*Don't ask how. Just thank the English Gods for a double update. I did.*

Chapter 26

Tris POV

Everything hurt. Quite literally everything. Once Tobias had me up in his arms it was all too easy to let the throbbing and light-headedness take over. I closed my eyes, too tired to fight anymore. I just couldn't do it anymore…

At some point the pain was back. My eyes still felt heavy, but I forced them open. The room I was lying in was dark. It must be night. I cuddled back into place and went back to sleep.

"You have to be patient," A woman's voice said soothingly. "She sustained a lot of trauma, two gunshot wounds, a broken jaw, her shoulder was dislocated and her leg—"

"I don't need you to feed me medical jargon anymore!" A man's voice said harshly it sounded so familiar. "I want to know when she's waking up. I need to know Six will be okay."

Okay. They were talking about Tris. She could be sure of that now. Tris tried to recall how she got here…wherever here was.

"Her body needs time to heal itself. She'll wake up when her body can handle it. Four, I need you to please take a deep breath."

"It's been a week." Four said defeated. Tris felt stupid for not recognizing his voice right away.

"Soon, Four. I promise."

Tris wanted to do something. To give Tobias some comfort, but it was like she was stuck. She felt confined, her breathing increased.

"Four I need you to leave. Her heart rate is increasing dangerously."

"What's happening? Tris, come back to me. Doc, you can't lose her, I—"

"Four." She said sternly. "The best thing you can do to help me right now is leave so I can handle the situation. Nurses! I need nurses!"

Tris was fighting the confinement. She hated this, if felt like a brick was sitting on her chest, why couldn't she move. Suddenly things started moving slowly, her brain felt like molasses. Then mush. All the pain…it was gone…and Tris fell back into blackness.

When Tris woke up again, the pain was intense. A groan escaped her lips, and she heard rustling. She fought intensely to open her eyes, but the light was so bright, and it hurt. Her whole body hurt so much…

"Tris…" She heard Tobias say, his hand wrapping around her small one tightly.

Tris groaned more, and tried to speak. "Bobias…" She whimpered, but her jaw was in so much pain she could barely get his name out.

He laughed a little, and kissed her forehead. It felt nice. It was amazing to see him smile. "I love you. You're here, and you're alive, and you're going to be okay. I promise. I'm so sorry, Bee…I can't believe I did so much to you—"

Tris shook her head. "No…Fouw…I love you…'Sokay…'M here…Tha's all tha's importan'."

Tobias laughed and leaned forward to hug Tris gently. "You're adorable when you speak with a broken jaw. You're words are all jumbled and mumbled, and…" He let a deep breath out. "When I thought that you might…I can't even imagine it, Tris. I nearly died myself."

Tris could feel water pooling in her eyes. God, he loved her so much. Tris moved to wipe her eyes and squeaked when a sharp pain shot through her arm. She looked down at her right arm and saw it in a blue sling. In examining the rest of her body, she saw that her left leg was in a cast, and much of her body was yellowed, or still and ugly purplish with bruises. She used her left arm to move her blanket off her body gently. Tris looked up at Tobias, and then slowly moved her hospital gown so she could look at her abdomen. There was gauze over her right side. Thankfully, her tattoo was still intact. There was bruise in the shape of a foot covering her stomach.

"You broke four ribs…" Tobias said softly. "Then you broke your jaw, had a couple cuts on your face from the glass you shot. I dislocated your shoulder, fractured your leg and bruised you pretty well when I was—"

"Stahp." Tris said weakly, covering her body back up. "Home. I wan' home."

"I know, I know you do. Doc said as soon as you wake up they'd assess you, and then they'd figure out when you could go home. But we're safe now. Eric, Jeanine, and Peter are all in jail, waiting on their trials. And traitors in Erudite are being rounded up to be punished accordingly by the Candor."

Tris nodded a little. A doctor came in soon after, and from there on out, Tris' room was a revolving door of people. But Tobias never left her side. Uriah and Marlene came in, and then Zeke and Shauna. Will came in, and the only person she hadn't seen yet was Christina.

Not long before visiting hours were over, Christina peeked her head in and her eyes were red.

Tris smiled. "'Ris."

"Hey sweet thing." Christina said, winking, forcing a smile to her face. "Hey, Four, could you please give us a minute?"

Tobias looked over at Tris, and she nodded. He got up and kissed Tris' forehead. "I'll be back in ten minutes. I'll go grab dinner."

Christina sucked in a deep breath. "Four told us what happened. And I…God Tris…we weren't so sure there for a while, and I thought that I had lost you. And Will keeps telling me that it wasn't our faults…all those people that I…" She choked on her tears and began to sob, collapsing in the chair that Tobias had just vacated.

Tris could feel tears ready to spill over. She frantically looked around and saw a pad of paper, and a pen sitting on a rolling desk for her. She sat herself up in her bed and reached for the desk. She began to scribble in practically illegible hand writing, but when she was finished she handed the paper to Christina.

Chris, I'm not going to lie and say that what happened wasn't' awful. I'm not going to tell you that you didn't have a part in it, because that isn't true either. What I will tell you is that it's going to be okay. You didn't have any control over the situation, Christina. You had no reason not to believe that the serum Eric injected you with wasn't really a tracker. Four and I didn't figure it out until it was too late. Even Four wasn't immune. I can't promise you'll be okay today, or tomorrow, or a week from now, but you will be eventually. I know it because there isn't any way that you'd let the world beat you. Are you really going to let Jeanine have what she wants and destroy you?

As for me, I'm still here, Chris. I'm here, and I'm still fighting, and if I have to stay here for another freaking night, someone's going to die, and it may or may not be my doctor. I'm going to be okay, so you don't need to worry about me anymore, and as soon as I'm up and running again, we're going to go and get tattoos and go shopping to make all this bad go away. I need more makeup anyway. ;)

Christina read the note slowly, and when she finished, she looked up and smiled at Tris. "I knew there was a reason you were my best friend."

Tris grinned as best she could, but inside, she was glowing. Even here, like this, she was capable of helping. Tris wasn't helpless. She fought off death for Christ's sake, and she was still getting her best friend through dealing with her own inner turmoil.

Two days later, Tris went home. Tobias lifted her when they arrived to apartment 10, and unlocked the door, carrying her through the threshold. Tris laughed and curled into Tobias as best she could.

"Tobias!"

"See, there's this thing…" He said, taking Tris down the hall to her room—or, their room, now, she supposed. "You asked me to move in before Jeanine went crazy. So I did." He kissed her, and laid her on the bed, tucking her in, and climbing in after her.

"I moved myself in while you were in the hospital so you wouldn't have to stress over it when you came back. Plus now, I can be here and take care of you while you get better."

Tris stared at Tobias for a good minute before grinning. She lunged forward and kissed him hard, despite the pain in her jaw. "Love you."

"I love you too." Tobias murmured, kissing down Tris' jaw. "But you need to settle down. Just for a little while until you're back to normal. I don't want to hurt you."

Tris groaned and leaned into Tobias, letting his warm body protect her and keep her safe. She could feel his heart pounding in his chest. His heartbeat grounded her. It felt like home base. If she could feel it, everything was okay. She was safe, Tobias was there; it was really him. And everything would be okay eventually. She believed in it, because she had Tobias.

His arms tightened around Tris' small frame, and it made her smile. She was finally home, with the man she loved, and everything was going to be okay. She just knew it would. Tris had learned a lot about herself since joining Dauntless, but the most important thing she took with her, that she held onto tighter than anything else was this:

Bravery and selflessness aren't really all that different.

*YAY! Guys, I'm seriously really sad. I think there's only going to be one or two more chapters...I just need to wrap everything up and Segway into the sequel...WHAT?! Is that not absolutely INSANE? WHAT?! So let me know what you want to see before this is over, like ASAP. Because we don't have much time left!

On a different note, I want to thank you all for the support with my finals and papers. This week has been absolutely crazy and I cannot describe how ready I am for the weekend! On a sillier note, CAT GIFS! post/64266656296/musical-notation-as-described-by-cats

That'll be the only time that happens, I promise. But it's been THAT kind of day.

So please, all I ask is that you guys continue the support. I feel like it's kind of been dying off, and I'm not sure if it's just school and life, or if it's a general dying interest in the story...so SPEAK UP! Let your voices be heard! Because I love hearing from every single one of you! Sorry for the long A/N, but I really did want to thank you all! Send me ideas!

All my love, ALWAYS, Rosaline.*