Something was off with Bea, Tobias could tell. He wasn't sure what it was and was even less sure if she would tell him, but he needed to try. Eric had tried to send a message by pairing her to fight against Peter. It was unbearable for Tobias to watch. He needed to make sure she knew why he had left, and that she needed to be careful.

Before Bea left for lunch, Tobias decided to call out for her. "Tris? Can I talk to you for a second?"

She stopped walking to say something to the Candor transfer—Christina maybe?—and walked over.

"We should talk."

Bea nodded but avoided his eyes as she sat down on the bench.

"Yes?" Her voice was tentative and cautious. It was a tone Tobias was all too familiar with—it was his preferred tone of voice after all.

Why did Bea feel like she needed to be cautious around him?

He caught sight of the bruise that had already begun to form on her cheek. It made him grimace, bringing back the sick feeling in his stomach that he had felt during the fight. Screw Eric for putting her against Peter like that.

"Are you alright?" Tobias crouched in front of her so that he was at the same height as her and could look her in her eyes. She raised her eyes to meet his and for a split second, he saw raw fear and pain. He gently brushed against her cheek with his fingers, pulling back when she winced.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It doesn't hurt, I promise."

Tobias looked at her in disbelief. The punch should have hurt more than she was letting on. Peter had raw strength, a punch from him would hurt anyone. Either she was used to punches, or she was lying about the pain. Or both.

"I doubt that," his hand went to her side to reassure her. She flinched when his fingertips brushed her side but seemed to try to hide it, "where else did he hurt you?"

A fierce look filled her eyes. "You would know if you had stayed to watch the whole thing, wouldn't you?"

Tobias winced. "Does it really bother you that I left?" Her silence answered for itself, "I'm sorry. I couldn't watch, watch you get thrown around like that. It made me sick." Bea broke her stare, choosing instead to look intensely at the ground. "Look. Something is clearly the matter. You haven't been yourself at all lately. What's going on? Is it something I did?" Desperation filled his voice as he finally revealed what had been troubling him.

This is it. This is where she leaves me because I'm too needy and overbearing.

Ever since Tobias had left Abnegation, all he had looked forward to was for her to come to join him in Dauntless. Except now that she was finally there she seemed like a different person. To be fair, he was too. He had a completely different name for fuck's sake. But she had been distant since the moment she fell into that net, almost as if she was a shell of her full self. They used to be able to trust each other with things like that, and he didn't know why she felt like she couldn't anymore.

"What? No, you did nothing. I promise, Tobias. I'm fine, just a bit overwhelmed with initiation."

"You know, when people say they are fine, they normally mean the exact opposite."

Red tinted her cheeks while she kept her eyes cast downwards towards the floor. "Seriously, Tobias. I'm ok. "

"You aren't hurting anywhere?"

"I mean, I just got beat up by the biggest kid in our initiation class. I'm as good as can be after that." She lifted her head, meeting his eyes with hers. He was taken aback by the exhaustion in them along with pain and fear. They were grey, like storm clouds mixed with light blue, like water. Water, reflecting a cloudy sky.

"Do you want me to get ice for your side?" Her eyebrows raised in surprise. "You winced when I touched your side earlier." Bea looked conflicted. Tobias sighed softly, "ice would help minimize soreness for tomorrow, plus gives you an excuse for when you go back."

Tris reluctantly nodded, so Tobias stood up and went over to the small first aid station in the corner. It was where anyone could go and get wraps or ice or any other variety of care for training. He scooped some ice into a plastic bag, twisted it into a knot, and then walked back over to Tris. He pressed it against the side he had touched before.

"Do you want me to wrap it so it stays on for you?"

Tris shook her head. "It's good, thank you."

"Okay, if you need anything, let me know."

"I will. I better get going before Christina comes looking for me."

Tobias nodded, squeezing her hand tightly. The feeling in his gut was yelling at him to force her to tell him what was upsetting her. Something felt wrong. Really wrong. But Bea was refusing to tell him, and the last thing he wanted to do was make her feel uncomfortable by demanding it out of her. He would have to wait and show her the patience she showed him all those years ago in Abnegation. He realized how frustrating that must have been for her—wanting to do nothing but help and be there but not being able to without knowing what was going on in the first place.

"Ok, I love you."

Bea offered him a small smile back and a lingering peck on the cheek. "Love you too."

She left quickly, preventing Tobias from saying anything else. He leaned against one of the pillars, letting out a deep sigh. First, she couldn't come to the meetings with him in the training rooms, and now something was weighing on her and for whatever reason she felt like she couldn't talk to him about it. It felt like she was trusting him less and less, but he didn't know what he was doing, or not doing, to make her lose trust in him.

Did she want to break up with him? Was a relationship too much for her? Was she just figuring out how to tell him?

He felt his heart start to beat faster.

Was this it? Had she finally realized what a mess he was and that she deserved better?

His stomach sunk.

That couldn't be true, could it? She said she loved him, she still gave him the time of day, and she showed that she cared. She wouldn't lie and do all of that just to put off breaking up, would she?

You're getting too much in your head. Stop it, before it gets worse.

Tobias wrapped his hands to start a punching routine. It was one of the things that calmed him down best and forced his mind to take a backseat while he pushed his muscles to their limit. Something had to have happened in Abnegation while he was gone. She wouldn't be acting like this otherwise.

Maybe Marcus got to her.

No, she would tell him. The signs were there, and he would have to be more careful to look out for the signs, but he didn't think that could be the case. They had made a good plan to avoid him and Bea was more than capable of pulling through with it. Sure, Marcus was manipulative and sneaky. But if he had gotten to her, Tobias wanted to believe she would have told him.

After multiple punching sets, his knuckles were searing in pain. The tough fabric of the punching bag aggravated them more every time they beat against it. At least Bea was doing well in initiation. Despite her worries, she was already in the top three spots. There was little to no chance she would be cut. As long as Eric stayed away and she stopped provoking him, she would be good. More than good, honestly.

Would she tell Tobias if Marcus had hurt her?

It had taken him years to trust her enough to even want to share. They had promised each other no more secrets, but he could imagine she would justify keeping it secret by wanting to protect him. Even if she refused to admit it, Bea was selfless.

If Marcus hurt her, the last person to find out would be him, if Bea had any say in it.

Thump. Thump. His fists hit the leather of the bag harder.

The way she flinched whenever someone got close. The nightmares that kept her from sleeping. Her hesitancy around him. Her casualness around injuries. It all led to the same conclusion.

Marcus abused her too.

And she wasn't going to tell him anytime soon, presumably so he wouldn't feel guilty.

Dread sunk its claws into his skin, seeping into every crevice of his body. The punching bag flew as rage like Tobias had never known mixed with dread.

How dare his father even touch her?

It wasn't fair. She didn't deserve to know or understand any of the horrors that occurred underneath that roof. It was his fault. How could she stand to look him in the eyes? He shared the same eyes as his father; he could only imagine the emotions she was working through.

That bastard. It was one thing to hit him, he long ago decided he deserved it and learned to cope. Bea didn't. Bea didn't have a back calloused with old whip marks, or a list of the small things that hinted at Marcus's mood and how badly you would be beaten that night. She didn't know the hunger he felt there or the panic of being locked in that closet.

Well, she didn't until sometime in the past few months.

"Fuck." Tobias gasped. Tears were starting to sting behind his eyes. Thankfully, no one was in the training room when he finally let himself break down. He fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around himself as sobs wracked his frame. Nothing processed in his brain other than how sorry he was to her. How unforgivable this was.

After some amount of time passed, he collected himself enough to start drawing in deep breaths. Should he confront her? Ask her if it was true?

As soon as the idea came to him he realized it wasn't feasible. If she had asked him in the training room back in Abnegation, he would have spooked and run off. No, she would tell him when she was ready to talk about it. Until then, he'd be there for her and support her how he could.

Tobias tore the bloody wraps from his hands and sat on the bench, chugging water. The initiates wouldn't be back until the next day, and while he should probably head to his apartment and take the chance to rest, his body refused. It still needed to stay active to keep his mind off of Bea. He had been thinking and worrying about her too much lately. While she was almost always in the back of his mind, he normally didn't worry about her as much as he had lately.

Tobias let out a sigh, knowing the next step to distract his mind. He left the training room to head towards the all too familiar fear landscape room. He took a deep breath of the damp air outside of the training room, enjoying the lack of sweat smell and the soft buzz of people milling around. He always seemed to end up here, to go through his fear landscape. After finishing initiation, most people never came back since there wasn't any reason to unless you were proving yourself.

Tobias wasn't most people.

Since his initiation, he had visited the fear landscape at least once a week. He never really expected his fears to change or to lose one, but the consistency was reassuring.

Tobias pulled out the syringe filled with the serum. His fingers steadily injected himself with it, having long ago memorized the steps. He stuck the connectors on his head and closed his eyes to wait until everything turned dark and he woke up somewhere else.

Sorry for the short chapter! I didn't want to combine two different scenes, and I thought it would be good to have a solid Tobias chapter to kind of show where he is right now. Please tell me what you thought! I hope you guys enjoyed it! Thank you for all of your continued support and comments. It means a ton to me.

DFTBA,

thebooktrooper