A/N: If you liked the story so far and are okay with how it ended in chapter 32 don't read further. If not, here's what happens next. My original story "The Highest Summit" ends with chapter 32. My personal opinion, I made the right call killing off the main male character. Tris or in my original story Bobbi needed to learn to survive on her own. Tobias or Sam in the original version gave her all the tools to survive. He showed her the way; she just needed to continue. I know it might sound cruel, but that's how life is. I'm standing by my story line and characters, but since this is a rewritten version to fit the Divergent characters you can all put your weapons down now. No need to slaughter me. :)
Tris' POV
"Tris, please baby, wake up," I hear someone speak to me, but I can't make out who it is. "Why won't she wake up?" the voice asks.
"She went into shock," another voice answers the first.
"What can we do?" a third voice asks.
"After she had her breakdown we had to sedate her. Her body shut down and forced itself into a comatose state. The news of the accident overwhelmed her and by what you told me about her mental health it is my professional opinion that her mind needs to work things out on its own terms," the second voice answers.
Who are these people? Why can't I recognize them? Where am I? I was just on the mountain. I just decided to live on, for Tobias. I promised him that I will. Why can't I move?
"How long do you think it'll take until she wakes up? It's been almost two days already," the third voice says. I think it's a woman. Who is this? Where am I? Why can't I move or open my eyes?
"It's difficult to say. Based on our tests your daughter seems to deal with the situation subconsciously. I can't really tell you when she'll wake up," the second voice says.
"Beatrice, sweetheart, please wake up," I hear my mother's voice. I can hear her clearly now. It's mom. The female voice belonged to her. What is she doing here? How did she get to Argentina so fast? And how is it that I'm lying here in a coma? Is this a dream?
"Perhaps the young man should talk to her. After all he is the reason why she's in this state in the first place," the second voice says. Maybe he's a doctor, but he doesn't seem to have an accent. He seems American.
"You think she'll hear me?" the first voice asks. That's impossible. It can't be.
"Studies show that people in comas, regardless of how they came to be comatose, perceive us. It wouldn't hurt to try and talk to her," the second voice says and I hear a door open and close.
"I'll leave you with her. Call if anything changes," I hear mom say and then I assume she leaves the room, leaving me alone with… Tobias.
It can't be him. He died two months ago. I must be hallucinating. Maybe I fell asleep on the mountain after all and this is limbo or something. Or maybe my mind is playing a cruel trick on me. He can't be here. I just came to terms with him being gone. If this is God's way of punishing me for trying to commit suicide then he really sucks.
"Tris, baby, please wake up," Tobias says.
I'm afraid. I'm literally petrified. I can't move, I can't open my eyes, I can't speak. I want to know if he is really here or if I'm just imagining it, but at the same time I'm afraid to open my eyes and see that it was all a dream or a hallucination or maybe I'm drugged or whatever other reason.
"Please, sweetheart, I need you," he pleads and I can hear the desperation in his voice. Something cold and wet hits the skin of my right hand and I can only assume it's a tear. It feels real. But if this is real, what happened to the two months when I thought he was dead? Was that a dream? Or rather a nightmare? Was that really just that? Or is this the dream or wishful thinking? I don't know what is real or not anymore.
I force my eyes open but they don't move at all. I feel how Tobias, or whoever is in the room with me, takes my hand and guides it to his mouth and kisses it gently. He kisses every knuckle and then leans it against his cheek.
"Please, wake up. Don't leave me, Tris," he pleads and I hear him crying. Oh God, I need to open my eyes. I need to see for myself if this is really Tobias, my Tobias. Open, you stupid eyes. Open and let me see if the love of my life is really here with me.
I force them open again and it feels like they are heavy like lead and the moment light penetrates them they start burning as if I would look straight into the sun without sunglasses. I blink several times and tears gather in my eyes. It's still difficult for me to see anything but I manage to turn my head to my right where I know the person, hopefully Tobias, sits down next to my hospital bed. I look through teary eyes at the figure and at first he is just a shadow. I blink again and the image becomes clearer. It's definitely a man, but is he really Tobias? I blink again and the image is clear enough to recognize someone, a man, dressed in a hospital gown. His left arm is in a cast and his head is wrapped in bandages. His head is bowed on my bed, still holding my hand in his. I want to lift my other hand to caress his brown locks, but I stop mid-air, afraid he might disappear once I touch him. I'm so scared that I stopped breathing. An alarm goes off and startles him. He immediately looks up at me and our eyes lock. I stare at him in disbelief. Is he real?
"Tris," he says my name as a whisper and I let out the breath I was holding. The alarm stops and we stare at each other. He has a black eye on his left side, he is bruised, his lip is split but his intense gaze is as penetrating as I remember it. He smiles a little but doesn't break eye contact. I reach out my hand and touch his face on the right side where he looks to be fine. His dark blue eyes look into mine and the more I keep my palm against his warm cheek, the wider I smile. He is really here. I'm not dreaming or hallucinating. He is really here. He is alive.
"Tobias," I say, my voice hoarse and foreign to me.
"Tris," he says gently. He bends forward and connects our lips in a love filled kiss. He lingers but I don't mind. I wrap my hand around his neck to keep him close. Oh, how I've craved his touch. How I missed his hot breath against my skin. How I missed his unmistakable masculine scent that always made me feel safe and protected. How I missed his soft lips that always made me feel loved and worshiped. How I missed every inch of him, every fiber and every cell.
"You're alive," I whisper when he pulls back slightly to look at me again. He smiles a little and moves the hand he is still holding toward his fast beating heart showing me how much alive he is.
"Yes. You scared me," he says serious and sits back down on his chair.
"You scared me. I thought you were dead," I say and tears that I somehow managed to hold back are now rolling down my cheeks. He reaches out and wipes them away while I lean into his touch. He smiles warmly at me.
"I'm not. I was hit pretty bad, but my truck saved my life. I swear, babe, I'll never drive anything other than a Ford," he says with a chuckle. "Those suckers are lifesavers," he jokes, but I can't laugh. I thought I lost him. "Honey, I'm alright. I'm fine. I swear," he says serious again. He kisses my hand one more time before he gets up. I almost say that he should stay here, when he walks around my bed and lies down next to me, minding his injured arm. He wraps his other arm around me and I relish in the feeling of being once again in his arms.
"I thought I'd lost you," I say and I feel myself tear up again.
"I know you did. When you got here they just rolled me into the OR and you had a nervous breakdown. They had to sedate you, but then you didn't wake up. After I woke up from my surgery I asked them to roll my bed into your room so that I would be there when you wake up. It wasn't really hard to convince them, since the doctor who took care of you thought it would be best," he says and kisses my head.
"What day is today?" I ask.
"October 23rd," he answers. "You were out for almost two days. You really started to worry me," he says and pulls me closer to him. "The doctor said that sometimes people who have breakdowns like yours and end up in comas often stay that way for a long time, even years," he explains. I didn't know that. I truly believed that everything was real. Not for one second did I imagine it all happened in my head, although I often wished it did. I remember each tear, each sob, each moment of complete and utter despair. I don't ever want to feel that way again. "I thought I would lose you."
"I lost you," I finally say. "I had a nightmare, but one unlike any other before. I dreamed you died and I couldn't handle it," I say but don't tell him about my plan of killing myself. He would be so disappointed in me if he'd know. I wrap my arms around his middle section and cry into his chest.
"Don't cry, baby. I'm here, we both are. I love you so much, Tris," he says to me.
"I love you too," I say sobbing.
We remain like this for a long while, him holding me, me shedding some more tears. Eventually, he gets up and calls the doctor and my parents. The doctor examines me and tells me that I should stay at the hospital overnight, just to be on the safe side. My parents hug me tightly and stay with me for a long time even after visiting hours. Clark is good friends with the hospital director and under the condition that no one would make a fuss, he allowed my parents, as well as Tobias' and his sister and my brother to stay with both of us a while longer. They told me all that happened while I was out and the more I listened the more afraid I got that this wasn't real. That I might fall asleep and when I wake up he'll be gone and I'm all alone again. After our families finally say goodbye for the night Tobias and I lie down in our beds. Dad and Clark pushed them close together so that we could be right next to each other. Dad joked that he hoped that we wouldn't see this as an encouragement to do grown up stuff, minding that Tobias' little sister was in earshot. We laughed and promised we would behave.
"I'm so happy you are awake again," he says as he lies on his right side and stares at me.
"I'm happy you are alive," I say.
"Don't worry, baby," he says. "I'm here and I won't leave you. I promise," he vows.
We fall asleep and I don't seem to have any dream whatsoever. I wake the next morning and feel a body close to mine. I'm lying on my right side and feel a hot breath on my neck. I turn my head slightly and see Tobias has migrated from his hospital bed into mine and holds me close to his body. I've missed it so much being this close to him, lying in his arms. He presses his face into my neck and his stubble tickles me. I let out a giggle and he stirs.
"I love that sound," he says.
"Sorry for waking you up," I say bashful.
"Don't be. I love waking up with you in my arms," he says. I turn around to face him and press a closed mouth kiss to his lips.
"It still feels surreal to me," I confess.
"Tris, I'm here, I'm alive, nothing will ever keep me away from you, you hear me?" he asks. I nod slightly. "I love you with all my heart. While you were unconscious I went through all kinds of scenarios in my head and each that didn't involve you wasn't worth thinking of any longer. I love you and I'll always love you. I promise you that one day, when we're both ready, I'll come to you, kneel down, look at you in awe like I always do, pull out a small velvet box, open it, show you a beautiful diamond ring and ask you to marry me. You will say yes, because I can't fathom it otherwise," he says with a chuckle. "We'll have a family, we'll go hiking and mountain climbing with our kids, we will teach them everything we know and do our best to make good people out of them. But until then let me love you as innocently or as passionately as possible. Let me show you how much you mean to me, let me," he doesn't get to continue because I crash my mouth over his, mating it in a scorching kiss with mine, pouring all my love for him into it. I don't care about a ring or a proposal or anything other than him. All I ever want or need is him.
"I love you so much, Tobias," I say breathless as we rest our foreheads against each other.
"I love you too, Tris."