AN: Hi all, thanks to those who reviewed and favourited/followed. You guys are the best and I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter 10

Tris and Christina entered the party room on level 19, walking in to see quite a collection of younger agents, and to hear music pumping. There seemed to be plenty of alcohol around, with most people having a cup or bottle in their hand.

Almost immediately, Tris spotted Four, talking with Zeke and another girl in the corner. He must have felt her eyes on him, as he looked up and saw her, surprise registering in his eyes. He had obviously not expected to see her there.

Tris sighed, and turned to greet Uriah, who had just pressed a drink into her hand.

Tris took a tentative sip, and deciding that it didn't taste too bad, kept drinking.

Tris spent the first bit of the party talking with Marlene, who seemed to have accepted her wholly. Christina however had gone off to meet more people, and was hanging out with Will and Al. Al had been pointedly avoiding Tris, and sneaking hostile looks at her. Tris didn't really care, she thought it was childish, and it didn't really put a dampener on her evening. Al had been a good friend, but it was up to him whether or not he chose to get over how things were between them.

"So no one cares that you guys throw parties, and drink, and let the under age agents drink?" Tris asked Marlene curiously.

"Well, it is frowned on by some of the more senior agents, but it's not forbidden," Marlene answered. "See, we have such complicated, risky lives as Dauntless agents, so when we're here, they don't mind if we blow off steam. This place is a safe haven for agents, and training is kind of a down time for them. It's still a mission – of sorts – but a low risk one, with little chance for complications."

"Makes sense," Tris agreed.

"And it's fun!" Marlene enthused. "Come on, you should meet some people."

So Marlene, to Tris's alarm, led Tris right over to where Four was leaning against a wall, with some friends.

"Tris, this is Uriah's brother, Zeke," Marlene said. "And Lynn's sister Shauna. Tris was on our capture the flag team, and was the reason we beat Eric."

Marlene of course did not bother introducing Tris to Four, and Four acknowledged her presence with a nod.

"Uriah mentioned that," Zeke said with an easy grin, much like his brother's. "Insisted that you and your friends should come tonight, actually. Said you were pretty good, for a newbie."

Tris blushed lightly and said, "Oh, I just did what had to be done, I guess."

"Nice to see you again, Tris," Shauna added cordially.

Tris then recognised her as the 'receptionist' from her interview back in the spring.

"Oh, hey," Tris said lamely. "Sorry I didn't recognise you."

"No worries," Shauna said easily. "You shouldn't play down your involvement, you know. If they say you're good, enjoy it."

"We don't want to over inflate her confidence though," Four interjected unexpectedly, his tone unreadable.

"Oh, stop being an uptight instructor for a night, Four," Zeke said, socking his friend lightly in the arm. "The best of us are naturally cocky anyway. Give her a chance to develop some arrogance."

Tris grinned at this, and stared defiantly at Four.

Four just shook his head, a shadow of a grin on his lips.

Just then, Uriah came up and slung an arm around both Tris and Marlene.

"There should be dancing!" Uriah declared, his words about one drink away from sounding slurred. He looked expectantly from Tris to Marlene.

"Come on, you big idiot," Marlene said playfully. "We'll start the dancing!"

Zeke and Shauna followed them to a clear spot of the floor, and thus, there was dancing.

Four and Tris were suddenly alone, or as alone as you can be in a room full of people.

"Where are your friends?" Four asked curiously. "Found ones you like better?"

"No, I'm just making new ones," Tris answered shortly.

"Well, these new friends may be fun, but remember who were your friends before you were 'cool'," Four advised, almost grimly.

"What would you know?" Tris said hotly. "I don't plan on choosing my friends based on how popular they are. I'm doing my best to fit in here, and I'll do that how I see fit. I'm sure you've always been popular and had plenty of friends, so I don't think you get to comment on my method of making friends."

"Tris, look, I didn't mean it like that," Four said, his tone frustrated.

"Well, what did you mean?" Tris retorted. "Or did you just want to scold me some more? Do you get some sort of pleasure from lecturing me? Just when I think I'm really settling in or doing well, you manage to give me a hard time about something!"

"You still don't get it, do you?" Four said in exasperation, taking a long drink from his bottle.

"What's there to get? You lecture me, you scold me, you ignore me," Tris said hotly. "Then other times you're helpful, and protective, almost kind. Sometimes you look at me like I'm something special, and other times I think you're disgusted with me. Obviously, you just enjoy torturing me."

"I need another drink," Four said grimly.

"You're not going to answer me?" Tris asked.

"Not now," Four said a little wretchedly. "I can't do this now."

Tris stood by herself for a few minutes, trying to compose herself.

To her surprise, Four rejoined her.

"I don't lecture you because I enjoy it. I do it for your own good. I'm your instructor, I need to teach you. I need to teach you to be more conscious of your own safety. You take too many risks, sometimes I think you have a death wish," Four said, without a trace of humour. "Being Dauntless doesn't mean being reckless constantly. Bravery doesn't equate to irresponsibility and carelessness. You need to be brave and courageous, but you also need to think clearly, act in the way that will best achieve your end goal. Some times this means pausing and thinking. That's why I keep talking to you, about being focused, about thinking before acting, about how best you use your natural talents. You're doing well, but you can be better."

Tris stood there, listening in shocked silence. There in that noisy room, with so many other things going on around them, he'd finally explained his hot and cold attitude toward her. Well, partly. He'd at least explained his constant lectures, but not why he chopped and changed between lectures, then apparent partiality for her.

"Okay," Tris said slowly. "But why be nice, then so harsh?"

"I think we've discussed this enough for now, and especially here," Four said evasively. "You're starting to get looks."

Tris looked where he was looking, and saw Al, Will and Christina all looking in their direction.

"You mean we're starting to get looks," Tris contradicted. "And I don't care."

"Maybe you should," Four countered seriously.

"Well, I don't," Tris insisted stubbornly, impulsively placing a hand on Four's arm. "That's not who I am."

Four looked intently at her for a moment, and then looked away, breaking the brief spell.

"Well, I care. I shouldn't add fuel to the fire," Four said, immediately leaving her side.

Tris was left alone, mind spinning, trying to gain composure, for the second time in an hour that evening.

After her interaction with Four, the party ceased to hold much allure for Tris. There was no point in trying to make conversation with her friends, they were too busy talking, and probably about her. Besides, she was sure it was best she steered clear of Al for the time being.

Tris decided it was about time for her to leave the party. She was too frustrated with Four to stick around any longer. He had answered some of her questions, but raised almost more new ones that he'd answered.

So she went, but she did not head straight back to her dorm.

Her mind was too busy, she was too alert, and quite buzzed from whatever alcohol she had consumed.

She wandered the halls, roaming from level to level, with no real purpose.

It was quite late when she had left the party, and it had grown later still during her wandering.

Tris wasn't entirely sure which level see was on, just that it was dark and quiet, when she was suddenly grabbed by two undiscernible figures. She instinctively knew however that they were Peter and Drew.

She tried to fight them off, but they dragged her to a dark corner and pressed her hard up against the wall, Drew securing her there, with one hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

She tried to scream, but she made little noise against Drew's hand.

"You think you're invincible now, don't you? You think that you do well in one thing, and make friends with the other recruits, that you're something special?" Peter hissed angrily. "Well, you're not, you're nothing, no one, and soon, you will cease to exist."

Terror raced through Tris, fully believing that Peter was capable of killing her, if he wanted.

There was also no way she could escape from him and Drew, not with the two of them cornering her against a wall, with them being much bigger than her.

"Look at you, dressed in your tight, slutty dress, thinking you're all that," Peter continued. "Well, I've got news for you, you're not."

He hiked her dress up, running his hand along her torso, moving up towards her chest.

"Not much going on here," Peter said snidely. "I don't know why anyone would bother looking twice at you."

He then surprised her by slapping her hard across the face, Drew removing his hand just in time.

The pain was blinding, but she was alert enough to scream when she had the chance with Drew's hand gone.

Peter's response was to knee her in the stomach.

Tris groaned, and let out a small moan.

"You, you're going to cost me the top ranking, with Four favouring you," Peter said angrily, adding another hard blow to her stomach.

She expected yet another blow to come, but it didn't. In fact, Peter and Drew had both let go of her and she slumped to her floor.

She heard the sound of fist hitting flesh, curses of pain coming from Drew and Peter.

Tris just curled up quietly against the wall, trying to hold herself together, happy to let whoever had come to her rescue beat Peter and Drew to death if they wanted.

She heard two sets of feet make their way off down the corridor, and then she was scooped up into a pair of strong arms.

Four.

"I thought you hated me," she said weakly.

"I could never hate you," he said softly.

"Then why, why won't you tell me why you blow so hot and cold?" Tris asked faintly, her head lolling to his shoulder.

Four didn't say anything, but just held her close and continued to carry her, eventually setting her down on a bed.

"I don't hate you," he reaffirmed. "It's just that, I'm not supposed to feel this way about you. I don't know how to cope with it. And as much as I care about you, I have to be your instructor too. But I don't know how to do that, so I keep stuffing it up. I don't hate you, you don't disgust me. If anything, I disgust myself. You frustrate me sometimes, but mostly because I want to help you, but I have to let you make your own way here."

"Feel what way?" Tris asked, perplexed.

"I care about you, probably too much," Four confessed, running a hand distractedly through his hair. "But you know now, and I can't go on pretending I don't care. At least not to you. If no one else can know, at least for now, I need you to finally understand."

"I think I do," Tris said quietly, her head sinking into the pillow of the bed she was on. "Where did you bring me?"

"This is my room, I needed somewhere you wouldn't be bothered," Four explained gently. "Drew and Peter won't hurt you anymore, I took care of them."

"You won't tell anyone, will you? About this?" Tris asked, sitting up, and wincing. "I don't want anyone to know what they did to me. I don't want anyone to think of me like that, weak."

Four looked uncertainly at her, and then nodded. "Okay. I won't say anything. And I doubt they will. I gave them a pretty clear message, even if they don't know it was me."

"Thank you," Tris said, relieved.

"Are you okay?" Four suddenly asked, having forgotten her physical well being while they were caught up in their emotional complexes. "I mean, nothing's broken? They didn't, ah…"

"Nothing worse than anything that's happened in training. I'll just be sore in the morning," Tris replied.

"Good. You should get some sleep," Four told her. "Stay there, I'll sleep on the couch. I'm not leaving you tonight."

He gently stroked her forehead once, then puller the covers over her.

Tris fell asleep, feeling oddly peaceful, Four's presence providing her a sense of security and comfort.

AN: Thanks for reading! Please review :)