"Today you are going to start fighting against the Dauntless born! First fight… Coulter, York!" Jake shouted clapping his hands together and Eric stepped up onto the mats watching as Dresden did the same. "Body parts only I am looking at you York." Dres just smirked before pulling a blade from her hair letting it tumble down around her shoulders throwing Jake the blade before she cleverly tied it back up into a tight bun. Eric had been hoping she'd leave it down at least in a ponytail it would give something for him to hold.

They both took up their stances and waited until Jake shouted fight. Dres wasted no time diving for him her hand flashing in his face startling him into a clumsy block which was when she got her fist into his stomach. She had to go for the soft tissue areas to inflict pain. She was so light and tiny even throwing all her weight behind a punch she'd never inflict a great deal of damage. Her advantage was in her speed and endurance she could only maybe get a few hits on him but they'd be carefully calculated positioned with high accuracy and she'd use her speed to keep avoiding his attacks and she would last longer than him. He had to be smart about this fight his size wasn't going to help him now not against Dres. If anything it was a hindrance to him now made him look clumsy compared to her refined subtle movements.

He needed to wait force her into an attack, an attack of his choice that he could catch her in and take her down to the mats grappling on the floor that's where he could take her. Her next attack came swiftly but this time he was ready feigning another clumsy block to her initial punch he was able to catch her as she again went low this time for his legs. Slamming her down into the mats first.

Dres was better at grappling than he thought whilst he had the upper hand due to his size and weight her flexibility allowed her to escape him in ways he thought not possible. Until she was free from him forward rolling into a standing position on the other side of the mat. She'd escaped his attack this time but it wasn't a mistake he'd be making again.

Vaguely in the back ground he could hear their fellow initiates cheering them on he could say who they were cheering for it was all just a distant murmur to him as he side stepped to evade another attack from Dres this time though she was ready for his instant counter attack. They both ended up on the mat his face smashed between her thighs his body pressed over hers pinning her arms above her shoulder. He knew he was stretching her quads he could see she was in pain on her face as he pushed more into her chest.

Still though Dres didn't concede instead she used his own weight pressing forward against him using his weight to aid her momentum rolling them over releasing her thighs as she did she might have had the upper hand for a second but she was smaller than him and made the mistake of staying on the mats. It didn't take much for him to roll them over this time he pressed his chest and hips into hers pinning her arms with one hand above her head he used his whole body to cover hers. She could still kick her legs around she tried planting them on the floor and buck him off but that did nothing he was an immovable object.

"5-4…" Eric could hear Jake start the countdown to him winning as he smirked down at Dres who was still squirming underneath him. Whilst he was smirking he was acutely aware of the issue this squirming was starting to cause. Watching Dres fight had always turned him on, seeing how well she took care of herself but there was something about fighting her himself that took it to a new level. And now this sweet torture her rubbing her body against his and he dominated her so completely god he wanted to rip her leggings off and fuck her on the mats hard not caring who was watching.

Climbing out of the shower Eric just threw a clean set of his uniform on knowing full well he wouldn't be getting any sleep not tonight. Instead he filled his travel mug with coffee and headed down to the control room. The Erudite control room was clinical flat screens on a white wall watching everything, so that element was no different to Dauntless but at least in dauntless they'd had soft leather chairs here they were a hard natural wood that forced you to sit up straight with correct posture. No one could ever dose off to sleep in one of those seats.

"The things taken from the Divergent are over there!" It was an Erudite guard on duty when he walked in made things easier less questions. His marriage wasn't so well known here as it was in Dauntless, those who hadn't known about his marriage found out when she had died. Max had announced it at the celebration of her life after she'd died.

Walking over Eric had a quick look through the box of things he wasn't really sure why. They'd taken jewellery from the Divergents anything sharp, it was all in one box but everything taken from the Amity divergents was pretty much the same making it easy to spot the things they'd taken from Dresden. That and other than a necklace he guess might have been hers due to the fact it was made of steel she hadn't gained any new possessions.

Pulling out the necklace he looked at the circular charm on the end with a K stamped into it. The K made no sense to him, there wasn't anyone with a name beginning with a K in either of their families. Plenty of H's though he noted bitterly think his father Henry, her brother Haleston and her mother Hanna. So why would she wear the letter K especially on a necklace ever since one of their fellow initiates had used it against her in a fight, momentarily choking her, she'd stopped wearing them. Jealousy a felling he used to be all too familiar with especially when around Dresden crept back in as he wondered if she was this for a new man in her life.

Dropping the necklace to the table he picked up the dagger he'd given Dres for her twenty first birthday he knew from his history lessons in Erudite a person's 21st birthday used to mean a great deal. He'd had ancient ruins' carved into blade just like the ones Dres had tattooed on her body the ruins' for strength protection and love the matched against the three inked within her left forearm.

Placing the dagger down Eric couldn't quite believe what he was seeing in the bottom left corner of the box was a ring. One he hadn't seen in a year, but he'd once worn with pride. His wedding ring was in the box. This ring had gone missing from his apartment at Dauntless shortly after Dres had 'died'. He'd taken it off unable to deal with the reminder on his hand that his wife was gone catching his attention every time he needed to use his hand. He'd left it on the book shelf in front of her favourite book and then one day it was suddenly gone.

Looking up at the monitor he saw Dres sat on the bed in her cell one knee bent the other straight her head tilted back and eyes closed but he could tell she wasn't asleep. Her chest movements weren't sallow enough for her to be asleep. As the Erudite wasn't looking Eric hit the record button off to stop the footage from recording. The Erudite on duty would only be able to see her talking to the door, if she responded to him, not who she was talking to. It was one of the first oversights he'd seen in the Erudite security system. For all they were smart they were also naive security camera's only faced into the cells. Anyone could come and talk to them only appearing on a camera briefly as they walked down the hall to enter the cells. They said it was because no one visiting couldn't be trusted, they were wrong.

Eric stood on the other side of her cell door hold his wedding ring he held it up to show her he had it, "This went missing from my apartment a week after you…" He stood completely still for a moment holding the ring up as Dres climbed off the bed and walked towards the glass door standing right in front of him. She gave a small laugh as she looked at the ring in his hand.

"I wanted my ring back, I never wanted to take it off. I hadn't thought you'd be so attached to it; you were never sentimental about objects you said it was illogical. It took me weeks to convince you even wear a ring you saw it as a needless status symbol. Four tried to get mine back for me but you wearing it around your neck ruined that plan. You'd taken your ring off though so Four stole it from your apartment whilst you were working and sent it to me." As she spoke Eric began spinning the ring in circles around his fingers, he was listening but he couldn't look at her so he kept his attention focused on the band in his hands. The black rhodium band was simple enough and once he'd even worn it with pride because it tied her to him. Now though it felt like a symbol of just how deep betrayal ran.

"So Four always knew where you were?" Four had stolen the ring for her so he'd been right in his assumption Four had always known she wasn't dead. It explained why he never seemed deeply bothered by her death he just wasn't that great of an actor. He tried but something about the way he'd grieved had always struck Eric as odd. Now he understood Four had never been grieving because he had never lost her.

"Yes… he sent me to his mother and the factionless made sure I had a place there." The factionless well that explained her new look and clothing a combination of the factions' colours worn in a very Dauntless way. She stood in front of him now in dauntless pants and boots with a long sleeve thermal top that though the colour of amity was tight and practical very Dauntless the jacket though. Her jacket though looked more like a relic of a time long past a military jacket from before the war patterned to blend into the surroundings.

"You could tell Four but not me -not your husband, not the man you swore never to lie to, never to hide from." He was bitter and it was showing he knew it. But he'd be damned if he cared. It seemed Four really did get everything he wanted the number 1 rank, his wife. The thing that made it worse was Four didn't even want them, he didn't care about ranking first because he didn't want to be a leader. He never wanted Dresden not like he did. Four saw her as a sister, he wasn't in love with her and yet still he managed to take her from him.

"You wouldn't have understood Eric… I never told Four what I was he worked it out himself and then he protected me taught me how to get through the fear simulations without been noticed. My times were too fast Eric people were starting to notice. I pushed doubt away then but I slipped up during a patrol in the city I was out of character and to many people saw it… to many Erudite saw it. They started asking questions and I had to make a decision. I would never ask you to choose Eric…"

"So you chose for me?" He scoffed lifting the ring right in front of her his face twisting to a cruel sneer, "You chose wrong." Eric dropped the ring to the floor and turned away from the cell leaving it there on the floor basically at her feet.

Fuck if felt like he'd just dropped his heart not the fucking ring, he hadn't even known if it still fucking worked. If there was still any emotion left inside of him turned out the world wasn't done with hurt yet. He might not be able to feel joy and happiness but he could still hurt.

"We don't need rings." Eric argued as he walked around the apartment tidying up the mess she had just made stripping her clothes to the floor as she walked from the door to the bed before falling face first on it. Then proceeding to ask him if he'd though anymore about what kind of wedding ring he wanted.

"They are tradition Eric please." Putting her pouty face as he liked to call it on as he sat down on her side of the bed running his fingers over her aching calf muscles. She'd been in the training room all morning with the transfers in an attempt to improve their pitiful fitness and endurance levels she'd had them out on the obstacle course. Once they initiates had finished she'd stayed behind and ran it herself twice before doing her usual leg day work out with Lauren it had been a bad idea. As if Eric sensed it he just started to massage her legs out pulling her feet into his lap and starting there.

"My parents don't wear rings." His argument was simple but one that Dresden had a very easy argument against.

"Eric your parents don't even particularly like each other, the married and had you because they saw it as logical. We are nothing like them." Dres told him giving up on the wonderful massage Eric was giving her feet and climbing on to his lap in just her tank bra and panties placing her forearms on his shoulders and looking into his eyes, "Which is why we should have wedding rings."

"I don't see why they a needless status symbol. Why do we have to parade our love around on our fingers our relationship is just that ours why does anyone else need to know? And say I buy you a ring are you ever going to wear it or is it going to end up in that jewellery box of yours filled with items you begged me to buy you and never wear."

"That's not true I wear them to important occasions."

"Baby we live in Dauntless not Erudite or Candor or hell even Amity important occasion happen twice a year the obligator leaders diner…"

"That one's your fault you wanted to be a leader." Dres was quick to point out knowing Eric hated the leaders diner even more now his mother had been appointed the Erudite leader.

"And the New Years Party… other than that we don't have special occasions in the dauntless."

"I would wear it."

"You say that every time…"

"And every time you cave in so why are you still putting up so much of a fight?"

Eric just looked at her his steely eyes staring straight into hers and Dresden let out a small smirk after weeks of arguing the point she knew she'd just won. It was inevitable really but nice to finally secure a victory for herself. Besides it wasn't like he'd asked her to marry him in true Eric style he just climbed into bed three weeks ago and told them they were getting married in on July 18th. Just like that no discussion. When she'd tried to argue the point he'd stated they'd been together two year lived together two years so really all the marriage was a document that ensured if one of them died the other would get everything nothing else would change.

Falling against the wall next to the doorway Dres slide down until she was sat on the floor inches away from the ring Eric had just dropped on the floor. Tears ran down her face as looked at the ring and listened to Eric's footsteps fade away into the distance. With every step she could hear she could hear his words 'you chose wrong'. Sniffling and forcefully wiping the tears from her eyes she forced her gaze from the ring.

Dres had known from the second she'd heard Eric's screams as he tried to follow her into the burning building she'd made a mistake. He was ready to die for her then. Subconsciously she reached behind her left shoulder and ran her fingers over the scared tissue. She'd tried to turn around run back through the building make it out and back to Eric before the building blew up. She hadn't made it instead she'd ended up with third degree burns on the upper left side of her body barely managing to make it to factionless and Evelyn Johnson-Eaton before she'd passed out from the pain.

It had been too late once the building exploded with her supposedly inside and no way of surviving there was no way back. Instead she had to live with the sound of Eric's screams, the fact he'd killed someone in his desperate struggle to get to her. Curling on to her side Dres began the mental list of all the reasons she had to doubt Eric replaying the one memory she always attempted to justify her decisions with… it never worked.

"Where the hell are you?" Dres spoke out loud as she looked around Eric's office. He'd been due home hours ago and when he hadn't arrived she'd walked up to his office checking the gym on the way. He was missing from both his usual spots; it was unlikely he would have gone out either in or out of Dauntless without telling her. So she headed up to the one other place she could think he might be.

There was a basement bellow The Pit it was filled with factionless and the occasional faction member that broke faction laws. He was the leader in charge of the cells and that sometimes meant he had to go down there. Getting down there could only be done through a coded door in Eric's office. Thankfully Eric had never been good at hiding the pin code when he'd had to go down there and she'd been in the office. Which meant she knew the code was her birthday.

Heading down the stairs the closer to the bottom she got the clearer Eric's threatening voice got clearer as did the sound of punches. Getting to the bottom flight Dres couldn't believe what she was seeing Eric was beating the shit out a defenceless initiate. One of the Dauntless born that had been exceeding on the simulations.

"Are there any others like you?" Eric was asking between punches and when it became obvious he wasn't going to get any answers out of the initiate. He just lifted his gun and shot him.

Dresden hadn't meant to scream; it wasn't like she'd never seen someone been shot before hell she'd shot factionless executed them. But Lyon wasn't factionless he was Dauntless and he was just a kid one her best friend was currently training. He was just starting to find his place in the world and Eric, her husband, had just murdered him in cold blood. Her scream though had alerted Eric to the fact he wasn't alone down there. His eyes instantly found Dresden's who just turn and bolted up the stairs.

"DRESDEN!" She heard him shout but kept running seconds before she heard his heavy footfalls on the stairs bellow. She was faster though and managed to stay ahead of him until she burst into their apartment deadlocking the door behind her.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" His angry shout came as his body slammed into the door sending her jolting forward off the door she'd been leant on to stand facing the door in the middle of the room. "I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR I WILL BREAK IT DOWN!" He screamed but Dresden didn't open the door she was only grateful they lived far enough away people wouldn't be able to hear them.

"WHY SO YOU CAN KILL ME TOO?!" She shouted back, as she backed into the bookshelf opposite the door pulling her knife from her boot.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" This time though she didn't need to move as Eric's body came barrelling through the door. "You don't understand what you just saw." He stated pointing his finger at her walking straight for.

Dresden didn't hesitate just threw her knife at him watching it bury itself in his thigh muscle. The blade too short to do any serious damage but enough to bring him to his knees snarling. "You killed an innocent initiate!" She cried, "Murdered him." She headed into the kitchen pulling another knife from the chopping block.

"He wasn't innocent!" Eric hissed forcing himself up to his feet surging forward snatching the knife out of her hand throwing it across the room reaching for the block sending that across the room before she could grab another knife.

"He was an initiate what could he have possibly done?"

"He was a Divergent!" Eric shouted at her and Dresden coiled away from him. All the fight in her was gone she wondered how she hadn't seen it before his sim times screamed Divergent. She hadn't noticed she hadn't been able to warn him, help him and now he was dead. "They threaten our society; Dresden you have to see that. They don't conform and can't be controlled they have to be eliminated."

A/N So a lot of flashbacks get a bit more of a feel for Dresden and Eric's past together. And she had his wedding ring and why do you think she has a K necklace? Derbygirl maybe if you PM your email address I can send you the chapters?