Thank you to everyone who left reviews on the last chapter. You continue to keep me writing with my 50+ hour work weeks. Thank you for the encouragement!

And of course my gratitude to Bahrfamily who put down the book she's currently reading to edit this chapter…

Renee- member of current initiate class. Natalie believes she is a plant from Erudite to spy on how the Dauntless simulations go this year.

11 Discovery

"Spill." Angie pounces on Eli and me before we even set our breakfast trays on the table.

Eli looks at me, confused. "Are we supposed to tell her something?"

I sit down across from her and laugh. "She wants to know if you are going to have a son or a daughter. I told her that we weren't telling until after Visiting Day."

"I thought I would find out at dinner last night, but you two didn't show up," she whines.

"I'm sorry," Eli says dryly from his spot next to me. "We thought maybe my parents would like to know, too."

"I'll give you that one, but I'm assuming that was where you were last night, so…?" Her voice trails off expectantly.

"So, what?" Eli cuts in before I can answer her. He's getting ready to play with her.

"Hana!" Angie has known Eli her whole life. She realizes what he's doing and changes tactics by turning her attention to me. "Are you having a boy or a girl?"

I smile. I know Angie is going to claim him for their girl as soon as I tell them. "We're having a boy."

Angie looks excited, but Rob looks a little down. "We're supposed to intimidate the guys who want to date our daughters together," he complains to Eli.

Angie laughs and bumps Rob with her shoulder. "You don't have to worry about that anymore! Our little girl is going to marry their son."

Rob pretends to consider that for a moment. "I don't know about that. Don't you remember what Eli was like before he met Hana? Maybe we should take our chances."

"Hey! We still don't know what we're having!" Abilyn protests. "Don't you think you should keep your options open?"

Rob looks from Abilyn to Ben and then back at Angie. "She has a point. Ben wasn't nearly the…"

Angie elbows Rob before he can finish his sentence. "And what if they have a girl, too? Then we'll both be fighting over Hana's baby."

Rob groans. "And if they have a boy they'll be fighting over our girl! The rest of you better get busy. We're going to need more options here." He looks around the table. Besides Leeann and Chaz, the only complete couple sitting at the table today is Jazz and Rais. Rob wisely turns his attention away from Leeann and Chaz. "Jazz, Rais, come on, Amar needs a baby brother or sister. Help us out here."

"No way!" Jazz answers emphatically before Rais can do anything but open his mouth. "He's still a handful. I'm waiting until he's older before we tempt fate again. I don't think I could keep up with another Amar."

At the sound of his name, Amar looks up from his plate. He managed to get ahold of a chocolate chip muffin today and has chocolate smudged from one ear to the other. He also has syrup splotches from his pancake on his forehead, cheeks and chin, and bits of bacon stuck to the syrup, too. "You know, if you both have girls, Amar's not that much older and look at the table manners you get as a bonus!" Rais says with a laugh.

I have never completely figured out how the Initiates pick where they are going to sit for meals. It's not like there is one table that they always use from year to year. They simply seem to pick a table at the first meal and stick with it. We end up moving tables during initiation, too, since Jazz tries to sit near them so she can keep a watchful eye on everyone. At lunch today, I end up next to Jazz so we can talk. Today is advice day, she told me, when she found out Eli wasn't going to be here for lunch. It isn't quite the advice I was expecting, something to do with the baby or with my pregnancy. Instead, she gives me the heads up that, since Rais and Eli are both over-protective, Eli is about to get a lot worse, and some ideas on how to handle it. It's probably actually a better conversation for us to have than what I was expecting: Eli does seem to be getting worse by the day.

When Harrison comes by towards the end of our conversation, she excuses herself to talk to him for a minute. With Jazz gone, I do what I was hoping to: turn my attention to the initiates.

"I don't know how many more of these simulations I can take." The boy with a blue Mohawk and a pierced nose starts biting his nails as soon as he finishes speaking.

"What? These are fun," another boy responds brightly. Everyone in the group looks at him opened-mouthed, all rendered speechless for a moment

I glance quickly at the boy who just spoke. Natalie said to keep an eye out for anyone who reacted to the simulations differently than my class. None of us thought the simulations were fun. Something tells me I will need to be able to identify him later. His bleached blonde hair comes to his collar, and there are silver hoops on the outside corner of each of his eyebrows, drawing attention to his muddy brown eyes. I could pick him out again.

It is a red-headed girl who finds her voice first. "Lucas, what do you mean, they are fun? I haven't been able to get a full night's sleep since we started."

"Oh, come on. You don't find it fun to figure out the best way to end the simulation? There are always so many different ways to do it." He sounds disbelieving.

I feel a chill run down my spine. This doesn't sound good at all. I strain to hear every word. I have to know what is going on. "What do you mean?" the boy with the Mohawk asks. "I never realize that it isn't real until it is over."

"Oh, come on." Lucas chuckles. "You can't tell me that you really thought that you were covered in spiders."

Mohawk boy shudders. "I certainly did at the time."

Lucas shakes his head in disbelief. It's enough to get me to pick up my tray and head out so I can get a better look at the group. The blood quickly drains from my face. Renee is sitting two people down from him. She has a gleam in her eye that concerns me. Natalie told me that she thinks Renee is Jeanine's plant in Dauntless. If Natalie's right, and looking at Renee right now, I think she probably is, then Lucas won't live to become a member of Dauntless. He just told me, as well as Renee, that he's Divergent.

I sigh softly as I walk into our apartment after work. I appear to have beaten Eli home. I hurry to the bathroom and pull out the tablet. I've been distracted all day, trying to figure out the best message to send Natalie. My fingers tremble as I turn it on to contact her. I know I have to be quick about it. There's the normal concern about connectivity time, but I also need to figure out exactly what to tell her about the conversation I overhead in the cafeteria today. Above all, there is still the concern of making it quick enough that Eli won't get home and catch me sending the message. I keep hoping I'm wrong about Lucas, but the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that I'm right.

Lucas, in the current initiation class, was bragging at lunch today about how easy the simulations are. He mentioned that he knew it wasn't real. Renee was nearby. I think she overheard him.

I reread it, decide that it is as good as I can do, and send it. I shut down the tablet and hide it in the drawer. As I softly close the drawer, I hear Eli from the other side of the door. "Hana! Are you in there?"

I flush the toliet and wash my hands. He's standing by the door when I open it. "What's up?" I ask him.

"Are you okay?" He puts a hand on each shoulder and looks at me.

"Eli," I try not to laugh at him, "it's going to be a very long three months if you are going to worry about me every time I go to the bathroom. Jazz and Angie have both warned me that it only gets worse from here."

Eli has the grace to look sheepish. "Rais told me yesterday that I'd better tone it down before you feel the need to take a lesson or two from Jazz."

I laugh. Those are the very lessons Jazz gave me at lunch today. Ezekiel chooses this moment to kick me and I catch my breath.

"Hana…" Eli sounds panicked.

"He's fine, Eli. I'm fine. He just kicked me," I assure him. "Relax. He's just getting a little cramped in there."

"Already?"

"Eli! Look at me. If this boy takes after you, he's going to run out of room pretty quickly. If you haven't noticed I'm just a little smaller than you."

Eli looks at me from head to foot. "I guess you have a point."

Even though I'm not expecting to have heard from Natalie yet, I check my tablet while I start the water for my shower, to see if there is any response.

Checking on Lucas. Keep an eye on him when you can. Let me know if you can meet me late tomorrow, like around midnight, at the Crevice room.

I send a quick response.

I'll be there. I still hope I'm wrong.

Natalie is pacing back and forth when I get there. "How'd you get away from him?"

"I'm at work. The advantage of being pregnant is that they usually let me decide when I need to go on break and work the rest of them around me. I just worked it out so I'm on break right now."

Natalie nods. "I'll make it quick. I've been looking into Lucas. You're right. It looks like he's Divergent. Are you sure Renee heard? Right now everything hinges on that."

I've thought about that and replayed the moment in my mind. "I'm sure she overheard," I answer with conviction.

"Do you work tomorrow night, too?"

"No, I'm getting ready to change shifts, so I have the next couple of days off."

"Do you think you can get away tomorrow night, maybe around midnight? I'm going to need your help."

I'm not sure how I'm going to get away from Mr. Vigilant, but I assure Natalie, "I'll figure something out."

"Good. I'll meet you here around eleven forty-five pm."

At eleven thirty, I try to get out of bed without waking Eli up. "Hana?" His voice is sleepy.

"Shh, go back to sleep." I keep my voice low. "I'm having problems sleeping. I'm going to go the control room and see if watching everyone else sleep on the monitors helps make me tired."

He starts to struggle to sit up. "Why don't I just get up with you for a little while?"

"That won't help bore me to sleep, and you need your rest." I walk over to his side of the bed and lightly kiss his forehead. "Go to sleep. I'll be fine."

I write a quick note and leave it on the counter for Eli, just in case he is still asleep enough that he doesn't remember where I am.

I brush both sides of the small opening into Crevice room. At the rate I'm expanding, we're not going to be able to meet here much longer until after the baby is born. Natalie is already there, dressed in red pants with blue patches on them and a black sweatshirt that a gray shirt peeks out from a couple of unmended rips. "You were right," she starts without even a hello. "I was able to access Norton's computer. Lucas has to come out tonight. They are going to send Jeanine tomorrow to check into him closer. We can't let that happen."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Stop by the control room and load this in the computer." She hands me a drive. "It shows the accident we're about to create. Then I need you to go get Lucas and one of his friends from the dorm. Meet me at the train platform."

It doesn't take long for Natalie to finish filling me in on what little she is willing to tell me. So, it doesn't take long for me to find myself in the control room. I log into my computer and down load the footage Natalie gave me. As soon as I finish that I give a couple of long yawns, and log out in less than ten minutes. It surprises me that no one questions how short the time frame is that I'm there.

It takes me a couple of minutes to locate Lucas in the dim light of the boys' dorm. I find the boy with the blue Mohawk in the next bed. I put my hand over Lucas's mouth and shake him awake. As soon as his eyes open I lean in close to him. "Shhh. Jazz sent me," I lie, but he nods his head in understanding. "Meet me outside the door." He nods again and quietly gets up. I do the same with his friend and follow them out of the room.

"What's going on?" Lucas asks quietly as soon as I am outside of the room.

Part of me wishes I knew exactly what is going on, but I don't, and I couldn't tell him if I did know. "We're headed to the trains. We'll meet up with Jazz there." I motion for the two of them to take the lead. I don't think they will go anywhere, but I don't know them, and I need to make it look like we aren't together, just in case the cameras catch us.

I listen to them speculate at what is going on in hushed tones. Their guesses range from additional simulations to Jazz being interested in one or both of them. I bite my lip to keep from laughing at the last idea. Like Jazz would look at anyone besides Rais.

Natalie stands there, looking Dauntless. "Wait here." I leave them by the door and cross over to Natalie.

"We're going to play a quick game of Dare with the boys," she says softly. "Stand out of sight of the other boy and follow my lead. Whatever I say is happening, I need you to react like you would if it were really happening. When you see me jump off the platform, it's time for you to leave and go home. Whatever you do," her green eyes pierce mine, "don't talk to him after I leave." She presses a note into my hand. "Read this and then go home."

I'm totally confused by her directions, but I agree to it anyway and move just out of Mohawk boy's view.

"It's time to test your bravery with a quick game of Dare," Natalie announces to the boys. "Lucas, I dare you to grab on to that pillar," she points to one a little ways out from where we are standing, "and swing from it."

"That's simple," Lucas scoffs.

While he walks over there, Natalie moves so she is behind his friend. I catch a quick flash of something metal in the light then notice Natalie pressing a needle down on the side of his neck. Natalie pulls it out quickly.

"Ouch!" he reaches up to touch the side of his neck. "What was that?"

Natalie ignores the question as she hurries over to Lucas, so I ignore him, too. When Natalie gets to him, she tells him to jump. He does it without question. Then she screams,"He's fallen and the train is coming."

There is no train, and it leaves me confused for a brief moment, but I quickly remember her instructions and start screaming and yelling something about the train. Mohawk boy looks confused for a moment, then he reacts, too. "Lucas! Lucas!" He runs towards the train, yelling his name over and over.

While he's doing that, Natalie quickly drops off the edge. The train really does show up right then, and in the confusion of the train coming and Mohawk boy running to the tracks to see what is going on, I slip back into the building, trembling. I can't go back to the control room, but I can't go back home quite yet. I find a spot I once noticed the cameras don't reach. It's a blind spot of about two feet. I open up the note there.

Sorry about that. He had to die and I needed a witness without you being involved. Whatever you do, don't let anyone know you saw it. Act surprised when you hear tomorrow that one of the initiates died.

I tear the note into a handful of confetti and walk over to the Chasm. I lean over the rail, ignoring the one couple left making out, and slowly drop the note into the water. I hear a slight commotion and turn around in time to see Max and Harrison hurrying to the train platform. I yawn and stretch. I better get home and get some sleep.

It's that time again! I only did this once with Dauntless Gray, but I'm going to try to do it more in The Blackest Shade of Gray. Leave a review and I'll send you a PM of Jazz's point of view of what happens next…