Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, any of the characters or any of the dialogue that comes directly from the text.


Chapter 29

After collecting my tablet from my office, I make my way through the compound towards the Pit in hopes of locating Four. When I arrive, I am hit by the delicious aroma of the banquet feast as well as the noise of the ever growing crowd. I push myself through the throngs of already half-drunk Dauntless in search of him.

My eyes find Kendra first, drink in hand standing on a nearby platform with a small group of people. I decide to leave her there for the time being and continue scanning the crowd for Four. Making a three sixty turn in the middle of the crowd, I finally spot him.

Our eyes meet and I motion for him to come to me. He narrows his eyes and scowls. He looks even more irritated by my presence than usual but walks towards me none the less.

"What do you want, Eric?" he bites.

What's crawled up his ass?

"Max brought it to my attention that you haven't received your tracking serum yet. I'll need you to come with me to the infirmary."

He looks at me with what appears to be curiosity, but we both know that with the crowd and the cameras we aren't at liberty to speak candidly.

"I'll go after the banquet," he replies, turning away from me and making to leave.

I grab his forearm to keep him in place. "That's not a choice you get to make. We're going now. We just have to grab Kendra first, she seems to have missed getting hers too."

I turn and walk towards where I had spotted Kendra, she is now laughing boisterously, what looks to be a fresh drink in hand.

I pinch the bridge of my nose in irritation, I do not feel like dealing with a drunk right now. When I have almost reached her, I glance back to make sure Four is in tow. His wears a sour expression but reluctantly shuffles behind me.

"Kendra," I say loudly over the noise of the crowd. "I need you to come with me, now."

She turns to look at me and her friends go quiet.

"So demanding, I like it!" she says flirtatiously, her body swaying slightly. She reaches her index finger towards me and runs it down my chest. "What exactly is it you need from me, Eric?"

Her friends noticeably tense at her actions and I hear Four snort next to me. I roll my eyes before grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand away from my body.

"You need to get your injection, we're going to the infirmary."

Still holding her wrist, I pull her down off the platform and drag her towards the exit. Four follows.


After what feels like an eternity of brushing off Kendra's advances, and Four doing absolutely nothing to help, the glass doors of the infirmary appear.

"Thank God," I say aloud.

I barge through the doors and point at the nurse standing by the nurses station.

"You, go get the last of the serums. These two haven't gotten theirs yet," I practically growl at her, my irritation with the whole situation putting me in a foul mood.

Thankfully, she complies immediately with my request and unlocks a nearby cabinet. Pulling a small box from the shelf inside, she walks over to us, opening the box to reveal two syringes. She picks up one of them and I reach for the other.

"What are you doing?" she asks, looking slightly alarmed by my actions.

"You do her and I'll do him," I say, pointing at Kendra then Four.

"That won't be necessary," she replies. "I can administer both."

I narrow my eyes at her.

"I've already administered over a dozen of these today. I can handle one more. Just get it over with so we can all get back to the celebration," I say icily, ignoring the look Four gives me at my words.

She nods gingerly and turns towards Kendra who is giggling to herself.

I raise the syringe up towards the back of Fours neck, pressing the tip of the needle against him while being careful not to break the skin. When I am sure that the nurse is distracted with Kendra, I push the plunger down quickly and allow the serum to run down the back of his neck, the fabric of his jacket easily disguising the liquid. As I pull the needle away, he brings his hand up and wipes off what's left on his skin. .

With the serums administered, I swipe open my tablet and bring up the database. Scrolling down to the bottom of the members list, I find Kendra and Fours names. I pass my tablet to the nurse and watch carefully as she inputs the necessary information next to Kendra's name. I do the same for Four then he and I turn to leave.

"What about her?" The nurse calls after me.

I turn around to find Kendra crawling onto one of the infirmary beds.

"Let her sleep it off," I snort.


As we walk back to the Pit, I can tell that Four wants to say something to me but, as was our journey to the infirmary, the journey back is monitored by several cameras.

When we get back, the Pit is even more packed than before. All of the leaders have now arrived and are standing together. Every part of me screams to go find Tris and tell her about her being injected, but I'd have to take her somewhere private and I don't have time for that now. Parting from Four, I make my way over to Max.

"Care to do the honors?" he says, handing me a microphone.

I take the microphone from him and make my way over to some nearby tables. Hopping onto one, I tap the head of the microphone to attract the attention of the crowd. I spot Tris and her friends near the middle of the crowd. They quiet their conversation and turn to face me.

"We aren't big on speeches here. Eloquence is for Erudite" I say, making the crowd laugh. "So I'm going to keep this short. It's a new year, and we have a new pack of initiates. And a slightly smaller pack of new members. We offer them our congratulations."

At the word "congratulations" the room erupts, not into applause but into the pounding of fists on tabletops.

"We believe in bravery. We believe in taking action. We believe in freedom from fear and in acquiring the skills to force the bad out of our world so that the good can prosper and thrive. If you also believe in those things, we welcome you."

I truly believe in everything I've said and I hope that most of Dauntless does too. I just wish that the rest of Dauntless leadership believed the same because if they did they never would have agreed to be a part of Jeanine's ridiculous scheme.

"Tomorrow, in their first acts as members, our top ten initiates will choose their professions, in order of how they are ranked," I say. "The rankings, I know, are what everyone is really waiting for. They are determined by a combination of three scores – the first, from the combat stage of training; the second, from the fear simulation stage; and the third, from the final examination, the fear landscape. The rankings will appear on the screen behind me."

As I finish my words, the names appear on the large screen. Next to the number one is a picture of Tris alongside her name. I knew what her ranking was before now, of course, but an overwhelming sense of pride rises in my chest regardless.

Tris

Uriah

Lynn

Marlene

Peter

Will

Christina

Gabe

Craft

Brielle

I watch Tris as she catches sight of her ranking and a slow smile spreads across her face. She looks over at me and our eyes lock, looking back at her, I don't even try to hide my grin. She deserves this. I am proud of her and, in this moment, I don't care who knows.

All around, her friends embrace, congratulating each other excited but naïve to what the future holds. I know I need to talk to her as soon as possible, but right now, she deserves to celebrate with her friends. I'll wait until after the feast.


By the time the food is being cleared, the majority of the crowd is as inebriated as Kendra was a few hours ago. With the leadership meeting taking place tonight, I abstain from any alcohol. I need to be at my best.

I look over the crowd in the dining hall, it's a little sparser than earlier but, the majority of the compound's inhabitants are still milling about. If there's one thing the Dauntless know how to do right, its party.

"Eric," Max's voice breaks through my thoughts. I look up realizing he is standing next to me. "Meeting in twenty."

Shit. I need to talk to Tris right now.

"I'll be there," I reply as he walks away.

I stand from my spot at the leadership table and make my way directly over to Tris and her friends. I don't have time for subtleties.

Her back is to me but her friends cease their chatter as I approach.

"Congratulations initiates," I say to all of them. Tris turns her head and looks up at me.

"Thanks," Christina replies apprehensively.

"Stiff, I need you to come with me," I say sternly to Tris, gently placing my hand on her lower back to emphasize my urgency. "Now."

"Okay," she replies, a barely veiled look of concern adorning her features.

I look up at Christina who is now glaring at me. "Do you want me to come with you?" she says to Tris while not taking her eyes off of me.

"I'll be fine," Tris says, smiling back at her.

I keep my hand on Tris' back as I lead her out of the room, down the hall and to a nearby corridor.

"What's going on, Eric?" she asks nervously.

I lift my index finger, signaling for her to hold off on her line of questioning.

When we are far enough down the quiet corridor, I stop and back her up against the wall. I place one hand on her hip and raise the other up next to her head, leaning in towards her.

Bringing my mouth down next to her ear, I whisper, "There's not enough time for us to go somewhere more private, so I'm going to have to tell you here. If anyone sees us, in person or over the cameras, they'll just think we are drunk and wanting some privacy."

I run my hand over her hip gently before returning it up to her waist. I feel her shiver under my touch.

"Okay," she breaths in my ear, playing along by raising her arms and clasping her hands behind my neck.

"After the final examination, I asked Max when he was planning to administer Jeanine's serum and he told me that it was already done. Apparently the infirmary spent the day administering it to the members."

"What about the initiates? They haven't given it to us yet," she whispers back.

"That's the thing, Max said that they figured out a way to combine it with the fear simulation serum. Which means I actually administered it to you unknowingly right before you went under."

She gasps audibly in my ear and I can tell that she is about to express her outrage. I kiss down the side of her neck, simultaneously putting on a show for the cameras and, distracting her from her outburst.

"What about Four?" she squeaks. I smile, realizing just how affected she is by my actions.

"Aside from the stick up his ass, he'll be fine. We managed to fake his injection."

"Thank God. Stick up his ass?"

"I don't know what is up with him but he seems crustier than usual," I reply, taking a second to kiss her briefly on the lips…for the cameras…

"Oh," she says.

"Oh?"

"His mood might be my fault," she starts as I suck her earlobe into my mouth causing her breath to hitch. I should probably just let her speak, but her reactions are making this too hard for me to stop. "After the examination, he stayed behind. We hadn't actually talked about the kiss we shared and he wanted to know where we stood."

"Ah," I say, releasing her ear. "How did that go?"

"Not great. I told him I wasn't interested in being more than friends with him and he asked if it was because of you. I told him regardless of what's going on with you, I only see him as a friend but he didn't seem to believe me. He just kept trying to convince me that you would break my heart and that him and I make more sense."

The anger that bubbles up in me is surprisingly minimal. I wouldn't have expected any less from him and had I been the one on his side of that conversation I likely would have reacted the same.

"Then right before he left, he looked at me and he just seemed…sad…and that's when he told me he…"

"Eric!" Max's voice rings out loudly from the end of the corridor. Shit. "Meeting, now!"

"I have to go," I say to Tris with urgency. "Go find Four. Leave for Abnegation as soon as possible. I'll see you when you get back."

"Okay," she says, shaking her head in agreement.

Max already suspects us and with the position we are currently standing in there's no denying it now. Throwing caution to the wind, I lean in and kiss her. While many of our kisses so far have been slow and gentle, this kiss is not. It's rough and desperate, like we are trying to commit each other to memory…almost like we are saying goodbye, but not just for tonight. My stomach drops at the thought of never seeing Tris again and the kiss turns even more desperate.

"Eric!" Max bellows.

I had nearly forgotten he was there.

"Be safe," I say before jogging over to Max who has already starting walking towards the leadership wing. I sneak one last look at Tris before turning a corner.

After a minute of silence, Max speaks, "Damn Eric, I never thought I'd live to see the day."

"What do you mean? What day?" I ask, confused.

"The day Eric Coulter would fall for someone and a stiff no less."

My first instinct is to lie, to deny it, but I can't bring myself to do it. He's already seen too much to believe me, and Tris deserves better than him thinking she's just some kind of conquest.

"The number one ranked Dauntless initiate," I counter.

He laughs. "Fair enough. She must be some kind of special for you to have taken notice."

He has no idea.

He looks over at me, his eyes scanning my face as though looking for a reaction. "Just don't let her distract you from duties. Our mission is worth more than some girl, no matter how special you think she is.


Author's Note: Hello all! I hope you enjoyed that one. The meeting is up next!

Please Note: Due to personal reasons, I won't be posting a new chapter next week, so look for the next update on August 6th. I'm sorry to disappoint, but unfortunately sometimes life gets in the way and this is just one of those times where I need to prioritize life over posting on here. I hope you understand.

I do, however, have a short/completed Eris fic kicking around on my laptop that I was only planning to post once this one is complete so I may post that one quickly for you next week in case you are interested. Please note, if I do post it and you do decide to give it a try, it isn't like this fic. It does contain some mature themes and the characters do stray further from the originals. Four in particular. So if either of those things are going to bug you, I suggest you just skip it and wait for the next chapter of this one. It will be entitled We Are Broken.

Thank you all for your continued support and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this chapter! I hope your summers are going well and I'll be back soon.

-MWB