4.
It was almost like she was doing everything to get on his last nerves and unfortunately if she was then she was really succeeding, especially now when he found her lurking around at an active crime scene despite when he specifically told her that he didn't want her help. Which was why the moment he realized who had entered the victim's apartment, he lowered the gun he had pointed at her.
"Seriously?" Four said. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Tris only shrugged her shoulders and turned her gaze away from, while awkwardly trying to laugh and lighten up the mood. However Four was too pissed and annoyed to even pretend that she wasn't in big trouble.
"Answer me right now," Four said determined, commanding voice that meant truly business if she refuse to answer him again. "And please give me a reason why I shouldn't drag you back to the station and arrest you for obstructing justice."
"Fine," Tris said disdained. "Since you refused my help with this case earlier, I figured I would work on my own. I promise that if I found something I would have handed it over to the police."
Four sighed before he placed his gun back in the holster and was desperately trying to suppress exasperation that was starting to build up. Normally he would say that Tris was very brave to stand up for herself and simply being honest with him, but what she had done was a crime. She had even admitted it, so there shouldn't be any reason why he shouldn't just drag her down the station right then. However he could understand why she did what she did and why he was willing to break the rules and pretend that he didn't know. There was another reason why he chose to ignore it, but right now he rather focus on the case than anything else.
"So did you find anything?" Four asked, moving on from the tense and awkward moment and walked up to her. She looked at him skeptically for a moment, wondering he was truly sane or not. When he didn't give her any indication something was the matter she shrugged once again and stayed quiet. He knew that she knew about the fact he had ignored the conversation they had earlier and was glad that she didn't try and bring it up again. They stood next to each other when Tris shook her head and said softly, "I was just about to start."
"I will help," Four replied. "They say that two hands are better than one. Besides you can give me some insight about the victim and if anything is out of place here since you have been in here before the murder happened."
Tris nodded and they began searching the apartment. Neither of them said a word, but this time the atmosphere wasn't awkward or tense, more comfortable silence. Four could only pray that the comfortable and current calm interaction they were having right now would continue. As much fun as they bickering could be, he didn't want to continue having a bad relationship with her, especially if there was still a hope that they might be able to return their relationship to what it used to be.
Tris felt really awkward about the whole thing. It has been a long time since she and Four had worked together on a case. Of course they had a good partnership before, but things has changed so she was exactly sure how she was going to be around him. However she had to admit that she really missed working with him this way, even though he used to drive her to work harder at the beginning.
(Flashback)
Tris was sitting by her desk, doing paperwork when another big pile of paperwork was dumped on her desk. It wasn't like she wasn't busy with the work she already had piled up. She looked around to see who left new load of work for her to do and saw Tobias with smug expression on his face. It was then she knew he was enjoying working her death.
"Seriously, didn't you see the huge pile of files I have to work on," Tris said annoyed. "I have enough work to do without you increasing my workload."
"You are a detective now," Tobias shrugged. "If you think you can handle looking at dead bodies most of the day, then you can handle all the paper work that goes along with it."
She had to hold back a snarky reply because of his smug comment. Just because he was her boss didn't mean that he could use her like she was his underling since he was also her partner. He should do as much paperwork as she had to, even if he did have the right to push it on her.
"What?" Tobias asked with a hint of cockiness in his voice. "You can't handle it? Then I should probably do it myself since you can't."
He was baiting her, they both knew it, but it was unfortunately working at the moment despite her wishes that it didn't. If she didn't do all the paperwork then it would only prove she couldn't handle what it took to be a real homicide detective. And there was no way she was going to give it all up now, especially since she had worked so hard to get where she was right now.
"Fine," Tris snarled. She grabbed a file from the pile he had just given her and began writing the report. "I will do it."
"Of course you will," Tobias said. "It's your job. Now start working."
He began walking away from her desk, but instantly stopped when Tris murmured, "Slave driver," before she turned her attention back to the paperwork. Apparently he hadn't expected her to respond that way, but he replied with what he normally said whenever she was out of line.
"Careful Tris,"
With nothing more to say he walked away, leaving her taken back before she huffed and went back to work.
"Tris?" Four interrupted her trip down memory lane. "You okay?"
She felt her cheeks starting to blush in deep red, embarrassed over the fact that he had caught her getting distracted when they had a job to do. So she nodded quickly and began moving towards the kitchen away from his presence to search for clues. It was stupid to think of the past, a past that turbulent and very straining most of the time such as hers. No matter how much you wished from some god above, there was no way you could change your past. You're stuck with it, so the best way was to live with it and move forward.
Tris shook her head once more and tried to focus on Al's kitchen. It was certainly clean enough for any mother to be happy with everything branded in a specific order. Jars, glasses and other cutlery were marked with names in various shelves and drawers. The dishwasher was empty and the fridge was stocked with food, nothing really out of the ordinary. She took a glance at the trashcan and noticed the garbage bag was missing. Ordinarily Tris wouldn't have found it of any significance, but she remembered once when she was throwing her trash in the garbage chute, since the apartment building was high and had many floors it was only natural that the container next to the garage would be used to collect the building's garbage in that one place. She met up with Al a couple of weeks ago when they both were throwing away their garbage and he proudly stated that he threw his trash on certain days instead of letting it grow full. Thinking back he mentioned he did it every Wednesday and very Sunday. So she found it odd that the murder which happened on a Thursday and there was no garbage bag. Al was like many other people a creature of habit. He wouldn't have suddenly changed his habits unless it had not been he who had thrown out the trash. Eureka moment dawned in front of her. This was where the killer had made his or her mistake.
"Four!" Tris exclaimed. "Follow me."
Excitement had build up and she was so impatient to see if her theory was correct that she ran out of the kitchen and out of the apartment like the wind. In all the excitement she could barely hear the annoyed grumbling coming from Four as he followed after her. Not that she cared if he got annoyed with her or not, since he was to this day annoyed with her and it wasn't much she could do to change that. However if her theory was correct then it meant that the killer wasn't a professional. It had to be someone with a very strong motive to kill Al and who manage to plan that left very little forensic evidence behind. She couldn't help wondering who and why they would have wanted to kill Al, who was seemingly the most ordinary and boring person you could ever meet.
For someone as short as Tris, she sure could run fast. Four had no idea why Tris had asked him to follow after her like it was a matter of life and death. His job normally involved death, so he couldn't really find the excitement the same way she did over whatever that made her run out of the apartment quite the hurry. Still he believed that whatever it was Tris found out or realized it had to be relevant to the case.
"Slow down, Tris," Four called after her. They had run down the stairs and just passed the entrance to the building, but she continued running. "Where are we going?"
"To where the killer made his mistake," Tris only answered as she entered the backdoor that lead to the alley next to the building and the garage. Four didn't get much sense out of her answer than what he did before. Where did the killer make a mistake and why hasn't they figured that out before?
"What mistake?" Four wondered. Tris stopped in the middle of the hallway to the alley and turned her head slightly and gave him a sneaky smile. She was enjoying his ignorance, possibly a little too much in his opinion, but she continued walking without saying anything. When they reached the end of the hallway she opened the door and they wandered into the alley. Like most other alleys it was grey, wet and smelled from the huge container that was leaned against the building.
"What? You wanted to show me how the killer escaped after he did his crime," Four said with sourly tone. "News flash, Tris. We already established that earlier since no one, including the manager saw anyone enter or leave the apartment."
Tris groaned in response and suddenly turned around, facing me with an annoyed and pretty much pissed off expression on her face.
"Alright, Detective Smarty Pants," Tris snapped. "Since you know everything so well then you can tell me what other mistake the killer did. We have already established how he entered and escape the apartment, so what other reason do you think I brought you here in the alley with a huge container leaning against the building?"
Four thought over the question. If it wasn't to figure out how the killer came and went then there had to be something else. He turned to look at the container, thinking the container could give him the answer. Then he realized exactly where Tris was going with her reasoning. Something so obvious that he and the rest of the detectives had overlooked.
"You think the killer disposed of the murder weapon in the container," Four stated bluntly. It was odd for him to be blunt about his thoughts, he could only assume it was most likely Christina's influence, but then again he would be guessing. "What exactly support your theory that he did exactly that?"
Tris explained the story about his habit to throw his trash on certain days and about the missing garbage bag in the apartment. Though it was more or less a shot in the dark, he couldn't argue against that it was a reasonable explanation. He turned to look at the container again, this time thinking it was going to take some time to process everything to find the murder weapon.
"Better call in Zeke and CSU and get them down here to find the murder weapon and any other kind of evidence we may find," Four said as he pulled out his cellphone and pushed it on speed dial. Tris nodded in agreement and quickly brushed away a piece of her hair. Four continued to look at her as he made the call, never letting his gaze leave hers despite her attempts to look away from him. Every time she tried to look away he would grab her chin, forcing her to look at him. He knew that it wasn't exactly a very kind thing to do, especially when his and Tris's relationship was as turbulent as it was right now, but then again he still had some trouble with the kindness trait.
"Will you stop looking at me like that?" Tris said, after he grabbed her chin for the third time and just stared into those beautiful grey-blue eyes of hers.
"Like what?" Four asked, right after he was done with calling Zeke and everyone else. Tris looked at him and said flatly, "The way you always used to look at me back in the day when we…."
When they used to work and spent a lot of their time together, Four thought, knowing what she was saying despite stopping in the middle of the sentence. She must have gotten embarrassed and awkward over it, like she always would be whenever when they began talking about the past. The past that was keeping them from moving on, practically drowning them. He had no clue how to move forward from this point with her. Should he just try to work with her on this case? Then what was he going to do after that? Would she return to the life before this murder happened and meeting him again?
Those were questions too confusing and difficult to wrap his head around it, so instead he changed the subject of their conversation.
"We better get inside and wait for Zeke and the others to arrive," Four said simply. "Besides it is getting colder to stay outside and you more than anyone would freeze to death without wearing a jacket."
She was taken back that she had forgotten to put on her jacket, but she tried t pretend his comment didn't affect her in any way, instead just walked back inside like nothing had ever happened between them. Four wanted more than anything snarl at her for her actions, but quickly decided against it and followed after her inside.
"I can't help wondering why every time you call me, I end up with getting more work to do than what I had before," Detective Pedrad said to Four the moment he had arrived at the alley with the CSU not far behind. Tris found it amusing to see that it wasn't only her Four would work hard on when it came to police work, especially when he didn't even seem to comprehend how his determination to work affected his co-workers.
"I thought you could handle it and besides it is part of your job," Four shrugged before he walked over to the container, instructing what the CSU were looking for in the container. It didn't take long before the CSU team split up and began to work, while he overlooked the work together with CSU team leader.
Leaving her and Detective Pedrad behind, unsure how to be around each other. They had only talked during her first statement and the interrogation earlier, so she had no idea how she was going to interact with him. However she did get the impression that he was an easy-going person then there was a possibility that interacting with him wouldn't be a problem.
"Sorry about him," Detective Pedrad apologized to her. "Four may not seem like it, but he really is a good guy once you get to know him. So don't take it personally with him arresting you and treating oddly. It is part of his charm I guess…"
"No-no-no," Tris said quickly. She held up her hands, moving them from side to side in order to deny his excuse. "It's alright. I already know what he is like, so I'm not too bothered by it anymore. So please don't apologize, Detective Pedrad."
"Please call me Zeke," Zeke said. "Because you will otherwise confuse me with my younger brother, who also works for Dauntless Police Department."
"Oh, you have a younger brother?" Tris said surprised. "I had no idea. Does he look like you?"
Zeke only smiled and laughed. She couldn't understand what was so funny about what she had just said, but whatever it was Zeke found it extremely amusing.
"You have already met him, so you tell me," Zeke explained. "He was the detective that you tried to elbow in the face when we first tried to bring you down to the station."
Tris could feel her cheeks turn red, feeling embarrassed over how she acted earlier. Even though she did warn them not to touch her, but it wasn't a nice thing to when they were only trying to do their jobs.
"I'm sorry," Tris apologized. She started to play nervously with her hair, combing it through her fingers. Stupid habits she knew that, but habits were hard to break and this habit were something she had grown with since her parents' death. Even if it was a stupid habit, it was somehow one thing that still connected her to her parents. "That was brash moment of mine and I should apologize to your brother and…"
Zeke held up his hand to stop her from apologizing and smiled at her.
"Don't bother. I'm sure my brother didn't mind, since you might be the first person to ever catch in off guard besides me and his friends," Zeke replied. "Besides he doesn't hold grudges for too long anyway, so you're safe."
Tris blinked her eyes, surprised how easy and forgiving he and from the sound of it his younger brother was. There were many people she had been associated with who was like that, especially in that line of work. Now that she thought about it most of the people she had encountered in Dauntless Police Department was surprisingly interesting and unusual than what you would expect to find in Dauntless, like Zeke and Christina. It was a major difference from back in Abnegation.
"I probably should head over to Four and give him a helping hand," Zeke said, interrupting the comfortable silence between them. "Can you stay here by yourself?"
"Of course," Tris answered with a voice that meant that she could obviously stay by herself without any guard dogs, watching over her like she was a defenseless sheep. She felt a little insulted by the idea. His brother had already gotten a taste on that she could handle herself, but she really couldn't blame him for questioning her. After all, Four do it all the time and her track record for listening to orders and actually obeying them were minimal at best. "I will be fine. I'm just going to stand here and observing you guys do your jobs, not going off to cause trouble. I promise."
Zeke looked stunned by her response for a second, but quickly smiled and ran off to Four's side. The two partners were chatting and working in serious manner, which was also calm and smoothing in this kind of situation. Tris thought Zeke was really a goofy person compared to his partner, but his character was smoothing for someone as determined and emotional detached on the job like Four. They worked really well together and she couldn't help envy their partnership compared to her with Four, which was filled with heavy tension between them. Even though she was pretty sure most of the tension in their relationship was the sexual attraction they had for each other in the past, she couldn't deny there was also an understanding nature. She and Four had a common understanding in the way they used to work and they were willing to do anything for each other, no matter how crazy and dangerous it might have seemed at the time. However she feared it was the nature of their relationship that destroyed everything, not just the heavy situation with her parents murder case, but it would only be guessing on her part.
"Tris!" Four shouted. She snapped out of her train of thoughts and focused on Four and the rest of the officers on the scene. "Come over here. We may have found something."
She looked at him questioningly, not entirely sure why he was informing her when she wasn't a cop or really involved working the case. She may have decided to look for clues herself, but it was an entire different subject to actually get involved solving crimes again with Four. However she didn't question it instead just walked over to them, waiting for whatever he was going to tell her.
"So what did you find?" Tris asked. "Hopefully the murder weapon?"
Four nodded and put on a pair of forensic gloves. One of the crime scene investigators held up black garbage bag and opened it up, retrieving a small object and handed it over to Four. Tris could only stare as Four held up a small syringe.
"How can you be certain that is the murder weapon?" Tris wondered, even though her theory might be proven right they couldn't assume this was the murder weapon unless there were clear clues that proved otherwise.
"Of course we need to test it to be sure," Four explained. "But when you use syringes it is highly unusual that there would be trace of blood on the needle, right?"
Four pointed out the small red liquid on the needle that Tris hadn't noticed earlier, but if she took a closer look she could see the red on tip of the needle. She also had to agree with Four's notion, but neither of them would be certain until they tested the syringe and what kind of poison the killer used.
"I agree," Tris said flatly. "However I do have to ask, why are telling me this? I'm an outsider in this, not a cop. So it leaves me wondering why I'm included in this?"
Four looked at her for a second, based on his expression it was almost like he thought she was being stupid. Just the thought of that made Tris feel annoyed and almost wanted to lash out at him for even thinking that. However she forced herself to stay calm and only waited on the reply.
"You brought it upon yourself, so now you are definitely involved," Four said in a deadpan manner. "You will be consulting us during this investigation."
Tris and everyone else, excluding Four, was shocked over the decision. Zeke's mouth went down a couple of inches, almost looking like a ridiculous cartoon fish or something.
"W-what?" Zeke stuttered, obviously having a hard time comprehending what had just been decided. "Are you c-crazy? First of all you hate using consulting detectives. Secondly, are you seriously that crazy? Eric is going to kill you when he finds out."
Tris was curious when Zeke mentioned the unknown person. She couldn't help wondering who this person was and why he was certainly going to kill Four when he found out about his decision.
"I don't care about what Eric will do once he finds out," Four said. "If there is a problem then leave him to me. Otherwise we might have good use of her in this case. Are I'm making myself clear?"
No one bothered to talk back, even if they disagreed because Four looked damn scary when he questioned if their obedience, so they silently nodded and left to continued their work, leaving only her, Four and Zeke by themselves. Tris and Four just stared at each other; not saying a word while Zeke looked very uncomfortable standing between the two of them.
"So you just assume I'm going to consult you on this," Tris stated, breaking the silence. "Just that simple?"
"Do you have any problem with that?" Four replied, unfazed by her question. He took off his gloves and shoved them into jacket pocket. She thought over it for a second, her choices were very limited. Either she helped out on this case, consulting as much as she could, or get arrested for obstructing justice as well as trespassing on an active crime scene. She didn't really feel like getting her butt thrown in prison, so the answer was very simple.
"Fine, I will help out," Tris said. "But don't expect me to join the force again. I have already left that part of my life."
"We shall see about that," Four murmured. Tris wasn't going to comment on his response with an answer, so she chose to ignore it. Four sighed and said wearily, "We should head back to the station and give Christina the murder weapon."
Zeke and Tris agreed on his decision and the trio left the scene before heading back to the station.
Once they returned back to the station he and Tris headed down to see Christina, while Zeke went upstairs to inform Shauna about the recent development in the case. Even though it was part of the job to have a close relationship, but Four couldn't help dreading to meet Christina. That woman was a little too much and her honesty could really drive him crazy. So he expected that she would do exactly that when he and Tris entered the morgue. However he was surprised when Christina saw Tris and looked actually glad to see her.
"Tris, back so soon?" Christina smiled, as she held onto Tris's hands. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Tris nodded awkwardly, obviously taken back by the sudden friendliness, but slowly responded with a smile.
"That's great," Christina responded before she turned her focus on him. She was less ecstatic to see him, but didn't comment on that instead said with force, "And I guess you have something for me?"
Four didn't reply and simply gave the plastic bag with the syringe inside. Christina turned it over to take a closer look. Then she grabbed her cellphone to call one of her lab technicians to test the syringe and it didn't take long before two women, who looked like typical geeks from high school, came and retrieved the evidence and left the room.
"They will contact me as soon as they get any news," Christina explained. "But it will take some time…so in order to make time go faster I was thinking of taking off work early."
Four didn't like that suggestion at all, especially when they had a killer on their hands roaming around, however she would do as she pleased even without his confirmation.
"Fine," Four said reluctantly, brushing his fingers through his now messy short hair. "But call me and return back here the moment you hear anything."
"Aye aye, sir," Christina said in a joking manner. "Whatever you say. Then do you mind if I borrow Tris in the meantime?"
Four and Tris looked surprised by her question and they turned to look at each other for a second before Four exclaimed, "No, she is here to work, Christina! She is not something for you to play with."
Christina just shrugged her shoulders and turned to ask if Tris minded hanging out with her, which Tris apparently didn't when she slowly nodded her head.
"Great!" Christina smiled with a huge grin on her face. "Well, then Four we should head off. See you later. Bye-bye."
She dragged Tris by her arm and they hurried off the room before Four could make any objection. The door closed behind them, leaving Four behind.
"Damn you, Christina," Four slammed his fist into the wall. He could only hope that Tris could handle her on her own.
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First new chapter this year (hurray-hurray). So I hope you guys are going to like it. First I have to clear with everyone is that now this semester is a little busy for me, so I'm not entirely sure how often I can write and update stories, but I will try as fast and soon as I can. However right now school have to be a priority, hopefully you can be understanding and patient till I can make some time to write.
I wanted to comment on the review from InkHeart4112, right now you can see that the interaction between Christina and Tris are starting to establish, while I do have a plan on Uriah later on in the story so don't worry. As you also can see I'm using flashbacks again and I will continue doing so in this story, but I will be using this in situations that suits it. Also thank you for the critic since I haven't been very aware of this fault, but I will say that I won't fix it anytime soon since A. I don't have time and B. I'm rather planning on fixing writing errors once I have completed the story. I have already told everyone in the last author's note about this, so please understand my reasons.
Anyway thank you all for the lovely reviews, favorite and followings and I will ask that you can continue doing so. It really warms a writer's heart. Until next time...
xXrebelgirl07Xx