I have to jog to catch up with Tris, which is saying something, given that my legs are practically twice as long as hers.

"Tris, wait," I say, catching her by the shoulder. She hisses at me, and I realize I've grabbed her wounded shoulder. "Sorry, I'm sorry, but just slow down for a second, okay?"

She wrenches her shoulder from under my hand and whirls around to glare at me. "I'm glad you all think it's so funny, Four," she spits out. "I bet you all had a lot of laughs watching me make a fool of myself in the simulation." She narrows her eyes. "Just what did you see, anyway?"

I feel my temper rising and struggle to bite back an icy remark. I take a deep breath and hold it while she scowls at me, foot tapping furiously, and then let my breath out slowly. "If you must know," I say quietly, "it was torture. Watching you suffer, and not being able to do anything about it - it was far worse than what they did to me in the cell." I gesture toward the bruises, finally fading to yellow on my face and arms.

"But the worst part by far," I say, lowering my voice and putting my hands gently on her upper arms, "was having to see how you see me." She finally looks up at me, startled.

"Wh...what are you talking about?"

I put one hand under her chin. "I didn't trust you. I tried to control you. Even my voice sounded harsh."

Her eyes are huge, pupils dilated in the dim light of the hall.

"And you didn't trust me, either - you had to lie to me to get to Erudite. You trusted Marcus more than you trusted me."

Her cheeks redden, and her eyes are shiny. She is silent for a long stretch, and I can tell she remembers. "Can we go home now?" she finally says plaintively. "I just want to go home."

But Uriah was right - we don't really have a home anymore. Somehow, I don't think that would be a very comforting thing to say at the moment. So I take her hand and lead her down the hall to my apartment, the closest thing we have to a home.

Neither of us says a word as we get ready for bed. I ease under the covers while Tris is still in the bathroom. My whole body pulses with weariness, but I'm also wide awake, waiting for her. Tris turns off the light and slips in next to me.

She turns her head and looks at me, not saying anything for awhile. "I remember how it felt," she says softly, sounding very sober, much to my surprise. "I remember how it felt when I thought you hated me." She watches me carefully. "It felt like a part of me died every time you looked at me like that."

I stroke her cheek. "Well, it didn't happen." I pause, thinking through what I want to say. "But as I've told you before, you're one of the most perceptive people I know, and you saw something true about me." I clear my throat and focus my eyes on her chin, not able to look at her eyes directly. "There's a darkness in me, and I can't always control it. I don't... I never want to hurt you." My voice breaks.

"You won't hurt me," she says softly, but with utter conviction. "I love you, Tobias - and I am not afraid of you. I never will be."

Never is a really long time, I think grimly, and I know on a gut level that it will not turn out to be true. There will come a day when she will have a reason to be afraid of me.

But not today, I realize, as she kisses me - a sweet kiss, and her hands on me are comforting, reassuring. So I'm unprepared for the jolt that goes through me when she suddenly moves her hands along and under the waistband of my boxers. I start to pull back from her, but she follows me, one hand clamping on the back of my head and keeping me in the kiss.

She pauses to take off her shirt and her shorts, frowning at me as I just look at her in shock.

"Are...are you sure?" I say haltingly. "Maybe we should just go to sleep."

She throws her head back and laughs, then she grabs the hem of my shirt and yanks it up over my head, her tongue tasting my skin. I watch her in disbelief, stroking her hair, running my fingers along her back.

"I love you, too," I finally whisper back, rolling her onto her back and covering her with my body. "You also dreamed about that." I look down at her, rubbing circles on her cheekbone with my thumb, trying to decide if she's acting this way because she's been drinking, or because this is real.

"And what do you dream about, Tobias?" she says, her eyes clear and steady, her hands in my hair. She neither looks nor sounds drunk, her breath clear and sweet.

I kiss her behind the ear, and thinking about what Leo told me to do, I dip the tip of my tongue gently in and around the contours of her ear. She gasps and says "oh" in surprise, and then a longer "ohhh," arching her back.

"I'll show you what I dream about," I respond huskily.

Thanks for reading - I'm probably going to take a bit of a hiatus from this story. Not too many readers at this point & I'm sort of focused elsewhere. But I do know where I want the story to go - and something actually does happen, I promise! But it may be awhile... Sorry, for those of you who are still reading...