A/N: So, the good news is this chapter is early. The bad news is it's short. It's kind of full, though, despite that, so I hope you enjoy it!
As always, thank you to everyone who took the time to review the last chapter! I appreciate your support very much. Thank you also to my wonderful beta reader, BK2U!
Chapter 16: Tris – Revelations
Tris doesn't think she's ever seen Tobias so anxious. He sits there the morning after Christmas, fingering the envelope that her mother gave him for a good ten minutes before finally taking a deep breath and opening it.
She watches silently, toeing the line between providing moral support and protecting his privacy, as his eyes flit across the pages, turning one after another, his face growing more and more horrified the further he gets.
"Fuck!" he snarls, his hands tangling in his short hair. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." He flips the page before abruptly shoving himself back from the kitchen counter. The barstool crashes to the floor behind him, sending DC streaking from the room, but Tobias doesn't seem to notice. Instead, he continues to swear profusely as he paces in agitation.
Tris rises too, moving toward him, not knowing exactly what has him so upset but feeling a deep need to comfort him. But then he does something that she's never witnessed before – he smashes his fist into the wall, denting the plaster, while yelling some inarticulate sound of frustration at the top of his lungs. It causes Tris to back away, startled, and makes the usually imperturbable Marvel take off in a panic.
"I'll be back," Tobias snaps, grabbing his coat and leaving before Tris can say anything to stop him. Assuming she had any idea what to say.
For a very long time, she paces the way he had been, trying to decide what to do. The contents of the envelope are still scattered across the eating bar, where she could easily read them. And in some ways, she thinks she should. Clearly, whatever is in there has distressed her boyfriend beyond his ability to talk, which means he isn't likely to want to tell her about it. But he might well want her to know.
Or, that might be a blatant invasion of his privacy.
She resists for the first hour, finding other activities to distract herself from the envelope that seems to occupy more and more of the apartment the longer she tries to ignore it. But when Tobias still doesn't return, and when she eventually realizes that he left his cell phone behind, so she can't even call him to ask what she should do, the need to know overpowers everything else.
So she picks the barstool back up, slowly easing herself onto it, and collects the papers into a neat pile. With a hard swallow, she begins.
It doesn't take long to understand Tobias' reaction. The words swim together in her mind, refusing to gel at first, but somehow making sense despite that. Evelyn spent the second half of her son's childhood in jail. For trying to kill Marcus.
Tris finds herself pacing again, moving back to the counter every few minutes to read another part, her mind struggling to process the concepts. Evelyn never abandoned Tobias, at least not intentionally. She certainly didn't desert him in some attempt to save her own neck. She never even left the city. Instead, she was right here the whole time, probably despairing to see the son who hated her for all the wrong reasons.
With that comes the shock of what she actually did. She hired a man to kill Marcus – to flat-out murder her husband. Tris has no idea what to make of that. Was she that afraid that he'd kill her, or Tobias, or both? Did she try to stand up to him and fail? Did she look into ways to escape and decide that none of them would work? Or did she pick this as the easiest way to eliminate a threat?
Whatever the reason, she followed it by pleading guilty – not even trying to present evidence of the abuse she and Tobias suffered. Was that because prison was far safer than what Marcus would have done to her? Or was the evidence so overwhelming that it was her only option? Or did they offer her a plea bargain that traded her silence for a reduced sentence?
Tris' feet wear a path back and forth as she struggles to figure out the truth. She has to reread the second page repeatedly to convince herself of Evelyn's guilt. But the man she hired was an undercover police officer, so unless Marcus bribed him or blackmailed him or something along those lines, she probably did it. And Tobias wasn't even told about it, so he had no chance to ask her why.
A long groan escapes when Tris reaches the last page that Tobias read before storming out. Evelyn was released just two months after he left for college. At the same time he cut off all ties with his father, and his friends, and Chicago…. He left his mother with no way to find him, right when she might have been able to seek him out again.
"Shit," Tris mutters, shaking her head in dismay. She can't even imagine what he must be thinking right now. He already had conflicting feelings about his mother, without having them added to like this.
Eventually, she makes it through the rest of the package, following Evelyn's struggle to rebuild her life after prison. The younger woman has to close her eyes for a while after reading that Evelyn spent two years homeless, not allowed to move away from Chicago's bitter winters but not able to find a job to support herself in this expensive city. She's still living here, Tris realizes when she reaches the last page, living in what Tris knows is a terrible neighborhood and working for a domestic abuse organization.
Tris sinks down by the eating bar, trying to take comfort in the way Marvel rubs all around her, purring, as even more uncomfortable thoughts work their way into her mind. How much of this did her parents know? Did they allow Marcus to tell his lies, knowing how much they hurt Tobias, because they thought it would be even worse for him to know the truth? Did they know that Evelyn was living on the streets, desperate and alone, while Tobias was halfway across the country? Did they even care?
She's finally interrupted by the sound of the door unlocking, and she pulls herself quickly to her feet, wiping the remaining moisture from her cheeks. However hard this is for her, it must be vastly worse for Tobias, so she needs to get herself together for him.
He walks in, sweaty and exhausted, his coat in his hand, and she knows immediately that he must have gone to the gym. Maybe she should try that, she thinks – it's as good a release as any.
His eyes hold hers for a long moment, before dropping to the floor. "I'm sorry," he says softly. He gestures in the general vicinity of the dented wall. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's all right." She steps closer, realizing that she hadn't given any thought at all to his display of frustration and rage. But it's probably been bothering him. He goes to great lengths to control his temper, after all. "It's not a problem." Moving even closer, she adds quietly, "I read the packet."
Tobias nods jerkily, not meeting her gaze. "Good. It's…um…better that way. I didn't want to explain it."
"Yeah." Tris takes the last hesitant step toward him, reaching a tentative hand out and resting it on his chest. A breath shudders through him in response. "I don't know what to say."
He inhales sharply, like he wants to speak, but then he just shakes his head before abruptly dropping his face into her hair, his arms surrounding her in a tight embrace. "I don't, either." His voice is rough, and his grip is firm, and she hugs him back just as strongly. "I have no idea what to do."
Some type of strangled laugh emerges from her. "It's not exactly a situation they write guidance manuals for, is it?"
"No." His tone contains the same bitter amusement as hers. "I wish they did."
She runs a hand lightly up and down his back, soothing him. "Let's face it. You wouldn't take the advice anyway."
A deep rumble catches in his chest – some mixture of a chuckle and a sob. "Probably not." He pulls her even closer, his body still tense. "Tris, I don't know if I want to see her."
She nods, understanding that his world has just been turned upside down and that he needs time to process the changes. "You don't have to," she tells him simply. Pulling back just far enough to bring his forehead to hers, she adds, "But you don't have to decide today, either. She still lives in Chicago." Tris hesitates, deciding not to mention that Evelyn was homeless for a while; she doesn't think he read far enough to see that. "So, you can change your mind whenever you want to."
Very slowly, he nods, his eyes closed. "Will you go with me if I do?" he finally asks, so quietly she almost doesn't catch the words.
Leaning up, she kisses him gently. "Absolutely."
He nods again before moving away from her, collecting the papers and shoving them back into the envelope. She watches as he crosses to his desk, slipping it into a drawer there. Out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.
"I'm going to go get parts for the wall." He's silent for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck, before he adds, "And then I need to start looking for a new therapist. I've been too long without one."
"Tobias," she sighs, "that doesn't count as getting violent, you know. You didn't hurt me."
"I know." His tone is more certain than she expected. "And I never will." He meets her gaze openly, conveying his confidence of that fact. "But this…." He gestures toward the desk, a pained expression flashing across his face. "This I need help with." There's a brief pause. "And I've learned to accept when I need that."
For a moment, they just stare at each other, and then Tris nods, thinking about how much Tobias has matured since she knew him as a teenager, and wondering how much of that came from his previous therapy and how much his maturity led to him seeking out that therapy. Perhaps it's a circle, but either way, he clearly knows what he needs and has the strength to pursue it. She can't help but respect that.
"You're a wise man, Tobias." He smiles a little, but she's not joking, and she steps closer to him, resting her hands on his chest as she lets him see that she's serious. "It's one of the reasons I love you."
His face softens, and he caresses her cheeks gently. "I am," he says, the start of a grin finding its way through the morning's struggles. "That's why I love you, too."
A/N: As far as I know, this is a completely original take on Evelyn. I'm curious what you think of it. :-)