AN: Thank you for all of your reviews and follows, it makes me so happy to see them. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and see you Saturday.

I'm apprehensive going into today's session with Eric and there's nothing I can seem to do to calm my nerves. The two weekend family visits we had with Miles were perfect, the progress made in six hours over two days with father and son is something that has been beautiful to watch, even knowing that I now had information that could bring it all crashing down.

Johanna had the investigative team run the DNA tests repeatedly over the weekend, to confirm there was no error or doubt, and in both cases Eric's DNA is a 99.98% match for Marcus Eaton to have been his father, and he shares DNA with his half-brother Tobias Eaton as well. While Eric has gotten better about his anger towards Tobias, I already know that this news could shatter his progress.

I also know he will hate me if he finds out I kept it from him. He's never known I was looking for his father, however it's something we typically do for any of our patients when there are questions regarding parentage.

Hector brings him in today, and I am greeted with a smiling Eric. Once he's unchained and seated, I pass him the elastic for his hair, and the salad he requested for lunch, along with the slice of cake he said would be well deserved since we're eating salad.

"This weekend was amazing Tris." Eric says as he digs into his salad, "I can't believe how natural all of that felt, like how I could have completely fallen in love with a kid I never even knew existed. Is that just normal father instincts kicking in?" He asks.

I swallow my bite of my Cobb salad before answering, "I do think there is some sort of inherent instinct when you become a parent."

"You were right, he's definitely inquisitive. He had me on my toes most of the weekend for sure." He laughs.

"He definitely surprises me sometimes. Miles isn't one for holding back, so I'm pretty used to him just blurting out whatever he's thinking at the moment. It's both a blessing and a curse," I chuckle, "some of the things he asked aren't things he's brought up to me before. It must have just hit him then, or at least brought it to the surface by seeing you."

"Has he always wanted to see me, Tris? Or has he been angry about the situation over the years?"

"I wouldn't say angry, I'd say confused when he was younger. I had actually consulted Jo on what the best approach would be for Miles, there was never a question of denying who you were, but I was unsure about how much information to share with him. Miles and I are very open with each other, but he's also learned that some things are for the adults to carry, and not for a kid to worry about." I explain.

"That's why he says 'adult stuff', isn't it?" Eric asks and I nod, "You've done a great job with him, Tris. He's smart, articulate, caring, he's just a well rounded kid. You two are so close, and you can tell that Miles loves the hell out of you."

"Being a mother is a constant work in progress." I reply.

"I can imagine it was difficult before Jack came into your life." Eric says. He's not exhibiting any jealousy with his observation, however it always worries me when he brings up my past relationships.

"I had a difficult pregnancy, not because of any health risks with Miles, but I was having a hard time feeling any type of bond with him." I say quietly.

"You had some pretty serious PTSD after the war, didn't you?" He asks and I nod, "Did that cause issues with bonding with Miles?"

"Johanna thought it might have. I went through a time where I wasn't taking the best care of myself, just very depressed. I lost both of my parents, my brother and my husband in a short time frame."

"But you didn't want to be married." He argues.

"You're right, but it still hurt when I was suddenly alone and pregnant at barely seventeen." I explain.

"I wish I could have been there…" He trails off.

"Eric, you were reeling from your own PTSD at the same time." I add.

"Do you think we could have helped to heal each other back then?" He asks.

"I do, sometimes." I admit.

"I remember during one of our first visits you telling me that you thought we could have, at the very least, been friends since we went through similar things. I never realized how right you were." He looks thoughtful as he takes another bite of his own salad.

"I do think we could have been friends, but I also believe you needed the same type of therapy I did after the war. Did the prison offer you anything?" I ask.

He shakes his head, "No. I was losing my shit in here, Tris. The people here, except for Hector, seemed to revel in the fact I was here. They also couldn't believe I didn't get a death sentence like the rest of Jeanine's supporters, so they were determined to make my life hell. The day they put Peter in a fucking room with me and shut and locked the door told me everything I needed to know about how I was gonna be treated in prison."

I shudder at the thought, "What happened with him?"

"I put my hands around his throat and tried to choke the life out of him. He fought back by ripping my throat back open. He won." Eric answers angrily.

"Would you have killed him?" I ask.

"I would have, yes." He looks down at the floor, "I'm not a good person, Tris."

"Past tense." I reply and he meets my eyes.

"You give me more credit than I deserve."

"I think the Eric I'm sitting with right now would make different choices if faced with someone from his past. I don't think your first instinct would be to fight anymore. I think you'd be willing to talk, and try to understand the issue instead of reacting with violence and anger. I wouldn't expect you to be happy to see some of the conspirators from the war, or even some of the people from your past, but I can imagine you'd be willing to at least understand their thought processes now." I explain.

"You're right. I have more than just me to think about now. I have our son, I have you, so anything I say, think, or do will be a reflection on the relationships I have with each of you. I have to conduct myself now knowing I have an almost ten year old watching me. So yeah, people from my past, they can give me their best shot and I'm just going to think that my son is sitting right there watching me," He says thoughtfully and I take in everything he's saying, "Except Four. Fuck him." He says and I jerk my eyes up to meet his, "I'm kidding, Tris. Mostly." He chuckles but when he looks at me he turns serious, "Hey, what is it? Did something happen with him, Tris? Is it something with him that was bothering you all weekend?"

He's ready, he can do this.

"Eric, I do have something to tell you. I am sharing it with you because you should know it, and I feel that you are advanced enough in your healing to hear it. I also feel I am prepared as your therapist to provide you any care you need to process it." I say carefully.

"Tris, don't talk to me like I'm your patient right now. Whatever you have to say, tell me as you." He hedges.

"When you entered into our program, you agreed to-" I begin but he cuts me off.

"Whatever it is, come to me as someone who cares about me personally, not my therapist. That's who needs to tell me whatever it is." He says.

"We had our investigative team run your DNA through the Erudite database to see if we could find out if David Coulter was your father."

"He wasn't, was he?" He asks and I shake my head, "I figured as much." He shrugs, "She gave me his last name because they were married, but he had always denied me anyway. No loss there."

"We couldn't find a match with anyone in Erudite," I say and his brow furrows.

"My father wasn't from Erudite?" He asks and I shake my head.

"We decided to run it for all of the former factions, and there was a match Eric, for both a father and a half-brother." I say carefully, "Your father is deceased…"

"Who?" He demands.

"He was executed for war crimes…" I say in a broken voice.

"Tris." His voice holds a warning and I heed.

"Marcus Eaton." I finally say. His grey eyes widen and he pushes away from the table and stands. He moves towards me, towering over me with his full height, his face a mask and I'm not sure what to expect.

"Are you sure?" He asks, "Is that test accurate?"

"We had them run it multiple times, he was a match, and Tobias is your…"

"Don't." He says, he shakes his head and walks away, "Do not say that." He raises his voice slightly.

He paces around the room like a caged animal, his face is a mask and he repeatedly pulls his messy hair down, and puts it back up in an almost nervous tic gesture.

"Why?" He asks, not looking at me or stopping his movement, "Why did you even check? Why, Tris, why can't you ever just leave well enough alone?"

I stand, and cautiously place myself in his path. When we are face to face, he finally looks at me. I place both of my hands gently on his chest and he grasps them hard with his own.

"You deserved to know, I felt if we could find out who he was it would provide you with answers that you needed, and maybe even healing to move forward." I reply gently, "I did it because I care about you, and because I believe that you should know everything. No one should have to grow up wondering who their father is. When our little boy asked about his daddy that first time, I was honest with him, and never thought about hiding it from him. You deserved the same."

"Does he… have you told him… Four…." He stammers.

"No, he and I have not spoken since we separated ten years ago, and even if we were still on good terms I'd never tell him before I talked to you."

He releases my hands, "I don't give a fuck about the camera." He says in a stern voice, "I need you."

I open my arms and he moves towards me, wrapping his own around me and burying his face into my neck. I rub my hands up and down his tense back.

"Tell me what you know." He says against my neck.

"Marcus married Evelyn Johnson as soon as she finished initiation for Abnegation, he was twenty four and she was sixteen, and based on the timing of Tobias' birth he had gotten her pregnant before she had even completed initiation. Tobias was born ten months before you, so it seems Marcus had at minimum one sexual encounter with Jeanine that resulted in her becoming pregnant with you."

"I saw Four's fear landscape after I was a leader. Was that fear of Marcus based on actual events?" Eric murmurs against me.

"Yes," I whisper.

"That man was a piece of shit." He growls.

"He was." I agree.

"Marcus never said a fucking word, Tris. I saw him in Erudite all the time, both when I was growing up and then as a leader working with Jeanine. I'd seen that man hundreds of times, and he never said one fucking word."

"I don't think he ever knew," I reply softly, "He only spoke of Tobias when he was under truth serum, never of any other children. I can imagine that an inter faction affair wouldn't have looked favorable on Jeanine-"

"So she hid it." He finishes for me and I nod against him, "Do you think Four knew?"

"I don't know, Eric. He never mentioned it to me..."

"But he was fucking obsessed with me in Dauntless, Tris. You don't understand how he was for those two years before you transferred."

He's right, because by my own observation during my relationship with Tobias it was obvious his dislike of Eric ran deeper than he would ever explain. I just hold Eric, as tightly as I can and he breathes against me. I lose track of how long we stand like this, but I refuse to let him go until he is ready. I never properly prepared him to hear about Miles, and I didn't provide proper aftercare. I'll be damned if I hurt him again.

"It's possible that he knew, Eric. I will tell you that he never said a word to me, if he did know." I reply carefully.

"I hate him, Tris. I hated who he was in our initiation class, I hated how he tracked my every move, I hated that he was their first choice for leadership, I hated that even though he didn't want leadership he tried to sabotage my chances, I hated that he was your first choice, I hated him with you, I hate what he did to you…"

"I know you do." I whisper as I resume rubbing his back.

"And now, except for Miles, he's the only person left who I share DNA with. I hate him, but he's not the monster Jeanine or Marcus were." He says.

"No, he's not. I think his own paranoia misguided him." I add.

"I'm not ready for him to know, Tris. I can't deal with him yet."

"You're who I care about. You're my patient. We don't do anything with this that you're not ready for."

The tenseness in his muscles has lessened, but I make no moves to separate from Eric. He moves his head, and we're still embracing but now he's looking into my eyes.

"I trust you." He says, almost as if he's speaking to himself, "You will never knowingly hurt me."

He's repeating something we've agreed for him to say when he feels like he's losing control and wants to lash out, and I'm so proud of him in this moment.

"I would never knowingly hurt you." I reply.

He moves away and sits down at the table, but gestures for me to sit next to him.

"I'd look at everyone, Tris. I'd search for my own face in every man I would meet, wondering if there was a chance maybe he could have been my father. I looked so much like Jeanine, but there were parts of me I was sure must have come from him. I may not like who it was, but at least now I know."

He places his hand on my leg and I cover it with my own hand. He threads our fingers together like he has so many times before, and I lean my head on his shoulder.

"Can you tell me what you're thinking?" I ask.

"I will be a better father than him. I won't ever lay a finger on you or Miles," He sighs, "I watched his fear landscape once I was in leadership. Jeanine was convinced he was divergent, so she had me study it. I didn't need to be convinced to watch it, I'd always wondered how a Stiff only had four fears." He presses his lips to my head briefly, "Sorry," He murmurs and I nod, "He hid it well in his sims, and he showed that he belonged in Dauntless. Regardless of what any test said." He adds as an afterthought.

"I know you would never hurt us." I reply and I feel Eric lean his head against mine and tighten his grip on my hand, "I trust you, and we are safe with you."

"How do I do this, Tris?" He asks. I try to look at him but he keeps his head pressed to mine.

"What do you mean?"

"I have a lot of answers now. My mother was a mad woman and my father was a cheating, abusive asshole." He sighs.

"You have a son who is pretty amazing." I add hopefully and I can feel him nod against me, "You have…" I trail off, but I squeeze his hand, hoping that he can understand what I am trying to convey.

"I don't know how to feel about any of this. I'm glad that I know, I just don't know how to process it." He sighs, "I hate him, Tris. How do I deal with him? What am I going to fucking do if he's known this entire time and never said a goddamn word to me?"

"You're doing really well so far," I reply and he squeezes my hand, "I'm so proud of the progress you've made. You don't have to have any answers right now."

"It's just the way I think, I was taught to evaluate everything Tris." He says softly. We sit in comfortable silence for a bit before he speaks again, "You know him better than I do. Should I want a relationship with him?"

"I don't know him much at all now. We've managed to avoid each other for ten years while living in the same city." I reply.

"Did he ever try to talk to you after everything happened?" He asks.

I shake my head, "No. The day I found out I was pregnant, I told him that I had sex with you." I stop speaking and I feel Eric remove his hand from mine and slip an arm around me instead.

"He just left?" He asks.

"He asked me if it was forced," I say quietly and I feel Eric sigh against me, "I told him no. He asked if I liked it, I admitted I did. He asked me if I wanted to be with you instead of him." I reply, closing my eyes and reliving the moment.

"What did you say?" He asks quietly.

"I told him the truth. I told him that I did want to be with you, and had circumstances been different I would have. He just disappeared. When he came back, he kicked me out of our house, and I called Johanna. We were just kids back then," I shake my head and Eric pulls me closer to his side, "He knew I was suffering from PTSD, but he didn't want me talking to anyone. I don't think that he understood how much I was suffering, and I don't think I ever understood what the war did to him, either."

"You two had your marriage annulled?" He asks and I nod.

"We did. He married Christina as soon as we finalized it. They have three kids, and the life they both wanted, I suppose."

"Was it the life you wanted?" He asks.

"Not with him."

"We would have had a house full of kids by now." He says.

"How many kids did you want?" I ask.

"Three or four maybe. In a different place, and a different time, you know?" He moves a bit away from me and turns to straddle the bench, facing me. I move so I'm mimicking his same posture, "We started young, so had things been different back then I could imagine we could have kept going, maybe spaced them a year or two apart."

"Did you wish you had siblings growing up?" I ask and he nods.

"Yeah, it would have been nice. Were you and your brother ever close?" He asks and immediately realizes his mistake, "Tris, I shouldn't have asked that."

"It's fine, Eric. To answer your question, no. Caleb and I were so fundamentally different. I honestly thought he would have stayed in Abnegation. Growing up he was one of the most selfless people I ever knew, he was caring and gentle, and just seemed to be the perfect Abnegation. I never even really knew him at all."

"I couldn't stand him when I met him in Erudite. He was a pompous asshole, and another person that Jeanine liked more than me." He shakes his head, "I can't believe I actually wanted to stay in Erudite, I was such an idiot back then."

"I think choosing a faction at the age of sixteen, and considering us adults at that age is actually what's idiotic." I scoff.

"I agree. How is it out there now?" He asks.

"Surprisingly normal feeling, but so different than how we grew up. No factions, no sims, no aptitude tests, no faction before blood, just... normal."

"While I'm glad that Miles will never live in a world where he has to choose between his faction or family as a sixteen year old child, I just don't know how I fit in to that open world now." He replies.

"That's what you have me for," I nudge his knee with my own, "I don't know if you remember from that first day, but when I introduced myself to you I explained that my job is to help prepare you for life after prison."

"What kind of things do you do for people like me?" He asks.

"Assist with finding work, housing and transportation. Provide after care, and ongoing therapy as needed. What kind of things could you see yourself doing after here?"

Eric seems deep in thought, and I watch him as he thinks, "Working with kids, you know maybe kids like me who are growing up without one or more parents. Or maybe those who are in the system because their caregivers are locked up. I'd like to help them not make the mistakes I made."

"We've been trying to get an after school program started for a little while now. The timing would be great when you're out to be able to help stand that up." I offer.

"Johanna actually employs people like me?" He asks.

"What exactly do you mean?" I challenge.

"Felons. Cons. Whatever." He shrugs.

"You're none of those things, however even if you were, yes. We rehabilitate prisoners, Eric. We prepare them for their re-entry into society. So, even if you were guilty of every crime you were accused of, we work to rehabilitate you."

Eric just watches me for a few minutes, and I can tell he's evaluating everything I've just said. No matter what happens, the teachings of our factions live on in both of us.

"Tris, thank you for running the DNA test. It's not what either of us wanted, but you've once again proven that you will do everything you can to help me heal." He says quietly, "I appreciate you letting me process this at my own pace. This is a lot."

"Tell me what you need from me." I reply quietly.

"I've never had anyone care about me the way you do," He says almost absently, "This isn't just a job, right Tris? Is this you caring for a normal patient? Or is this just you caring because I'm his father?" He stands and starts pacing again.

"Eric.." I begin but the movement and sound of keys outside the door break us from our thoughts. Eric pulls the elastic from his hair and hands it to me as Hector enters.

"Can we please have more time?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"I waited as long as I could. We have to go, I'm getting heat from my boss, I'm sorry Tris," Hector says and he begins to chain Eric back up.

"It's more, it's always been more Eric. Always." I say frantically and Hector begins to pull him from the room.

"You mean it?" Eric calls out over his shoulder.

"Yes!" I call out as he disappears around the corner.