AN- Thank you guys so much for the great reviews! You all really made my day! You asked me to update soon, so here you go...

Ch 3

Tobias

I have know idea how long its been, days, but more likely weeks. All I've done is sat in the chair a nurse brought me after noticing that I had been crouching at Tris's bedside for a few hours and wasn't going to leave any time soon, much to many of the nurses' and doctors' malcontent. Since then, my hand has been intertwined in Tris', other hand propping up my sinking head. I study her knuckles, pale and scabbed still from punching Caleb, carefully, gazing at their stillness. They are placid waters, unrippled by rigid motions, perfectly still, practically beautiful, but practically dead. Like pressed flowers. Like petrified animals.

Until they move.

It is the slightest flinch, so meager I may have imagined it. Her index finger grazes mine; it barely moves, but it is something. I practically fall out of my seat, and I stumble to her side, my face inches from hers. "Tris?" I whisper to her precariously.

She doesn't move. "Tris?" I ask more urgently.

And this time, her head turns. I feel my heart swell with overpowering joy, and I start laughing because it's the only way I won't start crying. She's going to be okay. She's going to be okay! I squeeze her hand slightly and turn my head back to shout for a nurse. When one comes, I immediately request, "Go get Christina, Cara, and Caleb." She obliges with surprisingly no irritation or pestering for an explanation.

Christina, Cara, and Caleb had each been in to visit Tris on multiple occasions, pulling up a chair next to mine and sitting for up to hours at a time. I enjoyed having them for company, even Caleb, for with their voices to fill the silent void between Tris and me, it was easier to think Tris could jump into the conversation at any time, start talking again, start living again.

The three come running through the doorway, bumping into a few irascible doctors and nurses in their hurry. They are met with grunts and trenchant snaps at them as they push their way through hordes of nurses and doctors, blurs of the scene framing the edge of their vision. They bolt across the crisp, sanitized tiles, Christina in the lead, until skidding to a halt at the side of Tris' bed.

"What happened?" Christina implores, her eyes darting across my face for answers. The other two gape expectantly at me, waiting for my reply.

"She moved," I choke, tears threatening. "She can move."

Christina puts her hand up to her mouth and smiled behind it as tears stream down her dark-honey cheeks. Cara's countenance brightens with a smile, and her Erudite instincts kicked in as she engages in a conversation with one if the doctors, talking about monitoring her heart rate and brain-muscle function and nervous systems and other things I haven't the slightest clue about. Caleb paces over to the bottom end of Tris' bed and places his hands on the metal beam, identical to the one at the head of her bed, that frames the edge of the mattress. He tightens his grip to keep his hands from shaking, though he couldn't help the tears that spill down his face. His eyes gaze at Tris, but his blank stare is evidence that his mind is elsewhere.

I clear my throat. "Christina, Cara, could you guys give us a minute?" Christina looks like she is about to protest, but as her gaze settles on Caleb, her mouth closes.

"Okay," she allows laconically, and sweeps out of the hospital with Cara.

Silence settles over Caleb and I for a few moments, until I decide to break its clear, pristine glass. "What's wrong?" I ask too harshly by mistake, making it sound more like a demand than a sympathetic question. Sympathy has never really been my strong point.

Caleb doesn't answer.

"Caleb," I say a bit more forcefully now, "Tris is going to wake up, what is your problem?"

"She sacrificed herself for me," he said abruptly. "She almost died for me, and I didn't deserve it, don't deserve it, and won't ever deserve it."

I pause, a bit shocked, and he continues.

"I wish I could say I was tricked into doing all the terrible things I've done, but I can't. I want to take back everything I've done, but I can't. And it eats at me everyday. If I have any respect for my sister, I'll kill myself now and let her be rid of me forever."

He begins to turn away to leave, but I catch his sleeve firmly in my hand. "If you have any respect for your sister, you will do no such thing. Your sister sacrificed what she thought could have been her life for you to live. Are you that selfish to disregard her sacrafice completely? Caleb, don't be such an idiot."

He looks shocked.

"Don't give up because you're afraid you'll never be worthy of her again, never be able to become good again." I think of Peter swallowing the memory serum desperately like his last escape. "Tris deserves to have a brother willing to try to be good. Can you be that brother?"

He straightens his posture. While his guise is still grim, his eyes have a new sparkle to them. "I will do my best."

"That's not what I asked you. Can you do it?"

He nods. "I can."

I look back to Tris. We're going to be okay.