Chapter Eleven

Tori's Pov

Four has been pacing the hallways like crazy ever since he woke up. He won't listen to Zeke or me when we tell him that he needs to sit down or get something to eat.

I was so surprised when he broke down like that. He has never done anything like that, at least not in front of me. It hurt to see him so broken;he is usually so strong. He cares so much for Tris, and now that she is hurt, it is like he is too. I think he feels guilty that he didn't notice that something was seriously wrong with Tris when he talked to her at the party. I hate that he blames himself.

I'm happy that he at least got a little sleep, right after we got here and after he cried in my arms. He slept for almost an hour after Zeke and I carried him to a stretcher that was out in the hallway. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't allowed, but who cares? It's not like they were using it.

We have been out here in the waiting room for three hours and there hasn't been any news about Tris. It's literally driving Four crazy. He thinks that the longer she's in there, the worse her injuries are or the more things there are going wrong.

I don't know what happened to Tris to make her bleed enough for her to pass out, but I hate that something like that has happened to her. From what I have seen, Tris is a really amazing girl, especially since she has the effect she does on Four. She must be really special for him to care so much about her.

I can't stand the thought of her being left in a place where she is only being abused. She doesn't deserve it, no one does. I'm going to make sure she gets out of there and gets the kind of life that she deserves. Both her and Four.

I hear the automatic doors open into the emergency waiting room and look up to see a brunette woman with a scar running down the entire side of her face. I expect her to keep walking or at least sit down in a chair, but she comes to stand right next to me. I look at her quizzically. Then she starts to speak. "Hi, I'm Johanna Reyes, Beatrice Prior's case worker. I understand that she has been admitted to this hospital by a Tori Wu? Is that you?" Zeke looks up and Four finally stops his pacing to stare at her, probably wondering how the hell we are going to explain this.

"Yes, I am Tori," I respond.

"I'm going to need to ask you and these boys a few questions about this incident."

"I won't be much help, but of course I will do my best to tell you anything I know,"I tell her politely.

She starts walking towards the hallway, so we follow her. She finally stops at a metal door and leads us into a room full of chairs and tells us to have a seat. She stays standing.

She addresses Zeke and Four. "I need you boys to tell me everything you know about what happened to Beatrice. Don't leave anything out, not even any tiny details that you may think are not important. I need to know everything."

Zeke goes first. He tells her almost exactly what he told Four and me at the tattoo parlor. The story is still just as horrifying as it was the first time. The entire time, she just shakes her head and writes in a small yellow and red notebook, looking unphased. I guess case workers get used to this kind of thing.

Then it is Four's turn. He tells Johanna the story he told us at the parlor, but when he is finished, he looked like he is contemplating something.

Johanna caught on to it immediately. "What is it? Remember, everything is important. This could help Beatrice immensely."

He seems hesitant, but ultimately decides to come out with the truth. "Well, this may not be helpful, but I guess it's worth a shot. On Tuesday, the day after she got to Max's foster home, she had to run a race against me. But she was wearing a hoodie, which isn't allowed in gym, so the coach made her take it off, which left her in only her sports bra,"he blushed as he said it, which was unusual for Four. I've never seen him so flustered.

"I don't think anyone but me noticed it, but I saw some bruises on her. There was a big, dark one on her rib cage and she had others scattered across her body. I had kind of just figured she had gotten them from before she came to the foster home. I didn't, and still don't know what kind of situation she came from. I don't know if it was that kind."

Johanna interrupts him. "Her parents died in a car crash along with her brother, Caleb. She was the only survivor."

Four's pov

"Her parents died in a car crash along with her brother, Caleb. She was the only survivor." Johanna rattles off as if she is reporting the weather.

I let this fresh wave of shock crash over me. I hadn't expected that. I had expected that maybe her parents could no longer care for her. That would have been easier for Tris to handle. Not them being dead.

What really gets me though is that she was the only survivor of her entire family, whom she must have loved greatly. What I look at as extreme luck that Tris survived and is still here today, she probably turns into guilt that she survived. That she was the one who lived. That she couldn't take one of their places. I can't imagine the guilt she must feel.

As much as I am ashamed to even think it, I am so grateful that it wasn't Tris that died in that crash. I know that sounds selfish and insensitive, but it's true. Now that I have Tris as a part of my life, I can't imagine her not one. At the very least, she is my friend. I have shown her the side of me that I have never shown anyone else. Ever. I am glad that she is the one who lived.

Johanna looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish, like I'm not having mental issues at the moment. When she realizes that I am done, she says, "Thank you Four. That may be very helpful in this investigation."

She turns toward all of us. "Anything else that any of you have noticed that may have been strange or out of the ordinary?"

Zeke is the one to remember something. I expect him to look at Johanna and tell her, but he looks at me instead. "Tell her about th lunch the other day. I don't know all of it, but I know that you probably do since you followed Tris."

The lunch! I totally forgot about Tris's major break down.

I turn to Johanna and start to replay the story. "The other day, Tris kind of had a break down at school. At the lunch table, she was sort of zoned out, not paying attention to anything around her. We were saying her name, but she wasn't responding. Christina finally managed to get her attention... by touching her on her back. Oh my gosh, Christina touched her back! That must have been what set her off."

"That helps right? That now we know that Tris's back was hurt on Wednesday? And possibly Tuesday since I know she had the bruises then. It must have happened Monday if the bruises were other on Tuesday."I tell Johanna.

She nods her head and scribbles vigorously in her notebook yet again. She looks at me to continue. "Anyways, we asked Tris if she was okay and she said that she was fine, which she obviously wasn't. Then she just got up and left. I knew she wasn't feeling right or that something was wrong, so I followed her. She went to the library and started reading, but she still looked really upset, so I got her attention."

"She looked at me, and I knew as soon as I saw her expression that she was hurting -emotionally. I didn't know what was wrong or what was going on and I barely knew her at all, but I wanted her to feel better. She tried to cover it up, but I had seen her face. So I told her that it was okay and that she could let herself feel around me. And that was all it took. She started sobbing -awful, body wracking sobs- right on me. We just hugged each other in the middle of the library in the middle of a period."

"She never told me what had been wrong, so I just didn't ask. I know that I absolutely hated it when people asked questions about me, so I just kept quiet. She finally stopped crying after like 20 minutes and she apologized for soaking my shirt and I told her that it was fine. And then we just went to the rest of the classes and she never brought it up after that."

Everyone is silent after I finish. Tori finally says something. "I was wondering what you guys were doing when you came into my class in the middle of the hour. I saw her red eyes so I didn't ask."

Johanna keeps nodding her head through the entire thing. "So what are you going to do to help Tris?" Zeke asks her.

"We are going to do the best we can to find out who did this to Tris. We will start the investigation and interview Tris as soon as she wakes up and is well enough to tell us what happened to her,"she replies, still unsympathetic.

I don't understand how she can shut off her emotions like that, like everything awful and horrific thing happening to someone else doesn't matter. I don't even care anymore. I just want her to leave and find out what happened to Tris. "What are you going to investigate?"I ask.

"We are going to search through the foster home first, since it seems like Tris spends a great amount of her time there. We'll see what kind of evidence we can get there to help build a case and then we are going to interview everyone living there and Tris's team mates to see if they noticed anything strange. Hopefully that will get us somewhere and help us build a solid case." We all nod our heads.

"Tori, please contact me the moment that Tris wakes up, not a second later,"she hands Tori a business card. "Thank you so much, you were all very helpful. We are going to go ahead and get the investigation started. I'm heading to the foster home right now to see what we can find."

"Will you tell us if you find anything?" I ask. "It depends on the degree of importance and the impact it may have on the case." I nod and she walks out of the waiting room, leaving us alone.

I get up and start pacing once again. And once I start, I immediately start panicking about Tris again. What if Tris doesn't wake up? What if she does, but she doesn't remember anything? What if she blames me? What if she won't tell us what happened to her? What if- Before I can worry too much more, an Asian looking doctor comes into the room holding a clipboard.

He comes to a stop right next to us. "Are you all with Beatrice Prior?"he asks. We nod in unison. "

It looks like Beatrice has been severely damaged, mostly on her upper back and shoulders. In all, we had to give her 57 stitches, most of them on the worst one that ruptured. She lost a lot of blood and will probably be dizzy for a few days. She is very lucky that you brought her here in time."

That sentence says it all. She is okay. She's going to be fine. We got her here in time. It's going to be hard for her, but she's okay. " It could have been even more serious. She is awake, but disoriented. She can take visitors one at a time."

And with that, he walks away.

"Four, you can go first. You obviously are the most distraught,"Zeke tells me. I don't argue, just head to Tris's room and hope for the best.

Tris's pov

I wake up disoriented.

Where am I? My walls of my bedroom are dark blue and covered with posters, quite a contrast from these stark white walls. The lights are too bright so I take a few minutes to let my eyes adjust. There is an insistent beeping to my left, but I can't pin point the sound and find the culprit.

And then it hits me. I must be in the hospital. It is the only logical explanation considering the white walls, blinding lights, and loud, continuous beeping.

I have a good guess about why I am here. I'm almost positive that a cut opened up in my sleep last night and most likely started bleeding. A lot. I probably passed out from the loss of blood. At least it was in my sleep and I was already in my bed and comfortable.

My back hurts. Not sharp,shooting pains. It is more like, dull, throbbing, aching pains. It's different from how it was before. A little better and a whole lot weirder. I can't pinpoint why it feels like this.

But how did I get here? Who brought me? Why would someone come into my room to find me unconscious anyways? Just as I think that last though, I hear footsteps coming down the hall and they are getting louder, coming towards where I am.

I almost turn around and pretend to be asleep, but my curiosity gets the better of me. I really want to know who it is. Plus it would be too hard to turn around with my back the way it is.

And right then, the door opens to reveal a concerned looking Four. When he sees that I am awake, his face breaks out it a huge smile. Like, I'm afraid his face is going to shatter from stretching so much.

"You're awake,"he say, still smiling. I've never seen him smile very much and definitely not like this.

"I guess so. What happened?" He looks taken aback. I don't think he expected me to not remember anything from after the party last night after I cleaned up.

"Do you remember anything at all from last night?" I nod slightly. "Tell me all you remember."

So I do. "I remember the entire party. And that dude that tried to grab me and you saving me. And us talking upstairs and running away from you because I didn't want to answer your question. I remember Zeke asking me to play a game and then I left after, umm... something happened."

He interrupts me. "I know about what happened between you and Zeke. He told Tori and I. We rushed to your house and found you in bed, so we were going to wake you up and confront you about the blood from the party that ended up on Zeke's hand, but you didn't wake up." He looks back at me, his eyes holding an emotion that I can't seem to decipher.

He continues. "We tried a couple more times, but it still didn't work, so I checked your pulse and it was barely even there. Your breathing was so shallow that I don't see how you were even getting any oxygen. And you were pale. So so pale, so I tore the covers off of you and that's when I saw all the blood. It soaked through your shirt and it was sticking to you. It was still oozing out so I had to find where it was coming from."

"Believe me Tris, tearing that shirt from your back was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was stuck inside all of your wounds. I knew that it didn't hurt since you weren't conscious, but it still felt like I was hurting you. After I pulled it away from your back, we saw the wounds and rushed you here. You never woke up, not once. You lost too much blood. I really thought you were going to die." He lets his head hang and doesn't say anything else.

I look at his face and then do a double take. Then another one. If I didn't know any better, I would say that he had tears in his eyes. We let the silence wash over us.

Then he speaks again. "Do you remember anything else?"

I nod. "I remember getting Christina's keys and Zeke trying to stop me from leaving but still going anyways. It gets a little fuzzy around the drive home. I remember taking a shower and throwing away Christina's dress. That's it. I pretty much remember the entire night." I pause.

"And I'm really sorry you had to see that. I never wanted anyone to see them. Thank you so much for saving me. I'm sure that I would be a lot worse if you guys hadn't brought me...speaking of a lot worse, why does my back feel so weird? What did they do?"

He seems hesitant, but eventually tells me. "Tris, they gave you 57 stitches. Some of them that weren't as bad, so they didn't need them, but some others were really deep. And don't ever apologize for something you can't control. I'm glad I saw them. I'm not saying I liked seeing them, but if I hadn't, I would have never known. You could have died."

I nod, but he isn't finished. "Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me? I could have done something. You didn't have to go through that alone. You shouldn't have had to go through it at all. What even happened? Who did this to you?"

He keeps asking questions that I can't answer. Even if I did answer them, it wouldn't help. I still live with Peter. The only way I can change that is to go to a different foster home.

I don't want to do that. I can't leave Christina or track or my other friends. I have people here that actually care about me. I've never had that in a foster home before.

But most of all, I can't leave Four. Not now. Not ever. I can't get him involved in this. I can't drag him into my problems.

"No one." He looks at me mournfully.

"Please tell me. I can help you. You just have to want to be helped."

And suddenly, all at once, I am furious. All the anger I have ever felt comes crashing into me. I want to break everything, destroy everything in my path. That might be a problem since I can't get up with my back the way it is.

So I yell at Four instead. "Do you think I like this? Do you think I like to be in pain for every waking moment? I can barely take a fucking step without grinding my teeth and wincing. I hate that he does this to me and I sincerely hope that he goes to Hell, where he belongs." I pause and take a breathe, but I am not done.

"It isn't my fault. I never did anything for him to hate me! He's just a fucking bastard that thinks he is superior to me and that I deserve to be beat like I'm nothing. I can't get away from him. I want this to stop, don't you ever think that I don't. I just don't fucking know how to make it stop." (A/N. Get it? Make it Stop? Haha:) It is the name of this fanfic!)

I didn't realize that I was screaming at him at the top of my lungs. I have tears running rampant down my face but I don't feel them.

He looks at me, shocked. "You said he and him. Some guy did this to you. Why can't you get away from him? You could have just stayed at the house."

What he doesn't know is that the person doing this to me lives with us. "That wouldn't have done anything. Staying at home wouldn't have protected me."

"And why the hell not?" He sounds almost as angry as me.

I still have a little anger left over and I throw the rest of it into this. "Because he's there too! I can't get away from him. He's always fucking there!"

I can't tell if it was Four or me that gasped. That wasn't supposed to come out. I didn't mean to practically hand him the name on a shiny platter and say, 'Here you go! It was Peter!'

"He lives with us?" Four is still wrapping his head around what I accidentally said and what it implies. "That bastard! Peter did this, didn't he?" I stay silent. There is nothing I can do anymore. It is out of my hands.

"I've always known he was hostile towards you by the way he looked at you, but I had no idea he would act on it. I going to kill him. God dammit! How did I not know about this?" He looks back at me.

He looks like he wants to punch something. "You should have come to me. I would have protected you. You can trust me with anything, especially something like that. That fucking bastard!" He is yelling almost as loud as I was a minute ago and his face is blood red.

I've never thought of Four as scary, but right now I can see why a lot of other people do.

"I'm sorry,"I tell him.

"I want you to tell me everything he has done to you. And Tori too. I'm going to go get her. You can trust her too."

He leaves the room and quickly comes back with Tori in hold. She immediately comes over to me and kisses my forehead like a mom. It makes me think of my mom. A fresh pang of sadness go through me at the thought that she isn't with me right now. Tori kind of reminds me of her. She would be a great mom.

"Sweetheart, I need you to tell us everything. Don't leave anything out. We are going to help you."

I nod. "Can you help me sit up?" I feel weird laying down and I can't get up by myself.

Four rushes to my other side and puts one hand around my shoulders where the wounds are scarce and the other arm under my legs. He lifts me carefully, like a porcelain doll. Like I might break at any moment. I get the feeling that I might.

It hurts and my back is intensely throbbing afterward. But at least I'm sitting up. I take a deep breath and begin the painful story that I never wanted to relive. "The night I got here, Peter came into my room and started punching me. Everywhere he could reach. He didn't have a reason to. I had only seen him once and I didn't even say a word to him. I had bruises all over me, mostly on my ribs."

Recognition flashes in Four's eyes. "I saw them when you took off your hoodie to run in gym. I should have known. At the very least, I should have said something to you about them."

"It doesn't matter anymore."

"Anything involving you always matters to me. Keep going with your story please."

I don't have time to process that and think about how sweet it was and what it might mean. I keep telling my story. "The next morning, he grabbed my wrist and left a bruise there. I really thought he was going to break my bone. On Wednesday after school, he came into my room and took off his belt."

My voice breaks and Four speaks up, his face full of fire. "What do you mean he took his belt off? What did he do? Did he... touch you?"

"Oh, God no. I'm sorry, I didn't think about how that sounded. He told me to take my shirt off and turn around, so I did.

"You aren't making it sound any better."

I ignore the comment and continue. "I couldn't really argue with him. I didn't know what he was capable of. I still don't."

I keep going, just ready to be done. "Anyways, he took his belt and started whipping my back with it. He told me not to make a sound. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't stay silent. It was so excruciating. I accidentally made a noise and he only made it worse. I don't know how long it went on for more how many times he whipped me. I was on the ground, in my own blood, but he didn't stop. After he was finally done, he just told me to clean up the mess I made and left."

"The next day, Christina touched my back and it hurt so bad. I winced and I didn't want anyone to ask any questions, so I left and went to the library. That's when I then proceeded to cry like a baby in Four's arms." I'm still embarrassed about it.

"And then at Zeke's party, some guy tried to grab me and he dug his nails into my back. I opened up one of the cuts. One of the worst ones. Four saved me and we talked upstairs. Zeke to get me to play a game and touched my back and got blood all over his hand. It was seeping out of my dress. I left after that even though Zeke tried stop me and help me. I couldn't tell anyone about it. I couldn't suck anyone into it. I don't really remember the drive home last night. I just remember taking a shower, throwing away Christina's dress, and then going to sleep. I woke up here."

Tori and Four are now both openly on the verge if tears. "I want to thank you guys. It could have been a lot worse if you hadn't brought me to the hospital. I could have died, but you saved me. I owe you my life." I need them to know how much I appreciate what they did for me.

"We're just happy you're alive. We were so scared," Tori says. I try smiling at her, but I comes out as more of a grimace. "Oh! I need to call Johanna and tell her that you woke up." She walks out of the room with her phone and a business card in hand.

Four looks at me. "Never think that you can't come to me. No matter what it is. I care about you and I will always do everything that I can to help. You shouldn't have had to handle that alone. Hell, you shouldn't have had to handle that at all. Please, just let me in."

"I couldn't get you involved. Something could have happened to you; I don't know what Peter is capable of. I just didn't want anyone to get hurt. Especially not you."

I didn't realize how that sounded until I said it. I didn't mean to actually say what I was thinking, but that doesn't make it any less true. I didn't want to put him in danger. I can't bear to think of Four hurt. He must realize that I mean it to because he grabs my hand.

I try not to get too excited. He was probably just worried about me. He doesn't really like me. He couldn't like me. Even though I know he is probably only trying to make me feel better, I grip his hand with all my strength, afraid of what will happen when I let go. We will lose this moment. I just want to live in it forever.

We don't speak, just let the feelings wash over us.

Tori comes back a few minutes later with a blank expression. She face me and starts talking. "That was Johanna Reyes, your case worker. She went to you house to investigate. I didn't tell her anything that you said, but she wants to interview you. They found something at your house."

"What was it?"I ask.

"They found a bloody belt in the back of Peter's closet. They are going to try to match your blood and his fingerprints for evidence. She said it wouldn't be too hard to match it to you. It has your blood and skin all over it. It's going to be okay. He's going to go to jail and you will never have to see his face again."

"That bastard. He kept it like a trophy," Four mumbles to himself. I look at Four and he squeezes my hand harder.

"It's all going to be okay now,Tris." I squeeze back.

"I know." I really hope we are right.


Thank you all for reading this fanfic. It means a lot to me that people actually read it.

Thanks so to the reviewer who told me that I could be an actual writer. It's my dream job, even though I am only fourteen. It made me feel like my dream isn't pointless.

Thank you so much melC92 for everything. A lot of the ideas in this chapter and in the next one are yours. I couldn't have written this without you.

This chapter is over five thousand words so WOOHOO! I love long chapters:)

This is really important to me and I hope it is to y'all to.

I would also like to thank the reviewers who told me that they cried on the last chapter. That was the best thing to ever hear.

Keep reading this story! Sorry it took so long to update, I'm busy!

Read on and stay classy:)

Love, Ty:)