AN: This is the last chapter I have written in Eric's POV. I hope you have enjoyed this story as much as I have enjoyed bringing it to you. I do have more drafts that I'm attempting to go through, clean up and possibly publish for other stories, if there's any interest. Thank you all for taking this journey with me!
The drive home was long, and filled with serious but necessary conversations, laughs, some fun, and most of all an actual bond. I had already started to realize that my issues with Four were ridiculous, but I was too stubborn to let them go. Once I found out that besides Miles, he and his children were the only blood family that I have left, it was a lot easier for me to get over my bullshit. It also helped that he was willing to be open and honest with me, and he didn't try to feed me a load of shit. He also took responsibility for his own faults along the way.
When we made it back to the airport in Chicago for Tris to both drop off the rental car, and pick up her car from long term parking, it gave Four and me some time alone. I had actually been the one avoiding being alone with him the entire trip, I always kept Tris as a buffer between us in case things went sideways. Today when she asked me if I wanted to walk in with her, I chose to stay out with him.
I'm regretting that decision now, because he just got a text from her saying it's going to be quite a long wait since the rental place is short staffed.
"You two seem really good." Four says as he hands me a bottle of water.
"We are." I nod. I take a long drink of the cold water before speaking again, "I know it's a long time ago, but I do owe you an apology. No matter what the circumstances were, she was your girlfriend when she and I slept together in Erudite, and I'm not in the habit of pursuing someone who is involved with someone else."
"You saved her life, and the situation was definitely unconventional, but the two of you obviously were destined to find each other again." He scuffs his foot at the ground, kicking rocks, "She never had to actually tell me, I knew there was something."
"What do you mean?"
"She was mourning you." He sits down on a bench, and I continue to lean against the fence, "I should have told her that you had survived, but I wasn't ready to lose her. I watched her that day in Candor. She doesn't know it, but I watched her sit on that bench waiting for you to come outside. She waited for two hours, I finally went inside and found out you'd been sentenced, so she came home. I filed the marriage license the next day."
"Wait, you two hadn't filed the marriage license when we were in Candor?" I ask and he shakes his head, "She didn't tell me that. What the fuck..."
"She didn't know. I'm who held off on filing it, because if we went to Candor that day and she chose you, I didn't want to go through with a divorce. I just held it."
"Are you masochistic or something? You were just going to let her go?" I ask.
"I just wanted her to be happy." He shrugs, "I didn't know at that time that what I felt for her wasn't love, but I showed up and she was just so broken so I wanted to fix her."
"Why didn't you ever try to come for her when she was in Erudite?" I ask.
"It's complicated." He says after several seconds of silence.
"Complicated how? Your girlfriend goes out exploring, doesn't come back to the home base you all were holed up in, and you don't make some sort of plan to go find her? Did you even look?" I ask.
"Evelyn tracked her down and she told me where she was." He replies vaguely.
"So, you didn't try to rally support to come after her? You would have had Dauntless loyal, factionless, you had people on the inside, and no one tries anything?" I press.
"Eric, it was difficult to drum up support for her, there were a lot of people who wanted to leave her there because Jeanine was leaving everything and everyone alone once she had her. I didn't have a lot of support."
"Your mother wouldn't have helped you with the person you love, her best friend wasn't tearing down the world trying to find her? That's how Tris got caught you know, she was looking for Christina." I argue angrily.
"Christina was going through a lot back then, she wasn't stable, and she wasn't able to leave." He replies defensively.
I don't know why I didn't see this before, Four left her in Erudite because he'd already started something with Christina.
"You didn't come for Tris because of Christina," I accuse and his eyes jerk to mine, "You and Christina started something when Tris was in Erudite, didn't you?"
"Eric…"
"You never came for her. She was there going on a damn month, you didn't need her because you were with Christina."
"It's not like that." He argues, "Christina and I were never intimate until Tris and I had split."
"No, not physically intimate, you're entirely too much of a Stiff for that. But you were emotionally involved and it kept you from finding out if your girlfriend was dead or alive." I reply firmly, "And when you got that phone call from Johanna, and she told you Tris had escaped Erudite and was alive you went there out of obligation, not love. You married her out of guilt, not love. You saw the shape she was in, and instead of letting her go and leaving her there with Jo, you tried to fix her. Because you couldn't stand the thought of not being her savior back then, could you dear brother?"
His dark eyes narrow and his jaw tenses. I've definitely hit the nail on the head. We may have made a lot of progress this trip, but I needed to know for myself why he never came for Tris. She's never answered me when I asked because she also didn't know.
"You're right." He says.
I'm not surprised often, but this is one of the moments. I have my answers, but I can't let it go.
"You didn't file the license, because you thought she'd leave with me, and your obligation to her would be done. You never did like being the bad guy." I accuse.
"Also true." He sighs, "I also didn't talk to her for almost ten years because I felt awful for the way I treated her. I know you don't think much of it, but I went to therapy for a long time, Chris too. I apologized sincerely to Tris for the way I treated her, but I've never told her any of this."
"It would just hurt her." I reply and he nods, "I understand not being ready to let her go, I couldn't for almost ten years. The difference between you and me is I stayed away from her until I was ready to be the man she deserved. I didn't try to fix her, she fixed me, because she's stronger than both of us ever will be."
"Yes, yes she is." His text alert interrupts us, "She's on her way to get her car from the lot, she'll be here in ten minutes."
"Saved by the bell." I smirk at him and he grins slightly, "We were both fucked up back then, by our mothers, by our father, by the pressures put on us as fucking eighteen year olds."
"I think we both turned out alright though. Don't you?" He counters.
"Yeah, we did." I nod.
"Eric, the conversation we just had..."
"Never happened. It would only hurt her to hear this, and you don't get to destroy her just to clear your conscience." I reply as I see Tris approaching the curb.
Once we've dropped Four off at his building we finally are able to head home. Tris' apartment is just as Miles described it, up twenty stories and "awesome".
Tris shows me around the main living area and I slowly take everything in. The place is massive for an apartment, and nothing like we had in Dauntless. She tells me there are four bedrooms total, with the smaller one on our side of the apartment being used as a home office, and the other two bedrooms are on Miles' side, one for sleeping and one is set up with his video games and toys.
When we're back in the main living area in the central part of the apartment I notice a shelf full of books.
"You have my books."
"I do." She replies.
"How...?" I ask as I run my hand across the spines of each one.
I feel her wrapping her arms around me from behind me and I wrap my fingers in hers.
"Jack." She replies and I turn to face her. "He had a subpoena to have all of the contents of Dauntless leaderships apartments packed and sent to Candor as evidence during the trials. He had kept everything preserved in their evidence storage, and when I first went to him regarding my legal rights when I was pregnant with Miles he allowed me to have your personal items. I had shared with him that you were the father of my unborn child, and by that birthright they belonged to Miles."
I'm at a loss. The man who I defied in his court, who I forced to sentence me to prison because I refused to cooperate, the same man I've been completely and irrationally jealous of saved my thoughts for my son.
"He was much more decent than I ever deserved." I reply.
"We have your books here, and some of your clothes are in my closet. I didn't keep much as far as the uniforms and stuff was concerned, but some of the things that looked worn and comfortable seemed appropriate. I still have some of your T-shirts that I've slept in for years." She says with an adorable blush.
"My leather jacket?" I ask and she nods.
"Miles has it in his closet. He's been waiting to grow into it."
We are interrupted by the sound of our door touchpad being accessed, and our excited little boy runs into the apartment with Jack on his heels.
Miles jumps directly into my arms and I just hold on to him.
"You're home Dad, you're really home for good now aren't you?" He asks me.
"I am son." I choke out.
"I want to show you my room." He says and I set him on his feet.
"Let me speak to Jack for just a second, okay?" I ask and he nods and runs over to Tris.
I walk up to Jack and offer him my hand, instead he pulls me into a hug.
"It's good to have you home." He says once we've broken apart.
"I can't thank you enough, I mean it's like there aren't words meaningful enough to show my appreciation for what you've done for my family and for me." I reply and he smiles.
"Your continued success is all we need. Perhaps we can grab coffee sometime soon, someone is waiting on you." Jack looks over my shoulder to Miles and I smile.
"Coffee sounds good. Thank you again." We shake hands before I head over to my son, who excitedly drags me down the hallway to what he calls his side of the apartment.
"This is my playroom." He says as he leads me into the first bedroom.
There's a futon couch, two beanbags and a decent sized TV, with a new video game system hooked up. I can see various toys neatly stored in bins, and several completed Lego sets displayed on shelves lining the walls.
"There's your picture Dad. Mom had it framed." He points at the picture I drew, which is hanging right above his TV.
"It looks good there." I remark.
"These are my video games, oh and this couch turns into a bed for when my friends sleep over."
"This is very cool. It looks comfortable for sleeping." I reply.
"Dad, I already told Mom I wanted you to stay here with us. She told me she had to talk to you. Did she?" He asks.
"She did, and we decided I would stay."
His grin is from ear to ear, "Let's go look at my room."
He shows me his bedroom, which is also decorated nicely for a young man his age, and has many of his completed Lego sets proudly displayed, including the one he and I completed on our first visit.
I'm touched to see the only two pictures he had of me in frames next to his bed, one from my first year of leadership where I looked like a kid trying too hard to be tough.
The other, my mug shot from returning to Chicago, where I looked broken.
"We need new pictures, Dad." He remarks when he notices me staring.
"Yeah, we do." I agree.
He shows me his bathroom, which is decorated with a dinosaur theme, "I'm kind of wanting to get new stuff in here, dinosaurs are for kids." He says seriously and I bite back a grin.
"I like it, but we can definitely find something better whenever you want, as long as Mom is okay with it." I reply.
He takes me down the hall and we pass through the common area, where I notice Tris and Jack sitting at the kitchen island, deep in conversation.
"This is Mom's office." He says as we enter the smaller of the bedrooms on this side of the apartment.
I see her files stacked neatly on her desk, and notice a framed picture of her parents. When I pick it up, Miles speaks again.
"That's my other Nana and Grampy. They died in the war. Mom said they were really awesome people and that they were heroes too." He explains.
"They were bud. They helped to keep your mom safe when she was working on stopping Jeanine."
"Mom misses them. Sometimes she cries thinking about them, I wonder if they would have liked me." He says.
"They would have loved you Miles."
After helping Miles with homework, then helping Tris make dinner, it feels like we're already falling into a nice routine. Later when Miles is in bed, and Tris finally shows me the room I'll be sharing with her, I see my Amity tree drawing on the wall across from the bed.
"When you gave it to me, it reminded me of what could have been. Now, it makes me excited for our future." She says quietly before wrapping her arms around me.
"I love you." I say as I wrap my arms around her and pull her closer to me, "Thank you for never giving up on me."