Tris was still fast asleep when I woke up the next morning, her face pressed into my shoulder and one of her legs tangled with mine. I smiled across at her, but the expression froze on my face when I noticed the time on the alarm clock, biting back a groan. I really did not want to get up.

Reluctantly, I untangled myself from Tris and rolled out of bed. Tris stirred, mumbling something incoherent under her breath, but then rolled over onto her stomach and went back to sleep. I smiled down at her, catching a quick glimpse of the Abnegation symbol tattoo on her shoulder before I turned away, finding some pants and pulling them on. As I found a shirt and shrugged it on, quickly buttoning it up, I heard movement behind me and I watched through the mirror as Tris rolled over and sat up, blinking.

"Do you have to go?" Tris asked, sliding forward to sit on the end of the bed, her hands braced against the mattress.

I smiled into the mirror at her, finding a tie and fastening it around my neck, folding the back of my shirt over it neatly. "Unfortunately. I already called in sick to go talk to Cara yesterday."

Tris sighed softly, but she didn't object further as I turned to look at her, looking across the room and failing to find my shoes. I moved to look under the bed, lifting the covers to see whether either me or Tris had kicked them underneath. I couldn't see anything, but as I rocked back on my heels, I saw Tris bolt out of the room, holding two black objects.

"Tris!" I shouted, bolting after her. I heard Tris laughing as she ran down the stairs and I followed, bounding down the stairs, taking them three at a time so that I caught her at the bottom, catching her around the waist and swinging her around and over my shoulder.

Tris shrieked with laughter and I set her down. "Give me my shoes."

Tris smiled, holding the shoes away from me. "Come and get them from me."

I darted for them, but Tris twisted away, laughing as I watched her for a moment with narrowed eyes. Tris held my gaze with a playful gaze of her own, and I feigned going to grab the shoes, but then I caught her around the waist and pulled her to me instead. Tris gasped softly, but then I was kissing her, wrapping one arm around her waist. I slowly ran my other hand up the length of her arm, carefully loosening her grip on my shoes finger by finger until she surrendered my shoes to me again, and I dropped them to the floor, cupping her face in my hands. I could feel Tris' hands on my back, her hands small and almost delicate against my shoulder blades as she pushed up on her toes to kiss me harder.

When we drew apart, Tris smiled gently, stepping back as I pushed my feet into my shoes. "Do you think Clara'll be in a better mood when she gets home?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know if I'll see her for a few days. I can't remember her being this angry at me before."

Tris smiled gently. "I'll talk to her when she comes home. She might listen to me."

I nodded and moved forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead. When I pulled back, Tris turned her head to look up at me, her blue-grey searching mine as I said quietly, "I really have to go, but I'll be back later. There's something that I really need to show you."

"What is it?" Tris asked, following me to the door. I pushed it open with my foot and turned to look at her, smiling.

"It's a surprise." I said, and Tris sighed, rolling her eyes and smiling.

"I'll let you know if Clara turns up after school," Tris said.

"Or during," I muttered, my hand on the handle. At Tris' puzzled look, I explained, "She has a habit of ditching. She knows that the next time she does it, she's grounded for a month."

"You really think she'd ditch, with everything that's going on?"

I shrugged. "I think she'd do it to get back at me. But generally when she ditches, she's nowhere near stupid enough to show up here. I don't know where she'd go, then. She's smart enough to know to be afraid of Marcus."

Tris thought for a moment and then shrugged. "I'll let you know if Marcus shows up here as well."

I nodded. "I don't think he will. He's already shown up here once. But I don't know whether he knows that you're in Chicago or not, so if you can, stay out of sight, alright?"

Tris nodded in agreement, leaning back against the kitchen table and stifling a yawn with her hand. "I'll be fine. You'd better go."

I nodded and hesitated, the words I love you dying on my lips. I eventually turned and walked out to my truck, unlocking the door and swinging myself in, the birds that decorated Tris' collarbone dancing across my vision each time I blinked. As much as I wanted to say those three little words to her, and as happy as Tris had looked this morning, I had the feeling that Tris was feeling a lot more overwhelmed than she was letting on. She had only known for just over twenty-four hours that she had a sixteen-year-old daughter that she hadn't even known about.