Factionless (Divergent Fanfiction)

Chapter 14

     I breathe deeply, inhaling the evening air. It doesn't exactly smell like anything, but that's not the point. The point is that over the last few days I've tried this thing called 'calming down' and 'breathing properly'. I've even gotten into meditation, which surprisingly helps a lot.

     I've slowed down my mind, to the point where I'm not losing my shit every minute of the day. I've tried to give Audrey some space, and now that Tobias and his friends are gone, there's no threat to her. Except for Jackson. No. He's a friend. To Audrey. A FRIEND. In a very FRIENDLY way. Yes. That's it.

     Speaking of which....or uh....thinking of which, I hear footsteps behind me. I open my eyes and remember that I'm on the roof of the Factionless headquarters. Not many other people come up here, except for me and whoever is coming up behind me. I try to squash all of the paranoid thoughts of someone whacking me over the head with a metal pole or something then shoving me off the roof and to my death.

     Apparently that's not the case though, as to my mild surprise, Audrey sits down beside me. I wasn't expecting her to come. She hasn't hung out with me willingly for years. The last time I could remember spending father-daughter time together was when she was eight and had a weird obsession with colouring on the walls. I eventually covered basically the entire room in paper so she could colour on any surface. I would sometimes colour with her too, and that was one of the happiest moments in my life.

     "Hey." Audrey says casually, leaning back on her hands and gazing at the sunset.

     "Hey, what are you doing here?" I ask, hoping that doesn't sound too rude.

     "I live here." She answers, looking at me with an amused smile.

     "On the roof?" I give her a skeptical look.

     "Well, sometimes Jack and I hang out up here." She says lightly, glancing around the area.

     "HANGING OUT. OKAY. SURE." My internal voice states in an obnoxiously loud voice.

     I want to give her a big long lecture about how to be careful with how much time alone she's spending with that boy, but then she'll get annoyed and probably leave. So, I resort to just nodding slowly.

     Audrey gives me a surprised look, as if she too thought I was going to lecture her. "How's your meditation going?" She asks in sort of a roundabout way from asking the question I know she actually wants to ask; 'have you finally stopped being a total psycho?' To that question, my answer is, I'm....working on it.

     Out loud, I say. "Yeah, it's actually going really well." Which is actually relatively true.

     Audrey doesn't say anything for a moment, then suddenly blurts. "You're a good dad."

     "Really?" I question, looking at my daughter in bewilderment. I DID NOT expect her to say THAT.

     "Yeah," She confirms with a small laugh. "you're kind of crazy, but I love you anyway."

     "I love you too." I reply, hugging her.

     In my head, I loudly command my eyes to not leak again because it is VERY annoying and wet and HORRIBLE.

     After a moment, I pull back and open my mouth to say something else, but movement in the distance catches my eye. I look over, and see a sea of black marching it's way towards headquarters. Black. Dauntless. Shit.

     WAR.