"Damn, I forgot about the stupid doctor's appointment," I mutter as I lay my head on Tobias' shoulder. He tenses up from the contact but soon relaxes himself. He straightens up and soon I find my head resting on his chest and his arms wrapped around me. After a few minutes I pull back and look up at him. "We should probably get going. I want to walk down. I'm hoping he'll at least let me try walking with my crutches, so I better have them with me. Also, we aren't done with our conversation."
"You interrupted our conversation with that damn kiss," he says, his eyes glossing over with lust. He shakes his head, clearing it and frowns at me. "I don't like the idea of you having to walk all the way to the infirmary on crutches."
"Please let me try. We'll call it an upper body workout," I tease. "I can't wait until we're back to our normal schedule of runs and workouts." He crosses the floor and retrieves my crutches from by the loveseat. He notices the dress laying across the back of the loveseat and smiles.
"I like that. Is it for Saturday night?" he asks.
"Yeah. It's pretty isn't it? Christina did such a wonderful job picking it out for me. She knows me so well. She called it a timeless design."
"It's perfect," he says, giving me my crutches. "We'll finish our conversation later, but please try not to worry so much about me. I've been pretty good at taking care of myself."
"That's the beauty of this relationship, Tobias," I say, my voice filled with love. "You aren't alone. You don't have to take care of yourself alone. We get to take care of each other. We are stronger and better together. You've said so yourself." He kisses me again before we head out the door.
We slowly walk to the infirmary talking about this and that, nothing important. He lets us take frequent breaks as walking this far on crutches with a broken hand is not easy. My underarms are hurting where the crutches rest, and I can already tell the muscles in my arms are going to be sore later. I was teasing Tobias about this being an upper body workout, but I think I may have been right. We finally make it to the infirmary and tell the reception desk nurse we're here. We sit in the basic bright white waiting room waiting for my name to be called when a familiar looking petite, extremely pretty, red-haired, and green-eyed woman walks through the double doors and calls my name.
"Isobel?" I ask, surprised to see her here. "I didn't know you were Dauntless."
"Oh, I'm not. I'm just helping out today. The infirmary was short, and the clinic sent me over. It's nice to see you again, Tris. Four," she says acknowledging Tobias. "You can follow me. Dr. Parrish wants to get new x-rays of your shoulders, right ankle, left leg, right and left hands, and your head. Four if you could wait in this room, I will bring Tris back when she's finished." Tobias goes into the small, sterile examination room Isobel motioned toward to wait for me, and she leads me to the now familiar x-ray room. She lets me sit down on the examination table while we wait for the technician.
"Is everything working out with your birth control shot? Have you had any side effects?" she asks. I'm surprised by her question and turn a pale shade of red.
"I didn't have any side effects when I got it but we haven't tested its effectiveness," I say shyly. "We got it so we would be protected when we're ready to have sex." It amazes me that the subject of sex is much easier to talk about with her. Maybe it's because she's a nurse, and I don't have to see her every day.
"You are very responsible for your age. Most young people I've met don't think about birth control until after they've started having sex. I'm impressed," she says. Just then a short blonde-haired girl with a single hoop piercing in her left eyebrow, who looks about 18 years old, enters the room and introduces herself as Sary. She tells me that she'll be taking my x-rays and places the familiar heavy lead apron over my chest, explaining that it's to protect me from the radiation. She puts me in several positions and takes several views each of my hands, legs, ankles, and my head. She takes the apron off and takes a few views of each shoulder. After Sary is done with me, Isobel takes me back to the examination room to wait for Dr. Parrish.
"Are you going to live?" Tobias asks when Isobel leaves the room. It seems like a good mood has finally returned to him. I smile brightly at him and stick my tongue out.
"I think it's still touch and go. We'll have to see," I tease back. After about half-an-hour, Dr. Parrish enters the room and picks up my chart.
"Good afternoon, Tris. Four. I've reviewed your x-rays. Your head and left leg films look great. Have you had any residual headaches from the concussion?" he asks, gently feeling around on my forehead.
"No, I haven't," I reply.
"The bone bruise is no longer visible on the films. Any pain here?" he says as he presses around on my left shin. I shake my head no. "Your shoulder films look great. Are you doing the exercises I gave you?"
"Yes I am, three times a day just as you instructed."
"And how is the pain level in your shoulders?" I haven't thought about my physical pain the past couple of days with the emotional turmoil enveloping me so I have to concentrate to see how I'm feeling.
"Right now they don't hurt at all even after walking the entire way here on crutches. I've noticed that during the day they run a 0-1/10 but by the end of the day they both run a 1-2/10."
"Very good. They have come a long way in a very short period of time but I would like you to continue the exercises. Go ahead and double the reps," he says, referring to my chart again. "Your right hand x-ray shows no anomalies. The three hairline fractures in the left hand are still evident, although they have almost completely healed. You will have to remain in the air splint for approximately one to two more weeks. Are you having any problems with the hand?"
"Not really. Sometimes I forget it's broken, and I try to abruptly move it a certain way and pain shoots into my arm. Otherwise, it doesn't hurt at all."
"Great," he says sounding pleased then a look of concern lands on his face. "I'm still worried about the ankle, Tris. Have you put any weight on it?"
"The last time I put weight on it was right after the accident when it wouldn't hold me up," I say, anxiety in my voice.
"Didn't you put weight on it the other morning when we got the news about Hana?" Tobias asks.
"Oh yeah, I did and it hurt," I say to the doctor. "I'm lucky that Four was standing where he was, he caught me when I fell."
"Okay then. Here are your crutches. Let's get you off of the examination table and see if you can handle some weightbearing today." He hands me my crutches and helps me down off the examination table. I put the crutches firmly under my arms to catch me if I can't hold myself up when I take a step. I move the crutches out and then take my first intentional step on my right foot in over a week. I feel pain in the ankle but it isn't unbearable and it holds me up, which is good.
"It hurts but it isn't unbearable. Maybe a 2-3/10," I say anticipating his next question. He smiles at my statement. He asks me to take a few more steps out into the hallway. Then he has me walk to the last doorway on the right, turn around, and walk back. When I return he ushers me back into the examination room.
"Now how is the pain?" he asks.
"5/10," I say feeling the familiar throb in my ankle. Dr. Parrish leans against the wall and looks at me for a moment.
"I want you to practice minimal weightbearing for the next three days. Use your crutches to help take the weight off the ankle. I would like to see you here Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. to see how the ankle is doing." He goes to walk out of the room but turns back to us. "I'm going to give you some new prescriptions. Take the muscle relaxers twice a day, the anti-inflammatories four times a day, and the pain pills every six hours as needed. This is a lesser strength pain pill that doesn't have the severe side effects the other one had. No work. Ice the ankle as much as you can. Don't forget the shoulder exercises. Do you have any questions for me?" Tobias and I look at each other, and I know he can read my mind.
"What about sex?" Tobias asks and I blush crimson.
"Ah. Sex is fine, just be careful of the ankle. Is there anything else?"
"I know you said no work, but if I take it easy can I at least take some meals in the cafeteria or go to a shop or the tattoo parlor?" I ask. He thinks for a moment.
"I don't have a problem with that. Just take it easy. Minimal weightbearing, Tris. Use those crutches. I would, however, like you to spend most of your time at home, resting." He turns and walks out of the examination room leaving us alone. I look at Tobias, and he's already looking at me. Suddenly I realize that if I wanted him to take me home and make love to me we could. Desire flows through my veins as color climbs into my cheeks.
"Do I need to ask what you're thinking about?" he roughly asks. I slowly shake my head at him. He steps closer to me and puts his hands on my face. "I'm truly tempted, Tris, but I have to get back to work."
"I know. Plus Christina said she wanted to show me something if I was released from sitting in the apartment 24/7," I say with a chuckle. Suddenly, he has a very unhappy look on his face.
"Do you think I'm going to let you wander the halls of Dauntless with killers roaming around and Peter watching your every move," he says angrily, trying not to raise his voice. His abrupt change in mood catches me off guard.
"Peter's in Candor today with Uriah, remember?" I say, trying to remain calm myself. "He isn't an issue. Plus I'll be with Christina. I can spend the afternoon with her, and we can meet in the cafeteria at 6 p.m. Then you can take me home. There, no roaming the hallways for me." I really want to get my hair done this afternoon as a surprise, and I don't want to tell him where I'm going. "I'm going to see Christina, Four."
"Tris," he says indignantly. "You can't." Oh, that does it. Rage replaces the desire that was just moving through my veins seconds ago and surges through my entire body. I take a step forward until we are almost touching and glare up at him.
"You are not my father, Four. You can't tell me what I can and cannot do. If you will excuse me, I have somewhere else to be." I grasp my crutches too firmly and pain shoots through my left hand. A curse slips past my lips but I keep going. I figure he'll try to stop me but I'm wrong. I walk from the infirmary to the salon probably faster than Dr. Parrish would like, ask the first person I see for Christina, then sit in a black well-padded leather waiting room chair and sulk.
"I thought I told you to text me," she says when she sees it's me who asked for her.
"Sorry, I forgot," I mutter.
"Hey, are you okay?" she asks when she reads my face. As I get up to follow Christina, I notice Tobias walk past the salon. So he did follow me. Well now he knows where I'll be all afternoon.
"I had a fight with Four," I say. "Is Will driving you crazy because of ... you know what?" I say realizing there are people milling around everywhere. I can't exactly talk openly about Dauntless' problems here. I see men and women in various length black silk robes getting haircuts, dye jobs, manicures, pedicures, and some other things I honestly don't recognize.
"He's twice as protective," she says rubbing her abdomen. Awe, he's worried about her and the baby. I should give Tobias the benefit of the doubt, he just wants to keep me safe but I'm too frustrated right now.
"He wanted me to go back to the apartment and twiddle my thumbs for another week. I can't do it. I'm about to explode." She laughs at my sudden outburst, and I glare at her.
"Here let's take your picture and get you into a robe. I'll give you a full spa experience while you think about what to do with your hair."
First, she takes me to a machine that takes a 3D rendering of my head and enters it into the hairstyle simulation program, and then she takes me to a small dressing room with a fancy red and black velvet chaise lounge. There's a built-in wardrobe in the wall. She tells me to take off all my clothes and put them in the wardrobe. She then hands me a black silk robe like all the other clients are wearing and tells me to put it on. I do as I'm told then hobble back out on my crutches.
While the program is rendering, she drags me to a booth full of fancy little nail polish bottles in every color you can imagine and some that would never cross your mind. Being extremely careful of my ankle, she gives me a pedicure and then paints my toenails a dark shade of pink. While the toenail polish is drying she turns her attention to my fingernails. She looks over the three fingers that lost their nails the day of my accident. With all my other injuries, I kind of forgot about those. She gently cleans them and tells me about a new product invented by Erudite. It's a false fingernail for just this situation. Apparently, more people in Dauntless lose fingernails than one would think. She puts a glue film over my finger where the nail is missing then puts a fake fingernail over the film. It adheres the nail to my finger and, after, I can't tell that it isn't my natural nail. She then puts a special solvent on the nail, and it falls right off. The glue film disintegrates, and my finger doesn't look or feel any different than it did before. She gives me a manicure then puts the false fingernails on and paints all my nails the same color of dark pink as my toenails. Even though I said I would never do it again, Christina talks me into getting waxed in all the important places. She tells me it's one less thing she'll have to do on Saturday. It didn't hurt any less than it did the very first time, and I idly wonder if I will ever get used to the stinging pain of having all my hair ripped out at once. Then she gives me a full-body massage that relaxes every tense muscle, even the ones I didn't know I had. I didn't think I could be this unruffled with all the stress I've been under. I happily tell her this needs to become part of my permanent routine.
Next she tells me the program has come up with several different ideas for hairstyles and hair colors for me based on my face shape and coloring. She takes me to her station and sits me opposite a huge black framed mirror and counters full of drawers and doors. I study my face while she turns the computer on and pulls up the images she is looking for. I look extremely relaxed. My eyes are sparkling. There's a look of anticipation on my face. I know it's about the new hairstyle but then Tobias enters my mind and a blush of a different anticipation colors my face. Christina notices this too.
"What are you thinking about, as if I have to ask?" she asks, shaking her head, smiling like the Cheshire cat from an old movie Tobias has.
"I was thinking about Four," I say blushing an even deeper shade of red. I don't want to continue this conversation in a public place so I change the subject. "What has the program come up with for me?" I hear her mutter once a Stiff, always a Stiff so low I think I might have imagined it.
"Let's see," she says looking down at the monitor. She turns it so I can see the screen, too, before she continues. "The program has come up with 97 different ideas for you." Looking at all the pictures of myself with different styles and hair colors is overwhelming. The styles are all different and intriguing in their own way. Some are only slightly longer than Lynn's hairstyle while others are the same length my hair is right now. I look at all the unusual colors and ask Christina if there's a way to eliminate those. I'm not ready for bright purple hair even though I want to look more Dauntless. She types something into the program and 43 styles all in my natural color remain. One catches my eye immediately, and no matter how many others I look at, I keep coming back to it. I ask her to enlarge the picture and I gasp. The picture is absolutely amazing. She shows me what the style looks like from every angle imaginable with the flick of a mouse.
"What do you think?" I hesitantly ask her.
"I think it's great. I really like it. Can I show you something I think will make it even better?" She clicks the mouse on the picture a few times bringing up a color chart and soon the picture looks slightly different. I stare for a while. Instead of my boring blonde, the base color is a light golden brown with honey-colored highlights and pale blonde-colored lowlights. It isn't a radical change like bright orange or neon blue but an enhancing change nonetheless. I nod my head at her, unable to say anything, and she claps her hands lightly and bounces up and down with glee.
She starts by getting all her necessary tools out to cut my hair. First, she takes a comb and makes a deep part on my right side. She then puts my hair lightly into a ponytail at the nape of my neck, and together we figure out what length I want. I decide to go just a little longer than the picture so I can pull it back into a ponytail whenever I run or workout. She slides the rubber band up to about three inches below my shoulders then takes out a pair of cutting shears. She meets my eyes in the mirror, and I nod to her. She cuts straight across just above the rubber band leaving my hair just slightly longer than shoulder length. She then hands me the almost 18 inches of hair she just cut off. I hold it tightly in my right hand as I watch her shape my hair with a razor blade into a shoulder-length choppy bob with various lengths. She then cuts my long bangs into side fringe. Then she takes a thinning tool and thins my hair, creating an image exactly like the one on the computer screen.
Next she works on coloring my hair. She mixes bottles of chemicals and lets it set for a few minutes. I think I'm more nervous about this step than I was getting it cut as I've never had my hair colored before. She applies the color all over my head using a paint brush, wrapping sections of hair in foil as she goes, making me look quite comical. After she's done with the base color she sits me under a dryer for 10 minutes to let the color penetrate the hair. When the buzzer goes off I'm thankful. I now know what a foil-covered dish feels like in the oven. She brings me back to her station and gently unwraps all my hair then she rinses the color and styles it the way she just cut it giving me pointers the entire time about how to duplicate it and sits me under the dryer again to let my hair dry. When it's dry, she brings me back to the chair and starts the process all over again with the highlights and lowlights. She decides where the color will look the best, concentrating on the hair that frames my face and applies the highlights and lowlights with the same method she used to apply the color only on smaller strands. Once again I find myself under the dryer with my head partially wrapped in foil wondering if this was actually a good idea. Finally the buzzer goes off and Christina brings me to her station again but this time she keeps my back toward the mirror the entire time, oddly reminding me of Abnegation when my mom would cut my hair and it was the only time I could look in a mirror. She unwraps my hair from the foil then rinses out the chemicals. She towel dries my hair. Then she uses a hand-held hair dryer to dry and style my newly cut tresses.
"Are you ready to see the new you?" she asks, excitement visible on her face. I nod and she turns me around. The person staring back at me in the mirror looks like me but doesn't. She has the same blue-gray eyes I do only they're slightly darker, prettier, and sparkling brightly with excitement. Her features don't look too big for her face like mine do. The hair color isn't a drastic change by Dauntless standards but it complements her complexion perfectly. Christina made some of the honey-colored highlights and pale blond-colored lowlights wider around her face, especially down her uneven bangs, making them stand out. This person looks older, fierce, and confident ... definitely Dauntless. I know I'm looking at myself but I'm having a hard time equating plain ole Beatrice with this beauty in front of me.
"Do you like it?" Christina asks. I shake my head no, and her face immediately falls. I turn the stylist chair around and spring out of it. I wrap my arms around her, startling her, and give her a huge hug.
"I love it," I finally choke out when I find my words. I try to blink back the tears that are threatening to escape but a couple fall anyway. Christina hugs me back fiercely.
"I can't wait to see the look on Four's face," she says.
"Neither can I," I admit. "I'm going to head to the cafeteria right now so I beat him there."
"Uh, you might want to get dressed first, Tris," she says, rolling her eyes at me. I look down at myself realizing I almost walked out of the salon into the Pit wearing nothing more than a short black silk robe.