A/N: Posted the story and had formatting issues. So...corrected and hopefully you guys enjoy. This will be a rather short one that I am posting in between chapters of Worth Fighting For. Will have a new chapter of that out shortly! Enjoy all.

Chapter 2

Bree, as she had gone by since transferring from Erudite to Dauntless, trudged back to the now mostly quiet bar. Two hours had passed since she left Eric in the VIP room. Two hours filled with trying to do the work of a full op team that would normally take hours more to do. She had been prepared though.

As prepared as she had been for the mechanicals, she hadn't been prepared for the actual acts. She had managed to come out physically unscathed but her emotional wound left her in a state of disarray. She couldn't afford to take the time to sort out the tangle of thoughts or feelings about any of this at the moment. She had still the task of getting Eric out of the damn compound and it was going to be hell just to get him to go along with her plan.

She also knew, as she paused by the door and pressed her head against the scarred, dingy wood - that he wasn't going to be able to resist barraging her with questions. Things he had a right to know but she didn't know how she could explain, if she even wanted to. Her debt to him, even if he didn't know about it, already made things complicated for her. She didn't need the other complications she had been fighting for a few years now.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and slipped in. She was barely in the door before she was grabbed and spun to face a very angry and anxious Eric Coulter. This Eric was the face that had inspired justified fear in a good portion of the faction. His blue eyes shot through with silver radiated barely contained fury. Eyes that could cut a person through just from one glance. Eyes that could strip a person bare, leaving them ripe for attack; verbal, mental or physical.

"Two fucking hours, Brielle." Eric hissed lowly then pushed her back and let those same eyes take a meticulous inspection of her. "Two hours of just being left here and…." He trailed off when he almost let slip the real cause of his state.

He had worked himself up into an almost state of panic. Vowing if she didn't show in the next ten minutes he didn't care what happened, he was going after her. Seeing her back and physically fine had the opposite effect he thought should happen. It actually made his anger worse.

Eric stalked away from her and plopped down on a stool near the bar. The bag she had left was on the other empty stool and the bartop had been set up for quick access and display of the items she had supplied him.

"Yeah well, I had the job of a four person OP but only the manpower of one. I am thinking two hours is a new faction record." She snarked back as she moved more in the room and then dropped the bag she had retrieved before making her way here.

Eric watched her as she moved around. She wouldn't look at him and the set of her shoulders was off. His anger started to bleed away.

"Elle." He called softly, trying to maintain an even tone. "Look at me."

She couldn't bring herself to at first. She just busied unpacking things from the bag they would need for the next stage. She never heard him move from his place at the bar but felt his hand pulling her to face him.

"Was that the first time you have had to…" Eric stopped, unable to complete the question for some reason.

Bree swallowed and let out a breath but nodded into the hand still gripping her chin. "Yes."

Eric closed his eyes and let out a ragged sigh. Her first time having to take a life and she had no support there. Even he had Max at the time for his first.

He opened his eyes back up and went into the mode of Leader and Instructor as he appraised her. In her eyes, those ice blue ones that had never been able to really live up to the ice quality, he saw something else. When the realization hit it left him as if the wind was knocked out of him.

"They were your friends?"

Bree didn't answer, couldn't answer. Instead she pulled away with a scowl and turned her back on him before, using the excuse of going back to her task of getting items ready. She felt his impatience and irritation pouring off of him as she readied herself to answer.

"I don't see how it would escape your notice, but I don't and never have done the friend thing. So no - they weren't my friends." Her tone was bitter at first thinking why she had always needed to hold herself separate from everyone. Couldn't afford to have attachments. Her voice quieted though as she finished and turned towards him. "I did work with and knew them."

Eric gave a simple nod of understanding and fuck if he didn't understand that. "I noticed, Elle. I just never understood why you did that to yourself."

He let that slip, pain in his voice of having to watch someone...her...go through everything he had during his own initiation as well time here in Dauntless.

Bree shrugged it off as well as the feelings that came every damn time he used his own nickname for her. She had long ago stopped raging at him about it when she realized it just made him even more determined to use it. When she realized she kinda liked it.

"So what's next then?" Eric asked, leaning back on the stool to give them both space.

At this Elle did smile a little at him. She held up a bag that looked like it contained a dead animal in one hand and then another that looked oddly like….makeup?

"Fuck that. No." He growled when he put it all together.

Bree let out a real laugh at this. Eric's face and arms crossing over his chest was the exact copy of a big child throwing a tantrum. Those lips pushed out in a pout and forehead all scrunched up.

"Oh come on you big baby. Would you rather be dead, or man up and let me doll you up?" Bree asked him with a smirk. Trying to play up that he would be dressed as a woman. His scowl was getting deeper by the moment and she couldn't help it. She let out a full laugh at this. Doubled over and everything.

It wasn't that funny but her emotional state combined with the look on his face. The situation entirely….it was like a release of some kind. It was either cry, throw up and cry, or laugh herself to tears.

Eric had been aiming for some kind of break in the tension but he didn't think it had been too funny. Until he realized the laugh and tears were bordering on hysterics.

Running wasn't an option and it wasn't like he could order fucking Four to deal with it. So he did the only thing he could think of and pulled her into his arms. Finding that when she wrapped her own around him and buried her face into his chest, he didn't mind it nearly as much as he thought he would.

Some hidden instinct he had from remembered times with his sister and family had him stroking her head and murmuring to her. "This is normal, Elle. You aren't weak. Just human and despite what Jeanine would have us believe...that isn't a bad thing."

She could only nod weakly as his arms tightened around her, hers doing the same around him. All hope of keeping it in her mind that this had only been about paying back the debt her family owed him was slipping away along with the precious time needed to make their escape.

She almost didn't care. Almost.

It took herculean effort to pull away, and that same effort from Eric not to pull her back, but pull away they did.

There was an awkward moment when they looked at each other before Bree bent to pick up the bags she dropped and discreetly wiped her eyes. "Don't worry Coulter, even my disguise skills couldn't make you into a believable woman. We will stick to just making small changes."

She said as she straightened back up and saw his raised eyebrow. She frowned when she looked over his dermal and gauges.

"The dermal and lip piercing have to go. The gauges would be too obvious if I removed them but I got some new plugs that I am sure no one would think you would ever wear. The tatts will have to be covered with makeup for now. A quick change of shirts and a wig will have to do. We need to move quickly."

He gave a nod. The reality of his situation hadn't really hit him until she put the bags she had been holding down and got out the tools needed to remove anything that could be used to identify him. A sense of loss starting to take hold of him as she moved closer with an intense look in her eyes.

"This is going to suck." He muttered when he realized the dermals were first on her agenda.

Bree gave him a wicked smirk as her answer and got to work.