After discussing his grand gesture options with Lauren, I wrote a little complimentary scene for him to talk to Melissa about it. But, timeline wise, it didn't fit. It's the first pass, which means it lacks the typical finishing touches that make things flow, sorry it's a bit choppy sounding, but you get the picture. There's a little part about how he feels about Tris that I might still lift into another chapter, but we will see. It really only fits with him talking to someone about Tris and not in him talking to Tris. May 2017 treat you well, and (for most) better than 2016.

"Your friend, Lauren, sounds like a very insightful person. You've never mentioned that you have a confidant like her in Dauntless."

"Uh… oh, well, she's been my friend for almost as long as I've been there. We've done some favors for each other." He could tell Melissa's next question so he answered preemptively. "She and I pretended to have a relationship for a year so our friends would stop trying to fix us up with other people. We had to spend a lot of time together to pull it off."

"Interesting. You've talked before about how you find trusting people difficult. Was it difficult with Lauren?"

"She used to be Candor. Somethings she let slide, but she called me out on a lot of stuff."

"Like what?"

Four was about to answer, but a glance at the clock reset his mission. "With respect, Melissa, I don't really need to delve into my reliance on Lauren to be my better judgement. The fact is that she is providing me a third party perspective and I need help thinking through that. So would it be okay to just make a note about my mis-placed maternal emotions — or what ever you're gonna call it— and come back to that later?"

"Oh, sure. Um, so what is it that you need help with?"

"Tris. She's not trusting what she feels right now, and she doesn't know how to feel about me because of it. So she's reading into… I haven't told her that I love her. So she doesn't believe that I do."

"Do you?"

"Yes." He said.

"How do you know that you love her?"

"I… I know you expect me to say that it's because I think about her all the time, or because I want to be with her more often than not, or that because I want to be intimate with her. But it's different from that. I don't think about her all the time. It's not infatuation, not any more. It was in the beginning, but not now. It's that I think of her first. I want to tell her things first. When I think about going to diner, I want to see what her plans are. When I think about my plans for the day, or if I need work boots or my jacket, I think about what we might do later and I change things to suit that. It's that I want her to be part of everything in my life in a way that I've never wanted anyone else to be. That's how it is."

"I really like this direct side to you, Four. It makes this very easy and clear for me. Honestly and frankly speaking. " Melissa smiled, "So, then if you know you love her, why haven't you said it."

"It's the abandonment issue. It's what we've been talking about the last month or so."

"I agree. What do you need me for, then?" Melissa chuckled.

"Tris doesn't believe me and so Lauren suggested I do something huge that shows Tris that it's true."

"Like what?"

"She mentioned that I should put going factionless on the table."

"Alright. Would you go factionless for Tris?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"The Dauntless aren't supposed to interact with factionless people. Not former family, not friends, no one."

"But if you went factionless with Tris, you'd have Tris."

"Yeah, but I'd lose Zeke, and Hana, and Amar, and Lauren…"

"So you love them more than you love Tris?"

"It's a lot of people."