A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and everyone who wished me luck with my tooth and general health. I've started the crown process for the tooth, so it's okay for now but still needs more work. In the meantime, I finally seem to be past the worst in this flu/infection/cold thing - hopefully, I'll stay better this time!

Anyway, thank you also to my wonderful beta reader, Rosalie!

This chapter was an absolute blast to write. Hopefully, you have as much fun reading it...

Chapter 36: Tobias – Amity and Candor

Tris' team ends up winning the first round. We beat them by a half-minute on total time, but they edged us out enough on faction traits and on the individual challenges to win overall. It's not too surprising, between the way Tori beat George in their fight and how Tris literally flattened Uriah in their challenge.

Our hosts give us lunch next, letting us refuel before we start the direct competition stage, which includes Amity and Candor challenges. So, we gather in the room where most of us have spent the last fifteen minutes waiting – once we got through our individual challenges – and we eat sandwiches and fruit.

"You didn't face any kind of challenge?" Tris asks Christina, shaking her head in disbelief as she leans against my side.

"Nothing." Christina laughs. "It turns out that's what the card meant by sending someone through – I literally walked past all the doors and came out here, and these guys told me I was done." She points up to the monitors that line the walls of the room. "And then I watched the rest of you face your challenges."

"What did you have to do?" Tris asks me as she sniffs distastefully at her sandwich. She doesn't seem to like the flavor.

"An Abnegation challenge." I frown. "A group of masked figures were throwing balls at a dog – like they were trying to stone it or something. I had to shield it." I don't tell her that I'll have plenty of bruises tomorrow from my efforts, because that's largely my own fault. For one terrifying minute, I felt like I was a child again, and all I could do was huddle there with the dog pressed to my chest while taking the abuse on my back.

"Is that what Susan had to do?" Tris looks concerned now, and I don't blame her. Her friend is considerably more fragile than I am.

But I shake my head. "No. She thought her challenge had just started when a girl walked in, saying she was lost. She had to choose between continuing the challenge to help her team or stopping to take care of the kid." I shrug. "Not surprisingly, she helped the girl."

Tris nods, looking around the room at the others. "What do you think the Amity challenge will be like?" she asks thoughtfully.

"No idea." A small smile touches my lips. "And even if I knew, I certainly wouldn't give my strategy away to you."

She laughs. "Oh, come on. I don't even have anyone with an Amity aptitude on my team. Whereas, you have two of them. It would be selfless to share, you know."

"Since you clearly haven't noticed," I respond, keeping my tone teasing though the subject is a little more serious now, "Amar isn't participating in the next challenge. He can't, for obvious reasons."

"Oh." Tris looks embarrassed that she didn't think about his brain damage – and about how he still has to avoid too much Amity exposure. She glances around again before adding, "Is that why he and Cara are both gone?"

"Yeah. Apparently, she didn't really want to do this challenge, either, and our hosts wanted to keep the teams even, so she pre-arranged for both of them to sit it out."

Tris nods, still looking thoughtful. She picks at her sandwich some more. "This tastes bad."

"Do you want the rest of mine?" I offer. It's my second one, anyway.

But she shakes her head, frowning at her food. Something like recognition sparks in her eyes, and she looks around, biting back some remark.

"I'm going to get some fruit," she comments abruptly, rising and pulling Christina with her toward the buffet table. My eyebrows draw together as I watch them stop to talk to Tori, before they each head in a different direction to discuss something with their other team members.

And I figure out the same thing Tris did.

"The bread is laced with peace serum," I announce to my team. I can't believe I didn't guess that sooner. "Eat the fruit instead." But as I look at my friends' empty plates, I know that it's already too late. They ate fast – and helped themselves to seconds – as I did. By the time the challenge begins, it will have sunk in, and we'll all be thoroughly stoned.

I can only hope that most of the women ate an equivalent amount for their body weight before Tris stopped them.

I'm in such a good mood as the Amity challenge begins. Vaguely, I realize it probably has something to do with the peace serum, but I feel too light and happy to care.

"What are we supposed to do, again?" I ask Kevin, nudging him in the ribs to get his attention. He'll probably remember, since he lives in Erudite and all.

He frowns a little. It's such a strange expression, really, turning a smile upside down like that. It makes a chuckle emerge from deep in my throat.

"We're supposed to pick the fake fruit from those fake trees," he tells me, looking like he has no idea why we would do something so idiotic. "And put it in those buckets. Whichever team has harvested more by the end wins."

"Oh." I stare at the large wooden climbing structures that are supposed to pass as trees. Climbing them doesn't really appeal to me, though I'm not sure why not. Something to do with heights.

My gaze wanders off with my focus, flitting from person to person until it lands on Tris. I'd much rather spend time with her than pick plastic fruit.

"Why are we competing, anyway?" I ask my team curiously. But judging by their blank expressions, they don't remember any more than I do.

"'Cause if the women win, bad things happen," Zeke says with a strange laugh. He waves his hands through the air, his fingers moving in mesmerizing flickering motions. "Like evil magic things."

A frown finds my face now. That doesn't sound right.

"I like it when Tris wins," I say in confusion. Grinning at a sudden memory, I add, "You should have seen her when we won Capture the Flag. She was hot." For a long moment, I stand there, savoring the image before I realize that people are starting to move around us.

"Shit," Zeke says, looking at the blurry world. "I think the challenge started."

"Yeah…." My eyes take in the swaying motion of my teammates, and the not dissimilar stumbling from most of the women. "I'm going to find Tris."

She's at the top of one of the artificial trees, tossing plastic fruit down to her teammates, who are trying to catch it by swinging baskets wildly through the air. It has the effect of batting the fruit all over the place.

"Tris!" I yell, waving at her happily as an apple smacks into my arm. "Come down!"

For a moment, she pauses, staring at me. And then she bites her lip, looking cute and sexy all at once.

"I'll be down in a little while, Tobias," she calls. She seems like she wants to laugh. I'm not sure why she doesn't.

"Nah, come down now," I try to convince her. "I want to kiss you." That should work. She likes it when I kiss her.

"Um," she says hesitantly, scrunching her eyebrows together as she considers me. "We're really supposed to pick this fruit first…."

"But it's not even real." I scratch my head in confusion. We can't eat plastic. "They have real fruit back in the lunch room if you're hungry." I'd forgotten that she ate almost nothing at lunchtime. She must be starving. "I'll get you some."

"No, Tobias…." She pauses again, looking conflicted as her gaze shifts between me and the fruit surrounding her. She lets out a long sigh. "Hang on. I'm coming down."

The smile lights my face again as I watch her lithe form descend toward the ground. She jumps from the lowest "branch," and I step forward quickly to catch her.

This time, she does laugh – a sweet, musical sound – as I swing her around in my arms and carry her to the base of a more private tree.

"I can't say this challenge seems particularly fair," she murmurs to me. At my confused look, she sighs again, patting my cheek lightly. "But when I was under this stuff in Amity, you were very…patient…with me. So, I figure I owe you this one."

I nod, despite the fact I have no idea what she's talking about. "Can I kiss you now?" I ask, smiling widely. That seems better than talking, particularly when words are so hard to understand.

She chuckles. "We probably shouldn't, given how stoned you are."

It's difficult not to feel disappointed. "But you're always allowed to kiss me," I tell her firmly. "We're getting married, you know."

"Well, yes, I know that," she begins, flustered. "But that doesn't mean I should take advantage of you."

"How would that be taking advantage of me?" I ask, trying very hard to figure out what she means. "We kiss a lot." Smiling, I run my nose along her jawline before whispering in her ear, "We do other things, too." My grin widens. "Things that I like…a lot."

She giggles. "I like those things, too," she agrees. "Very much. But we're not doing any of them here, okay?"

"Oh." The disappointment is back. "Why not?"

"Tobias." She stops, biting her lip again in a way that drives me crazy. She leans forward, kissing my nose gently. "You're just going to have to trust me on this. In an hour, you're going to feel very differently about this conversation."

"I am?"

"Yes." Her voice is firm. "Definitely."

"But I'll still love you, right?"

She smiles. "Tobias, you will always love me. And I will always love you. We're just not usually so…public about it."

"Hmm." I nod, realizing that she's right about that. We're usually much more private for some reason. Unlike Zeke…. I watch as he streaks past us, stark naked. He's yelling something incoherent.

"He promised there wouldn't be any stripping today," I say thoughtfully, watching as he races by Shauna, who is cheering enthusiastically. Right now, I can't remember why I objected, but maybe Tris does, since she's deliberately looking away from Zeke.

I follow her gaze to where Christina and Uriah are taking turns throwing plastic fruit into one of the buckets.

"Christina!" Tris yells. "You want the other bucket!"

But Christina just waves cheerfully before making the next throw. It's a particularly good shot, thrown over her head as she stands with her back to the bucket, and I can't help cheering along with Uriah when it lands right where she wanted.

He grins widely before picking her up and tossing her as far into the air as he can. He catches her around the waist as she comes back down, and then he kisses her happily on the lips. I watch, smiling, as she wraps her legs around him, returning the kiss passionately.

"See, they're kissing," I comment with a laugh. But I stop when I remember something. "Uriah kissed you once, didn't he? I didn't like that."

"I didn't, either," Tris says softly, and my smile returns with the words. It feels good to think that Tris is just mine.

"Still, I guess it's good that he did it," I admit, running a hand lightly up my fiancé's arm. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone into my fear landscape, or gone to Pittsburgh, and then I wouldn't have met Micky, and Lauren wouldn't have hired him, and you would have died in Greensburg." The thought makes tears form in my eyes. "And that would have been the worst thing in the world."

Tris is staring at me, looking utterly confused. Maybe I should explain more, so I try to put my jumbled thoughts in order.

"I married Micky, you know." And then I laugh, realizing what that sounds like. "Well, no, I didn't marry him. That's what I'm going to do with you. But I performed a marriage ceremony for him." Frowning a little, I add, "No, that's not quite right, either. He and Luella were already married. There's another word for it…."

"Tobias, what are you talking about?"

But I can't remember the word for a second wedding. It's right there, on the tip of my tongue, and it's annoying that I can't recall it. "Kevin will know," I say brightly, suddenly realizing that. "He's Erudite, and he was there, too."

Shifting Tris out of my lap, I stand quickly, looking around for my sponsor. He's here somewhere.

I spot him on the other side of the large room, throwing fruit back and forth with George.

"Hey, Kevin!" I yell, running toward him. "I have a question."

"Four, catch!" George calls, tossing the apple in his hands toward me. I grab it easily before launching it at Kevin.

"What's your question?" Kevin asks as he throws the fruit toward George again.

My mouth opens to answer before I realize that I've completely lost the train of thought. Oh well, if it's important, it'll come back to me.

"Why is Zeke naked?" I ask instead.

"Beats the hell out of me," Kevin answers with a laugh. "Maybe he got hot."

That makes sense. It is pretty warm in here, after all, though I think I'll keep my clothes on. Part of me remembers that I don't like to strip in front of anyone except Tris.

My eyes find her again, on the other side of the room. She's staring at me with a very strange expression, like she's too shocked to know if she's angry or happy or just plain confused. Well, I'm sure she'll figure it out. Life's too short to worry.

So, I turn back to my friends, continuing to play catch with them while Zeke races around the room naked and Shauna zooms after him, tossing her own clothes behind her, and Christina and Uriah kiss like they'll never stop. This is a fun challenge.

"On behalf of the entire staff, I apologize profusely for that incident," the woman in Amity yellow tells us. "We have a new chef, who apparently mixed up the instructions and added far too much peace serum to the bread."

She flushes red, the color offsetting her bright lemon shirt. "If you would like, you are free to redo the challenge now that you have…recovered from the effects."

But we all immediately shout some version of NO. I doubt that any of us can accurately recall the events of the last two hours, but we all know that once was more than enough.

"Who won, anyway?" Zeke asks, looking thoroughly embarrassed. It's easy to figure out why, given that he and Shauna were both naked when we began coming to our senses sufficiently to notice. Who knows what they did during the challenge itself?

"Technically, the men's team did," the woman answers, "but in fairness, I think that half of the fruit was added by the women's team, so I'm not sure it should count."

"Hah!" Uriah yells, thrusting his fists victoriously into the air. "That should definitely count!"

"Absolutely not!" Christina protests.

Something shifts uncomfortably in my stomach as I watch them, a vague image of them kissing going through my head. Did they have their first kiss while stoned out of their minds?

"Christina's right," Shauna adds. "We should toss this whole round out."

"Like hell!" Zeke objects. "You wouldn't be saying that if you'd won."

My gaze shifts to Tris, wondering what she thinks of all this. If I recall correctly – which is highly debatable – she ate almost none of the bread, so she might be the only one to remember the last two hours.

But she's looking at the floor, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. The expression on her face is impossible to read.

"I'm okay with tossing the round," I tell the others. "It doesn't seem fair to count it."

My teammates glare at me in some mixture of horror and annoyance, before Tris' voice cuts through their arguments.

"No, you can have this one." Her gaze meets mine briefly, and I realize how confused and upset she looks. Did I do something while on the peace serum?

"You earned it," she adds before returning her attention to our judges. "Let's just move on to the next one."

They nod, declaring my team the winner before leading us to the next level of the parking garage. A series of circles are painted on the floor, and they line our teams up on them so we're facing each other.

"Normally, we use a low dose of truth serum for this activity," a man dressed in black and white tells us. "But under the circumstances, it seems like a bad idea to put anything else into your bloodstreams, so we've modified our usual challenge."

Good, I think. I no longer have secrets to hide, at least not like I did the one time I was interrogated under truth serum, but that doesn't mean I want it injected into me again. I like to have a choice over what I say.

"The rules will be as follows," the man continues. "Each team will take turns asking questions. During your turn, you will pick a member of the other team and ask him or her a question. If that person answers truthfully, their entire team will move forward one circle. If the judges feel that the person lied, their entire team will move backwards one circle. As an alternative, the person can choose not to answer. In that case, he or she will move backwards one circle, but the rest of the team will not move."

He glances around to make sure we're all following his explanation. "The first team to get all of its members onto the center circles wins. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Christina says. "Can we pick anyone on the other team each turn?"

The man frowns at her. "You must alternate who asks questions and who you ask them of. No one can ask two or more questions in a row, and you can't pick the same person for two or more turns in a row. Also, you cannot ask anyone the same question more than once." It's a reasonable set of restrictions, and I'm glad to see them.

"Very well," our instructor adds. "We will begin with the woman's team."

Shauna speaks up before anyone else can. "Zeke, what did we do during the last challenge?" Her face is red.

"I have absolutely no idea," he answers solidly. For a second, they just stare at each other, and then Shauna nods, clearly accepting that his memory is as blank as hers. My team all moves forward, one circle each.

"Tori," Zeke says, turning to his former faction-mate. "Are you Divergent?"

She looks as surprised by the question as I feel, though I have to admit it's something I've always wondered.

"No," she answers, her mouth flat. "Apparently, I'm close to it, but not quite enough to resist the simulations."

For another moment, we're silent as we debate whether or not she's telling the truth. An image goes through my mind, of her blank eyes as she shot an Abnegation leader through the head during the mass simulation. And I decide to accept her response.

At my nod, her team steps forward.

Tori doesn't take the opportunity to ask the next question, presumably still rattled by what she was asked to divulge. After an awkward moment, Susan speaks up instead.

"Amar," she asks softly, "how long were you a trainer in Dauntless?" It's such an Abnegation question – utterly non-invasive – and Amar chuckles as he answers.

"Twelve years." We all step forward a circle.

"Cara," Amar says lazily, "have you ever had romantic feelings for anyone in this room?"

She looks vaguely disgusted. "Ew. No." She flushes as she realizes how insulting that sounded. "I mean, no offense or anything, but none of you are really my type."

I laugh as I wave her team forward. It's honestly hard to imagine Cara falling for anyone in our group, though I've occasionally wondered about her and Caleb when he's joined us for meals.

"Kevin," Cara says, "why did you choose Erudite?"

He hesitates, frowning, and I don't blame him. His answer isn't too different from why I chose Dauntless.

"Because I was brave enough to go to the most dangerous place a Divergent could go." His voice turns icy as he adds, "And smart enough to get the hell away from my father."

It's the first time I've heard him openly admit that he's Divergent, though I've suspected it since I first met him.

"Christina," he says abruptly, turning away from Cara, "describe your feelings for Uriah."

The question catches us all off-guard, and we stare between him and Christina in stunned silence. Christina and Uriah have been getting slowly closer for months now, but no one has called either of them on it – at least not in front of the other.

Christina flushes deeply, shaking her head as she steps back a circle. She's refusing to answer, though that's a type of answer in itself.

"Uriah," Tori snaps, her voice caustic as she glares at Kevin before turning her attention to my younger faction-mate. "Same question about Christina."

"Umm," Uriah stammers, looking deeply uncomfortable. His eyes flit around the room frantically, trying to focus on anything except Christina. "I don't know, exactly." He swallows and then finally seems to find the strength to look at her.

"I guess…." He rubs the back of his neck. "I guess I would like to explore the options."

For a very long moment, there's complete silence as we all watch the two of them. Christina seems incredibly nervous, staring at Uriah with her lower lip between her teeth. After an eternity, she nods, very slowly. It makes Uriah beam in response.

"Um, Tris," George says, clearly trying to break the awkwardness. "What's the biggest secret that you're keeping from someone in this room?"

She opens her mouth, her expression confident, and I know she's about to say that she isn't hiding anything. But then she freezes, shock showing in her eyes as she closes her mouth abruptly. Her eyes flick over her teammates, pausing on Susan, before she steps backwards a circle.

Cold runs through me at the sight. She promised never to keep secrets from me again, and I thought she was keeping that promise. What is she hiding?

My breathing is rapid when her eyes turn to me. For a second, she just holds my gaze, and then she shakes her head slightly. And I realize that whatever secret she's keeping, it's not from me.

My relief disappears as her expression shifts. There's a hardness on her face now, and her voice is strained when she speaks.

"Tobias, how did you meet Micky?"

For a surreal moment, I think that I'm dreaming this, or that she must be talking about someone else with the same name as the man who had her ring in Pittsburgh. But then I remember the way she looked as we came out of the Amity challenge, and I realize that I must have said something while under the influence of the peace serum.

Shit. This wasn't how I wanted to tell her.

"It's a long story," I say, somewhat lamely. The set of her mouth is the only answer, and I nod a little as I realize that she does indeed want to hear it all now.

"Just so you know," I add, "I wasn't keeping it secret. Not really. It was just difficult to explain, but I would have found a way before the wedding. Seeing as Anna invited him to it." The side of my mouth lifts, but Tris just looks startled. I guess I didn't reveal earlier that Anna knew about this.

"Okay." I clear my throat, trying to figure out where to begin. "I actually got your ring back over a year ago. When you were still President, before the elections." Tris nods, and I know she must have figured that part out already.

"I…found the pawn shop where we left it, but it had already sold. It apparently sold right away. The store's owner didn't have the buyer's name or anything, but he recognized you in my broadcast, so he wrote down everything he could remember about the buyer, and he kept that information in case we ever came back."

"When Kevin and I showed up, he gave it to us, and…we…well, we tried to figure out who the buyer might be. See, he was young, and he paid in cash, which was very unusual, and that meant there were limited options for who he could be and how he would have that much money. We eventually concluded that he must have been stealing from the companies that supported NUSA."

Understanding flashes through Tris' eyes, and she murmurs, "Which means he must have been highly resistant to the Suggestibility Serum."

I nod. "Yes." My gaze holds Tris' as I continue. "We went to the main police station in Pittsburgh to try to get information on thefts of that type, and we ran into Lauren there." Tris nods, and I can tell she's putting the pieces together. "She helped us, and we were able to track down a young man named Micky. He had bought the ring for his wife, Luella."

My throat is dry, and I clear it again before resuming my story. "He agreed to sell it back to me, because of…who you were, and who I was. Though he asked me to perform a ceremony renewing their vows, with their new rings. So, I did that." I can feel the flush rising up my face with that memory, but I ignore it. "And then Lauren hired him, and his sister, because she wanted resistant people on the police force."

Tris' expression is frozen now, but I can see emotion growing in her eyes as she understands the full sequence of events. That makes it difficult to keep my voice steady as I finish. "Kevin and I returned to Chicago, and I gave the ring back to Anna when she came here to meet with the city leaders. And that was the last I knew about the whole thing until you showed me what happened in Greensburg."

Our eyes are so firmly locked at this point that I can't imagine ever looking away. "And right there, in your memory, was the same young man…."

Tris swallows visibly, and her voice is thick when she speaks. "Micky was there because of you?"

"Indirectly, yes. He was there because of the ring on your finger."

Finally, Tris looks away, staring at her engagement ring, her breathing hard. There's confusion on her face when she looks up again. "But we weren't even together then. Why did you go back for it?"

My gaze shifts to Uriah, and I debate giving the full answer, but I don't want to get into it right now. Not with everyone here, and not minutes after Uriah just admitted to liking Christina. I certainly don't want to spoil their moment with a reminder of a kiss from a year and a half ago.

So, I answer with the most important part of the truth. "You deserved to have it, for whoever you ended up with. Even if it wasn't me."

Abandoning her circle, and the game with it, Tris walks slowly toward me, her eyes fixed on mine. "Tobias," she whispers as she reaches me. She touches my cheek lightly. "I wouldn't have wanted it from anyone else."

A small smiles forms as I lean my forehead against hers. "Well, I'm still glad I went when I did."

She nods against me. "I am, too." She pulls away enough to see my face. "Since it saved Caleb's life. And mine, too." She shakes her head a little in disbelief, and her voice is rough when she continues. "You just get more and more amazing, you know."

I chuckle, but at the same time, the statement warms me deep inside. I wasn't sure how she would react to all of this, and to have it bring us even closer together…. There are no words for that.

My hands shape themselves to her face, and then I'm pulling her to me as I kiss her so deeply I forget that we're in a room full of people, playing a game that we're supposed to care about winning. There is absolutely nothing in the world right now except her.

"I love you, Tobias," she whispers when we finally break apart.

"I love you, too." I've never told her, but ever since the first time she admitted her feelings in my father's old house in Abnegation, that's been my favorite word to say. Too.

"Should we just call this a tie and go home?" she asks, apparently remembering that we're surrounded by people who are staring at us in confusion. None of them know this full story.

Judging by the instant reaction to her suggestion, they don't particularly care about it, either. Or at least not enough to call the game a tie. It's obvious from their protests that they want to win.

But I don't. What I want, more than anything at this moment, is to be alone with the woman I'm getting ready to marry.

"Sorry, guys!" I tell them firmly. "It's been a great party, but your team captains are leaving now."

As we walk past them down the ramp, I hear a mix of groans and cat-calls. But Amar pats my back, and Kevin nods approvingly.

It's Zeke's reaction, though, that makes me grin. "Oh well," he says to the others, "we must have done a good job. It's the first time he's left a party with a girl."

A/N: I personally loved this chapter. I hope you did, too. :-)