Chapter 20
Tobias P.O.V
When I finally caught up to Tris... I felt all the hope surged through my body. I knew if it wasn't Tris who turned around, I would not survive the shock this time. It would have been like loosing her all over again. But just like Tris, I knew I had to be brave.
Then I felt it, that moment my hands touched her shoulder. The electrical jolts that always ran through our touches, it felt like it was shocking my heart back to life. My heart finally beating once again, back in one piece. I got her to turn around, her eyes told me she knew me but feared me. Feared me! The irony, she feared the one person that is most likely never to hurt her.
Then I noticed, tied to her chest with sheets was a little squirmy Angel. Her face, her hair, even her eyes... I've seen this baby before, not in person, but in my dreams. How?
Things were happening so fast, I had no time to really question anything. Tris had a gun, feared that Christina and I would attack her and the baby. Absurd as that was. Then we saw it, she was turning pale, blood was leaking down her legs, she stood in a pool of her own blood. Adrenaline keeping her from realizing the threat her body was giving her. She refused Christina and I to help her and the baby. She refused to give the baby to us.
I'll admit the serum they made for her was genius! Tris, being Divergent her mind worked so differently then the others. She was never taken over by the first serum, Jeanine Matthews made that controlled Dauntless members into killing innocent people of Abnegation. Tris, managed to lie under the truth serum in Candor. She even faced and survived the death serum. What ever they made now, really got a hold of her.
When I started to see Tris on the verge of loosing consciousness, my body reacting without thinking. Her eyes rolled backwards, her head tilted up. I moved quickly has I could, encircling both her and the baby in my arms, keeping them from hitting the floor. My fear for both of them. Luckily Christina also acted fast unwrapping the baby from Tris' body. Allowing me to focus on Tris, getting her to the Clinic and not having to worry about our daughter.
The Nurse Jess, was there when I entered with Tris in my arms. She took one look and recognized Tris. She didn't hesitate, she ordered for someone to bring a gurney rushed Tris behind doors that said "Authorized personal only." I was left momentary alone to my thoughts, looking down shocked at the amount of blood I was covered in. Praying that I wouldn't loose her again.
Christina was at my side, shushing and softly patting the back of my daughter. Before neither one of us could even talk, Jess came back with an update.
"We have Tris stable, she is being taken in to surgery. She developed a hemorrhage in her cervix." Jess said glancing at the fussing baby Christina is holding. "Abigail is starting to get hungry. Tris was breast feeding, we can try the bottle. She may not take it though. Come with me." She says turning around, guiding us through the same double doors they took Tris through. She walked us to a room, that had a rocking chair, TV, a couch, portable baby bed, and enough space for a roll away bed.
"This is Tris' room, we will bring her here once she is out of surgery. So you can wait here, it will be more comfortable for Abigail this way." She told us and went to go get the bottle. She also returned with scrub shirt for me. I was thankful at the thought, I got cleaned up and changed.
She was right, we tried to feed Abigail a bottle. She is as stubborn as both me and her mother, she wasn't having it. At first though, I thought the worst. The feeling of being a crappy father found it's way in my thoughts. But when I saw both Jess and Christina had the same outcome. I knew it wasn't her denying me, it was her denying the bottle.
"She probably prefers to nurse. She was a pro with Tris." Jess had said. At first I didn't understand what she meant. Nursing? Then it clicked, Tris decided on breast feeding, Abigail. Well that changes how I might look at Tris' boobs again.
Jess recommended that we kept trying the bottle. Eventually, Abigail will get so hungry, she will give in. Jess was right, it only took Abigail two hours for her to take it. Stubborn til the end.
The next few hours we waited felt like a eternity. Thankful Jess kept checking on us. She helped me change Abigail's diaper for the first time, and taught me how to swaddle her. She understood that I never had any experience with babies, and was very eager to help me. Thank goodness! Christina was no help, she didn't have any experience either with babies. She also took in great pleasure watching me struggle. Wait til it's her turn!
Christina eventually decided to make her way out, I'm not sure if she just wants something to do. To help figure out what has been going on, or to leave me alone to bond with Abigail.
Jess and I talked about Tris and how she knew her. I learned that it was Jess who sent me the email under Tris' request.
She had been assigned Tris' nurse since the shooting.
She feared David would harm her family. She has a son, in which she gave to her mom to raise in another city. She thought if they were far away then they were safer from David.
She told me the story, the whole story. She was instructed to give Tris two serums. One serum was to freeze Tris' body allowing the wounds to not be fatal until they could operate on her. The second was to make it appear like Tris was dead, it slowed her heart rate, pulse and breathing so minimum that not even machines can detect anything causing the person to appear dead.
When we left Tris on the table, David instructed them to switch the bodies. Tris was sent to a room, while another woman's body was sent to for cremation. I swallowed hard when she told me that.
Jess told me she was the one that ran tests two days in row making sure that the results were correct, that Tris was in fact pregnant. David thought about terminating the pregnancy. The thought of him having that power infuriated me.
She went on telling me that David informed her that the baby's father (Eric) decided that it would be beneficial to keep the fetus. Months later they took Tris out of a medical induced coma. Tris asked her so contact me (Tobias Eaton in Chicago), but she feared for her son and mother's life. She decided to make the choice to wait and see if someone would come back here for any reason. The next thing she knew, Tris was sent home with the baby's father. Anger coursed through me, "I am Abigail's father! Not Eric!" I told her, unable to hold back the anger.
From the time Eric took Tris "home," she had to treat Tris for multiple injuries, sprained wrist, bruised ribs, and a few other minor injuries, including blows to the head. I closed my eyes while she told me all the abuse Tris must have endured.
"When I saw that innocent face, I knew I couldn't keep quite anymore. I told Tris I would send word, and that's what I did." She said. "I'm so sorry it took me so long to do the right thing." She apologized, but she didn't need to. I get why she did what she did. I was thankful though, I understood little more about what Tris as gone through, and what happened. I realize that we will be on a long road to recovery. To mend the wounds that Eric and David inflected in us. The abuse sexual and physical they inflected on Tris. The time that they robbed both Tris and I of the pregnancy. Not including the mental scars we will carry for the rest of our lives.
Knock on the door, tares me away from my thoughts of the day that has passed. I look up to see Caleb, Cara walking in the door. I place my index finger to my lips gesturing them to keep it down. Abigail was finally asleep in my arms, I am still rocking us back in forth. Everyone smiles at the site of this precious little Angel.
"What did you find out?" I ask barely a whisper.
"We found a few things." Caleb says holding papers in the air. "First we know they used a high dosage combination of memory serum and the same serum Jeanine Matthew used on you back in Abnegation. That's what caused the switch between you and Eric, along with any of her loved ones and enemies." Caleb says. "Secondly we found there is possibly another test subject."
"A second? Who?" I ask.
"We are trying to figure that out. But they are labeled Subject B and no location on where they are. We will find them though. Don't worry." Cara said.
"Zeke and Matthew are both looking for David." Caleb says. "How is Tris? Any word?"
"Not yet." I answer. "It's been four hours now."
"Is that?" Caleb asks pointing the Abigail.
"Yea your niece Abigail." I answer him.
"Wow! She is gorgeous." Caleb says in awe of his niece.
"She so cute and tiny!" Cara says.
"Have you figured out a reversal serum for Tris?" I eagerly asked.
"Nothing yet. We will let you know when we do." Cara says
They turn and say their goodbyes, leaving me to my thoughts again.
Abigail still sound asleep. I never slow or stop my pace, rocking us back and forth watching her little face, eyes close, and her little mouth slightly open. I think I can watch her sleeping for days.
It's a miracle Tris and I created this little Angel. Our love we shared for one night developed a gorgeous, little life. A life that I will cherish and protect with my own life until the day I no longer breath.
Growing up I never thought I would be a father. Fear of becoming like Marcus, never wanting to do that to anyone I loved. I never thought I deserved any love, I was damaged, and broken beyond repair. Who would love me? Who would even want to be with me, well alone trust me to have babies with? All that changed the day Tris jumped into the net. The day that I saw a flash of gray falling into Dauntless. I knew she had to be different from any other person. The look in her eyes, the excitement and life that they reflected with in them. Then when my hands touched her, helping her out of the net... The electrical jolt that went through my body, electrifying my heart. I was permanently changed, never to return to the emotionless Four again!
I spent the past nine months a wreck, and broken. So easily I have been repaired in the matter of hours.
Now I'm a father, and hopefully one day a husband.