Love Goes On

Chapter 37: Saving Natalie

I spend the week healing, both emotionally and physically. Two days after the miscarriage is when our friends come around to try and console us. I tell them about my mum still being alive and we make a plan to go and save her. My bump had also disappeared by that point, when I woke up and it was no longer there I couldn't help but cry. Christina also cried when she saw me, pulling me into a sisterly hug.

But now it has been seven days since I lost our second child and I am healed, physically at least. I'm sure I won't be healed mentally/emotionally for a while. But hopefully I will have my mum back soon, she will be able to help me. She will be able to comfort me the way that she used to when I was a child and I was ill, or hurt, or had a nightmare. She will be able to help me get through life. I just hope she isn't too hurt.

Today is the day that we are going to head back to the Bureau, all of us dreading it. Me most of all. After losing my brother there, and now finding out that my mum is there, being tortured by David. We spend the early hours of the morning making sure we have our weapons and bags filled with food, bottles of water, spare clothes and medical supplies. Marlene and Michael (who was released from the hospital yesterday after recovering from his infection and being able to breathe for a day on his own, as well as putting on enough weight to be considered healthy enough to go home) will be staying in mine and Tobias' apartment with Evelyn and Shauna whilst we are away.

At eight myself, Tobias, Christina, Uriah, Zeke, Amar, George, Zoe and Hana make our ways to the trucks waiting outside of Dauntless for us. Tobias, myself, Christina, Uriah and Zeke get into one, with Tobias in the drivers' seat. Amar, George, Zoe and Hana get in the other, with Amar driving. And we go.

It takes us a few hours but soon we are approaching the place we left one hundred and twenty-one weeks ago. Amar heads to the gates first in his truck, saying that we are with him, and surprisingly they let us in.

When we stop outside the building we all make sure our weapons are concealed and Tobias asks if I am okay.

"Yeah, I'm just worried about my mum."

"We'll get her out of there, I promise. Then we can go home again."

I nod and we climb out of the truck, the others join us and we head inside.

When we get in it is eerily quiet. No one is around, all probably doing their work. Amar, George and Zoe lead us to the basement, where they know David is likely to keep his own personal prisoners.

We walk down the stairs and see that a door is open down on the right side of the hall. Light seeps through the open door. We can hear David's voice.

"Come on, Natalie. Just love me. If you do, I won't have to hurt you anymore."

"Piss off! I could never love you. I love Andrew."

"Andrew's dead! What have I told you about being rude to me?"

There's a crack of a whip and my mum cries out in pain. Tears fill my eyes as we reach the door and I see the state of the room.

Just as David is about to hit her again Tobias takes out his gun and shoots his arm, causing him to drop the whip and scream. He turns, glaring at us even more when he sees who we are.

"What the hell are you lot doing here?" He screams, angry.

I ignore him and rush over to my mum who is crying, in a heap, on the floor. She is covered in blood, scars and bruises. The room is covered in blood, as well as other things. All she's wearing is a thin white dress which is in ruins.

I kneel next to her and she looks at me, shocked but happy to see me, still crying.

"Beatrice?"

"Mummy." I whisper, also crying. "It's okay, I'll get you out of here."

Hana comes over as the boys and Christina sort out David.

"Nat, what hurts?" Hana asks her friend. She told me her and my mum were friends when mum was in Dauntless.

"Hana, is that you?"

"Yeah, I'm here. I'll help you. What hurts?"

"Everything."

"Okay, everything is going to be okay."

I hear another gun shot, the first thing I have heard from the others since my focus was on my mum. I look up and see David on the floor, unmoving. Then they all rush over.

"We should get her to the trucks, you can heal her on the way home." Tobias says.

"I'll carry her. Sorry Natalie, but this is going to hurt." Amar says, looking apologetic.

"It's okay. Just get me out of here. Please." she begs.

Amar nods and as gently as he can he rolls her onto her back, causing her to scream in pain, and again when he picks her up.

We move as fast as we can back out to the trucks, Amar sits her in the truck Tobias drove on the way here and Hana and I climb in to sit next to her. Tobias gets in the drivers' seat and everyone else goes to the other truck as Hana starts working on healing her as I hold her hand. Tobias drives carefully so as not to cause her much more pain.

"Beatrice, I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too. I'm sorry I didn't know you were alive sooner."

"It's okay. I didn't expect you ever to come. How did you find out, anyway?"

"Uh…" I trail off, not sure if I really want to share this story just yet.

"You should tell her, Tris." Hana says as she continues to clean the blood from her friends' back.

"I know." I gulp as more tears fill my eyes.

"Beatrice, honey, what happened? What have I missed in your life? I want to know everything."

"Well, Tobias and I got married forty-four weeks ago."

She looks more upset now. "I missed your wedding." She whispers to herself. "What other significant things have I missed?"

"I, uh, have severe PTSD. Because of the war. I used to be a midwife, before I got married, but I had a mental breakdown and the majority of the other midwives deemed me unsuitable to continue. Because of how severe it is any child I get pregnant with only has a twenty percent chance of surviving the pregnancy. I get a lot of nightmares, flashbacks, and have panic attacks. It adds a lot more stress. I've had two miscarriages already. The last one was a week ago, I was twenty weeks pregnant when it happened, with a boy. I had a nightmare and… well after delivering the baby I fell asleep and I saw dad, and Caleb, and some of my friends that died in the war, as well as my babies. But I didn't see you. They told me that you were still alive and that you were in the Bureau being tortured by David. We had to wait until I was healed physically though before we could come and get you, because I wanted to come as well." I'm crying harder than I was by the end of the story.

"Oh, baby. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you."

"It's not your fault. But you're here now. You can help me now. And I will help you. We can be a family again. You can live with Tobias and I for a while. We have plenty of room in our apartment. He is one of the leaders of Dauntless, so we have a big apartment, with many spare bedrooms that aren't being used yet."

By this point Hana had cleaned the blood off her back and had placed a bandage over it, that being the only thing she can do until we get back to Dauntless. She injected her with pain relieving serum and wrapped a blanket around her to keep her warm in her thin dress that was filled with holes and only went to her knees.

"I'm sorry you have had to go through all of that." Mum says, tears still rolling down her cheeks, though not from physical pain anymore. "I'm sorry you've suffered through so much pain."

"You don't have to be sorry, mum. I'll be okay. Especially now that I have you with me as well. I'm sorry you've had to suffer so much pain as well."

"Natalie, I need to know everything David has done to you these past few years."

Mum looks scared, really scared.

"Mum, it's okay. He can't hurt you anymore. He's dead. Just tell us what he has done to you so that we can help you."

"Natalie, we won't tell anyone else what he's done. We promise." Tobias can't hear what we're saying because there is a wall between the front seats and the back of the truck.

"O-okay. He hits me with his whip a lot. And he burns me. And punches and kicks me. He's broken a few bones that I'm sure haven't mended properly. He tested many serums on me, because I'm the strongest Divergent, he wanted to make serums that no one could break free from. He barely gave me anything to eat or drink. H-he…"

"He what?" Hana asks, carefully, seeing that mum was struggling.

"H-he r-r-r-raped m-me, m-multiple times." I gasp, so does Hana.

"What serums has he tested on you?"

"T-torture serum, control serum, truth serum, fear simulation serum, m-miscarriage serum…" Again we gasp.

"When were you pregnant?" I ask quietly.

"Multiple times. T-the first was when I was c-captured. I was p-pregnant when the war s-started. H-he kept the b-baby alive until I recovered, t-then he tested the serum. I-it was too strong f-for me to stop it. H-he has gotten me p-pregnant a few times t-too. E-every time he uses the s-serum."

That bastard. How dare he do this to her. How dare he put her through this much pain.

"Are there any other serums he has used on you?" Hana asks, wanting to change the subject, also angry at the man who has hurt her friend.

Mum just shakes her head and looks down at her lap.

I pull her gently into my embrace, crying because of how badly my mum has been hurt.

"I'm sorry, I should have gone to you after you were shot. I should have saved you myself. Then this wouldn't have happened, and dad might still be alive, and you would have had your baby."

"Beatrice, it isn't your fault. You had to keep going or you would have died. You had to stop the simulation. Don't apologise. You have nothing to apologise for. At least I still have you. You will always be my baby. I won't leave you again, I promise. I will be right by your side, through everything." Mum tells me as she wraps her arms and the blanket around me as well.

"I love you, mummy."

"I love you, too, Beatrice."

It is then that we start slowing down and eventually come to a stop. Soon Tobias opens the door at the back of the truck and he picks up my mum, carrying her to the infirmary with all of us following him. Hana leads us to a spare room where Tobias puts my mum on the bed before leaving with the rest of the gang, Hana allowed me to stay in the room.

"I'm going to put you to sleep Natalie, okay. That way I can start mending you without you being in pain." Hana tells her and she nods in response.

I hold her hand as Hana injects her with a sleeping serum and gets to work, getting all the equipment she would need, etc.

This was going to be a long few hours.

Hey Ravens, hope you enjoyed the chapter.

I am so sorry for the wait, I know I keep promising regular-ish updates but then I get loads of college work and whatever to do. Honestly, the amount of homework I have is ridiculous. And I have to think of things to do for my media coursework. I have driving lessons as well. And life has just been busy in general really. Over summer I didn't really have any plans but then suddenly I had loads of them, so as much as I wanted to write I barely had the time. And I wanted to start a Harry Potter fanfic as well, which I have started. I wanted to do a few chapters of that before updating but that took time as well. And I've had loads of hospital appointments, and been in loads of pain with various parts of my body, my arm messed up the other day and so did my ankles, they're getting better though.

I will update again when I can, this is by far not the end of this story, don't worry. It's not going to end just yet, there is loads more I want to do with it, like finally give Four and Tris a child, though I can't say when that is going to happen just yet. Maybe you could tell me when you want them to have a child in your reviews. You never know, I might just do your suggestions.

Anyway, I will update again asap. Please review.