Divergent UNIVERSITY ✅

chapter 48

I own my ideas, but I don't own the characters. Just in case you weren't sure.

Chapter 48

Four sits in the waiting room in the emergency room. They took Tris back immediately when they got there, but refused to let him go with her. When they took her from his arms and he sat down he made the call that he was dreading."Hey Four, what's up?" Bud asks. "I thought you guys were at a party tonight.""Bud something has happened. Someone hit Tris in the head with a bat. She's unconscious. We are at the hospital near campus.""We're on our way," is all Bud replies. He hangs up and Four is left in the waiting room alone.~oOo~Brian grabs Eric by the shirt and slams him against the wall. "Who was the girl?""What? I don't know. I don't know her and I wasn't working with her. I just came here to talk to Tris. I wanted to apologize. I still love her.""Eric, she doesn't love you. So what would make you think that she would want to see you? Besides there is a restraining order."Brian gestures for the local police to come in, "This man is in violation of a court ordered restraining order. He is currently in the process of being prosecuted for the kidnapping and assault of Beatrice Reed, the young girl that was injured here this evening."They take Eric into custody and walk him out the door. Eric strains to stop and turns to Brian. "Is Tris going to be okay?""I don't know," Brian replies honestly. He follows them out the door and gets into his car. He rushes to the hospital to see about Tris.Brian enters the waiting room only to find Four sitting alone, worry etched across his face."Any news?" Brian asks sitting next to him."No, and they won't let me go back there with her. I don't know what is going on, this is infuriating."Marlene, Zeke, Uriah, Zia, Christina, Lynn, and Will all burst through the waiting room doors."Where is she? Is she okay?" Marlene asks."We don't know anything right now," Brian answers. "We're waiting.""What the hell was that? Who was that girl?" Four asks."That was Sam. She was the first baseman on the softball team but she was benched after the first game. She was afraid of the ball, especially when Tris threw it. Tris tried to help her but she wouldn't take the help. She blamed Tris for losing her starting position," Marlene explains."Someone tried to kill her over a softball game?" Lynn asks."Some people are pretty messed up," Brian responds."What was Eric doing there?" Four asks Brian."Well, he definitely was let out on bail and his story seems to hold about just wanting to apologize. He is still infatuated with her. I don't think he had anything to do with the girl. He doesn't want to kill her, he just wants to make her his, even by force. Hitting her with a bat wouldn't fit with his method of operation, but time will tell."Four stands up and starts to walk away from his friends. He appreciates their presence, but right now he just wants to see Tris. As he walks through the front doors, Natalie and Bud walk in."Where is she, where is my daughter?" Natalie asks Four when she sees him."They took her back a while ago. They haven't come back since. I was just going to demand that they let me back there with her."Bud strides to the counter, "I am Beatrice Reed's father. I want information about her condition, now."The receptionist quickly goes off to find someone that can give some information. She comes back moments later with a doctor in tow."Mr. and Mrs. Reed, come with me." He gestures through the doors. When he looks back and sees Four following he says, "I'm sorry son, only family is allowed back here.""He will be coming back with us, he is family," Bud replies.The doctor, seeing that this is an argument that he won't win, continues to lead them to the back of the ER.When they reach the outside of a room he stops and looks at the three people following. "Beatrice suffered a massive contusion to the head because of the hit. She has a concussion, and some memory loss because of some bleeding in her brain. We are controlling the bleeding and she should be fine, however we are going to keep her here for a couple days to watch her. At this point I don't know what the extent of her memory loss is, we were waiting for you to arrive so that we can properly evaluate her. She does know her name and the year, so those are both very good signs. Her leg is fractured, but it should heal rather quickly.""Alright, I want to see my daughter," Natalie demands.The doctor nods and pushes aside the curtain surrounding Tris.~oOo~"Tell me more about the girl," Brian says to Marlene."Well all through practices all the way to the first game Tris and Jasmine kept trying to talk to the coaches about Sam. She was afraid to catch the ball when they threw it to her. She always made excuses for why she was missing it and the coaches believed her for some reason. Every time they talked to the coaches, they were ignored. Tris offered to work with Sam and help her get past the fear, but Sam kept blowing her off. She even told Tris that she isn't as good as everyone thinks she is. Sam believed that she was a better player than Tris.""Seriously? Was the girl blind?" Chris asks."I don't know. But the first game came, a ball was hit to Tris and the play was at first. Tris threw the ball like she would have any other time and Sam missed the ball. She got nailed right in the chest. We ended up losing a couple runs because of that. The coaches pulled Sam because she was hurt and after talking to the rest of us realized that there was a problem. Sam told Tris she would regret what happened but I never thought she'd go after her.""No why would you?" Zia says. "There has to be something wrong with her mentally.""I don't know. But I wish I would have taken the threat more seriously.""It's not your fault," Uriah says pulling her into a hug. "No one could have known."~oOo~Natalie, Bud, and Four enter the room. Four stands close to the door while Tris' parents go to the bed to see how their daughter is.She has a brace on her leg to keep it immobilized and there is a bandage on her head. She is hooked up to a heart monitor, and has an IV in her arm. She has wires and tubes coming from all sides of her. Her face is pale and her eyes are bloodshot, but they are open which makes Four happy."Tris, honey do you know who I am?" Natalie asks."Of course, you're my mother.""How about me Tris, do you know who I am?" Bud asks next.She pauses for a moment like she is trying to pieces of a puzzle together, "You're Bud, but… but you're also… my father? Is that right? Are you my father?"Bud smiles and nods, "Yes honey, I'm your father." He was terrified that would be something that she lost and they would have to tell her again.Tris looks across the room at the man standing in the doorway. She knows that man. She smiles when she sees him, "Tobias, why are you standing in the doorway?"Four smiles, not only did she know who he is, she knows his real name. Bud and Natalie smile and gesture for him to come across the room."What happened to me? Why am I here?" Tris says. She takes Four's hand."Tris, someone assaulted you. They hit you in the head with a bat and they broke your leg," Four explains.She looks down at the brace on her leg, "What? No! I can't have a broken leg. I can't miss softball. Why would someone hit me with a bat? Was I at a softball game? Was it an accident?""No Tris, we were at a party. Someone came up behind you and hit you with a bat."Tris starts crying. She cradles her head in her hands and shakes it slightly. "This can't be happening."Natalie sits on the bed next to her and wraps her arms around her daughter to comfort her. "It's okay. You will heal and everything will be fine." She rubs Tris' back and tries to sooth her.The doctor walks into the room, "How are you feeling Tris. Do all of these people look familiar to you?"Tris smiles through her tears, "Yes, they do. I know them all.""That's good that is very good. Do you remember what you did today?"Tris sits and thinks, "The last thing I remember is softball practice. When was that?""That was this morning Tris," Four tells her."Nothing after that?" the doctor asks.Tris sits and thinks for a while, "No, nothing.""It is okay, Tris. The fact that you can remember events from this morning is very good. The rest will come back, it will probably just take some time. How are you feeling?""I feel kind of nauseous and my head hurts.""I'm going to give you something to help with the pain. This is going to make you tired," the doctor explains.Bud takes Natalie's hand, "We should go let everyone know that she's okay."Natalie stands and looks from Bud to Four, "Alright, only if Four is going to stay here.""I'm not going anywhere.""Okay, we'll let everyone know what is going on and send them home. There's no sense in them sitting here all night.""Who all is here?" Tris asks."Everyone," Four smiles. "Zeke, Zia, Will, Christina, Marlene, Lynn, Uriah, and Brian.""Really? Why?""They were all worried about you," Natalie says. She kisses her daughter's forehead and she and Bud walk out to the lobby where everyone is sitting."So, you really don't remember anything else from today?" Four asks her."No, not really. I remember being at practice. I don't even remember going home afterward. Why is there something important that I'm not remembering?""No, I was just curious. I'm just happy that you remember me. I was worried."~oOo~Bud and Natalie walk out into the lobby and find Tris' friends sitting there talking. When they see Natalie and Bud they stop talking and wait to hear what they have to say."Tris is going to be fine. She has some memory loss, but it seems to be isolated to today. She remembers softball practice this morning but she doesn't remember going home after or anything else that happened today. The doctor says those memories will return as the swelling in her brain goes down. She has a severe concussion and a fractured leg. She's in a leg immobilizer and her head is wrapped in bandages. She also is hooked up to an IV and some other monitors. Right now she's going to be going to sleep for a while and then they will move her to a room," Natalie says."When can we see her?" Marlene asks."Probably not tonight. They only want family in the ER. We had to force them to let Four go back there to see her. She'll be in a room by tomorrow and then you can see her," Bud explains."Has the girl that hit her been found?" Natalie asks looking at Brian."Yes, Lynn caught her actually. She is being charged on assault charges. But if Tris can't remember what happened, I don't know what is going to happen, no one else really saw what happened.""Except for Eric," Will points out."That really isn't a very reliable witness," Brian says. "Especially since he's got charges of kidnapping against him right now.""But at least it's something, right?" Uriah asks."Maybe," Brian mumbles. "I better get going and find out what is going on with the case against Eric.""Thank you for everything, Brian."The group leaves the hospital and returns to campus. Zeke and Zia go to his apartment."Do you want to stay the night?" Zeke asks her.Zia looks at him. She knows that this is the wrong time to bring up any relationship questions but she wants to know where this is going. She's falling in love and she wants to know if he is even close to feeling the same way or not. But then Zeke surprises her."I wanted to talk to you about something. I hoped you would at least stay for a while, and since it's so late, it would probably just be better if you stayed."Zia nods, "I can stay I guess. I don't have an early shift tomorrow. What did you want to talk to me about?" She asks this question with trepidation, what if he doesn't tell her what she wants to hear?He takes her hand and leads her to the couch. He realized tonight, before all of this happened that he is falling in love with her. While he was talking to Four about hanging out, they had been talking about Zia and Tris. They are similar, but different from every other girl. They are both kind, giving, and extremely intelligent. They would help anyone that needed it, they are brutally honest, and they both have a fiery side to them. Four says that is the reason that he fell for Tris. She is like the perfect girl. Everything about her is exactly what he has always wanted.Zeke has found that those traits are exactly what he wants too. Shauna didn't trust him, she was clingy, and she always accused him of things he didn't do. He found out that the things she accused him of were exactly the things that she did to him. Zia isn't like that. She is secure in who she is and she is happy."What did you want to talk about?" Zia asks. She's nervous now because he's been quiet for a few minutes. She has a feeling that he's going to tell her that he doesn't want to see her any more. They haven't done anything but hang out over the past two months, they haven't even shared a kiss."Well, I was thinking tonight before all of that happened that I wanted to tell you something. Then all of the drama happened and suddenly I feel like I have to tell you now."Zia looks at him with a puzzled expression on her face. She is terrified and intrigued at the same time. Whatever this is, he's apparently given it a lot of thought."Zia, I'm in love with you. I didn't think I'd love anyone again since everything happened with Shauna. But I do. I love you, everything about you. You are the most incredible woman I've ever met. Even though I thought I loved before, I never really knew what love was. Now I do."Zia looks at him in shock. Of everything she thought he was going to say, this was not it. Zeke is such a macho guy, she never thought he'd actually declare his feelings so bluntly.Quickly her shock turns to happiness. She looks at the man in front of her and is so happy that she can't contain herself. She launches herself into him and hungrily presser her lips to his. She has been waiting to feel his lips pressed against hers for so long. She can't believe how soft they are and how he instantly responds to her. He wraps his arms around her body and pulls her tight to him while he slides his tongue into her mouth. She instantly responds and they massage each other's tongues with a passion and fire that neither of them have felt before.'So this is what true love feels like,' Zia thinks to herself as she and Zeke kiss for a few moments longer.When they pull away from each other Zeke looks into her eyes for some sign of her feelings. He knows what he felt in that kiss, but he wants to hear the words come from her beautiful mouth.She smiles at him, "I love you too Zeke. I've loved you for so long but I was afraid that you wouldn't love me back."