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We were ranking the initiates again.
This would be their first ranking for stage two, meaning they only had like one or two left before they would be moving on to the very last stage of initiation. That was the one they really needed to focus on doing well in.
I was just supervising, seeing as my suspension was still in action. Tori had repeatedly apologized to me for it, but I knew it wasn't her fault.
As each teenager filed in, Tris and Christina turned around the board.
The ranks for the transfers:
Luella
Lee
Caspian
Parris
Anders
Franny
Cordelia
The ranks for Dauntless-borns:
Blue
Anise
Agatha
Rockwell
Willis
Merce
Hero
And of course, we had merged the two together.
Blue
Luella
Lee
Anise
Agatha
Caspian
Rockwell
Parris
Willis
Anders
Franny
Merce
Hero
Cordelia
I was incredibly proud of Luella and Lee—both of which had struggled at the very beginning, but their motivation had kept them from falling behind. They'd worked very hard to be high-ranking members of their class.
It was common that transfers were more determined.
I mean, that really wasn't surprising. Dauntless-borns had been raised in this lifestyle. They expected to continue living it, unless they left. No other factions had our kind of.. rules. Honestly, the only rule Dauntless had was that murder was punishable by life in prison. And that you never took someone's cake.
Uriah would definitely agree with that one.
The only initiates who freaked, so to speak, were the ones that came in last—Cordelia and Hero. While they were still capable of becoming Dauntless, this was definitely a holdback. Jobs would be more limited for them. Apartments would be more limited too.
The higher you ranked, the more possibilities life here had for you. And usually they were good possibilities. Like the chance of a higher paying job.
It was a sad truth.
After the initiates were given time to take in their new ranks, we dismissed them for the day, just like always. Tris, with a hand caressing her belly, walked over to me.
She was like.. 25 weeks pregnant? I was not, by any stretch, an expert on anything to do with pregnancy or babies. While I knew more than Zeke, I was still kind of lost. Apparently babies poop twenty times a day.
I winced at the thought.
Tris laughed. "Still thinking about how much newborns poop?"
"Yeah," I said. "It's disgusting. Do they not have any control over their.. bodies?"
"Babe, they're babies."
"Yeah?"
"We need to get you a baby book," Christina chimed in, sitting down on the table beside us and drinking from her water bottle. "You and Z can read it together."
Tris shrugged. "It's not a bad idea."
"Of course not! I'm a genius."
I snorted.
Christina rolled her eyes and slid off the table, tucking her short black hair behind her ear. I couldn't say I was necessarily nice to her—because I wasn't—but every mean insult or comment was playful. I rarely ever meant them.
I kissed Tris swiftly. "I'm going to go talk to Tori. See if there's anything I can do to earn money for a while."
"Okay," she said. "Don't do anything stupid. My baby needs a dad."
"And your baby will have a dad."
She smiled, and I kissed her one last time before picking up my own water bottle and heading off towards Tori's office. It was pretty far from the training rooms, so I took my time, scanning over the rock walls of the compound and trying to eavesdrop on conversations I walked past. Most were between a group of daytime drunks.
Three flights of stairs later and I was knocking at Tori's door.
She opened it, and broke into a smile I wasn't really sure I'd ever seen. With one hand, she motioned for me to come in and with the other, she shut the door behind us.
I sat down. "Any changes?"
"Not yet," she said, also sitting. "But I have good news."
"How good?"
"Jeanine found out about Tris and you having an unborn baby. And the rest of the leaders found out, and everyone but her seems to be okay with letting you work again. Especially Marcus and Andrew."
"How?"
I'd been under the impression that the baby wouldn't have changed any minds, so I hadn't brought it up. But now, Tris' and my dad knew they were having their first grandchild. Tris was going to kill me herself. We'd been meaning to go to Abnegation and tell them..
Tori grinned. "It seems that most of them understand what it's like to be a young parent. You and Tris are limited on money, and babies are expensive."
"Right."
"And Tris.. well, she's months away from being full-term. The stress is bad on her and the baby. Someone will need to take her place."
"But I'm still suspended, Tori—"
"So," she continued. "When Tris hits thirty weeks, you and Zeke will be taking over her jobs. Until Jeanine drops her suspicions."
I grinned. "Me and Zeke?"
"You work well as a team." she said, shrugging casually.
"And what if she doesn't drop her concerns? Jeanine?"
Tori shifted. "Well, lucky for us, she seems to be the only one this deluded. If anything, this has brought them to be concerned for her. Not you."
"So all I need.."
"Is for Jeanine to be convinced."
She really made it sound so easy.
Convince Jeanine, get your job back.
Jeanine was smart, even if she knew it or not—but I guessed that the latter was not the case. She definitely knew she was smart. She probably thought that she was smarter than she actually was. How sad. But I couldn't.. I couldn't possibly fool an Erudite, right?
And if I did, it would be a miracle.
I took the long route down to the cafeteria.
By the chasm, I actually saw two people dressed in all gray, hovering dangerously close to the railing. Before I was ten feet away, they turned around, and I stopped in my tracks.
Andrew and Natalie Prior.
My in-laws were standing in front of me.
They both had on the usual Abnegation outfits, but with Dauntless-looking boots. I wasn't sure I'd ever actually seen an Abnegation wear those in my time there. Maybe it was a new thing? Christina would've approved, though.
Natalie rushed forward, hugging me tightly. "Oh, Four! How are you?"
"Good, uhm—I didn't know you were visiting.."
They explained that after hearing Tris was pregnant, they wanted to come by and see us both. This was their first grandchild, afterall. So, I left them by the chasm and went to the cafeteria, hoping Tris would be there.
And she wasn't.
Chris told me she was actually back at the apartment, so that's where I decided I'd take Natalie and Andrew. They followed me up and down the endless hallways, and then we stopped at the apartment. I unlocked it. Inside, my very pregnant wife sat on the couch.
Tris looked up. "Did Tori—"
Natalie and Andrew both released breaths, and their eyes drifted down to her baby bump, which had only gotten bigger. It was probably the size of a soccer ball now.
"Mom? Dad?" Tris asked, standing slowly.
Natalie rushed over to her, and hugged her, burying her face in my wife's neck. The two stayed like that for several minutes, both of them crying and holding each other. Andrew turned to me, and I saw a grin—the opposite of the reaction I had expected.
He asked me if we could take a walk, preferably outside, and I accepted. After telling Tris and Natalie, we left.
The Dauntless hallways were mostly empty.
Everyone was probably at lunch, enjoying the food and talking and likely getting drunk. It was not rare to see a drunk wandering around in the middle of the day.
"I'm guessing you didn't have a wedding?" he asked after a moment. "We never got an invitation."
I dipped my head a little. "No, we didn't have a wedding."
"Any specific reasons?"
"There.. was just no reason," I said, being as honest as I could. "By the time we planned everything, our little girl would've been born, and Tris was.. afraid of.. disappointing you by having a baby out of wedlock."
He drew a long breath. "It's a girl."
We turned another corner, and the grin now lighting up Mr. Prior's face was.. indescribable. He looked so happy, while also a little amused and bewildered. Maybe he'd been hoping we were having a girl? Or maybe he was realizing he was going to be a grandpa. Something in me hoped Marcus was happy too.
"Yeah," I said, grinning. "It's a girl."
"She was worried about disappointing us?"
"They may say faction before blood, but blood seems to stick, even when you don't want it to. And I know that by experience."
He eyed me carefully.
And finally, we were outside.
I led the way to an old, rusty abandoned train car and climbed up onto it. He sat beside me, both of our legs dangling off the side of the car, our clothes fluttering in the calm breeze. It felt like he was simply taking the sight in.
It wasn't much. A junkyard, at best, and Dauntless had a lot of them. This one was medium-sized, but not very full at all. Younger and newer members threw parties here, where they got deathly drunk and smoked all kinds of drugs. But I actually recalled a couple getting married here. Marriage in a junkyard? Hell yeah.
"Not much to look at, is it?"
He shook his head.
"Don't worry," I said. "Most of the compound is better than this. Kids like to throw parties out here."
He laughed quietly. "That explains the empty beer cans. Does everyone drink around here?"
"It's.. It depends on the person."
"And you?"
"I drink," I admitted. "But not very often. Once every two weeks maybe. I avoid getting drunk—hangovers are not worth it."
He laughed again.
I watched him for a second.
Andrew Prior didn't strike me as a Dauntless—not a lot, anyway. He fit the whole "stiff" stereotype pretty well. But, what if that was the whole point? Abnegation was a pretty safe place for Divergents. I knew that. Maybe he and Natalie had transferred for safety reasons.
"I was Erudite." he said, like he had read my mind or something. "Natalie was born here. In Dauntless. Four.."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Why did you transfer?"
I looked away, and down at my feet. "The test—uhm, I got Dauntless. That's—"
"A lie," he interrupted. "Look, I'm.. I'm not on Jeanine's side. Whatever you tell me, it's between us. I promise."
"I needed to get away from.. him."
"Marcus."
I nodded, and he didn't push me any further. Our conversation had taken a completely different turn than whatever I had originally expected, but at least I was honest with him. He knew the one thing I'd been hiding for a lot of years.
He put a hand down on my shoulder. "Thank you for taking care of my daughter, Four."
"What?" I said, almost laughing. "I—I got her pregnant. Before we were even engaged, too. I thought—"
"I'm not happy about you impregnating my daughter, son," he said, shrugging it off like it was just an everyday thing. "But sometimes the accidents turn out to be better than the original plan."
Son.
Every part of me clung onto that word like it was oxygen. How many years had it really been since I'd been someone's son? Fifteen? I'd actually forgotten how it felt to be.. loved by a parent. But here he was, calling me a son, despite just finding out I'd gotten Tris pregnant!
Soon after that, we started to head back to the apartment.