AN: Appreciate the follows and favorites. Enjoy and see you Wednesday.

The train ride to the outskirts of Amity is a long one, and when he jumps off it's well outside of the borders, in a section of the city he's pretty certain no one dares venture to. He makes his way into the woods, checking around for any followers or any attention he's attracting. He finds it just as dead as always, and when he approaches the tiny hunting cabin he uses his key to unlock it and he lets himself in.

She's asleep, her dark blonde hair spilling out around her head on the pillow, the covers pulled up around her and the fire barely smoldering. He knows she must be freezing, so he works on the fire, trying to be as quiet as possible, but as he's placing more wood on the pile he feels her hands on his shoulders.

"I didn't think you were coming." She said quietly and he looked up at her.

"I just needed to be here."

"It's nearly sunrise, is everything okay?" She asks and he finishes with the fire and stands up, taking her in his arms and pressing his lips to hers briefly before answering.

He shakes his head slowly and rests his forehead against hers.

"What's wrong?" She asks softly.

"They're watching me." He replies and she looks up at him.

"What? Why would they watch you?" She asks.

"Jeanine doesn't trust me." He replies.

"Why?" She asks him.

"Because I still haven't found you." Eric replies quietly, "Jack wants to legally declare you as dead, which would make our lives much easier, but Jeanine wants more searches before he makes that move. She's asked for searches of Amity and Candor, and the surrounding areas. I think Jack is going to require it."

"They're coming here?" She pulls away from him.

"They will eventually find it, it'll take them some time though."

"What do we do?" She asks.

His eyes trail over her, "I missed you so much."

She's shocked at his admission, and before she can speak he's surrounding her again. She pulls his face to hers and kisses him, and when he pulls away it's only to pull her shirt over her head and press kisses to her bare skin. He picks her up and moves to the bed, laying her down and working her leggings and underwear down her legs. He spreads her legs and lays between them, blowing cool air on her heat.

"Eric..."

He drops his lips to her inner thigh and he feels her leg shudder against him. He pulls his finger through her soaked folds, and slowly pushes one inside of her as he continues kissing his way up her leg.

When he finally drops his lips to her soaked core, she moans, and he swirls his tongue around her swollen bud before wrapping his lips around it and sucking lightly. He can feel her legs squeezing him, and the way her breathing is hitching he knows she's close. He pushes another finger into her and she splays her fingers in his hair, pulling his face closer while her hips undulate towards him.

"Oh my god...Eric..." She moans.

He adds a third finger and he can feel her starting to tighten around him, he lightly drags his teeth across her clit and she falls apart, coming hard against his face. He pulls away from her slowly, wiping his face on her inner thigh before sucking her juices off of his fingers.

He doesn't usually like to go down on women. It's too personal, and he's never gotten close enough to one of his partners to care about their satisfaction. He liked to get off, and he's only fucked a handful of women before tiring of them. His focus has always been his job, and the few women that he's been intimate with were just a means to an end. He didn't have time for distractions, but Tris is the only person he's ever been unable to stay away from.

A distraction?

He watches her as he stands up, and when she sits up on her knees to help him undress he pulls her to him and kisses her instead. His hands thread through her hair and hold the back of her head as they kiss, and when he feels her pushing his shirt up he breaks away from her so she can lift it over his head.

He kisses her again, working his mouth down her neck and to her breasts as she continues to thread her fingers through his hair. He breaks away again to push his pants and boxers off of his legs and she reaches for his erection, leaning over and running her tongue around the head like she knows he likes.

"Tris." Her name falls from his lips in a whisper as she wraps her lips around him.

She takes his length in her mouth, hollowing her cheeks and swallowing around him. She's learned exactly what he likes in the months they've been sleeping together, and he throws his head back as she continues her ministrations on him.

"I want to be inside of you." He finally says and she moves away from him and lies back on the bed, "You seem eager, do you want that too?"

"Yes, I've missed you too." She says.

"Tell me what you want, Tris." He commands as he strokes himself.

"I want you, Eric."

"Only me?" He asks.

"Only you."

He crawls up her body and gently slides inside of her, burying himself to the hilt.

"You feel so good." He says quietly, "So fucking tight."

They've often talked during sex, but it's usually her trying to get information out of him, or him ordering her around. This is different and she knows he feels it too.

The way he's being gentle and taking his time, the way his lips rarely leave hers and when they do, the way her name keeps slipping past them is all a goodbye. This is it for them, he came here to tell her that it's over, and to warn her that she's about to be found.

"Eric..." She moans as he swivels his hips against hers, hitting a spot only he can find inside of her.

"Come for me Tris." He murmurs as he begins rubbing her where they are joined.

She sees white lights, stars, fireworks and she arched against him, calling his name as he tumbles over right behind her. He doesn't immediately pull away. He lays on her, kissing her as he begins to soften enough to slip out of her, and then he pulls her close to him and wraps her in his arms.

She feels his fingers trailing up and down the arm she has wrapped around his torso, and he threads their fingers together. His thumb is rubbing circles on her hand, and he turns his head and presses his lips to her forehead.

"This is it, isn't it?" She finally asks, "Will they just come here and find me, or will you take me to them?"

"No." He murmurs.

"There's nowhere else I can go." She replies softly.

"Yes, there is." He replies, "This time, I have a plan."

He kisses her again and she feels his semi-hardened length pressing against her thigh as he pushes her onto her back. She presses her palms against him, preventing him from moving, and he looks into her hazel eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asks her quietly and she stares into his eyes, shaking her head slowly.

"Tell me what your plan is." She asks quietly and she see's him avert his eyes, "Eric, where can I go?"

"Outside of the city." He finally says, betraying no emotion.

"No, we have a wall, we've been told it's dangerous out there. How do you think I will survive out there when I know nothing about it?", She asks and he leans down to kiss her again, but she turns away, "No distractions, please talk to me. It's been months of hiding, and one of those months I've been out here with you having to sneak here to be with me. Outside of the city... I'll never make it out there... I'll never see you."

"I'm going with you." He replies and her eyes widen.

"You can't." She shakes her head and he finally pushed into her again, "You can't give everything up for me."

"I can, and I will. I'm not letting anything happen to you, and I'm not giving you up." He replies as he moves slowly against her.

"Why?" She whispers.

"I told you that I want you. I meant it." He replies.

Eric tells her they'll leave during the next overnight shift change for the guards. He knows their routine well, and he knows exactly when they can slip through unnoticed.

Lying in that bed, wrapped around each other, he finally answers all of her questions. He admitted to her that he had been cooperating with Jeanine before he'd ever met Tris, and that Jeanine had started putting major pressure on him to find her divergent during Tris's initiation. That's what had led him to start the fear sims, and how he'd discovered her divergence during that first sim. He knew Tris was exactly what Jeanine wanted, however instead of delivering Tris to her he'd decided to bring her to his father himself. She listened in horror as he explained that he was going to use her to get his father's approval, and a better place in his government if they were able to successfully overthrow Abnegation.

He admitted to her that he did only plan on using her for sex while he was buying himself some time to develop the circumvention plans with Jeanine so he could bring Tris directly to Byron. He had believed that once he'd left her in Erudite that he would be able to forget about her.

Until he realized he couldn't.

He admitted he still didn't quite know what had changed for him, except that he knew he cared about her, and he truly did want her. He wouldn't send her outside of the fence alone, he'd be with her, and they'd get the help they needed to end the unrest in their city.

"How do you know what's out there?"

"That doesn't matter." He'd dismissed.

"How do I know that you're still not planning to turn me in to Byron or Jeanine?" She'd finally asked him and he had turned to her and pressed his lips to hers briefly before answering.

"They put me under the truth serum earlier, and I manipulated it so I could completely cover for you." He admits.

Tris sits up in the bed, moving away from him and looking at him sharply, "How? How can you manipulate the truth serum? That shouldn't be possible, how on earth did you do it?" Tris asks.

"Because I'm divergent, just like you, and it's only a matter of time before they figure it out too."

Tris's wide eyes and slack jaw were exactly the reaction he'd expected. He'd always known he was divergent, and he'd hated himself for it. He was exactly what his former faction feared, someone who had an affinity for multiple factions, who's loyalty was likely split, someone who'd never conform to the strict rules within the specific factions.

He's not sure what his true aptitudes were, but the way his mind worked and his ability to realize his own divergence to manipulate serums made him believe he had an affinity for Erudite. The dauntless part of him was likely smaller, because even though he was strong and brave, he struggled with being the perfect soldier. He doubted he had any Amity or Abnegation, he was far too selfish and angry, and definitely not Candor with the way he could easily lie and manipulate.

"You're divergent?" She finally asks and he nods, "Why wouldn't you have ever told me? Why would you have even for a minute, consider taking me to your father?"

"Because you were exactly what they wanted, and if Jeanine had turned you in she'd have gotten all of the credit."

"That's it? You just wanted to get the credit? I can't believe you!" She shouts as she tries to move away from him.

"You wanted the truth." He replies and the look on her face is one he's never seen before.

"I'm a person, Eric, I'm a fucking person with a future, who wants to have a life, I want to be in love, I want to have a family one day. I want to be brave, and kind, and I want my selflessness to help me be a better Dauntless." She replies through angry tears, "You've made me believe for months that you were disgusted by what I am, that the only thing I was good for was a warm pussy around your cock, all while hiding you're exactly like me! You are just using me-"

"No, I am not using you. I will get us out of the city and somewhere safe so I can prove that to you."

"You're not safe," She pushes away from him and gets out of the warm bed, grabbing her clothes from the floor and rushing into the bathroom.

She slams and locks the door behind her, and she leans against the door and cries. He finally admitted his plan, he's been waiting until he can use her to get his father's approval, and when his father showed that he still didn't trust Eric, suddenly he has a change of heart.

"Tris, open up, please." Eric says from the other side of the door.

"You finally found out for sure that your dad was a piece of shit, so you decide that I'll just do? Am I a fucking consolation prize?" She yells through the door and cries harder.

She's not prepared for the door to open, or for Eric to be standing in front of her completely naked, holding the key. She scrambles into the shower, and when she tries to close the door on him, he stands in the way.

"I've always known he's a piece of shit, I just finally am able to acknowledge it. I could have easily told him everything today, I chose not to."

"Why? No more cryptic answers, you fucking tell me the truth." She replies.

"I already told you, I want you, Tris!"

"I don't care about want, want isn't our fucking problem, it never has been. When you're bored of the sex with me, or when a better offer comes along, I'm disposable."

"No, that's not it at all-"

"That's exactly what you just told me this has been to you. All of this, us," she gestures wildly between them, "was just something for you to do until your father gave you the time of day. Am I wrong?"

"That's what it started as, but I promise you that's not what it is anymore, I'm here with you, I chose you, I'm capable of changing my mind-"

"Which is why I don't trust you not to change it again." She replies.

He nods his head, and for several beats they both stand in the cold room, saying nothing.

"Every time I thought I was ready to turn you in, I stopped myself." He replies, "Even today, when he asked me about you, I lied to him before he even forced the serum on me. I couldn't do it."

"Isn't that what you always wanted, though? The grand prize at the end is all of that power, nothing else matters right?"

"No," shakes his head, "none of that shit matters anymore."

"Why?"

"Because you're more important to me than anything they could ever offer me."

She's not prepared for the answer, and for several beats she says nothing. He puts his warm hands on her freezing cold skin, and he rubs up and down her arms and tries to help warm her.

"What happens if your dad calls tomorrow, or ten days from now, ten months, ten fucking years, what happens, Eric? What happens if he tells you that he would be proud of you if you'd just bring him one divergent? Or, better yet, he confesses he loves you when you tell him that you have me, then what?"

He shakes his head, "No more, Tris. His love and approval come with conditions," He moves closer to her, his warm body surrounding hers in the tiled shower, "I have treated you poorly. You don't deserve it, and if you want I will get anyone you trust back here, and they can get you somewhere safe, away from me. I'll leave you alone if that's what you need, because you deserve to finally have a choice."

"I want Tobias here." She says in a small voice, and he nods his head before he walks out of the room.

He'd sent a cryptic message to Four, and he'd waited, not knowing what to expect.

E: You said I could reach out when I was ready to do the right thing. I'm ready.

Four's reply wasn't immediate, as expected with it not even being dawn, but when he did respond it was with a question.

F: Where are you?

E: With her.

F: I want to speak to her. Now.

Eric had dialed his number and when the other man answered he handed the phone to Tris.

"I want to talk to him alone." She said to Eric, and he nodded before leaving the room.

He paced, he pulled at his hair, a terrible habit he couldn't seem to break, and for the first time in years he's unsure about a situation he's in. Eric is always poised, always in control of everything he's involved in, but deciding to leave the city has never been in his plans. He wanted the power that he was promised, and the respect of the other leaders, but after earlier with his father he realized he's still just a pawn.

The truth serum had burned at him as he lied to his father and Jeanine, with every question the pain radiated throughout his entire body as he told them he had no idea what had happened to Tris Prior. He'd stuck to the story he'd always told, Tris had gotten sick during her first attempt at the fear sim, and when he took his time with her second she didn't display anything that made him suspect she was divergent. He told them he had no idea what had happened to her, and he even covered for Four, saying that the other man was completely on the up and up and his lapse in judgment when attempting to kiss her on the evening she disappeared was nothing more than muscle memory of a time when they once were in puppy love.

Eric had lied, saying he'd never had any personal interaction with Tris, and that the woman he was sleeping with was nothing more than a bar fly he'd picked up in the shadows of The Pit.

His biggest lie was that there was absolutely no one in his life that he cared enough about to derail him from the plans he was involved in, and that taking over the government, and helping Jeanine and his father with their need for a divergent to open the box was the only thing he cared about.

After they were satisfied with his answers, he'd been dismissed with specific instructions to get a good night's rest and in the morning head to Amity to help with the search for Tris. They knew that Johanna would balk, and Eric's presence would help to scare her into cooperating. He'd left his father's office, but he took a detour when he'd gone into the secured vault that he'd been in many times as a child, when his father would bring him to work to help organize the contents. Byron never gave Eric any credit, dismissing his intelligence and using him for his own needs, never once realizing his son paid very close attention to everything that Byron would do.

Including when he would key in the complicated code needed to open the vault.

Eric found what he was looking for, a small, ornate box with no real way of opening it. He'd wrapped it in his jacket and smuggled it out of the faction, and then rode the train back to Dauntless. Once there, he'd gone into the armory and found exactly what he needed.

He'd packed a bag and left the faction, taking the box with him, and while on the train back to the cabin he'd strapped an explosive device to the box and when he felt comfortable he threw it from the train. He watched the fire and plume of smoke, knowing it would draw the attention of the patrolling Dauntless, and that when they finally found the source it would be nothing but a burnt crater.

Four knocked on the door in the pattern he was asked to, and Eric was surprised when he opened the door to see Lauren, Tori and Bud with him. He let them all in, and they finally saw Tris for the first time in months. In that tiny cabin, Eric laid out Jeanine and Max's plans in detail, and he told them that their best chance of stopping the violence would be to get Tris safely outside the wall first, and to then inform Jack Kang of what Jeanine, Max and his own father had planned.

"What about that fucking box?" Bud asked angrily and Eric glanced back at him.

"I destroyed it." He answered.

"Sure, you did." Tori said sarcastically.

Eric ignored her, and then told everyone that the choice was Tris's on what she wanted to do, and who she wanted to help her, but whatever her decision, it needed to be quick in order to save her from Jeanine and his father.

"You've fucking brainwashed her, you've been holding her against her will while you tried to figure out when to take her to Erudite." Four replies angrily.

"If I wanted to take her to Erudite, I would have already. Yeah, I did once have a plan to turn her in, but I changed my mind!" Eric yells back.

"This is all a set-up, he's led some of the suspected divergent into one spot so Max and Jeanine can turn us into lab rats." Bud adds.

"Just like my brother." Tori replies angrily, "Amar too. That bitch and your father already dragged me there and forced me under truth serum, I'm damn sure not trusting you!"

"Stop!" He shouts, "You either believe me or you don't. I don't care anymore. I just want her to be safe, that's it, and whatever she wants is what I'll do. I'm doing this to protect her, she's who I care about, I don't give a fuck about any of the rest of it. Maybe I did at one time, but now what I want is for this to end, and for her to make it through unscathed." Eric had replied and there was shocked silence throughout their group. Tris threads her fingers with his, and he can't hide the shock from his face at her unexpected show of support for him.

"You trust him?" Four blurts out, staring Tris down, "He's been waiting for his perfect opportunity to take you to his father and yet you sit here beside him holding his fucking hand?"

"He's never held me against my will, and he's the reason I'm still alive right now." She says simply.

"He's also the person who's been working on a plan to overthrow the government for the past two years." Four replies angrily.

"He just exposed his own involvement, he knows any one of you can run right to Jack Kang and tell him everything." Tris says quietly.

"That's exactly what we need to do, and we need to get you to Candor and under Jack's protection, and we get the law on our side." Tori argues.

"If we go to Jack while she's still in the city, and for any reason he doesn't believe that Max or Jeanine would do any of the shit I'm about to accuse them of, there will be a fucking war. She and Max are ready-" Eric begins and Lauren interrupts him.

"How do they even get their serum to work if we all refuse it?" Lauren asks.

"You've already gotten it. It was given to everyone as a vaccine." Eric replies.

"Jesus Christ." Tori breathes out. "We have to get her out of here-"

"She gets to choose," Lauren replies with a finality and she moves closer to Tris, "You've been in hiding for months, you have a choice now, this isn't Eric's decision, or anyone else's in this room, it's yours."

"There's no other choice here, we all heard him, he was going to take her to his father." Tori says exasperatedly, "Tris, you need to come with us."

"There is a choice, you can let him get us out of this city, you can let him make that call to Jack himself, proving that he truly has changed his mind, and we can make sure that Jeanine doesn't hurt anyone like me again." Tris says, and she moves closer to Eric, "He's capable of being much better than any of you have seen."

"You're choosing to go with him?" Four asks and Tris nods her head, "Okay, what do you need from us?" He asks. He may be incredibly worried about his friend, but he'll be damned if he lets Eric take her out of the city and away from anyone who could possibly help her.

"Eric and I are leaving tonight during guard change. Meet us back here if you're willing to take that chance. If not, I just ask that you give us time to get outside of the wall before calling Jack." Tris replies.

"Whatever you need." Lauren says from Four's side, and Tori shakes her head while Bud looks troubled.

Each of her friends pulls her aside, speaking softly to her, away from Eric. He watches as Tris hugs each of them, and after they'd all left, Eric had locked the door of the cabin, and he leaned against it and closed his eyes. Tris walked quietly across the small room, and when she gets close to him she reaches for his hand. She can feel his fingers curling around hers, and he pulls her to him.

"Why are you choosing me, after everything I've done?" He asks.

"I don't know." She answers, her head swirling with a million different thoughts as she watches the emotions play out on Eric's face. He's never been as honest with her as he has in these past few hours, and as much as she wants to trust him she's still worried that he'll change his mind.

His free hand reaches for the back of her neck and he slowly guides her face towards his. He presses his lips to hers gently, and his tongue traces her lips until hers touches his. He drops her hand and she feels him threading that hand through her hair until he's cupping the back of her head. He rests his forehead against hers, and she gently caresses his cheek.

"You have a choice too. You don't have to do this. You don't have to leave Chicago, not for me or for anyone else." She whispers.

"I want you. That's all there is for me." He replies before kissing her again.

Later that night, when their naked bodies are wound around each other, and she's sure he's asleep she whispers the words that have been swirling in her mind for days now.

"I love you, that's my reason why, and I think that you love me too." She says in barely a whisper before she closes her eyes, unaware that he's wide awake and staring at her.