Christina's POV

"He's awake. He wants to see you."

My heart is beating so fast I'm afraid it will rip out of chest. Numbly, Zeke and I stand up and follow the doctor into the room. The nurses are huddled around Uriah's bed, blocking my vision of him, but as soon as they notice us walking in they clear a path. Uriah turns his head towards us and manages a weak smile. That smile is all it takes to break the invisible boundary Zeke had built around himself while sitting next to Uriah's unconscious body for days, preparing himself for an unspeakable outcome.

I like this one better.

Zeke runs the last few steps towards his brother, and leans down to hug Uriah on his hospital bed. I can see he is trying to be gentle, but all of these days thinking he might never hug his brother again cloud his vision and he squeezes him tighter. Zeke trembles with tears and whispers into his brother's ear. They hug and whisper for a long time as I observe from the corner of the room. Thinking I should give them some privacy, I turn towards the door.

"Where are you going?" I hear Uriah's voice say. It's much weaker and raspier, but it still has this... Uriah-ness about it that I could never mistake in a million years.

I spin back on the balls of my feet, and look over to see they've broken from the hug, and Zeke is now standing next to his bed as Uriah weakly sits up and throws his legs over the edge of the bed.

"I was going to give you two some privacy. Zeke's really missed you... I thought I should come back later." I say

Uriah opens his mouth to respond, but Zeke beats him to it. "You just woke up from a coma!" He exclaims as he gently grabs Uriah's ankles and places them back on the bed. "You can't get up yet!" He pushes down Uriah so that he's lying against the hospital bed, which is now folded to support him sitting up. Zeke sits down in the chair next to his bed.

Uriah laughs a dry laugh which ends in coughs, but doesn't argue. "Look who became an over- protective mama cat!" Uriah says as he tries to stroke Zeke's head, but Zeke stands up, attempting to dodge Uriah's hand, and trips over the leg of the chair he was sitting on, smacking his face on the cold, hard tile floor.

Uriah bursts into a laughing fit, and I join him, holding my waist and bending over with laughter. Zeke stands up, rubbing his already- red cheek with his hand, causing Uriah and I to laugh even harder. He glares at both of us.

"I'm going to go get some ice." He declares and storms out of the room.

I walk over to Uriah's bed as Zeke pops his head into the room, still holding his cheek, and says, "You two better not be making out when I get back!" And winks at me disappearing down the hall. I feel the blood rising to my cheeks as I sit on the edge of the hospital bed.

I look up at Uriah to find him already staring at me.

"Don't cry." He whispers and raises his shaky hand to my face, smearing the tear on my cheek with his thumb. I hadn't even been aware that I was crying.

Uriah leaves his hand on my cheek and looks at me, but there is no humour in his eyes like there usually is. Instead, he has a look of sadness, wonder, and... love?

I love the funny, strong, joking side of Uriah, but this side of him that I've never seen before, a side that lets me see his sadness and weakness, makes me feel so trusted, and loved. He is exposing his weakest side to me, something no one has ever done. And seeing him like this gives me a tiny sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, he might feel the same way about me that I feel about him.

"I don't want to be the reason for you to cry." He says, and I see tears gather in the corners of his eyes.

But he still doesn't look away.

I smile at him, and my eyes blur with more tears. Since when did I get so god damn emotional?!

"They're happy tears." I tell him, and for the first time ever, I mentally slap myself for telling the truth. "I'm so glad you're OK!" I exclaim as more tears stream down my face and I throw myself into his arms.

I sob into his shoulder, and he whispers meaningless words into my ears while his strong, yet weak, hands rub circles on my back. I pull back, but leave our faces only inches apart.

"I couldn't die before doing this." He says, and presses his lips to mine.

I smile into his lips and kiss him back. He's the first to pull away, but before he can say anything, I laugh and say, "That was so cheesy!"

He blushes.

"Good thing I like cheese." I say and wink.

This time it's his turn to laugh.

Tobias' POV

Tris and I decided to stay until the day Uriah is supposed to be unplugged, so that we could attend the ceremony. I didn't want to go, thinking it was wrong for a murderer to go to their victim's funeral, but Tris said I had to. She said it would be worse if I didn't go; that it would seem as if I didn't cared. I reluctantly agreed, and now we're waiting for the news, good or bad.

Tris and I spend our days doing meaningless stuff, I'll do anything as long as they aren't too physical; the doctor said Tris should take it easy for a while. Tris isn't a huge fan of that rule.

One day, she even dragged me to the library. I swear, I think half of me died of boredom. But Tris looked through book after book for a whole 3 hours. I tried to read some stuff, but I didn't find any of it interesting. Instead I wandered the huge library, but keeping close to Tris incase anything bad happened to her, or incase she wanted to leave. I had hoped for the second, but she just kept on reading. The Erudite in her had never been so noticeable.

I think back to that day as I lie next to Tris, watching her as she sleeps. She looks so young and healthy in her sleep, like the way she used to look as I passed her on the Abnegation streets. I move a stray piece of hair out of her face, and she tenses, before returning to her even, peaceful breathing.

I watch her for a few more minutes, before I hear her tense and gasp. Her breathing speeds up, and she kicks and screams as I watch her hands wrap around her abdomen. I lean over towards her, and put my hand on her cheek.

"Tris." I say into her ear, "Wake up."

Tears stream down her face as one of her hands move away from her stomach and hit me.

"Tris!" I say, more urgently this time. She usually wakes up from these nightmares pretty easily. I remember the first time it happened, after she had returned to the hospital.

"Go to sleep," I whispered in her ear, "I'll be here until you wake up." She yawned as I kissed the back of her head.

"OK." She whispered, and her breathing became even. I held onto her for a while until I fell asleep, too. I was woken by Tris thrashing around in arms, screaming in her sleep. I pulled away from her and put my arms on her shoulders, holding her down. She whimpered.

"Tris?" I said and kissed her lightly. A moment later, she woke up, tears streaming down her face. She wrapped her arms around my neck, shaking.

"I'm so sorry." She said.

She had never told me what the dreams were about, but by the screaming, thrashing, and arms protecting her stomach, I had a pretty good guess. When I had suggested that maybe the calming pills weren't working, she had denied it without even thinking. But yet, she had nightmares almost every night, leaving me unable to protect her. It pained me to see her look so weak.

I put my hands on her shoulders. "TRIS!" I say and shake her shoulders gently.

Her eyes burst open and she sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees, trembling. She didn't say a word as she stared blankly ahead of her, countless tears streaming down her face.

Knowing better than to ask what happened, I wrap my hand around one of her small wrists to take it away from her legs. But as my skin touches hers, she flinches.

I pull my hand away, a feeling of pain burning through my very soul, and she looks up at me in horror.

"I'm so sorry." She says shakily, and crawls towards me. She nuzzles into my chest, and I wrap my arms around her tentatively. When she didn't flinch, I wrap them more securely around her, as if holding her in my arms could shield her from everything that could hurt her.

"I'm so sorry." She cries repeatedly into my chest, staining my shirts with her tears.

"It's OK." I whisper over and over, kissing her head, stroking her arms, anything that might comfort her.

Eventually, she falls asleep again, curled up in my arms.

Hope you liked this!

Also, I know I have to update faster, but my life's been really busy lately, and I've been having less and less time to update my chapters! PLEASE don't mistake me for an author who dedicates their life to FanFiction, I definitely respect those kind of writers BUT THAT IS NOT WHO I AM. I have a life outside of FanFiction that gets busy at times, and sometimes I can't update frequently. I promise I'll TRY to update more frequently, and as spring comes it will become easier and easier to do so, but I'm really busy this March, so I'm sorry if I can't update as much as you'd like me too.

Also, THANK YOU to my new beta reader, Totalbooknerd13 ! It's great to have someone help me with this.

Please please please REVIEW!