'You've been selected… for a job to do.' David's voice is exhausted, as if he's spent the whole night pacing around instead of sleeping. Knowing him, he probably did. 'To be honest, I'd like you to refuse their offer.'

'Fine,' I say. 'I refuse the kind offer.' I pause. 'What exactly is the offer?'

'Well, I'm not sure you get much choice in whether to take up the job or not.' David looks incredibly sad, but he only piques my curiosity. 'But I suppose you'd better hear about it. I'm just the messenger.' He takes me to a table, and we sit down. 'How often have you heard of the experiments?'

'Not much. Why?' I ask. The experiments are groups of people living in different parts of our land, what used to be North America; some with damaged genes, some with healed genes. The Bureau of Genetic Welfare, my home, monitors them, some with more care than others.

'Specifically, the five factions.'

The five factions are the experiment that I have always been interested in. 'Abnegation and Dauntless,' I begin uncertainly. 'They're the only two I remember.' Well, that's not exactly true. They're the only two I took an interest in, the only two I watch on the camera feeds. The brave and the selfless. The chaos and serenity. Polar opposites, and yet the two I have always been drawn to.

David nods approvingly. 'Candor, Erudite and Amity,' he completes. 'The people at the top of the Bureau have decided that there's a job to be done, and you are the best person to get it done…'

I open my eyes with a start, looking around frantically while I get my bearings. Taking slow, deep breaths in a futile attempt to calm my racing heart, I look over at Andrew. He has not seen my panic; he is sleeping peacefully across from me.

My heart is still beating loudly, and the noise overwhelms me. I can't stop picturing David's face as he tells me what the Bureau have dictated I have to do. Calm down. But the Bureau refuses to move out of my mind.

No. I have to dispel these thoughts before they get the better of me. I am not Natalie Wright anymore. Not now, not ever. I do not live in the Bureau, I do not live in Dauntless. I cannot be the hardened, strong girl who saw her mother kill her father. I am Natalie Prior. I live in Abnegation, the calmest faction of all. I am serene and calm and patient. I do not have a hot temper or sarcastic tendencies. I have two children and a husband, I am a government representative, and I will never be Natalie Wright again.

Why is that fact so hard to accept?

Natalie Wright was headstrong and brave and hardened. She saw her mother kill her father. She has not cried since the age of twelve. She lived a hard life, harder than many people will ever know. And she is not me. Not anymore.

I remember Matthew's serious words. You cannot be half in and half out. It is either the Bureau or the factions. Yet I am half in the factions and half in the Bureau, helping the Divergent escape yet never knowing their fate. Watching them go, yet never following them.

What does David think of me now? Does he remember me? Does he care? We kept in touch for a full year after I left, while I was settling into Dauntless. But after I met Andrew, it barely took me days to realise where I wanted to be. Where we wanted to be. Where we could be safe.

It wasn't Dauntless like David expected.

I remember the letters I sent him through my tablet, how they became less frequent as I settled into Abnegation. His letters became shorter, perhaps more detached. After he sent me a letter accusing me of being just a silly teenage girl, I reacted to it as Natalie Wright would have done.

Honestly, I don't think you care that I didn't choose Erudite like I was supposed to. It sounds like you're actually just jealous. And if you want me to keep updating you, you'll apologize for doubting me. But if you don't, I won't send you any more updates, and I certainly won't leave the city. It's up to you.

-Natalie

It wasn't the final letter, although I thought it would have been. David replied just how I knew he would. There was one more that I sent him, each word seared into my memory, a full two years afterwards.

Dear David,

I got your letter. I understand why you can't be on the receiving end of these updates, and I'll respect your decision, but I'll miss you.

I wish you every happiness.

-Natalie

I knew nothing could express the aching hole of sadness inside me, and so I didn't even try. Every word was typed with a careful, slow precision, my fingers hovering over the keys. Deleting it, then typing it again, and then deleting it, and typing it back in, until I finally found the courage to press the send button.

After that, there was no going back. David didn't contact me, and I didn't contact him. I stopped thinking of him every day, starting to live in the present, letting go of the past. After Caleb was born, and then Beatrice a few months later, I knew that I needed to move on.

'Natalie?' Andrew's voice jerks me out of my thoughts. The man who I defied the Bureau's plans for, the man who I have never stopped loving. For a moment I forget myself and smile at him; a wide, natural smile, not a close-lipped Abnegation one; and then hurriedly arrange my features into a serene mask. You forget yourself. 'You're in a good mood,' he notes.

I can see why you were in Erudite. I almost say it out loud, but stop myself just in time. Perhaps Natalie Wright would have said it out loud, but I am in Abnegation now. 'I had good dreams,' I say, not untruthfully. 'I-' I stop, hearing Beatrice's voice in the next room, urging Caleb to wake up, and smile again. Beatrice has always been a little more boisterous than the average Abnegation girl; I think she gets that from me; whereas Caleb takes after Andrew, being selfless and clever.

They are both fourteen. I have stopped counting the years since my Choosing Ceremony, but there is a part of me that has always kept track. We do not celebrate birthdays in Abnegation; there are barely any families that even acknowledge them; but the part of me from the Bureau remembers. There are so many things that I should have forgotten, but that I have buried in the past rather than letting them go.

Sometimes I hear David's soft, insistent voice ringing in my ears. Never forget, Natalie.

And though I am not the Natalie he once knew, I will still remember.

I will always remember.

A/N: Hello! I'm back :) Bit late now, but how was your new year? I am so sorry I haven't updated in ages… I've had a lot of things happening, including writer's block, yet another batch of mock exams (I did really well on them!), awkward friends, a hell of a lot of homework and a recent obsession with Doctor Who. What's been happening in your life? Anything interesting? I have had a million plot bunnies that I never seem to get round to writing. :P

What do you think of this chapter? It's not one of my better ones, I wrote it in a bit of a hurry… I'm also going to go back and edit the first few chapters up to about Amar's second chapter. Thank you SO MUCH for all the support I've been getting. You guys are amazing! :)