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Chapter 10

Training

Tobias' POV

Running with one foot in front of the other. Feeling every burn, every stretch past its breaking point. It's been our ongoing morning routine for the past two weeks now. Tris and I wake up at the butt crack of dawn, we dress up to stay warm, but I can feel the season starting to change. Soon we won't have to wear these heavy sweatshirts and sweatpants. Since day one, Tris has been impressive to say the least. For a woman that doesn't have a lot of time to work out… Being a stay at home mom and all, she can keep up for the most part. We run at least 5 miles a day. At first I tried to go easy on her, starting with a mile a day and increasing it by another mile every three days, but Tris being Tris, wouldn't have it that way. No, she didn't want to appear as weak even to me. Since day one she has been pushing herself harder than she has to, with determination in her eyes to succeed.

I can't say I don't blame her though. I know first hand the feeling to better yourself physically. To be able to defend yourself and be strong enough to go against the monster that you feared for so long. I've been there. Sure, how I got there was different. Amar showed me the way, as he introduced me to street fighting. My ability to take a hit and a lot of pain proved to be an asset when I was fighting. Most fighters got tired out, leaving them too exhausted to fight back when I finally overpowered them. Overall I learned how to fight and how to defend myself. I kept telling myself it was so I could win, I needed the money for my side of the business. But in reality, I knew the truth deep down inside…It meant that if I could take down the strongest fighters, the undefeatable ones, then I would be ready for that one day that I would come face to face with the one person that I feared the most. The one person that should have loved me and been proud of me, but instead he put me down every second that he could. He beat me till I barely had any skin left on my bones to beat, to then lock me up in a closet for hours, if not days. Tris knows mostly everything about my history with Marcus. For the most part, I've told her everything… But there are a few things that not even I can bring myself to tell my wife that happened to me. Things that I fear will make me seem weak in front of her. So I know more than anyone else what is going on in her head. Needing to be prepared and ready for the day when Eric will come for her. The day that she might have to fight and never show one ounce of weakness in his eyes.

So although a part of me wanted to argue with her and tell her that she didn't have a need to learn how to defend herself, because I would never allow neither my father or that son of a bitch to touch her or our kids…I also knew she needed this. She needs to prepare for the worst case scenario. If the day came that she needed to protect herself or our children then that would have meant that something has happened to me. We need to be realistic here, we need to prepare for not only the best case scenario but also for the worst. We can't leave a trace uncovered.

I can't help but think of that awful dream that I had before we left home. The dream that continues to haunt my thoughts even after all of this time. I remember like it was yesterday, waking up looking around my house in fear that my family was indeed dead. Being struck in the back of my head, leaving me useless to help them and having to hear them being dragged up the stairs while screaming and being murdered. I figure this way if something similar, god forbid happened to us… Tris wouldn't be so defenseless to protect herself and our children if I was unable to help them myself.

Other than her physical strengthening lessons, Uriah and I have also been helping her to learn how to shoot a gun, thinking fast on her feet, and my favorite, throwing knives. I wasn't surprised when Tris picked up throwing knives as quickly as she did.

I demonstrated for her several times how to throw a knife outside for what felt like hours. The first few times Tris stood next to me with her arms folded across her chest. Her eyes were running up and down my form. It took alot of self control to focus on the task at hand, as I could feel the heat of her eyes on every part of my body. But she assured me that she was learning how I was standing, how every muscle moved as I was throwing the knife. It didn't matter what her explanation was, my body still hardened under her stare regardless. I shook off the sudden urge, getting back to the lesson at hand. I threw the knife a few more times, until I handed the knife over to Tris letting her have a go at it. Once again she took me by surprise as she took her stance, but not with the knife. She smiled as she parted her legs and pretended to throw the knife without actually holding it.

"Um Tris, you know imaginary knives don't work," Uriah called out, teasing her of course. Tris didn't respond, she continued to concentrate on her task at hand. When she finally felt ready for the blade, she took the knife from my hand and continued to pretend to throw it at the target that was pinned to a tree trunk. Only again she never let it fly through the air. "Um, you need to let it go. Remember the actual blade needs to hit the target, not just the imaginary one in your head, "Uriah continued. A part of me wanted to slap him, but I also wanted to tell Tris that he was right. But then something miraculous happened, Tris threw the knife and it actually hit the target. I barely saw it zoom through the air and land right in the center of the target. Bullseye. I was so damn proud of her and amazed all at the same time. How the hell did she do that? That seemed to even shut Marlene and Uriah up, because neither one of them could say a word after that.

Of course when it came to teaching Tris how to shoot a gun, it was a little more complicated than that, as Tris couldn't just stand there and not shoot the gun. She did however stand there just like she did before with the knife throwing lessons watching me. She watched how I positioned my gun and how I stood with my legs, all the way to how my fingers gripped the gun. I always knew Tris thought more out of the box, just like Ethan does, but never did I really see it till then. Although she was hesitant about learning how to shoot and again when it was time for her to take the gun out of my hands, once again she was a natural at it. She stood there with her legs apart, her shoulders back, letting her breath out as she pulled the trigger. My mouth dropped open when once again she hit the center of the target. Fucking bullseye. What The Fuck!

We continued practicing her newly found skills every morning after our run until she felt comfortable enough that she didn't have to prepare her body and it just felt natural for her. We both agreed that if we trained in the morning, the afternoons would be for our kids. We were thankful that Marlene and Uriah didn't mind taking turns helping us out, watching them while we trained. We decided to move on to the most difficult lesson of all, the lesson that I have been dreading to teach her since I agreed to training her. Fighting.

Uriah installed or reinstalled his old punching bag that he and his father used to work out on under the carport, always thinking ahead about the weather. He was even kind enough to dig up the old punching gloves for her. We all agreed, although they are bulky and uncomfortable they do protect your skin from the burns and cracks that you will experience without them. We started out slow, evaluating Tris with her stance, kicks and punching skills. I assessed that although my wife is stronger than what she appears to be, she had a much better chance at defeating a person by using her body weight in her blows. Using her knees and elbows was the best way that she could manage that skill.

But what I didn't predict is how hot she looked while doing it all. The sweat, her muscles flexing, her bad ass moves…. Now I understood why it was the easiest way for me to pick up women back in the day. My fucking wife looks hot as fuck while fighting. It didn't help watching her fine ass in those yoga pants while she was doing it all. I forced her to stop with my strong hand on her flat, hard, toned stomach and back, explaining to her that she needed to use her knees and elbows more. I swear it took everything in me right then and there to not bend her over and take her. Uriah even teased me for it, as he saw the hunger in my eyes and he caught me checking her ass out a few times.

But of course to be a good fighter you need to know what it's like to actually fight. I refused to spar with Tris, no matter the cost, I just couldn't do that to her. Marlene took the first two rounds for me. While on the other hand, Uriah couldn't wait for his shot at it. Of course he didn't last two minutes before landing on his ass. Tris was breathless, but I could see how proud she was of herself in her eyes when she realized that she won yet again. She is small but strong and her bright eyes demand attention. Looking at her is like waking up.

We spent most afternoons with the kids entertaining them with new adventures. Sometimes we would hike with them, pointing out the weird shaped trees and we would look at all of the animals that we would come across. Other times we would make s'mores by the firepit, or even take the kids fishing by the stream. Yeah things have sure been different out here, it's definitely more quiet, that's for sure. The lack of WIFI and electronics has definitely made the children interact more and forced them to use their imaginations to get by.

At first Tris and I refused Uriah's suggestion to train Ethan. Although Ethan and I often went at it with a punching bag back at home. But what he suggested was training him to fight, to protect not only himself but his family… Tris and I worried that he was too young, as he wasn't even eleven yet. Here we are suggesting that he carries the weight of protecting his family and himself on his shoulders, but in the end, we agreed it was for the best. If we are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best, we have to take everything into account.

Uriah started out slowly, starting with where the best place was to hide himself and his little sister if god forbid something was to happen out here. I was really impressed by the goofball Uriah, he thought everything through and figured out how to explain things in a way that wasn't scary at all for Ethan. Even where and how Ethan would take himself and his little sister into the cellar to hide. The doors are actually hidden on the side of the house, if you don't look hard enough you can easily miss the hidden doors.

"What are you doing?" I ask, slightly annoyed. Although I have been impressed with Uriah's attitude with all of this, there are still moments that he just can't help be himself.

"I'm going to throw this knife at the muffin on Marlene's head," Uriah says, taking his stance. Marlene walks past us, strutting her stuff with a freshly baked muffin in her hand. She stopped and turned when she reached the tree trunk that a target was pinned on. She turns smiling, placing the muffin on her head. I take a quick glance behind us, towards our children. Maddy is sitting happily in her playpen playing with her Frozen dolls while Ethan is busing himself with punching the punching bag again and again, willing the bag to move, but it doesn't budge.

"You can't be serious?" Tris asks, as I turn back around.

"Stand back and watch how it's done," Uriah says with all this confidence.

"Wait," Marlene says, right in the nick of time before Uriah could follow through with his knife. I glance over towards Tris who is standing off to the right side of Uriah, rolling her eyes when we finally connect. We break our eye contact and look back just in time to watch Marlene take the muffin off of her head and take a large bite and place it back on top of her head. Yes, cause that makes it any better,

"Ready?" Uriah asks, spreading his legs apart and holding his grip on his knife. He prepares himself, we watch as the knife in his hand lifts and-

"We brought Dauntless cake!" Are the words being yelled from behind us. We all turn, forgetting the stupid prank at hand, As my eyes land on no other than Zeke and Shauna just a few feet behind us, Zeke is in fact carrying a chocolate cake. I hear the sudden painful gasp and moan coming from Tris' direction. I quickly turn my head back towards my wife to see her right hand gripping the handle of the blade in her left shoulder. I look at a very shocked and horrified Uriah, who is no longer holding the knife he was just moments ago.

"Tris!" I call out, rushing to her side. I hear the wave of oh my gods and dude what the fuck, coming from behind me, but I don't turn around towards the words. I take my shirt off, hoping to help her. I hear Maddy in the background beginning to wail because of her mother's injury.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," is all Tris says, it sounds like she is a broken record the way she continues to repeat those two words. Fucking Uriah!

"You're okay? You have a knife in your shoulder," I nearly yell out in frustration as I point out the obvious. How is any of this okay?

"Shit. Tris I'm so so sorry," Uriah says, I can hear the shock in his voice, I know he didn't mean to hurt her, but a part of me wants nothing more than to kill him right here and now.

"Uriah, that's not a muffin," Marlene says.

Suddenly we are all in shock as we watch Tris slowly pull the tip of the blade out of her own shoulder. She winces and her face contorts until the blade is released from her own flesh. How the hell? I think fast on my feet and apply the t-shirt with a lot of pressure against her wound.

"Wait, you just yanked that knife out of your arm? God Tris, do you not have any nerve endings?" Uriah says. I can almost hear the green color that must be appearing on his face right now as he speaks. I bite down on my lower lip to keep myself from saying something I may or may not regret later.

"I think I need a bandage," Tris says, her color is a little paler than what it was before, as she looks down at the bloodied shirt.

"You think?" He continues to ask, just standing there. Fucking Uriah.

"Uriah shut up and go get the keys to the van," Marlene demands, finally making Uriah do something useful. He disappears into the cabin to retrieve the keys.

"Zeke, Shauna...Not that I'm not happy to see you here. But what are you doing here and how did you find us?" Tris finally asks the million dollar question.

"We haven't heard from you guys in weeks. We got worried, so we took some vacation time and thought that maybe you guys would be out here, "he answers. Well what great timing he has.

I sit back in my chair, gritting my teeth as I watch the doctor that Uriah found for us stitch my wife up. Luckily the Doctor is fine with being paid in cash and agreed to not asking too many questions. He got right to work on her. He cleaned out her wound, injected her with a numbing shot, before beginning to work on her stitches. Luckily Uriah has such a bad aim that he missed every vein, artery and muscle. It will hurt like a bitch, but there's no permanent damage. Thank goodness for that. I can't help but stare at my wife in awe. After everything that we have been through, all the obstacles that she has gone through, I can't help but want to push her a little further just so I can see the fire in her eyes. I can't help but notice how fear doesn't shut her down, it wakes her up.

Zeke and Shauna both felt terrible about the situation. No doubt, taking some of the blame because they distracted Uriah who was holding a knife with the chocolate cake that they brought with them. They offered to watch the kids while we got Tris to a doctor. I was thankful for that of course, not wanting to expose the kids to anymore trauma than what they had already been.

The minute the doctor disappeared to grab Tris a week's worth of antibiotics and pain meds, I stood up from my chair, hating being so far away from her when she was in so much pain. I held her closely to my chest, mindful of her injured shoulder. She breathed me in deeply, as I kissed her forehead. I should have stopped Uriah. I shouldn't have allowed such idiocy to go on.

"Stop it," Tris demands, breaking the silence. I pull back slightly enough to look down at her. She smiles up sheepishly at me.

"What?" I ask, not sure of what I am doing wrong. Does she not want me to touch her? Am I hurting her?

"Stop blaming yourself. This wasn't your fault," she says.

"Reading my mind again," I say, teasingly.

"I just know you…" She says. I can't help but slowly lean down kissing her lips softly, wanting her to know how much I truly love her.

"I love you," I say when we finally break apart.

"I love you too," she says.

"Alright, so I need you to take these twice a day, one in the morning and one at night, with food," the doctor says, while walking into the room. He hands Tris a very bright red bottle of antibiotics, before he continues to explain about the pain meds. "Take these for pain as needed. They may make you a little drowsy, so no driving, no alcohol and take them with something in your stomach. If you want you can take 600 mg of ibuprofen, they will help take the edge off instead. Any questions?" He asks, looking between Tris and I.

"When do I come back to remove my stitches?" Tris asks.

"They will dissolve by themselves in a few weeks. I would recommend no heavy lifting, keeping the area clean and dry and to change the bandage every day. Oh and no extracurricular activities until you are healed. You wouldn't want them to reopen," he says causally, while Tris once again turns a deeper shade of red than before. No extracurricular activities? No, sex? Fuck, this is going to suck. I knew we should have had that quickly this morning when she offered.

I joined the others outside around the crackling fire. It didn't take long for Maddy and Ethan to drop down and fall asleep tonight. With Tris being so hyped up on pain meds and all, she hit the sack right after dinner. I can't say I blame her though, as she was walking a little funky, I had to actually carry her the last ten feet to our bed. The last thing I wanted was for her to fall flat on her face and risk hurting herself more than she already was.

I was shocked to see that Zeke and Shauna not only had the kids bathed by the time we got back from the doctor, but they also had dinner ready for us. I don't think any of us had any energy to cook after the day we had. Shauna apologized for it being nothing special than just spaghetti and a salad, but we all assured her that it was more than what we were expecting and that we were very grateful to them for making dinner for us.

"So man, you look good. Life on the run suits you," Zeke says, taking a sip of his beer. Shauna hands me one and I graciously accept it.

"Shut up, Zeke. Don't make me slap you beside the head again. I did that enough on the way here," Shauna says. I nearly spit out my beer. God I missed them.

"So how was the ride up here? Did you guys see anything interesting?" I ask, trying not to just come out and bluntly ask if they were followed or not. I fear the answer to that question.

"We weren't followed if that's what you are asking." Zeke points out.

"And you know this how?" Uriah asks.

"Because we took a flight from Chicago to Tennessee and then rented a car and drove the rest of the way here. We made enough detours to make sure that there was no one on our tail," Zeke says proudly. I can't help but wonder if Shauna was behind this scheme. I don't think that Zeke would ever have it in him to be that sure of himself.

"Yeah. You're welcome," Shauna says, sarcastically answering my unasked question.

"Well be as it may…WE fixed the living room window back at your house," Zeke says, swinging his finger between Shauna and him when he said the word we.

"Oh yeah, WE boarded up the house until the window guy could come out and replace it," Shauna says, again enhancing the word "we." I guess by we, she really means her. She was always the Mrs. Fixer upper in the relationship.

"Thanks for that," I nod, "we appreciate that."

"No problem at all. That's what family is for," Zeke says, so proud of himself. Shauna rolls her eyes at him. If Zeke isn't careful he might end up walking home.

"We also got the glass cleaned up too. We also threw out all the trash and cleaned up as best as we could," Shauna says, sincerely.

"Can you tell just how much I need your ass home where you belong," Zeke says, nearly spitting out his beer as he speaks to me.

"Awe, do you miss me Zekey?" I ask, my tone soft, but teasing.

"Yes. I don't have anyone to save me from her," he says, pointing towards his wife.

"Now Zeke, you know I'm not there to save you, but to join in on the fun against you," I say, laughing.

"Yeah Zeke, Tobias may be your boy toy, but he has my back more than yours." Shauna says, throwing a grin my way with a nod that I happily return.

"Oh I see how it is," Zeke says, trying to sound hurt.

"Yeah, don't worry big brother... I got you," Uriah says, jumping in.

"Oh if that's the case… I'm really fucked then," Zeke says, trying to act all concerned.

"That hurts... You know I always got your back," Uriah says.

"Yeah that's what I worry about… Especially after this afternoon. Four my man, make sure to never trust this man with a knife ever again, alright," Zeke says, looking at me while gesturing towards Uriah. Uriah continues to look hurt.

"You gotta admit babe, you really fucked up royally," Marlene says, jumping in. I can hear the small slur of her words, telling me that she is definitely going to feel those drinks in the morning.

"So how long are you staying?" I ask, changing the subject.

"About a week," Zeke answers. "There aren't any major deadlines in the office for at least ten days. I left a few clients deadlines in Jeremy and David's hands… Nothing they can't handle and they can always call me if anything happens," Zeke explains.

"So how's D.A.A?" I ask, changing the subject.

"It's alright. It's not the same without you…" Then I see it, something is off by the way he says that. He rubs his forehead, a sign of bad news. "We lost a few clients with your absence," he admits. Shit.

"Who?" I ask, needing to know just who and how many clients we have lost. How serious is this? He lists off who, when and how we lost them. It makes sense, most of those clients were females. Although I didn't make it a habit to sleep with my clients… Many of them continued with us with the hope of trying to change that. It would make sense that they left now, thinking that there was no chance in hell that their dreams would come true. Although their companies were nothing huge, we will stay afloat, but still clients are clients. I simply nod my head, there is nothing else to say or do right now. I can't do anything about it. What's done is done. All I can do is focus on my family and keeping them safe. I fear a war is slowly brewing, a war that will take all of us to fight. I just hope we have it in us to win.

A/N

Can't believe we are at ten chapters already, we are at the half way point in the story. Comment below, let us know what your thoughts are.

See you all next week.

Revised by: FDFobsessed

Like always, happy reading, stay safe and healthy

Trini