CH 8:POV TOBIAS:
I follow behind Christina, Will,and a few Dauntless born who are trailing Eric. We make our way quickly up the path to the infirmary.
"What happened?" I've asked this several times but no one has responded to me until now.
Christina looks over her shoulder to me. I can see where tear stains mark her face. "Eric found her tied to the train tracks with a train coming. Her leg got hit."
What? Who the hell would just go 'Oh hey, I will tie this initiate to the train track, sounds fun!'. I also find it suspicious that Eric was around to save her. It irks me that Tris would've died and I would have had no way to save her.
"Who did it?" I ask. Christina turns her head back again.
"Eric said her say a couple people running away but couldn't see who." Yet again it doesn't sound right... Tris would have to know who tied her to train tracks, so when she is conscious and feeling better I will ask her who did it and them go bet the living shit out of them.
When we arrive at the infirmary Tris is rushed to the ER. After about an hour the nurse comes out telling us that we can go see her, though no more than two at a time so she won't get overwhelmed.
"What is damaged with her leg?" I ask. I know it sounds like a stupid question but it's a valid one. I'm aware that it is completely broken but was exactly I don't know.
The nurse looks down at her clipboard. "Well, many things. Several broken bones in her feet. Many bones in her leg below her knee. A couple muscles pulled, one ripped. Bruises, practically all over her leg. She also has several cuts, presumably from rocks."
Everyone stares at the nurse. Tris must feel like crap right now, her leg is wrecked. At least the attackers waited until after the first stage of initiation to attack her. I will find out who did this, and I will hurt them, badly.
3RD PERSON
The door to Tris' recovery room squeaks open, revealing Will and Christina. Both of them look at the pain on Tris' face and are already hurting for her. Tris notices their expressions and says, "It looks worse than it seems, I'm pretty druggy.."
They take a seat on either side of Tris's bed.
"So you've heard everything that is broken in your leg?" Will asks. Tris nods, they gave her the long scientific way that even Caleb might have a hard time deciphering.
Christina can't help but feel guilt. She was in the shower when Tris was abducted. She would have been getting ready for bed while Tris was getting run over by a train and she would have had no idea. Suddenly she can't hold it in any longer.
"Tris! I'm so sorry! You were gone, you disappeared, I didn't even realize!" Shes crying now."You would.. died, I would have no idea. I didn't even notice, then you came, all dead..! And before, with the cake I didn't realize!" She's sobbing now, she can't help herself.
Tris takes her hand in both of her own. "Shh, Christina it's okay. You're not my personal guard, it's not your job to protect me. I'm not mad or anything like that..." Tris has no clue what to say to comfort her.
Now Chris starts getting herself together, wiping her tears. "Uh, I'm sorry I shouldn't be crying. But I am your friend and I should have at least looked around for you."
Will feels the same way. He knew something was wrong with the cake, at least the piece Tris got. It... was different. He transferred from erudite , he should be able to make the connections, weird cake, extreme sleepy, disappear.
"Did the nurse say how long I have to stay here?" Tris asks
"Well Tris maybe just a few more minutes considering your leg is completely wrecked!?" Christina says sarcastically."You'll probably be here awhile..."
All of them think about how this will affect initiation."But what about my initiation..?"
Chris and Will look at each other. "I don't know Tris." Will says nervously. He doesn't know what else to say, she might just not be able to do initiation and end up factionless. That would be terrible.
Similar thoughts run through all of their minds.
"Well!" Christina feels she needs to brighten the mood. "The new clothes we bought are still in the dorm room. I bet tomorrow I could bring all the cute shirts and we could put you in one, if you stuck in here you might as well look cute."
All three of them laugh at this. It's decided that Will and Chris will come back before breakfast tomorrow and see what the situation is and go from there.
POV TOBIAS
Christina and Will come out of the recovery room where Tris is and see me still waiting. "If you want you can go see her, I don't think she would mind." Christina says. I smile and walk towards Tris's room. I open the door and see Eric's back, he doesn't see me yet. Tris is looking at Eric and I can see she is very uncomfortable. Her eyes flick over to me and I think I see relief flash through them. Eric sees this and looks over his shoulder. When he sees me irritation flashes over his face.
"What are you doing here?" He demands.
"I came to see Tris, isn't that obvious?" I ask venom showing in my words.
I see Tris still looks uncomfortable, and I bet it's from Eric. I really don't like it when she is uncomfortable, it makes me uncomfortable. I also don't like how she affects me this way.
"Well, I am here with her right now, so you should just leave." Eric responds, with equal venom in his words. I don't know how I'm gonna win this argument, and come to think of it, what are we arguing about? Who gets to see Tris? What is this, some kind of 'win the Tris game!'?
"How did you even get in here?" I ask.
"Well I came in through that door." He responds, and from the way he says it he doesn't even know that that's not what I'm asking.. Wow, you're an idiot.
"I know that, you idiot. I was in the waiting room and you weren't, so how did you even know where Tris was?"
Eris sneers. "Well, I did save her, so I told the nurses that and they gave me access."
Oh God, I guess Tris will just have to put up with him for now. "I would like to be alone with her for now, so you need to get out." The way Eric says this is in a voice laced with hungry desire and venom at the same time. The latter directed towards me. "I won't take no for an answer." I don't like it but he does have more authority than I do, everywhere. I walk out of the door, hoping nothing will happen.
POV ERIC
I'm glad Four finally left because I am going to make another move on her, other than the whole saving her thing that is. No girl in her right mind would decline the man who just- hours ago- saved her life. What I did was very Dauntless, and Tris should easily be able to see that and respect it.
I sit close to Tris on her bed, my hand now stroking her hair. She tenses up but I ignore it. I know I seem vial and ruthless all the time but I have an affectionate side, a side that Tris will see. She will like me, even if I never plan on truly reciprocating her feelings.
"Tris, really like you-" I feel her slightly jerk her head back and become even more tense "- and I think I have done enough for you to say you owe me a favor. I want you to come on a date with me. I have an affectionate side, and I want you to see it."
Her eyes have widened, but she nods,slowly, realizing she does in fact owe me. "Let's say tomorrow after your done with your simulations. Meet me outside the cafeteria. And wear something hot. " I wink. She has an odd expression on her face but she nods again. Then I make a split second decision- I smash my mouth to hers, forcing it open. I shove my tongue in her mouth, but she struggles away. She looks up at me with her huge eyes bulging.
"Don't ever kiss me again." She says in a threatening voice. I snicker, "I can do whatever I want. I saved you and you have to think about the rankings... someone has to be kicked out." I turn and leave before she has the chance to respond.
POV TRIS
I go to sleep thinking about how terrible of a situation I am in. The sadistic icky trainer with high authority has a crush on me, and probably only wants to kiss me. And the thing is I do owe him. But the even worse problem I have is that I have a crush on Four, and I know that Eric will immediately make our 'relationship' public. And it's not like I can break up with him- he will make sure I'm kicked out to live with the factionless.
As well as this, I'm broken but initiation is still continuing. Thanks to Erudite's medical advances I have already healed enough that with pain meds and daily checkups, I'm free to carry on and do whatever I will need to do. I should be completely healed by the end of the week, in three days.
Christina comes at 7:30 the next morning bringing me some new clothes. I change into them with a little help and we head down to the cafeteria together with Will tagging behind. I explain to them everything that is going on with Eric.
"Oh Tris!" Christina says, and Will giving me sympathetic looks. "Tris, I think you should do what he wants until initiation ends. I'm sure he's completely serious about making sure you're kicked out."
Will speaks up, "Plus I'm sure no matter what he will stalk you or something like that, right? I think Chris is right, you should just play along, we don't have much longer of initiation."
"But..." I trail off. Only Chris knows about my crush on Four and I don't want that to be common knowledge. Christina seems to understand and she gives me a pained look.
We eat breakfast quickly and head off to the next stage of initiation.