Happy Sunday! Thanks for reading, Love ya'll!


Natalie hears a sound outside the door. She reaches for her gun, but she relaxes when she hears Marlene call her as she enters. It had been a week since Tris and Max's visit, and she was a little on edge. Despite her protests, Max had made her keep his weapon, wanting her to keep more than one. She didn't really know what she was going to do just yet, but she needed to find a way to know what Evelyn was planning with Erudite.

Max had filled Natalie in on the murder of Jacob Eversley and she hoped the increase of patrols in Abnegation, which was closer to the Factionless section, would make Evelyn take time to reformulate her plans. Marlene fills her in on Caleb being elected to the council and Andrew's paranoia since the murder.

"Follow everything Tris and Tobias layout for you, you and Caleb run at the first sign of trouble. Hiding out in Dauntless will be the best option for you" Natalie assures Marlene.

"What about you?" Marlene asks hesitantly.

"Don't you worry about me, I can manage but be careful, when Andrew is backed in a corner, he starts to lash out."

Marlene nods in response. She wished she and Caleb could get as far away from Andrew and Marcus as they possibly could.

When it's time for Marlene to leave she gets up and gives Natalie a hug. Natalie notices that she hesitates before turning to the door.

"What's wrong sweetheart?"

"Well, this kind of awkward but I don't have anyone else to ask…" Marlene says feeling her cheeks blush.

Natalie motions for her to sit back down.

"Since Caleb and I are getting married in a week, and I'm excited but with everything, we just learned I don't think it's a great time to get pregnant. In Dauntless I would just go to the infirmary, but I don't know what to do here"

Natalie smiles at her future daughter-in-law. She knew all too well how difficult it was learning to navigate from being open and free in Dauntless to being reserved about things that came naturally in Abnegation.

"I understand completely, and I think that's a wise decision since the Abnegation don't believe in birth control. We don't have access to much here either. The small Abnegation hospital won't give you any, but you can get them at the Erudite hospital. See if you can ask to drop off blankets for newborns or something. Ask for a nurse named Jackie, she tries to make sure that the Factionless have access to them and other medical supplies that she pulls from the inventory in secret. "

Marlene sighs with a smile. That was a weight lifted off her shoulders. Caleb would have to understand that she needed to make this decision on her own.


Hey," Chistina says to Uriah as she sets her tray down on their usual table during dinner. "Where's everyone?"

"Lynn is at the fence, Tris and Tobias are working on some report with Max for the council meeting. I haven't seen Zeke all day"

"Yeah, I told him my eyeballs felt like they were on fire from looking at those computers on the surveillance and he told me to take a break. What did your special assignment look like today?"

"Working with the different weapons we have. If we have to outfit lots of people with weapons, I think the standard-issue weapons work well for most people, but we would need training classes for some of the non-traditional options and high-power rifles and things. Some people haven't picked up a weapon since they went through initiation. If we don't train them, it won't matter if we have sufficient firepower if no one knows how to wield them"

"I will probably be one of those people, I haven't picked up a weapon since Stage 1 of initiation." Christina sighs.

"Well, we have some time to kill before…" Uriah says dropping his voice.

Christina laughs. It had been hard when Lynn and Shauna were around to not talk about the task force. She could see the strain it was putting on Tris and Lynn's relationship. She was so happy she had Uriah, Tris, and Will to share everything with.

"I have an idea, come on, let me show you something" Uriah proclaims and then takes one huge bite to finish off his piece of chocolate cake.

Christina smiled and shrugged, and she tried to ignore the butterflies she felt in her stomach as Uriah flashed her a smile with his cheeks filled with cake.

They make their way to the indoor shooting range just off the training room. It was quiet this time of day with everyone at dinner.

'How have I never been in here?" Christina asks, looking around. All the shooting for initiation had been done outside.

"Only patrol members use this one for keeping up with their shooting"

Uriah goes to a locked door, pulls out his keys, and comes back with two guns and a box of bullets for indoor short-range shooting practice. He loads one of the guns and sets them on the table and pushes a few buttons bringing up a paper target at the end of the room.

He hands her a pair of goggles and protective earmuffs which she puts on and he does the same.

Christina takes the weapon and takes four shots at the target. The only time she had handled a gun was during initiation, she wasn't bad, but she wasn't great. She frowns when she looks at the target. She stayed close to the center, but her shots were a little all over the place.

She steps aside and Uriah aims his weapon and fires off five quick shots, all of them hitting the target directly in the center.

He laughs when Christina's mouth falls open in shock. She knew he had to be good for Max to give him the assignment of a sniper, but she hadn't expected him to be that good.

Uriah motions for her to try again. This time he stands behind her guiding her arms and fixing her stance. Christina was trying to focus on the gun, feeling the metal in her hand, looking at the target but she couldn't ignore the excitement flowing through her as Uriah's fingers gently touched her.

This time Christina's three rounds make the holes in the center from Uriah's shots wider.

They reload and Uriah puts up a fresh paper target. Christina feels more confident after a few more rounds.

She takes off her earmuffs and googles and Uriah follows.

"This was fun, thank you. I need to do this more often"

Uriah smiles at her, feeling drawn to her he steps closer.

"I can see you're more confident now, you get cocky when you're confident"

Christina could feel his eyes on her, it was intense how close they were again.

"And how do you know that" she teases.

"I notice everything about you Chris" Uriah says quietly.

Christina felt her breath hitch, and as much grief as she gave Tris for stringing along Lynn and Four, she was in her own mess. Will was great. He was sweet, attentive, all the things she should want but with Uriah, it was this pull that she couldn't explain.

"Okay then, what color are my eyes?" Christina says and quickly turns around so he can't look at her.

Uriah chuckles and steps closer to her. He leans close to her ear and runs his hand softly down her arm.

"At first glance, you think they are brown, but when the sun shines on your face you can tell they're reddish brown with little flecks of gold."

Christina turns around slowly; she looks up at Uriah. He was several inches taller than her, but he leaned his head down. All she had to do was tilt her head up to kiss him. Her heart starts to beat faster thinking about how his lips and his hands felt when they were in the closet during Candor and Dauntless.

"We should get going" Uriah whispers, not moving away from her.

"Uriah, I…" Christina now whispers.

Uriah moves a hand to stroke her hair. There was something about her being able to tell if he was lying. His being completely open and honest with her was exhilarating, something he had didn't do with other women.

"I want you, Chris, so much. You're the one that I think about late at night before I fall asleep. You're the one who makes my heart beat faster when you walk into a room. You make me stumble over words and get nervous"

Christina chuckles at that and Uriah cups her face with his hands. She bites her lip.

"I want you but only if you want me too and only if…"

"I know, Will and I are, well I" Christina stumbles over her words.

Uriah leans over and kisses her on the forehead, lingering for a bit, closing his eyes, and relishing being able to be this close to her.

"Maybe one day when your heart is free" he whispers.

"You are a good man Uriah Pedrad" Christina whispers back. It was the truth, she was conflicted. There was something between her and Uriah, but she couldn't ignore that she and Will were together.

He smiles, and he has a little bit of hope that one day she might be his.

She grabs his hand and pulls him toward the door to head to meet the rest of the task force.


Tris and Christina giggle as they take a sip of the moonshine Uriah had given them. It had been a long week and the two decided to have a girls' night and sleep over at Christina's apartment.

"So have you and Lynn…" Christina asks while waggling her eyebrows as Tris blushes.

"Yeah…." Tris says shyly.

"Well, how was it? Did you like it?" Christina presses.

Tris bites her lip as she smiles and then sighs, not sure if she should say what she is really thinking.

"It's been fun, I had no idea just how…wow…but now I'm curious…."

"How it is with a guy?" Christina finishes for her and Tris blushes nodding.

Christina takes a drink from her cup; she is happy Tris was able to explore and experience all the things she couldn't in Abnegation.

"How is it with Will? I know he wasn't your first"

"No, but it's good, he's fun and attentive and follows directions very well"

Tris narrowed her eyes at Christina, feeling like she was holding something back.

Christina liked Will, was she falling in love with him? She wasn't sure yet. Her feelings for Uriah were all mixed up in there too.

"But…" Now it was Tris' turn to press.

"But…Uriah and I almost kissed" Christina blurts it out quickly and Tris erupts in a high-pitched squeal.

"Finally!"

"I said almost kissed" Christina replies with an eye roll and pointing her finger at Tris.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"You know I could ask you the same thing" Christina challenges and she laughs and takes another drink when Tris' eyes go wide. Christina hadn't pushed her to talk about Four since her first date with Lynn.

"We've already established that you have feelings for Four"

"I…ugh...I mean he's my best friend…" Tris stammers.

"Yeah, so you keep saying but seeing you two together, especially if you get a quiet moment alone, it's obvious, from both of you"

"How do you keep from hurting someone when you have feelings for both people?" Tris asks quietly, setting her cup down.

"Tris if I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be as confused as I am"


Lynn watches Tris and Four across the pit. Tris was laughing and so was Four. She looked so carefree and beautiful. Four stops and looks at her. Lynn had seen that look before. He was in love with her, she was sure of it. Tris maintained that they were friends, but it still made her uneasy. Catching them in moments like this, like they were the only two people in the world.

That's how the argument started the next day before Lynn left to go to the fence.

"What do you expect me to do Lynn? He's my best friend, we work together, and I've told you repeatedly that there's nothing going on between us" Tris huffs pulling her shirt over her head.

She cared about Lynn, but with this being her first real relationship, she was having trouble navigating this situation. With all that she and Tobias had been through together, she would never walk away from him, she couldn't.

"You are so secretive, you two are always disappearing, whispering with each other. How are we supposed to be together if you can't trust me to tell me anything?" Lynn huffs, her voice cracking as she sits on the bed.

Tris feels the weight of all the things she had been keeping from Lynn on her shoulders at that moment. She sits down on the bed next to Lynn. She and Tobias were complicated. Christina had made her realize that her feelings for Tobias were jumbled. She wasn't sure if she should

"Lynn, some things between Four and I aren't for me to share but you know about my mother having an affair and me growing up with not knowing who my real father was."

Tris stops her eyes burning as she thinks back to two years ago when she didn't know her mother was still alive, and she thought Andrew was her father. Even with the city on the verge of war that most of them had no idea was coming, she was still happier than she had ever been.

Lynn grabs her hand and squeezes.

"The man who raised me, his idea of discipline was beating my brother and me, locking us in closets, leaving us without food…"

"Tris…" Lynn whispers. She knew Tris had some scars and she had gotten a tattoo to cover them, but it never occurred to her how she got them.

"That's why I got the tattoo on my back, Four and I got the same thing…. Four and I have been through so much together…" Tris chokes out, tears falling now.

"I'm sorry…I…"

Tris shakes her head and squeezes Lynn's hand. It was still hard to talk about.

"That's one of the reasons we came here, to get away, I didn't fit in, …. And before Choosing Day, my world got turned upside down even more. I found out that my mother was made factionless, for having the affair, the same affair where I was conceived, and I found out she was still alive…I spent my whole life thinking she was dead and so did my dad and my Aunt Hana"

Lynn gasps.

"So even though we aren't supposed to, my dad and I have been going to see my mom, he didn't know she was alive either"

"I'm sorry," Lynn tells her feeling guilty for feeling jealous now.

Tris nodded, it still wasn't the whole truth, but it felt good to at least tell Lynn that much. She couldn't go into the work of the task force, but she thought maybe in a few more weeks she could.

"Thank you, for telling me, I want to be here for you,"

Tris leans her head on Lynn's shoulder. She needed to deal with her feelings for Tobias, but she had a feeling in her gut that Lynn was going to get hurt in the process.


Evelyn follows Cara and Eric. She had been thrilled when Jeanine finally agreed to meet with her. It felt strange to her, being back in Erudite. Even though she'd grown up here, she never quite felt like she belonged.

Eric punches in a code and a door that is hidden opens revealing a tunnel. Jeanine smells the almost forgotten smell of the cleaning solution they used for the labs. She hated it growing up.

Cara and Eric led her through another door with an access code and into an elevator. When they emerge the door which was the private entrance takes them into a small office.

"Have a seat, Jeanine will be with you shortly" Cara tells her.

"I have some information that might help you swing Dauntless to your side"

"How do you know this information will be beneficial to me?"

"No matter what mode of attack you take going at Dauntless is going to cost you time, resources, and lives, what if you had something to make Max negotiate?"

"I'm listening," Jeanine says intrigued. She'd done her homework on Evelyn; she was Erudite born and she wasn't sure what made her leave for Abnegation. She'd been shocked to find out that Marcus had faked her death and made her factionless.

"I want to know what you're offering me first?" Evelyn says leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.

"We will grant you asylum in Erudite provided that you cooperate with us and give you the opportunity to act as a liaison to the Factionless"

"Liaison" Evelyn scoffs. "Why would I agree to that, the Factionless deserve a place"

"They had a place, why would I reward them for losing that place?"

Evelyn feels her blood boil with Jeanine's arrogance.

"We out number you…"

"And you don't have access to resources, food, or supplies, numbers will only get you so far"

Evelyn rolls her tongue over the back of her teeth realizing that Jeanine had a point. She needed to get inside and get access to the information Jeanine had if she was going to get control of the serum. She had part of a plan, and the rest would come together.

"You have a deal," Evelyn says and Jeanine sits back with a smile. The city was hers for the taking when the time was right.

"Now, what is this information that will sway Max?"

"His family, that's the key to getting him on your side"

"I already know he has a daughter, who is in Dauntless which makes it difficult to get to her, you''ll have to do better than that" Jeanine challenges.

"But do you know who her mother is?"

Jeanine furrows her eyebrows not liking that she had missed this part of the story that Eric reported about Max's child.

"Natalie Prior and I can tell you where to find her," Evelyn says with a sinister smile.

Jeanine narrows her eyes. If Natalie Prior was still alive, she was about to have Max St. James eating out of the palm of her hand.