfare Center and it was the last chance, believe me. Mat didn't have much time left then to pay, they would have killed him for sure.". It makes sense, I think and then ask "did Mat pay back to you?". She snorts "no, he is paying but it will take time, they don't pay so much to personal trainers. He owns me really much still, he is paying as much as he cans and then he trains me for free, or he trained. Haven't seen him since Market Day". She yawns and stretches. We fell in silence and just when I'm falling to sleep I feel her turn around and snuggle closer to me. It feels good, like we had done that million times before. I wrap my hand around her and feel how she breathes, deep breaths in and out, at slow pace. I fell in dream quite fast.

I'm at home, dressed in white suit. I'm looking out from window like waiting for something or someone when I feel a really light tap on my shoulder. I turn around and see Tris in front of me. "Tris?" I whisper and she smiles, but there is sorrow in her eyes. "I cannot stay long" she says in husky voice "I just had to see you one last time. I'm happy for you and wish all the best for you and your wife. I'm glad that you have moved on and I know that you still love me, you always will. You need a wife to love and I'm so happy that you found one. She is a good mother to our children." She kisses me on corner of my mouth, not a real kiss, just a little peck. "I love you" she whisper and vanishes in thin air. I try to hold her but she is gone like she never were there...

I wake up, raining has ended but it's still dark. It takes a while to realize that it was just a dream. I turn around, search a colder spot and drift away in sleep again.

I walk in field near Amity dome, there are sunflowers everywhere and kids run around, laughing. There is a woman, back towards to me, picking seeds from a flower and little girl is helping her. I come closer, hear their laughter and just watch them, smiling. Sun is shining, it's warm. Butterflies fly and little boy comes to me "daddy, daddy look this! It's a blow-up-flower!" I look the flower in his hand and it's a dandelion, a white fluffy ball of seeds. "No darling, it's a dandelion" I reply. Boy laughs "Kiara said that it's a blow-up-flower because you can blow it like this". He blows the seeds and they scatter all around. "Mum! Toby is doing that again, now there is dandelion seeds in my sunflower seeds" girl shouts. I lift boy, Toby, to my shoulders and walk closer. I wait for woman to turn and she must sense my gaze. She stands up, wipes seeds away from her apron and then turns around. I look straight in her eyes, her blue-gray eyes, Alexa's eyes. She smiles to me and tickles Toby's feet that hangs from my shoulder. "mum! Stop tickling! Daddy, help me!" he protests. I kiss Alexa, a long, passionate kiss and hear girls voice protest "Please, stop... mum and dad... please!"

I remember that kiss when I wake up and my body remembers it. I wonder why I'm not shocked after kissing another woman than Tris, then I remember that it was just a dream. A good dream, not a nightmare. It's late in morning, sun is shining. Then I feel it, there is something warm next to my back and when I turn I can smell her hair, smell her. Roses, sandalwood, vanilla. She is sleeping in fetal position and she fits there, in my lap perfect. Or would fit if I weren't so... ahem... on to it how she feels and smells. I can feel that, even through blanket, she is soft in right places. I try to back up little before I do anything that I will regret but she snuggles closer. I put my hands in front of me, stop her coming closer and she turns around and open her eyes. We look each other in very close distance, she blinks. My place my upper hand on her hip. She smiles and whispers "Good morning" like shes afraid to break the silence.

Then it hits me. I want her. I want to kiss her, make everything better for her. I want to take care of her. I need her and it scares me.

I back up little more "do you have a boyfriend, a fiancé or someone you are dating or are you married?" I ask and she shakes her head. " No, I don't have, no boyfriend, fiancé or husband. I broke up with my...hmmm... boyfriend... over six months ago, just after Market Day triathlon. That was when he told that he is happy with his wife and they were expecting another baby. Before that he had told that they are going to divorce, he wanted a start all over with me..." she looks disgusted for a moment but then she looks back to my eyes "and then there is you, Four." She smiles. "You cannot imagine what it is like when your teenage daydreams come true. Back then I used to dream about you noticing me, talking to me, touching me, kissing me..." last two words are just a whisper. Her warm hand caress my cheek, she runs her finger over my lips. When I see her biting her lips I cannot hold back anymore. "Please, call me Tobias" I whisper.

And I kiss her, she kisses me, again and again and again, like there will be no tomorrow, like we couldn't live without this. My hands want to touch her body, I throw her blanket away and pull her closer, she laces her fingers to my short hair. My hands go up her back, under the t-shirt. I feel the softness of her skin, feel the muscles, her quickened heartbeat and breathing. And we kiss again, until my phone rings. I try to ignore it, this is more important now, who ever it's who is ringing there will be an answering machine. Ringing stops but starts again in few seconds. When it starts third time ringing there is a really loud knock on my door at same time and Johanna's voice shouting "Tobias, open up, I can hear your phone is there, so you must be in. This is important! Tobias Eaton!". "Wait a moment" I shout back and look to Alexa "don't go anywhere, I sort this out and be right back" I promise before I get up.

Luckily I have another pair of jeans packed, they are dry, those and socks, another pair of shoes, phone and jacket, it's only thing that is little wet but I can live with that. I look over my shoulder, Alexa is lying still there in middle of bed, she has hidden her face in pillow. Johanna knocks again and I open the door, preventing her to see inside. "Come with me, I slept too long and need coffee and something to eat." I say to her and of course she is trying her best to see what I'm hiding in my room. "Please, don't ask" I say to her and she can hear a warning in my voice and I bang the door shut. "Did you have someone there with you?" she asks and I glare to her. "Don't ask!" I emphasize first word and she smirks "so you did, good for you." We head to elevators and after a while she asks "someone that I know?". I don't answer, just look down to her and she snickers. "I know you Tobias and trust me when I say this: it's just good for you, it's not good to be alone.". "I said I don't want to talk about it" I say and she just smiles but doesn't continue.

When we get out from hotel I look around and see a cafeteria near. "I get a coffee from there and then you can tell what is so important." She nods and waits outside. I come back in few minutes and sip my coffee. "So, tell me". She looks around and tells "my contact called and they have found out a welfare center that shelters young girls that are pregnant. My contacts believe that those girls have made a contract with Bureau and they are surrogates. Youngest in that welfare center are just 14 to 15 years old." "Are we going there?" I ask and she nods. "We need some girls that are willing to tell their story to us and we can use those stories against the Bureau, to get it closed down." I shake my head "I believe that if we march in we will just scare them and Bureau will hide all evidence, so we will have only some girls sayings against a big company, who would you believe? A girl that needs money so desperately that she is willing to sell her body to a company or that company that blames they don't use any under aged surrogates and have all legal documents to prove that." Johanna stops there and looks around again "and my contact told that Bureau has really used your blood samples and isolated your chromosomes. So you can have one or more children, Tobias." I nod "so have I heard also" I say thinking about what I have heard from Alexa. "But still, I don't think that it would be wise to go the welfare center, for sure they will recognize us, my face is all over the city now and you have been our representative in Government over 10 years, they know who you are. If we could get someone to work for us, someone that can act like a nurse or something like that..." I think a while. "maybe Cara Prior could do that?" I suggest.

My phone rings, Amar is calling. Johanna looks to me and raises her hand "okay, lets leave it this time, if you think that is better. I just wanted to rescue those girls and shut down the Bureau immediately, but you are right. We need more evidence. And don't worry, I have contacts all over the city so I can get someone inside that welfare center also. If not Cara Prior and I wouldn't trust her, if I were you. She is married to your opponent, so why would she help us?" I think a while before answering "well, I think that this will take longer than a day or a week or a month, this is a long process that won't happen fast. We need strong, solid evidence from trusted source but now it's not time to act nor to decide something that important in haste." My phone is ringing again, now it's Zeke that is calling. "Sorry, I have to answer to this."

"Hi Zeke, what's up?" "Where have you been, Amar has tried to call to you multiple times but you don't answer?" Zeke sounds annoyed so it must be something really important. "Sorry, I have been busy. Whats up?" I reply but I'm not prepared to answer what I get. "Your home is on fire and your mother is in hospital. She has been stabbed, she is in critical condition and her friend is killed." "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"I refuse to understand what Zeke just said. "I said that your home is on fire and..." he starts and I interrupt "in what hospital?". I hear Zeke ask that from someone else before answering "she's in State hospitals ICU." "I'll go there, is everything under control with fire?". Johanna looks shocked to me, then starts to wave a taxi for us. "Fire was a small one, just little damage in kitchen, no need to worry about that.". "Thanks Zeke" I reply to to phone, put it back to my pocket and then look to Johanna. "It was about my mother, she is in hospital, in critical condition." Johanna takes my hand "I come with you and stay there as long as you need me."