Tobias - after Allegiant ✔

10

Impatient I look at the door. Where is that boy? He said he would come by after work, he promised. Maybe he doesn't want to eat, but not showing up doesn't seem like something he would do. It is not something he would do.
   
I decide to walk downstairs to his apartment to see if he's in there. I make sure the food won't get too warm in the time I'm not here. Just when I'm about to go out, the phone rings. Phones are one of the things that are available for everyone now, after a time where only leaders were allowed to use one. I still don't really know how to work with one.
   
I answer it. "Hello, this is Evelyn Johnson."
   
"Good afternoon, ma'am. This is the hospital of Millenium," a voice says. "I've taken it your son is Tobias Eaton. Isn't he?"
   
"Y-yes," I stumble. "Is everything alright?"
   
"I suggest you go to the hospital immediately. Your son has been involved in a traffic accident."
   
That's why he still hadn't arrived. He didn't forget.
   
"I'm on my way," I say and break off the call. She didn't answer my question.
   
I get my coat as fast as I can. I run toward the elevator. Just when I arrive it leaves. I press the button next to the closed doors over and over again, like it'll make the elevator arrive quicker. After infinity it finally arrives. I walk inside and press the button to close the doors. Finally I go downstairs.
   
I run out of the elevator as soon as the doors have opened just enough to let me through. I get in my car and drive away way too fast. I'm suddenly relieved the traffic lights don't work yet, or else I would have to stop countless times and I can't afford that time.
   
I don't think I've ever driven that reckless.
   
Finally I arrive at the hospital. I run inside to a lady behind a computer.
   
"My name's Evelyn Johnson," I say breathless. "My son..."
   
"Take a seat, ma'am," the lady says calmly. "The doctor will arrive as soon as possible."
   
I sit down on a hard plastic chair and try to catch my breath, but it doesn't really work. The thought of Tobias in a possibly almost-dead phase makes it impossible.
    
I think about my childhood in Erudite, before I transferred to Abnegation. I think about the cat in the box of someone's theory. As long as you keep the box closed, you don't know whether he's dead or alive. So he's dead and alive at the same time. That's how he thought, anyway. And I like to think that as long as I don't know whether Tobias is dead or alive, he's both.
   
I sit on that uncomfortable chair until the seconds become minutes, and then five minutes, and then ten.
   
After fifteen minutes of nail chewing and stressed bouncing of knees a doctor comes up to me.
   
"Ms. Johnson?" he asks I stand. "Please follow me."
   
I walk after him to an office on the first floor.
   
"Please, sit down." He points at a chair at the desk. He sits down on the other side of the desk. "I'm doctor Eastwood," he says.
   
"Evelyn Johnson," I say, even though I know he already knows my name. But he just nods.
   
"Your son has been involved in a serious car accident. Two busses drove into him, on from the front, one from behind. No way to escape."
   
"Oh, no," I whisper. Tears fill my eyes. "Tobias..."
   
"Pieces of glass ended up in his face. And with that I mean they were many pieces. He'll get scars of that."
    
The tears come out of my eyes now, because there were too many to hold.
   
"He also broke to ribs when he hit the steering wheel. That caused problems to the lungs." He looks at me with pity when he sees my tears. "Don't worry, ma'am. He'll be fine. He's in surgery now. After that we'll keep him in a coma."
   
"When will he wake up," I ask, my voice thick with emotion.
   
"We'll keep him in coma for one or two days, but then it can take a few days for him to wake up after that. I can't say for sure."
   
I nod and wipe the tears from my face.
   
"I'll inform you when the surgery is finished. You can see him tomorrow." He shakes my hand and stands. "I'm very sorry, ma'am."
   
I just nod. I walk out of the room to the hall where I sat before and sit down again.

+ + +

I stay up till two am. Doctor Eastwood comes by to tell me the surgery went well. It should be enough reassurance for me to get asleep, but I still can't. Instead a few pieces of the puzzle get together:
    
Doctor Eastwood said Tobias had no way to escape. The street must've been narrow then, or he would've been able to get past them.
   
Busses usually don't come in narrow streets.
   
At the same time, buses come from in front and behind Tobias on a place they usually aren't.
   
Tobias is hit on purpose.

A/N - new POV, yay. There are gonna be a few more chapters in bold, but that doesn't mean they're all from Evelyn's POV, but we'll see.

Be brave & stay alive