Only two real notes here. First off, as much as I would rather not say anything because I don't like giving hints away before people read the chapter, I have to give a brief warning here. So here is a POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING pertaining to dark themes, violence, assult and implied rape.

On a less morbid note, I have started a Twitter account specifically for my fanfiction, and I would like to try give people following me a heads up on what I may be working on and any new ideas I get, so do me a favor and follow me on Twitter at loveualwaysmom! If you're wondering why I'm not using the 'at' symbol, for some reason the document manager on this site doesn't like symbols.

Anyhoo, hopefully everyone likes the chapter. No, I have no idea where the plot twist came from, but I do have vague ideas for where it's going. Do me a wonderful favor and leave me a review at the end, I live for them!

The car was silent the rest of the drive back to Abnegation, though the cold tension in the air subsided greatly once Eric had made it clear he wasn't planning on turning Tris in. When they pulled up to the house, Natalie leaned forward in her seat and placed her hand on Eric's shoulder.

"Won't you come in for a minute, maybe stay for dinner?" She offered kindly. Eric turned to her with the intent of denying the request, but at her pointed glance toward his shoulder he turned to Tris instead.

"You okay with that?" He asked.

"Sure, that'd be nice," Tris accepted with a smile. Eric squeezed her hand briefly before getting out of the car and following Tris and her parents to the door, feeling slightly awkward.

When he ducked through the door his eyes were met with an utterly unremarkable home, a plain gray with natural light coming in through the windows and minimal, plain furniture. In the corners he could see candles sitting, waiting for night to fall. Looking around more carefully he realized there was nothing with which to occupy oneself with during downtime, minus some knitting needles and yarn sitting in the corner with a pile of what appeared to be clothing.

Eric stood back against the wall and watched Tris move around her childhood home, mentally replacing the black clad woman he had grown accustomed to as of late with the one he remembered from the first day of initiation a scant two weeks previously. Already he couldn't quite imagine it, couldn't see her as a silent girl in the shadows with her brother, always helping and not speaking unless spoken to. He wasn't familiar with the intricacies of Abnegation's customs, but he knew enough to see why she had left. The lifestyle worked for some, but the more he got to know Tris the less he could picture her fiery personality fitting in here, even if she did technically have the aptitude.

His attention returned to them as Andrew drew off to a chair in the corner with a stack of paper, and Eric dimly remembered the man was on the council. Tris and her mother spoke quietly for a moment, and then Tris went into the same room as her father, picking up the yarn and needles seemingly without consciously thinking about it.

"Eric, why don't you help me with dinner?" Natalie asked him kindly. "If you don't mind, of course."

"Oh of course," he said quickly, following her into the kitchen. His heart quickened slightly in his chest, an Abnegation asking help of anyone was out of character, which told him she had a motive for separating him from the other two. Judging by her glance toward the mark on his neck, it had something to do with his relationship with Tris. The idea of discussing it with her mother made his palms sweat a little.

She gestured to the spot of counter next to herself and he joined her, taking the knife and vegetables she passed him without protest, cutting them with quick, sure strokes as he waited for her to speak.

"So," she began after a minute or so. "Tell me about you."

"What has Tris told you already?" He asked.

"That you were one of the leaders. She described you as complex. But that's all we had time for," she said with a smile.

Eric chuckled. "Complex? That's..." he trailed off. "Startlingly accurate, now I think about it."

"So I've noticed."

"Well, like you said I'm one of the leaders, though I'm low on the totem pole at this point. I transferred from Erudite two years ago, ended up second in my class."

"Who was first?"

"A transfer who goes by the nickname Four now," he told her. After a pause he continued. "You would know him as-"

"Tobias," She finished. "He brought us cake and I happened to recognize him. He seems to fit in well with Dauntless."

"You could say that," Eric chuckled. "He's the only one who was able to land a punch on me at any rate. If it weren't for the fact none of the Dauntless borns could, I would have felt insulted."

"So how did you and Bea- and Tris end up together?" She asked him, correcting herself halfway through Tris's old name.

Eric's hands froze momentarily as he remembered the night in the training room, and blood colored his cheeks. "Um..."

Natalie laughed. "I see."

"I... Not at first, I mean... We didn't, well I kind of..." Eric trailed off, cheeks reddening even more as he struggled to come up with some semblance of an explanation.

"You don't have to explain yourself to me," she reassured. "Things are different in Dauntless, I know that."

Eric nodded but stayed silent, wishing the blush would fade from his face. He hated blushing with a passion.

"Eric," she said quietly, in a tone that commanded he look at her. Reluctantly he did so, meeting her eyes. "Do you care about her?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I do. A lot," he said quietly, still somewhat thrown by just how much.

"You're not used to emotion are you?" She asked him quietly, giving him her full attention.

"You're perceptive," he admitted, looking over her shoulder uncomfortably.

"Some things can't be controlled, and it's best not to try," she said, smiling. Gently she took his hand in her own, making his eyes snap to hers. The Abnegation didn't touch anyone outside their own families this way, much less strangers.

"You're young," Natalie said. "The system calls you an adult but that doesn't mean you don't still need guidance sometimes, and from what I saw of your parents you haven't had anything resembling it in a long time. I know Dauntless, and I know there isn't anyone you could talk to there so I want you to know that if you ever need anything, my home is open to you. Bring anything you want here, and it won't go beyond that door. You have my word."

Eric swallowed thickly, trying to dislodge the lump of emotion brought about by her kindness. It had been a decade or more since anyone had been remotely maternal with him, and the sudden reintroduction of it caught him off guard.

"Keep that in mind, and take good care of my daughter," she told him firmly.

"I will," he returned. "Thank you."

"And I know it's none of my business, but remember to use some kind of protection. You two are too young for kids."

Eric blushed furiously again. "I, um, we are," he muttered uncomfortably. Natalie laughed lightly, and after a moment he joined her.

"Remember," she said sternly. "Any time."

"I will," he assured.

...

It was in a lull of silence as the four of them ate dinner - Tris had never noticed how small their meals were until now - that Tris first heard a terrified scream. She looked up from cutting her meat to stare out the window, and a second urgent scream tore through the air.

The four of them were on their feet in moments, and Tris followed the sound of the screams through the door and down the street into the factionless sector with Eric on her heels. They rounded a corner and saw two figures on the ground, a factionless man pinning an Abnegation girl to the broken pavement next to a building. As they drew closer Tris saw the man holding a hand over the girl's mouth, preventing her from continuing her cries.

The factionless man looked up at the pounding of their footsteps on the pavement and wrenched himself off the girl, pants falling to pool around his knees as he stood. He took off running, or attempted to while trying to right his clothes at the same time, which slowed him greatly. Tris ignored the sick feeling in her stomach as she grew level with the girl and saw the way the gray clothing was torn open, revealing far too much bare skin. Somewhere in the back of her mind Tris registered the girl as her friend Susan, and her eyes again found the retreating figure still struggling to right his pants and flee.

Just behind her Eric was whipping his jacket off his shoulders and covering Susan with it. Tris adjusted her grip on the knife still in her hand from dinner, pulled back her arm and threw it at the retreating back with every bit of strength she had. The knife whipped through the intervening twenty feet and lodged itself deep in the right side of the man's neck, where blood began to rapidly pour out of the wound as he fell to the ground.

Tris panted and looked down to Susan lying on the ground almost directly below her, staring at the man now lying still on the ground in shock. Tris looked to Eric next, who pulled his eyes from the man's body to stare at her instead.

"Nice shot Tris," he told her, sounding impressed.

Tris nodded shakily and knelt on the ground next to Susan, smoothing her hair from her sticky cheeks and wiping her tears. Susan's eyes moved to Tris, staring at her with a look Tris couldn't identify.

"Beatrice?" She asked shakily.

"It's Tris now," she corrected softly. "But yeah, it's me. What happened?"

"I was going to give him my food," she whispered. "But he said that wasn't what he wanted. He said he wanted..." Susan trailed off and more tears flowed down her cheeks. At that moment another gray figure knelt silently beside them, and out of the corner of her eye Tris saw her father walk up beside them.

"Was he able to do it?" Eric asked her quietly. "Did he penetrate you?"

Susan's eyes closed, but she shook her head. "No," she whispered. "He was just about to... Do it, when he saw you and ran. But almost."

Tris heard Eric's sigh of relief, which reflected her own. "Did he hurt you at all? Physically, anyway," Eric amended.

"No, he just tore my clothes off," she whimpered.

"At least we don't have to go to the hospital then," Eric said quietly. "Not unless you'd rather go anyway."

As Tris expected, Susan shook her head. "No, I'm... I'm fine. Just shaken up is all."

"Can you stand?" Tris's mother piped up gently from beside her. Susan turned to her and relaxed slightly, seeming comforted by her mother's quiet presence.

"Yes, I think so. I'm just not covered," she said softly, averting her eyes. Eric sat up and pulled his shirt hurriedly over his head, handing it to Tris before standing and turning his back. Her father did the same, and together Tris and her mother helped Susan to sit up.

Susan was a year younger than Tris, and smaller than her as well. As such, Eric's t shirt was far larger than her small frame, bringing the hem to halfway down her thighs when she stood upright. She tugged the hem nervously, and Tris felt a stab of sympathy for her. In her short time in Dauntless she had become accustomed to short and tight clothes, but for Susan to wear something that showed most of her legs she may as well have been naked.

Tris looked carefully at the neck of the shirt and then Susan's waist, an idea forming in her head.

"Here," she said quickly, stepping up to Susan. "Pull this down farther, around here," she said quickly, pulling the shirt down over her right shoulder and pulling her arm through the neck. Tris stretched the fabric slightly and did the same on the other side, pulling the shirt down until the collar was snug around her waist and leaving her chest bare.

Hurriedly Tris pulled her own jacket off and draped it around Susan's shoulders, who pulled her arms through it and immediately zipped it clear to the throat. Far more of her legs were exposed than was normal for the Abnegation, but the hem of the shirt now came down past her knees. Susan eyed Tris's snug, rib length crop top in shock, but said nothing about it.

"Thank you Tris," she said quietly, attempting to smile at her.

"Are you good?" Eric asked.

"Yes, thank you," Susan told him. Eric turned back around and picked his coat up from the ground, draping it over his arm as he came to stand in front of Susan. Tris noticed the way her eyes lingered over his bare, toned chest just a fraction too long before coming up to his face and bit back a smile.

"Can you walk? If not I can carry you back, it's not a problem."

Susan's eyes widened slightly, and her eyes dropped to his bare torso again before returning to his face. "Oh I'm okay," she assured. "I couldn't ask that of you when my own legs work just fine."

"Fair enough," he said easily. "Tris, go get that knife. We don't need any other factionless getting ahold of it and getting more bright ideas."

Tris nodded and jogged over to the man, now noticing the large pool of blood around him. She realized she must have hit an artery, and crouched gingerly next to the body. Up close she saw that the knife had gone into the man's neck about halfway. Biting back a wave of queasiness Tris grabbed the handle and pulled, cringing at the feel of the serrated edge catching on muscle and the dull sound of tissues tearing as the knife ripped free.

Tris stood quickly and jogged back to Eric's side, relaxing when his arm wrapped around her bare waist. Tris's parents each wrapped an arm around Susan's shoulders and guided her gently forward, leaving Eric and Tris to trail behind them as they walked back to the Abnegation section.

When the rounded the last corners they saw several people standing out in their yards, talking and looking confused. Clearly they had not been the only ones to hear Susan's screams, and all eyes lingered on Eric and Tris's half-dressed forms as they walked quickly to the Black's home.

At the door Eric caught Tris's mother's arm. "Mrs. Prior, we should probably get going," he said quietly. "I think we'll only cause more disruption here."

"Well thank you for staying, and thank you for helping her," she said, taking his hand. She turned to Tris and embraced her tightly, making Tris smile into her mother's hair as she hugged her back.

She pulled back and grasped Tris's shoulders gently. "Take care Tris," she said, smiling.

Surprising both of them she turned to Eric next, standing up on her toes to wrap her arms around his shoulders as well. Tris stifled a giggle at the shocked expression on his face as he uncertainly returned the hug, looking as though he was waiting for the punch line of a joke to fall.

"You too," she said firmly, placing a palm against his cheek and giving him a stern look. "Take good care of my daughter, and remember what I said, okay?"

"I will," he told her quietly with a smile. Tris watched the exchange in surprise, wondering what her mother had said to Eric while they were preparing dinner.

The pair were silent as they got back in the car, Tris glancing at Eric every few seconds in curiosity. About halfway back to Dauntless her eyes lit on a lone tear sliding down his cheek, and Tris reached over to pry his hand from the wheel. Gently she laced her fingers through his before lifting his hand to her lips and placing a soft kiss on it, much the way he had to herself earlier.

"Whatever she told you, she means it," Tris told him.

Eric turned to glance at her briefly before returning his eyes to the road in front of them. She heard him swallow before answering.

"I know," he said quietly, smiling slightly. "I'm glad she does."