Four followed Dresden back to the apartment she shared with Eric. He was primarily concerned Eric would figure out why Dresden had left and kill her as soon as she walked through the door. Coming up to their apartment, Four saw the door hanging off the hinges at a weird angle. That wasn't that unusual though.

Following Dresden inside, he looked around at the damage. All things considered, the destruction was pretty tame. A few knives on the floor showed signs of a struggle but all the furniture was in one piece and there weren't any new bullet holes in the walls. It wasn't unusual for Dauntless members to fight, it was just who they were. Always reckless and looking for a thrill. They lived on the edge, threw themselves into everything fully, and felt intensely. That being said, Eric and Dresden took it to a whole new level.

Looking around it was obvious Eric wasn't in the apartment, and Dresden was already cleaning up. As she picked up the knives from the floor she spoke, "He isn't here so you might as well go. I doubt he'll be back anytime soon. He's either getting drunk or beating the shit out of something in the gym." Dresden sighed as she placed the knife block back on the kitchen counter.

"I am not leaving until I know he isn't just going to kill you."

"Finding you in our apartment might just push him over the edge… seriously Four, I can handle Eric. He doesn't have a real reason to suspect me yet." Dresden arched her eyebrows, looking at him like he was an idiot. Eric hated him. He hated him for being better at fighting, shooting, and overcoming his fears. But mostly Eric hated Four for how close he was to his wife. He hated the fact that every time they fought Dresden would run to Four. She worked best with Four, she laughed and joked with Four, and hung out with him on her time off. His hatred fed his jealously, and his jealousy fed his rage and always ended in another fight. The rule Eric had set was simple, she could meet Four anywhere else in Dauntless but he wasn't welcome in their apartment, ever.

"Alright, I am gonna be in my apartment. He tries anything you run straight there!" His concern and general kindness always warmed Dresden. She was amazed people couldn't tell he was Divergent because he was far too Amity, unlike the cold battle seasoned Dauntless. But then, he could also be a total asshole at times as well, just maybe not as often as Eric.

"I promise." Four left and Dresden finished up cleaning the apartment. She couldn't be bothered dealing with the door so she left it bent and hanging off its hinges.

A long bath later and Dresden was curled up on the bed with a book in one of Eric's oversized t-shirts waiting for him to come back. It was nearly one in the morning before she heard the sound of his heavy boots on the floor as he stepped around the broken door. Dresden sat up in bed and watched as he walked further into their apartment. His steps were so sure, she instantly knew he hadn't been drinking. Eric wasn't a sloppy drunk really, but he wasn't so great on his feet when he'd been drinking a lot. Which was his usual go to move after they fought. A few drinks did help him loosen up and show a bit more of the fun person she loved though. Tonight, he appeared completely sober.

"I thought you'd be asleep by now." Eric stated, taking off his jacket and disarming as he walked into the apartment. Dresden stayed sitting in the middle of their bed clutching the book she'd been reading. She kept her hold tightly around the sharp knife shaped bookmark tucked between the pages. If required, she could use it as a weapon. It wasn't big enough to do serious damage unless she got to his throat or femoral artery, but she'd be able to slow him down and give herself a chance to get away if it came to a fight.

"Four and I have late patrol starting tomorrow night. I'm trying to stay up tonight and sleep tomorrow during the day so I won't be tired." She stated simply. Despite the normality of their conversation, the air was thick with tension. As she kept her fingers wrapped around the bookmark, her eyes were trained on Eric as he moved around the apartment. He was currently sitting on the couch pulling off his boots. He might have taken his weapons off, but he hadn't relaxed and Eric didn't need a weapon to kill.

"I am going to take a shower." With that he was gone, closing the bathroom door. Dresden collapsed back on the bed, her heart racing as she released her grip on the makeshift knife. "Fuck." She sighed. She'd never been so afraid of Eric before. She needed to sell this better if she didn't want him to become even more suspicious. He was far too clever not to notice her shifty behaviour.

Stripping off his pants and shirt, Eric turned the water on, waiting a moment for it to heat up before stepping into the shower. He hadn't been in there long when he felt Dresden press up against his back, her cheek pressed between his shoulder blades as her hands rested on his chest. Neither of them spoke for a moment. His body was still stiff, arms straight by his sides until he finally relaxed and pulled her arms tighter around him. They remained there under the water in a comfortable silence.

"I'm sorry." She whispered as though she were scared to speak to loudly and break the spell they'd fallen under.

"I didn't want you to see it… but he wasn't an innocent Dresden. He was a threat. One I had to eliminate to keep us safe." Eric knew that one of Dresden's fears was being asked to kill someone she thought was an innocent. When she'd seen him kill the Divergent she hadn't known why he was doing it so she'd just assumed he was killing an innocent. She'd seen a Dauntless born boy who'd hours before been training in Lauren's initiation class. Someone Dresden had probably known for years.

"I know… it was just a shock." She said.

Eric didn't say anything, he just turned and placed a kiss on top of Dresden's head, "I don't know what I'd do if you ever left."

"I am not going anywhere. I love you." Guilt clawed at Dresden as she spoke. Praying it didn't show on her face, she tried to look up at Eric and convince him she'd never leave him even though she'd spent the evening planning how to get away from him.

This time Eric bent his head and claimed her lips. He'd never said it, never told her he loved her, but his actions always filled in the blanks. The way he would kiss her after she'd say I love you was different. Sweeter. Softer. "You wanted to stay awake right?" Eric asked, looking at her with a smirk.

Wrapping her hand around his neck, Dresden pulled his lips down to claim them. If she had to leave him then this was the Eric she wanted to fill her memories with. The loving Eric that treated her like the most precious treasure, like she was the center of the universe. The Eric whose love consumed her so much she could scarcely breathe without him. Wrapping her legs around him, Eric lifted her and stepped from the shower. He needed her but not in the shower. He wanted her spread across the bed.

After she'd ran out on him, he'd gone straight to the control room to look for her. He'd panicked when he couldn't find her, thinking that this time she'd really done it. This time she'd left him for good. Left Dauntless like she'd threatened to countless times. Now she was back in his arms and a quick fuck in the showers wouldn't cut it. He needed her, needed to take his time and feel her quivering under him. Hear her quiet moans as she begged for him, crying out his name in pleasure. He needed to make her as desperate for him as he always was for her.

Dropping her on to the bed, Eric knelt between her legs and looked at her laying there spread across the bed for him. Running his fingers over the delicate flesh of her stomach, his fingers tracing the lines of the faint six-pack that showed. He loved her skin, the rich café au lait colour inherited from her Lebanese and Mexican heritage was so soft and warm. His hands slid further down to her taut muscular thighs. She arched as his fingers trailed over her sensitive skin and moaned as he bent down to place a kiss on the mole at the top of her left thigh. This particular mole with his favorite, close enough to the area he knew she wanted him to be teasing but far enough away he wasn't tempting himself.

As his tongue ran over the darkened raised flesh he felt Dresden's fingers running through his hair. Her grip was light so when he sat up her hand dropped to his shoulder before she started tracing the hard planes of his chest and stomach. As she grew closer to his cock, he forgot to breathe until suddenly her teasing hand just dropped away without making contact. He surged forward covering her body with his and claiming her lips.

"Fuck." He groaned as he pushed into her heat. Feeling the warmth clamp down around his cock, there was nothing sweeter. He'd been with other girls before Dresden, but sex with them just hadn't compared. He went slow this time. The deeper he pushed the more Dresden's back arched and the louder the soft moans she was letting out grew.

Running his fingers over her sternum, Eric stopped when he was full seated in her. He sat back on his knees so he could look down to where they were joined. This was probably his favorite view of her, naked and spread across the bed. Her thighs tangled with his, her wild hair fanning out, the quick rise and fall of her chest, her dilated eyes and swollen lips. His cock being hugged tight by the lips of her pussy as she throbbed around his length. It was an image he had committed to memory for those lonely nights when they ended up on opposite shift patterns. But nothing beat the real thing.

Setting a slow pace, Eric fought to keep control as he listened to all the wonderful sounds his wife emitted as she lost herself. Letting her orgasm build, he refused to use anything but his cock knowing a g-spot orgasm was the most intense for her. He had no sense of time as he lost himself in his task, never changing the pace until Dresden exploded around him. Her body tensing around him, she clung to him as her orgasm ripped through her. Forcing his from him with a grunt, he collapsed against her pushing himself deep as he emptied himself inside her.

Rolling on to his back in the space beside her, exhausted but sated, Eric turned his head to watch Dresden as she began to recover. The smile she gave him was always reward enough, the way her eyelids drooped and she looked totally at ease. He reached up with his hand to run his fingers over her cheek bone. "I need to shower again." She sighed and Eric smirked. "I don't wanna move." This time she was using her needy voice and Eric knew what she wanted.

Rolling off the bed, he walked over to the bathroom and wet a washcloth before heading back and using it to clean Dresden and himself up. Throwing the washcloth into the bathtub he climbed back into bed behind Dresden, this time covering them with the blankets.

"We're okay right?" He asked as he held her in his arms, because something still didn't feel right. Despite the amazing sex and the fact that they were wrapped in each other right now, something felt off.

"I love you." Dresden rolled over in his arms to face him and look him in the eye as she spoke. Her words made him relax, he could see she meant it. She loved him and that was all that mattered. While she still loved him, he could control her and keep her with him.

"Be careful tonight." Eric told her from the bed where he was still comfortably tucked up with his tablet reading over some reports.

"Aren't I always?" Dresden smirked at him as she pulled her hair up into a bun and walked back towards him and the bed. Eric loved looking at her in uniform. Her combat boots and pants with her thigh holster holding her knife, another knife would be tucked in her boot, a spare gun strapped to her back and then she'd pick up her main semi-automatic rifle before she left. It was getting cold now so she wore a deep red thermal under her jacket but it was skin tight and there was just something about the way she looked right now that Eric found unbelievably sexy.

"No." Eric scoffed knowing the only reason he still had a wife was Four, though it annoyed him endlessly to be in the other man's debt. Dresden was rash and reckless. She didn't care about her own life, not really, she was only too ready to risk her own life to save others. Or in the reckless pursuit of her next adrenaline rush. She lived to be as close to the edge as possible.

"I'll see you in the morning." Dresden shook her head as she pulled on her uniform jacket before placing a kiss on his lips, shutting their new apartment door behind her as she walked out.

"ERIC!" The pounding on his apartment door and shouting of his name had woken him up. He stumbled to the door, desperate to get rid of Four and get back to sleep. Four. If Four was back, why wasn't his wife in bed with him? Four was patrolling with Dresden, they always did patrol together; they'd left at seven last night. Checking his watch as he opened the door he noted it was 2:00 am, they still had four hours left on their shift.

"Why are you back, where is Dresden?" He asked as he opened the door to see his nemesis standing covered in dust with scratch marks on his arms and face. If he was about to tell him something had happened to Dresden, Eric was sure he was going to murder him.

"We were up on the roofs to get a good view. Dresden jumped but the ground she landed on wasn't solid, it gave way under her weight and she fell." Eric started to panic. He knew how high some the buildings Dresden would often leap off of were. His only comfort was she was with Four and he hated heights so surely she couldn't have fallen that far. "It wasn't too high, maybe seventeen or eighteen feet but she was unconscious when I got to her. She's in the infirmary."

Eric didn't even care he was shirtless and only in his boxers, he walked straight out of his apartment and down the hall. Four followed him asking if he could maybe put some clothes on before going. But clothes didn't matter, only Dresden mattered right now and she needed him.

Running into the infirmary Eric saw her semi-conscious on one of the beds grumbling as the nurse tried to fuss over her. "Please just fuck off." She snapped as the nurse pulled a blanket around her. This made the nurse leave her alone walking off tutting. Eric took that as his cue to go over and sit on the end of her bed where the blanket was now piled. "Forget something, did we?" She snarked, looking over his body. Eric just let out a grateful laugh, knowing she would be fine.

"You know they would let you out of this place sooner if you would cooperate." He pointed out. "Come on, you look exhausted and you should get some sleep." Dresden nodded, clearly calmed by the fact he was here now.

"I love you." Eric just smiled and returned her sentiment with a kiss, running his hands gently over her hair which was still matted with blood.

"Get some sleep." He told her, knowing that this was likely another concussion and sleep was the best thing for her. Reaching down he took her wrist in his hand pressing his fingers to her pulse. Despite the machine reading it for him, he took comfort in feeling the strong beat himself. Many a time he'd done this lying in their own bed beside Dresden, feeling her pulse as she slept off a concussion.

Eric wasn't unused to seeing her in an infirmary bed, one of the biggest things in Dauntless was sport. Dauntless was the only faction that had access to the old United Center. Prior to the war, it had been the home of the cities basketball and ice hockey teams. The ice was long gone but the hockey boards still stood and there were still goals so the Dauntless had taken it up. They played as close to the old game as they could. Without ice, they played on wheels instead. Dresden had been playing since she'd been able to walk and she was really good and very violent. She was always ending up in the infirmary with black eyes and concussions.

She drifted off to sleep quickly and Eric covered her with the blanket. One of the nurses handed him a t-shirt and sweatpants which he pulled on and resumed his position at the end of her bed waiting for the doctor to arrive.

"So what's the diagnosis and recovery time?" Eric asked when the doctor finally arrived some thirty minutes later. The doctors all came from the Erudite hospital. Usually patients were taken straight there but at the time Four hadn't known the extent of Dresden's injuries and Dauntless had nurses on hand trained for emergency medical care until a doctor could arrive.

"Fractured skull. We'll keep her tonight but she can go home in the morning. She's off active duty till the fracture is healed and you'll have to keep an eye on her. I guess the main thing is the baby is okay."

"Baby?" Eric asked looking at the doctor standing in front of him in shock and confusion. A baby wasn't part of the plan at least not now, not yet. Dresden was on protection anyway and he knew she took it diligently every morning with breakfast, he watched her take it.

"She's nearly ten weeks pregnant, did you not know?"

"No, she never said anything." Eric just looked at Dresden and began to wonder if things weren't as okay as she made them out to be. Had she known and just not told him? He couldn't understand why she wouldn't have told him. Maybe yesterday yes but she was ten weeks pregnant surely she would have told him before then.

"Well it could be she didn't know. It's possible she could have still been having her period just with less blood. She has a hard job, especially recently with initiation, so she could have overlooked many symptoms as just stress. I'll leave you two alone."

"The simulation she failed was Amity. It took a lot of work, but we managed to uncover her original aptitude test results hidden in the data file. Really, it's impossible to completely delete them from the hard drive. She ruled out Amity pretty quick by instantly picking the knife, and she ruled out Candor too. Looking at our other subjects we can see a similar trend. They all had high aptitudes for a few of the factions but failed the sim on the factions they scored lowly on. We've been assuming all Divergents are the same but I don't think they are. The lab has made screening equipment to help you locate the perfect Divergent who scores equally across all factions." Jeanine explained, as she walked around the room she'd set him up in.

It had been his room as a child and she'd never changed anything. His old books were in the bookcase and the models he built for various projects at school were still all there. If anyone ever asked, she would say she hadn't had time since becoming a leader to repurpose her son's room into something else. But really she'd never been able to bring herself to do so. Until he'd become a leader and she'd been able to see him again, this room had been all she had left of Eric.

"Is she going to live?" Eric snapped, not really caring what his mother's wondrous brain had managed to work out. Especially not if it was going to come at the cost of his wife.

"Your father has successfully drained the blood from her lungs but her brain was starved of oxygen for an undetermined amount of time. So despite the fact she is breathing on her own, it is possible she won't wake up or if she does she might have brain damage." Jeanine replied. She didn't want to admit that it hurt her to see how much Eric still cared about Dresden, even after everything his wife had done to him, and yet he was unwilling to forgive his own mother for not always being there for him as a child. She'd hoped he'd understand she was only ever trying to make him the best he could be.

"You did this." His accusation was clear and his stance and facial expression so threatening Jeanine took a step backwards towards the door. In some ways Eric had always scared her, his physical strength alone was intimidating but his intelligence made him even more so. Brawn and brains a lethal combination and something that needed to be controlled before it became too much of a threat.

"In the pursuit of science, she was a Divergent anyway." Jeanine tried to explain.

"What if she is this perfect Divergent you are looking for?"

"She is only 87%, we checked. It isn't good enough, only 100% will open the box. You will take the new testing equipment and find me that perfect Divergent. What you do with the rest of them is up to you."

"If she dies while I am gone, I will kill you. I don't care that you are my mother. She is my wife and if anything happens to her while I'm out running your errands, I will end you."

"I save her now and then what? She's a Divergent, a danger to our society, the council will execute her."

Eric didn't say anything he merely glared at his mother. He didn't look much like her, he'd gotten her eyes but that was it, everything else about him was his father. Not that Dr Henry Coulter had been a better parent than Jeanine. He didn't even know where his father currently was, he'd seen him once since his return to Erudite. In the infirmary for the final check up on his leg, his father had been the one to sign him back to active duty. Power was the only thing either of them cared about. He'd been born out of obligation, not love, and they'd made sure he knew it. He was nothing more than a continuation of the passage of knowledge. The only time Jeanine had shown any interest in his life was when he was excelling at school and winning awards. He'd always been at the top of all his classes. But that hadn't been good enough, she'd only cared when he was the best. Jeanine Matthews only cared about winning.

Walking away was the best way to cement his threat so he made his way to the infirmary. He wanted to see her before he left for Candor in an hour. He needed to verify she was truly alive with his own eyes and prove that his mother hadn't been lying to him.

The many times Eric had visited Dresden in the infirmary at Dauntless couldn't prepare him for the sight of her now. Usually she was awake, swearing profusely as some poor nurse tried to stitch her up. Not lying there motionless looking so pale and tiny surrounded by machines.

"Most of the machines are just to monitor her condition. She's stable. The only thing supporting her is the drip, it's keeping her nutrient level up while she's unconscious." His father's voice shocked him as he spun around to see the elder Coulter leaning against the door frame watching him.

"I wondered about Jeanine's interest in keeping Subject Six alive. At first I thought it was just something to do with her divergence and that damn box, but now you're here so I am starting to think it was more personal." His father had never met Dresden. He wasn't a leader, he was a doctor who seldom left the hospital. He probably even had a bed in his office. He worked at the forefront of medical science and was both a genius and a saver of lives. He was also a shitty dad. Eric had come fairly low on his father's priority list. Proven more so by the fact he didn't even know his own daughter in law was lying in one of his hospital beds.

"Her name is Dresden Coulter, not Subject Six."

"Your wife Dresden Coulter? The one who died in a fire last year?" Henry asked looking for the first time at his daughter in law. Eric was sure he'd probably seen a photograph of her before but he doubted his father had paid attention. There was a picture of her at the memorial beside the urn filled with some other woman's ashes. Then again, Eric couldn't even remember if Henry had bothered to turn up or if there was just an empty seat next to his mother.

"Yes that Dresden Coulter."

"Well she didn't do a good job at staying dead but a fire might explain the burn scaring on her back left shoulder." His father's off handed comment caught Eric's interest. He didn't know what she had done during her time away from Dauntless and he desperately wanted to know what had happened to Kadence.

"What over injuries does she have?"

"Bullet wound in her upper left thigh though it's mainly healed now. She's had a recent fracture to her right radius, it wasn't set properly, and there's a lot of damage to the metacarpals and phalanges in the hands but that is common among the Dauntless due to all the fighting you do. Fracture lines on the cranium healed now…"

"She fractured her skill in a fifteen foot fall just over a year ago."

"There's a large amount of scaring and damage to the reproductive organs. Scarring on the upper thigh and in the fleshy area around the hip bones that could be from self-harm. Patients suffering from serious depression can sometimes feel the need to induce pain as form of control."