Authors Note: Well, Howdy. I absolutely fell in love with Eric after seeing the Divergent movie, and when I read the books afterwards, I was insanely curious about him as a character. Then my mind went wild, and I had to write this. It's set in the 'in between year', and will eventually be an Eric/OC, but not very quickly... or maybe it will be quick, I don't know. I don't know when it will end, or if I'll include the War, but if it gets long enough, I'll definitely include Tris as well. I'm not going to change Eric much, I think he should be Cruel and Angry and Scary, but I'm going to try to show another side of him also. I dunno. We'll see what happens. Mostly I just want an Eric and this is as close as I'll ever get most likely.
So welcome, I hope you enjoy, and if you want to let me know what you think, leave a review :)
Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer : I don't own Divergent, and I won't be making any money off this... but if someone gave me an Eric, I wouldn't say no ;)

All my bags are packed,
I'm ready to go,
I'm standing here,
Outside your door,
I hate to wake you up to say Goodbye.

-John Denver, 'Leaving on a Jetplane'.

It's funny how even when you're comfortable and happy and content with your life, you can still want more. You are willing to risk your happiness for adventure, to risk comfort just so you aren't bored. But, I suppose that risk is a part of being Dauntless.

For some reason just the word Dauntless makes me feel free. My parents apartment isn't small, but it's small enough to make me feel cooped up and caged. Between the twins and my father, it's not easy to get attention from my mother, who spends almost all day at the childcare centre where she works, and all night helping my father review the cases he's working on. She used to be a lawyer before me, but once she saw how understaffed the childcare centre was, she couldn't ignore it.

My mother is quite stunning if you look at her for long enough. All of her features are in perfect proportion, and there is always a shine in her alert brown eyes that proves that she is truly happy with the life she has chosen. Her hair, like mine, is a soft, light brown, mostly straight, and she keeps it cropped nice and short in a bob. She let me keep mine long though, but insists that I wear it braided. "Discipline and order, Tara, are very important for our lives. Discipline, order and honesty" she used to tell me every time I complained about wanting to just throw it up.

I wish I had inherited her love of order. What I had inherited was almost the exact same features, except that my eyes are green like my fathers and my lips aren't as bowed as hers are.

Instead I got a rather odd sense of humour and a love of all things fast from my father.

As my mother calls me to dinner, I try to take in every small detail of the apartment; this will be the last time I eat dinner here. I have already decided to leave.
It's not that I hate the Candor way of life, I like the way we value honesty over everything else. Order and discipline and honesty and equality. I like all of it... just not enough to stay. There are too many rules, too much honesty, too much structure and order. So when the Abnegation volunteer told me that my results were Dauntless after the test today, I knew this was my one chance to really be free.

And I think my father already knows that I am going, because when I sit down at the dinner table, he looks at me with eyes the same as mine; we are saying goodbye.

My mother misses this; she is too busy making the twins wash their hands. My father sets the table, and once my mother and two younger brothers sit down, we begin to eat. My father and I eat in silence, letting the two boys, Thomas and Andrew, tell us all about their day at school. They are only twelve, so they weren't allowed to see us go through the tests, and instead spent all day in classes. They do make me laugh though, with their twelve year old problems, and my father chuckles too.

"And how was work today, darling?" the two boys quiet immediately, they are obsessed with dad's stories about work; they both want to be lawyers just like him. My father is very good at telling stories, probably because he is so expressive and so alive.

My heart aches a little at the thought that I will never hear one of his stories ever again.

Once his story about his triumphant win today is finished, we all clap, and we clear the table and the twins go off to complete their homework. My father requests that I come sit with him and my mother in the living room. As I sit down, I notice that my mother looks wary and unsure, while my father looks resigned.

"I just want you to know that, no matter what you choose tomorrow, we will always love you. You will always be right here," and he motions to his heart, "and we will always, always love you" He definitely knows. My mother sighs wearily, and she nods.

"You'll always be my baby girl, my beautiful baby girl, and we are so proud of you" My father stands, kisses me on the forehead and holds my chin gently in his hand for a moment, before going to his bedroom, my mother soon following. I move to the bathroom, and shower quickly, before sliding in to bed; I will not allow myself to cry.

When we arrive at the choosing ceremony, my parents quickly say goodbye, before moving over to the Candor seats, and I move into line, ending up slightly towards the front, picking at the collar of my white sleeveless shirt. With a name like Tara Richards, I'm more used to being up the back, and being so close to the front makes me nervous, so I stare at my white slip ons, and take in the contrast of my black business pants. Only eleven other kids are in front of me, this will be over too quickly. Soon all of the chairs are full, and Jack Kang, our current representative, moves at the front, quieting the crowd almost instantly. Last year it was Erudite's responsibility to make the speech, and next year it will be Abnegation's. As he starts his speech about the history of the choosing ceremony, I look over to my parents, and while my mother is paying attention, my father is staring straight at me, and when our eyes meet, he smiles at me encouragingly, and I smile back, somewhat watery. He doesn't turn away until Jack calls the first name, and I am glad for his support.

The first child, Aaron Zammid, is from Erudite, and he chooses to stay Erudite. The first transfer is Jennifer Winters, from Abnegation, into Amity. Four names later, and I am stepping up to the bowls, cutting my hand, hesitating briefly, and then letting the drop of blood fall onto the hot coals, sizzling as it hits. The Dauntless burst into cheers; Candor and Dauntless have a good relationship, so it's not surprising. I move over to the other Dauntless initiates, there are two so far, and we stand just behind the Dauntless seats. The rest of the ceremony is a blur, and before I know it, the Dauntless initiates are surging forward, and I am following them. We run down the stairs, the noise is deafening as we all holler and laugh and stomp, and then we spill out onto the street, rushing towards the trains, and then they are climbing up, and so I am.

There is a brief moment where we are standing still, and a girl dressed in a blue shirt and white jeans turns to me and smiles nervously, before opening her mouth "Are you scared?"

"I don't think scared is the right word... I think I'm nervous, but also very excited. I'm Tara, by the way" We shake hands.

"Imogen. Perhaps nervous is the best word, but yes, definitely excited"

And then the Dauntless born initiates are running, and the train is coming so we run too, and we throw ourselves into the train, landing heavily. I stick my head out the door and watch as we leave an Erudite boy behind, too slow to catch up. As I shuffle out of the way, back towards Imogen, a Candor boy, who I know to be James, moves over to us, introducing himself to Imogen and nodding at me in greeting. We sit in the back corner together, and discuss what we know of the initiation process.

"I don't really mind much, as long as they don't care about how smart we are" Imogen grins, and I take a moment to look at her. She is slightly shorter than me, with blonde hair that has started to fall out of the tight bun it was in, big blue eyes and a petite nose. Her teeth are straight and white and her lips are full and pink; I decide that she is beautiful.

"Is that why you left Erudite? Because you weren't smart enough?" James asks, and I wince a little at his abruptness, but Imogen just laughs.

"Did you leave Candor because you weren't honest enough?" she throws back quickly with a grin, "Honestly, it was part of it. I was tired of being told to study harder and focus more and be more. I want to do something a little more exciting than stare at a computer all day, you know? I want to run and be free and do something dangerous with my life" As she shrugs, I chuckle.

"What, like launch yourself into a moving train?" James grins, and Imogen laughs a little bit.

"Yeah, something like that. Or maybe throwing myself out of one? Who knows?" Now it's my turn to laugh. And then someone is yelling "They're jumping!" and we're on our feet, shoving our heads out the door, watching the black clad figures throwing themselves out the doors and onto a roof. I want to puke. "I think I jinxed us" Imogen whispers, and out of the corner of my eye I see her shrink a little.

"Come on, Imogen, we're going to jump, and we're going to land of that roof and then we're going to absolutely dominate at the initiation" I make myself sound more steady than I am, before nodding to myself and allowing some room for a run up. Imogen and James follow me, and then we're throwing ourselves out of a perfectly good train and I hear Imogen scream, and we're hitting the ground. I roll once, twice, then come to a stop, and pull myself into a sitting position, finding Imogen and James close behind me, Imogen already getting up. She helps James and then myself get up, and we move towards some older black clad figures, standing near the edge of the roof. The oldest of them, a man with deep creases in his skin and gray starting to splatter into the hair near his temples, is standing on the actual edge, completely comfortable with his position.

"Come on, gather round. My name is Max, I'm one of the leaders of your new faction. Several stories down is the entrance to Dauntless. As a treat, and to prove you belong here, you'll be jumping. Who's going first?"

There is silence, then a curious voice comes from the middle of crowd, "Is there something down there to catch us?" Max grins, before shrugging.
"I dunno, you'll have to jump and find out"

Suddenly I can't take it anymore; the silence, or the suspense, I'm not sure, but I can't stand here anymore. So I move forward, Imogen squeaks behind me, but I don't look back. This time, I don't allow myself a moment of hesitation, I step quickly up to the ledge and then step off without a pause; pretending I was stepping up stairs.

I scream the entire way down.

And then I've landed on something hard and for a moment I think it's ground and that I'm dying, but then it gives way and I am alive again and I breathe heavily. A watery chuckle escapes me and then hands are reaching towards me to help me down, and I've grabbed two and I'm hauled off, helped down by a young man, barely older than me, and there a girl behind him with dark hair and three rings in her eyebrow, and she's grinning. The man asks something, but I'm still a little shocked at jumping off the roof, so I don't really hear him.

"What?" I must have a look on my face, because the girl cracks up, and the boy grins.

"What's your name?" He asks again, slower this time.

"Oh, right, it's Tara"

"First Jumper - Tara" He yells out behind him. There is a cheer, and I notice that there is a bit of a crowd behind us, and they are pumping their fists and catcalling, and I grin at them.

"I'm Lauren, and that's Four" the girl with the eyebrow rings says, and she guides me away as another initiate jumps down, screaming much like me; the crowd laughs but resumes cheering. I look over my shoulder as James if helped off the net, and stay with Lauren on the sidelines, joined by James and then Imogen, then a Dauntless born and then the rest. Once we are all on the ground, Lauren and Four set off down a very dark tunnel, with lights only set up every now and then. Once we reach the end, we split off and the eleven Dauntless-born initiates follow Lauren, whilst four collects the eight transfers around.

"My name is Four, and for the next few weeks, I'll be your instructor. We're going to head by The Pit, then past the Chasm, and then you're going to get fed. Understand?" and then he's leading us further into our new home.