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Chapter 43
Tris P.O.V
I roll over in bed, feeling the sheets that are cold and empty. My eyes reluctantly open in search of Tobias. Where did he go? I glance at the clock noticing that it's just a little past four in the morning. Where could he be at this early hour? I roll myself out of bed, pulling on Tobias' shirt from yesterday that is still on the floor left abandoned. Something about wearing his shirts always comforts me for some reason. I wonder if it's because it smells like him, it makes it feel like home. I stretch and then make my way down the hall, spotting Tobias immediately at the dinner table. My eyes glance at all of the contents that are on the table that is laid out before him, he seems lost in thought, as he stares into the screen of his laptop. Obviously he is captivated by whatever he sees displayed in front of him.
"Hey, what are you doing awake so early?" I say, breaking him from his focus, as his head quickly turns to look at me. His eyes take all of me in, as he shows me nothing but love and adoration. I feel the instant blush that creeps up on my face, even though he has seen me in far less than his shirt…but for some reason I suddenly feel somewhat shy, under his seductive stare. Will that ever stop, I wonder?
"I couldn't sleep." He finally says, as he runs his hands down his face, trying to wipe the exhaustion away from his appearance. I nod understanding, by the look of the table and his exhausted face, I would say that his confused thoughts haunted him for most of the night.
"What is all this?" I ask, stepping towards him. Tobias opens his arms to me, and then pulls me down to his lap to join him.
"Um, well I just kept thinking about…all of this." He says, his left hand gestures towards the scattered items all over the table from the trunk. I nod my head, encouraging him to continue. "Just trying to make some sense of it all, I guess." I watch his left hand pull back, scratching behind his neck.
"Any luck?" I ask, raising my eyebrow at him. I can understand his need for more information, needing to know all the facts and trying to make sense of them. It puzzled me too when I first saw the contents of the ancient trunk. I wasn't sure what to make of all of it either, especially the journal.
He begins by running through all of the information that he found on Beatrice Prior. As he tells me all of his findings, shivers start to run right through me, they literally make my hair stand up. As he continues telling me about what he found on Tobias Eaton, also known as Four. I'm surprised for a moment by the similarity between both men. How is this all possible? I'm not too surprised however, to find out that the two of them were indeed together, as he was her instructor and she was his initiate in Dauntless. But their connection was far too strong for either one of them to deny their feeling for one another. My heart broke when Tobias, my Tobias related to me just how Tobias had died. I guess I wasn't too surprised, I mean I've seen all the blood stains on the last entry of the journal, but I had hoped that somehow he had managed to survive his grief and the love that he had for her. I can't explain why tears suddenly escape my eyes, as he tells me my suspensions are in fact true. He smiles, wiping away the runaway tears. Tobias continues to voice his opinion about the two urns...the lighter one must be empty, which would lead us to believe that it must have been Beatrice's. But Tobias' which we assume is his, since it has the number four written on it… is still full. My heart breaks in two again, at the thought that after all this time the two of them are still separated somehow. It just doesn't seem right to me, they need to be together, always. I feel this deep down into my very soul.
"Anything else?" I ask, wondering what else he found out.
He once again scratches the back of his neck. Why is he so nervous? What else could he have found? Without speaking, Tobias turns the computer screen towards my eyes, allowing me to see what he was looking at.. I see the words soulmate, reincarnation…What? I glance back at him, raising my eyebrows in shock that his mind would point in this direction.
"Do you really think, I mean do you believe in?" I let my question trail off, not knowing how to verbally express what I want to ask.
"It would explain a lot." Tobias says, his hands play with our joined fingers."Wouldn't it?" He asks, finally looking back up at me. I nod in agreement. "How about I get you a cup of coffee, Love?" He offers, as he lifts me off of his lap so he can get up himself and make his way to the kitchen.
While he is preparing my cup, I decide to go back to the information that he found on Tobias Eaton. I'm shocked at how little time it took for him to find all of this. Something on the screen catches my eyes, a name, it's not familiar to me in anyway. But the fact that it's there under possible relatives is what catches my eye, Emily Eaton. I click on the mouse over her name and watch as the screen emerges from her, to Tobias Eaton, the possible relative. I recall the information regarding Tobias, he had no family left to claim his body. Which would leave the last living relative of the one person he did consider to be family in charge of caring for his last requests in life. But here on the screen in black and white, it shows the complete shocking truth that in fact he wasn't the last living relative of his family line.
Emily Eaton was born and raised in the city of New York, her father originally came from the city of Chicago. Turns out Tobias' father was banished from Chicago and started a whole new life. He eventually remarried and had a daughter a few years later.
"Tobias." I called out to him.
"Yeah." He says, as he approaches me with my coffee in his hand.
"Look at this." I gesture to the screen, giving him a minute to process this brand new information.
"Well. I'll be damned." He says, "So the family line did continue after all." He takes a seat to take a closer look at the recent findings.
"Hey, did you happen to look at all of the eight signs of your soul being reincarnated?" I ask Tobias. I look up finding him whipping some ingredients together in a bowl. For the past hour or so he and I have been working on trying to make sense of what this all really means. How could this all be? Tobias mentioned to me that he had read briefly about reincarnation, soulmates, destiny, and some other sorts of things. So I decided to shift through it trying to make sense of it all myself, while Tobias continues to make us a late breakfast. I glance at the time, we have a few more hours before we have to get ready and get down to the banquet hall.
As the proud Godparents of our expected Goddaughter, Tobias and I have been working diligently at throwing the best co-ed babyshower on this planet. If it's not, so help me god…
"What's that?" Tobias asks, looking up from his task, bewildered by my question.
"It is known that previous traumatic events follow us into our new lives as fears," I read out loud. I remember Tobias once told me that he had some unexplained fears that kept him from doing certain things. Fears that sometimes restricted him, which he really hated.
"Hey, let me see that." He places the bowl down onto the countertop, turning the laptop 7around for his viewing, "Agh." He says, turning the laptop back around for me. He returns to his task of making us breakfast, as he says, "I guess that would make a lot of sense then."
"Tobias what does this all mean…for us?" I dare to ask, just wanting to know what he thinks about all of this. I watch him contemplate for a moment with his answer.
"The way I see it…you're my everything. You're it for me, Tris, you're my soulmate. If this is what we think it is…then it only proves even more how destined we are to be together." He gently says smiling, as he leans in giving me tender kisses on my lips. I smile unable to help myself, as I wrap my arms around his neck and press myself closer to him.
"Is Tobias Eaton saying he believes in destiny?" I tease him.
"Only when it comes to you, Tris. Only when it comes to you…"He says, his expression and tone both tell me how much he truly means it.
"I love you, Tobias Eaton." I say, desperate for him to know that I will always feel this way about him, no matter what. We are meant to be...it's in the stars, it's our destiny.
"I love you too, Beatrice Prior." He replies, I couldn't be happier, because when it's right, you just know!
We arrived an hour early at Chicago's Party Animals Pillar Loft. The building has such a great sense of character that I have really grown to love over the last few years as an event planner. The building has rustic brown and red bricks and the cutest double wide, navy blue wooden barn doors. The building was once a fire station that was left abandoned for several years before it was bought and refurbished. I was really impressed how they seemed to honor the buildings integrity and rich history by leaving the original sign off to the side of it, and keeping the original brickwork intact. Even the interior holds and represents some of its wonderful history, as it still has the fireman pole that has always been there, along with a dedication wall that the firemen had dedicated to those that had lost their lives in the line of duty.
The navy blue sliding barn doors slide open to the familiar face of the manager who smiles widely at me. I have worked many times with Jessica over the past few years and she is extremely pleasant and always professional. Best of all, she makes sure that everything that needs to be done by the staff is taken care of in a timely manner. A real stress reliever in my book.
"Hey Tris, how are you?" Jessica says, as she leans down kissing one of my cheeks and then pulls back before kissing the other.
"Hey Jessica, I'm great. How are things going?" I reply back.
"Couldn't be better, although there is always room to improve." She says while glancing at Tobias.
"Who's this fella?" She says, gesturing her head to Tobias. I feel him stiffen at her unwanted attention.
"This is my boyfriend, Tobias." I say, as I introduce them both. I realize as I call Tobias my boyfriend that the title doesn't feel right anymore. So much has happened between us in the past twenty four hours that it just doesn't feel like it's enough for us, as Tobias feels so much more to me than just my boyfriend.
"Ah Boyfriend? Well you're a very lucky girl." Jessica says, while smirking and wiggling her eyebrows at me. I couldn't agree more with her statement, as I know just how lucky I am to have this special man in my life. Life's lessons in the past have taught me long ago to never take for granted what you have…I know more than anyone after what happened to Eric, that life is short and you should live everyday like it's your last.
"Or perhaps I'm the lucky one." Tobias says while smiling down at me. When he breaks from my gaze, he looks up at Jessica while his smile never waivers. "It's nice to meet you Jessica." Tobias holds out his hand for her to shake. I watch as Jessica's demeanor changes from flirty to professional in under a second. That is one thing I have always liked about Jessica, she knows when it's time to back off.
We enter the building leaving the sliding double doors open, Shauna and Zeke should be arriving soon, as well as the many guests not long after them. As soon as you enter the venue, Jessica has placed a folding table with a pretty linen tablecloth on top of it so the guests can sign in as they enter. I reach into my bag pulling out the guest book and a pen. I am so thankful that I decided to drop off all the decorative items two days ago to Jessica, instead of having to deal with all of that today. She had her staff put them all up for us ahead of time. I continue to pull things out of my large canvas bag to finish setting up the table.
Tobias helps me set up the tabletop A-frame easel so I can display a large poster board that will sit next to the guest book. The poster board is designed with the theme we picked for the shower, which is a large green cocoon that holds a large pea within it.
A little
Sweet pea
is on the way!
Come in and join in our celebration
for the proud parents to be
Zeke and Shauna Pedrad
in honor of their awaiting
little girl
Erica Marie Pedrad
I finally straightened up, looking around the venue for the first time, I'm in absolute awe, the room couldn't look any more perfect then it does right now. The first large room has six large round tables that can seat up to at least ten people per table. Each table is beautifully decorated with a white linen tablecloth, and a large square crystal glass bowl with three white roses in each one and baby peas all around the base of it for the centerpiece. The smaller table off to the side holds the cake, yes the cake. It's a Dauntless chocolate cake with buttercream icing, Shauna's favorite flavor as of late. The cake has three layers, with the shape of a pea on the side for decoration and a large pea-pod with a baby cocooned inside of it. We decided to place Shauna and Zeke in the spotlight, seeing as they are expecting and this day is all about them and their precious little girl who will be making her big debut soon. They have been designated a table just for them up in front of all the other six tables. Their table is decorated the same as the other ones, but their chairs are heavily decorated in green ribbons and balloons that say congratulations on your upcoming baby, and have the words "Mommy to be" and "Daddy to be'' written all over them. On the left of Zeke sits two more matching chairs for his parents, along with two additional chairs for the parents of Shauna on her right. Their chairs are also decorated with the large words "Grandma or Grandpa to be" on each one of them. The last table in the room, holds a large sign on an easel with the words, "Thank you for your gifts." To the side of where the guests drop off their gifts, they can each pick up a little special thank you gift of their own. Each guest will receive a special letter in the honor of Erica and a starting seedling kit to grow their own sweet peas. The special letter reads as...
Thank you from baby
I'm really glad that you could come to help celebrate with my mommy and daddy.
Sit down, relax, enjoy yourselves, and chat with one another.
Sorry I can't be with you all
to share in Mommy and Daddy's shower, but you see I'm very busy
growing more and more each and every hour of the day.
Sorry I'm not here yet to thank you all for the special gifts that you brought.
My family and I are very grateful and we appreciate the thought.
I'll be arriving shortly, but I'm as happy as can be right now in my little cocoon.
So after I've been home for awhile, please come and visit me!
Love,
Baby Erica Marie Pedrad
We continue walking through the room, looking beyond the tables and chairs to one of my favorite parts in this event hall. We walk into the back room, it has a large wet bar and pool tables, a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall, and a large comfortable sofa. On the wall are the words "Daddy's playroom." Then the next room has a lot of cozy couches, soft music playing in the background, and a few massage chairs. Just like the other room, this room has the words on the wall saying "Mommy's quiet space."
"You were right about everything that you said about this place." Tobias says, smiling widely as he wraps his arms around me. No doubt he is as pleased with everything, as I am.
"Wait," I say freezing in place. I watch as Tobias' eyes widen in shock from my words.
'What? What's wrong?" Tobias asks.
"Did you just say I was right?" I joke laughing, as I watch the realization hit him as he joins in the laughter.
"Alright love birds, cut it out. The guests will be arriving soon, you wouldn't want to be caught having sex." Zeke says from the main entrance.
"Afraid I'll teach you something?" Tobias teases Zeke, as I fight the urge to roll my eyes.
"You, teach me something? You do know that my wife is the one pregnant, right? I did have a hand in that, therefore I think I know what I'm doing." Zeke points out. Oh god, not their sex life again. Haven't I heard enough about it from Shauna all these years?
"You sure you had help with that? For all I know, you just laid there." Oh jeez, Tobias.
"Zeke, cut it out." Shauna demands, as she walks in with her and Zeke's parents. She closes the distance between the three of us.
"Hey guys, this place is amazing. You two really did a wonderful job." Shauna comments as she pulls me into a big hug.
Within the hour, guests began to arrive. I couldn't have hoped for such a smooth running event than this one. Having Jessica around really did help, she kept her staff on top of everything the whole time. Brunch was served as planned, an enormous buffet on a long wooden table, with assorted foods displayed on it for our guests. I glance over as my stomach growled at the sight of all the delicious foods...pigs in a blanket in the shape of a bundled up baby, there was a watermelon cut into the shape of a baby carriage with delicious fruit salad inside of it, and many other finger friendly foods that Shauna had requested to be here. The cake was a delicious hit for the party too, as not one bite was left behind.
Quickly, after the meal was done and the cake was cut, the men dashed off to their designated room. I don't know what they did or spoke about, but I was certain they were having a fun time as all we heard were cheers and woohoos from that room.
The women on the other hand went to their designated room, we all took turns having massages from the chairs, and then we all talked as a whole. I was pleased when the women carried on talking about babies, as it made it an easy transition for the games to begin. Two women were picked to race against each other, while drinking juice from a baby bottle. It was interesting to see how fast Shauna could suck that juice out of such a small nipple. Next we played guess Mommy's size, as I handed every one a cut ribbon of their estimation and we waited for the right ribbon to win. I wasn't surprised to see it was Hana that was crowned the winner, as she has that mother's intuition in her. Of course we also did the traditional games, like guessing how many kisses are in a jar, and trying not to say the word baby or you lose your pin. I even passed out cards to everyone in the shape of a baby bottle along with a pen, so they could jolt down any advice for the expected mother to be.
When the time came for presents, Zeke and Shauna sat side by side in their special chairs. Zeke commented that most of the clothes that were gifted were going to be too small for Shauna. Shauna of course, slapped Zeke up beside the head several times, causing a wave of laughter from all of us. Although, they had a really good laugh when Tobias and I produced our own presents for them. Each one received a pre-loaded apron, that had everything you would need to take care of a baby. Such as gloves, baby wipes, diapers, goggles, nose plugs, and Lysol wipes. Tobias and I just couldn't help ourselves. But of course, we gave them another gift for the baby as well. We handed them our other gift from Tobias and I, a handmade crocheted pink dress, hat, baby booties, and a matching blanket to bring baby Erica home from the hospital in.
"Tris, Four, we just want to say…thank you so much for everything. It was so perfect. You outdid yourself this time" Shauna beams, as she hugs me tightly against her.
'No problem," Tobias says, as he gives a man hug to Zeke.
"We love you guys, we were happy to do it," I express.
"Are you going to Uriah's big Halloween bash next weekend?" Zeke asks Tobias.
"I think so." Tobias says, looking at me for more confirmation. I nod my head yes, of course I am, I would never miss it for the world. The Pedrad's parties are known to never be dull and are always full of surprises.
A/N
For those of you who might have missed it, a special one shot was added yesterday in celebration of Valentine's Day to my story, A blessing in disguise- A Thanksgiving story. If you haven't followed that story or read it yet, I suggest that you do.
Stay tuned for the next update: February 22nd
This chapter was brainstormed with FDFobsessed
Like always, happy reading everyone!
Trini
