Disclaimer: I don't own Divergent
Beatrice Prior, Tuesday, February 6th, The apartment, 3:03 am
Warning bells ring in my head, my heart ponds as I readjust the grip on my phone. I lean against the wall, as my feet weaken underneath my weight. I sink to the floor as I take several small breaths to calm myself.
"What happened to her? What happened to mum?" I gasp.
Dad hesitates as he speaks, "I don't know, Sweetheart, is it possible for you to get to the hospital now, I'm calling Caleb after, maybe he can give you a ride since Four's gone?"
I nod but then realise he can't see me. I agree and then hang up so he can call Caleb, my heartbeat is erratic. I never bothered correcting dad when he mentioned Four. Four doesn't matter, my mother is in the hospital.
I grab a sweater and throw it on, my keys and phone are in my hand a second later and I make my way towards the CPD; a short walk from my place, and the place I told Caleb I'd meet him. I arrive and Caleb pulls up a few minutes later.
The drive to the hospital is silent and full of tension. Sweat sticks to Caleb's tousled hair, he's wearing a loose T-shirt, most likely the one he went to sleep in. We arrive at the hospital not long after, but it feels like an eternity later.
The nurse at the front desk tells us to go to room 4610. We both thank her before dashing in the direction. After multiple flights of stairs, a few corridors and a visit to the help desk, we make it to Mum's room.
The room is unsettling, the cold white walls pry at my worries and the metal frame that supports the single bed sends shivers down my spine. There are no windows and the only thing in this room that eases my worries is mum sitting up in her bed. Alive.
My heart breaks at the sight of her. Her usually warm skin is pale, drained of life. She has a heart monitor towards the side of the bed. The steady pace of her heart reassures me and despite what happened to her, she gives me a bright smile.
She embarsses me with wide arms and I cling to her, careful not to potentially hurt her. When I let go, Caleb goes to hug her. I shift my gaze to dad, who sits on the chair next to mum's bed smiling at us all.
I give him a quick hug, before sitting on the chair next to him, mum may be stable, but that doesn't mean I know what happened to her. When Caleb comes to sit next to me a nurse enters the room.
"Natalie, I assume these are your kids?" the nurse asks mum softly, mum nods and the nurse gives her a warm smile, "Right, well I just got your results back from the lab," She mumbles holding a folder up.
My teeth sink into my lip as I fumble with my hands. My body radiates with heat and fear. I feel my father rub soothing circles on my back, in an attempt to calm me down.
"As you know, your cancer has four stages, and I regret to inform you that your cancer has developed to stage three," The nurse announces. Everyone looks stunned as the information sinks in.
I sit there glued to my chair. Stage three means there's less of a chance we can afford this before it's too late. No one speaks, a heavy silence fills the room as the nurse gives us a sad smile and leaves; giving us some privacy.
"What happened?" I ask, my voice horse.
Mum opens her mouth but then begins coughing violently, Caleb is quick to act and places a bottle of water in her hands while dad begins explaining,"She woke up and began coughing, I woke up, she told me she was fine, but she fainted on the way to the kitchen."
He pauses, I watch the pained expression on his face, he looks like he's physically suffering, he meets mum's eyes and she gives him a small smile as he continues, "I brought her to the hospital immediately, it's never been this bad."
We sit and talk for an hour or so. By the time it's quarter past four in the morning, Caleb decides to get back home. I reluctantly say goodbye to both mum and dad and have Caleb drop me off in front of the CPD.
The seven minute walk back home from there gives me time to think about what I should do. The situation is delicate. From the few words Caleb and I exchanged in the car, he said that he was going to put more of his savings towards this. The thing is, I don't have any savings.
Not enough, anyway.
The only savings I have is the money I saved by staying with Four, it's only a couple thousand; but the money ensures I have enough to eat, pay rent and buy things I need.
My mind argues back and forth, on one side, I could keep putting the same amount of money towards mum's operation, but on the other side, I could give all my earnings and savings.
I'd have to get another job in order to pay rent , but 'd be fine. With all my earnings from my job at the CPD and all the savings I have, there's a better chance of getting the operation done sooner.
I shake my head, clearing my thoughts.I know what needs to be done.
Beatrice Prior, The same day, Christina and Will's apartment, 6:31 pm
"Wait, really?" I ask
After a stressful morning and an average day, I decided to get some rest before acting on the decisions I've decided on. Chris seemed to sense my bad mood and invited me over for a girls night.
She kicked Will out the apartment for the night, meaning he's most likely having a 'boys night' with Al. Christina was tempted to invite Marlene, Lynn and Shauna over, but then she remembered Shauna's cold behavior towards me and decided to just invite Marleen and Lynn.
Marlene and Lynn had a ton of paperwork to complete and told us that they'd come around six thirty with some food for us all. When we reached the apartment, I confessed the events that took place this morning.
I'd be lying if I said there weren't some tears, but it's fine now. We decided to chat, avoiding sore topics. She began telling me about how she's slightly worried about Will, apparently he's being slightly weird.
I assure her it's probably nothing, but advise her to talk to him about it. The doorbell rings and I go to answer it, Marlene and Lynn stand, each holding a box of pizza. I let them in and we all take our places on the sofa.
"I really missed these girls' nights," Marlene sighs. Christina and I nod, while Lynn rolls her eyes, but we all know she enjoys these girls nights as much as we do.
"Enough chatter, more eating," Lynn commands as Christina heads to the kitchen to get some plates. The pizza is gone in a matter of minutes and we all sit back and watch some TV.
My eyes drift from the TV to one of the many photo frames on the wall. Many of the pictures are of Chris, Will, Al and I, but my eyes stop on one of just Four and I. My heart rate immediately increases as I stare longingly at the picture.
The picture was taken at Mum and Dad's wedding. Four has his arm wrapped lovingly around my waist. His black suit coat fits him perfectly. I'm facing the camera smiling, while Four is looking at me with a small, pure smile on his lips.
I tear my eyes away from the photo. This isn't fair. It isn't fair that I had to go from loved to worthless in a matter of words. It's not fair that I trusted him with my heart and he broke it. Life is not fair.
I need him. I miss him. I want him. I love him. I hate him.
It drives me mad. There was a point where I didn't have him in my life, and I was fine, but somehow I can't convince myself that I'm fine. I know I'll eventually have to let go of him, I just wish I didn't have to.
He was the horizon to my sky, the smile to my face, inck to my pen and sugar to my spice. But it's over now. He's made his opinion clear and I'm only going to break my own heart if I keep dwelling on it.
My phone buzzes, bringing me out of my thoughts. It's a text from Al.
2 Messages from 'Al'
Al: Hey Trissy [Sent at 7:03 pm]
Al:Meet Will and I at the park in twenty minutes, bring Chris and the other girls. [Sent at 7:04 pm]
I frown as I read the message, I don't question Al, I simply reply, telling him that we'll be there. I slip my phone back into my pocket. Christina, Marlene and Lynn all are engrossed in the film that I have to turn the TV off to get their attention.
"Hey, what was that for? She was just about to shoot that guy," Lynn whines as she tries to get the remote back.
I chuckle at her childish behavior as I hold the remote behind my back, "Al and Will need us to meet them at the park, I don't know why, so don't ask me."
It takes a bit of convincing for everyone to get up, apparently the film was really good. Hesitantly, Christina, Marlene and Lynn get up. Chris heads to her room to change out of her sweatpants and reemerges a few minutes later in some jeans and a cute shirt.
We all pile into the car, and Chris turns up the song on the radio. We're all off key and if someone were to come close enough to the car, they'd probably go deaf, but I don't think any of us cared at that point; we were all having too much fun.
We go the long way, turns out Christina wasn't ready to stop singing and apparently her seventh favorite song was playing and she wanted to listen to it. We make it to the park and I swear I have to drag Christina out of the car so she doesn't start singing to the next song.
The street lights illuminate the path, I'm not sure where Al and Will are. In the distance I can see some more light so I lead the girls towards that area. Lynn, Marlene and Chris are laughing at a picture of Spike when I see Will.
I almost stop in my path. My lips turn upwards. A path of candles are laid out and rose petals are scattered around the candle lit path. He stands there in a suit jacket. I hear a gasp and when I turn, I see Chris with her hands cupping her face as a single tear rolls down her check.
I move to the side so she can approach Will. Her movements are slow, but from the smile on her face I can tell she's extremely happy. When she stands a few feet away from Will, he goes down on one knee.
"Christina, four years ago when we met at our first class of Criminal justice, I had the biggest crush on you. I used to practice how I'd ask you out in front of the mirror every night, and one day when I finally had the courage to actually ask you, you said yes." Will starts.
"You agreed to be my girlfriend and I'm still shocked at how such an amazing, beautiful, kind, brave, smart and honest girl would agree to have an idiot like me to be her boyfriend, but you said yes, and that was all that mattered."
"I love you with all my heart, and everyday, my love for you grows, I can't picture my life without you, so, Christina, will you make me the happiest man in the entire universe and marry me?"
Will takes out a small red velvet box out of his back pocket and opens it. There's a beautiful ring inside, one I can picture Christina showing off to everyone she knows. The band is made from white gold and a medium sized diamond is planted in the middle with two smaller sapphires on either end.
Tears trickle from Christina's eyes as she wipes her cheeks. A big smile takes over her face. She nods several times before getting the words out.
"Yes."
Beatrice Prior, Wednesday, February 7th, Outside Max's office, CPD, 3:26 pm
"Come in."
I gently nudge the door to Max's office open with my foot. After the events that occured yesterday, I had a lot to talk about, but as soon as I recalled the image of mum sitting in that hospital bed, I knew what to do.
I enter Max's office, he looks up from his laptop, his eyes show confusion as to why I'm here. He lowers the screen of his computer and sits back in his chair, his eyes meet mine as I take a deep breath.
"We're low on officers that can work night shifts, I was wondering if you'd consider me to fill one of the positions? " I blurt out, I never decided to be that straight forward, but I couldn't afford to play around with my words.
Max raises a brow seeming somewhat amused and even curious in regard to the request I have made, "Are you telling me you want to keep your current job from nine to five thirty and apply for a night job from ten pm till three am?"
I nod, unable to voice my answer.
I'll admit, this second job seems appealing, but it has a better pay than other potential second jobs. If i get this job, I've decided to give all the savings and income I earn from my day job, meaning I'll be dependent on the money for my second job for food, rent and essentials.
This situation isn't ideal, but I can't control it. Nothing about this is convenient, but real life isn't convenient. If it were convenient, i wouldn't be here asking for another job, Four wouldn't have left me, and mum wouldn't be sick.
Max ponders on this, from his expressions I can see that he's in two minds, he finally meets my eyes as he asks, "I know I shouldn't ask, but do you think you could give me more of a reason as to why you want this job, you don't have to, it'd just help me understand what's happening."
He knows about mum's cancer, but not the severity of it. He doesn't know that she's usually asleep before dinner or that she no longer feels hungry around lunch and dad has to practically shove food down her throat so she doesn't starve, he doesn't know she was in the hospital yesterday morning.
"Mum moved to stage three of her cancer, I can't afford to do nothing about this, so I need another job to put more money towards her surgery," I confess. My emotions get the best of me and before I can stop myself, I'm talking again.
"I'm not asking for pity or special treatment, I'm just asking for another job, I'm hard working, you know that, I'll be on task because I can't afford to mess this up."
Max looks at me. There's a blazing passion in my heart that refuses to die down, because this is my mother's life at stake and I refuse to sit down and let her die. Because I would do anything for the ones I love.
Max smiles softly, "Alright, you start tomorrow, don't be late."
A/N I hope you guys liked that chapter. Thank you all so much for reading.
Christina and Will are now engaged. Natalie moved from stage two to stage three for her cancer and Tris has got a second job.
I'm not sure if I'll do a Four POV for this fanfic. I never planned to, but I'd love to hear your opinions on it. I'm open to suggestions!
I loved reading all of your reviews and they seriously made my day. Four will be coming back to Chicago in the next three or four chapters.
Next chapter I will have Shauna in it.
Being back at school was pretty nice, I have some tests in a few weeks and an assessment that's due on Thursday, but those shouldn't mess up my update schedule.
Make sure you wash your hands, be kind and stay home and save lives. Please review and tell me what you think. Until next time,
-Divergent31