A/N: Thank you to everyone who has followed, favorited, and/or reviewed! I'm excited that this story is now on the first page of "Divergent" stories if you sort by the number of reviews. I truly appreciate all of your support in getting it there!

Thank you also to my wonderful beta reader, Rosalie, who reviewed this chapter while on vacation in Hawaii. That's dedication! :-)

"Insurgent" Chapter 3 – Bread and Cheese

Lunch is a helpful thing. It's certainly not enough to restore my good mood after what the Amity decided, but three sandwiches do leave me feeling full and relaxed and more than a little sleepy.

Given how restless I was last night, the combination is enough for me to take a long afternoon nap. When I wake up, I look for Tris, knowing that we need to discuss next steps. We need to figure out how to help the rest of the city, which first means finding others who are on our side.

But I have no luck locating her, despite walking through the orchards and greenhouses multiple times. I'm sweating from the heat by the time I head to dinner, figuring I should at least be able to find her there.

Instead, I find her brother, sitting alone at the end of a table with his shirt buttoned haphazardly and his hair tousled as he reads a book. I'm not particularly inclined to sit with him, but the other tables are filled with Amity or Abnegation, and I'm even less interested in being near them. Besides, Tris will probably want to sit with both of us when she arrives, so I grit my teeth and join Caleb.

He looks up from his book, giving me the type of small smile I grew up seeing. "Hello, Four." At least he's using my Dauntless name – it's a small gesture of peace, and I accept it with a nod.

"Have you seen Tris?" I ask, wondering again where she is. I doubt anything is wrong, but I don't like going this long without seeing her.

"No." His mouth turns down slightly at the corners. "Not since the meeting this morning." He looks around surreptitiously, obviously uncertain how much he wants to discuss that subject publicly, given the rule against it. The thought makes me roll my eyes, but at the same time, there's no point in pressing our luck. There are too many people around who might hear us.

So, we instead stick to meaningless topics as we eat. It starts as the polite Abnegation conversation we both learned in our childhoods, but gradually it expands beyond that. When I make the mistake of asking what Caleb is reading, he launches into a lengthy commentary about Aquaponics – some method the Erudite developed to help grow food faster.

As dinnertime begins to wind down, I realize that wherever Tris is, she's going to miss the evening meal. Caleb apparently notices, too, and we find ourselves frowning as we stare around the cafeteria.

"I think I should take some food back to my room," I finally conclude, "so Tris can get something to eat later."

Caleb hesitates, his gaze level on me. "Are you sleeping with my sister?" he asks abruptly.

The question makes me choke on the bread I'm nibbling. Through my coughing, I manage to sputter, "Of course not!" Lowering my voice to a whisper, I add, "We both grew up in the same faction you did, you know. We're not…." I shake my head. "We're taking things slowly."

The answer seems to appease him, and he nods a little before saying, "All right, let's get some food for her."

The kitchen staff are kind enough to give us a large hunk of cheese, a few butter knives, and a half-loaf of bread. It will make a good dinner for my girlfriend, and I grin at Caleb as we head back to my room with it. By now, I'm feeling the relaxation that I'm coming to associate with a good Amity meal, and I don't mind that Caleb walks with me, continuing to talk rather indiscreetly about Tris.

"I mean, I would understand if you were sleeping together," he says, "since you're both Dauntless now, and that's the type of thing the Dauntless do." He pauses to think. "I've never quite understood why that counts as bravery, unless you consider the risk of disease or an unwanted pregnancy."

Suddenly, his eyes light up with understanding, and he smacks my arm good-naturedly. "Oh, maybe it's because if you sleep with the wrong person, their family or spouse or whoever would beat you up."

A snort of laughter escapes me. "I won't tell you how many times I saw something like that happen," I admit, and he smiles proudly in response. The Erudite in him obviously loves being right.

"Just how did you meet Beatrice?" he asks once we're finally in the privacy of my room.

Setting the cheese and bread down on my dresser, I turn to face him. "I was one of the initiate instructors – the one who trained the transfers."

That makes him frown. "So…you were her commander? Wasn't that kind of…taking advantage of her?"

The question puts a definite damper on my good mood, and I glare at him in response. "I don't know what you think is going on between Tris and me, but I'm definitely not messing around here. We're together because it's what we both want. I care about her a great deal."

He considers that for a moment. "Still seems like it would have been against the rules," he finally mutters.

I sigh. "The Dauntless aren't big on rules. But…yeah, we had to be careful."

"Why did you take the chance?" His expression is more curious than anything, though I know he's also being a protective big brother. It's a bit ironic, given how much Tris has protected him in the last few days.

It's also a difficult question to answer, and I stare at the floor for a while before I come up with words. "I wasn't going to. I kept telling myself to wait until after initiation, but…." I scrub a hand through my short hair. "She's brave, and she's smart, and she was dealing with so many of the same issues I was after I transferred. And we just kept getting closer."

A smile touches my face as I remember pulling her from the net, with her eyes blazing with energy, and our staring contest in the dining hall, and the fierce way she stood up to Peter and Eric. She was irresistible to me from the beginning.

"She kept challenging me, but in a good way. Getting me to think differently and try new things. And I just…liked her. A lot."

"I followed her up the Ferris wheel during capture the flag," I add, "despite being afraid of heights." It takes me a second to realize I just admitted one of my fears to someone I barely know. What has gotten into me lately?

Hastily, I attempt to cover it up. "And she let me throw knives at her to get a friend out of trouble."

That clearly startles Caleb. "What?" he demands, his eyes wide.

"That one's a little hard to explain." I scratch the back of my neck. "We teach knife-throwing as part of the training curriculum, and one of the Dauntless leaders was overseeing it. He's a rotten human being anyway, and he was in a lousy mood because Tris beat him at capture the flag, and he took it out on one of the initiates. He insisted I throw knives at him and said that he'd be kicked out if he flinched."

The side of my mouth quirks a bit. "Tris volunteered to take his place, and there was no way I could back out or Eric would have thrown them instead, and his aim isn't nearly as good as mine." I shrug. "So, I threw them at Tris, and she didn't flinch at all. Not once. Not even when I nicked her ear."

Caleb's brows furrow at the last part, but I ignore that. "She's the bravest person I've ever met."

Slowly, he nods. "I guess I can see that. I mean, I didn't when we were growing up – I could just tell that she never quite fit into Abnegation. But after everything she did to stop the simulation…she really does seem to belong in Dauntless."

It's not entirely true, since Tris is as selfless and as smart as she is brave, but I don't comment on that. By now, her brother must know that she's Divergent, but it's still a deep instinct not to mention that fact.

So, instead I watch him as he focuses on the window and the ebbing light outside. He looks profoundly thoughtful. "She was shot, and then she almost drowned in a water tank, and then she had to watch our mother die, and somehow she was still strong enough to lead us into Dauntless to stop the simulation." He shakes his head. "It's pretty amazing, actually."

I certainly agree, but my attention is caught on one part of what he said. "A water tank?"

"Oh. Um. Yeah." He looks unexpectedly nervous, like he shouldn't have revealed that. "Apparently, Jeanine had a water tank built especially for her, to see how she'd handle facing one of her fears in real life."

The words send a chill through my entire body. It's beyond sick that Jeanine went to those lengths to terrorize someone she was planning to kill, but it gets even worse the longer I think about it. The tank was in the simulation that I deleted in order to hide Tris' Divergence, so the only way Jeanine should have been able to see that particular fear was in Tris' final exam. But the attack was just hours after that. There's no way she could have built a tank to use for that purpose in such a short time, even if she was already watching Tris.

She must have seen my deleted footage. There's no other possible explanation. The realization sends my mind scrambling, wondering who else she learned about that way. It doesn't matter for me or Tris at this point, since our Divergence has already been exposed, but what about Uriah? Or any of the others that Amar and I hid? How much danger are they in now?

It's an unsettling train of thought, and I find myself sagging against the wall, sliding down to a sitting position as it all sinks in. I thought I knew the extent of what Erudite was planning, but clearly I've barely touched the surface. And by the same token, I obviously don't even know everything that Tris has been through. Why didn't she tell me about the water tank? Does she think that I lied about deleting that simulation? Does she not trust me?

Maybe she's right to have doubts. I almost killed her in the control room, after all.

I'm thoroughly lost in thought when Caleb clears his throat. "You seriously threw knives at her?" he asks hesitantly.

Oddly, the question makes me chuckle. That part of the conversation seems so long ago, given the revelations of the last few minutes. A throwback to a simpler time.

"I have excellent aim," I reassure him, trying to clear the darker images from my mind. There's no point in dwelling on them right now, particularly not with Caleb here. I don't know him well enough to discuss this type of issue with him.

So, I take a deep breath, letting the calmness settle in place again. Smiling a little, I add, "Plus, I knew she was brave enough to hold still, and she's small, so it was easy to miss her."

He nods, pursing his lips together. The Erudite in him slips through when he asks, "Just how do you throw knives, anyway? I mean, every knife would be different, right, so how do you aim consistently?"

My shoulders lift, but then an idea occurs to me. "Hand me the butter knives," I tell him, "and I'll show you how it works."

He hesitates only briefly before doing as I asked, and I weigh the first knife in my hand for a moment, feeling its balance point. It's certainly not a great weapon, but it can be thrown, as any knife can be. I demonstrate by launching it toward the cheese that's still on my dresser. Since it's my first try with this particular blade, I don't expect it to hit, but it does, imbedding itself firmly as its handle quivers in place.

Caleb gawks at me. "Whoa…. That was cool."

The comment makes me grin, and I proceed to spend the next ten minutes attempting to teach him how to emulate my throw. He proves to be awful at it, and eventually I resume my sitting position while letting him toss the butter knives uselessly around the room.

"No, not like that," I manage to eke out through my laughter after his latest try goes wildly off course, hitting the curtains.

"What do you mean, 'not like that'?" he objects. "I imitated you perfectly." I can't help rolling my eyes at the arrogant snot.

"You did not."

"Well, do it again, then," he insists, handing me the other knife.

Shrugging, I launch it expertly across the room without even bothering to stand first. It digs deeply into the cheese the way all my other tosses did, the handle vibrating for a moment afterwards.

Beside me, I realize that the door is now open, and Tris is standing in it. Caleb immediately looks at his sister. "Tell me he's some kind of Dauntless prodigy," he complains. "Can you do this too?"

She looks amused. "With my right hand, maybe. But yes, Four is some kind of Dauntless prodigy." Her eyes catch mine as she says my faction name, and I smile at her reference. "Can I ask why you're throwing knives at cheese?"

I lean further back into the wall, looking up at my girlfriend. She seems taller from this angle. "Caleb came by to discuss something," I answer, "and knife-throwing just came up somehow."

"As it so often does," she comments wryly. Her eyes stay on me, evaluating me in a way that makes it impossible not to stare back. She looks good.

Apparently, Caleb doesn't care for our exchange, because he clears his throat. "Anyway," he starts a bit nervously as he looks between us, "I should be getting back to my room. I'm reading this book about the water-filtration systems. The kid who gave it to me looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to read it, but it's fascinating." His face is lit up with the excitement of learning, but then it falls a little. "Sorry. You probably think I'm crazy too."

"Not at all," I answer, deadpan. "Maybe you should read that repair manual too, Tris. It sounds like something you might like."

Caleb obviously has no idea that I'm joking, because he offers, "I can loan it to you." His voice is enthusiastic.

Tris bites back whatever response she was thinking in favor of muttering, "Maybe later." It's hard to say if her brother buys it or not, but he nods before heading out, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he's gone, Tris turns back to me, shooting me a dirty look that makes me smirk. "Thanks for that," she says in an exaggerated tone. "Now he's going to talk my ear off about water filtration and how it works. Though I guess I might prefer that to what he wants to talk to me about."

That arouses my curiosity. "Oh? And what's that? Aquaponics?"

Her eyebrows furrow. "Aqua-what?"

"It's one of the ways they grow food here." I chuckle, remembering Caleb's enthrallment with the subject at dinner. "You don't want to know."

"You're right," she agrees. "I don't." She cocks her head in thought. "What did he come to talk to you about?"

"You," I tell her simply. "I think it was the big-brother talk. 'Don't mess around with my sister' and all that." At least, I think that's where he meant the conversation to go, if we hadn't gotten side-tracked with water tanks and knife-throwing.

Climbing to my feet, I step over to Tris. It's been entirely too long since we were close.

"What did you tell him?" she asks curiously.

"I told him how we got together – that's how knife-throwing came up." I'm right by her now. "And I told him I wasn't messing around."

My hands wrap around her hips, and I lean her gently against the door as my lips find hers. For a long moment, nothing exists except the push and pull of our bodies moving in perfect synch. Her arm holds me tightly as her fingers slide beneath the hem of my T-shirt, splaying across my lower back.

The sensation is amazing, and I kiss her more deeply, more insistently, as I squeeze her waist, wanting to pull that particular part of her body against me.

But neither of us is ready for that, and I know it. So, I reluctantly pull back just far enough to speak. "This isn't what you came here for."

"No."

"What did you come for, then?"

Her voice is breathy as she answers. "Who cares?" Her fingers work through my hair as she pulls me to her again. It's so easy to lose myself in her scent, and her lips, and her warmth, and for a long moment, I don't fight the desire. It's not until other parts of me begin to respond too strongly that I realize I need to stop this for now.

"Tris," I mumble against her skin.

She sighs. "Okay, okay." Taking my hand, she leads me to my bed, and we sit side by side. For a few more seconds, she fidgets, obviously not quite certain how to start whatever it is she wants to say.

"I followed Marcus earlier this evening," she finally begins. I can't help stiffening in response, the way I always do at the thought of my father, but I keep listening. "He was talking to Johanna in the orchard, and I thought it would be…better…to know what they were saying, so I hid and listened to them."

It's a surprising revelation from someone who grew up in Abnegation, but then again, Tris has always been more than just that faction.

"Johanna was asking about the timing of the simulation attack. She wanted to know if there was an inciting incident." Part of me is annoyed with the hypocrisy of the question – of Amity's representative discussing the attack after the faction decided that wasn't allowed. But I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that no one can follow such an absurd rule.

"At first, Marcus didn't answer, but Johanna must have been able to tell he was hiding something, because she pushed him to tell her." I can feel my mouth puckering in response as I wonder what was going through my father's head at that moment. He undoubtedly loved having Johanna think he knew something important, and having her beg him to divulge it.

Tris' expression is more intent now. "Eventually, he revealed that the Abnegation were entrusted with some information a long time ago and that Jeanine attacked in order to steal it. He wouldn't give any details, because he thought that Jeanine would destroy the information if he did, but he said that it was extremely important."

She hesitates, staring fixedly at her hands, as she adds, "He said that most of the city's leaders risked their lives to protect this information. That they died for it."

Something deflates inside me as I realize how much Tris has been sucked into my father's story. Her parents both died in the attack, and she desperately wants there to be meaning behind those deaths. She wants them to have died for something else, not just to save her. That would reduce the guilt she feels.

Her voice is tentative as she concludes with, "Well, what do you think?"

My response is slow and careful. I can't leave her believing what my father said – it's a false hope that won't help her in the long run – but I don't want to add to the burden of her parents' loss, either.

Finally, I tell her, "I think that it's Marcus trying to feel more important than he is."

Her brows furrow uncertainly. "So…what? You think he's just talking nonsense?"

"I think there probably is some information the Abnegation knew that Jeanine wanted to know," I admit, "but I think he's exaggerating its importance. Trying to build up his own ego by making Johanna think he's got something she wants and he won't give it to her."

She frowns. "I don't…. I don't think you're right. He didn't sound like he was lying."

That, right there, is the crux of the problem I've always had explaining my father to others. He is far too convincing. "You don't know him like I do. He is an excellent liar."

She thinks about that for several seconds before muttering, "Maybe you're right." It gives me hope that she can see through him. "But shouldn't we find out what's going on? Just to be sure?"

It's difficult not to sigh, but impatience on my part certainly won't help her. She needs to be refocused without adding to the guilt she's already feeling. So, again, I'm careful in my wording. "I think it's more important that we deal with the situation at hand. Go back to the city. Find out what's going on there. Find a way to take Erudite down. Then maybe we can find out what Marcus was talking about, after this is all resolved. Okay?"

She nods a little, though it's clear from her expression that she isn't fully convinced. I give her some time to digest her thoughts, and eventually she seems more certain.

"Okay," she murmurs. It's nice to see the agreement. Tris and I can both be stubborn, and I know there are things she hasn't revealed yet about the last few days, but at least for now, we're able to talk openly about what we're facing. It gives me hope that we can make it through the long road ahead. It gives me hope that we'll be all right.

A/N: I'll be updating my "Waiting" story (published under my "Windchimed M-Stories" account soon, but after that it will probably be a week or so before I get anything else posted. Sorry about the delay; real life is just very busy right now! In the meantime, please take a moment to review this chapter. Your support always motivates me to find time to write. :-)