AN: A happy, yet socially distanced Valentine's Day to you. Here in the USA, COVID cases are still up, people are still ridiculous, and the vaccine is damn near impossible to get, even for those of us who are considered to be front line workers. Stay healthy, wear a mask, wash your hands and take care of yourselves and each other.

Eric paces back and forth in front of the non-descript brick building, smoking his bummed cigarette down to the filter. He was released almost an hour ago, with little fanfare after being badgered for hours. He's yet to get any information about why they're continuing to hold Tris, and he took this time outside to gather his thoughts and calm his nerves before inquiring again.

He sees a familiar face exit the station and he calls out for him. "Zeke!" The lanky, curly-haired man throws a hand up and jogs over to where he is.

"Hey man." He offers his hand and Eric shakes it. "It's freezing out here."

"I needed to clear my head. They won't tell me shit about Tris, and we've been here for going on five hours now. Have you seen her at all?" Eric asks.

"Yeah, they let me in long enough to get her something to eat and drink. She's been a little combative, so they've had to give her some time to cool off." Zeke replies.

"Are they going to let her go home?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Listen, I'll run back inside and see if I can get you an update. Why don't you go inside too, just take a seat in the waiting room and warm up, ok?" Zeke gestures for Eric to follow him.

He follows the other man inside, sitting down in the area Zeke pointed to and he watches as he disappears into the back of the station.

Zeke walks through the familiar hallway, pausing at Detective Holly's cubicle. "Darrius, what's going on with Beatrice Prior? Her next of kin is outside waiting."

"We're just letting her cool down. Man, she was throwing a damn fit, yelling that you were a liar. What's up with that one?"

"I tried to tell boss man to keep me out of it." Zeke shrugs. "I slept with her, it's been almost a year ago, but I guess she thought it was something more than what it was"

"Oh shit, you've got a clinger huh?" Darrius asks with a chuckle. "Shauna isn't going to take too kindly to that."

"Yeah, you're telling me. I've been able to keep that pretty quiet, but if Tris keeps this shit up I might just have to crash on your couch for a few days." Zeke laughs nervously. "Anyway, are we charging her?"

"Nah. They didn't find shit in her apartment. Little weed, but it's legal. There's nothing there tying either of them to anything." He replies.

Zeke does everything he can to school his features. He was told tonight was the night. He was given clear instructions that the evidence was going to be there, and he took that information and ran it up to his superiors as a valid tip received from a trusted informant.

"Are you sure? We'd gotten some pretty solid tips come in." Zeke replies and Detective Holly shakes his head.

"Yeah, very sure. I guess the tipsters were full of shit. DA is pissed too, so heated that charges against Coulter are dropped until we can come up with something that actually sticks and he refuses to even hear shit about Prior or any hunches we have. Anyway, you can go release her if you want. I'm sure she's calmed down by now." Detective Holly full on laughs now.

"Nah man, she's mental. You or Allen can get her out of here. I'm steering clear of that one." Zeke replies with his own laugh, trying as best he can to disguise his nerves.

He heads further down the hallway and he peppers a string of unanswered texts to his informant. His frustration level is growing, and the burning in the pit of his stomach is roaring into a full inferno. He raises the phone to his ear and listens to the ringing, his multiple calls remaining unanswered.

"I'm gonna keep calling until you pick up mother fucker." He growls into the phone. In his peripheral vision, he sees someone leading Tris out of the interrogation room, and he slips into an unoccupied conference room.

Tris is led out of the station, and deposited into a waiting room, where Eric quickly rushes towards her.

"Are you ok? What happened?" He asks in rapid fire.

"I just want to get out of here." Tris replies quietly.

"Do you want me to text Christina?" Eric asks. She shakes her head no.

"Can we just take the L? I'll text her and let her know I'm fine. I just don't want to wake her up. Peter said she'd finally fallen asleep." She asks.

"Ok. Yeah. Let's go home." Eric takes his hoody off and helps Tris slip it over her head before they both bundle into their jackets.

They make their way across the snowy parking lot, slipping into the heated hub to take them up to the train platform. Once inside, Tris wraps her arms around Eric's waist, and rests her head on his chest. He kisses the top of her head, and once she looks up at him he kisses her softly on her lips.

The train ride home is surprisingly quiet, with Tris dozing off with her head resting on his shoulder. He keeps a protective arm wrapped around her, pressing kisses to her forehead as the familiar movements of the train threaten to lull him to sleep.

"I'm glad we're off the next two days." Tris says sleepily as they make their way off of the train and begin to head back to Dauntless.

Once they are underground, and in front of their apartment door, Tris immediately notices there is a brand new door in place. There's a note on the door, written in Peter's familiar messy scrawl asking them to come up for a visit.

Tris uses her key to let herself into Christina and Peter's, and Chris immediately tackles her in a hug.

"I was worried." She says. "I'm glad you both are ok. What the fuck happened?"

When Tris gestures to him, Eric begins, telling both Peter and Christina how the SWAT team showed up earlier today, breaking down their door to serve a search warrant. Eric explains that after being questioned for several hours, at times repeatedly being asked the same exact things, suddenly the interrogation stopped and Eric was released, where he waited at the station for several more hours before Tris finally joined him.

Tris picks up, explaining how she was also questioned for hours, badgered, and even just left alone in the room with her own thoughts.

"There's something you all need to know. Zeke was there, and he lied to me." She says, shaking her head in disbelief even as she relays the story. "He told me there was no business record of The Training Room, and no paper trail for Will or Tobias."

"We both went to that gym, there's no way in hell it wasn't something. We've seen that before though, little local start-ups that don't quite file the necessary legal paperwork to become actual licensed businesses." Christina shrugs.

"There's more though. Eric… I'm sorry you're going to hear about this in this way." Tris says, and he takes her hand in his. "About six months after the explosion at The Pit, I had met Zeke in a bar, and we hooked up. It was just that night, and it only happened because we were both drowning our sorrows in liquor that night." Tris stops speaking, and tries to pull her hand away from Eric's.

"We both have pasts. I don't care about them, I care about the present and the future." Eric assures her and presses his lips softly to her forehead. He encourages her to continue.

"We talked that night for hours, he told me how he'd lost his brother and best friend during the explosion. They were both at the bar. His brother was Uriah – Chris you remember him, the goofy one who was head over heels for Marlene" Christina nods, "and his best friend was Tobias. He told me that he and Tobias worked at the gym together. The same gym he claimed today wasn't even a real business. On top of that, he also told me today he never knew Tobias, except by name, and only because he was someone his brother knew."

"Why on earth would he lie about that?" Christina asks.

"I don't know. He really tried to make me think he never said that, he was making me think I am crazy. I kind of lost my temper, and these other cops came and cuffed my arms and legs. They left me alone in there, and I admit I was showing my ass. I was screaming at them through the camera, but it was off. I know damn well it was on the entire time I was in that room, until Zeke came in."

"Are you sure about all of this? I mean, that was a different time for you Tris. You were drinking, a lot, and there are things you wouldn't necessarily remember." Peter says as gently as possible.

"I know I was a fucked up mess, but I am one hundred percent sure about this. Zeke is lying, and I don't know why." Tris replies resolutely.

The four friends continue to talk, wracking their brains for any reasons for Zeke's strange behavior. Tris and Eric were both released without any charges, and neither know if this is truly over for them.

"There's something else weird, it's something Ed told me the last time we worked. There's been a couple of guys asking for you specifically at the diner." Eric says as he gestures towards Tris. "He thought maybe they were cops, and from what he initially told me I thought the same. The weird part is he mentioned they got really squirrelly when they saw Myra. I guess they couldn't get out of there fast enough. I can't imagine cops would be weirded out by seeing her."

"Did he have anything more? A description? A credit card receipt with a name?" Christina asks.

"They wear sunglasses inside the place, weird enough. He said they're both white, one was pale, one more tan. One taller than the other, both kind of look like gym rats." Eric rambles.

"Oh my God…" Tris mumbles. "I thought I was seeing things…"

"What are you talking about?" Chris asks.

"The morning I met you for breakfast, the one where you told me about the baby, I thought I saw someone. It looked like the same guy who had ran into me on the sidewalk. I swear when you went to close the blinds there was someone outside the window staring at me." Tris replies. "I think it was Tobias."

"Why the fuck wouldn't you have told me that?" Eric asks.

"Or me?" Christina presses.

"I thought I was seeing things, or being paranoid or just tired or something. I haven't seen him since." Tris argues.

"There are cameras there. We need to see if you recognize these guys." Eric says, standing up.

Peter and Christina quickly stand too, and Tris' mind is racing as they bundle up and head to the surface to make the quick walk to the diner. She hadn't mentioned her weird encounter because she thought she was being ridiculous. Even though the investigators had said there was nothing confirming that Will and Tobias had died in the explosion, there was proof they had been in the building when the explosion took place. The Pit had top of the line cameras and surveillance, all of which loaded directly to the cloud for their security company, and the videos showed the two men sitting at the bar as the building exploded. She doesn't care what anyone thinks, she knows they are dead because there is no way that Tobias would have disappeared on her without a trace.

Or so she thought.

Peter holds the diner door open and they all go inside, where Eric leads them to the back to talk to Edward. They're able to pull up the security footage pretty easily, and with Ed's memory and attention to detail they're able to pinpoint the exact date and timeframe for the visit where the two men left suddenly when seeing Myra.

"Here they are." Edward says, pointing to two men who are initially caught on the front door camera. "You can get a good look at them right here." He pauses the video.

"Holy fucking shit." Christina exclaims. "That's Will." She points at the first man in the frame. He's tall, pale, lean but well built. "Tris, this is Tobias with him."

Tris stares at the screen and feels the tears burning her eyes. "That's not possible."

"It is possible. That's them right here on this screen. You can't deny it, even bundled up and with the sunglasses it's them. Tris, you know it's them." Chris argues.

"I've got to use the ladies room." Tris says before quietly slipping out the door.

They continue to pour over the video, rewinding and pausing many times and grabbing various screen shots of the two men. It's obvious that they were going to length to hide their identities, but at the same time Eric wonders why they'd take a chance of showing up in the city, knowing the types of surveillance they would be subject to at the various businesses.

"It's almost like they wanted to be caught." Eric murmurs.

"I was thinking the same thing." Christina agrees. "Where is Tris?"

"Bathroom." Eric replies.

"For almost twenty minutes?" Christina challenges and Eric looks up. "I'll go in there."

Eric follows Christina to the door, waiting outside to give the women some privacy. Christina comes out with a disturbed look.

"She's not in there."

They look around the entire diner, and when they can't find her Ed checks the current video to track her movements.

"She left." He says, pointing at a paused screen showing Tris leaving out of the diner's front door.

Eric takes off towards the door, crashing through it and stopping on the sidewalk. He keeps looking back and forth, trying to catch a glimpse of her. He calls her repeatedly, but all of his calls are being sent to voicemail. Before he can decide which direction to head he feels a hand on his shoulder.

"She does this sometimes, she'll be back." Peter says.

"I can't just sit here while I know he's out there somewhere." Eric argues.

"I know, come inside and we're going to figure this out, ok?" Peter shoots him a sympathetic look, before leading him back inside of the diner.