Bare Hands (Sequel To No Sympathy)

Tension

I leave Christina's side the second I see Jack Kang across the room. I catch a glimpse of her face as I'm walking away. She looks stricken, depressed. Her eyes are on Tris. I let myself feel a twinge of sympathy for her. Just a twinge.

When Jack is a few feet away from me he extends his hand and we shake.

"Thank you for your honesty, Tobias. We can see, through your truth, that you do not intend to harm us or our cause." He tells me, stating the obvious.

"Yup. So are Tris and I going to get our weapons back now that we've been proven innocent?"

"Yes actually. I had been planning to give them back to you now that everything has been sorted out and you're clearly not a threat." The men behind him steps up and hands me my gun and Tris's knife.

I take them, nod my thanks, and continue walking in Tris's direction. Uriah is next to her, his hand on her shoulder. He's whispering something to her but I can't make out what it is.

And I can't erase what she's done from my mind.

I thought she trusted me, but I couldn't have been more mistaken. She withheld this from me despite the fact that I've been trying to pinpoint what was wrong with her this whole time.

I literally cannot believe this.

It seems so unreal how much Tris and I have grown apart.

She looks up at me as I come closer and I slip my arm around her shoulders, careful not to touch her injured one too forcefully.

"We'll talk tomorrow." I say calmly.

"Okay." She says, snaking her arm around my waist and pulling me closer.

We might be together physically, but mentally we might as well not one each other.

I leave the room with Tris by my side and go straight to the elevator. Without caring which floor it takes us to, I get in. I hardly even notice my claustrophobia.

The elevator stops several seconds later and we step out. Right away I oboe what I'm searching for - a place to sleep.

We walk the hallways of the unknown floor and eventually we find a cluster of cots at the end of one. Without asking Tris, I walk us over to two empty cots that are next to each other and lay down on one. Tris does the same.

It goes without saying that I still love her, I don't think I could ever stop, but there is something going on between us that I don't love so much.

+++

I wake up some hours later panting, the image of Tris bleeding out in my nightmare still fresh in my mind.

Out of instinct, I look at the cot check to mine just to make sure Tris is okay, but she's not there.

I immediately go through possible places she could've gone, but eventually tell myself that she's probably just at tbr bathroom and will be back in a few minutes. But a few minutes turns into ten minutes which turns into thirty, and I know she's doing something out of the ordinary.

But I don't get up and pursue her, simply because I know she'll do what it takes to protect herself whatever she's doing.

Oh, like she did in Amity?! My conscious says bitterly.

I ignore it. I have to trust that she'll do what needs to be done despite her past predicaments. After all, who am I to get mad at her for not trusting me while I'm not trusting her?

But as I lay back down, I realize Thai I most likely won't be able to get back to sleep, so I lay awake, staring at the elevator at the end of the hall.