I can't breathe. My mother is alive. She's here. She's alive. I am sobbing into the crook of her neck and she is patting my hair and whispering soothing things into my ear. I can't tell what they are because I'm sobbing so loud that I cannot hear her. It takes me several moments before I finally pull away from her and I use the sleeves of my jacket to wipe away my tears. Tobias steps forward and my mother looks at him.

"I don't know if you remember me..." Tobias says, biting his lower lip. He's nervous too.

My mother doesn't hesitate, but she pulls him in for a hug. "Thank you, Four," she whispers. "For keeping my daughter alive."

"Tobias," he corrects her, his voice light. "Please call me, Tobias."

I swallow and feel Tobias' eyes on me. I shrug. Because it's not one hundred percent true. But he hugs my mother back anyway. And I know that Tobias feels guilty enough as it is. I don't want to burden my mother right away with everything that's happened to me since her death. There's been too much death and anger and in this moment, all I want is to be with her.

"Beatrice?"

I look away from my mother and into the front hall of my old house. Standing there is my father. My heart leaps as I enter the house. My father meets me with open arms, and he hugs me back.

"Please come in," I hear my mother say to Tobias.

I step away from my father and look back at Tobias who is looking at my face, to see how I'm doing. He rubs my back and I nod, confirming that I'm fine.

"Let's go into the dining room," my father says. I see him look at Tobias cautiously, and I wonder if it is because he's dressed in Dauntless clothing or if it's because he was touching me. Either way, Tobias takes his hand from my back and clears his throat as we make our way into the kitchen. I forget that my father has never met him. Or if he had, it was when Tobias was younger. They don't know the story of why Tobias left Abnegation in the first place. Maybe he still resents him a little bit.

We all sit down at the table, the low light keeping the gathering intimate and I take a breath before looking at them. If the theory is correct, my father should have come back before my mother did. And given everyone's situation, they would remember everything that happened before they died.

"So..." I start off. "A lot has happened since you guys...uhm...died."

They nod. "We've started to gather that," my mother says, glancing between me and Tobias. When he had sat down, he pulled his chair close to my own. It's become a habit lately between us to stand close to one another. I don't know why he does it, I do it for that extra added support. The knowledge that he's within arms reach makes me feel better...safer. "What's been going on?"

I have to bring up the fact that we've been to the Bureau. That we know. But I'm nervous of what she'll say...when she knows that I know about her past. And not that she had been in Dauntless. I know who she was before. "We were..."

"We've been to the Bureau," Tobias says. I look at him, surprised that he blurted it out. Then again, I didn't really have a tactic on how we were going to approach this matter in the first place. I didn't even know how much my father knew about my mother's previous life. But given all that they were, I didn't doubt that he knew more than he was allowed to. I was just coming to terms with the fact that my parents were alive. They were both alive and they were in front of me. And as much as I just wanted to stay here and talk about nothing with them for hours, now was not that time.

My mother's eyes widen at Tobias' words and she looks at me. "You left the city?" she asks me, her voice quiet.

I nod. "Yes," I say. "And we met David."

My father's knees hit the table and it shifts. He apologizes and straightens the table out again. He clears his throat. I guess that let me know just how much he knew. Or least it confirmed that he knew about David. "Go on," he says.

I look from him back to my mother who is watching me intently. "What happened?"

And so I tell her. I tell her everything that had happened the moment my father had died. Every detail, the information about Edith Prior that we had dug up. How I had almost died, giving myself over to Jeanine. My parents weren't too happy with me about that. I have to explain my reasoning for at least ten minutes before I am able to move on and tell them more. When I get to my death, my parents stiffen. I hasten to explain to them why Tobias was gone and why I decided to do what I did. And knowing my parents they were proud of me for taking the place of my brother. But they would have been prouder if I hadn't have done it in the first place.

"When did you wake up?" my mother asks me.

"A few days ago," I answer. "I woke up in the hospital at Dauntless with stitched up gunshot wounds, the wounds I had gotten from David. The Choosing Ceremony had just happened and we were welcoming new initiates. I don't know where the year went." I shake my head. "In addition to that, no one seems to remember what happened before. No one except for those who had come back."

My mother rubs her face and lets out a sigh. My heart is racing in my chest because I don't know what she knows or if there's anything we can do to stop it. In her letters to David she said that she wasn't coming back to visit the Bureau. Would she risk going back to find answers? Would finding answers keep everyone from being alive? Would it kill us all again?

"What about your brother?" my father asks me. "Have you seen him?"

I shake my head. "The only time I left the compound was now and earlier in the week when we went to the old fairground. I've been nervous to try to go to Erudite. I don't know what seeing Jeanine will do. What it will spark up."

Tobias looks up. "The only good thing about me not having had my memory right away," he says looking between the three of us. "Is that I know what everyone else knows."

"What does everyone else know?" my father asks.

"The attacks on Abnegation never happened. The reports have never gone out. If Divergents are being hunted down, it's not happening openly. Erudite is being sneaky this time around. People from Abnegation are free to go see anyone in Erudite. We could go see Caleb, to see if he knows anything, remembers anything."

"Do you know when you'll have time to go?" my mother asks.

I shrug. "We've been in charge of training the initiates. Stage one is almost complete," I say. "But we can make time."

"Good," my mother says. She reaches over and touches my hand and smiles at me. "Are you two hungry?"

"No, thank you," I answer with a smile.

"Yes," Tobias says at the same time. "Don't lie, Tris."

I make a face and look over at him and sigh. "Okay, fine," I say looking at me parents. "I was worried all day about coming to see you. I didn't know if I was right. I barely ate anything."

"Would you like to help me with diner, Tobias?" my mother asks.

He looks up at her and nods. "I would love to."

I sit back in my chair as Tobias follows my mother into the kitchen. I feel my father's eyes on me. "I like him," he says.

I look at him. "You don't think he's too old for me?" I ask.

He shakes his head and smiles at me, taking my hands. "He's protected you. Over and over again. He cares for you, Beatrice," he says. 'I couldn't ask for anyone better for you."

I look at him. "Tell me about you and mom," I say. "From before…when you met."

He gets that smile of his, which had been rare in the weeks leading up to my own Choosing Ceremony. Now that they're here, I have questions…so many things that I want to know about them. So many things that I had been curious about.

"We met in one of our classes," he answers. "I was having trouble and your mother helped me. She tutored me in secret, because as I was Erudite, I was supposed to be the smart one. I was supposed to know these things. But she got it. At the time I didn't know why, but she knew things, things that she had learned from her time in the Fringe." So he knew about the Fringe. I need to stop wondering what he knows and what he doesn't know. He probably knows more than I do. "I had seen Jeanine doing an experiment on one of the Factionless. And I realized that that faction wasn't for me. Your mother and I decided to choose Abnegation together. So that we could start our own lives together. Without the pressures of our old factions. We wanted to start fresh…new. And with Abnegation, we could do just that."

"You really love each other," I say. I glance up at my mother who has paused and turned to look at us. Tobias is watching us too, with that smile of his on his lips. The smile that I love, that drives me crazy.

"Of course we do," my father says.

During dinner, we stray far from topics of war and drama. The conversation is light and easy and I feel better than I have in a long time. I'm glad that my parents get along with Tobias. I had been worried that my father would say something. After cleaning up and saying goodbye, Tobias and I leave the house. It will not be the last time that we will see each other, I will make sure of that. It's cold outside, so I zip my jacket up to my chin and Tobias grabs my hand.

"Do you feel better?" he asks me.

I grin and look up at him. "Much better."

"Good," he tells me as he kisses my cheek as we head toward the train tracks. "It's been a while since I've had Abnegation food. Is it bad to say that I've missed it?"

I shake my head. "No," I say. "You're a good cook, you know."

"Oh, your mom did most of the heavy lifting."

I nudge him playfully. When we finally get to the train tracks, I turn to look at him. "What are we going to do about Jeanine?" I ask him.

He looks down at him. "We're gonna take care of her," he answers. "We've got Tori on our side. You know how smart she is."

"Well she was Erudite," I answer. "But then again so was Eric. What are we going to do about him?"

"I'll take care of him," Tobias says. "At least now I won't be worried about him attacking me from behind. I remember everything now. He can't surprise me." I nod and he presses his lips to my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you," I reply. I don't pull away until I hear the train horn.

And then we start running.