I don't own Divergent.

Hey, everyone. I know it's been a while, but I hop you like this update. I do.

About EVAS...I know a whole lot about it, seeing as I have it. It's not uncommon, and it doesn't necessarily make you fully deaf - I have full hearing in my right ear, and about 25% in my left (the lowest tones only). Just putting that out there. Oh, and if I get any rude comments about EVAS, I will be pissed. Like, really pissed.

ENJOY!

Tobias laughs heartily. "When is Caleb coming up? I wouldn't mind meeting him."

"Oh, no. You are not meeting my family yet. All of them are über-protective. Plus, my dad and mom are mixed up in something. I haven't heard from him yet."

Four shrugs. "You will soon," he promises, wrapping an arm around me.

"I hope so."

I sit at his kitchen table. Four doesn't have a game today. I'm pouring over the paper for housing options.

Frustrated, I groan.

"Hey," F-Tobias says softly, so I know he's there.

"'Morning."

"Whatcha doing?" He sits next to me for a second and then gets up when he sees the house ads. He busies himself making coffee. He's a bit of a doodie, really - super specific about all his food and with a ton of special equipment. It's quite adorable. Everything about him is adorable, though, so...

"Tris?" The tone of his voice makes me think he's said my name a few times.

"Oh! What?"

"I just asked if you'd like a cup of coffee."

"Yes, please." I grin as he sets one down immediately, despite having asked me.

Then Tobias leans against the counter, facing me and sipping his coffee. He lets out a groan and puts the cup down. "Goddamnit, Tris! I don't want you to go," he tells me. His eyes are screwed shut, and he's scowling. "I like it when you're here. I don't feel...alone."

I stand and rest my hands on his bare chest. "We've been staying in your house for almost a month, Four. I think we've overstayed our welcome."

Four opens his eyes, looks down at me, bites his lip, and looks away. I inch closer, trying to ignore the burning fire spreading through my body from being so close to him. He finally snaps his head back to look at me. "Will you move in with me?"

"I live in your house."

"You know what I mean. Will you properly move in with me? I think I'm in love with you, Tris, and I don't want you and AJ moving out!" he says, running a hand through his already adorably mussed morning hair.

I lay my head on his chest, my cheek almost pressed against his shoulder. "Yes," I whisper. "We'll move in with you."

"I have something I need to tell you," he says. I run my fingers along the tendons in his hands and look back at him. "I might be in love with you." He smiles a little. "I'm waiting until I'm sure to tell you, though."

"That's sensible of you," I say, smiling too. "We should find some paper so you can make a list or a chart or something."

I feel his laughter against my side, his nose sliding along my jaw, his lips pressing my ear.

"Maybe I'm already sure," he says, "and I just don't want to frighten you."

I laugh a little. "Then you should know better."

"Fine," he says. "Then I love you." His eyes hungrily search mine, waiting for the same reply.

I bite my lip. "I think I love you, too."

"You think?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready to -"

"It's fine." But it's not, Tobias, and we both know it.

"No - Tobias - I do love you," I say, grabbing the waistband of his basketball shorts as he tries to leave. "I just - the thought of loving someone the way I love you, especially after only a few months, is terrifying to me. Admitting it to anyone, let alone you, is even worse."

He turns around and kisses me. "I wish AJ wasn't here," he whispers.

"School starts in about two months," I reply into his lips.

I can feel his smile. "Then I can't wait for school to start."

I pull back. "Four, I know you really like AJ and all, but you don't need to do so much for him if you don't want."

He shakes his head. "I love your kid, Tris. I love him as much as I'd love one of my own. I don't mind."

I stand on my tiptoes and kiss him again. "I love you."

He grins. "I love you, too."

"Mommy? Daddy?" AJ says, running towards us with tears running down his face. One of his hands is over his left eye.

"What's wrong?" I waste no time in picking AJ up.

"There's a bad man in my room. He hit me, Daddy." AJ presses his face into my neck and we follow Four to AJ's room.

Peter is sitting on AJ's bed. "Hello, Tris, Four. AJ."

AJ cries harder and presses his face into my neck. "Mommy, make him go away."

"Four's going to do that, baby," I whisper, rocking AJ back and forth slightly.

"Why are you here, Peter?" Four growls.

"To visit my dear friends."

"Tris, take AJ and sit in my room," Tobias brusquely orders. "Lock the door and don't let anyone in until I knock."

I obey, closing and locking the windows, as well, and shutting the shades. I turn to look for AJ, and he's buried in the blankets of Four's bed. I smile and get a wet rag from the bathroom.

"AJ, honey, can I look at your eye?"

AJ sits up, and I can see Peter hit him hard. I take a picture of the already swelling eye and then dab at it with the towel. He begins to cry again, and I sigh. "How about I let you have the towel and you can dab at your eye?" I suggest, handing it to him.

AJ presses it to his eye, still whimpering.

I hear a roar of pain that could come only from Four and then the sound of glass breaking. "AJ, baby, lock the door behind me, " I order.

AJ nods, and I leave. In AJ's room, Peter is out cold on the ground, bits of blue glass surrounding his head. Four is sitting against the bed, hand over his arm. I see a little blood oozing out.

"What happened?"

"Peter stabbed me near the shoulder, and I knocked him out," Four replies. He hisses. "Call the police, please."

I pull out my phone and dial nine-one-one. "Hello? Yes, this is..."

"Are they on their way?" Tobias asks.

I sit next to him and help apply pressure to his arm. "Yes."

"Go get AJ. I'll be fine by myself for a minute."

"I don't want him seeing this," I answer.

"Go get him, Tris!"

I grit my teeth. "I do not want my son to be here."

He stares at me. "Please?"

I meet his eyes and search them. Then I stand and knock on the door. "AJ, baby, please open the door." He obeys and runs into my arms.

"Mommy." He hugs me. "Where's Four?"

"He has an owie," I answer. "C'mon, let's go sit with him."

The police pound on the door. I put AJ on my hip and let them in.

"Hello, ma'am. Are you Tris Prior?"

"Yes, Officer...Hernan," I reply.

"Can you please take me and the EMT to the room where this all happened?" he requests.

I motion them in and walk to AJ's room. The EMT immediately begins to stitch and treat Tobias - though I could have done this, I thought it better to allow someone with the police to do it - and the officer turns to me.

"What happened?"

"Peter Hayes broke into Four's house and punched my son. AJ came to get me, and Four and I went in there. I went to get AJ away from Peter, and Peter and Four began to fight, from what I gather. Peter stabbed Four, and Four knocked him out with something made of the blue glass. You should really ask Four for specifics, though," I answer, giving the EMT AJ to inspect.

"Do you know why Mr. Hayes would have cause to do this?"

"Could we speak somewhere else? Perhaps somewhere without my son?" I request.

The officer nods and allows me to lead him to the kitchen. "When I was eighteen, Peter raped me. AJ is his son. He has no rights to him, as his name isn't on the certificate, but he pays me child support because a judge ordered him to. Also, Peter is or was on drugs. I helped the manager of the Yankees to prove that. He believes that everything is my fault and Four's fault."

"Thank you, Ms. Prior. That will be all for. We will take Mr. Hayes into custody, but we will need a statement later from the three of you."

I sit in the waiting room of the hospital with AJ, rubbing my temples. Beside us, there is a crying baby, two screaming toddlers, some school-aged kids, and a bunch of adults. All of the above are sick or hurt or have family that is sick or hurt. And no one is being quiet.

AJ gets up to to somewhere, and I hold him down. "Don't move, AJ."

I think he can tell I'm not in an arguing mood, because he obeys, sitting down.

"Family of Four Eaton?" a bored nurse asks.

I stand and walk toward her, putting AJ on my hip. She leads us to a room where Four's sitting on a table, conferring with a doctor.

"Hey, Tris," Four says. "Hey, AJ."

"How are you?" I ask quietly.

"The doctor says I can go to L.A. to play the Angels," he answers.

The doctor nods. "I did the stitching as securely as possible, and from what Four told me, you're a pretty good doctor."

I shrug. "Only a trainer, sir."

"Make sure he rests," the doctor adds quietly, pulling me away. I set AJ down next to Four and walk away with the doctor.

"Is it really safe for him to play?" I ask. "He -"

The doctor glances at Tobias and pulls me further away. "I need to talk to you about something I saw in Four while I was examining him."

"What?"

"His genes - I don't know if the child is his, but if it is, he's at risk for a gentic hearing disorder called EVAS - enlarged vestibular aqueduct syndrome. It's passed on genetically - not uncommon, but he won't necessarily have it," the doctor explains.

"AJ isn't Four's. But..." I hesitate. "But Four and I might want to have kids someday."

"I don't mean to scare you - there's a chance the child won't have it, especially if you don't. But Four's genes, and his MRI, clearly show that he has mild EVAS, and the chances he will pass that on are good, especially if you have the gene as well," he adds.

I bite my lip. "Do I need to tell him?"

"Eventually, yes."

"Could you explain what this is?" I ask.

He pulls out a diagram of the inner ear, and then a second. "In this one, the aqueduct is normal-sized. In the second, it's slightly enlarged, which forces the endolymphatic sac to grow as well, which makes the affected unable to hear normally."

"Can a cochlear implant be done? Or hearing aids?"

"Cochlear implants do not help. Hearing aids are useless. But not all children have full hearing loss," he replies, shaking his head.

I swallow. "Why is it a syndrome? Are there symptoms?"

"Yes. Teenaged and adult people with EVAS often have vertigo. An unexplained ringing sound in the ears is common, as well," he says.

"Thank you, sir. I will talk to Four."

The drive back is tense and silent. Even AJ can tell.

After I tuck AJ in, Tobias gives me a look telling me we need to talk. We sit on his bed. "What did the doctor tell you?"

I bite my lip. "We need to talk about something else, first. The way I explain it will depend on our discussion. And I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me in this discussion, okay?"

"What do you want to talk about?"

"What do you want in the future?" I ask. "Am I in it? Is AJ? Do we get married, have kids?"

Tobias' eyes widen. "I, uh, yes." He swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing, and looks away. "I see you. I see us, married, with a baby. I see myself adopting AJ. I see AJ graduating high school and college, us behind him, and playing baseball, I hope."

I kiss his cheek. "I see something like that, too. But you need to know..."

"I need to know what?"

"If you have kids, you'll put them at risk for a certain hearing disorder," I whisper. "It's called EVAS."

Tobias looks down, no longer watching my expression. "What are the chances my kid would get it?"

"Medium."

He bites his lip. "I would never wish that on a child...but I still want a kid of my own. Maybe more than one."

"And they wouldn't necessarily have EVAS," I remind him. "And if they do, we'll learn to deal with it."

He kisses me. "I want you to be the mother."

"I'd like that," I whisper. "But let me have a little while."

"I'd wait forever for you."

I kiss him roughly and pull his shirt over his head.

"Chris!" I yell.

She grins and walks toward AJ and I. "Hey, AJ. Are you ready to have a party weekend? We're gonna have a lot of fun!"

"I don't want you to go, Mommy." AJ pouts and his eyes begin to water.

"I have to. I'll see you soon, baby. I love you." I kiss his head and hand his bags to Chris. "Thanks for watching him, Chris."

"No problem. Have fun with the team...especially number four, " she adds, grinning mischievously. "Speaking of him...anything interesting going on?"

"On the night Peter attacked Four, we 'danced'," I answer.

She grins. "What is that, four times?"

I shake my head. "Nope. I just didn't tell you about all of them." I kiss AJ again and walk back to the truck. Christina yells after me, but I just keep walking.

"How's AJ?" Tobias immediately asks.

"He'll be okay soon. Susan is going to watch him for part of it, and he's very comfortable with her, Hayden, and Tristan," I answer, leaning my head against his shoulder.

Tobias slips his arm around my waist. "He'll be fine."

He kisses me, and someone honks loudly. Tobias jumps and starts the car. Then he flips the honker off and begins to drive.

Tobias' demeanor changes slightly as we enter the airport. He seems stiff.

I take his hand and hold it as much as I can as we go through the airport. Tobias gets more and more tense as we get closer to the gate.

"Tobias, what's wrong?" I ask, pressing my lips to his ear.

"I don't like heights."

"Ah." I pull him to a Starbucks in the airport. "Well, I'll sit next to you and entertain you and help you fall asleep."

"We have beds." (A/N: I know it's very unusual for baseball players to be given first, business, or even economy plus seats, but let's assume for some reason some of them were.)

"Then I'll lie next to you," I amend firmly.

He sighs and kisses my head. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Tobias has to force himself to step onto the plane. I see him fighting himself, but he makes it to his bed. I sit on the one next to him - I gave Zeke mine.

As soon as the plane begins to move, Tobias whitens and grips the bed. I can't get up until the seatbelt sign is off, so I simply reach over and take his hand.

"Hush, Tobias." I squeeze his hand. "Pretend I'm, um -"

He gets the idea and laughs, cutting me off. "Sounds good."

The plane takes off, almost without him noticing.

The second the fasten seatbelt sign is off, I'm sitting on his bed, smiling down at him. He chuckles. "Damn, Tris, eager much?"

I lean my elbow onto a certain part and he swears. "Nope."

Tobias and I play cards. My plot to keep him entertained has been working. He throws down his cards.

"I win!" he says triumphantly.

"Nope. Look at my hand." I lay it out and he hands me a few M&Ms grudgingly.

"This is fun," he says simply.

"See, planes aren't so bad," I point out.

"Not with you, they aren't," he muses.

I kiss his cheek. "Get some sleep."

"Ugh, fine." Something he doesn't know is that I slipped the pain meds, which have a built-in sleepiness factor and he's been refusing to take, into his water. Whoops.

I sit and read and do work, waiting for him to wake up. He doesn't, not until I have to wake him to tell him we're landing soon. He nods and begins to pack up.

Max gave us one room, a knowing smirk on his face. Tobias was red for a while after Max whispered something in his ear.

He immediately falls asleep on the bed. I let him nap for an hour and then smack him awake. "C'mon. You and I are gonna do some extra practice."

Tobias groans and gets up and ready.

I drill him in the pitcher's position for about an hour. Then I toss him a mask, chest plate, and leg guards.

"No supports?' he calls, fastening them quickly.

"Nah. Help build up those legs of yours."

"They're built up already. You should know that," he hints, waggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up, horn dog," I order, chuckling back at him. "I'm going to pitch at you, okay?"

"You can pitch?"

"I was a pitcher-shortstop," I answer. "Now get down, boy."

He squats, and I fire one into his glove. "Damn. I guess you were a pitcher."

"No shit, Tobias." I throw another and another and drill him.

I move back towards second base and continue to have him throw to me. By the time I'm at second base, his arm has warmed up and he's making precise throws almost every time.

"That was torture," Four groans, rubbing his arms. Truth be told, I'm pretty sore, too.

"Let's shower and go to sleep," I mumble.

"Shower or shower?"

"I'm not up for that kind of shower tonight, Four. But maybe tomorrow," I answer.

"What's tomorrow?"

"July eighth," I say.

"Your birthday," he points out casually, leaning against the wall in front of the bathroom.

"So?"

"So we should celebrate."

"You have a game," I remind him.

"I know. After the game, let's get Zeke and Uriah and Will and go to a bar," he suggests.

"Sounds good, but -"

"I had Christina slip a good outfit into your bag," he tells me, smiling triumphantly.

"Okay, okay, we'll go." I lean up and kiss him. "Now let me shower, horn dog."