We didn't want you to have to wait too long to find out about Eli. I'm not promising we can get the next chapter up this quick, but... we're trying!

In case you were wondering about the tie-ins from the last chapter, they are as follows:

The last chapter started with the jacket that Tori wore to the Aptitude test. It is mentioned in both Divergent and earlier in The Blackest Shade of Gray.

Divergent Chapter 2

She is not as severe-looking as the young Dauntless I have seen. She has small, dark, angular eyes and wears a black blazer—like a man's suit—and jeans.

The Blackest Shade of Gray Chapter 29 Heartbreak

There's a man's blazer, George's blazer, on the back of the couch. Absently she picks it up and clutches in her arms.

Of course there is the discussion of Eric and what is going on in his life. (Thank-you BK2U for pointing out to me I had forgotten to count this one!)

The next one is an unnamed character mentioned twice in Four: a Divergent Collection

- The Initiate

"What are you doing here?" a voice demands, and it travels through me like an electric shock. I wheel around and see a smudged, sallow-faced man in the next room, wiping his hands on a ragged towel.

"I was just …" I look at the grill. "I saw fire. That's all."

"Oh." The man tucks the corner of the towel into his back pocket. He wears black Candor pants, patched with blue Erudite fabric, and a gray Abnegation shirt, the same as the one I'm wearing. He's lean as a rail, but he looks strong. Strong enough to hurt me, but I don't think he will.

And again in – The Son

This time the man is wearing a red Amity shirt and black Dauntless pants. He still has a towel tucked into his back pocket, the same as the last time I spoke to him. He opens the door just enough to look at me, and no farther.

He has the habit of tucking towels in his back pocket to wipe his hands on.

Hana and Abram discuss "Johnson". Of course her real name is Evelyn Johnson Eaton. (Thank you again BK2U! This one wasn't in my original count either!)

And the snake… Uriah will get a tattoo of it one day.

The last one is Helena…who is mentioned, but never seen in Insurgent. She plays a much bigger role in this chapter

Insurgent Chapter 19

"Find Helena," Zeke says. "Dauntless nurse."

Oh, and technically I guess there is a seventh one. After all the kids aren't twelve yet, so evidently it is still acceptable to call someone a "Pansycake"!

Chapter 55

"Let me know if this hurts," Helena says as she kneels next to Eli. She starts to gently move his ankle. Her forehead wrinkles slightly, like she is confused. She turns to me and in a whisper tells me what I already know. "He didn't twist his ankle."

"Snake bite," I answer just as low, since both of the boys came back with her.

Her lips press together as she takes a deep breath. Pasting on a smile, she turns to the boys. "I need you to find the other fathers. Your dad is going to need some help walking, and they will be more helpful than your mom and myself."

Ezekiel turns around to head back immediately, but Uriah looks at Eli. "I'm sorry, Dad."

"It's okay, Uri. Just go find Ben and Rob like Helena asked, please." Eli tries to keep his tone light, but I can hear the concern in it.

Uriah turns around and runs to catch up with Ezekiel.

As soon as the boys are out of sight, Helena is all business. "Your son said it was a rattlesnake."

"Yes," I answer quickly.

Helena notices the shoe and sock I pulled off while we were waiting for her and looks at the bite. "Good, you took off his shoe and sock. We don't want them to be stuck on when it starts swelling. How far did you walk on it?"

"Not at all," Eli assures her.

Helena gives us a relieved smile. "Good. I'm going to need to immobilize it, and we're going to need to get the other guys to carry Eli. Are there really just two other dads here?"

I think over the guest list again. Ben is here since it is his daughter's birthday. Rob is here with Ashley and James. Lauren declared herself too old for a kids' party, so Levi stayed with her and Kelly came by herself with Gabe. Bekah sent Helena with Marlene, since Conner is sick. That just leaves Eli. "That's it."

Helena rubs her forehead. "They can't carry him all the way to Erudite. Any idea if the buses run near here?"

Even though Helen doesn't know that I was a transfer, I realize that since I rode the bus all the time in Abnegation, I am probably the most likely to know this, but I was never in this area of town to know if they do or not. "I have no idea."

"If we can't find someone who knows, we don't have a lot of options. We'll get to a main road and see if we can find a bus, or flag down a car." Helena tries to look encouragingly at me, but I can see the worry in her eyes. "We'll just need to take breaks when they get tired."

"I can walk with help," Eli protests.

Helena's tone is firm. "I'm sure you can, but you were bitten by a rattlesnake. The more you use it, the more the venom will travel in your body. You aren't taking another step."

Angie and Kelly promise to keep an eye on the boys as well as Marlene, since Helena is coming with us. They'll get Marlene back to Bekah and the boys to a member of the family. It's not ideal, but I don't want either of the boys coming with us. Watching Rob and Ben grab arms to create a human chair to carry Eli in is hard enough on me; I can't imagine what it would be like for Eli's sons to see. They make it to the road before they need to take a break.

"Have you ever thought of going on a diet?" Rob quips as they set him down.

"It wouldn't do any good if I did," Eli tries joking back at him. He flexes his arm. "This is muscle, not fat."

Helena rubs her forehead and looks down the street anxiously. Before I can slip next to her to ask her what she's worried about, she kneels next to Eli. She looks over him then takes his wrist in her hand to check his pulse. She smiles a little. "The good news is you aren't showing a lot of the signs of the venom. The bad news is, I don't see a bus, and we're further from Erudite than I realized."

Rob takes a deep breath and stands back up. "We aren't getting any closer just sitting here. Are you ready, Ben?"

"I'm still hoping we find a bus," Ben responds, standing back up.

Two blocks later, we see a bus headed toward us. Helena and I flag it down, and even though the normal route doesn't go directly to the hospital, the driver is willing to detour to take us there. We thank the driver profusely, grateful the trip to the hospital doesn't end up being as long as it could have been.

At the hospital, Helena goes with Eli to explain what happened and what she has done, since she has medical training. I don't have Eli's intimidating stature, so they bar me from going into the emergency treatment area with him. At my insistence, Ben returns to Dauntless; he's already missed more of Lynn's birthday than he should have. I try to send Rob back, too, but he refuses to leave. "Eli wouldn't leave Angie alone if it were me. I'm not leaving you alone," he tells me stubbornly.

We sit there quietly, listening to the drone of the conversations going on around us. "I don't know what I would do without him," I suddenly surprise myself by whispering the thought out loud.

"He's strong, Hana. I don't think you need to worry, and you know we'd all be here for you and the boys," Rob answers confidently.

There are sudden tears in my eyes. "You're right. I don't know what has gotten into me."

"I imagine," Rob says lightly, "the same thing that is going to get into all the wives at some point in the next day or two. Reality that especially in Dauntless, none of us are promised tomorrow."

"Hana, Rob you can come back now." Helena's voice stayed calm through everything, but when she comes to get us, I can hear the relief in it.

Rob and I stand up and join her. "How is he?" Even though I know from her voice that everything is okay, I'm desperate to hear the words.

"He's going to be fine," she promises me with a smile, as we walk back to his area. "He'll need to stay in the hospital overnight, but it appears to be a dry bite."

"A dry bite?" Rob questions her before I can.

"Venomous snakes can bite without releasing venom. As far as we can tell, the snake that bit Eli didn't release any. They want to keep him overnight for observation just to make sure they are right and to give him some antibiotics to prevent an infection. He'll be able to go home tomorrow."

"By train?" I can't stop myself from asking, since I've never been able to go home by train when I've left the Erudite hospital.

Helena looks at me oddly. The question had obviously not occurred to her yet. "That's a good question. I don't know the answer to it."


Helena and I send Rob back to his family after we get a chance to see Eli, and I send Helena back shortly after that. I appreciate the time they both spent with us, but once they get Eli settled into his room, and I can be with him, there is no point in either of them staying.

About two hours after Helena leaves, Taylor's worried face peaks around the corner of the door. When she sees Eli, she walks in with determined steps. Her voice is firm and confused. "What happened here? Kelly brought Zeke and Uriah to me while Leeann finished preparing for a meeting. She told me Eli twisted his ankle. Then after Leeann takes the boys, I hear from some girl I don't know, but who claims to be the nurse who was there, that he didn't twist his ankle - he was bitten by a snake."

"A rattlesnake," I confirm wearily. "The short version is, a rattlesnake had Uriah in his sights. Uriah fell, and Eli got between the snake and Uriah. It bit Eli instead. Eli didn't want Uriah to feel guilty, so he told him he twisted his ankle."

Taylor covers her hand with her mouth and slowly sinks down next to me in the other empty chair in the room. "Are you okay?"

Eli gives her an indulgent smile. "I'm fine, Mom. I was lucky. The doctors think the snake didn't release any venom."

Taylor watches him for a moment before she continues, "You have to be okay. I can't lose you both close together like this."

My eyes swing to her, questioning her statement.

Taylor's eyes are full of tears. "I'm not blind. Abram is doing worse. He told me yesterday that he wants to set up one last time to see the boys and then…" She blinks the tears from her eyes.

"I know. He told me recently that he didn't want the boys to remember him as being any sicker than he is," I admit to her.

Eli stays silent. He and I have talked about it. Both of us understand where Abram is coming from.

Neither of us like it.

"He wants you to bring them next Saturday." She reaches out a hand to each of us. "It will be the last time."


There are advantages to being small, like the fact that I fit nicely on Eli's lap. The night after he gets back from the hospital, he draws me onto his lap and holds me tight. "I'll only admit this to you," he tell. "I was afraid."

I kiss him gently. "I was terrified."

We hold each other in silence. I don't know what he is thinking, but my mind dwells on the idea of how much things might have changed if the bite hadn't been a dry bite.

Eli clears his throat. "Hana, I am serious that if anything happens to me, you have to stop…"

I put a gentle finger over his lips. "I know you are, and I understand that you are and why you are. I promised you before, and I'll promise you again that…"

"Dad?" Uriah's tear-filled voice interrupts us.

We both shift so we can see Uriah standing in the hallway outside his room.

"Uri? What are you doing up?" Eli asks him.

"I had a dream that you died." A tear escapes from his eye and he quickly wipes it away.

I get off Eli's lap and move quickly down the hall to Uriah. He's getting too big for me to carry, but I manage to pick him up. He clings to me, burying his face in my shoulder. I feel tears seep into my shoulder as I carry him to Eli, who glares at me while I do. He's told me several times that if I keep carrying Uriah, I'm going to hurt myself. I deposit him into Eli's lap. Uriah clings to his father, while Eli holds him tight. He looks at me, then kisses the top of Uriah's head. "As you can see, Uriah, I'm here. I'm safe."

"If something had happened it would have been my fault…" Uriah's voice is muffled from being buried in his father's shoulder.

"You did something to intentionally provoke that snake?" Eli shifts Uriah so they can see each other.

Uriah tries to remove the traces of tears from his face. "No, I was just walking around, trying to get away from Lynn and suddenly it was just there. But if I hadn't left the party…" I hear the guilt in Uriah's voice and a part of me aches for him. I understand the feeling of guilt. Uriah's guilt is different than the guilt I have dealt with from working with Natalie, but it is just as real.

"You're probably right that if you hadn't left the party you wouldn't have run into the snake, but we don't know what would have happened. What if the boys had won? Is there a chance Lynn would have walked off?"

Uriah thinks for a minute. "Yeah, I would have given her a hard time, too, and knowing Lynn she would have walked off to pout."

"So, if it hadn't been you, it might have been Lynn?" Eli checks.

"Yes."

"Do you think Lynn would have stayed as still as you did?" Eli presses.

Uriah thinks for a minute and then admits, "I don't know."

"I don't know either, but I do know this. I would take a snake bite for any of you kids." Eli looks deeply into Uriah's eyes. "It's my job to protect you."


Taylor arranges things with Abram for us to take the boys a week later than what they had originally planned. The bite on Eli's ankle has been healing nicely, but when she found out there was still a chance of infection from the snake bite Eli received, she pushed it back a week to give him more time to heal. The boys walk quickly in front of Eli and I, just shy of running, as we enter the building that Abram and Evan's group recently moved to. They don't know this will be the last time they see their grandpa. He wanted to be the one to tell them.

"Stay, just a few more minutes. I have never gotten a chance to properly thank you for everything that you have done for me over the years." Abram ends his little speech with a cough.

I recognize the cadence of an Abnegation female answering him. I can't pick out the voice, but I wonder if it is Natalie that is with him, or this strange woman they keep referring to as Johnson.

"Grandpa..." Ezekiel's excited voice dies out. Both boys stand frozen just inside of the doorway.

There is a stifled gasp, and as I start to enter the room, I see why.

It isn't the mysterious Johnson, or even Natalie's voice that I heard.

It is Mom's.

She stands there frozen in place with her hand over her mouth. Her eyes look hungrily at the boys, realizing in an instant what Abram has done to thank her… and Dad. They are both here.

Abram waves both boys over. "Come here boys. I want you to meet a couple of friends of mine."

"They're from Abnegation." Ezekiel sounds a little confused.

"Yes, they are from Abnegation, and being Abnegation, they have helped Evan and me over the years. These are our grandsons, Zeke and Uriah."

At first I'm worried that Abram is giving away who these Abnegation "strangers" are to the boys, but then I realize that Taylor is sitting next to him. He has cleverly introduced the boys exactly right to them without giving away anything.

Both boys look at the grandparents they will never know with open curiosity. "Hi." Ezekiel speaks first.

Dad clears his voice, before responding. "Hi. How old are you?"

I make sure the boys are looking at Dad, before I blot the tears that have sprung to my eyes. Eli wraps his arm around me and squeezes my waist to let me know he's here for me. "Did you know?" I whisper.

"No, he told me he wanted all of us to come, but… I never dreamed he'd done this." Eli answers just loud enough for me to hear him.

"I'm eight." Ezekiel pulls himself up to his full height, trying to look like he is more than a couple of inches taller than Uriah.

"And you?" Mom asks Uriah.

"I'll be six soon." Uriah says also drawing himself up.

Mom swallows and looks at Abram and Taylor, thanking them with her eyes. "Your grandsons are handsome."

"I'm better looking," Uriah announces before Ezekiel can say anything. "I look like Dad."

Mom's eyes show hidden laughter. She looks over at Eli then at Uriah. "You certainly do."

"Who do you look like?" Dad asks Ezekiel.

I look from Dad to Ezekiel and back again. I know who Ezekiel looks like, but I wonder if either of them see it. Ezekiel has my dad's forehead and cheeks. The fact that he has Eli's mouth and eyes will probably keep it from crossing Ezekiel's mind that he looks a lot like this stranger who stands in front of him, his unknown Abnegation grandfather.

Ezekiel squares his shoulders. "I look like myself. That's as good as looking like Dad."

Mom looks at Eli, then Dad, then Ezekiel, and in that look, I know that she sees it too. She answer with a soft smile, which is just a little different from her normal Abnegation smile. "It certainly is."


The last piece of the Dauntless Cake that Angie made for Uriah's birthday is a mess of crumbs on his plate. He moves them around with his fork, making no effort to smash them into the tines, or lick his finger and try to pick them up with it to eat them that way.

"Uri, what's wrong?" I press the back of my hand to his forehead, wondering if he is sick.

He puts down his fork. "It's just not the same, Mom."

My eyebrows knit in confusion. "I told Angie not to experiment on it. It tasted the same to me."

Uri exhales loudly. "Not the cake, Mom. Having a birthday without Grandpa."

I give him a sad smile. We always went to see Abram the day after each boy's birthdays. They would take their left-over cake to share with him and Evan. "I'm sorry."

"Why can't we go see Grandpa? Would it really be so bad?" His brown eyes plead with me to give in and take him.

I cup his face with my hand. How do I explain this to him? Abram told the boys on their last visit that he wasn't feeling well, and that as much as he loved them it would be better if they didn't come visit him right now. He didn't tell him he was dying, or that he didn't want them to see him as his health declined. I pull Uriah onto my lap. I open up a small piece of the truth to him. I know he only just turned six, but maybe it is time to start preparing him for what is coming. "Grandpa is sick. He doesn't want you and Zeke to see him as sick."

Uriah suddenly gets excited. "When I had the flu, it only took me a week to get better. It's been way longer than a week! We can go see Grandpa!" He jumps off my lap, excited to share his news. "Zeke!"

"Uriah!" I grab his arm to stop him, trying to keep him from not just getting his hopes up, but Ezekiel's, too. I take a deep breath before trying to explain it better. "Grandpa is sicker than the flu. It's his heart."

"His heart?" Uriah questions.

I bite my lip and nod while trying to figure out the gentlest, most appropriate way of telling him. "Grandpa's heart isn't working right. It makes simple things like breathing hard on him." I know there are tears in my eyes as I think about the last time I saw Abram. He struggled with every breath he took.

Uriah studies me for a minute. "Grandpa's not going to get better, is he?"


"Get in." Eli hisses and quickly closes the door behind whoever is there. "What are you doing here?"

I stand up from the couch, where Eli and I were cuddling, wondering who could be here who would create such a reaction from him. I understand it as soon as I hear her voice. "We need to talk. I just came from the Factionless sector."

Natalie wears one of her Dauntless outfits. It's a sleeveless top and short skirt to match the warm weather, but this time without any tattoo to help hide her. Worrying me that she is here unscheduled. "What's going on?" I ask, letting them both know I've joined them.

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but Abram had a heart attack today," she tells us compassionately.

My arm snakes around Eli's waist.

"How?" Eli trails off, unable to ask his question.

"He's still alive, but he isn't doing well. We've done everything that we can do, but since he isn't in a Faction…it's not much," she admits sorrowfully.

Eli swallows hard. "Thank you for letting me know."

"Is there anything else I can do to help you?" Natalie asks compassionately.

"Not right now, thank you. I need to figure out how to tell my mom that I know this." He presses his lips together.

"I thought about that on my way over here. Is there any chance you could tell her you were called out to check on a camera in the Factionless Sector? I could arrange for one to go out if that would help." Natalie sounds as if she thought about this on her way to tell us.

"If I was on duty tonight, that would work," Eli says regretfully.

"Who says you aren't on duty tonight? I can arrange that, too." Natalie says this like it is nothing to change a duty roster. "If I can borrow something from Hana, I can have it all taken care of in less than ten minutes."

I look at Eli and I can see that he is tempted. It is just his pride, the idea that I will owe Natalie something for doing this for him, that keeps him from thanking her for it and preparing to go see his father to find out how bad it is.

I know Natalie well enough to realize that just like everything she has done for Abram, she sees this as a way of paying us back for everything I have done to help her. It has never crossed her mind that Eli will owe her anything from her doing this for us. "Thank you," I answer for him. "If there's ever anything we can do for you…"

Natalie shakes her head at me and gives me a small smile. "I owe you far more than you owe me for this." She puts a hand on Eli's arm. "I've always liked your father, from the moment I met him after I was placed here in Dauntless. He was always nice to me."


Natalie uses my tablet, and, as promised, Eli is on his way to "fix" a camera in the Factionless sector in less than half an hour. He comes back just before I need to get the boys up from school. The look on his face tells me everything I need to know. There are already tears in his eyes as he tells me. "I got Mom, Nick, and Leeann there in time. If I could have figured out what to do with the boys…" he starts his explanation again as to why I wasn't there.

I put a finger on his lips to stop him. "It's okay, Eli. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, but like you said, with the boys, it couldn't be helped."

"He was Factionless, so there will be no funeral, but Mom would like to have us all over for dinner tonight. She wants to tell the boys herself."

The knowledge that Taylor is going to want to be in her own home is the only thing that keeps me from telling Eli that we'll have the family over here. "Tell her I put a roast and vegetables in the crock pot this morning. If either Leeann or Nick can bring a salad and the other bring bread I think we'll be set."

Eli looks at me a long time and then gathers me up tightly in his arms. I feel his arms tighten around me. "I can't believe he's gone," he whispers as I feel a few tears against my cheek.