*5 days before the attack*
Tobias
"Hey, Four!" I hear someone calling down the hallway.
"What's going on?" I ask when I turn and see that it's Zeke.
"I think I have a lead," he grins.
"Come on."
I quickly lead him to my office, usher him inside and lock the door.
"Whatcha got?" I ask.
"I've been doing a little digging," he gives a sly grin, "into the security recordings."
"Okay," I raise my eyebrows, waiting for the good part.
"I found some footage of Nita."
"What does she have to do with this?"
"She was talking to Tanner. Several times. I found it on multiple cameras, including but not limited to, the hallway that Tris was staying in and in your hallway."
"Nita was talking to Tanner?" I say.
"Affirmative, " he smiles.
"In many hallways, including the one that Tris used to live in and in my hallway?"
"That's exactly right, man."
I sigh.
"That's not a lead, Zeke."
"What?! Are you crazy?" His mouth falls open. "This is good stuff."
"It doesn't prove anything. Anyone can access those hallways, and people can talk to whoever they want to. That doesn't mean that they're doing anything."
"Or it could mean that they're behind all of this."
"We don't even know what this is," I say more forcefully than I mean to. "We don't know what they want or why. We don't know anything."
"We know they want to hurt Tris," he disagrees. "Anything involving Nita and Tanner can't be good."
"Do you know how many other people could have something against Tris? Like all the people that fought against us in the war? All of those people didn't disappear, Zeke."
"Alright, look," he sighs. "Just let me keep an eye on them. I'll keep an eye out for them when I'm watching the feeds, and I'll keep tabs on them if I see them around."
"Yeah, okay," I concede.
It can't hurt to have someone keeping tabs on Nita, anyway. She's been a little too friendly with my mother, not to mention the way they were trying to use me. I really need to confront them about it, but I don't know if I can stay level headed enough to do it.
"Keep an eye on Evelyn, too," I add.
"You think she has something to do with this?"
"I just want surveillance on her."
I leave the control room a little while later and head to the cafeteria. It's still fairly early, so none of our friends will be there, and that's exactly how I want it. I make it to the pit when I realize that I forgot my key to the apartment. I turn around and jog back to my office. As I'm passing through, I notice that one of the monitors was left on, and the feed from outside my apartment is playing on it. I stop and look closer. A hooded figure is standing outside the door. They slowly pull out a key and unock the door. I feel my heart beating faster, and then it stops completely when they open the door. They quickly shut the door behind them.
I run to my office and grab the firearm that I keep locked away in my bottom drawer. I make sure it's fully loaded and I tuck it into the back of my pants, concealing it underneath my shirt. I run as fast as I can across the pire and make an abrupt stop when I reach our hallway. I flatten myself against the wall and take a quick look around the corner. There's no one in sight, so I move quickly to just outside our door. I quietly turn the knob just enough to tell that it's still unlocked. I move to the other side of the door, my left hand on the knob and my right firmly grasping the butt of the gun, my finger ready on the trigger. I turn the knob silently and draw my weapon as soon as I fling the door open. I clear the entire apartment and sigh as I tuck the gun back into my pants. I briefly look at my surroundings, searching for anything that's out of place. That's when I see the note laying on the side table closest to the door. I pick it up slowly and examine both sides, but all that's written on it is "T."
T? Tris? Tobias? I rack my brain for everything that I can think of that starts with T. That's when the conversation that I had with Zeke pops back into my mind. Tanner starts with T.
"What're you doing home?" Tris startles me.
"Hey," I say, quickly shoving the note in my backpocket. "Just checking if you were home. I was gonna go get some lunch and thought I'd see if you wanted to come with me."
I lie straight to her face. She smiles.
"Sure," she walks toward me slowly. "And I was thinking we could have dinner here tonight."
"Yeah?" I ask, trying to keep the guilt that's creeping into my stomach at bay.
"I think it would do us some good to have a nice, quiet dinner alone," she responds, running her hands across my abdomen and securing her arms around my waist.
"I think so, too," I try to smile.
I've never been one to smile a lot. I've never had a lot to smile about. When Tris joined Dauntless, I found myself trying to smile more. I didn't want her to think I was just like Eric. I wanted her to feel comfortable with me, to trust me, and to see how I felt about her. Even then, though, I had a difficult time with smiling and kindness. Lately, I've been feeling the same way.
"What's on your mind, Tobias?" she asks quietly, her right hand finding it's way into my hair.
"It's nothing," I grunt in response, although I know that she isn't going to let it go.
"Talk to me," her eyes plead with mine. "You've been so closed off lately."
"I'm worried about you," our eyes meet again.
I can feel my brows furrow and my jaw clench, but her expression doesn't change. I can feel the adrenaline running through my veins, my hatred of this person that's threatening her growing. I feel my pulse quicken even further and my muscles tighten, my hands turn into fists. I feel the last piece of the puzzle, the Four mask, slide fir ly into place and I know that I have to get out of here. I would never hurt her, but I can feel the adrenaline rushing faster and faster, burning through my body, and I can't say for sure what I might do. It's in moments like this that I'm actually afraid of myself. But Tris isn't.
"Breathe," she tells me, recognizing my shitting mood.
I break eye contact and take a quick, short breath, but it doesn't help. It seems to do the opposite.
"Tobias," she says quietly, her small, cold hands on my face. "It's okay."
She removes one hand from my face and slides it down my back, stopping where I know the Amity tattoo rests on my spine.
"Why don't we have lunch here, too," she suggests. "I'll go pick something up. You stay here and relax. Take a long shower, get comfortable in bed, and we can spend the rest of the night here. It's been a long time since we've really spent a day together."
I grunt in response and she smiles at me again. She's so beautiful. Her lips meet mine briefly before she moves to my cheek and then my jaw. She laughs a little when the stubble along my jawline tickles her soft skin.
"I love you," she says against my ear. "I'll be back."
Before I can say anything at all, she's out the door. I can still feel the adrenaline coursing through me, so I decide to take her advice about the long shower. I take the note out of my backpocket and tuck it inside one of the notebooks I use in the Control Room. I turn the shower on and make sure the water is ice cold before I step underneath the spray. I let the water fall down all around me and down my face, letting the coolness replace the heat in my blood. I still feel like punching something. I contemplate letting my anger out on the wall of the shower, but I don't think the stone would be too welcoming. I try to shake the thought from my head. I don't know how long I've been in here, but I finally feel calmer. I can't say that if someone pushed the wrong button that I wouldn't snap, but I've cooled off.
I step out from under the cold waterfall and turn the water off. I dry myself off and wrap the towel around my waist before going into the bedroom to put on some sweat pants. I hear rustling in the living room and immediately feel my pulse spike.
"Tris?" I call out, an edge in my voice.
Silence.
"Tris?" I call again, louder this time and with a further hardness.
Nothing.
The pants in my hand drop to the floor and I ease toward the livingroom. I look around the doorframe, but see noone. I ease further into the room and see Tris hunched over the coffee table.
"It's supposed to be a surprise," she says, turning around once she's noticed that I'm in the room.
"It looks nice," I tell her, allowing my heart rate to slow.
There are candles on the coffee table along with a bottle of white wine and two fancy glasses. The plates of food that sit on the table don't look like what would typically be served for Dauntless lunch. Something tells me she asked the staff to specially create the spaghetti and meatball lunch with green beans and yeast rolls just for this occasion.
"Go get dressed," she waves me away. "The food is going to get cold."
When I return from the bedroom, the curtains are drawn tightly together and there are several other candles lit around the room in addition to the ones on the table. There are now also two very large slices of cake sitting beside our lunch plates.
"Sit, sit," she pats the space on the couch that's beside her.
I follow her order without a word, and as soon as I sit down beside her, her mouth is on mine. She pulls away when we can no longer breathe and rests her forehead on mine.
"I love you," she says, touching her nose to mine.
"I love you, too," I mumble, the scent of her hair intoxicating me.
Her eyes sparkle as she kisses me again.
"Let's eat," she smiles when she pulls away.
We eat our meal leisurely, stealing kisses between bites. I have to admit, the way the candle light reflects off her skin is a nice distraction to the many thoughts that have been running through my mind lately. When we finish, I help her clear the table and blow out some of the candles, then she takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom. I'm not sure how long we're together, but it feels like hours of pure bliss. Our legs are tangled together with the sheets mixed in, our foreheads resting against each other.
We both hear a slight thud, and then our front door swing open. We jump out of bed and I throw some pants on while she pulls one of my shirts over her head along with her own sweat pants. We rush into the living room, a knife in hand, but there's noone there. The only sign that someone was there is the square piece of paper tacked to the door with a single letter on it in bold, black ink: T.