21.

Common sense would have told her that it might have been a good idea to keep Eric in the loop of their discoveries and over the fact that they were just about to 'crash the party' in order to make an arrest on a murder that the public were yet not aware of, however due to the limited time and the special circumstances surrounding this particular case Tris went along with Tobias's decision to arrest the murder without any warning. Hence why the two of them along with a couple of on-duty officers came back to the party, made a huge entrance and walked straight forward to the small group of council members that was gathered. Among them were Marcus, Jack Kang and Jeanine Matthews, but neither of them were the main target. It was rather the scrawny almost invisible assistant that hid behind Jeanine, Owen Pearce.

"Owen Pearce, you are under arrest for the murder of former leader of the Candor party, Russell Nakamura, as well as embezzlement," Tobias said in a monotone manner like he was reading from a script. He went on relaying his Miranda-rights before he signaled to the officers to cuff him and take him back to the precinct. Of course the whole scene was disturbing and more importantly confusing the guests as well as the council members with them as Jeanine demanded harshly, "What do you think you are doing? You can't go and arrest my assistant for a crime that has not happened! And what is this talk about embezzlement?"

Four glared at her sourly, obviously tired and definitely not in the mood to be patient and calm individual in this situation, and was about to reply back, probably very rude and insulting, but she jumped into the conversation before he said anything that could bite him hard in the ass if he wasn't careful.

"Mr. Nakamura was murdered here earlier tonight," Tris said determined, as she watched carefully at the older woman's reaction. There was just something about her that brought shivers up her spine and from the little Four had told her about his suspicion on her involvement in her parents deaths didn't exactly help the matter either. "The body was discovered quickly and the investigation was kept on a low-key due to the sensitivity and importance of this event. With the evidence we have gathered as well as a strong motive it is enough for him to get arrested for murder. And as for the embezzlement charge…"

She continued on giving a light on-the-surface explanation, while withholding the key details that Mr. Pearce had gone to extreme lengths to execute his plan and place the blame on the police. Again as they have proven times before, criminals were generally stupid and were bound to make a mistake that would eventually lead to them getting caught. Exactly what Mr. Pearce had done and was now going to pay for his crimes, and hopefully the judge wouldn't go easy on his punishments either, but in the end only time would tell when the time did come.

Jeanine stared at both her and Tobias, clearly not pleased over the events and to be kept in the dark like she had been, but didn't voice her opinion. Instead she just walked away in a huge scoff, leaving them alone with only Marcus and Jack Kang. And trust her when she said that the tension in the room increased, making everyone awkward and uncomfortable to be around the reunion between father and son, or rather a reunion between abusive monster of a father and the former victim and currently the impenetrable wall son. She wanted to leave, go inform Mrs. Nakamura about her deceased husband even though Will was already on it and was handling good on his own or follow the officers back to the precinct, but there was no way she was going to leave Tobias alone with Marcus. Not because she feared that Marcus would do anything to Tobias in public, especially considering how much time and work he had done to make sure that the truth remained just a forgotten rumor, but because she feared that Tobias might lose his temper and do something that could lead to horrible consequences. That is why when Marcus said surprised, "Tobias." She took her boyfriend's hand, hopefully giving him comfort and strength that he most certainly needed when she saw his whole body freeze up like a statue. Tobias responded to her touch by tightening the grip on her hands as he opened his mouth and said cold and almost hollow like, "Marcus."

Terrible memory flashes went through his mind as he recalled his memories of his childhood and youth with his dirt bag of a father. He remembered the pain of leather upon his skin as his father whipped him with a belt for disobeying him. There was different tactics of abuse for other trivial things, but all in all he couldn't come up with one happy memory of his father. Not even from before his mother left and abandoned him in Marcus's care. However what he did settle on was that he wasn't that terrified kid anymore. He was a grown-up, working for the police and had a completely different and happy life of his own. And Marcus Eaton was not going to screw that up now that they were finally face to face after all these years of estrangement.

"It's good to see you, son," Marcus said gently, in the fatherly way that he had heard so many times before when they were in company of others, but never in private and never meant sincerely. "I have been so worried about you, even now after all these years."

Tobias immediately thought that his father was lying with what he said, not that he didn't always lie because he did, but there was a secret motive behind the whole conversation and he was going to find out about it soon enough.

"Don't call me son," Tobias clenched his teeth, while trying desperately not to create a big scene when he wanted nothing more to lose his anger and beat the crap out of his father just like he had done to him in the past. "After what you did to me, you don't deserve to be called a father let alone a decent human being. So cut the role-playing already and stop pretending that we have great relationship and the years of radio silence was just due to some misunderstanding."

As soon as he heard those words, Marcus almost immediately dropped his act as his whole face fell and expressed shock over his strong bluntness. However he managed to pull himself together and tried to say something, but Tobias was willing to let him talk especially since he knew what the older man wanted to talk about. He wasn't interested to hear or talk to the man other than about what he wanted to know about. And in this case it was about the cold cases as well as the murder on Tris' parents. As much as he hated the fact that he had to go to Marcus himself to get information, personally he would have rather questioned Jeanine Matthews like his mother suggested but unfortunately couldn't at this time and moment, so he had to work with what he got instead. That is why he was going to take the advantage of this torturous conversation and get the information that he wanted. Hopefully without attempting to kill the old man in the process.

"I want to know everything you know about Natalie and Andrew Prior's murder as well as the other cold cases that holds the same M.O as the Prior murder," Tobias said fiercely determined. "I know that you know something about it. After all Andrew Prior was your collogue and friend."

"Why? I don't understand…" Marcus shook his head, obviously confused and taken back by the interrogation, but Tobias wasn't in an understanding or patient mood at the moment, which is why he snapped, "Just answer the questions!"

Marcus squirmed, which Tobias personally though was entertaining to see and took great pleasure to see the monster of his childhood appear as weak as a bug, before he nodded carefully and made sure no one seemed to be listening in on the conversation. Not that anyone seemed to really care what the three was doing, after everything that happened tonight it was a pure wonder if they even realized that a Dauntless Police detective was closely related to the leader of Abnegation, but nevertheless Marcus answered wearily, "I don't know why the sudden interest in that tragic incident, it has been twelve years since it happened and there was no evidence or suspects in the case. So why getting invested in the case now?"

Tobias fought the urge to roll his eyes as he said annoyed like his questions were the most obvious thing in the world, "What do you think? We have found new evidence that links their murder to a couple of cold cases. And now I want you to answer my questions or else I'm going to bring you back to the precinct with handcuffs. So what is it going to be, answer my questions or…"

Marcus looked seriously pissed over the lack of respect and politeness that he received, but didn't comment on it. Instead his facial expression hardened as he replied, "Fine. As you both know Natalie and Andrew were generally liked in the Abnegation community, and got along fairly well with the other representatives from each city. Well…there was always tension between Natalie and Jeanine, both women were strong-willed and Andrew used to have history with Jeanine back when they were younger and he still lived in Erudite."

Apparently Tris didn't seem know that tiny little detail regarding her father and Jeanine when she exclaimed surprised, "He used to be…what? I have never heard about this before, I mean sure my father worked with Jeanine through you, but he never mentioned that he used to be whatever they were in the past."

Marcus snorted, "Of course not. He wouldn't go talking about because it wasn't part of the Abnegation nature, Beatrice. And also because it wasn't worth mentioning since they grew apart before he even married your mother."

Tris looked sort of hurt and insulted over the fact that she knew so little about her father's past, even with the rules of an Abnegation household, but she quickly hid her feelings and continued to stay on the sidelines and allowed him to continue being the lead.

"You mentioned that there was tension Natalie and Jeanine, any reason why except for Andrew and their different opinions?" Tobias asked, thinking that the issues between the two women could be interesting and might lead to something rather than follow 'the jealous girlfriend' route, which was probably not the case considering how the murders were executed. Then there was also the fact that Natalie was living under an assumed name for years, even before she met Andrew and Jeanine.

Marcus shook his head, "No, I don't think so…wait there was one incident a few years ago, when I think about it was just a few weeks before Natalie and Andrew died. Those two had a huge quarrel at one of the city council meetings, no sure what they thought about, but it was pretty heated since they were shouting at each other and ended with Natalie having the last word and left the meeting entirely and didn't come back afterwards."

That was pretty interesting, especially since there was no report in the old case files about Natalie and Jeanine having a quarrel shortly before both the Priors were killed, but that left with the huge question about what they had been fighting about in the first place. That is why they needed to try to talk to Jeanine, even with the chances that she was going to stonewall them from trying to speak with her.

Tobias got what he needed and was not going to spend another second with his father, so he quickly shrugged his shoulders and said dismissively, "All right I think that's all you can go now and we can continue the charade where we are strangers to each other, even though that is precisely what we are and I have no intention to change that ever. Goodbye Marcus."

Then before the old man had a chance to argue or talk him out it, he left with Tris following him on his heels. The worst that could happened if he stayed was that the old man would piss him off enough for him to lose his temper, which would result in getting arrested for assault in front of a room filled with cops, lawyers and politicians. Either way nothing good would come out of hearing another word from Marcus Eaton's mouth. Not now. Not ever as far as he was concerned.

Tobias didn't care about the consequences of leaving the party early, not even afraid to think about Eric's wrath when he found him and would yell at him for not keeping him in the loop and made an arrest that could both promote their job as well as hurt them for withholding information and detective work from the public. All he cared about now was bringing Tris back home to his apartment and finally have that talk they have been pushing aside for the case.

When they came back to Tobias' apartment things went as one would expect with a couple who had a huge fight and working it out to resolve the underlining issues between them. They screamed, yelled, cried and threw things dramatically like a fight scene from a movie. However it was more like she was throwing anything that was in her grasp, meanwhile Tobias managed to smoothly dodge most of the attacks except for that one time when she threw her keys at him and accidently managed to hit him on the forehead, making a small cut in the process. So you can imagine that it was probably one of the lowest points of their fighting.

Tris honestly didn't realize before now that there was a lot more issues like her problem to trust him and his problem to open up and allow her in, and both issues were extremely troublesome and could actually ruin more than just their relationship if they continued allowing them being pushed back and ignored. If there was something that she had learned since Tobias had returned in her life and how her life was going up till now, it is that life is too short to live stubbornly and foolishly. Moments lasted only for so long and she had many regrets, especially regarding her parents who she had once believed she would have a lot more time with before they were gone, and she didn't want to live in those short moments and the 'maybe later' regrets.

Once things calmed down finally reaching the point where they could convey their thoughts and feelings in calm and quiet manner, they were sitting on Tobias' couch with him having his arms were wrapped around her protectively and kissing her tentatively on the top of her head.

"I'm sorry," She whispered, almost too quiet for anyone to hear her, but he heard her perfectly since he brushed his thumb against her slightly cold skin. "I know you were trying to do the right thing, protecting me and not getting my hopes up in case you didn't find anything. However it just hurts to know that you couldn't trust me enough to at least try and make understand the graveness of the situation before it blew up in my face."

His soft lips touched her temple before he sighed tired and defeated, "I'm sorry too. I should have talked to you about many things. About the case, about my past and the disastrous relationship or lack of relationship I have with not only with both of my parents. I haven't spoken to neither of them for years, good several years in fact, but working this case I was reaching dead-ends and I was starting to get desperate. So I went first to my mother, which I'm not sure was worse than seeing Marcus considering that she was the one who voluntarily left me to fend for myself against him, and she pointed me towards Jeanine and your mother. I don't trust her regarding how much she knows about either of them, but she was right about there is more about these cases than what we first anticipated."

She nodded, thinking about the fact that she knew so little about her mother, who had lived her life as someone else than whom she claimed to be and never once told either her or Caleb before she passed away. And she didn't know much about her father either; so put together it was only heartbreaking to know how dysfunctional her family really was without her ever knowing.

"I'm hoping, if you are up for it and okay to do it, that you would help with the investigation," Tobias said hopefully as he leaned down to see her reaction. Tris wasn't exactly sure what to think. She knew that solving her parents murder had been a goal of hers for many years, but after what happened the last time when she got too caught up in it and literally tore apart her relationships with Tobias and Caleb as well as her motivation to continue her profession she wasn't sure she could handle another round with getting personal about an important investigation. That is why she voiced out her concern, "What if I lose my way again? I can't handle losing you again or this job that I love so much with the people I have grown to care for like a family."

"You wouldn't," Tobias shook his head. "And even if you do, me and the others wouldn't let you go astray again because we love you and only want you to be happy. Honestly, Tris, you deserve to have joy and happiness in your life despite the rough patch you have been through and are probably always going to go through. At least let us help you gain that if you are ever in doubt whether you can truly be happy and enjoy your life."

Tris could feel the tears building up in her eyes, and was heartbreakingly threatening to fall down from those gentle and honest words her boyfriend confessed to her, but what truly amazed her was the fact that he cared more about her happiness than his own. Hence why she tilted her head carefully so that her face was not too far away from his as she whispered softly, "You deserve to be happy too, Tobias."

"You already make me happy, staying by my side," Tobias answered with a small chuckle. "Loving, caring for me the way you do. Simply accepting who I am and never demanding me to change or pity me for my past and how it has made me very broken man that is hard to love in the first place. I couldn't ask for a better joy and happiness than having you in my life, Tris Prior. You are it for me and you always will be."

His confession was brutally yet heartwarmingly honest, which made her heart do a double take. She had no idea how she managed to find someone like him, but whatever the reason was she didn't regret it or want to have it any other way because like he said he was it for her and he would always be the only one for her until she died.

She leaned upwards to capture his lips and kissed him soft and gently. Tobias responded immediately and kissed her back while his hands went everywhere from her arms, to shoulders, to her face and finally to the back of her head. Her hands brushed his arms before they slipped down and went to his abdomen. She wasn't sure what was causing her to be so clingy and feeling the desperate need to touch and simply feel his skin, well…sure she knew why but she had honestly never been the kind of person who was usually sex hungry or addicted to have sex even after she broke up with Tobias, but nevertheless it both scared her and pleased her nothing more to get on the next level in their relationship with him. They were ready, she was ready to do it and now was the perfect moment to do is.

That is why her hands stopped by his shirt she undo his tie and remove it before she began unbuttoning his shirt. Tobias reacted immediately and pulled away and asked breathlessly, "What are you doing?"

Tris smirked proudly, "I'm working on removing that shirt, detective. The real question is what you are going to do about it?" Then she leaned back in and kissed him senseless so that he could barely comprehend that his shirt and tie was gone and his chest was completely naked. He moaned in pleasure as his hands moved to her back and searched for the zipper of her dress and carefully pulled it down. By the time he realized what was indeed going on and what direction things were moving towards she was standing in her black lacy underwear with her legs wrapped around his waist, while he was moving them both towards his bedroom.

When he carefully placed her on the bed with her lying on her back, staring at him lovingly he asked with reassurance, "Are you sure about this? We can stop if you are not ready for it."

Tris shook her head. She was ready, although the thought still scared her how vulnerable she would be and how easy he could break her, she wanted him. She wanted to feel all of him the same way he would want to feel all of her. And besides, if she was ever concerned about him only wanting her for her body before then she could see clearly in his eyes that he genuinely loved her and wasn't going to do anything to her unless she didn't want him to.

"Please…make love to me, Tobias."

Her voice had been quiet yet the request itself had been so honest and gentle that she was sure that he was desperately trying to withhold his joy from his face, especially since his face cracked slightly as he gave her a heartwarming smile that she literally her glow in happiness. Then his lips were right back on hers and they made love for the rest of the night, conveying the love and passion that the two felt for one another despite their broken and hurt past and problems. It was honest and wonderful and by the time they fell asleep they were wrapped in each other's embrace, holding onto each other like their very own existence couldn't survive without having the other one next to them.

Like any other day, he woke up from the sunlight coming from his window and was softly brightening the room and welcoming the day. Tobias felt exhausted, both from the events that happened at the party last night, the fight and also the lovely and passionate evening with Tris afterwards, but besides that he felt incredibly happy and satisfied. He was literally smiling like he was high or something, which is seriously a rare sight to see since he wasn't normally the 'smiley' kind of guy except towards Tris that is, and his happiness only grew when he looked down to see Tris lying closely next to him, snuggling up his side with an expression filled with bliss that made him fall in love with her all over again. Apparently he wasn't the only one who was happy and for once in his life didn't think about the weight from his past. He was living happily in the moment in front of him, and was saving as much as he could from it because he seriously didn't want it to disappear again for any reason. Hence why he smiled gently to himself as he began to stroke her back soft and carefully, while watching her moving closer to him and moaning that instantly drove him crazy. Then he leaned down and kissed her cheek before he moved towards her ear and whispered softly, "Time to wake up, dear."

She groaned, obviously didn't want to wake up from her dream, but when she did she turned to see him hovering over her with a proud smirk on his face, "Did you have a wonderful sleep?"

"The best I have had in two days," She muttered quietly as her cheeks turned slightly pink in embarrassment before she tried to hide her face under a pillow. Tobias certainly didn't want her to do that so he chuckled and said while trying to remove the pillow, "Come on. Don't do that. I want to see your lovely face, not my boring pillow. So will you please show me your wonderful face?"

She shook her head and clutched the grip on the pillow even tighter, but he could hear her giggling underneath so it was became apparent that she was trying to pull his leg and tease him. Tobias thought over his options before he said with fake resign, "Fine, I guess I just have to force you to do it…. by tickling you to death."

He moved his fingers to her sides and her other sensitive spots, and just as he anticipated she laughed and curled over in attempt to spare and protect herself from his attack despite the fact that it was a pointless since she had already lost the battle when she lost her grip on the pillow. When he stopped and she leaned closer to him and relaxed in his arms. Then he leaned down and kissed her on the lips and said almost breathlessly, "Hey…"
"Hey, yourself." Tris replied before she grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him down to meet her lips again. However just as they were about to kiss once more the loud sound of a phone vibrating on the bedside table. He remembered that Tris left her keys and phone in the kitchen when they came back and before they started fighting like roaring cats, so it meant that it was his phone that was buzzing and ruining this perfect moment. They both groaned, thinking how they could never catch a break, as Tobias leaned over to the phone to see who was calling even though he had a pretty good idea who it was. When he caught the phone and saw the caller id, once again groaning before he accepted the call and tried to sound as pleasant as one could be when Eric calls first thing in the morning, "Hello, Eric. I don't know if you realize this, but it's like six in the morning and it's my day off. So why exactly are you calling now this early?"

Eric responded in the way that he had exactly expected him to, which sounded like he was being pleasantly fake with the underlining hint of anger and exasperation, and Tobias didn't have to be a mind reader to know what Eric was pissed about even though he was pissed about anything that involved him or Tris. "Hello, Four. Sorry to disturb you this early, and yes I'm very aware of what day and time it is, but after that stunt you and your Scooby team pulled last night I can't say I really care either way. So here's the thing you are going to show up at the station, in my office, in an hour and we are going to have talk about your grievances."

Tobias rolled his eyes, while fighting the urge to make a sarcastic remark over how his grievances last night was more due to his order than anything else, but he managed to keep his poker face as he reassured that he would be there and hung up the phone afterwards. He was pissed at Eric and his whole power control over everything, but there wasn't much he could do about it at the moment except sit back and take whatever bullshit Eric had on him. So instead he scoffed and his back fell back on the bed. Tris snuggled closer to him and asked what was wrong and responded as simple as possible.
"Eric want me down at the station in an hour to yell at me for last night."

"Ah, that makes sense…in bizzaro world maybe," Tris said teasingly before she laughed, "So the plan to spend our day off in bed is out?"

He pecked her lips and replied disappointed, "Yeah, for now it seems like that. I seriously didn't want to spend my time off with Eric when I have you to keep me company."

She rolled her eyes, "Okay, smooth talker. You better get yourself ready for your 'date' with Eric."

She literally pushed him out of bed with her foot, which he laughed off before he collected the discarded clothes that had been left behind last night and went into the bathroom. He put on the shower and entered and allowed his entire body to be soaked when suddenly the shower door opened and Tris entered him. She was completely naked as well and said boldly yet awkwardly, "Seeing as you are going to the precinct to see Eric, I thought that I should tag along since I have some paperwork to do and when you are done maybe we could come back here for some…needed relationship quality time."

He smiled at that. Tris had never been very bold or affectionate in the same degree as him or Christina for that matter, but he loved seeing her being so relaxed and bold in his presence. He could only conclude that she was comfortable enough to not freak out with display of affection, especially since people from Abnegation tends to very closed-off on the whole subject. Anyways he leaned in to kiss her now wet lips before he pulled back and answered with a boyish grin, "Sounds like a perfect plan to me, let's do it."

Then he leaned back down to kiss her again.

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Thanks again for the amazing response I have been receiving, hope you guys like this chapter.

Like I stated in my many previous author's notes, I'm not sure how often or when I will be able to update on the story due to school and such. However I will continue writing on it when I have time to spare and release it when I can. So please be patient and understanding about the matter.

Anyways keep giving me reviews, favorite and/or followings, and the next chapter will be out as soon as its done.

xXrebelgirl07Xx