Convergent

Chapter Seventeen

Tris

Today I walked my first steps since the Marcus encounter, well walked is a strong word, more like I stumbled and Tobias held me up, but it's an improvement. Before I couldn't move or speak at all, I am back to full sentences now, although the effort exhausts me.

Every night Tobias lye's next to me, and makes soft murmuring noises, while stroking my hair, which makes my head feel better; he is surprisingly gentle. His warm body erases all the tension, and showers me with relief.
"I don't know what I'd do without you." I tell him truthfully, while snuggling up into his arms, and laying my head on his chest, his breathing relaxes me and I match my breaths to his. He doesn't respond, his eyes are dark and heavy, and he is unshaven. He is as exhausted, if not more exhausted then I am. I feel horrible; he shouldn't have to go through this for me.

"I'm sorry, Tobias." I say quietly, and his eyes snap to reality. "You shouldn't have had to go through any of this for me. You shouldn't have had to hide a relationship with a tiny nobody from Abnegation, who is two years younger than you. You shouldn't have had to go through thinking I was dead for two years. You shouldn't have to stay up all night, caring for the cripple I have become. You deserve a normal life, you deserve a normal girl-"
He cuts me off with a serious face, and gently, but firmly grabs my wrists, so I am forced to look him in the eyes.

"Don't you dare believe that, even for a moment." He says sternly. "You are not some nobody from Abnegation, you are a hero. You stopped the Erudite from killing the Abnegation."
Not in time, not before almost everyone was dead.
"You saved our city, and you saved everyone in it, you are amazing. I would not trade even a single day of being with you, for a lifetime with someone else. You are the one I love, the only one for me, and you are crazy if you think I am going to leave you because you require a bit of help, after everything that you've done - after everything that we've been through." He lets to of my wrists. "And I don't mind-" Color flushes into his face and he looks at the floor instead of my eyes, when he does speak his voice is soft, and quiet. "I like watching you sleep. You have nothing to apologize for. " I have no words, and I don't try to force them, instead I grab his shirt collar, and bring his lips to mine.
I wrap a leg around him, and soon he is sitting on top of me, propped up by his elbows, and we are making out. All I can think is 'his lips are the best pain reliever.' We kiss long, and slow, making it all count, the delighted shiver he gives when I spread my hand over the small of his back; in my mind tracing each faction symbol, the way his fingers find skin under the hem of my shirt, sending a tingling sensation up and down my spine. The fact that both of our shirts are slowly creeping up our bodies, the way that he quickly brushes a stray lock of hair out of my face, without breaking the kiss. Eventually he pulls away, but not completely, his lips linger on my jawline.
"I hate to say this-" He breathes into me "But, we should go to sleep, your body needs rest." He moves over on the bed, and motions me into him, so I throw my shirt back on and snuggle into his side, laying my face on his warm; bare chest, he lightly presses his lips to my forehead and they stay there until I go to sleep. I doze off to the beating of his heart, and the steady rhythm of his breathing.
***
I wake with an extreme pain in my head; I have never felt pain so strong before, my vision is blurry and all I can do is sob. I feel the bed sink next to me and see Tobias hovering above me with a look of concern in his eyes, and he rubs my back.

"Tris, lie still. What's wrong?" I moan and bury my face into his chest, he begins to stroke the back of my head and pain shoots down my spine. I scream and he immediately stops, grabbing my shoulders, now shouting.
"TRIS WHAT'S WRONG?" Blackness splotches my vision until I can no longer see his face and the dark swallows me.