Chapter 4

~Eric~

Dinner with Tris, Max, and Natalie was utterly perfect. I never thought I would ever experience something like this. Max and Natalie treated me as if I was already their son in law; that I was a part of their family.

Growing up in Erudite with the people that had the nerve to claim me as their son, was a lonely experience for me. So I never got to enjoy something as simple as a family dinner. Hell, I've never had a family dinner until now.

When Tris and I found out that Max was her father, I think that I was just as shocked as she was because Max and I have been really close since I defected here and he never said a word to me about it. Hell, Max has treated me like I was his son most of the time, and when I confided in him about my feelings for Tris; he advised me to get to know her, but told me that if I hurt her in any way, he would toss me head first into the chasm. I should have suspected something then, but I just never made the connection.

After dinner we all settled in Max's home office to go over those files, but before we were able to discuss all the madness that we stumbled upon, we were interrupted by Harrison calling to inform us that Andrew and Marcus were here to speak to Max.

"I'll go with you dad." Tris smiles as she stands then glares at me and Max when we both begin to shake our heads wildly. "Why can't I go? I'm a leader in training."

"Because I don't want that asshole anywhere near my daughter." Max growls causing Tris to roll her eyes.

"Tris baby, I'll go with Max and make sure that nothing happens." I hug my girl to me and turn to Max. "Do you still have those earpiece communicators, Max? That way Tris and Natalie can hear the meeting and you and I will know that they are safe."

"Yeah I do…" Max begins to dig in his desk. "Good thinking, son." He smiles at me as he hands me two communicators then turns to Natalie to help her put hers in.

I turn back to Tris and thread my fingers through her hair to move it back, so that I can put the device in her ear. "Promise me that you will stay here?" I plead with her as I put my earpiece in.

"I promise that I'll stay here, Eric…" Tris sighs after a short stare down with me. "…But you had better come back to me. I mean it Eric; you kill that asshole if you have to." I smile and nod as I lean down and kiss her softly.

"Alright Coulter…lets get this shit over with." Max grabs my arm after hugging his wife and daughter, and pulls me away from Tris and out of the apartment.

When we reach the office wing, we see Harrison leaning against his office door looking all kinds of pissed off. "Max. Eric." He nods us toward the interrogation room. "I didn't think that you would want those fuckers waiting in anyone's office. So I made them wait in here." He grins as he opens the door.

"What can Dauntless do for you at this time of night, Marcus?" Max says as he sits down. "Andrew." He sneers at the asshole.

"I want my wife back, Max!" Andrew yells and as soon as the words are out of his mouth I hear Tris giggle. "I know she is here so give her back to me."

"I can assure you, Andrew, that Natalie is not here…" Max turns back to Marcus and grins. "Maybe she just got tired of a monster hitting her and left to live factionless. You know, like Evelyn did."

"You don't know what the hell you are talking about, Max!" Marcus shouts as he stands. "My wife died years ago!"

Max grins as he turns to me. "That was Evelyn, that we saw the other day wasn't it?" Max is seriously fucking with these assholes.

"Yeah, we meet with her once a month to make sure she keeps her people in line…I thought you knew that, Marcus?" I grin just as I hear Tris and Natalie laughing at us again.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Max. My wife is dead and that is final! Now give us Natalie back and we won't cause you anymore problems."

"What makes you think that we have Natalie? Hmm? Why would she come back to Dauntless?" I ask as I tilt my head to the side and lean my elbows on the table. "I saw that nasty bruise around her neck today. A bruise that could only come from being choked." I sneer at the fucker. "You had better hope that she doesn't come here because I know for a fact that we can arrest you for domestic abuse, Andrew. And I know that you wouldn't want that." I set back and smile. "My advise to you is to "kill her her off" like Marcus did and let her live factionless." I use air quotes with my fingers, then chuckle as I stand and lean over the table towards him. "Because that will be the only thing keeping you from being exposed as a monster. Isn't that right, Marcus?"

Andrew glares at me as he stands. "Are you threatening us, young man?"

"Not at all, Andrew. I'm merely warning you that just because you are on the council, you are not untouchable." I smile at them both. "Either of you."

"I think it's time for you both to head back to your faction now." Max stands and motions for them to leave. "And do not come back to Dauntless unannounced, ever again."

After we've walked Marcus and Andrew to the exit, the three of us make our way back to Max's apartment to discuss this entire situation with Tris and her mother.

The moment I walk in, Tris jumps into my arms and hugs the shit out of me. "I love you, Eric." She smile as she whispers against my lips.

I smile like a Cheshire cat. "Are you sure?" I lean in and take her bottom lip when she nods.

"Stop that shit, Coulter." I hear Max laugh at us.

"Give me a second, old man." I mumble against Tris lips, then kiss her hard once more before I set her back on her feet.

"Alright…" Max sighs once everyone is sitting around his desk. "We need to go over this shit again and come up with a plan of action, because this madness needs to stop, and it needs to stop now."

~Tris~

I seriously can't believe that, that asshole came here to get my mother back. I was so proud of Eric for keeping his cool and didn't lash out at Andrew for all the shit that he has done, and is planning to do.

"What are we gonna do? The time stamp on that video was a month ago and they were really close to accomplishing their goals. What if they have already succeeded, dad?" I smile when Max beams at me for calling him dad again.

"We'll get through this, sweetheart. I promise." Max smiles at me then my mother as we all try to come up with a plan to stop and take down what we discovered from the files that Max's informant gave him today.

I nod then turn to Eric with a half hearted smile. I can tell it will be very hard the both of us to give a real smile after what Max showed us tonight.

"Alright, first things first…lets get to the control room and see if Four can hack into Erudite's security system." Max nods to Eric then looks at my mom. "Sweetie, I want you to stay here and out of sight. You're in hiding now so we're gonna have to keep you a secret, just until this mess is over and done with. I'll call Tori, and get her back over here to keep you company until I get back. Okay?"

My mother nods then kisses his cheek before hugging me. "Come see me tomorrow." She smiles just as Max pockets his phone after calling Tori.

A few minutes later Tori walks into the apartment and smiles at me then my mother. I smile back at her then kiss my mom's cheek once more before following Eric, Max, and Harrison out of the apartment.

I can tell that everyone is still in shock at what we've all learned tonight, and the fact that Andrew and Marcus both came to Dauntless for my mother.

Tonight after dinner we all went over everything that was give to Max this morning, and I couldn't believe what my dad showed us. It seems that Erudite and Abnegation are now in the business, and processes of cloning people. They have also been kidnapping factionless people, running painful and degrading experiments on them to achieve that.

Cara, Will's sister and Max's informant, noted in the files that they were trying to clone Jeanine with frozen cells, tissue, bone marrow, and bone fragments that she froze and stored years ago for this very reason. Jeanine also found a way to record her memories so that they could be implanted into the new Jeanine.

I guess Jeanine had a back up plan in case she died, and it seems that Andrew and Caleb want their demon back and are killing innocent people to accomplish that shit.

Cara also noted that the reason that Andrew and Marcus wanted Dauntless to only patrol Erudite once a day, so that Abnegation could get three patrols instead of two, was because they needed full privacy at night in Erudite so that they could use more power and take more people without anyone knowing about it. Abnegation didn't need anymore patrols; they were just using that as a cover.

Max has decided to call a meeting with all the factions, two days from now at city hall, so that everyone can attend, not just faction leaders. Max doesn't want this covered up. So, we plan to expose this information to everyone so that we can bring down all that's involved with this shit, publicly…and in one blow.

So now we are headed to the control room to see if Four would be able to hack into Erudite's mainframe so that we can see how far they have gotten in there madness.

I wonder if Chris is working tonight? I was shocked when she chose to work in the control room, and even more shocked to learn that the crazy candor is a freaking genius with computers.

If she is working tonight, I know that I'll be receiving an ear full for not calling her like she asked me to.

Once we get to the control room Max opens the door and we all file into the room and straight to Four's office. "Wait here, guys." Max mumbles to us as he knocks on the door.

While Max is in Four's office Eric takes my hand and pulls me to a secluded corner. "Come home with me tonight?" He gives me a wicked grin then presses his mouth to mine quickly. "Or we could just go to your place?"

I smile up at him as I rub my hands up his chest. "Your place is better because you don't have a roommate." I peck his lips once more just as the door to Four's office opens and he and Max step out.

"Listen up!" Four yells out to his night crew. "I need all of you to set your security post on auto view and record, then head out early tonight. Don't worry, you won't be docked short on your time!" Four yells out to everyone. "Zeke, Chris, and Uri! I need you three to stay! I'll see the rest of you guys tomorrow night…and on time, Sam!" Four grins at someone that I'm assuming is always late for work.

"What's going on?" Christina smiles at me then Eric. "Did you enjoy my dare, Eric?" She grins at Eric causing him to chuckle and nod.

"Sure did, Candor." He chuckles as he leans down and kisses my cheek, then walks over to my dad.

Chris turns back to me with her eyebrow raised. "So, what's going on?"

"A lot…" I sigh before I'm interrupted by Max as he begins to explain to everyone what's going on, and what needs to be done.

I lock eyes with Chris as Max tells everyone that he is my dad and that my mother is now here in Dauntless, but no one outside this room needs to know about that.

"Now that you all are up to speed…" Max claps his hands together. "Let's get to work, people!"

Stay tuned…

I know that this chapter is shorter than the rest but it's just a filler chapter.