Thank you so much for reading and all the comments! I'm so excited ya'll are liking this story. I was so nervous about it! See ya'll next weekend.


"Initiate Prior, I need you to come with me," Four says as he strides into the dining hall and stops at the table where the initiates were finishing dinner. He'd been itching to talk to Tris, but he'd already warned her to keep their connection quiet before Choosing Day.

"Initiate Pedrad, you too" Four says to Uriah who was sitting with the Dauntless born. Uriah gives Tobias a quizzical look but does as he's told. He'd grown up learning that in public his relationship with Max had to be formal, and even though Tobias was Zeke's best friend, the same concept applied to him.

Tobias had instructed Zeke, Hana, and Max to meet them at Max's apartment after dinner. He wanted to break the news to everyone at the same time. Seeing how Max reacted to seeing Tris at the Choosing Ceremony, He knew that there was a possibility he was Tris' father, but he wasn't sure. He had gotten up the courage to ask some questions on their ride in the truck back to Dauntless.

"You knew Tris' mother? Before she went to Abnegation?"

"She was the love of my life, and your friend looks so much like her. I thought I was seeing a ghost on Visiting Day. There's not a day that goes by that I don't miss her,"

"Can I ask where we are going?" Tris asks when Tobias ushers them into the elevators. He wasn't fond of them and usually took the maintenance stairs but with Tris and Uriah with him, this would be quicker.

"You'll find out in a minute" He squeezes her shoulder and gives her a smile, feeling her relax a little bit.

"Did we do something wrong?" Uriah asks. Tobias chuckles realizing they really had no idea what was going on.

"No, you didn't. Uriah, this is Tris, Tris, meet Uriah" Tobias tells them both.

"First jumper never thought a Stiff would jump first" Uriah grins as he sticks his hand out.

Tris smiles and looks at his hand. Tobias chuckles remembering the first time someone offered him a handshake.

"Like this" Tobias demonstrates for her.

"Got it. Nice to meet you Uriah" Tris laughs as she repeats what Tobias did.

As soon as the elevator dings Tobias navigates them to Max's apartment where Zeke, Hana, and Max were waiting. Hana gasps when Tris enters behind Uriah, and she looks at Max who nods.

Tris looks around the apartment. The walls were grey, it was simple and masculine but comfortable. There was a large couch that could seat several people and a few small chairs. There was also a large table that had seats for at least eight people, but it appeared someone was using it as a workspace. There was a kitchen off to the left with a bar and three bar stools set up. She could also see a hallway and she wondered how many more rooms were a part of this large apartment.

She looked curiously at the woman sitting at one end of the couch, she looked familiar to her, but she didn't know why. The young man sitting in one of the chairs next to the couch. She recognized the man sitting at the large table from the Choosing Ceremony, Max, the leader of Dauntless.

"What's going on Four?" Zeke asks, looking at his mother and then back to Max.

"Everyone I'd like for you to meet Tris, Natalie's daughter," Tobias tells them. Zeke and Uriah's eyes go wide, and Hana's eyes fill with tears.

"Tris this is your Aunt Hana, and her sons Uriah who you just met, and Zeke" Tris gasps and looks at Tobias who nods.

Hana jumps up and pulls Tris into her arms holding her tight.

"I had no idea" Hana whispers as she continues to hold Tris. Tris had that same comforting feeling when she hugged Natalie. Now it made sense why Hana looked familiar to her, she and Natalie looked alike, like her.

"Wow, I didn't know we had a cousin. Do you have any other brothers and sisters?" Uriah smiles.

"I have a brother; he's adopted but he stayed in Abnegation," Tris says wiping her eyes when Hana finally pulls away.

"Then he's family too," Hana tells her whipping her own tears.

"It's great to meet you, Welcome to Dauntless," Zeke tells her giving her a hug.

"That is if I can make it" Tris shrugs feeling a bit shy and overwhelmed.

"There's no way you won't" Uriah reassures her pulling her into a hug.

"Was Andrew upset with you leaving?" Hana asks. She hated that man with all her being.

"Ummm, well he's not really my father so I can't say he was sad about me leaving. We never got along." Tris starts feeling a little nervous that everyone was looking at her now.

"Andrew's not your father…" Max utters standing up from his seat, and everyone turns toward him as his suspicions are confirmed.

"Max?" Hana asks, looking confused.

Tris looks at Max again. While Natalie didn't tell her what her father's name was, she did tell her about his honey caramel skin tone, and his deep brown eyes. Even though she looked like her mother, she saw a little of herself in the man standing across from her now.

"She told me she and my real father would tell each other Always and Forever..." Tris says barely above a whisper, her eyes burning with a fresh set of tears about to spill over.

"My God, it's true" Max felt like a rug had been pulled out from under his feet.

"You're my father, aren't you? My real father?" Tris whispers looking at Max and feeling her lips turn up in a smile.

Max is still stunned, and Hana starts to cry again. Zeke wraps his arm around his mother. Tris doesn't say another word as she runs into Max's arms, and he wraps her in the tightest hug. She's filled with the scent of her father. The only other thing that felt right in the world was when she hugged Natalie for the first time or when she hugged Tobias.

"My baby girl" is all Max can utter now, his voice full of emotion. The last time he cried was when Reggie died. This here, holding his daughter, a piece of his love with Natalie that the two of them created was a feeling he couldn't describe. It was as if all the years that he had been lost without Natalie suddenly had a purpose.

"Tris, they don't know," Tobias says after a few minutes when Tris and Max finally break apart, both smiling, and everyone now wiping their eyes.

"What don't we know?" Hana asks, taking the glass of water Uriah got her from the kitchen.

"Umm, whew, how do I say this" Tris takes a deep breath as everyone looks at her again. She feels shaky but Tobias steps closer and places a hand on her shoulder. He gives her a nod.

"My mom, Natalie, she's alive," Tris says as everyone looks at her.

She jumps when the glass Hana was holding shatters on the floor.

"What? How?" Zeke asks as he helps Hana sit down as she fell against him and Uriah.

"No, she can't be, I pulled up her death certificate myself" Max stammers. The shock causes him to sit down in one of the chairs near the couch.

His mind goes over the months after finding out Natalie was dead. He'd been distraught. Each faction published the names of their dead monthly and a paper was circulated through the factions with news from the council. Max had sat there staring at the paper unable to get himself together until Reggie and Hana intervened.

"Her name was published, how…" Hana speaks up now as Uriah squeezes her hand.

Tris sniffles and Tobias moves her to sit on the couch and then sits next to her and holds her hand.

"Andrew, he found out that she had an affair when she got pregnant with me" Tris explains.

"Marcus and Andrew made her factionless" Tobias fills in.

"What!" Max exclaims, jumping out of his seat. He felt like a bucket of cold ice had been thrown at him.

"All these years?" Hana breathes feeling sick to her stomach.

"Calm down Ma, please" Zeke implores looking at how her breathing had increased.

"I'm going to kill him," Max vows his tone icy cold.

"I found her a year ago when I was passing out donations in the factionless section. I thought I was going crazy the first time I saw her; I knew I looked like her when I saw her face"

"Why didn't she tell us she was alive?" Max asks, putting his head in his hands, and sitting down again, not sure what to do with the energy following through him.

"Andrew threatened her, she something about some kind of memory serum. If she talked, he would erase all her memories. He wouldn't let her take Caleb or me with her. She stayed close where she could see Caleb and me from a distance. She thought it was better for you all if she stayed dead"

Max gets up and punches a wall causing everyone to jump. He was angry and hurt that Natalie knew he would have become factionless for them to be together. Why didn't she just tell him?

Hana quickly gets up, gathering herself and grabbing some ice from the freezer and a towel for his hand and Zeke grabs a broom from the closet to clean up the broken glass. It's quiet for a few minutes and Tris looks over at her father who looked completely heartbroken as he held the ice to his hand and paced the floor.

"She told me that my father wanted to run away with her, become factionless…but she didn't want that for Caleb and then me. She wanted us to have a chance at a faction, not living on the streets." Tris admits Tobias rubbed her shoulder as she leans against him.

Zeke raises his eyebrows as he watches his friend interact with his newfound cousin. He'd never seen him like this, and he makes a mental note to talk to him about it later.

"Max…" Hana says in a sympathetic tone as she places a hand on his shoulder to make him stop pacing.

"Can we do anything?" Uriah asks sitting down in a chair. He'd grown up listening to Max and Hana talk about Natalie. He knew how much both of them missed her.

"We don't have any say on how other factions deal with their members. We make people factionless all the time" Max comments, a little better in control of his emotions.

"We have to find her" Hana implores, as Zeke walks over and squeezes her shoulder.

"First thing in the morning" Max promises. "I'd go right now if I could navigate the Factionless section in the dark"

"We need to be careful moving through the Factionless section," Tobias says carefully.

"Should we tell them?" Tris whispers to Tobias and he sighs. He still believed that Max knew something about the divergent disappearing from Dauntless but being Tris' father did change things.

"Tell us what?" Max asks.

"Tris and I know that my father Marcus and Andrew are involved in something shady with Erudite."

"Your father is Marcus Eaton? Leader of Abnegation?" Hana asks and he nods reluctantly.

"There have been Abnegation members going missing for some time. Natalie knows there is something going on with the factionless going missing too. Just like in Dauntless and I think they might have something to do with them being divergent. Caleb, Tris, and I have been working together to find out as much as we can. We know your sister knows more but she's been careful to only share what we needed to know so far with Tris and Caleb." Tobias explains.

Tobias notices that Uriah's face changes for a moment and so does Hana's. Not enough to give anything away. He sees Max's jaw clench. Tobias decides that he and Tris need to keep the fact that they are divergent quiet for a little while longer. He squeezes Tris' hand, and she squeezes it back. He was so glad they could close like this in Dauntless. They needed each other.

"Why would they want divergent? Aren't divergent just stuff they tell us to scare us?" Zeke asks. He knew there were people who put more weight into it, but he still wasn't sure how much he believed just yet.

"Mom warned Caleb and me to be careful in the factionless section because people had been disappearing and with Dauntless patrols pulling back it wasn't as safe, but she thinks there was another reason," Tris informs the group.

"How did you get in to find Aunt Natalie?" Uriah asks.

"Abnegation hand out supplies, it's not uncommon to see them looking for people too sick to stand in line for rations. Normally everyone stays within the areas the Dauntless patrols, but Tris here doesn't always follow the rules" Tobias chuckles at the last part.

Hana smiled a little too, her niece had the same hint for mischief as her sons.

"In the past, there was perimeter that Dauntless set up but over the past year, we saw less and less of them" Tris relays.

"Uncle Max, why did we pull back patrols?" Zeke asks.

"Erudite had given us some intel that the factionless were planning to target shipments from Amity to steal, we started focusing more attention on the loading and unloading zones compared to randomly patrolling the section where they are most populated just to break up fights and such" Max offers.

He knew Jeanine was only offering him what she wanted in exchange for him giving up Dauntless divergent for her testing. He was impressed that Four and Tris had been gathering information on their own.

"Seems like that intel might have been more of a diversion to keep eyes away from what they might actually be doing" Hana reasons.

"What else is wrong?" Zeke asks, looking between Tris and Tobias and it seemed like they were trying to decide if they wanted to say something else.

Tris sighs and Tobias nods.

"Marcus and Andrew aren't the greatest people…their disciplinary tactics are brutal to put it plainly. We got used to them withholding meals, but the beatings never really got easier, I think we all ended up with a few broken bones and lots of bruises over the years. …" Tris whispers looking down at the floor.

"We thought coming to Dauntless and me taking a leadership position might get someone to look into them…" Tobias finishes.

"That's child abuse, Dauntless doesn't even allow that kind of brutality against children! That son of a bitch! Beating children, he was supposed to protect you!" Max bellows. There was no way now that he wasn't going to put Andrew Prior down for touching his daughter.

"Max calm down" Hana urges.

"I swear when I get my hands on him, Hana, I'm going to make him pay. For everything…" Max vows.

Tris realizes there was much more to the story about her parents and Andrew Prior but now wasn't the time to ask questions.

"Tobias had it worse than Caleb and I did" Tris grabs his leg and squeezes as she feels Tobias shudder.

There weren't any words to describe how free she felt knowing she didn't have to worry about Andrew using her as a punching bag. She still worried about Caleb but hopefully not living under the same roof as Andrew would make things better for him.

"I'm sorry" Uriah offers not sure of what else to say or do.

"Yeah, me too. I'm really glad you both decided to come to Dauntless" Zeke adds.

"No one did anything to help you? Are the Abnegation that blind?" Uriah asks.

"The Abnegation are too blinded by being polite and miss the obvious. And Marcus and Andrew are very good at manipulating people and covering things up."

Even though they lost their father at a young age, Hana provided a safe and loving home for them. Sure, they had a reputation as pranksters and she and Max made sure they respected authority. Both of them were having a hard time comprehending what Tris and Tobias experienced.

"I should have made her come with me that night" Max grits out trying to control his anger.

"You know as well as I do when Natalie made up her mind, she wasn't going to change it, no matter how much she might have needed to get away from him" Hana reasons with him.

"Everything happens for a reason. We had each other and so did Caleb and I," Tris smiles up at Tobias. She knew she and Tobias were meant to find each other.

"Tris, Uriah, I'm going to walk you back to the dorms," Tobias tells them getting up and remembering they would be starting their first day of training early.

Tris grabs a piece of paper and draws Max a map of where Natalie's place was in the Factionless section.

"If anyone asks why Four pulled you away, tell them we wanted to hear from one transfer and one Dauntless-born about Choosing Day for a report to the large council" Max instructs as Uriah and Tris nod and get up.

"I'll see you both on Visiting Day," Hana tells Tris and Uriah. Hana hugs Uriah and then hugs Tris pulling back and brushing her hair back and smiling.

"Can you help me do my hair on Visiting day? Mom showed me how to make the cream you two made growing up but I'm still not very good at styling it. She did this for me yesterday knowing it was Choosing Day today"

Hana feels the tears well up again. "Of course, sweetheart. I used to do your mother's hair when we were younger"

It was strange. Tris spent all her life feeling like she didn't fit in with the Abnegation, Tobias being her only refuge and now family surrounded her.

Max walks over and pulls Tris into a tight hug next. She relaxes and smiles against his chest.

"I think it's best if we don't let anyone know you are my daughter for the time being. I don't want anyone asking questions right now, especially if Erudite is plotting something, they might be up to more than we think. Let's get through initiation first."

Tris nods a little sad, but Max doesn't let go of her just yet and she feels comforted that he was so protective of her already. He was so strong yet gentle in the way he held her. She could tell he was overwhelmed with emotions just like she was.

"It won't be forever," Max soothes and kisses her forehead. And if Andrew and Marcus are into something with Jeanie, I want to know about it"

"I trust you, " Tris tells him. She wasn't sure if she should call him Dad. She had taken to calling Natalie "Mom" immediately but maybe it was because she'd never had anyone to call mother. She didn't feel conflicted about Andrew though, Father always felt so forced with Andrew, especially after she found out he wasn't her biological father. She already felt protected and loved by him in a way she had always ached to feel.

Max feels a warmth spread through his chest that he never felt before and his eyes burn with new tears threatening to spill over. He had a daughter, and she was beautiful and strong just like the love of his life. He wanted to get to know her, protect her, it was overwhelming. His life had changed forever in the past hour.

"Not a word of any of this to anyone, all of you. Four, Zeke I want to see you two tomorrow night here after dinner" Max instructs.

Hana stays after the others leave with Max pouring her a drink as he wraps up his hand with another bag of ice.

"I'm going with you," she tells him.

"No," Max says firmly.

"Max, I have to see her too" Hana argues.

"Hana, if what Tris and Four say is true, two Dauntless who aren't patrols will stick out, we can't be that obvious"

"I've missed her so much" Hana almost sobs hanging her head.

"I know. I'm going to figure something out" he promises.