**AN: Hey guys, sorry that I haven't updated in a couple of weeks. Those of you in the US, I hope you had a good Turkey day. I had dinner to make then I had Black Friday shopping to do for the kiddies and I've been trying to get things decorated and ready for Christmas. This one is shorter than the last couple but I hope you guys like it. As a way of saying I'm sorry for not updating like usual, I'm going to get ch 15 up this week too. Enjoy!
The past week has flown by but it has been heavy weighted on all of us. Stage two started the next day after I finished telling everyone what happened so none of us have really had the mind to want to talk about things but I know we can't procrastinate any longer; it's getting closer to the attack happening- at least as it did before- and if we are going to do anything about it, we need to start formulating a soild plan. On that night, one week ago, Tobias and I had held onto each other, basking in the nearness of one another after the telling of my death. My friends let us sit there for a few minutes then one by one, they came over to us and simply hugged me; there wasn't a need for any words to be said. When one would let go of me, someone else would take their place until there was nobody left in Zeke's apartment except Tobias, Zeke and myself. Zeke had followed suit and had given both of us a hug- whereas my friends only hugged me (I get the feeling that the others are still a tad bit intimidated of Tobias)- Zeke just embaced the two of us for a moment then quietly left the living room, leaving us to gather ourselves.
Once the tears had finally subsided, Tobias stood up and extended his hand to me, helping me up and down to his apartment. Exhaustion had crept up on us from seemingly nowhere so it didn't suprise me that by the time we got into bed and wrapped into one another's embrace, sleep took over both of us. The next morning, Tobias had led me to the cafeteria and stopped to let me go in first- under almost the same pretense as last time, we didn't want anyone to know about us just yet other than our friends- and he followed a couple of minutes later. With the fear simulations going on, neither of us have had the opportunity to spend time with one another so I've been staying in the dorms. Will and Christina have done more than I could have ever asked, both going above and beyond the call of ordinary friendships. Sometimes we talk about the fear simulations to try to shake them off, and sometimes it's mindless chatter about nothing in particular.
One thing that nags at the back of my mind is, thanks to the fear simulations, nobody in the compound has seen nor heard from either Eric or Peter; personally, I think it confirms my suspicions that a.) the two of them working together, and b.) that they are hiding out in the safety of Erudite's headquarters. Certain fears are definitely different this time around- the most obvious being my failure at saving my loved ones and being kidnapped and tortured by Eric and Peter while Jeanine watches and observes like it's an experiment- but one that has recently surfaced has to do with Caleb. I still can't seem to understand why exactly he betrayed me to Jeanine, and maybe that's why I can't get over it. I wish I could go ask Caleb why but in this time he hasn't done it yet so it's kind of a moot point; not that I'd take a chance of running into Eric or Peter, anyways. I still fear being out of control and intimacy- for the obvious different reasons now- but those are the only ones that have surfaced and the fear landscape is two days away.
I'm sitting on my bunk in the dorms just quietly thinking about everything when I hear a commotion outside. I decided to check it out and was very suprised by what I found. In the hallway, I saw Uri and Will holding Christina back from attacking a crumpled figure on the floor. I slowly approach my friends so that I don't inadvertantly get hit by Christina's wildly swinging arms to ask what was going on.
"Tris, don't!" I heard Will yell over Christina's cries to let her go but it was too late- I had seen who the crumpled figure on the floor was. Motherfucker! I think as I realize who it was. Peter.
"What the fuck is he doing here?" I ask as Four and Zeke make their way down the hall, a new quiet calm coming over me.
"We're not too sure, but before anyone could blink, Pixie here was on him like white on rice." Uri says, throwing a head nod towards Christina.
"That asshole has some paying to do; I was only trying to subdue him until Tris could get to him," Chris explains, "now, if you two don't mind, let me go! Everyone is here now, I won't do anything else."
"Let her go, guys." Four instructs Uri and WIll and they finally let her go, apparently convinced that with Four here she won't try anything else. "Tris, are you ok?" He asks me, concern etched all over his beautiful face. I just stare down at Peter's unconcious form on the floor instead of answering.
"Tris?" Tobias asks me, again.
"Yeah, I'm good. Can somebody please get this piece of shit out of my sight before I go all-out Psycho on this asshole?" I ask. Zeke and Uri oblige, saying they were taking him to a holding cell. Once they are out of sight Christina decides to break the silence in the air.
"I'm sorry, Tris. It should have been you to knock him on his ass but it's like I couldn't stop myself. Once Will and I came around the corner and I saw him, I saw red and took off."
"You have nothing to apologize for, Chris. Thank you for being a great friend; and you too Will, I'm glad you and Uri were there to hold her back."
"I'm just glad that coward finally showed his face around here so that we can do something about him at least." Will offers, and I nod not trusting my voice to give out to my emotions. I can't explain what I'm feeling at the moment because it's like there are several different emotions trying to surface all at once and there's no pinpointing any one in particular.
"Thank you guys," Four says to Will and Chris before turning to me, "come on Tris, let's go for a walk." I don't say anything but I let him lead me away. The whole walk is silent until we get to his apartment, I still don't know what to feel and I don't think Tobias knows what exactly to say at this moment. He unlocks his door and lets me go in first and I go sit on the couch. I barely notice Tobias sit down next to me; we sit in silence for a while and he glances in my direction from time to time.
"Talk to me, Tris." He pleads after a while.
"I don't really know what to say Tobias."
"Ok, well how are you feeling?"
"I don't really know that, either." I confess but he gives me a look and I explain further. "I can't pin down one single feeling out of everything. I'm angry. I'm hurt. I'm terrified. I'm confused. I'm nervous. It's an endless cycle of these feelings and I don't know which one is more predominant; so to answer your question, I don't know. One thing that I do know is, once it's out that he's here in a cell, it won't be long before he's gone again; Max will see to that since he's another of Jeanine's lapdogs."
"I know," he says with a frustrated sigh, "we've got to figure something out before that happens though. He needs to pay for what he tried to do to you, but we have to be careful about it so we don't draw unwanted attention."
"Agreed." I simply state before going quiet again to think about things and try to sort them out. We settle back into silence until there's a knock at his door. Tobias gets up and answers the door but I don't really pay attention to who's on the other side or the conversation. Instead, all I can think about is the urge that is trying to take over my body- the one that says find Peter and fuck him up before dumping his ass back towards Erudite as a message. The more I think about it, the more the urge is trying to take over and soon I find myself giving into that urge; but, as Tobias said, I have to be careful on how I go about it. Once Tobias closes the door, he takes his seat beside of me again.
"That was Zeke. He's got a couple of his buddies guarding Peter for the moment but he is in a holding cell. Zeke was able to pass a story off about some initate not being able to hold their temper while drinking and they're letting him sleep it off so nobody has questioned it yet."
"Does Zeke work in the control room anytime soon?" I ask Tobias.
"Yeah he'll be there overnight, why?"
"I have a plan forming and I wanted to see what the options were first."
"Tris, what are you planning?" He asks.
"I'm not totally sure yet but I know it's going to involve needing some camera attention diverted in a few places."
"You'll tell me what the plan is, won't you?" He asks hesitantly.
"When I get it figured out, you'll be the first one to know." My stomach chooses that moment to rumble.
"Come on, let's go eat." He says as we head out of his apartment and towards the cafeteria.
Everyone at our table couldn't stop talking about Peter randomly showing up and Chris knocking him out, but luckily everyone kept it quiet enough that nobody passing by gave a second glance towards our table. I tried to listen in but honestly all I could think about was coming up with a plan. By the time Peter comes to, us initiates will be expected to be back in the dorms so it's going to require sneaking out of the dorms without anyone detecting me. I've decided that I'm only going to let Tobias and Zeke in on the plan, just not quite the extent of it; otherwise, Tobias won't let me near Peter and I've got to have some time alone with him. I saw Zeke get up from the table that he, Tobias and Shaunna were sitting at and start heading out of the cafeteria. I quickly excused myself from my friends before following Zeke.
"Zeke, wait up!" I yell once we're down the hall a little ways. He stops and turns around to see who stopped him.
"What's up Buttercup?" He replies once I'm closer to him.
"Oh nothing darling, I just wanted to talk to you."
"Ok darlin', what about?"
"I've got a plan and I'm gonna need your help; and Four's, but you're going to have to tell him seeing as I'm still technically an initiate and not supposed to fraternize with my instructor."
"Go on." Zeke urges me while stroking his imaginary beard. I lean in so that no cameras can pick up what I'm about to say.
"Since you're working in the control room tonight, I need your help in rerouting old footage into a loop so that I can safely talk to Peter. Obviously, I need Four there just in case if he is stupid enough to try something, which he probably will since it's Peter we're talking about here."
"I think we can manage that. When did you want to do it?"
"Since I'll be in the dorms, I'm gonna have to wait until I can sneek out once everyone is asleep so say around 12:30-ish. Tell Four to be waiting for me near the dorms then and we'll head to the cell once you've looped the video feed."
"I go in a little early tonight so I should be able to do it before you meet up with Four so that nobody will see you even coming out of the dorms."
"Good, because we're going to need all the help we can get if this goes down the way I'm planning on it. Make sure you and Four have a way to communicate to each other too, I might need some additional help from you afterwards."
"What are you planning, exactly?" Zeke asks me.
"You'll find out soon enough. Tell Four that I'm sorry I told you first but you are the only way I could get a message to him right now to let him in on the plan."
"Ok, Tris. I will have Four meet you at your designated time and place." He says trying to act as if this is top-secret information. I can't help but to give a small laugh before thanking him and turning back towards the cafeteria. I head towards the table but everyone is already done with dinner so they're getting up from the table and coming my way. I briefly look to the table that Zeke was sitting at and find Tobias looking at me. I mouth 'Talk to Zeke' to him in hopes of him knowing what I was trying to say. He slightly nods to acknowledge me before turning his attention back to Shaunna just as Christina and Marlene come up and loop their arms around mine and we start out of the cafeteria.
After a while of shopping, Christina claimed she needed something to do to help her calm down about the Peter situation, Marlene left to go back to the Dauntless-born dorms while Chris and I went back to our dorms. While I still didn't share Christina's enthuasism about today's shopping excursion, I found it did help a little to relieve some of the building tension about what I'm going to do in a little while. I know that Four will be disappointed in what I'm going to do but a part of me doesn't care- I just want revenge and to make my message loud and clear. Chris and I sat up for a good bit talking to Will about random things before I pretended to want to go to sleep. I heard Chris and Will whisper for a few minutes then it stopped, until I heard the nosies telling me that they were in a hardcore make out session. I tried to envison how my things will play out once tonights events have gone down to drown out the noise; it must work because when I stop daydreaming, I hear nothing but silence in the dorm, signaling that everyone must be asleep by now.
I look at the time and more of it had passed than I had thought because it was about time to meet Tobias outside of the dorm. I quietly look around to make sure that everyone is asleep, and once I'm confident that everyone is fast asleep, I get up and make my way out quietly to meet Tobias. Once I exit the dorm, I find him leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, head thrown back against the wall and his eyes closed. I take a moment to drink in the sight that is in front of me.
"Are you ready?" I whisper to him. His head jerks forward and his eyes widen until he realizes that it's me.
"Let's go. Zeke's already got the video feeds on loop so according to what everyone else would be watching, neither of us are here, but he's watching the live feeds."
"Good. We're going to need that in a little bit."
"What are we doing, Tris?" He asks me.
"Do you have to ask me that?" I counter.
"No, I have an idea but I was hoping that I might be wrong. We're going to see Peter, aren't we?"
"Yes, now lead the way." He does as I ask and we quickly but quietly make our way to the holding block. We hang back for a few minutes while Zeke takes care of his buddies and gets them out of the way for us, so that we won't be seen going in by anyone. They go the opposite direction of us, and I can faintly hear Peter calling out to anyone that would listen. Tobias starts to go towards the door but I stop him.
"Just me this time."
"Not happening." He replies.
"Tobias, I promise that he will not hurt me."
"Tris-" I interrupt him.
"Just me. If you hear me scream, then come in; otherwise, I'm doing this alone." He stares at me with his Four the Instructor mask on but I stare back just as hard until he finally gives in and his expression softens.
"Ok but if I hear one sound from you, I'm coming in. Be careful, Tris." He says while opening the door. "The last cell on the right is where he is." I offer him my thanks and push into the room. Immediately through the door I see two desks in front of me and a hallway to my left. I can hear Peter yelling out, as though him doing that would make someone come running to his aid.
"Let me go! You can't keep me locked up like this, I haven't done anything wrong!" Yeah, right. I think as I let the chair at the nearest desk slightly scrape against the floor before starting for the hallway.
"Finally!" Peter shouts but I don't say a word, just silently make my way towards his cell. "I know you're here! I was beginning to thi- Stiff, what are you doing here?" He asks with a slight tremor in his voice.
"Hello, Peter." My voice is dead calm and I wear a smile on my face.
*Reviews are welcome! :)