CHAPTER 15

Tris POV

The injections of pain medication I was given in the infirmary yesterday have completely worn off, and the pain killer capsules they gave me at discharge are not nearly as effective. They are strong enough that I can nearly forget the dull ache in my sprained wrist (other than the awkward brace I am wearing), but the right side of my ribcage, pain sears through me with every breath. My instinct is to curl in around the source, but when I do, it only becomes more intense.

How the hell am I supposed to fight today?! I really hope that Eric doesn't get involved and Tobias can pair me with someone easy, ideally Myra, or at least against Uriah ― I know he would end the fight with as little damage as possible.

Al and I walk side by side to the training room. This morning when I came back from my shower, the word "stiff" was spray painted in bright red all over mine and Uriah's mattresses, pillows and bed frames, and there was Peter, whistling as he fluffed his pillow. Drew was peeking around the doorframe, shaking with that silent laugh of his. Peter denied either of them having anything to do with it, but I'm not an idiot. I know it was them.

Uriah had already taken the twins to the daycare for me; I don't think he has seen it yet. Without a word, Al helped me strip the sheets off both beds before he threw them in the trash.

"Nervous?" Al asks, glancing at me.

"Well, yeah," I reply. "Just breathing hurts, there's no way I can fight. But I have to."

"Maybe they'll let you concede this time."

I roll my eyes. "Eric is not going to let me concede, Al. You know that."

Al shrugs. "Maybe he won't be there today."

He will be. Of that I am certain. Eric is in charge of my scoring, so he has to be at all of my fights. But if I tell Al that he will ask questions, so I just say, "Maybe."

"You were badass when you fought Molly the other day, you know," Al says to me, grinning. "You had her down so fast, I think Four and Eric actually missed it. Who'd have thought a short little Abnegation transfer could do so much damage in just a minute or two?"

"Hey!" I protest at his condescending description of me. But I can't help smiling.

"No, seriously! Uriah was impressive, too. How did you two get so good at this while growing up in Abnegation? Aren't you supposed to spend your time like… helping factionless and..." he pauses. "What the hell do you do in Abnegation, anyway?"

I roll my eyes. "Nothing fun. Anyway, Uriah and I were never really all that Abnegation. We always knew we'd come here." Then I change the subject. "How about you? I bet you're feeling pretty confident after your win yesterday."

Al lets out a heavy sigh, and I raise my eyebrows at him. "Oh, come on!" I say. "Aren't you proud of your win? Everyone will remember that; if you keep it up, they won't mess with you." I suppose they probably wouldn't anyway. He has his size on his side.

Al snorts. "Yeah, I'll be remembered as the first guy to knock someone out cold." He sounds tired… ashamed, actually.

"There are worse ways to be remembered, Al," I assure him.

"There are better ways too, first jumper." He shoves me playfully, sending a jolt of pain throughout my body, and I suck in air between my clenched teeth. "Oh my god, Tris! Shit, I'm sorry. I forgot."

"It's fine, Al," I grit out. "Just… don't do it again, please." He nods dumbly.

We pass the training room that the Dauntless-born initiates are training in, and Marlene waves at me, wearing her usual friendly smile. What surprises me is that Lynn sends a half-smile my way as well. She almost always has a scowl on her face. I guess the time we spent last night all hanging out together must have started to win her over.

When I got to the dining hall last night, at first it was hard to enjoy myself; I was nervous about having let Zeke and Tobias take the babies. They may be the twins' uncle and father, but neither of them have any experience at all with infants. Soon I decided that unless I heard otherwise, I would assume that my babies were just fine, and I joined in on the fun.

Everyone was angry that nothing was really being done about Peter, although the Dauntless-borns looked like they expected the news. When I told them that Four was going to try again to talk to Max, Al expressed his surprise that Four would go to the trouble. He even called Tobias an "emotionless robot," which had me clenching my fists under the table.

To my surprise, it was Lynn that spoke up. "Four may be tough, but he's loyal, and Tris's brother is his best friend," she said. Then she added with a smirk, "Besides, he's probably afraid that if Peter kills Tris, Zeke might end up with the babies and then Shauna would definitely rope him into babysitting." We all laughed.

"Four rocking a baby to sleep," Will had said with a deep belly laugh. "That's a ridiculous image."

"I don't know," I defended, remembering him standing and rocking Landon at Zeke's the other night, "the image in my mind is pretty cute."

"Yeah," Christina had said with a dreamy smile that made my fists clench again under the table. "That's definitely a cute image."

We enter the training room and I stop when I see Christina. She is standing very close to Tobias, who takes little steps back here and there to maintain some personal space. I notice how she bats her eyelashes (how cliche is that?) and fiddles with her earring. Christina's body language is obvious. She is interested. She is flirting with him. With my Tobias!

I clench my teeth and glare toward them. Uriah appears beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "Chill, Tris," he says loud enough for only me to hear. "She doesn't know about you two, and he isn't flirting back." I watch and see that he is right. Tobias tries to maintain the distance between them, and he is staring Christina down as she speaks with the face that inspired Al's assessment of 'emotionless robot'. Tobias says something to her and she reluctantly goes back to Will, who has now been joined by Al, and Uriah and I walk over to meet them.

I have barely greeted my friends when Tobias calls out, "Tris," his voice deep and serious, and waves me toward him with his hand.

I smile apologetically at Christina and Will and walk across the training room to Tobias.

"Hey," Tobias says softly. "How are you feeling this morning?" His arms are crossed over his chest, but his body is relaxed and he stands less than a foot away from me.

"Like someone threw me off a train," I joke as I look up at him, but Tobias frowns. I sigh. "I won't lie, my rib cage really hurts. But I know I have to deal with it."

Tobias frowns, but nods, and runs his fingers through his hair. "Look, I wanted to let you know… Eric told me he already talked to Peter. I wanted to do that myself, I don't trust Eric to care enough to get the message across. I can't really go after him, because of this whole instructor situation, but I'll figure something out. Zeke might be planning something anyway."

"You don't need to do that," I insist. "I'll just stay near my friends."

Tobias sighs and glares across the room at Peter. "We'll talk about that later, okay? Anyway, I'm about to write the pairings up on the chalkboard. Believe me, I tried, and I argued with him about it longer than I should have, but Eric wouldn't let me pair you against Myra." Myra is the only one that would be an easy fight with how I'm feeling today. "You had better get back to your friends."

I nod and thank him, then go back to Uriah, who is talking with Christina, Will and Al. Tobias picks up a clipboard and starts copying the fight pairings onto the chalkboard.

"What did Handsome-but-Broody want?" Christina asks. I detect a bit of an edge in her voice.

I shrug. "Just checking on me after that fall yesterday and letting me know that Eric spoke with Peter about, you know, trying to kill me."

I watch Tobias write on the chalkboard. I will be fighting Drew today. He is the easiest of Peter's little gang, but this still seems impossible.. Christina lights up when she sees her name. "Oh, thank goodness! I only have to fight Myra today," she sighs happily. She looks at me. "Drew isn't too bad, if you can beat Molly, you can beat Drew."

"Broken ribs and a sprained wrist, Christina," I remind her. But my mind flashes back to seeing Drew a few minutes ago, silently snickering in the doorway to the dormitory, and I want to beat the crap out of him.

"Oh, right."

"At least I don't have to fight one of my friends today," Al says with a half-smile. He will fight third, against Peter. I see that Uriah will fight Edward, and Will against Molly.

Eric saunters into the room, already yelling the moment his foot hits the wood floor. "Myra and Christina! In the ring!" he shouts, and Christina hurries over to the mat and she and Myra square off. Their fight is as boring as I expected, and Christina knocks Myra out in under a minute.

Christina and Myra are followed by Uriah and Edward. A few days ago, Will told me that Edward has been studying hand-to-hand combat since he was ten years old. He could definitely give Uriah a challenge.

I am pleasantly surprised; the few extra training sessions with Tobias these past months have paid off. Uriah does not come out unscathed, but when he knocks Edward unconscious, Uriah hasn't even sustained enough damage for Four to insist that he visit the infirmary. My brother leaves the mat with a slight limp, a cut lip and a bruised jaw, but he smirks at me as he sits down beside me again. But as Uriah ended his fight and Eric proclaimed him winner, my attention was drawn not to my brother, but to Peter, Drew and Molly across the room. The jealousy and hatred in Peter's eyes is obvious as he glares at Uriah, and his minions follow suit. Suddenly I am less concerned about Peter coming after me, and more worried that he and his little gang might go after Uriah next, instead.

Al is up next; I see Peter eagerly making his way to the ring. Peter is the kind of sadistic bastard who actually enjoys this. I briefly squeeze Al's forearm in encouragement. "Defend my honor, will ya?" I joke.

"I don't like beating people up for no reason, Tris," he says quietly, and I blush, feeling badly for my comment. But then Al faces me, walking backwards toward the fighting mat. "But this time, I have a reason." He winks before he turns around to enter the ring and I stand there, stunned.

My eyes quickly dart to Tobias. He is scowling at the pair in the ring. Both of them. I study Peter's fighting technique; a fight with him is inevitable. Whether I am ever paired against him in training or not, it will happen eventually, and anything I can learn about his strengths and weaknesses will be useful.

Peter and Al fight. Peter is more skilled, and he is faster, and he is big. But Al is bigger and more powerful, and his biggest downfall is his kind nature. That weakness isn't in play today, though, because this time, Al wants to hurt the person in front of him. I can't even begin to guess who will win this fight.

Peter throws the first punch, narrowly missing as Al dodges to his left. I remember that Peter fought against Uriah the other day, too, and I scoot closer to my brother.

"Did Peter make the first move in your fight with him, too?" I whisper, keeping my eyes on Peter and Al. They trade punches and kicks, Al taking more punches than Peter, but Al is hardy and Peter never manages to make contact with Al's skull.

"Yeah," Uriah says, smirking at me. "Studying his technique huh?" I nod and Uri throws his arm over my shoulders. "Smart."

"He steps before he punches," I observe after watching for another minute.

Uriah nods. "Look," he says, pointing with one finger, "his position was right at first, but as he gets winded, he's dropping his arms." I smile at Uriah and nod.

Peter swipes Al's feet out from under him, knocking Al to the ground, and quickly kicks Al in the stomach. He says something I cannot hear just before he goes to kick a second time and Al moves more quickly than I thought him capable of, grabbing Peter's leg and pulling him down with a roar. Before I know it, Al is straddling Peter, using his knees to pin down Peter's arms. Al delivers a powerful blow to Peter's temple and I watch the tension disappear from Peter's body as he goes boneless, limp, unconscious.

"Well done, Al," Eric says, smirking, as Four circles Al's name on the board. "Next up, Drew and Tris."

Despite the oral pain medications I took this morning, my torso screams with pain with every movement.

I can't do this. I want to beat Drew to a pulp, but I can't.

So I take a risk.

Instead of going to the mat, I slowly make my way to where Tobias and Eric stand. I don't bother addressing Tobias, all three of us know who holds the power here.

"Eric?" I say nervously. "Is there any way I can just forfeit this match? I was pushed out of a train less than twenty-four hours ago and my ribs are fractured-"

"Sure, you can forfeit, Tris," Eric says, but his tone sounds too kind to be genuine. I wait for him to continue, because I just know that he will. Tobias knows it too; his demeanor is carefully guarded, a practiced sort of casual, but I know him too well not to notice the warning in his eyes and the tension in his jaw. "You can always forfeit… if you want to quit initiation and become factionless, that is." I feel something inside me deflate. I knew better. I knew he wouldn't let me out of it so easily.

"No, sir. I want to continue initiation." I force myself to stand with an aura of strength that I don't feel inside, and Eric nods.

"In the ring, then, Stiff."

I step barefoot onto the mat at the center of the room, where Drew is already waiting. He is guarding his face well enough, but holds his left hand too high, leaving his stomach exposed. I saw him fight the other day. He would be an easy opponent for me, if I thought I could actually throw a punch right now.

He doesn't waste any time throwing the first punch, and I twist out of the way, yelping as pain sears through the right side of my torso. I grit my teeth and throw a punch with my left hand, growling through gritted teeth as my fist connects with his stomach and sends shockwaves through my body; this is unbearable. And based on Drew's reaction, I hit him with about half my usual force.

Distracted by the excruciating pain I am already in, I don't see it coming. He sweeps my legs out from under me and I land hard on the mat, and even worse, on my right side. I whimper and his foot connects with my sternum. White-hot pain rips through me and I hear someone screaming, but I am too focused on the black dots obscuring my vision to try and figure out where it is coming from. Maybe I should, though, to distract myself from the anguish I am in, and whatever it is that is happening to my vision. I listen to it, I feel the reverberations in my chest.

Oh. I'm the one screaming. And I can't seem to stop.

On your feet, on your feet.

I try to roll to my knees but a fresh wave of pain disorients me. Drew's foot collides with me again and my arms give out, I am face down on the mat. Something collides with my head and through the fuzzy black dots swimming before my eyes, I see the anguish in Tobias's face. I want to get to him, need to reach him. And that is my last thought before the world goes black and everything around me goes still and silent.