Learning to Trust

Chapter 36 - I Love You

Chapter 36 - I Love You

Tobias

"Hey, Tris. How're you doing?" I say sitting down next to her on the bed. She is sitting upright from the bed being able to move up and down at the head, feet, and grow or shrink from the floor.

"Hi." She quietly whispers in a raspy voice.

She's grown to speaking simple word phrases or just single words. Her voice is never clear, and she never speaks above a raspy whisper, but at least she's beginning to talk again.

Gently, I wrap her in an embrace. Her arms loosely wrap around my torso and her head rests on my shoulder as my hands wrap around her small back.

They still haven't been able to get her on much food. Any solids or liquids she consumes, for the most part, comes right back up. From what Julie told me this morning, she kept some broth down for the first time yesterday.

Baby steps. That's all that truly matters. As long as she keeps moving in the direction she's going, baby steps are perfectly fine.

"I wish I could stick around all day, but there's a meeting back at Dauntless tonight that I really need to go to." I tell her when we pull apart from our embrace. I brush a piece of blonde hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear, noticing that her jawline is completely healed since the stitches have been removed. There's a fine line of discolored skin where the cut was, but the skin is now completely healed over and the infection looks to be gone.

I choose to not tell her about the investigation. I'm not sure how she'd react. Maybe she doesn't want people to know what happened in there. I don't want to keep secrets from her like this, but I don't want to upset her.

She nods from my previous statement and looks down, concentrated breaths leaving her mouth as her lips try to form words. She's trying to say something.

I stick around for about three hours until I decide that I should probably go home to eat and walk Indy before the meeting. The whole time I have been here, she's been trying to say something, but just can't, I can tell.

"I've got to head back home, Tris. I'll stop by again soon though. Either tomorrow or the next day, depending on how this meeting goes tonight" I tell her. She wraps her arms around my neck and hugs me tightly, her lips still trying to say something as the breaths come from her mouth harder than before.

I pull away from her and smile at her. Her eyes meet mine assertively as she still struggles to say something.

"It's okay. You can tell me next time. I'll be back." I put my hand on the side of her face and rub her cheek gently with my thumb. She closes her eyes for a few seconds and then opens them, making eye contact me.

I pull my hand away, turn and then walk towards the door.

"T-Tobias." I stop.

I turn to face her and her eyes light up.

"Tobias." She says louder than I've heard her speak since she's been speaking.

I feel tears brim my eyes and I see a single tear roll down her cheek.

She smiles.

She hasn't smiled since she's been back here.

I run back to her and can't help my excitement.

I press my lips to hers.

The whole world stops as she kisses me back.

It doesn't matter that it has taken almost five months for her to get back on her feet.

All that matters is that she is.

There's no turning back now.

We pull away and she smiles at me with her beautiful smile.

She truly smiles.

"I love you." She whispers.

"I love you too." I tell her.
  
  
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Be brave bc I <4 you all so so much! (: