His cold eyes stare at me every now and then, as I've been required to attend a meeting before we begin final testing on the initiates. In the week since Ellen's death I've become a respected department leader, though I just lead the infirmary, people have taken to me.

In the letter she left for me she warned me that people would take to me like this because I will see them at their worst. She didn't know that my position wouldn't last nearly as long as hers did.

Eric is making a smart comment again Aries and she yells at him. They don't speak of the war here because this meeting is for the leaders of all the departments as well as some who are on the council; those are the ones that know about the war.

I tap my foot on the floor softly with my boot unable to contain myself from wanting to get out of here as quick as possible.

I'll be done with the initiates after today and won't help with training after this year. Taking all that into consideration when I helped score the initiates on their skills. I picked one person whom I know is going to rank high to take my place, Tris. She won't get to do it though, but I hope that she takes my action as genuine towards her and that I'm an ally not a foe.

And the second Max concludes this I'm racing out of the room to get coffee. The final testing is going to take up most of the day and I'm going to need something, so coffee will do.

I bump into Tris on the way there and she looks scared as all hell.

"You need to look more relaxed."

"Hm, I am." She says as we walk down the hall to the dining area together.

"Your face says otherwise, you'll be fine. You'll be a member by nightfall."

We enter the hall and she retorts with, "Or dead," before going to find her friends and I just shake my head.

I have time to sit with Aries and drink my coffee so I do so.

"If he wasn't in black or had ink all over his skin I would say he was Erudite!" She quietly yells at me and I roll my eyes.

"Did you hear the way he was demanding things that only better Erudite? And the way he belittled me like I was an initiate? I am fucking council member too!" She stabs the eggs on her plate and I laugh.

"And that is why he is their pet." I sip my coffee when I see him walking in. "The devil is here so say nothing else."

"I want to rip him a new one." She says still stabbing at her eggs. I press my lips together tightly to hold back my laughter as he passes where we are sitting.

"Are you done now?" I ask her and she nods yes.

"Lauren" I hear and turn to see one of my initiates, Sarah standing behind me.

"Yes initiate?" I ask in an instructor voice.

"Will there be open positions at the infirmary? I enjoyed your instruction and would look forward to working for you." She nervously pulls at the skin around her fingernails.

"As long as you become a member and are able to choose it as a job, I would not have a problem with it."

She takes my answer with a smile and walks away. Aries is grinning at me as I turn around.

"What?"

"Awww your little spawns still like you enough to want to work for you. You weren't terrorizing enough."

I roll my eyes, "I was more effective though."

She nods as we both continue eating and making small talk.

It's nearly over when Tris walks in and my heart stops. I'm not concerned about her, but the woman who has suddenly entered the room with Eric in tow. Jeanine is here.

I want to crawl out of here at the sight of my former faction leader. I can't react physically though because she'll sense that I'm uneasy and then she'll start calculating why and that would be bad, so I just stand there with Four as he tenses as well. Jeanine hasn't watched anyone but the last three people, which will be Tris, Peter, and Sarah.

The only one that is Divergent is Tris, so does she know or does she suspect something else in her and that's what brought her here?

I didn't realize that Tris' final testing started until I hear her gasping for breathe and I know exactly what sim she's in. I have to say she completes everything like a Dauntless would, which should've killed any of Jeanine's suspicions.

The room stares at Four when one of her fears is intimacy. I can feel the embarrassment radiating off of him. They're both innocent former Abnegation, I surely didn't expect them to be jumping all over each other.

She's done and we are clapping to congratulate her as I look at Jeanine who is staring at Tris, I can almost see the wheels turning in Jeanine's head and only wonder what she's thinking.

"So who'd you pick to replace you?" Four asks, as the testing concludes.

I laugh, "I think if everything goes well," I pause he knows what I mean by that, "you will surely like my replacement."

I smile at him as I depart a different way from where ever he is going.

The dining hall is alive as it waits for the final rankings and then the party will be lead over to the Pit. Then I'm certain I'll be needed in the infirmary.

I find Four, Shauna, Zeke, Mia, and Lance all pressed against a table near the wall and I laugh. They want to be away from when insanity interrupts.

I sit next to Four as everyone greets me.

"Oh look a leader is actually sitting with us!" Zeke shouts and I shake my head.

"She's a low leader, only a leader of a department so calm down mister." Lance says sarcastically and we all laugh.

"Jealous much?" I taunt. "No, not with your responsibilities. I'd rather stay being your bitch." Lance says causing us to laugh more.

Suddenly the metal drinking cups are being repeatedly hit off the tables as the all the leaders take a place on the balcony.

Max holds his hands up and the whole room drops to an eerie silence.

"Today we welcome ten new members into our faction." He begins, and it's a speech I've heard before, memorized perfectly for every class to hear when final rankings are posted. "And here are the rankings." The board lights up and I have to keep my composure when I see who ranked first.

1. Tris

2. Lukas

3. Uriah

4. Lynn

5. Marlene

6. Peter

7. Will

8. Christina

9. Sarah

10. Noah

Tris was strong and determined. She was at the bottom, but now she has risen to the top. I look to Four as he has a sense of pride in his eyes. The entire room breaks out in chaos, as the new members are crowd surfed around the dining hall before everyone disperses out to eventually go to the Pit.

Lance, Mia, and I are heading to the infirmary already knowing that we probably left Kate swamped with drunken idiot members who are using this day as an excuse to get drunk and stupidly fight.

I walk in to a contained infirmary room and am shocked as Kate sits at the front desk with a smile on her face and yelling 'told you' at me because I doubted her earlier.

Walking to my office, which was once Ellen's gives me this strange feeling of nostalgia. I open the door to a dark blonde head sitting in the chair in front of my desk. Of course I couldn't have one Eric free day.

Neither of us says a word as I sit on my side of the desk and cross my arms with the most annoyed expression I could muster on my face.

"What do you want?" I ask even more annoyed.

He lets a smirk grow on his lips as his blue eyes pierce into me. "Well, Lauren I was hoping that we could split this bottle of whiskey." He says, and places the rather large bottle on my desk.

"What are you up to? Why are you playing nice?" There's not point in not asking him point blank.

"You're a leader now, a department one, but still thought I'd be polite enough to celebrate with you since no one else has." He says smugly. I just love how everyone has to point out that I'm not a council level leader like Eric is.

I laugh in his face. "Wow you seriously don't have any friends now. This is desperate Coulter."

He glares at me and I ignore it logging into the computer to check patient statuses. "Are you going to leave now? You always forget that you have no authority on this land." I say as smartly as I can, still while not looking at him.

He gets up and slams my door shut. I roll my eyes at his juvenile exit.

"I don't want to go!" I whine and drop face first onto my bed as Shauna and Mia are forcing me to go to the Pit and relax.

One of them is pulling my boots off and I kick at them while the other is going through my closet.

"Get up Dyer! You're going whether you like it or not! The infirmary can live without you for one night!" Shauna yells and I groan and flip on my back.

"What if…the infirmary…" I start and am hit in the face with my pillow by Mia.

"Fuckers." I mutter as they now try to undress me, knowing fully well the only way I'll comply is if they do with me as they wish.

"There." Shauna says as they fix my hair to however the hell they want. I stand up and go look at my reflection in the mirror.

I willingly put on this outfit. It's black pants with my nicer pair of boots, and a very short black leather crop top that shows off my toned stomach. My hair is pulled back into a decent length French braid with my bangs now long enough to be pushed to the side. Thankfully, I still don't resemble the old Lauren that stepped into this place at all. I look Dauntless and mature.

The Pit is the fullest I've ever seen it with music blasting and alcohol in everyone's hands. Shauna abandons Mia and I the second she spies Zeke. Both of us go over to the makeshift bar area and grab a beer.

When we're five beers in Mia suddenly leaves me for the guy she's been flirting with. Liquid courage finally made her go dance with him and I laugh as I order a shot of vodka to cap off my night.

Suddenly Eric is sitting next to me. Of course that determined bastard was waiting for his opportunity to come near me.

"You're far in." He says as an observation sipping the beer he brought down here with him.

"Aren't you too good to be sitting here?" I retort.

I'm given my shot and he watches me as I quickly get the substance down my throat. I go to stand and he stops me by putting his arm around my waist.

"What happened to the whole we aren't anything but an Erudite crush, Eric?" I look him straight in the eyes.

"You know why I said that." He says looking around. "No I don't." I say even though I understand what he means. He only did it because it interfered with his leadership and most importantly, Jeanine.

"Don't play dumb with me." He's standing up so close to me. He leans in to me with his arm around my waist and whispers in my ear, "If you don't come to my apartment in ten minutes, I will hunt you down."

The question isn't whether or not I want to go but rather what will happen when I arrive. I'm too drunk to make rational thoughts right now, right? That will at least be my excuse to Four when he questions me further about this, because he will know since he's in the surveillance room now. Who am I kidding? Once I arrive at Eric's he's going to have his way with me.

Fuck it.

My feet are walking forwards but it doesn't feel like the rest of me is there as I walk down the floor of Eric's apartment. I knock at exactly ten minutes later showing that I'm still as punctual as an Erudite.

He opens the door with a ridiculous smirk on his face as I walk in.

"I was worried I was going to have to go find you. Let the celebration begin." He's getting more alcohol out for us to drink. This is totally how I'm going to justify all of this.

I sit on the kitchen counter across from him, as my mind screams at me for letting myself be so vulnerable. He comes and stands in between my legs as he hands me the glass in his hand that I meant to share with him. I take a small sip not wanting to put much more alcohol into my body and he gets the hint as he sets it down.

For minutes we are just staring at each other and then he closes the space by bringing his lips to mine. Their soft and taste of alcohol, but right now it's everything I need as I let myself get lost in his taste, his smell, and his hands on my body.

I have him pulled close by my fists in his vest's fabric. His lips make their way down my exposed neck and collarbone and I melt into him even more. He suddenly pulls away and looks directly into my eyes as I yearn for more.

"This is the only way I'll ever be able to show how much you mean to me. And if you tell anyone that I said that or what I'm about to do I will kill you." With that he's lifting me off the counter and I wrap my legs around his waist as he kisses me softly all the way to his bedroom.

My head spins at all the ways he touches and kisses me. Carefully peeling off both our layers as he's making sure I'm properly pleased tonight before his own needs.

I let him take me completely as I wither underneath him.

It felt like a dream when I awoke, but I slowly realized it wasn't as I felt him near.

I turned in his black sheets to face him as he sat pensive reading his tablet for the morning. He made no movement towards me so I took it as a hint to get out. The alcohol must've made him as weak as it made me and now he realizes his disobeyed Jeanine's orders.

I start to get up when his large arm is pulling me back into the bed and into his chest. He says nothing as he wraps both his arms around me as I embrace back. We both have things we could be doing but he doesn't let up.

"Eric what time is it?"

"Don't worry about it." He grumbles with his voice still raspy from sleep.

"Eric…I have work."

"Lauren Dyer, shut the fuck up."

I try to wiggle out of his wrath but it's no use when he's stronger then me. He gets annoyed and decides to wrap his legs around mine as well. I can only imagine this sight.

"And here we have a walk of shame, or at least that's what they used to call it." Aries says as I walk down my hall with my clothes from last night on. She's taking Tris to her new place, two doors down from Four. I didn't realize that placements had occurred already and check my phone to see that it is noon. I'm surprised Eric made me stay that long.

It's not long that I'm in my apartment before Aries is practically knocking down my door and I let her in.

"ARE YOU STUPID?" She yells, Four must've told her where I ended up. "I was here last night and when you didn't answer the door or your phone I went to Four's interrupted him and Tris doing whatever those former Stiffs do to celebrate, anyway he said that you probably wouldn't be home and when I asked him why the look in his face told me you'd done something stupid and he confirmed it. So why the fuck where you with Eric?" She finishes taking a breath.

"I'm going to blame being drunk. Can I go get a shower now so I can get food and to the infirmary?"

"Ah you foolish girl!" And she's walking out my door as I stand there still taking in last night.

Eric Coulter showed me a side of him I've never seen before. I just hope he gets his loyalties straight in time.