Max' POV

I'm exhausted. Anytime spent with Jeanine Mathews, and I just feel worn down afterwards. It takes a vast amount of effort to remain calm and not allow her to twist my words or manipulate me, or worse, put her in her place. I need to keep my cool, at least until I learn more about her plans. It's worse, knowing that two of the five leaders have already been manipulated and are eating up every word out of her mouth. Kimberlee and Matt are formerly Erudite and are clearly Jeanine's pawns. Greg and Carol are both retiring within the next five years, so when they're gone, it'll just be me trying to keep Dauntless the way it's supposed to be. We also need to keep Erudite out of our faction and stick to our manifesto. Sometimes I wonder what dad was thinking when he handed the reins over to me and placed me as head leader. I guess, at the time, I was the only option, as neither Carol nor Greg wanted it. They needed someone who'd be around for the long hall. I hope he'd be proud of who I am and how I envision Dauntless.

Before I head down to the dining hall for dinner, I stop by the apartment, to pick up Vi and the kids. As I enter, I hear loud shrieking, laughter, giggles, and a crash. I find my 12-year-old, Charlotte, who prefers to go by Charlie, her cousin, Zeke, and their friend Shauna, in a pile of limbs, along with our now broken coffee table. I take a deep breath and let it out. This is a typical occurrence in the life of the Pedrad's.

I give them a stern look, saying, "clean it up and go down to the furniture and get a new coffee table before dinner. I'll try to distract my wife."

"Yes, dad." answers Charlie.

"Sir, yes sir." and a salute is what I get from my nephew.

"Sorry, Max." says a contrite Shauna.

They hustle through cleanup and rush out the door. I headed up the stairs to find Violet in our bedroom folding laundry.

"Do they honestly think I don't know what just happened? Do you?" asks an amused Vi.

I chuckle as I respond, "Who cares, it got them out the house for a bit, right? I said I'd distract you. I didn't say how. I'm assuming the twins are off terrorizing the compound or the city with their 'gang'?"

She smiles as she replies, "They went paintballing, and you think you're slick, don't you? At least lock the door."

So, I distract my beautiful wife. It's not the easiest thing to find time alone with three kids and their company around all the time. I have to take my chances when they come.

An hour later, the kids have the new coffee table set up and the five of us are heading down to the dining hall for dinner. We head to our usual family table, where Hana, Vi's sister, is already sitting. I go over and get trays of food for myself and Vi, while she catches up with Hana. The kids get their own food, which, of course, includes huge slices of Dauntless cake. When we got back to the table, I handed Vi her tray and sat next to her.

"So has anyone heard from our missing hellions?" asks Hana.

Vi snickers, "They're off paintballing, I doubt they'll be home before nine."

"Rude!" Zeke exclaims. "Why didn't they invite us?"

Charlie laughs out, "Probably because last time, we creamed them!"

Shauna rolls her eyes, "It's not like we always invite them when we go with our other friends."

The kids go off into their own discussion on who's the best shot with a paintball gun, while Vi, Hana, and I have a discussion about visiting day next Saturday.

"So, we're all in agreement, right? If Nat doesn't show up this year, we're all going to Abnegation to drag her here, right?" asks Vi.

"I'm not so sure I, as head leader of Dauntless, want to be seen kidnapping a member of another faction." I say, while rolling my eyes.

"Fine", says Hana. "It'll just be a sister thing. Vi and I will go to her if she doesn't show up the first hour."

"Hey, I didn't say I didn't want to come. I just said I didn't want to kidnap Nat." I say, gently, "I do want to see my little Bumble Bee. We haven't seen her since she was three, and I want to see if she's still as rambunctious now as she was then, or if Abnegation ways have quelled her Dauntless."

The last time we saw Vi's sister, Natalie Prior, was when my brother, Michael, died. He'd been out patrolling the factionless sector and there was an uprising. Hana, his widow, had got word to Nat, and she snuck into Dauntless to see us during that difficult time and brought her three-year-old, Beatrice, with her. As hard as it was for me to lose my brother, Hana had it worse. He was not just her husband, but also her best friend, and she was left alone, to raise their two boys, Zeke, who was five and Uriah, who was three. I guess I shouldn't say she was alone, she had Vi and she had me, to help. Vi left leadership to work part time at the clothing store, so she could help watch the boys, while Hana, took a full-time job in the control room, so she could get more hours and higher pay. It worked out well, since Vi was struggling between her leadership duties and raising our three young children. I know our city is big on the motto 'Faction Before Blood', but our family has always been close, and that rule has never sat well with me.

I'm pondering these thoughts when I get called to deal with two meatheads who were fighting in the bar, in the Pit. I have them escorted to my office, bid the ladies farewell, and head up to take care of business. As head leader of the faction, I'm always on duty unless I specifically take off the time for a vacation or break.

I entered the office and heard the two out. They were fighting over a woman, who isn't with either of them. They were fighting over who could go talk to her. They're both still extremely intoxicated, and it also comes out that they're best friends. I mentally face palm myself as I consider their punishment. Dauntless get rowdy all the time but when they get out of hand, we need to have some consequences. I decided to put them on duty with janitorial services for a week. They're both fence workers. So, each day, for a week, after their shift, they'll put in three hours working under our head of janitorial services. They thanked me, probably because I wasn't too severe with them, and we all left my office.

I decided to head back to the dining hall to see if my unruly 10-year-old twins had come back from their excursion. I'm sure their first order of business will be to procure food. I stand at the railing over The Pit, on the side that runs over the Cantina. I look at our usual table, and there I see my boys, Xander and Brax, my nephew, Uriah, and their friends, Lynn and Marlene. I also see an addition to their group that I don't know. I do, however, recognize her. She's smaller than the rest but still looks the same age. She has long, wavy, blonde hair, and facial features that look so familiar, but I just can't place her. She's laughing and giggling along with the rest of them. They pass her over a slice of Dauntless cake and then all look at her. That's when I realized this girl isn't from Dauntless. She's never tried Dauntless cake before, and they want to see her reaction. I head down to find out who this mysterious little girl is.

I get to the table and the gang are all laughing and patting her back. I cough to get their attention. They all turn to me. For a moment, they all look guilty but quickly wipe the guilt from their faces and try to act nonchalantly. It may have worked if I didn't know them all so well. Well, except for mystery girl.

"Dad... hi." Brax mutters. Brax has always been the quiet one in their group. Short answers. That makes him harder to read, for most people.

Then Xander, "Oh, hey dad. How's it goin'?"

I give them both looks telling them the gig is up. I look at mystery girl and ask, "And who might you be?"

She gulps and says, "I'm Beatr, I mean, I'm Bea, um... Tris. I'm Tris."

Beatr? Bea? Tris? Bea-umm-tris... Beatrice?! It's my little Bumble Bee! Well, I guess that answers that question! Abnegation or not, she's found her way home. I can't let her wander into Dauntless though, it wouldn't be safe. I need to talk to Natalie immediately. I hope she's got the emergency phone I gave her charged and that she checks it.

"Alright, I want all of you to come up to our apartment. Immediately. Don't even think of getting out of this. Clean up your trays and stack them and march. That includes you, Bumble Bee." I order with my sternest leader voice.

Bumble Bee looks at me with a mixture of expressions on her face. I see shock, horror, confusion, and curiosity. Her face! How could I not have seen it! She's so obviously a Wright girl. She looks just like her mom, and aunts, Violet and Hana. They all have different shades of hair, but their facial features are all very similar with their long noses and wide eyes. Bumble Bee must get her eye color from her dad, because I know Nat's are green like her twin sister, Hana's. Bumble Bee's are gray blue and stormy.

The kids all follow orders quickly and begin to, literally, march, up to our apartment. They're even single file. I'm shocked at how cooperative they're being, even Lynn. They must realize how much trouble they could be in. They're all walking along with their heads bowed, all except one. Bumble Bee looks around the compound with total wonder. She's taking in everything, a look of excitement on her face. When a member walks by with every visible inch of skin covered in tattoos, she looks after him, trying to get a good look at all of them. She's far too curious to just be Abnegation, just like I thought when she was three. She's far too Dauntless as well. She walks up the steep steps to the Pire without even flinching. She seems completely unbothered by the lack of a rail.

We get to the apartment, and I usher them all into the living room and have them sit down. I go upstairs to get Vi, and to place a call to Natalie. When I walk in the room, Vi can tell there's something up.

"What is it?" she asks cautiously.

"The 'gang' came home with a stray tonight." I tell her.

"That's not why you look both stressed and excited." she says, she knows me so well.

"It's Bumble Bee. We need to call Nat." I inform her. Her eyes got bigger than they normally are.

"Oh my word! It can't be!" she exclaims and runs down to see.

I call Natalie. She answers after the third ring.

"Hello?" she asks.

"Nat? It's Max." I answer.

"Hey Max, it's not really the best time, what's up?" she asks, sounding stressed.

"Would you happen to be missing a little Bumble Bee?" I ask, trying to conceal my amusement since she sounds stressed. Hopefully my finding her daughter will help ease her stress.

She almost yells out, "Yes! Do you know where she is?"

"Yup, she's right here in our apartment. I'm not sure how, but my kids and Uriah brought her to the compound tonight. I figured I'd wait for you to get here before we hear the whole story." I tell her.

"I'm on my way." she says and immediately hangs up the phone. Knowing Nat, she'll be on the next train, already in Dauntless black.