This turned out to be one of my new favorite chapters. Thanks reviewers, I hope you like this one as much as I do.
Collsy100- I can't imagine Tris trying to trick Eric into a relationship. I guess I haven't done a very good job of explaining her motives. She does want to be with him, definitely. But she also knows she has to be careful not to scare him away. I had this chapter and the next written already, but I did write a short drabble that helps explain her feelings that I will post soon.
Tris couldn't understand how Eric was so calm and collected during their meeting. Sitting next to him in Jeanine's brightly lit office, all she could think about was Eric and their encounter in the locker room less than an hour ago.
It wasn't ideal. She was off her game and that could prove dangerous.
Though she wasn't a leader yet, that didn't seem to concern Jeanine. The other woman asked for Tris' opinion on almost every point they covered in the meeting, much to her surprise. She hadn't been prepared to discuss any of the subjects Eric brought up, but she handled it remarkably well. Training in the office with Eric had been quite informative.
Just when Tris began to feel at ease, Jeanine brought up the subject that Tris had been dreading.
"To end our meeting today, I would like the discuss a growing danger, one far more lethal than the factionless."
Tris knew what she was going to say before she opened her mouth.
"Divergents. If left unchecked, they will destroy the faction system. Do you know why that is, Beatrice?"
"They can't conform to one faction," Tris told her, silently sulking at the use of her birth name.
"Exactly," Jeanine said, nodding shortly. "Imagine the chaos they could cause in Dauntless during the initiation process. An individual could rise up through the ranks without embracing the ideals of their chosen faction, stealing high ranking positions from their peers quite easily. You see, divergents have an unfair advantage, an anomaly in their genetic makeup that allows them to appear to succeed where they might normally fail."
"Simulation awareness," Tris mumbled, more to herself than Jeanine. Eric, whose attention had been focused on Jeanine, suddenly looked at Tris.
"Precisely. Can you imagine if a divergent would infiltrate Dauntless leadership? They could tear apart our factions systematically before we even knew what was happening."
"I understand," Tris lied. "So what is your plan to deal with them?"
"In order to eradicate the problem, we must first understand them. I have a lab set up here in Erudite to observe and study divergents. Of course, we are severely lacking in test subjects. There are those who help the divergents remain undetected. Traitors who do not embrace the faction before blood ideal."
"What can I do?"
Jeanine smiled, as if that was precisely what she had hoped to hear.
"You can be my eyes and ears inside Dauntless during the next initiation. Be on the lookout for any initiates that don't seem to fully embrace the ideals of their faction. Observe their simulation training and report any discrepancies to me. Can you do that, Beatrice?"
"Of course."
She dismissed them, looking much happier than when they had arrived.
On the other hand, Tris' mood had turned sour.
Leave it to Jeanine Matthews to ruin what had started out as a great day with her slander. That woman was sincerely deranged if she believed that divergents wanted to destroy the factions.
Though her words had struck a chord with Tris, who just had her fears confirmed. She, as a divergent, did have an unfair advantage over the others in her class. Perhaps she didn't deserve the leadership position.
Eric suddenly pulled her away from her thoughts when he grabbed her forearm tightly and dragged her roughly towards the elevator. Jeanine didn't see, but her assistant did, and was now watching the pair curiously.
He shoved her into the lift, ignoring her glare, and without explanation for this treatment until the doors closed on them.
"How did you know divergents were sim aware?"
It took a moment for her brain to catch up, but when it did, Tris felt as though someone had just doused her with gasoline. She had just exposed herself to Eric, if not as a divergent, then at least as a sympathizer.
"I read it somewhere. Probably in one of your emails," she lied cooly.
"No, you didn't." He sounded absolutely certain, just as Tris was certain she had never seen an email concerning divergents.
It was too late to take back now.
"Yeah, it was a few weeks ago, maybe you just don't remember the email."
He stared down at her impassively, and Tris swallowed loudly. He was too smart to fall for her lie. But Jeanine, had Jeanine caught on too?
The doors to to lift opened, and Eric grabbed her again as she tried to bolt.
"We'll talk about this back in Dauntless, okay?" He growled, holding on tightly while she attempted to yank her arm away. "Come on Tris, we'll take the train." He gave her a pointed look that clearly told her not to run.
She considered her options. She could try to run, causing a scene in the middle of Erudite and incriminating herself further. Eric would catch her, and Jeanine would throw her in her secret lab to be experimented on.
Or she could take the train with him and try to lose him that way. Stay on while he jumped, and get the hell away out of dodge.
Tris nodded and he released her.
The walk to the train tracks was silent and tense. Tris was on edge, waiting for an ambush. It never came.
She had never been more relieved to see the train approaching than at this very moment. She needed to get out of Erudite and away from Jeanine Matthews.
She ran with Eric, trying to build up enough speed to catch the rail of the boxcar as it passed them. Eric waited for her to get on the train before he pulled himself up next to her.
Tris, suddenly exhausted and on the verge of tears, sat down on a crate and tried to appear normal.
It was far too late for that.
"Why didn't you tell someone?" Eric asked, sounding just as tired as Tris felt.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You had plenty of opportunities during training. Why fake it?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Who helped you? Was it Four?"
"I don't-"
Eric cut her off by driving his fist into the wall of the train, right next to her head.
"God damn it, Tris! This isn't a joke."
"I'm not laughing," she replied, glad her voice didn't shake. She wasn't exactly afraid that Eric would hit her, but then again, he might try anything to subdue a suspected divergent.
"Listen to me carefully," Eric began, fixing her in place with his heated stare. "You are one phone call away from spending the rest of your life as a lab rat. Is that what you want?"
Tris shook her head, embarrassed when a tear slid down her cheek.
"She's going to call me as soon as I return to the office." He sighed, running his hands through his hair in exasperation.
"What are you going to tell her, Eric?" Tris asked softly. He didn't look at her right away and Tris felt her stomach plummet.
"I'll tell her... I'll tell her that I briefed you on divergents before the meeting. You opened my email today and asked me about it."
Tris could hardly believe it. Eric was going to lie to Jeanine?
"Why would you do that?" She asked him, wholly confused. It was his job to find people like her. He glared at her, but she didn't back down. "Why lie?"
"You haven't given me a choice, Tris!"
That answered absolutely nothing.
She stared at him, lost in his steely blue eyes for the second time today. He was regarding her almost cautiously, as if he was waiting for her to try and flee again. She had no doubt he would be ready if she tried anything.
"Fuck," He said under his breath, breaking eye contact. "Why couldn't you just be normal?"
Tris assumed this was a rhetorical question and didn't answer.
Unfortunately for her, Eric seemed to expect a response. He gripped her shoulders and pulled to her feet.
"Why did you join leadership?" He hissed at her, viciously. To her horror, another tear slipped doen her cheek. "Answer me!"
"I wanted to prove that I was Dauntless. That I could be just Dauntless, despite what the test said."
"Well, you can't," he snapped. "This is exactly what Jeanine said would happen."
"No! She's wrong, Eric. I don't want to hurt anyone."
He was quiet for a long moment.
"You're lucky that I believe you. We wouldn't even be having this conversation if I thought for one second that you were a threat to my faction."
"It's my faction too," she cried, trying to shrug out of Eric's grip. He held tight.
"I can't believe this shit. You should have told me."
She scoffed.
"So you could turn me in?"
"I wouldn't have turned you in. I'm covering for you, for fucks' sake. You could have trusted me."
"And why should I? At what point during initiation did you give me the impression that I could trust you with my life?"
She had made her point. Eric had no response, at least not right away. He did, however, tighten his hold on her shoulders. His grip was painful now, but Tris didn't complain because the pain grounded her.
"You'd better get a hold of yourself. Our jump is coming up."
Tris wiped her tear stained cheeks and took a deep breath to steady herself. It didn't work. Her lip trembled and it suddenly struck her that she was scared.
If she had expected sympathy from Eric, she would be sorely disappointed. He stared, watching her display of weakness with an icy demeanor that chilled her to the bone.
She couldn't blame him, not really. It must have been difficult to discover that she had been hiding in plain sight for so long.
A divergent, right under his nose.
If she were him, she'd be furious. In fact, he was probably only covering for her so that Jeanine wouldn't think he was totally incompetent.
She didn't know if she could trust Eric fully, but she imagined she could trust in his sense of self preservation.
That would have to be enough.