Screaming out as a sudden rush of pain tore through her shoulder, Dresden tried to sit up in bed and quickly found herself unable to move and choking. Trying to catch her breath and in a blind panic, her choking got worse and she started trying to pull at the tubes in her mouth.

"Dresden calm down, lay back and we can get the tubes out." Dres tried to focus on the voice next to her. It sounded so familiar. But she was suffocating and her hyperventilating and choking quickly caused her to pass out.

The next time she woke up, the first thing Dresden noticed was she could breathe and there was no longer any tubes and she wasn't choking. However, she was now handcuffed to the bed. Fantastic. "Ah you're awake again… my name is Doctor Henry Coulter."

"Eric's father?" Dresden felt strange having to check that the man in front of her was in fact her father-in-law. It felt like something she should already know. He looked like Eric, though a much older greying version of Eric. He was smaller and skinner but that was likely because Henry Coulter didn't train every day for five hours like his son.

"Yes that's right, can you tell me what else you remember?" As Henry spoke, he poured Dresden a cup of water and helped her slowly drink a mouthful before giving her the cup.

"My name is Dresden Coulter. I am twenty-four years old and I chose Dauntless. I graduated third in my class and married Dauntless leader Eric Coulter. I was bought to Erudite for testing because I am Divergent. I was put in a sim and I drowned…" Dresden knew the drill. She'd woken up in the infirmary a couple of times before and the questions were always the same. So rather than waiting for Dr Coulter to go through them all she just ran through the answers.

"That's a good sign, you seem to remember everything that happened. We were concerned the prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain during your drowning may have caused permanent damage. Can you please wiggle your left toes… good and now the right… and your fingers left and… right. That looks good, and how do you feel?"

"In pain… I don't know I guess I just have this weird feeling. I woke up because my shoulder was hurting. It felt like someone shot me." Running her fingers over the area she couldn't feel anything but the first time she' woken it had been agony. She'd been certain a bullet was tearing through her shoulder.

"The only bullet wound you have is in your leg and it's healing very well. There is nothing wrong with your shoulder."

"It doesn't hurt so much anymore. It was really weird. I just had this feeling like something bad had happened and then I felt it. It doesn't hurt anymore but my chest is killing me. How long was I out?"

"Despite there being no fluid in your lungs, your body reacted as though it was drowning. Your heart stopped and you underwent close to a minute of intense resuscitation before we got you back. There is a lot of bruising on your chest, though no broken ribs. You've only been out fifty-six hours." Fifty-six hours, so just over two day's unconscious. "What about your head, how is that feeling?"

"Achy… like someone hit me over the head with something very heavy."

"That's to be expected. Are you are seeing and hearing everything clearly?

"Yes."

"What about smell and taste?"

"Well I can't smell anything bad and I can taste my mouth is horrible." Dresden ran her tongue over her teeth in disgust.

"I'll go get you something to brush your teeth. Let me know straight away if anything changes. If I am not in the room press this button and someone will come." True to his word, Henry returned not a minute later with a toothbrush and toothpaste. She wanted to ask Dr Coulter where Eric was, if he knew she was awake or if he even cared she'd nearly died. But she couldn't bring herself to ask, so she just took the toothbrush with a soft thank you and started to clean her teeth.

Dresden was part way through brushing her teeth when the door to her room flew open. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Jeanine screeched as she flew into the hospital room. Henry stood immediately, assuming he had done something. He was used to being at the receiving end of his wife's temper, it was why he'd moved into the apartment down the hall when Eric was five. He'd figured not having his father around was probably better for Eric than listening to his parents fight every night. Jeanine walked past Henry and slammed her hands down on the end of Dresden's bed. "YOU POISONED HIS MIND! YOU KILLED HIM!"

Dresden might have been sitting down in bed but as Jeanine's words hit she felt like she was free falling. "no… no… no" She just kept whispering.

"YOU DID THIS… IT'S YOUR FAULT MY SON IS DEAD!" Dresden started to shake. She wanted to scream and cry but nothing came out as she bent forward, her shaking hands lifting to her face. Just repeating her mantra of no it wasn't true, Eric wasn't dead, he couldn't be dead.

"Eric?" Henry couldn't believe what he was hearing. Eric was young and fit and healthy. He was cautious and clever and he should have had a long life ahead of him.

"HER KIND MURDERED HIM!" Jeanine stepped right up to Dresden, "Tobias Eaton murdered him, executed him in a Candor prison cell in front of the Dauntless traitors. Shot him in cold blood and then dragged the body back to Dauntless!"

"If there is no body maybe Mr Eaton didn't take a kill shot, we can't be sure he is dead until we see the body. There is still hope for our boy, Jeanine."

"Hope is a fools' currency Henry. They murdered him, and it's her fault. She ruined him!" Jeanine hissed, "Since the patient is awake and stable she can go back to her cell. We will continue with testing tomorrow."

"Jeanine, it's too soon. Dresden is still very weak, running tests on her now would kill her." Henry tried to argue knowing Eric wouldn't want Dresden to die. His son loved this woman that much had been obvious to him. Her only crime was being born different, something they didn't yet understand.

"Good. Give the prisoner some clothes. I will send someone to escort her back to her cell within the hour." He'd always known Jeanine was cruel. Their marriage had been based on science, their attributes and IQ suggested they would make a good child together. Eric had been more than the algorithms could have predicted or so Henry had always believed. His little boy had been perfect but Jeanine had always seen room for improvement. She'd pushed Eric in everything, given him so little free time that in his time away from the hospital Henry rarely saw his son. Eric saw it as his fault, saw him as a neglectful father and didn't understand it was Jeanine keeping them apart and now it was too late. But he could protect Dresden for his son.

"Jeanine she isn't ready to leave the hospital. She needs another twenty-four hours of observations at least."

"She will be under constant observation from her cell and during testing." Jeanine hissed before storming out of the room leaving Henry standing over the still shaking but silent Dresden.

"Dresden?" Henry asked crouching down next to her trying to coax her to sit up again and brush her hair away from her face.

"Please tell me she's lying. He's not gone!" Dresden was crying now that Jeanine had left the room. Choking on her words as Henry held her head up looking at her with so much sadness.

"I don't know." He really hoped Jeanine was wrong and until he'd seen Eric's body he wouldn't believe it. After all, until days ago Dresden Coulter had been dead yet here she was alive and strong. But Tobias Eaton had reason to hate Eric, Eric had been hunting him and his girlfriend Beatrice Prior.

"It's my fault… it's all my fault."

"No, Eric made his own decisions. You are not to blame for his actions and his mother's manipulation."

"But I left and pushed him back to her… I never should've left. I fucked everything up."

"Eric loved you, and losing you hurt him but he is a grown man and he made his own decision to return to working for Jeanine. You cannot blame yourself for Eric's mistakes. He believed you were dead and that was your fault. What isn't your fault is his choice to side with Jeanine. Would he have done that if he knew you were alive? We'll never know. But Eric knows his own mind and he made the decision to return to Jeanine."

"Why is he gone?"

"We don't know he is gone."

"Four probably thinks I'm dead. Eric was trying to hurt everyone Four cared about. Any man can go to extraordinary extremes for the people he loves and Tobias Eaton is not just any man. He would kill Eric in cold blood to protect his family."

"You and Tobias were close?"

"He was my best friend." Dresden felt herself break a little more as she tried to accept that her best friend had most likely executed her husband. Jeanine had mentioned that all of Dauntless was at the trial and Eric had been found guilty of crimes against Dauntless and his sentence had been death. "He hated my relationship with Eric… I hated my relationship with Eric. I just got to the point I couldn't fight it anymore.

"Fantastic what have I done to Four this time?" Eric asked as Dresden stormed into the transfer dorms where he was sitting naked and alone on his bed with a book. He didn't look in the least bit concerned that he was completely exposed.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Dresden snapped the moment she regained her composure and remembered why she was there.

"If you'd tell me what I've supposedly done to your precious Stiff I would be able to tell you."

"You are the most condescending arrogant asshole I've ever met."

"What do you want Dresden?"

"It doesn't even fucking matter anymore, because I don't even know what I was thinking when I came looking for you in the first place."

"No tell me." Eric put his book down and climbed off his bed walking towards her growing slightly concerned and also pissed off that she was now so set on not telling him.

"I don't want to tell you anymore. Enjoy your book, Erudite." Dresden nodded back to his book before she turned and walked off. Grabbing his sweats off the end of his bed Eric shoved them on before following her out of the room.

It took him nearly half an hour to find Dresden, checking the training room, her parents' apartment, the mess hall, and the pit, before heading up the roofs. She was on the opposite roof. The gap between the buildings wasn't huge and he'd seen Dresden make the leap hundreds of times but he personally had never done it.

Eric lands the jump with the least dignity he's ever had before, shredding his hands on the gravel and tearing up the knees of his sweats.

"You gotta tuck and roll. No book teach you that?" Dresden was standing over him looking at him like he was an idiot.

"Why did you come and find me?"

"Why did you follow me?" Dresden countered.

"Because you are impossible!"

"I may be impossible but you are an arrogant, condescending, pompous, selfish, cruel Erudite that despite all his knowledge and brain power seem to understand nothing!"

"So why would you come looking for me."

"Because despite all of that, despite the fact I should hate you, and stay far away from you because I know you're just going to hurt me… I can't..." Eric couldn't believe what he was hearing. She had just insulted him and yet she was hinting that despite all that, she liked him?

Closing the gap between them, Eric ran his fingers over her jawline tilting her head to look up at him. "Say it." He demanded. Dresden shook her head keeping her lips sealed and Eric pulled her face closer to him, "SAY IT." He growled his eyes burning into hers his nose pushed against her cheek while his lips grazed hers.

"Please." Dresden whispered.

"Say it!"

"I… like…spending time with you."

"No!" Eric shook his head, "say it."

"Fuck you."

"You've already done that several times."

"I hate you."

"No you don't… say it."

"I love you." That was all Eric wanted to hear before finally claiming her lips.

True to Jeanine's words Dresden had been collected from the hospital and escorted back to her cell which had been completely stripped. There wasn't even a bed or a bench to sit on anymore. Not that she was in the cell long before she was being escorted back to the lab.

Fear spiked in Dresden as she looked at the glass room in which the box stood on a plinth as though it were some sacred object instead of just another creative way for Jeanine to murder Divergents. Dresden felt Jeanine's presence behind her before she heard her talk.

"Oh don't worry you aren't going back in the sim for the box… no that is reserved for Tris Prior. You will be going back into your fear sim, just your regular fear sim that you saw plenty of times during initiation. We want to watch you go through it again to see if any of your fears have changed. Then… well Eric came up with this idea, it was inspired really. We're going to see how you do facing your fears in real life without that Divergent mind control."

"Ma'am we have two people approaching the perimeter we think we've identified them as Eric Coulter and Beatrice Prior, how should we proceed?" Jeanine pushed the guard away from the screen to look and see for herself. Sure enough the guard had been correct, Eric was walking just behind Beatrice Prior heading for the main entrance. Eric was alive. He was alive and he looked terrible but he was alive and walking and bringing in Beatrice Prior.

Stepping back and allowing the guard to retake his position Jeanine gave the order, "Let them enter, take Prior straight to the cells and take Eric to my office! Put subject six back in her cell."

A/N Thank you guys for your patience so much has changed in my life since my last post all of it good thankfully... but now things are settleing I hope to be able to write more again and I am super excited for what is to come.