A/N: to my beautiful amazing readers, Merry Christmas! I'm so sorry this has taken me more that a week to post. I finished the chapter at around 2 pages on word, but decided to extend it. hopefully this will make you forgive me. I really hope you like this chapter, I lost so much sleep trying to think about what to write;)

Also thanks to my new Beta reader MillenniumLint who will start proof reading next chapter ^_^

Merry Christmas, I hope you've all had a fantastic week. as a present to me, could you please review and let me know what you think? Pretty please with cherry's on top? chapter 12 (which I've already started writing btw :P) will be up ASAP. ENJOY

Love Slightly Afraid xxx

Chapter 11

Christina POV

Zeke, Uriah, Peter, Shauna, Peaches and I were waiting at our usual table for Tris. It was nearly 8 o'clock and we usually have breakfast at 7. Zeke told us that he and Tris had came in late last night after the security checks in Erudite, but that didn't explain why she wasn't in the café.

"Right, that's it," I say suddenly bringing Peaches out of his daydream. "I'm going to go find her, coming?" the whole table stood and followed me out of the room. We decided that we'd split off into groups to search for her. I went with Uriah, Zeke went with Shauna and Peaches went with Peter.

"Right then children," said Zeke

"Children?" asked Uriah slipping his hand into mine. "I'm only two years younger than you and I'm as tall as you."

"Fine then, you have to ruin everything don't you Uri?" Zeke said sighing. "People that are not so much younger than me, if you find her you gotta text us, other wise we'll end up wondering the compound like zombies. Okay? Okay, let's get moving!"

oOo

Uriah and I were going to search the training room and then her apartment, as I was the only one out of the six of us that had a key. With Uriah's hand in mine we walked towards the training room, discussing what we'd do for Tris' birthday.

"We could go Zip lining maybe? She loved that during initiation." Uriah suggests but I veto it almost immediately. Tris came from Abnegation, so I want to throw her a huge party, something she'll remember.

We spent five minutes looking round the training room, checking the store cupboard at the back, checking in all the punching bags (don't ask, it was Uriah's idea) but we couldn't find her anywhere, so we left the large, echoing room and walked towards the other side of the compound towards Tris' apartment.

When we got there I pulled my key from my back pocket at shoved it into the lock, turning it twice to the right, and when I opened the door I smiled. On the black leather sofa was a 5 foot brunet girl with slightly blond roots; Tris. I couldn't say I was surprised though, for the last few weeks she'd hardly been sleeping; constantly working and trying to distract her self. She still blamed what happened to Four on her self, no matter what we said.

I tapped Uriah on his shoulder and pointed to the door. He responded with a small nod and then held up his index finger. 'What the heck is he doing?' I thought. He walked off in the direction of the bedroom and came back a minute later holding a large black quilt with five grey birds in flight at the top and a brown fluffy teddy bear. I recognised it as the one I got her for Christmas last year. Uri tucked the blanket around our sleeping friend and wrapped the bear in her folded arms and backed towards the door.

"I couldn't let her get cold," he said innocently noticing my raised eyebrow. "Come on, I thought you said yesterday that you wanted to throw Tris a party for her birthday?"

oOo

*** Four Weeks Later ***

We'd been planning Tris' birthday party for the last four weeks now and we were finally ready. We were holding it in the Pit and most of Dauntless were coming. All I had to do now was get Tris into the dress I'd brought her. It wasn't ridiculously short, but it would be above her knees, so hopefully Tris would wear it without kicking up to much of a fuss.

There were two layers to the dress; the first layer was a simple black spaghetti strap dress that was tight fitting (and would show off the curves she had gained in the last year) and would reach four inches above her knee. The second layer was made out of black lace. The neckline that reached the collar bones and the three-quarter length sleeves gave it an almost classic twist. The second layer brought the dress down to around two inches above the knee, so hopefully she'd tolerate it.

It was also now a week until Christmas, so Tris, along with the rest of our group was getting anxious. The three month mark was quickly approaching, and we were worried for Four's mental state. The doctor had said that when a person slipped into a coma, after around three months, brain damage could develop. It was hard to imagine Four the way he was the last time we saw him. Severely damaged and covered in cuts and bruises, dented with a couple of bullet wounds and in a coma. I mean, come on, it was Four! If someone had told me six months ago that Four would end up the way he was now, I would've laughed. It didn't make matters worse that for the last two and a half weeks no one was allowed to see him.

Tris, on the other hand, had been considerably better. She'd caught up on her sleep, so she was less cranky, and she blamed herself a little less. Although she wasn't exactly thrilled about the fact that we were throwing her a party, she was willing to comply for my sake.

Zeke, Uriah, Peaches, Mercedes, Shauna and I were putting up the last of the decorations in the pit. I would have preferred to hold something more intimate and rather than a party in such a big place, but nearly the whole of Dauntless was coming, I asked Tori and Harrison if we could hold it in the pit, and luckily they said yes.

After we'd finished setting up the pit for the party, Shauna and I picked up the three dresses, a bunch of make up and hair products and the shoes and made our way to Tris' apartment.

oOo

Tris POV

I'd just finished watching my favourite classic movie, Mockingjay part 2, when I heard a knock at the door. The last time I watched this movie was with Four, and it was probably the only time I'd seen him cry. I quickly wiped the remaining tears away and went to answer it. To my absolute horror, there stood Christina and Shauna, holding dress bags, shoe boxes and a box full of girly products. Oh. I'd forgotten that they were throwing me a birthday party.

As soon as I'd opened the door they were running into my apartment screaming about how excited they were and how I was going to love the party etc. But I couldn't help thinking that Tobias wouldn't be there…

Christina grabbed my hand and started dragging me towards the bathroom, jarring me from my thoughts. She shoved me through the door and shut it.

"I've put all the bottles of the things you've got to use in order on the side of the bath. There's a dressing gown and a set of underwear on the counter. Ok? I'll be in when you're done." I heard the sound of her ridiculously high heals disappear down the hallway and stripped out of my skinny black jeans and baggy oversized tee-shirt that just so happened to be Four's. I immersed my self in the hot water so that the bubbles reached my chin, and relaxed dreading the moment I'd have to get out.

oOo

I spent around 45 minutes in the bath, and when I came out my skin was wrinkled like a prune. I wrapped the fluffy white towel under my arms and made my way to the counter to collect the underwear.

I took one look at the lingerie that Christina had lain out and ground my teeth in protest. The garments were very lacy and made me feel uncomfortable by just looking at them, but knowing Christina, I'd either wear these or I'd go commando...

Chris and Shauna spent the next hour doing my make up, and to be honest I was getting very frustrated and fed up of being prodded and poked by the two of then. But when I saw my reflection, I kind of liked the way I looked. My friends had given me Smokey eyes and dark red lips. My hair was in a messy bun with long strands hanging loose by my ears and my fringe framing my face. My dress was longer than the other ones Christina usually made me wear, but it was still short enough to show some of my legs. The shoes were like my lace up boots but with a two inch heel and the leather of the boot came about two inches up my ankle.

Finally my two best friends and I were ready to leave, and although I was kind of excited for the party, I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to spend my 18th birthday without the man I loved; without my family…

oOo

When we arrived at the pit, I was completely blown away by the number of people that were there, and when we walked through the door, almost every member of Dauntless who was over 16 screamed 'Happy Birthday'. I couldn't help but smile. Christina handed me a glass bottle filled with a dark liquid that I identified as coke and went to mingle…

I quickly found my friends amongst the crowd of people and pushed my way towards them with Christina and Shauna on my heels.

When I reached my friends, they each gave me a quick embrace and once again wished me 'Happy Birthday' before discussing other topics, like next weeks truth or dare game, or the prank we pulled on Uriah yesterday that included shaving cream and waffles. After Uriah had had 2 bottles of Budweiser (this old bear brand that had been about for years that only the Dauntless drank.) and I'd finished my glass of coke, I suddenly found myself being dragged towards the dance floor by Uriah and his annoying brother.

"No!" I yelled, smiling despite my discomfort. "Please guys, I really don't want to dance!" but my protesting didn't matter because I was still dragged onto the dance floor. Just as my feet touched the shiny wooden floor one of my favourite songs ever started to play; A Love like War by All Time Low, an old band that came from somewhere called the United States of America. I allowed my self to jump to the beat of the music, but that was the limit to my dance moves.

After 'a love like war' had finished I stopped 'dancing' and waited for the next song. It was Wake me up when September ends by Green Day. One of Fours favourite songs.

Suddenly the crowd started to part making a walk way from where the rest of our friends stood to the centre of the dance floor- where I stood with Uriah and Zeke. Zeke squeezed my shoulder and Uriah pushed me forwards. Suddenly a tall man clad in skinny jeans and a leather jacket started walking towards us. The first thing I noticed was that he was limping. The second was that on his left leg where his boot was, was a slight bulge in a cylinder shape underneath his trouser leg. I slowly worked my eyes from his feet and surveyed the rest of his body. On his right arm at the cuff of his loose leather jacket was a black cast wrapped around his thumb and had and reached (from what I could see through the jacket) to around his elbow. From the collar of his v-neck t-shirt I could see the edge of a bandage and on the left side of his neck up to his chin, to just below his right collar bone I saw stitches keeping together a deep cut that stretched to his left eyebrow, but above his chin looked like it was held together with medical glue.

It was only when I noticed the cut on his face did I realise who the man was. I stared into his deep blue eyes and was hit by a wave of emotions; shock, happiness, anger, joy.

Four stared back at me, pure happiness reflected in his eyes.

"Hey short stuff." He said in his deep calming voice, his smile lighting up his face despite the scar, and it was when he greeted me with that annoying nickname that my body took over from my mind and I ran. I'd never ran so fast in all my life than I did in those seven seconds. When I reached my boyfriend, I wrapped my arms around his neck, and I felt his snake around my waist as I kissed him with as much force as I could muster. In that one kiss I poured in all my grief, my anxiety, my happiness and my love. And for that moment, nothing else existed but us. Nothing else mattered except for the fact that he was back in my arms and his lips were pressed against mine. And I never wanted that perfect moment to end…

To be continued…