A/N: A new chapter! I feel like the quality is decreasing plot-wise because I'm no longer fully into the story, but I don't want to leave a story unfinished, so here goes.

Only the epilogue is left after this!

Chapter Nineteen

When Jeanine woke up the next morning, her first thought after a moment of confusion was that her behavior had been ridiculous the previous night. She was glad she had refused to take any drugs in the morning before broadcasting the message. The consequences could have been disastrous for her public persona. But only Beatrice had been there, and Beatrice was different. Beatrice wouldn't ridicule her, she knew that by now, Beatrice supported her, no matter what. Jeanine smiled at the thought of her young friend as she stood up and started getting ready for the day.

Once she had finished her morning routine, she gingerly sat on the edge of her bed in nothing but a skirt and bra, and systematically removed the bandage. The wound did look daunting, but it had already started healing quite well – they must have used the recent improvements in salves made to speed up healing. It was good that she was profiting from her own work, at least once.

The wound was an angry red line surrounded by a large bruise, but it was already closed. Nevertheless, she cleaned it up with disinfectant as a safe measure and wrapped a new bandage tightly around herself. It would be painful for a while, but what bothered her most was that she was totally unable to pretend that nothing was wrong. Walking without a limp was officially impossible, and would be for a while. But she would get better, so she forced herself to swallow back her irritation and focused on the positive side. In the circumstances, she was lucky to be alive, so she wasn't planning to complain. No, all in all, she was very content with the outcome.

She tied her bandage so it wouldn't come off and went to find a shirt and start her day. It wouldn't be an easy day, she had contacted Evelyn to meet up with her, convinced that her maneuvers were more a desperate way to have a role to play than a real attempt to take power. She knew Evelyn well, the woman had always looked for some kind of recognition, which made her weak and easy to manipulate. In fact, many people had manipulated her by making her feel important, but in the end it was only ever for their own interests.

She wouldn't do that unless absolutely necessary. While she didn't care about her personally anymore – it had been too long – she still knew a lot about her and knew it would hurt her. But she'd need to be sure of her motivations, and Evelyn would talk, she knew that. Then, she was sure she would have a chance to convince her of another option, she was, after all, easy to manipulate intellectually as well, and in Jeanine's mind, convincing her was the lesser evil, as compared with emotional blackmail.

"Ms Johnson is here," the man said.

"You can show her in."

Evelyn entered with her usual brisk step, so different from Beatrice's long strides, and Jeanine silently waved her to the seat on the other side of the desk.

"I hadn't expected you to be sitting in your office," Evelyn said, looking her up and down. "Didn't you get shot?"

"I did." Jeanine didn't elaborate, it was her habit to always say as little as possible when she wanted the other to talk, to only answer the question asked and not the question that had been implied. This tactic worked more often than not, and lead the other party to say far more than they had intended. And Jeanine's injury wasn't any of Evelyn's business anyway. No matter what she had been, now she was only either a colleague or a potential threat, depending on the outcome of this meeting.

Evelyn frowned, observing her straight posture and emotionless expression for any hint of weakness but finding none.

"Evelyn," Jeanine started, interrupting the other woman's musings, "what is it you want? What is the point of all of what you're doing?"

"We, that is, Factionless, want a place in the system."

"We have an agreement concerning this issue, I did not realize that it included you trying to do a coup and rule the whole city by yourself."

"It did not, but I don't believe you're going to fulfill your end of the bargain."

Jeanine was annoyed. "It's not a bargain, it's an official agreement. And I will. I missed the last council meeting because I was unconscious," she said with an edge to her voice. "As you know, the next meeting is next week, I will bring it up then and argue in your favor, as promised. It will take time to be implemented, but improvements will happen. But I will not do any of that if what you want is to be above the factions, to overthrow the faction leaders and create your own little regime. Especially if the rumors are right and you want to completely end the factions. I nearly lost my life to preserve the peace, I will not let you destroy it."

Jeanine's voice was firm and cold as ice. She had just risked everything to save the city, she wouldn't let an incompetent side-player ruin everything.

Evelyn sighed. "Tobias said about the same. Very well, but if it turns out that this agreement was only a way to quiet us down, there will be hell to pay."

Jeanine internally rolled her eyes, but didn't reply. After a silence, Evelyn stood up. "Jean, listen…"

"No, Evelyn." She had expected this, but wasn't going to discuss the past with her, at least not so soon.

Evelyn walked around the desk towards her, and Jeanine was exasperated. "Those were different times, we were different people. These things don't matter anymore now, there is no point discussing them."

Had she been in her usual state, she would already have stood up and walked Evelyn to the door, but standing up would demand a lot of effort, it would require showing her weakness, so she hoped she wouldn't have to.

But as Evelyn disregarded her protest and perched on the edge of her desk, right next to her, she knew she had to send her out. She was crossing the lines much too easily for her liking. Evelyn had always been rather bold, but life in Factionless had awaken in her a tendency to challenge others, probably because she had had to push past everyone to become their leader. Jeanine braced herself for the pain she knew was coming and pushed herself up, leaning heavily on her arms. She felt a spasm of pain in her side at the effort and waited it out, and once it had eased enough for her to move, she straightened painfully and walked around her desk, still supporting most of her weight on it.

She stopped close to the door and looked Evelyn steadily in the eyes, daring her to say anything. "Get out, Evelyn." Her voice was quiet but cold, it was a toned-down version of the cruel voice which had gained her the reputation of being emotionless, and Evelyn looked sad but resigned as she started walking to the door.

"Tobias is the same, neither of you can forgive me for disappearing. But neither of you understand, I had to. I wouldn't have survived otherwise, it was getting worse everyday. There was no way I could escape him except by faking my death."

Jeanine sighed, relenting. "I know. I thought he'd killed you at first, that's why I leaked his secret to the press, I couldn't trust him as the leader of the city anymore – not that I ever really had."

"You hated him, you always did."

"Thinking that he had killed you was the logical explanation for your death, I'd seen how he kept hurting you again and again, it wouldn't have taken much more to go beyond what you could endure. I was the only one he couldn't fool by saying you'd died because of a pregnancy, I knew you weren't pregnant."

Evelyn nodded. "Tobias told me he suspected it was a lie too, but only you knew."

"But nevertheless, it doesn't change anything, I am beyond that now."

She was starting to have trouble standing – she was pushing herself too much. The pain was intensifying and she knew she needed to find something to support herself. She limped over to the wall, her movements stiff and careful. The pain broke through her facade for a second, her jaw was clenched and her features tense, but then she reached the wall and leaned against it. She slowly breathed out and her expression returned to neutrality.

Evelyn moved towards her, but Jeanine shot her a warning look, freezing her in place, and continued as if nothing had happened, though her voice was weaker, raspier, and her tone weary. "That's why you of all people should know that there should not be one person governing the city. I will not stand for one leader above the others, no matter who they are and which faction they are from."

Evelyn nodded. She really had misjudged the whole situation. Those around her, particularly Edgar, had convinced her that Jeanine had used them and wasn't planning to try to include them in the government. Some had even argued that she had been to the previous leader meeting, her injury an mere invention to justify why they were not being contacted and hold on their anger. All of which had been wrong.

She felt very small in the world of the powerful. No matter how hard she tried, even when she had attained power, even at the highest place in the largest group, she was still being manipulated. Manipulated into confronting her past friend and lover when she was at her weakest. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look up from her feet and into the eyes of the woman who was now her colleague.

"So, decisions regarding the whole city will be taken by all six of us leaders?"

"That's what I'll argue for next time I see them. I will contact you as soon as I have made any progress."

"Thank you." She realized Jeanine was still relaying on the wall to stand. "Do you…er…need some help?"

Jeanine looked at her without expression in silence, and Evelyn looked down, accepting the silent rebuttal. "Just go, Evelyn," she dismissed her.

Once she had left her office, Evelyn decided to look for Beatrice. She quickly found her in the library (Erudites were so predictable) and approached her. "Beatrice," she addressed her, startling the younger woman who hadn't heard her coming. "You should go to her."

"Er, why?"

"She's in pain but won't let me help her, she doesn't trust me anymore. But I've seen you two interact, I think she trusts you." She paused, a calculating look on her face. "Doesn't she?"

Beatrice, who had learned the power of silence from her mentor, ignored the question, and packed her things. "Did something happen, did she hurt herself?"

"No, but she looked…bad. And with the self-control I know she has, for her to look that way requires a lot. Please, just go."

Beatrice nodded and left at a quick pace.

When Beatrice entered the faction leader's office, Jeanine was sitting at her desk, her elbows propped up on the desk and her head in her hands. She didn't look up, but Beatrice knew she was aware of her presence, so she approached her and squeezed her shoulder. "Evelyn came to find me to tell me to check up on you…are you all right?"

Jeanine looked up, eyebrows raised. "She did? I'm fine. We found an agreement, so all is solved."

Beatrice wasn't convinced. "She said you were in pain, what happened?"

"Nothing happened." Beatrice waited for her to elaborate and Jeanine rolled her eyes. "I got up to walk her out, and she noticed I was limping. End of story. Stop worrying." She straightened in her seat and moved the mouse to wake the screen up. "I still need to contact the other leaders so I can introduce them to the plan of involving factionless before the next meeting."

Beatrice sighed. "Do you mind if I go to the lab to work? It's been a while and I'd like to start experimenting with the ideas I've had since we stopped the work in the lab."

"No problem, I already said you could go whenever you wanted to."

As she made her way to the lab, Beatrice wondered about Evelyn again. Jeanine looked emotionally tired every time she met Evelyn, Beatrice had already guessed they had some kind of common history. She already knew they were both from Erudite, and probably about the same age, too, but she hadn't yet dared to ask.

Three days later, Jeanine had mostly caught up with the most urgent work, and she decided to join her mentee in the lab for a few hours. She shouldn't neglect the future minds of the city, especially not this particular young woman she felt so strongly about.

They were both very happy to speak of their research again, it had been too long. Jeanine had been chosen as a leader only because of her high IQ, not because she liked politics, and while she had adapted well to the responsibilities and did enjoy the power she had acquired as a leader, academia and research were far more important to her.

And Beatrice, well, her expression spoke for itself. Her eyes lit up as soon as their conversation reached a certain level, and she grinned excitedly. It felt like the times before chaos had erupted as a result of Dauntless' quest for power. Yet, things had changed.

There was for one the way they were both a little broken from the conflict, Jeanine physically, Beatrice mentally. She had a constant hole in her chest, one she could now ignore and nearly forget about for hours at a time, but which undeniably came back every time she thought about her family.

Of course, other things had changed too. Beatrice herself was much different. She was a full member of Erudite, she was much healthier, she had friends and a newfound confidence. Her divergence was now well-known, yet, she was accepted like she never had been, even – or rather, especially – by Jeanine Matthews, whose fear of Divergents was a known fact.

Jeanine was injured and hurting, but the stress was gone, it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was also more relaxed, and open with Beatrice, though her cold persona was still very much in place the rest of the time.

Yes, much had changed. And much would still change, especially between them.