She's so very warm.

There's a heavy arm laying across her, with a firm body pressed against hers, skin to skin, spooning her. Warm breath fans across her face, layers of heavy blankets cover her, and she can almost hear the crackling of a fire.

She doesn't want to wake up. She's dreaming of the cabin she stayed in when Eric was hiding her. The same place that she realized she was in love with him. For now, she will keep her eyes closed, because as soon as she opens them he will disappear.

When his arm tightens around her and soft lips find her neck, for a moment she thinks it's actually him.

"Did you finally warm up?" Peter murmurs and she nods her head, moving slightly away from him.

"What happened?" She murmurs.

"You still feel cold." He replies softly as he pulls her flush against his body.

It isn't Peter's voice. It's Eric's.

"I'm hallucinating." She whispers and he pulls her closer to him.

"It's real. If you just open up your eyes, you'll see it." He replies. She can feel him moving her, and she snuggles into his chest.

He almost smells like she remembers.

"Tris, can you look at me?" He says quietly.

"I don't want to wake up from this dream."

He presses his lips gently to the top of her head and she pulls herself closer to him. He feels so very real and when she finally dares to open her eyes she can see him in the faint light from the fire.

"Eric?"

"Yeah, it's me. You scared me, you were outside freezing." He replies softly, "I couldn't wake you up. Skin to skin is the best way to share body heat, I don't want you to panic, but we're completely naked right now."

"Eric... what... how?"

"You were passed out when I got to you. I'd been out for a while collecting wood for the fire and I saw you. Why don't you have warm clothes on?"

"How are you here? How do you remember me?" She asks.

"I fought the serum, it took longer than I expected, but it finally happened." He replied.

"How?"

"Serums don't work on people like us. This one was a lot harder to beat, but I had started having memories, although I didn't know they were memories at first, and with a lot of help eventually everything started clicking into place."

"You really do remember me?" She asks Eric and he takes her hand in his.

"I remember everything. They had me out in Detroit, I was wiped, and then memories were implanted but I eventually started remembering my life here, and there were tiny snippets of you. I ended up meeting some people who were in Detroit visiting from Portland, and turns out they were also memory wiped people from Chicago who'd regained their memories. They were the first people who made me realize I likely had been memory wiped too, and they told me to stop fighting the memories when they came through. Then, I started remembering you, and everything changed."

"Do you have the memories of who you were when you were wiped? Like the person you'd become after the memories were implanted?" She asks and in the dim light from the fire she little bit of sunlight flittering in she can see how hesitant he is to answer, "What's wrong?"

"I didn't know who I was, so there were things that happened that wouldn't have had I not been wiped." He replies.

"Are you with someone else?"

"No."

"Were you?" She presses and she can tell he doesn't want to answer, "Eric, you didn't know who you were. If you've met someone else and care about them, it's okay."

"No feelings, and no one once I started to remember you." He answers honestly and Tris nods, "I won't lie to you, I did sleep with other people, just two, safe always. I had no idea who I was, or who you are to me. I didn't know my own name, they gave me a new name, a new life, memories that didn't include you or anything about my life here in Chicago. I thought I was a single man from Detroit, not a man in love with a woman from Chicago. As soon as I started remembering, I focused all of my time and energy on fighting that fucking serum. I started making connections, and the people I met from Portland were others who had beaten the memory serum and started a new life away from their own homes. There are good people out there who were wiped before they ever had a chance to redeem themselves, and now they live an honest and clean life. That's what I wanted, and I made plans to have a life for us out there. I know I'm asking you for a lot, but I have to try. I love you, and I fucked up so much when it came to our life before, but I'm here Tris, and all I want is you."

"Eric, this is a lot…" She trails off.

"Is there someone else?" He asks evenly and he can feel her trembling against him, "It's okay, you can talk to me."

"Yes, I've recently started dating someone else." She begins and his grey blue eyes almost burn her with the intensity in which he's looking at her, "I've never gotten over you, and the person I've been dating has always understood it and has given me time and respected your place in my life."

"Who is it?" He asks.

"Peter Hayes." She replies and he nods against her.

"Do you love him?" He asks and she shakes her head.

"No. Maybe I would have down the line if I could have found a way to get over you, but I never could. I remembered everything about us this entire year you've been gone, and I had to force myself to move on. I've never wanted to forget you."

They're quiet for several minutes, and she snuggles in closer to his warm skin. She's missed him so much, but now that he's here she's nervous and confused.

"What happens now?" She asks without looking at him.

"I can't stay in the city. I sent you that letter because I needed to talk to you. Now that I know who I really am, and what my life was before, I just wanted to find you. I owe you an apology, for the way I treated you before."

"I've already forgiven you. I've been in therapy ever since coming back to Chicago." She replies quietly.

"Because of me." He says and she nods, "I have a therapist I've been talking to in Portland. I couldn't let anyone in Detroit know that I have my memories back, but I was put in contact with someone in Portland who can handle my circumstances. I'm sorry, for how I treated you before."

"I believe you," Tris replies quietly, "and I forgive you."

"Would you leave Chicago again for me?" He asks.

This time she moves away from him, sitting up in the bed and staring down at him. Their nakedness doesn't bother her, he's seen every inch of her body and nothing about their current situation or conversation is sexual. He sits up with her and she takes a good look at him.

The tattoos and body modifications are all gone, something she'd learned happened with memory wiped people. Chicago wanted nothing that could give a person any indication of their life before, and Eric's leadership stripes and other various tattoos were very indicative of a life in Chicago, so not only was his memory wiped clean so were the marks he'd once worn so proudly. His hair had grown out a bit, no longer shaved and gelled to perfection, instead his natural curls were on display and his face had a beard as well. He was still muscled, but not quite as disciplined as he once was.

"You look so different." She murmurs and he smiles briefly at her.

"You look exactly how I remember." He replies softly, "You're beautiful."

"You've never said that before."

"I don't want to be who I was before." He replies as he moves closer to her, "I want to be better. I can be better. I love you, and I came back here for you. I know I am asking for more than I deserve, but I have to try."

"What happens if the pull of power becomes more than the love you have for me?" She asks and he inches closer to her.

"I'll always choose you." He replies quietly.

"Chicago doesn't feel like my home anymore, but it's where my friends are. My parents, they've not talked to me since everything happened with you and Jeanine, but my friends are who have gotten me through this past year. I can't imagine leaving them behind for good. I'm nineteen, you're twenty-one, we're young and we barely had a relationship before because of everything that was going on. We could try this and it not work out."

"Or we could finally start our lives together," he argues, "our ages are irrelevant."

"If I leave, I may never be able to come back."

"If you leave with me, you may never want to come back." Eric replies, "All I have to do is make one call, and we have a direct transport arranged for Portland. We can have a whole new life. I want a life with you. I always have."

"I missed you so much." She says as she reaches for him and wraps her arms around him. He holds her against him, trailing his hands up and down the still cold skin of her back, "All I've wanted is for you to remember me and come back for me, but now that you're here I'm so confused."

"I'm asking you to leave your support system behind, and you had begun the process of accepting I wouldn't be back. This would be a lot for anyone." He replies as he rests his head on top of hers.

He feels so familiar and solid against her, and she's wanted him back for so long. The thought of leaving everyone behind terrifies her, because she's not sure if she and Eric could make it completely on their own.

She also thinks about Peter.

He's been so patient and kind to her while she struggled to move on from Eric. He'd never pressured her for more than what she was ready for, and he'd respected her pace and decisions. Sure, they'd hooked up when they were still in school, but he never pressured her to jump back into that type of relationship once they started over in Dauntless.

Christina, Tori and Lauren had become her closest friends. In each of their unique ways, they'd been careful with her feelings while giving her the tough love she'd needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other after her tumultuous relationship with Eric.

Through her best girl friends, she'd also found friendship with their significant others, Bud and Uriah had both given her that brotherly love she missed from her childhood with her very own twin brother, who'd also eventually been memory wiped once his own involvement in Jeanine and Byron's plan had been exposed.

And then there was Tobias, the first person she'd ever loved, who also had become one of her closest and most important friendships.

Eric was asking her to leave them all behind. She believes that he's the love of her life, her soulmate, and in this second all she can think about is him.

He's who she's thought about every day.

"I've never stopped loving you." He says quietly.

"I couldn't stop loving you, no matter how hard I tried." She whispers and leans in and presses her lips to his, feeling his soft lips against hers and his beard tickling her cheeks. His arms tighten around her, and as their kisses deepen she can feel him growing hard beneath her.

She tries to fight the want, the need to feel him inside of her but she can't. She's missed him so much, and she's missed their intimacy. When she eventually slides down onto him, seating him deep inside of her, it's exactly like she remembers, the way he'd always make her feel so full, and as they moved together she felt him reaching a place that only he knew.

The love she has for him makes everything so much better between them.

He's missed her so much, and he'd had a couple of meaningless flings before he started to remember her and he soon realized that he'd left someone behind, but nothing has ever felt the way it does with her. He never thought about commitment, not to anyone or anything other than his job, and the first time he'd had sex with her he thought it was nothing more than that.

He thought she'd be exactly what everyone else had been in his life.

He flips their positions, laying her back on the bed while he thrusts inside of her. He knows he won't be able to starve his own release off much longer, and when he begins to rub her where they're connected he feels the familiar quiver of her muscles around him, and she pants out his name right before he shouts hers as he releases inside of her.

"I love you," He whispered as he held her afterward. He'd never cared before her, even when they first started he'd get away from her as quickly as he could, but not now, not when he's so close to having exactly what he wants again.

"I love you too." She replies while her head rests on his chest right before she closes her eyes and listens to his heart, and feels him trail his warm fingers over her cold skin. She snuggles closer to him and eventually she falls asleep.

She hears her phone vibrating, and she cracks her eyes open slightly. The cabin is colder with the fire barely smoldering, but Eric sleeps soundly next to her. She gets out of bed carefully, trying not to wake him, and she grabs her phone from the table.

Peter has called her four times, and he's sent several texts, all showing how worried he was. He was also stuck out of the faction, his group's return delayed by the storm, and when he couldn't reach her he'd called the control room where he was told she'd gone home sick. It's after midnight, and with the terrible weather outside she knows the trains aren't running, so she knows there's no way she can get back to Dauntless safely tonight.

She lies to him. Tris sends him a text, telling him she'd left the faction to visit her parents, but then she'd gotten stuck in Abnegation because of the weather. She hated herself for the lie, but she wasn't ready to tell anyone where she actually was, and she needed time to think about what she wanted.

As expected, he was very understanding, and he asked her to call him the next day.

She was working on the fire when she felt his strong arms around her and his mouth pressed to her neck. It didn't take them long to become lost in their passion again, and when they finally fall asleep it's with their naked bodies completely wrapped around each other.

It's been two days since she left Dauntless for the cabin, and in that time she and Eric seemed to start the relationship they always could have had. The storm raged on outside around them, but they were safe and warm in the little cabin, and they spent a lot of time getting to know each other.

One of the funniest things she learned was that Eric absolutely loved the chocolate cake in Dauntless, but had to always stay away from it to keep up with his physique. Tris laughed when he told her he'd finally given into his active sweet tooth while in Detroit, and allowed himself to enjoy the little things.

"Everything has been controlled with me, and I think my control issues came from my parents." He'd told her, "Byron and Marcia were very focused on what their lives looked like from the outside, and every part of it was very contrived. It was almost as if we lived on a set, and my mother was directing our lives. I had to talk, dress, and carry myself a certain way. My grades had to be the highest, my posture perfect, my uniforms ironed and starched, my glasses clean and my hair in place. I never could just be myself."

"Did you try once you'd transferred?"

He shrugged, "I did at first. Lauren and I became friends, and through her I got to know Four, and we actually cut loose and had fun in training."

"What happened?"

He'd looked at her, his grey blue eyes trailing over her, "Jeanine wanted a second compliant leader, and she handpicked me."

"You told me before that you didn't regret honoring your oath. Do you still feel that way?" She'd asked.

"No. I've learned that this city was literally built on greed and lies. I was a willing participant in continuing that tradition."

"Have you reached out to your mother now that your memory is back?" Tris asked and he nodded his head.

"Yeah. We talk often, always through texts or email and always using a fake name for me. We're getting along well. I told her I was coming back for you." He admits.

"What did she think about that?" Tris asks.

"That it was too dangerous, but I had to at least try. I told her that I love you, and that even though we're young and had a terrible start, we needed to figure this out." He replies.

Her phone ringing interrupted them and she scrambled to the bedside table to grab it from the charger. When she sees Peter's name, she silenced the call and looked over at Eric.

"You should talk to him." He said and she sat on the bed and scrolled through his numerous texts that she'd barely answered, "You owe him an explanation."

"An explanation about what?" She asked.

"Us." He replies. She closes her eyes briefly and when she opens them she finds him watching her carefully, "Unless you plan on going back to him once the trains start back up."

She still says nothing and Eric adjusts his weight in the chair, crossing his legs and watching her.

"You're asking me to leave my entire life behind. This city is all I've known for nineteen years. I know it's flawed, I remember what we were told in Milwaukee but it's still what I know. My parents are here, my friends, everything. My family isn't talking to me, even with faction before blood being stricken, and if I leave I close that door for good."

"Leaving here doesn't mean you can never talk to any of them again, or that you can't come back." He argues.

"We still have factions and laws, and my father isn't speaking to me. If I leave, I won't be allowed back without going through him." She replies.

"I'm asking for too much." Eric replies and she reaches for his hands.

"I'm still thinking about it, okay?" She asks softly.

He nods, "Okay."

She can tell he doesn't like that answer, and when he just stares at her while chewing on his cheek, she looks away.

"You haven't ended it with him, have you?" He asks.

"Eric, that's a conversation I'm going to need to have with him in person. I can't tell him that you're here, and that you remember everything, because he's one of the leaders of the security team and he'd have to report it. They'd have you arrested, you'd be wiped again, they'd know you're divergent so this time it may be for good. It's a risk we can't afford to take right now."

He'd been quiet for a while after that.

The storm stopped the next day.

Peter had texted Tris, telling her that it would probably weeks, at earliest, that the trains would restart. The rails were iced over in some places, and heavily damaged by the weight of the hanging ice in others, and many parts of the city were without power, the various city teams were working round the clock to get things repaired and back and up and running.

He told her that he missed her, and she'd kept her distance and tried to keep the conversation causal. It wasn't until later that day, when Tris was slowly moving over Eric as he gripped onto her shoulders as if she'd disappear, her kisses swallowing his moans of her name that she missed another text from her boyfriend, asking her where she really was.

He'd ran into her father while out surveying the damage to the train tracks, and during a conversation with him he'd requested to arrange a time to pick her up from their home. Andrew Prior had been bewildered at the request, stating that they'd neither seen or spoken to Tris since she'd defected to Dauntless. He'd point blank told Peter that Tris was a liar, and that if he were smart he'd stay the hell away from her.

Tris had been out of the faction for six days at this point, and between her vague answers, and reluctance to communicate outside of text, he deduced she was somehow with Eric.

She'd once told him that Eric was divergent too, and coming from Candor he knew how unpredictable serums were on divergent people. If Eric had never disclosed his divergence, he would have received the normal amount and types of serums, and eventually his body would have dispelled it.

Eric was likely back for her. Who could blame him? Once you'd fallen in love with Tris it was impossible to just stop.

Peter should know, he's been in love with her for a while now.

He tries tracking her, but she smartly turned it off, and he sends another text he's sure she'll eventually read and respond to.

P: I know you're with him, and I know he likely is asking you to leave with him. I'm just asking for the same chance, because he's not the only one who loves you. I can give you the life here that he'll never be able to, and I'll never force you to leave anyone behind. Give me that chance, Tris. We can continue to be happy.

She and Eric were fresh out of the shower when she'd noticed the message indicator light flashing on her phone. She pulled some of the clothes she'd left behind from when Eric was hiding her here before and began dressing as she checked her phone, and based on the look on her face Eric knew she was upset.

"Tris?" Her name is a question, and she shakes her head and sits down on the bed.

"He knows."

Eric sits down next to her and he angles his body towards hers. He can tell she's upset, and he's not sure what he can do to help her, or even if she wants him there.

"He knows you're not at your parents?" He asks and she nods.

"He also correctly assumed I was with you." She replies quietly.

"Do I need to go?" Eric asks.

"Only if you want to. He doesn't appear to be angry, he's only asking me to give him the same consideration that I'm giving you."

"Tris, do you love him?" Eric asks and she shakes her head.

"No, but he loves me, and he wants me to stay with him."

He hates what he's about to ask, but he knows it has to be her decision, "Tris, what do you want to do?"

He watches a single tear trail down her cheek, and he uses his finger to wipe it. She leans towards him and he wraps his arms around her while she rests her head on his shoulder.

"I don't know. I don't love Peter, I love you, but I also don't want to leave Chicago. For me to be with you, I have to leave everyone else behind. I don't know if I'm ready for that." She admits.

"Tris, I love you, but-"

"Can we just take a nap? I can't think about this right now. I'm not ready to talk about anything." She asks and he presses his lips to her forehead.

"Of course we can." He says quietly and they crawl under the covers and she turns to her side and he moves behind her and spoons her.

She falls asleep, warm in his arms but when she wakes up he's gone. She begins to panic, and she throws one of his hoodies on over her T-shirt and slips her feet into her boots and tears the front door open. As soon as she runs off of the porch and turns the corner, she runs into him and he drops the wood he had in his arms.

"I thought you left." She says as she threw her arms around him, "I woke up and thought you just left."

He pulls his coat off and wraps it around her, pulling her close to his chest, "Never again. I promise to never leave you again."

He gets her back in the cabin and settled before grabbing the wood from outside so he can get the fire going again. This time, it's her pacing around the cabin, and he can tell her anxiety is at an all time high.

"Tris, I don't want you to make yourself crazy making this decision, I could just go-"

"No. You told me I could make the decision and I'm going to, I just need some time, okay? Can we at least wait until the weather is safer for traveling? Just a couple more days." She said.

"Of course. You have all the time you need." He replies.

Later, when they're in bed and she's asleep, he watches her. He knows he's being selfish, coming back to her after a year apart and asking her to give everything up for him, and he feels terrible for putting this type of pressure on her, but he loves her and he knows he can a better man for her. He presses his lips to her shoulder, then her neck and she shifts against him.

"Are you okay?" She asks sleepily when his arms tighten around her.

"I can't sleep." He replies.

"What's wrong?" She asks.

"I just worry that I'm putting too much pressure on you." He replies quietly.

She turns so she can face him and she presses her lips to his. He loses himself in their kiss, and when she pushes him on his back and crawls on top of him he doesn't protest. They continue to kiss, and he begins to buck his hips up to her as she slides her wetness against him.

"Tris, I need you baby." He moans before dragging his teeth over her shoulder.

"I love you." She says as she moves against him, positioning him at her entrance and sliding down on him.

"I love you. Always." He breathes out.