Ava continued to grow and thrive under Tris' care and Natalie's watchful supervision. Gymnastics season ended in mid-February, and Tris devoted herself even more to nurturing the baby. She journaled about the little one's progress, and filled the scrapbook with pictures and mementos.

One day Tris came home from school to find the infant wide awake and fresh from a nap, diaper change, and bottle. As she greeted the little one, Ava's chubby face split into her first real smile. Tris grinned back and got her to repeat the trick for Natalie. She sent pictures to Caleb, who video called his sister to try and make the baby smile for him, too.

February also brought Tris' university acceptance letter. Not only was she accepted to attend in the child development and psychology department, but the university had offered her a sizeable scholarship. Andrew, Natalie, and Caleb were all proud of her. Coach Max announced her acceptance and scholarship award at the monthly Dauntless "family meeting" homeroom, as well.

That evening Tris got a brief congratulatory text from Eric, who offered to talk with her about what professors and classes she should look at when it came time for her to register. Having just graduated from the closely related education program at the same school, he knew many of the classes and professors that Tris would have. She thanked him for the offer and reminded him that she wouldn't be able to register until summer, but would definitely talk with him about it then.

Tris decided not to participate in any spring sports. Her friends started to complain that she never hung out with them anymore. Tris blamed her college courses and her father's campaign, but in reality her whole heart was focused on little Ava. Natalie and Andrew began to worry again that the teenager and infant were getting too attached to one another. They encouraged Tris to go out and have fun with her friends, but Tris was happiest at home with the baby she had rescued.

.

Winter slowly thawed, and by the beginning of March the investigation into Ava's background had still gone nowhere. Tris turned down several potential prom dates, but did agree to go with her friends. She shopped for dresses with Christina (who was going with Will), Marlene (who was going with Uriah), and Lynn (who only agreed to go because Tris also didn't have a date and they promised not to make her wear heels). The six of them rented a limo and had a good time at dinner and the dance.

Natalie and Tris had moved Ava into a crib by that time. They converted the guest room to a temporary nursery where Ava's little clothes hung in the closet and her crib took up one wall. Though Ava slept for longer stretches, the receiving end of the baby monitor was still with Tris most nights. On prom night Natalie and Andrew took it so their daughter could stay out late with her friends and sleep in the next morning.

Natalie was in the kitchen that next morning, preparing breakfast for her husband and talking to the baby she wore in a carrying sling. As she started the coffee maker for the morning's second pot, she was surprised to hear the doorbell. She rushed to the door before the visitor could ring the bell again and risk waking Tris.

When she looked through the peephole, Natalie was surprised to see Eric on the other side, his expression distraught and his eyes rimmed red. She threw open the door for the young teacher.

"Eric!" she said with alarm. "Are you alright?"

"No," he replied. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Prior. I just… I need to talk to someone, and I didn't know where to go."

"Come in, come in," Natalie said, ushering him into the warm house and shutting the door. "I just started a fresh pot of coffee. Come sit down in the kitchen with me. Andrew will be down shortly. Beatrice is asleep; she had prom last night and got home late."

Eric just nodded as he absorbed Natalie's comforting maternal chatter. He washed his hands at the kitchen sink and sat down at the table while she poured him a cup of coffee.

"How's Ava?" Eric asked as he noticed the baby's downy head sticking out of the sling Natalie wore.

"Growing like a weed, and getting rolly-poly," Natalie replied. "She smiles at us now, though she's a bit crabby this morning. She has a little cold, and she missed Tris last night. They're as attached as mother and daughter, and I'm afraid it won't go well for either of them when Ava moves on."

"Is that… Is that happening soon?" Eric asked. "I know you can't really talk about it, but I just wondered if you heard anything."

"No news yet," Natalie said. "So we just enjoy every day we get with her."

Andrew walked in to the kitchen and was surprised to find Eric at the table. "It's good to see you again," the older man greeted. "Is everything alright?"

"Not really," Eric replied with a sigh. "I'm sorry to just barge in on you like this. I got some rather... rather difficult news this morning, and I didn't know where to turn. I just started running, and when I realized where I was I took a chance that someone might be home."

"You're welcome here any time," Natalie assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder as she handed Andrew his coffee.

"Absolutely," Andrew agreed. "Beatrice told us you don't have any family. We're more than happy to help if we can."

"Do you want to talk about it with us, or should I wake Tris?" Natalie asked.

"Please don't wake her," Eric said, a hint of alarm in his voice. "I shouldn't have bothered you."

As the younger man took a deep breath and a sip of his coffee, the Priors watched his shoulders slump in defeat.

"I got a call from the police this morning," he said. "My ex-girlfriend and I broke up back in October. We were on-again-off-again and unstable at best, but I tried to stick it out. She had a rough background - came from a broken family. She had been addicted to drugs at one point, but was clean when we got together. Apparently she was still struggling, because she ended things with me and disappeared."

He sighed as he continued speaking. "Her boss and landlord called me when she didn't show up for them either. I didn't want to get back together with her, but I was worried. I called the police and filed a report, but she was an adult and there was nothing they could do. Then they called me this morning because her body was found in an alley last night. She overdosed. I… I had to go in and… identify the body."

Andrew placed a warm hand on the younger man's large, tattooed arm, and Natalie slid her chair closer so she could rub his back soothingly.

"I can't imagine how painful it would be to have to identify someone," Andrew said. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Eric nodded mutely and swiped at the moisture that had gathered in his eyes. Natalie slid back from the table and began extracting Ava from the carrier sling.

"Eric," she said gently, "would you mind holding her while I finish getting breakfast together?"

Natalie knew that holding the warm baby could be soothing for jangled nerves. She remembered Eric holding Ava on Christmas and knew that he liked babies. She hoped that the infant would bring him some peace.

Eric accepted the baby, and smiled at her as she was passed to him. Ava smiled back at the stranger. "Look at you!" Eric exclaimed in a half-laugh, half-choked sob. "She's so big now!" He made faces at the baby and blew raspberries on her chubby cheeks.

Ava rewarded him with a laugh that stopped Natalie and Andrew in their tracks.

"Did she just…" Andrew began.

"Oh dear," Natalie said, smiling, but with worry in her voice. "This is the first milestone Tris has missed."

"Milestone?" Eric asked as he continued making faces at the baby.

"That's the first time we've heard her laugh," Natalie said.

"Am I funny looking to you?" Eric asked the baby in a silly voice. Ava waved her arms wildly and smiled again in reply.

Natalie set plates of food in front of the two men and offered to take the baby from Eric, but he declined. Holding her in one arm, he tried to take a bite with his other hand, but the wiggly baby kept reaching for his food.

"Does she eat food yet?" Eric asked.

"Not for another month or two," Natalie informed him. "She's still on formula only, but she's getting grabby and wants to get her hands on anything that gets close to her."

Eric did his best to eat as he visited with Tris' parents. Ava grew increasingly fussy, so Natalie prepared a bottle and took the little one to put her down for her morning nap.

Andrew and Eric were talking about the Senate campaign when Tris walked into the kitchen. Her hair was wild from sleep and the after effects of her prom updo, and she wore only a t-shirt and a pair of rather short sleep shorts. Eric swallowed hard and dropped his gaze to his now-empty coffee mug. Tris turned, and squeaked when she saw Eric before bolting back up the stairs to her bedroom. Andrew laughed at his daughter and led the conversation back to what they were discussing before the half-asleep teenager had wandered in.

When Tris came back into the kitchen, she was dressed in yoga pants and a sweatshirt, and her hair was somewhat tamed by a messy bun. "I didn't know parent-teacher conferences were housecalls now," she teased as she poured a cup of coffee for herself and offered Eric and Andrew refills.

"No," Eric said sadly as he remembered what had brought him to their door. "Just another orphan off the street who needed someone this morning."

Andrew patted Eric on the shoulder as he stood from the table. "I need to get back to work," he said. "I'll leave you two to talk." He kissed his daughter on the forehead as he walked out of the room.

"Do you want to move into the living room?" Tris offered. Eric agreed, so they relocated and got comfortable on the couch.

"What's the matter?" Tris asked.

"I got a call from the police this morning," Eric said, dropping his gaze to his lap. He told her about his ex-girlfriend's death and identifying the body.

"I asked about the pregnancy," he told Tris, sharing with her what he had left out when he spoke with her parents. "She should have been due at the end of January or beginning of February, so I knew she wasn't pregnant when she died. But I had to know if anything had turned up. I had to ask."

Tris reached across the couch and took her friend's hand. Eric needed her support, and she needed to give it. "The coroner said there was nothing about a child in the police report, and that the examination he had done showed nothing that would indicate that she had recently given birth. I… I'm sure she went ahead with the abortion. The track marks on her arms looked like she'd been using again for some time. Identifying her body was gruesome, but accepting that she really did abort my child is devastating. I knew better, Tris, but part of me never stopped hoping."

Tris reached for the tissue box and took one for herself before passing them to Eric. He sniffled and dropped his head as he began to sob. Tris crawled across the couch and wrapped her arms around Eric's large body. He turned himself toward her and rested his forehead on her shoulder as he continued to weep.

Tris ran her fingers through his hair soothingly and whispered gently in his ear as Eric cried. "It's okay, Warrior," she soothed. "Let it all out. I know that was hard. It's okay to grieve for your child, and for your ex. You are strong, and brave, and smart. You will get through this, and you don't have to do it alone. I've got you."

Natalie walked by the living room as her daughter was comforting the large man. She saw the way the two of them looked at each other when they were in the same room. She also appreciated their commitment to keeping their relationship professional and somewhat distant while Tris was in school. But today Eric needed somebody, and Natalie had no problem with the young teacher leaning on their family for support.

Eric stayed for lunch with the Priors, and even confessed to Tris that Ava had laughed for him in the morning. Tris stuck her lip out at the baby, who smiled in reply.

"It's okay," Tris said to the infant. "You knew he needed you today." Turning to Eric, Tris added, "But you have to put it in the baby book."

Before the baby's afternoon nap, Tris got Eric to make her smile and giggle again while she took pictures. Once Ava was asleep, Tris told Eric about the baby book, and explained that she had been chronicling the infant's story for her future family. Eric dutifully took the offered pen and wrote a brief account of how he, a friend of the family, had stopped by to talk to the Priors after learning about the passing of a friend. Without oversharing his personal details, Eric recorded the story of Ava's first laugh.

Tris printed two copies of a picture she had taken, and put one in the baby book while giving the other copy to Eric. The teacher promised to honor the foster child's privacy and keep the photo only for his own memory of how the tiny little person had made his devastating day more bearable.

After Eric was gone, Tris thanked her parents for the generous way they welcomed her friend and helped him through a bad day. "I know he didn't tell you the whole story," Tris said. "Melinda was pregnant with their child when she broke up with him and left. She planned to have an abortion against Eric's wishes, and he had police and even private detectives looking for her in the hope that his child was out there somewhere. When her body turned up, the coroner confirmed that she had not been pregnant recently. So Eric isn't just dealing with the death of an ex and the strain of identifying her body. He was facing the reality that his child was gone, too."

"Oh dear," Natalie responded. "Did I make a mistake in having him hold Ava?"

"I don't think so," Andrew comforted his wife. "You saw the way he reacted to her. And that little girl gave him her first giggle."

Tris nodded. "It's like she knew he needed that. Eric didn't want to throw all of that at you guys this morning, but he told me it was okay for me to share it with you. The whole thing is weird since I'm still a student, and we're trying to respect that. But if either of you want to reach out to him, I put his phone number on the whiteboard."

"I think I'll do that," Andrew said. "I can speak to him father to father. Your mother and I lost a baby before Caleb, so I know part of what he's going through. Maybe it will help if I tell him that."

Tris beamed at her parents. "You guys are the best," she said. "I'm so glad I can talk to you and that you're not all weird because I'm friends with a teacher."

"The way the two of you are careful and aware makes a big difference," Natalie said. "If you had a different attitude I might be concerned."

.

The phone rang on Monday afternoon, and Natalie was surprised to see the social services office on the caller ID. Sally had regularly scheduled check-ins with the Priors to keep an eye on baby Ava and keep the family informed about her case. But she wasn't due to call for at least a few more days, so Natalie knew there was news.

"Natalie," Sally greeted Mrs. Prior. "How's baby Ava doing?"

Natalie filled her in on all the baby's growth and development milestones, and Sally oohed and ahhed over the baby's newfound giggle.

"I'm glad to hear she's doing so well," Sally said. "We've had some progress in her case. I'm afraid it's bad news, but it might lead to something more. The police found a body here in town over the weekend. It was a young woman who had died from a drug overdose. The DNA results came in, and it appears she was Ava's birth mother."

Natalie gasped, immediately thinking of Eric's ex and the baby she allegedly aborted. Could Ava be Eric's daughter? she wondered.

"Now, I don't know anything more about her next of kin or a possible father, yet," Sally continued. "A friend identified the body, so we're reaching out to him to see if he knows about other family or…"

"Sally," Natalie interrupted.

"Yes, Natalie?"

"I know you can't tell me much about your investigation or what the police are saying, but I have to tell you something. My daughter is good friends with a teacher at Factions High named Eric Coulter. Eric was here over the weekend talking to us because he was upset after being called in to identify the body of his ex-girlfriend who died of a drug overdose. If this was downtown Chicago it might be just another OD, but I'm guessing that's not an everyday occurrence in this part of the suburbs, and we might be talking about the same case. If it is, and if you're trying to reach Eric about Ava, you have my permission to tell him anything and everything. In fact, I would love to be there and let Tris tell him the story of how Ava came to our family. That man is grieving hard because his ex told him she aborted his child. If he's Ava's father, this is pretty incredible."

"Wow," said the stunned social worker. "I just… wow. That's the name of the contact who identified the body of Ava's mother. Eric Coulter."