Waiting

Chapter 5: Reunion

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I really appreciate the support. Thank you also to the wonderful BK2U, who has kindly been my beta-reader for this longer-than-originally-intended story!

By the way, for those who asked, Tris is 31 at this point in the story.

Chapter 5: Reunion

Tobias tries hard to be patient during the three weeks that Tris debates attending her ten-year college reunion. It's expensive, she reasons, and she would have to take a day off work to travel there, and she would need to get a hotel for a couple of nights. Besides, her closest friends, Christina and Will, can't make it, and she reads the alumni/ae news, which keeps her up-to-date on the rest of her class.

Still, she'd like to see the campus again and talk with some of her former professors, and maybe see a few friends she's lost touch with. And she could show Tobias off to them, a thought that makes him grin. So, it could potentially be a fun weekend trip. Plus, the ten-year reunion is a big deal.

By now, Tobias knows her well enough to suspect there's another reason behind her hesitation, but she doesn't voice it despite his gentle nudging, and he doesn't push harder. In the seven months they've been together, he's learned that they both share when they're ready – a dynamic that works well for them – and she clearly isn't there yet.

So, he just lets her know that he'd be happy to go with her and that he'd split the costs, and he otherwise waits while she goes back and forth on the subject.

Four weeks before the event, she finally buys the tickets, biting her lip nervously as she hangs them by the calendar in their kitchen with their other important papers. He smiles a little at the sight, and at his own mental use of that pronoun. It's only been two months since they moved in together, so it's still fresh enough for him to love seeing all the mundane aspects of their daily lives merge together.

She's quiet about the trip after that, and for long stretches of the actual drive the Friday before the event. That silence is interspersed with bursts of chatter whenever they pass a place with particular memories – somewhere that she and her friends used to go when they'd get bored on the weekends.

She hasn't traveled this way in a decade, after all, so it's understandable that sights would bring up memories, both good and bad. She chuckles fondly when she sees a run-down bar, describing a pool game that Will and Al played there when they were far too drunk to be handling long sticks and heavy balls. Apparently, Christina dared Al to try an absurd shot, and he ended up launching the ball halfway across the room – where it hit a motorcyclist who had stopped for a drink.

"And he wasn't the peaceful, just-traveling-across-the-country-on-vacation kind," Tris adds. "No, he was the huge, burly, muscle-covered, leather-clad, tattooed, looks-like-he-could-kill-you-just-for-staring-at-him kind. And he was mad."

She shakes her head a little, still smiling as she adds, "I've never been able to figure out how Christina talked him down, but they exchanged holiday cards for years after that."

Somehow, that doesn't entirely surprise Tobias. Christina has the gift of gab, with just enough flirtatiousness mixed with good looks to win most guys over easily. He's one of the few to prove utterly immune to her charms, and honestly, he probably would have been even if he hadn't already been head-over-heels for Tris by the time he met her. Christina is far too chatty for his taste.

It's late by the time they check into the hotel that's right by the campus, so they grab a quick dinner and decide to get some sleep before the next day's reunion activities.

It's not uncommon for either of them to have bad dreams, given the abuse they've both suffered in the past, but Tris is particularly restless that night. Tobias finally pulls her against his chest, running a hand slowly along her hair and down her back in long, soothing motions until her hushed whimpers cease and she falls into the deepest sleep of the night so far. By then, her small body is pressed so tightly into his side he wonders if it will be possible for her to extract it again.