A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the slow updates, but worry not, I will see this story through until the end. Thanks so much for your reviews and PMs! :) And many hugs for Bamberlee who returned this chapter super quickly.
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Chapter 28

TRIS

After a long and uncomfortable ride, Andy and I are taken out of the back of the truck they'd shoved us into. He whimpers into my chest and I hold onto him tightly, still promising him everything will be okay. More than once, I scream at the men who took us, threatening to rip their throats out if they even think about touching my son.

"Shut up and move," one of the men growls at me, shoving his gun in my back.

It's three of them- two of whom I remember from my last encounter with Evelyn, and a new taller one who has become the most recent addition to my list of people who I'll kill when this is all over.

"Where are you taking us?" I ask them. I look around me, but I don't recognize where we are. It's the middle of the day, yet there's nothing in my line of sight that sparks even the slightest sense of orientation. I can barely even see the sky. We're surrounded by tall trees and nothing else. Apart from the sound of leaves crashing in the wind, there's not a sound to be heard- not a single bird sings.

"Walk this way," another one says without answering my question. He leads the way while the other two walk behind me.

I walk as slowly as they'll allow me, not wanting to lift my feet too high. My ankle monitor is barely hidden under the bottom hem of my jeans. Chad must not have known about it if Evelyn's men don't, but I pray they never find it. It might be the only thing that leads Tobias to us.

A few minutes later, I begin to see a wooden structure behind the trees, not nearly as large as the first factionless hideout I had seen, but still large enough to hold a few hundred people. This one only appears to have about three or four floors, so it's well hidden under the tall trees. There's a wire fence that goes all the way around it, and there are four men posted outside at the entrance.

One of them raises his weapon when he sees us approaching, but then he lowers it again when he recognizes the man in front of me.

"It's about time!" he yells. "Was starting to worry she'd gotten the better of you again." And then he laughs. When the man in front of me yells back in response, I realize they're obviously not too keen on keeping quiet, which means we are far away from where anyone would be able to hear us.

All of a sudden, the last person on Earth I'd ever want to see comes to stand by the front door wearing a Dauntless jacket, blue jeans and a pair of brown Amity boots. She crosses her arms and stands there patiently waiting as we inch closer to the structure.

When we're past the wire fence, it's like Andy becomes aware we're in even more danger now, and he sinks his fingers into my back. It might be because he can literally hear my heart racing inside my chest.

With a gun still pressed into my back, I move steadily up the stairs. My arms burn from carrying Andy all this while, but I don't dare put him down.

Evelyn looks tired and actually a little weaker since the last time I saw her. She looks me in the eye for a while; hers are cold and dismissive, almost as if she'd rather I not be here at all.

"Bring them inside," she says to her men, and we follow behind her.

The inside of the building is unimpressive, made entirely of unpainted wood. Unlike their last hideout there are no pictures on the walls and no fancy lights hanging from the ceiling. In fact, the only source of light seems to be the windows and doors.

Evelyn leads us to what appears to be a lobby of some sort. It's a wide open room with nothing inside except for a single desk and chair. The men stand guard at the entrance, and then I'm just left standing in the middle of the room, facing Evelyn with Andy's face still buried in my neck.

"This must be Andy," Evelyn says with a smile on her face, as if she didn't just have us kidnapped.

"Don't you speak to him," I growl at her, clutching even tighter onto my son.

She slowly circles me and the heels of her boots echo in my ears. I pull away from her when she leans in, trying to get a good look at Andy's face. "You look so much like your father when he was your age," she smiles at him.

I'm suddenly filled with even more rage that she would dare mention Tobias. "I said don't speak to him!"

Huffing, Evelyn gives me an eye. "You forget where you are, Tris." She sets her hands on her hips. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm in charge here, and I will speak to whomever I damn well choose."

It's almost impossible for me to quell the desire to slap her into next week.

"How are you so fucking selfish? Whatever your agenda is, Evelyn, you didn't have to bring my son into it. Whatever issues you have are with me."

"Don't flatter yourself, Tris." She scoffs. "Andy is far more important to me than you could ever be."

I feel the hair on my arm stand up when the thought of Evelyn being after my son crosses my mind. "If you hurt him, I will kill you."

"I would never hurt my own grandson. And you wouldn't kill me." She leans her head to the side as she stares at me.

"Of course I would," I seethe at her. "Both our sons deserve better than you."

She shrugs nonchalantly. "Say what you will of your own son, but don't pretend to know what's best for mine."

"Tobias stopped being your son a very long time ago," I tell her. "The day you abandoned him. Remember? I'm surprised you even remember what he looked like at Andy's age."

Evelyn laughs comically, as if I've just made the joke of the century. She walks over to the desk and leans up against it. "You are so much like your mother- so self-righteous, always feigning this image of perfect goodness. And just like her, you have no idea what real hardships are. You've never tasted struggle. I'm surprised you even had the guts to leave Abnegation."

I scowl. "Don't talk to me about hardships and struggles when you kidnapped my husband and made me believe he was dead for five years."

Evelyn leans up off the table and slowly begins to make her way toward me again. "Look at you… judging me for holding on to my son while you so protectively hold on to yours." She glances at Andy. "As a mother I had almost expected you to understand why I did what I did."

"I would have never done what you did!" I yell. "You chose to harbour a shell of who Tobias was rather than accept the fact that he wanted nothing to do with you!"

Taking three quick paces toward me, Evelyn leans into my face and screams, "Because his father poisoned him!" She leans back. "And so did you. And soon enough you'll know what it's like to have your son hate you for things that are simply far beyond his understanding."

Slowly, I shake my head at her, and in an unwavering and vicious tone I say, "If you even wish to speak to my son, you will have to pry him from my cold, dead hands."

Softly Evelyn says to me, "If you knew how little I value your life, you wouldn't dare say such things." She scoffs. "I think you're taking this lightly because you assume Tobias will rescue you both before the day is out. But you'd be wrong. We're in the middle of nowhere, Darling, and Tobias has no idea where we are."

I show her no fear, because I already know Tobias will find us, one way or another.

"Ma'am," one of the guards at the door suddenly interrupts us after three quick knocks. "Someone is here to see you."

"Who?" Evelyn barks. "I'm busy."

"It's me," a woman's voice says, and it's so familiar that I instinctively turn my head around. Her hair, her face- it registers in a flash, and I suddenly feel sick to my stomach.

"Kate," Evelyn says in a softer tone, and she begins to walk toward the woman who I now remember came to see Tobias at the bunker. At first I'm not sure how to react, and then I decide the best thing would be to not react at all. After all, she's supposedly on our side.

Kate glances at me, but only briefly, as if my presence here means nothing to her. "I came to see how everything went with phase one," she says to Evelyn. "I didn't know we were attacking already. With Tony out, I had figured you'd want me to be part of the team."

Evelyn sighs, and she presses a hand into Kate's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Kate. But with a traitor on the loose, I can't take any chances. I'm keeping information on a need to know basis."

"I understand," Kate nods without question. "Did you get Tobias out of there?"

"No," Evelyn's face sinks. "Apparently, he's injured."

"Injured?!" I all but cry out. "You make it sound like he twisted his fucking ankle, Evelyn! He was almost shot to death!" I inform her, in case Chad forgot to mention to her what he had done.

Kate appears to be taken aback for a second before she asks, "Who's this?" She pretends to not know who I am, and I can only hope that's a good thing. Harrison confirmed that Kate really is his mole in Evelyn's camp, and she quickly identified Chad as the Dauntless traitor, something we had all suspected. But I'm not too quick to take it for granted that I can trust her, not with my baby's life on the line.

Evelyn huffs. "She… is your new responsibility. This is the woman who orchestrated the attack on our compound and kidnapped Tobias- stole him from us."

"I stole him back, you evil bitch!" I thoughtlessly blurt out.

"Mommy!" Andy softly chastises me in my ear, his innocent soul probably already burdened by the amount of times I've cursed in the past five minutes.

"I'm so sorry, Baby," I whisper to him so only he hears.

"Wait. This is her?" Kate quickly replies to Evelyn, eyeing me from head to toe, just like she did the first time we met. "That's disappointing."

"Indeed," Evelyn sighs. "I don't know what my son ever saw in her."

I press my lips together, trying to keep my rage at bay.

"And who is this?" Kate takes a slow and careful step toward me, eyeing Andy. I instinctively step away from her.

Evelyn smiles too proudly. "My grandson, Andrew."

"He is nothing to you, Evelyn!" I bellow just before Kate quickly spins around and says, "You didn't tell me Tobias had a son."

"I only recently learned he did," Evelyn answers Kate. "My informant failed to mention it. That idiot," she rolls her eyes. "I had to make minor adjustments to our plan to accommodate for him. I can't risk him getting hurt."

My jaw clenches on impulse.

I had gone out of my way to make sure Marcus never found out about Andy. I knew he'd never ask about me, but I still asked those who'd encounter him to never mention it. I was also exceedingly careful every time I took him to see my mother. And if Tobias had never told her, I'd have made sure Evelyn died never knowing she had a grandson, just like Marcus.

I don't bother to ask her what her twisted plans for my son are, because it doesn't matter. She will never get her hands on him. Not while I'm alive.

"However, I have no use for his mother," Evelyn adds. "You can take her to the cell on the top floor and do whatever you want with her."

Kate smirks a little too sincerely. "And the kid?" she asks.

"He stays with me. I'd like to have a little chat with him."

"No!" I immediately yell at them both. "Over my dead body, Evelyn."

"Oh, I'll all too happily oblige you, Tris," Evelyn sneers at me. She calls in her guards who were standing at the door and she orders them to bring Andy to her. I set him down in front of me and it breaks my heart when he whimpers, "Mommy, no." But I do it anyway, because I'll need all my limbs free.

One of the men makes the grave mistake of reaching out to take Andy. He's the first to stumble backward with a hard punch to the nose. He grabs his bleeding face and yells, "Bitch! You broke my nose!"

The other comes at me, better prepared than the last, but even so I get him with a strong right hook and a knee to the stomach. He groans but he doesn't back down, and he tries to hit me. I dodge his punch and return an even harder one, followed by a sharp kick in his right knee that lands him on the ground.

"Someone do something!" Evelyn cries out as I mortally wound the idiot with the bleeding nose.

I hear a bullet click into place, and when I look up I see Kate pointing a gun at me. "Don't move," she calmly says. "Or I will splatter your brains on this floor in front of your son."

Still not entirely sure which side Kate is really on, I freeze, and I can feel Andy trembling behind me.

"Right off the bat I can tell you separating her from the kid is not the best idea," Kate says. She's looking right at me, and it takes me a second to realize she's talking to Evelyn.

"My grandson is not staying in a cell." Evelyn takes four angry strides to stand beside Kate.

With the gun still pointed at me, Kate turns her head for a second and exchanges a slightly heated but whispered dialogue with Evelyn, who ends the conversation saying, "Fine. But you are to watch them. If she escapes, it's your life."

"You've got it," Kate nods. "She's not going anywhere. Not on my watch."

"Good," Evelyn smirks at me. "This should be interesting. It's only right. She stole Tobias from you, too."

Kate and I exchange another uncomfortable glance. The way my face falls, you'd think I never knew about her until now. But it's just as repulsive the hundredth time I imagine Tobias with someone else, and now that I know what she looks like, the mental image crushes me from the inside out.

"That's right, Tris," Evelyn mocks me. "This is the woman Tobias loves now. And whether you want to admit it to yourself or not, he's moved on. And it's time you did too."

Even though I know it's a lie, I can't deny her words hurt me, like sticking a finger into a fresh wound.

Just then, another one of Evelyn's men rushes inside the room. He breathes frantically at the door, trying to catch his breath. "We need to speak," he manages to say. "I have news."

Wanting to know exactly what's happening at Dauntless right now, I'm curious to hear what it is, but Evelyn instructs Kate to take me outside the room.

Still pointing the gun at me, Kate walks over to me and orders me to pick Andy up. He squeezes me to the point where I almost can't breathe, but all I am is grateful he's in my arms. I want to thank Kate, but I don't. God forbid she's making a fool of me and not Evelyn.

"This way," Kate directs me, holding the gun to my side.

As she leads me out of the room, her hand on my shoulder is so tender it's confusing. Even if she is on my side, why would she be so careful with me? There has to be some ill feeling there because of Tobias. Or maybe it's just me. Maybe she's so sure of herself she has no reason to harbour ill feelings toward me. Maybe I'm just being juvenile, upset that someone else can say things about Tobias that only I should, calling him by a name I thought only I knew.

The reality that I might resent her makes the walk to my cell too long and unbearably quiet.

With my mind racing, I walk slowly up the stairs and then down a small hallway with doors on either side. There are numbers on the doors, just like at Dauntless, but these are painted on.

Kate looks around her, staring a few seconds in either direction of the hallway before she lowers the gun from my side and opens the door. I gasp when I look inside.

"What's this? I thought you were taking us to a cell." I look around suspiciously at the small room that seems more like a studio apartment than a cell. There's not much inside apart from a single bed and a bathroom, but it's far more comfortable than what I was expecting.

Kate closes the door behind her and tucks away her gun. "I talked her out of it. I need you somewhere that isn't too heavily guarded so we can move if we get the chance. And having a bed and bathroom is definitely an upside."

The relief I feel is immediate, and I release an audible breath. Still, I hesitate to return the gesture when she smiles at me. The tension between us is palpable.

"You know, you can trust me, Tris," Kate says quietly. Her eyes are sincere. They're also the most beautiful shade of brown. Unfortunately.

"And so can Evelyn, apparently."

She shrugs. "I just know her well enough to manipulate her."

"What did you say to her?"

"I convinced her a more hospitable lodging would be more beneficial for what she's trying to accomplish." Kate folds her arms in front of her chest. Her breasts aren't small and humble like mine, and I have a feeling they're perfect.

"And what's that exactly?"

"She ultimately plans to take Andy from you," Kate sighs. I had gathered as much. "I told her she'd never be able to do that if the kid doesn't trust her. And he won't ever trust her if she forcefully separates him from you or stuffs you both in a dark cell."

"And she won't wonder why you tried to change her mind?" I raise an eyebrow. Her intervention would easily be viewed as a concern to someone suspicious enough.

"Nah," she assures me. "Evelyn is impulsive. At least twice a day I have to ask her to reconsider her decisions. I'm lucky she likes me enough to actually listen and not shoot me."

I manage to smile a little. "Thank you, Kate." My body relaxes, and finally feeling the weight in my arms, I set Andy down at my feet and he quickly grabs on to my leg.

"You're welcome," she smiles back. "And don't let her get to you, Tris. She's trying to get you to react and she'll say anything to make sure you do. She feeds off it."

I scoff. "It's harder than you think," I admit without meaning to. The last thing I want is for Kate to know how apprehensive she makes me.

"I know," she says, but in a frighteningly understanding way. "And thanks for not giving me away back there."

"I probably would have gotten us both killed if I had."

"Yeah," she answers. "Ironically, we're all that's keeping the other alive." She frowns a little when she says, "I know this must be weird for you."

"It's not for you?" I ask a bit defensively.

"Just a little," she softly says. "But it's also nice to meet the mystery woman from Tobias' dreams."

I stiffen a little out of pure discomfort. I suddenly realize I know nothing about her, and it makes her a bit more intimidating. The last time I felt so small I was sixteen years old in Abnegation.

"I'm not a threat to you, Tris," Kate quickly adds, as if she could read me. "Tobias never loved me. And I knew that."

I'm tempted to ask her if she loved him, but what purpose would it serve other than making me feel worse? So, instead I answer, "So he's told me."

But although Tobias has told me twice now that Kate meant nothing to him, I can't help but wonder if maybe there was something there and that's why he kept sleeping with her, and that's why she's helping us even now.

My thoughts are filled with so much insecurity they annoy me. If I could rip them out of my head, I would.

"How is he by the way? Was he really badly hurt?" Kate fumbles over the words.

"Yeah, but… he's doing a lot better. He'll be okay."

"Okay. Good," she says with a bit of relief, though she tries to hide it.

"You know my daddy?" Andy peeps out from behind me. He fearlessly looks up at Kate.

She smiles at him and then stoops down so they're at eye level. "Yeah, I do. I'm a friend. I'm just playing pretend with the bad lady. But don't tell anyone, okay? Can that be our very important secret?"

Andy looks up at me pleadingly, his eyes asking for permission. When I tell him it's okay, he nods at Kate and says, "Yes."

"Good. You look so much like him," she says with a wide smile, and from up here it looks like her eyes are just a little bit wet. "Be brave, Andy. He'll come for you. I promise." Standing to her feet, she then says to me, "I'll make sure you're both safe until then," and I know she means every word.

An unexpected wave of something that feels a lot like shame washes over me. Here I am, annoyed that Tobias' ex-lover hasn't given me reason to dislike her, aside from being too pretty and too helpful. I mean, what would I prefer? Someone who would have handed my son over to Evelyn without a second thought? I have some nerve resenting someone who is putting her life on the line to save me and my son, all because she slept with my husband when he had no memory of me. Meanwhile, Derek is back at Dauntless going out of his way to get Tobias executed, and we were never actually anything.

"Thank you," I whisper, feeling something of respect and gratitude for Kate. Whether Tobias returned her sentiments or not, it's clear how she feels about him, and I'm thankful that at least those feelings extend in a positive way toward me and my son.

To be honest, I could never blame her for loving him; Tobias is remarkable to say the least, and I fell in love with him long before I ever knew what love was. If the tables were turned, I don't think I would ever gracefully accept that his heart belonged to someone else, not the way Kate has. It speaks volumes of her character; it's admirable, and that makes me feel a little better and a little worse at the same time.

"I'll leave the door locked for now. Just sit tight until we figure something out," Kate says. "I see you're as good as Tobias with your hands."

I flinch and her eyes open wide after she realizes what she said.

"Fighting- I mean," she swallows and I almost laugh.

"I might be," I answer with a smirk, enjoying her anxiety more than I should.

"Good," she nods nervously. "You might need it." And with one last shy and uncomfortable smile, Kate exits the small room and pulls the door shut behind her.

I stare at the door for a while, still processing what just happened.

Andy quickly finds the bed, and he climbs up on it and puts his head on the pillow, somehow having completely forgotten we're hostages here. "I like her, Mommy," he says sleepily.

"You know what, Baby?" I smile. "I think I do too."