Finding The Courage

Part 63

When I woke up Tris was the only one in the room. She sat with two muffins from breakfast in her hands. The rest of breakfast was already gone. When I sat up she made her way over to me and held one out.

"You're right." She said sitting at the edge of the bed. I took the muffin from her.

"I'm sorry I called you a bitch."

"I'm sorry I never told you I was jealous. You're right. You and Tobias have risked your lives for me so many times and I have never appreciated that you do it because you care."

"Friends fight." I nudged her with my foot and shot her a smile. "At the end of the day we always find a way to make up. We care about each other fiercely and sometimes that comes out as anger." I was still mad at her but she had taken the first step in bringing me a peace offering and an apology. It was my turn to make the effort. She smiled at me.

"I was hoping you would come with me to see Matthew, I haven't seen Tobias and I think he might be able to give us more information than Nita did if we play our cards right. You always were better with your words."

"You mean manipulative?" I smirked at her as I finished off my muffin. Tris opened her mouth to correct me then closed it again.

"That's not what I meant. Besides Matthew looks at you the same way Eric used to and I figure it couldn't hurt to have you there especially if you dress up a little." I nodded and headed to the showers. When I came back to the room I noticed Tris had laid out clothes on my bed. There was a long sleeved black shirt that wouldn't cover my collar bone and a skirt that was a deep red color.

"Where did you find a skirt?" I laughed. "I have never seen one like this." Tris grinned at me.

I slipped on the shirt first and tucked into the skirt. It was a weird feeling to have my legs bar again. Tris handed me some long socks that covered most of my legs but left a little skin to be seen. I slipped on my boots and let my hair out of its braids. I checked to make sure my mother's necklace was tucked into my shirt still while the opal one rested softly against my throat. I did a little twirl for Tris and we exited the room.

When we arrived in Matthew's office we both noticed a beige sweater that was draped over the forever empty chair in the room. Tris sat in the chair and I perched on the edge of the desk. Tris was examining her knuckles, I noticed that they were split and bruised. Matthew was talking quickly, having barely glanced at us when we came in. I was staring off into space when Tris's voice brought me back.

"So you're making it easier to set up another city experiment? You don't need to inject everyone when you can have the serums spread through the air."

"Exactly!" Matthew exclaimed. "It's a better model to allow for members to opt out of being affected too. You choose who to inoculate and the virus serum spreads within a day with no effect on them." Tris and I both nodded. I turned around when I noticed Tris was actually looking at Matthew now. He had a coffee cup raised to his mouth and was taking in both of our appearances. "You okay? I heard security had to pull you off of someone last night." I turned to look at Tris, it explained her knuckles.

"It was Caleb." She said to me when she noticed my raised eyebrow, "My brother." she explained to Matthew.

"What did he do this time?"

"Nothing really. I was wired to explode anyway. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Tris was fiddling with her sweater sleeve between her fingers. I could tell she wanted to explain everything to Matthew but couldn't decide if he was worth trusting.

"So I heard something yesterday." I stated turning back around to face Matthew. "About the Bureau, our city, and the simulations." I watched his face to see his reaction. He straightened up immediately and shot Tris and I a funny look.

"Hmm?" I hummed at his reaction.

"Did you hear it from Nita?"

"How did you know?" I leaned a little closer to him invading his personal space trying to make him uncomfortable.

"I've helped her a few times, like letting her into the storage room. Did she say anything else?"

"Something about a plan." I answered vaguely.

"Is it happening, do you know when?" Matthew had gotten up and walked around the desk to get closer to me.

"What's going on?" Tris interrupted our staring contest. "Why would you help Nita?"

"Because this genetic damage business is ridiculous." He answered Tris. "It's important that you tell me when." He had turned back to me.

"Yea it's happening but I don't know when, probably soon."

"Shit." Matthew ran a hand down his face.

"Stop being cryptic, or I'm going to slap you." Tris threatened.

"I was helping Nita until she told me about her plan. They want to get into the weapons lab-"

"-to steal the memory serum we know." Tris cut him off.

"No." Matthew shook his head. "They want the death serum. Like the one Erudite tried to inject you with. They want to use it for assassinations. Give it to the right people and you have anarchy, that's what the people in the fringe want." Tris sucked in a breath and I groaned a little, running a hand through my hair. "I thought I was helping Nita, if I had known she wanted to start another war I never would have done it."

"I told him she was lying." Tris breathed out.

"We have a problem with how we treat GDs in this country but that doesn't mean killing people is going to solve it. Come on, we have to go to David's office." Matthew grabbed my arm and began dragging me out of the room with Tris trotting right behind us. As we reached the checkpoint we both noticed Uriah who was standing against the wall. He raised his hand to wave at us until he noticed Matthew was basically dragging me through security.