Second Chances (Eric and Tris)

Stress and Deals: Part 16

Tris and Eric sat down at the table with Barb and Jeremy at lunch. Tris was still feeling pretty down about what was going on. She couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. All around her people were laughing, talking and going about their daily lives like nothing was happening when everything that Tris held so dear felt like it was falling apart. Tris was staring at her food when she felt a hand on her lower back. Glancing up she looked over at Eric. He pulled her a bit closer as if to silently ask if she was alright. She gave a bit of a half shrug. Jeremy started to talk about how Eric was going to go about question the factionless man and again Tris zoned him out. However, now she had something new to focus on. Eric had yet to remove his hand. In fact, he was now rubbing her lower back in a soothing manner. After a moment his hand worked its way up and was slowly rubbing her whole back. It helped her to relax. She was able to take a deep breath and refocus her thoughts on what she needed to do that afternoon. She and Barb were going to be putting in a new, high tech security system in the armory. One that you had to be a leader to get past. This way, if things continued to go missing it brought the pool of suspects down to 5 not 10,000. Tris started to pick at her lunch, knowing that she would not be eating dinner until much later that night. She and Barb wanted to stay on site until the system was finished. As she picked up her sandwich to take a bit, she met Barbs gaze. The older woman had a shit eating grin on her face that she made no attempt at hiding. Tris was about to ask what was so amusing when Barb pointedly looked from her to Eric to her chest (which Tris could only assume Barb realized he was rubbing her back). Tris felt a blush stain her cheeks. She took a deep breath, stuck out her chin, looked Barb straight in the eye and took a big bite of her sandwich. Barb just let out a huge laugh.

Later that evening, Tris's head was screaming. Between the yelling that was happening between the workman, the screech of power tools, and the stress of making sure that there was no one of the floor that they were working on and making sure that all cameras were covered or not working, by 8pm Tris had had enough. The final security board was put in and Tris gave it the third and final test run. She placed her hand on the pad. It scanned her hand, turned green, asked for her eye to scan. Perfect, the double security measure they put in place went through without a hitch. Tris leaned forward and allowed it to scan her eye. The green laser ran over her eye, the machine beeped, and the door slid open, while saying, "Welcome, Tris Prior." The database on the door recording her entering the room. She nodded her head. "Excellent work, gentleman. Now if you will just follow Barb there is just one more stop for you to make. I appreciate your help in this matter." Tris shook their hands and slowly made her way to her apartment. As she stepped off of the elevator, Tris came face to face with Four. Her eyes narrowed. "What are you doing up here Four?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"I have nothing to say to you. Now if you will excuse me, I have had a long day, and I just want to go home." Tris pushed past Four and started to walk down the hallway. She paused and turned around. "Do me a favor Four and please do not come around here again. There is nothing that we need to discuss." With that Tris turned her back on him and entered her apartment. Locking her door to put a final barrier between her and her ex. She leaned against the door and exhaled.

"Yooou okay?" Eric asked slowly as he walked into the living room. Tris nodded as she shrugged out of her jacket.

"Long day, ya know? Just glad to be home. We got the new system put in. I will take you by it tomorrow. I had an extra feature put in. I'm really excited about it. This way if anyone tries to hack their way through it, it is virtually impossible." Tris sat on the edge of the couch and put her head in her hands. "I just wish this killer headache would go away."

"Did you and Barb ever eat dinner?"

"Yah, Max brought us down something. But between all the noise and the stress of everything, it was just too much. I feel like my head is going to explode." Tris felt Eric walk away and sensed the lights dim a bit. A grateful sigh escaped her lips. A few moment later, he came back and she felt him sit in front of her on the coffee table.

"Here. Take this." He handed her a few white pills and a glass of water. Tris took them and swallowed them down. Eric moved to sit on the far end of the couch. Once he was comfortable, he pulled Tris down so she was laying with her head in his lap. He started to gently run his hands over her forehead and temples. "So tell me what has you so stressed out. I think I have a pretty good idea, but talking about it usually helps." Tris let out a sigh. She closed her eyes and just let the day wash over her. Since coming to dauntless it had been one of the most trying days yet. She could take the physical beatings of initiation. She could take the mental challenges of the phase 2. But this. This was something new.

"I don't know. Things have been kind of building up. First there was that conversation that I told you all about this morning with Four. The one about him listening into our leadership meetings. That set my guard up. But then with everything that happened yesterday with the factionless and the meeting with Four at the store," Eric's hand stilled on her head.

"What meeting with Four?"

"Oh, I thought I told you about that. I guess it was only Max. When I went down to the store to get what we needed for dinner he was there. He confronted me about what happened to you and demanded to know the details. Like if we knew how the factionless got the weapons, how many they had. He seemed upset to find out that we had a prisoner, and that we had recovered some of the weapons. When he pressed me for more answers, I told him that I already said more than I should have and if he wanted to know more that he would have to go to Max. I never thought that he actually would. Then at the meeting this morning everything just sort of fell into place. I just can't figure out for the life of me why he would be doing something like this. Did I ever really know the man I thought I did? If my calculations are correct and everyone's suspicions are correct, he would have been smuggling weapons out of dauntless for over a year. That is even before he met me. So the whole time we have been together he has been keeping that from me. I mean, why lie to me?" Having gotten all of that off her chest, Tris was starting to feel a bit better. She no longer had this oppressive weight bearing down on her.

"I can understand your frustration. I am just as surprised as you are. I never would have thought he had the guts to do something like this. I mean, I know that he is a good fighter and all, as he was first in our class, but he never had the backbone to do something like this. I want to know what the motive is. There is always a motive. And I spoke to Max after the meeting today at his place and I said that we should watch him and try to figure out what that motive is before we move in. Even if we catch him, it won't make sense. We need to know why. But I will promise you this one thing, Tris, if you will promise me the same." Eric paused and Tris opened her eyes and looked up at him. "I will never keep anything from you as long as you promise to be completely open and honest with me." Tris smiled and at the same time felt her heart twist. She was still a divergent. This was something she needed to tell Eric and soon, but how. How could she make such a promise when she had such a huge secret to keep.

"Deal." Tris said, sealing her fate. One way or another, she would tell Eric that she was a divergent. Hopefully, she would live through it.