Mother's Daughter - Divergent

Chapter Sixteen

Song for this chapter ~ hotline (edit) by Billie Eillish

The beep coming from the monitors is enough to wake me up. I'm assuming I ended up in the infirmary after recent events. Everything is blurry, but eventually it all becomes clear again.

As I turn my head to the left, I notice a familiar face - Four. He's stood having a conversation with someone that must be standing behind the wall. I furrow my eyebrows as I become curious. Who could he be talking to? 

Soon enough Four sees I'm paying attention to him and walks over to my bedside. 

"Glad to see you are awake." He says with a look of relief in his eyes. The corner of his lip curl as he smiles. I smile back.

"Four, who were you talking to a moment ago?" I ask him. He looks at me. He seems hesitant to tell me. My eyes widen, begging him to tell me. Four sighs.

"It was Jack. He wanted to see you but he wasn't sure if you would want him here." Four confesses and I turn my head to the right so I'm not looking at him. 

We both go silent as Four takes my hand and rubs it gently and I fall back asleep.

***

3 weeks later!

I pick up the fork and stab it forcefully into the meat and tranfer it onto my own plate. Four follows my movement with his eyes the entire time.

"What?" I question him.

"Nothing you just seem mad." He replies. He's not wrong.

I turn my head to the table behind me and Eric is there making a fool of himself amongst the small group of friends he has here. Honestly, he still makes my blood boil. I turn my head back at take a bite of the food in front of me. 

"Seriously, imagine landing in the infirmary over some broken glass. It's pathetic." Eric says loudly. Loud enough to get mine and Four's attention. 

"Six, come on don't do it." Four says. I guess he noticed the rage and the developing tears in my eyes. Eric and his friends are laughing hysterically behind me. I turn my head to face the table, fighting every ounce of rage I had for him inside of me.

All of a sudden Four and I hear the sound of a metal tray colliding with the ground and a fist meeting someones face. Wide eyed, I take a look to see Jack holding the same fist up above Eric's face who is lying on the ground in defeat.

Four scrambles to his feet rushing over the pair, trying his best to pull Jack off of Eric. Jack doesn't let Four whisk him away and continues to pound at Eric's skull. My eyes have a blanket of tears covering them again.

"Jack please don't do this!" I rush over there myself, to help Four pull Jack away from him. 

As Four and I pull Jack away from Eric who is covered in bruises and scars, I notice the tears falling down his face. He was crying? For me?

Four picks up Eric and carries him to the infirmary whilst I sling Jack's arm over my shoulder and walk him back to his apartment to clean him up.

***

My hand picks up the cloth covered in an antiseptic solution and I presses it against his right hand. Jack winces.

"Stay still. I need to make sure the wounds are clean." I mention to him so he can relax.

"I'm sorry, Six. I can't stand him." He explains. He looks down at me as I raise my head to face him. There are tears again. Fewer tears compared to moments ago, but still, enough to make me somewhat concerned about him. I grab some tissue and wipe away the tears from his face and smile.

"I can't think of anyone who can actually stand Eric in this place." I chuckle and his chuckles too, wincing at the amount of pain he is in.

"Would you like some pain medication? I can go grab it from the-" I ask standing up. But he cuts me off.

"No, I would prefer it if you stayed, Six." Jack admits, smiling. I pull a smile back as I take a seat next to him, grabbing the bandage from the table so I can cover the wound I was cleaning for him earlier.

Carefully, my hands wrap the bandage around the wound on his hand before grabbing some medical tape to hold it in place. I double check the bandage is going to stay on by tugging gently on some of the woven material before letting go of his hand. 

Jack passes the now warm ice pack to me and I take a look at the brusing on the side of his head.

"It doesn't look too serious, just a little swollen and bruised. It should go away in a few days." I tell him and he nods in agreement.

"Six, did you end up in the infirmary because of me?" He questions. His eyes have a look of desperation in them as well as guilt. I look down at my own hands and sigh.

"No, not because of you. I had a flashback of a phone call I overheard my mother answering the night it happened." I explain to him looking up as I try my best not to cry infront of him. Now would not be the right time to show my emotions.

"To be honest Jack, I don't trust my mother at all." I confess, sighing once more. He puts the hand I just bandaged up for him on mine and squeezes it as much as he can.

"After the day you told me about yourself, there was something I thought I would never tell you but, I think it would be better for me to be honest with you." Jack says turning his face towards me as I look towards him.

"I left Erudite because of Jeanine. There are so many rumours in that place and I didn't want to belong to a faction with a leader I could not trust." Jack confesses whilst his eyes never leave mine. He sighs again.

"Especially because I found out I'm divergent and we both know her stance on divergents." That we do. My mother has always disliked them. For what reason I'm not sure I will ever know.

"I have to admit, I already knew you were divergent Jack. You feel emotions in the same way I do." I smile brightly and a tear slides down my cheek. A tear of relief perhaps. The thought of not being alone in all of this is comforting.

We are still looking at one others eyes and holding one anothers hands but, somehow it feels natural. It is like all the space between us is evapourating slowly and before you know it, I hug him and the tears begin to fall like a waterfall.

"Jack I was worried about you. I care about you too much." I beg. I have never felt such care for another person in my life before but in the moment when Jack was ontop of Eric, it pained me more than I could have ever imagined.

Jack embraces the hug and holds me tight before responding.

"I care about you too, Six." He replies.