Hey, ya'll! Life has been beating my tail lately so I'm just trying to keep my head above water and my schedule has been all thrown off. Hope you like this chapter and hopefully it won't be as long between chapters. Love ya'll!
After Christina and Uriah's lunch, they both went back to work. Uriah was doing weapons training for those assigned to the front lines in the war plans. Harrison and Chavis had her interviewing members. She had started with the housekeeping staff, making sure everyone was loyal to Dauntless. Next up were those guarding the perimeter. She was exhausted, she knew she'd seen at least 25 people that afternoon and 2 she pegged as lying about being in support of Dauntless. Harrison had instructed them to be put in the holding cells. Max and Harrison were both hoping that they would talk if any underground networks were working with Erduite still inside Dauntless even though Eric was gone.
"How did you know I was down here?"
Since initiation ended, after a long day of integrating people or when she missed her mom and sister, she would sit by the rocks at the bottom of the Chasam to relax her mind. Tris had shown her this place and she immediately fell in love. Even when she and Will were together, she would escape down here. The one thing she hadn't expected, in those quiet moments where she would sit looking at the water, was Uriah being there. Most times they didn't talk, they just sat there watching the water churn and swirl. Today was one of those days. When Christina hears a noise, she turns and gives a soft smile to Uriah. Even though she had lunch with him earlier, she had missed him.
He silently approaches, takes his usual seat, takes a swig from a flask, and then passes it to Christina. She accepts, and after taking a sip she coughs as the liquor burns going down.
Ever since Zeke showed him this place, he would come down here to be alone too. It was good being the life of the party, the person everyone looked to when they needed a laugh but something was calming about the water, and he could enjoy the quiet. He knew Zeke, Shauna, and Four came down sometimes too but it was nice when he was alone and wanted to think. He had spent so much time down here looking at the water thinking about Christina. He had found her down here a few times, thinking and he knew when he didn't see her at dinner, she would end up here at some point tonight.
"What the hell was that?" She chokes out causing Uriah to let out a deep belly laugh. The sound of Uriah's laughter causes Christina to laugh too.
"Zeke and I were trying to make a new recipe"
"Well, this is horrible, start over again" They both start laughing again.
"Hard afternoon?" He asks, taking another swig.
"You have no idea. It's hard talking and reading people all day. Looking for flaws. I'm so nervous I'm going to miss something important and mess up..."
Uriah blows out a breath, they were under so much pressure, they all felt it.
"I know it's hard, but you can do this. I know you can"
Christina sighs again. The entire city depended on them to save it and she had no idea if they could.
"Come on, Let's get some food in you, I've got a bottle of the stuff you like at home, I'll meet you at your place"
Christina gives in and goes back to her apartment. 30 minutes later Uriah arrives with some fried chicken, dauntless cake, and an older bottle of he and Zeke's moonshine that he knew Christina liked.
"I can't believe you did that" Christina laughs as Uriah tells her a story of the time, he and Zeke got in trouble for setting off firecrackers in the cafeteria. They had eaten and had a few drinks, Christina was in a much better mood now.
"Ma grounded us for a month, she was furious" he chuckles at the memory.
He looks at his watch. "It's late I should let you get some sleep" His tone was soft and comforting.
"Thanks for being there for me Uri" Christina replies in the same soft tone as him.
"Anytime, Babe" Christina feels her heart flutter at his words. She didn't know if it was the stress of the day, but she knew she didn't want him to leave.
"Uri, stay a little longer, please, until I fall asleep"
Uriah's heart aches at the sound of her voice, he can't tell her no.
"How about you go take a shower and get ready for bed, I'll clean up from dinner"
Christina smiles and does just that. When she finishes, she grabs a t-shirt and pair of shorts and finds Uriah lounging on the couch flipping through a new book she had just picked up but hadn't started reading yet. Uriah opens up his arms and Christina settles into him, stretching her legs out the length of the couch.
"Have you read this?" she asked, taking the book from him.
"No, but it looks interesting"
"Why don't you read some of it, I haven't started it yet"
Uriah shrugs and starts reading the first chapter out loud, enjoying Christina snuggled up against him. Halfway through the second chapter, he looks down and she's fast asleep. Uriah scoops her up and carries her to bed. He tucks her in and kisses her on the forehead.
"Don't go, stay with me please" Christina mumbles as she scoots over in the bed to leave space for him. He was committed to taking things slow with her. He contemplates for a second and then says the hell with it. Uriah takes his shirt off and his pants leaving him in his boxers. He crawls into the bed and Christina instantly snuggles into him. He swears Christina sighs contentedly as he wraps an arm around her waist.
"Good night, Uri"
"Good night, Chris"
Tris slides on her shoes as she sits on her couch. She promised Lynn they would meet up that night. She knew she wanted Tobias, but she didn't want to hurt Lynn. Just thinking about it made her head swim. She had no idea if she was going to break up with Lynn tonight or if she even should tell her about Tobias.
She frowns when she hears a knock at the door, not knowing who it could be. She bites her lip when she opens the door to reveal Tobias on the other side.
"Hey, I brought these documents Max requested for us to go over tonight, he wants a report out first thing in the morning," Tobias says as he strides into her apartment after she opens the door and tosses a folder on Tris' table.
Tris nods, her breath hitched as she watches Tobias move across the room. He was wearing a simple black shirt but it was tightly pulled across his chest and she could see his tattoo peaking above the collar. She unconsciously licked her lips as she remembered how he had peppered her tattoo with kisses a few nights ago. She hadn't seen him in a few days and it was like something just came over her when she was around him.
Tobias grins at her body language. Without saying a word she jumps on him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him, and all thoughts of meeting up with Lynn are forgotten. Tobias doesn't miss a beat, lifting her up and carrying her to the bedroom.
"I really did come over here to go over work stuff" Tobias teases as he catches his breath looking up at the ceiling an hour later.
Tris lets out a hearty laugh as she puts her hands over her face. Tobias turns his head and starts to laugh at seeing her smile. Tobias pulls on his boxers and goes to grab the folders he brought from the living room. He drops them on the bed leaving one in his hand to look through. Amar had received this new information that Amar had received from Caleb when they returned from Candor.
"If Erudite was using Abnegation and factionless in their experiments before Dauntless and they expected Dauntless to turn a blind eye, don't you think Marcus and Andrew would have been keeping track and wanted more information?" Tobias reasons.
"What did Caleb find?" Tris asks as she sits up wrapping the sheet around her. She nodded her head; the thought had crossed her mind before.
Tobias grabs another folder and Tris grins as she watches him stand by the bed in nothing but his boxers.
"Enjoying yourself?" Tobias teases seeing Tris looking him up and down.
"Immensely" She grins and reaches for the folder he had in his hands, when he doesn't let go she tugs harder and he leans down to kiss her as he playfully tugs on the folder again before breaking the kiss and finally letting go.
"Puts some clothes on, I can't think straight with you naked" Tobias groans and she giggles opening the folder as Tobias sits down on the end of the bed.
Tris shakes her head with a laugh but still reaches to grab his discarded t-shirt by the bed to pull on his shirt over her before moving to sit near him on the edge of the bed.
Tris scans the first two pages, her eyebrows furrowed as she takes in the information. Caleb was able to install the same tracking device they had on Andrew's computer on a second computer that Marcus had in his office and they were hoping this new information would give them some insight into Jeanine's plans.
"According to this information, Abnegation is providing counts of Divergent to Erudite, and here are the altered death certificates of several members"
"Do you think they reported all the aptitude test data to Erudite since Abnegation administered the tests?" Tris asks looking over the folder she had.
"I'd bet on it" Tobias reasons. "This is proof we needed against Andrew and Marcus"
"This has been going on for at least five or six years" Tris gasps as she reads.
Tobias sighs. He shouldn't be shocked by anything Marcus and Andrew had done.
"Hmmm...Do you have that document with the serum information?" Tris asks looking at the papers.
Tobias grabbed another folder and handed it to her.
"We need to talk to Aunt Hana and Will, I think I know why the antidote hasn't been working"
"Good morning Sleepy Head," Christina teases as Uriah yawns as he emerges from her bedroom and she stirs the eggs in the pan on the small stove in her kitchen.
With both of them working on the task force, everyone had been putting in long hours. It was nice to sleep in for once. Max had come back from Candor with a change of plans and informed them they would be heading to Amity the following day after he needed to spend some time dealing with another issue. Uriah was grateful for the extra downtime.
"You making breakfast?" he grins.
"Umm hmmm. I bet you thought I couldn't cook" She chuckles.
He kisses her on the cheek before going into the fridge to grab some orange juice. It was odd, they had spent the night together, with no sex, just cuddling and talking. Now waking up to her cooking breakfast, it was comfortable, and Christina found herself opening up to him more and more.
"Ha, what do you want to do today? I feel like we haven't had a day off in forever"
"Can we get out of here? I feel like I want some fresh air"
"Hmmm, get dressed, I have an idea"
An hour later Christina and Uriah are jumping on the train, the sound of the metal squeaking as it rolls along the tracks.
"Amity?" Christina asks as she looks at the city getting smaller in the wind whips her hair. Christina had only been to Amity once during initiation during their field trip to the fence.
"Yeah, we have a while before we have to jump," Uriah confirms. He figured with Max and the rest of the leaders heading out the following day, it wouldn't be a problem for him to be there already. He and Harrison needed to finalize testing some weapons before the snowstorm hit.
They settle on the floor of the train with Christina sitting between his legs and leaning back into his chest; Christina tells Uriah about missing her sister Rose and her mom and how hard it was for her to leave her family. It had hit her hard, learning that they were trying to persuade the Candor leaders to take refuge in Dauntless.
Uriah rubs his hands up and down her arms in a comforting motion and realizes how lucky he was, choosing the faction he was born into, still being able to see his mother and brother every day, and now learning that Tris was his cousin, he had a natural support system.
They hop off and Uriah shows Christina the barracks where the Dauntless guarding the fence stay. Uriah was here at least twice a month as part of his job as the ambassador to Amity.
"This is kind of amazing" Christina breathes as she looks out at the long line of apple trees.
"Uriah!" A voice calls from near the barracks "I heard you were out here today"
"Gabe, What's good?" Uriah greets the man coming toward them.
"Chris this is Gabe, he's one of the supervisors out here at the fence"
"Nice to meet you" Christina smiles and extends her hand and they shake.
"Hey, There was a fight last night, and one of the guards broke an ankle, It's a fucking mess, I was in the middle of sending a weapons request back up but I got caught up, do you think you could take it for me? I'm not going to be able to make it back up to Dauntless for a few days. They have us changing all the schedules to help put more people on the perimeter"
"Sure, no problem. I should probably speak to Johanna while I'm here, the rest of the leaders are coming tomorrow"
Christina and Uriah grab the needed reports and Uriah does a quick rundown of what was in stock. As they make their way toward the main Amity building, Uriah waves as Johanna approaches them.
"Uriah, good to see you! Is something wrong for us to see you today?" Johanna greets them.
"No, wanted to get out of the city and get some fresh air today, but ended up needing to handle some business while we were here. I thought I would stop in to say hello. The rest of the leaders will be here tomorrow to discuss something important with you so I'm planning to stay the night. This is Chris, my umm, my, she uh works in Factions Relations with me"
Christina smiles as Uriah stumbles over his words. They hadn't spoken about their relationship, they were just existing, but it wasn't a secret anymore how he felt about her.
"Nice to meet you, Johanna, this is my first time visiting Amity other than our trip to the fence during initiation"
"Well, we must give you a tour," Johanna smiles but Christina can see the worry in her eyes. The leaders making an unplanned visit meant something was going on. There had been rumblings and she could tell something was going on with the latest council meeting being canceled, she just wasn't sure what yet.
"While I'm here Johanna, Harrison and I want to test out some long-range weapons, I wanted to see if there was an area that we could use that would be away from the farms or houses"
"Oh yes, how about I drive you out there so Christina can see things too since you are spending the night, I can have one of the cabins prepared for you"
Since Amity was so far away, there were several cabins Amity kept for when Faction leaders were visiting.
"That sounds great"
The relationship with Dauntless had surprisingly improved in the last six months, and Johanna contributed that to Uriah. He was good-natured and didn't turn his nose up at the free spirits and ways of Amity. She had personally let Max know how Uriah made sure the Dauntless at the fence had shorter rotations which improved their disposition and presence in Amity.
As they make their way into Johanna's office the sound of a car catches their attention
Christina grabs Uriah by the arm.
"Erudite" she whispers. There was a perimeter being set up, and an Erudite car getting through to Amity, was odd. Jeanine must have found a way to get past the Dauntless patrol.
"Expecting them?" Uriah asks as he sees the puzzled look on Johanna's face.
"No, not at all…. You two go in there, I don't want them to know you are here" What would Jeanine Matthews be doing out here? Especially after Uriah just said the Dauntless leaders were making the trip the next day.
Christina and Uriah slip into a closet across from Johanna's desk. It was tight, but Christina left the door cracked just enough to have a clear view of Johanna and Jeanine. Uriah could see two of the men accompanying her and one was Eric. He was wearing Erudite blue but Uriah recognized him from one of the pictures on the taskforce board.
"Well to what do we owe this surprise, Jeanine? It's not often that we see you here in Amity" Jeanine gives a fake smile. She detested Amity and in the 10 years she had been the leader of Erdudite, she had only visited when the entire council was requested.
"I wanted to speak with you privately about the concerning situation with Dauntless and Abnegation"
"Wouldn't this discussion be better suited for a Council Meeting? I find it odd the last meeting was suddenly canceled"
"I have some troubling news. It feels as if the time has come for us to address an issue regarding the safety of the city. I felt it was my duty to bring this to you personally" Jeanine informs her.
Uriah and Christina look at each other in the closet wondering what Jeanine is playing at.
"I know Abnegation has been asking for increased rations. We are concerned that this is putting a strain on the city's resources with Abnegation taking the additional rations to provide handouts to the factionless. I was hoping you could see that I get a food production report monthly."
"Tea?" Johanna asks and Jeanine waves her hand.
Jeanine nods and lets Johanna pour her a cup.
"And why is this not being addressed in the large council meeting? Why come to Amity first?" Johanna presses again.
"I feel as though Abnegation is slipping, they are more concerned with feeding the factionless than the good of the other factions. The other factions are going to have to speak up about this and we should be prepared to make a united front. It's time for Abnegation to move aside from running the government"
Johanna sips her tea. She knew this scenario wasn't adding up. She was Candor born after all and she could see Jeanine was not being truthful.
"I see, but I want to make sure nothing is missed, Is all of this concern just based on increased food rations? if we are considering removing Abnegation from having sole power over governing the factions, this could have serious implications."
"I've spoken with Max, and he's come to see how poorly things have been being run as well. Amity is working day and night on food production, Erudite wants to be as responsive to your needs as we can"
Christina narrows her eyes as she listens, she can see Jeanine through the small opening in the closet door.
"Is there something I'm missing here Jeanine?" Johanna asks bluntly.
"Things are tense in the city if people start taking a side, I just want to know that Amity will support Erudite in running the government"
"So, your solution is to transfer power from one faction to another, how does that solve the problem?"
"Erudite is looking at science and how we can improve things, not giving away all our resources"
"Amity is here to serve as we always have been, but we will not be party to division or taking sides"
"When the time comes Johanna, you may have to pick a side, remember that. And who's going to protect you? Dauntless? They'll leave you high and dry at a moment's notice. You might want to start looking for other allies"
"And what is Amity to do? Pick up arms against Dauntless and Abnegation? Even if there was no other option, my people aren't soldiers Jeanine, and will not participate in violence. You know how this works. You are also well aware that Amity makes our decisions together"
"I might be able to help with that, Erudite is perfecting a new serum that will help enhance certain abilities or qualities in people should the need arise"
Christina and Uriah's eyes go wide that Jeanine is showing her hand right now, and Uriah puts a finger over his lips to remind her to keep quiet.
"You would be willing to inject people to create soldiers for your war for power?"
"Oh, self-righteous now are we when you drug your faction with peace serum every day" Jeanie challenges.
Johanna doesn't say anything, Jeanine was finally showing her true colors.
"Remember who offered to help you, Johanna, A time will come when you will be begging for allies"
Jeanine gives her an icy stare and gets up heading back to her car followed by Eric and the other man. Uriah and Christina stay quiet in the closet until Johanna calls for them to come out.
When Johanna moves to speak Uriah motions his head toward the door. He didn't trust Erudite to not leave a bug to listen in on Johanna's conversation. They quietly exit and Johanna takes them to a truck where she drives them to a place outside the west-end farms. Uriah smiles as he sees Christina's eyes go wide as they pass the apple orchards, cow pastures, and then rows of potatoes.
"Wow," Uriah breathes when they reach a small area with an open field and a small pond, near the edge of the wall. There was a small run-down cabin.
"This is beautiful" Christina agrees.
"We've been looking at how we can use this area for crop rotation or fishing, but it's been unused for quite a while. This used to be housed for sheep herding" Johanna explains as she motions to the fences "But it was too isolated the sheep were moved to another area closer to the sheering site. Dauntless doesn't generally patrol this far unless it's the regular drive-by once a month of the perimeter of the fence"
"Was this the first time Jeanine approached you like this?" Uriah asks as he crosses his arms across his chest. He already knew Christina was studying her reactions just like in the office.
"Yes, I've been privy to the conversations in council meetings. In the last year or so Erudite has been asking more and more questions about the amount of food we are producing, how much are Abnegation and Dauntless requesting, and how much was Abnegation requesting the factionless. We've been a little behind production as the city grows but we had a hard winter last year. It happens in farming"
Johanna looks as though she's putting the puzzle pieces together in her mind. And Christina nods at Uriah, letting him know she thought Johanna was telling the truth.
"Is there something you remember?" Christina probes.
"It seems like the push on Abnegation giving more food to the factionless started around that same time"
"You think Jeanine fanned the flame to make it look like Abnegation was giving more food to the factionless to create conflict" Christina reasons.
Johanna nods her head.
"She's sent plenty of Erudite here to ask questions, asked to observe things but she has never set foot here before now if it wasn't a visit with all the council leaders"
"Her plan must be ramping up to the next phase" Uriah reasons aloud. "Look Johanna, This is worse than you could even imagine. You can't trust her. I'll do everything I can to protect you and the rest of Amity, but this is about to get ugly. Max is seeing things in a different light now, he's not on Jeanie's side. He's coming tomorrow to show you everything we've gathered about Erudite and it's not good."
Johanna takes a deep breath. Reading between the lines she could tell the factions were on the brink of cracking. She had to think long and hard about how to get her faction through the storm that was brewing. Even with Uriah's promise, they needed to prepare and that wasn't going to be an easy sell. Amity would never agree to take up arms against anyone.
"Did I pass your test?" Johanna asks curiously and Uriah shakes his head with a laugh and Christina raises her eyebrows in question.
"I am Candor born, Christina, I must say that you have taken your upbringing and turned it into a great skill for Dauntless. You two work well together."
Christina chuckles. "I can tell you are being honest Johanna, but Jeanine on the other hand shifts her shoulders when she's lying. " Johanna lets out a laugh having picked up on the same thing.
"Max needs to be careful, whatever Jeanine's plan is, it's bigger than we think if she's already making threats and looking to rope in Amity" Johanna reasons even though she only knew a small amount at this point.
"You will learn everything when the leaders get here tomorrow. I still want to sweep your office and the outside and I need to radio Harrison and tell him about Jeanine's surprise visit"
Johanna nods and a chill goes down her spine. Things were worse than she anticipated.
