Chapter 26

                                    

                                          
"Rae."
  Rae stirred in her sleep slightly, causing the corners of Eric's mouth to raise in a small smile. Her hair lay in a wild halo around her. One of her arms lay above her head while the other rested across her stomach, and her lips were parted ever so slightly. The rising and falling of her chest told him that she was still slumbering. He hated to wake her, especially with news that he knew might upset her. 
"Rae. Wake up, little one." He murmured gently, brushing the hair from her face. Lowering his lips to hers, he kissed her softly. 
"Mmmm." She smiled against his lips, her eyes still closed. 
"It's time to wake up." He kissed her neck, then her collar bone, smiling as faint goosebumps sprawled across her skin. 
"I can't, I think I'm sick today." She mumbled.
"Nice try."
"Five more minutes, okay?" She reasoned, rolling over and facing away from him. He grabbed her hip, rolling her back over toward him. 
"Not today. I have to leave, and you will soon,  too."
"Why?" She asked, opening her eyes finally and furrowing her brows. She raised herself up on one elbow, resting her head on her hand. "It's our day off. Is everything okay?"
"The body of one of the initiates was found at the bottom of the chasm early this morning. I have to go take care of things."
  Rae stared at him blankly for a few minutes. Eventually she sat all the way up and rubbed her eyes. 
"Who was it?"
"Don't know yet."
"Okay." Rae said, unsure of how to process this information while still half asleep. "I love you."
"I love you too." He kissed her deeply, then got up to leave.
  Once he was gone, Rae stared after him. She was slightly shocked. Although she had heard that it was pretty common, this was the first accidental death she was aware of since she'd been here. Getting out of bed, she hurried to get ready for the day. Now that her brain had been given a moment to wake up and start to process this new information, she was anxious to get down to the Pit and see exactly what was going on. She wondered momentarily if it was Tris. Rae was certain she was Divergent; maybe someone else had figured it out as well. 
   She hurried into Max's office and found Eric and Sam already there, looking like they were about to leave.
"Rae. You're here, good. Grim business this morning I'm afraid." Max greeted her. 
"Hello." She nodded toward Max and then to Sam. 
"Hey Rae." Sam said warmly. Rae was quite fond of Eric's only apparent friend. He was about as different from Eric as another Dauntless leader could get. Whenever she saw him around, he seemed to always be accompanied by people and always smiling. There was an ease about him that made others feel very comfortable in his presence. Eric had invited him over a few times for card games and beer, and he had always been perfectly genuine toward Rae. 
"What happened? Was it an accident?" She asked.
"It's pretty clear that it was no accident. I had the cameras checked and there were no others near the chasm at that time. This death was a personal choice. There will be a funeral held this afternoon." Max explained. 
"Who was it?"
"Albert. He was one of the lowest ranked initiates. He knew he wasn't going to make it." Eric said.
  Rae only nodded, keeping her expression passive, but her eyes blazed as they met his. This was his fault. He pushed the initiates much too hard this year. She had heard things, mostly from Deidra and sometimes Four, about Eric's ruthlessness this year. That, coupled with the fact that they'd be cut from Dauntless if they ranked too low, was unfair to anyone. Eric met her eyes with his own blank ones, and he could feel another argument brewing between them. 
"Its a difficult choice, taking the plunge. His bravery will be celebrated today."
  Rae's stomach formed a knot at Max's words. He was talking about suicide. That wasn't a brave choice. This wasn't right.
  Max gestured toward the door, which they all filed out of before he locked it. As they began to walk toward the Pit, Rae lagged behind a few feet. She did not wish to be near her husband at the moment, as she didn't trust herself to speak just yet. Just then, she felt a nudge in her shoulder. Looking over, she saw Sam walking beside her. 
"Go easy on him." He whispered. He was so quiet Rae could barely hear him.
"He has to speak in front of the entire faction now, about the suicide. I know you may have reasons to be angry. But right now, he's stressed enough." Sam continued. 
  Rae nodded curtly. She hadn't thought of it that way. Eric would most naturally be the one to speak in an event such as this, being a leader and a trainer. She couldn't pile additional stress on him. She may not understand this, but she knew that he was her husband and she loved him. She trusted him.
  Hurrying ahead of Sam, Rae jogged to Eric's side, opposite Max. She reached down, interlocking her small fingers with his large ones and giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. He looked down at her, confusion flashing across his string features. Smiling up at him, she mouthed,
"I love you." 
He only nodded, but returned the squeeze on her hand, his thumb continuing to trace a pattern along the back of her hand as they walked.
***
"Quiet down, everyone!" Eric shouted over the din of the Dauntless below. Rae stood near him on a platform, her hand held tightly in his. Her nerves were getting the best of her at the moment, sweat forming at her temples. Nearby, someone hit a symbol, and the noise reverberated off the stone walls. The crowd grew quiet, save a few murmurs of the exceptionally drunk.
"Thank you." Eric continued. "As you know, we're here because Albert, an initiate, jumped into the chasm last night."
  Silence. All Rae heard was silence. It was so quiet that she felt her heartbeat was audible to the man standing beside her. 
"We don't know why, and it would be easy to mourn the loss of him tonight. But we did not choose a life of ease when we became Dauntless." Eric said, a few cheers rising up here and there before quickly dying away. "And the truth if it is...the truth is, Albert is now exploring an unknown, uncertain place. He leaped into vicious waters to get there. Who among us is brave enough to venture into that darkness without knowing what lies beyond it? Albert was not yet one of our members, but we can be assured that he was one of our bravest!" He shouted, earning cheers from many of the crowd below. 
"We will celebrate him now, and remember him always!" Eric yelled even louder as the cheering grew. "To Albert, the Courageous!" He cheered.
"To Albert!" The crowd shouted, mimicking her husband as he raised his drink high in the air. Rae followed suit as they all toasted to Al's death, taking a deep drink from her glass. She barely had time to swallow before Eric was pulling on her, bringing her into his arms and kissing her hard. She wanted to celebrate with him for his amazing speech, yet she could not quite forget the worrisome pressure that was building in her gut. 
***
  In the following weeks, Rae began to carry out Max's requests to organize Jeanine's conference room. It was a large room, and there were many computer desks being set up, pushed together and awaiting their computers.
Too many. Rae thought to herself. This was more than just a few simple changes to initiate training. Nonetheless, she had done her job and had everything setup according to Max's instruction. 
  She was giving instruction to one of the men that Max had assigned to do the heavy lifting when she saw Jeanine Matthews herself, flocked by a group of 8 other Erudite, enter. Jeanine looked around the room studiously, before her eyes landed on Rae.
  Rae froze as Jeanine approached her. The Erudite that had accompanied her immediately made themselves busy around the room.
"Good afternoon Rae. Are you overseeing the setup here?" She asked cordially. 
"Yes." Rae answered. 
"Wonderful. It looks as though everything is nicely organized. I thank you for that. We have been swamped back home, preparing the materials we need to make Dauntless even stronger. I have many thanks to your husband for that." She added the last part just as Eric and Max entered the nearly over crowded room. The Erudite that had arrived with Jeanine had made themselves immediately busy, stringing together cords of a few computer parts they had carried in. Rae also noticed many boxes of what looked like some kind of serum being stored away in the cupboards that lined the back wall. She turned to face Eric and Max as they stood next to Jeanine. Rae shot Eric an inquiring look, which he tried to avoid. Jeanine noticed, and continued. 
"The ideas he has brought forth on behalf of a Dauntless trainer have been invaluable. The new requirements that initiates face in order to become fully fledged members of Dauntless are cutting edge, to say the least." 
  Eric could avoid her gaze no longer, as Jeanine put he spotlight on him. 
"Thank you Jeanine. My pleasure." He said easily and with a smirk, chancing only a quick glance at his wife. He knew that under her cool exterior, she was fuming at him. He hadn't told her that the changes made to initiate training were his doing, and he knew she wouldn't be pleased. She was too kind. 
  Jeanine looked between Eric and Rae as though she was delighted. "Well, Rae, I wouldn't want to keep you any longer. I know Dauntless life is trying, I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to accommodate us, up to this point." She put extra emphasis on the last part, and Rae knew that she was meant to leave. She gave a quick handshake to Jeanine and Max, and received a light peck on the cheek from Eric before she exited the room. 
  Once in the hallway, she closed the door and fell against the wall next to it. She let out a deep exhale as she tried to steady her racing heart. 
This is getting out of hand. She thought. I have to find Four.
  She took a few deep breaths and set off. She went first to the Pit, and after she was unsuccessful there she tried the control room. He was there, sitting in front of a monitor. She rushed to him after nodding politely to the other two people in the room.
"Something I can assist you with, Mrs. Coulter?" He said coolly, without looking up from his screen. 
"Um... yes actually." She said, rolling her eyes. "Actually, I don't know." She sighed, sitting down and letting her shoulders slumped forward. 
  Four finally looked over at her. "Boy trouble?" He asked. 
"No!" Rae said, looking over her shoulder at the others, worried about being overheard. "Well... uh, maybe." Her voice was now a whisper. " I really need to talk to you about something." Four only looked at her irritably. "Something important." She added with her brows raised. 
He sighed, "Okay." After pressing a few buttons, his screen went blank and he rose from his chair. "I'm taking lunch." He said simply to the others. They nodded.
 Rae followed Four as he made his way, quickly and discreetly as possible, to his apartment. Once they were inside he glared at her. 
"We have to stop meeting like this. Someone might assume we have dishonest intentions." He said sarcastically. 
"Jeanine is here." Rae cut right to the chase, ignoring Four's mood. "She has this whole setup and a whole team of Noses here. There's serums being loaded in there with all the computers. I have this feeling like something bad is going to happen."
  Four's eyebrows raised in surprise. "They let you see all that?" 
"Well, yeah, kind of. At least, before I was politely told to leave. It was my job to get her creepy room all set up. I'm Eric's wife, and Eric has apparently been behind all these new, awful changes to initiate training."
"All the changes that he made were put in place specifically to expose Divergents. You didn't know?"
  Rae fumed. "Of course I didn't know. He probably didn't tell me because he knows deep down that what he's doing is wrong."
"No Rae. No, he doesn't."
  Looking up at him, there was a mixture of curiosity and irritation on her face. "I know you don't like him, but he's not all bad, Four."
"It's not about me not liking him. The faction system works because everyone belongs somewhere. People are born either brave or intelligent or selfless or honest or kind. They are ONE of those things. You, you are Divergent. Which means you are more than just one of those things. You don't understand why Eric or Jeanine is doing this because you have a greater awareness than they do. You're brave but you're also intelligent, and honest, and selfless. Eric is not. He is Dauntless, and Dauntless alone. He does what he's supposed to and he does it well. You can't expect him to be anything more than who he is."
  Rae didn't answer. She was dumbfounded by Four's insight. She fought to come up with some comeback or other means of telling him he was wrong, but she found none. Her heart sank as she realized that Four was very possibly correct.
"You really just had to go and marry him though." He jabbed, his tone gentler now. Rae rolled her eyes at him again. "I did try to warn you. Unfortunately, there's not much we can do to stop whatever it is that they're planning. I've talked to Tris, and-"
"You like her, don't you? Tris, I mean." Rae asked. Now it was Four's turn to look dumbfounded. "I've seen the way you act around each other. She's very pretty."
"Is it really that obvious?" Four asked, making Rae smile.
"Not really. Only if you're paying attention I suppose." 
"Anyways," He continued. "She saw her brother the other day, in Erudite. He seems to think that Jeanine might try and overthrow Abnigation."
"Why?! How would she do that?" Rae gasped.
"I believe she's been working on it for a long time. Spreading rumors about my father to make him look unfit to be leader. Now you say they've got some kind of serum.... I don't like it Rae. I'll look into it. In the meantime, maybe you could try to find a way to get information out of your husband."
"Right." Rae said as she heaved a large sigh. She turned to leave before he called out to her.
"Be careful."
"He's my husband, Four. I'm not afraid of him."
***
  Eric watched his wife wearily as she arrived back in their apartment that evening. She didn't appear outwardly upset with him, although he knew she had reason to be. She greeted him as she hung up her coat and kicked off her shoes. Wanting to change into something more comfortable, she headed for the bedroom. Setting a couple of dinner plates on the table, he turned to grab drinks as Rae entered the room once more. She smiled weakly as she approached him.
"You're mad at me." He stated.
"You're kissing ass." She countered, gesturing toward the dinner he had waiting for her on the table. 
"It's just dinner. I cook just as often as you do." He shrugged innocently as he sat down. She followed suit, thankful for the prepared meal as her stomach growled. 
"I was talking about the flowers." She raised her brows and nodded toward the beautiful bouquet that decorated the table. 
"Maybe I'm just a really sweet guy." He smiled playfully as she rolled her eyes at him, a smile playing on her own lips. They ate in silence for awhile. When they finished, Eric reached out and grabbed hold of Rae's hand. 
"You know, I never intentionally try to piss you off." He smirked, causing Rae to crack a small smile of her own.
"I get it, Eric. Really, I do." She assured him, squeezing his hand. "The whole confidentiality thing, right?" 
He nodded.
"Well, now that Max has somewhat decided that he can trust me, can we try to talk about what exactly Jeanine is doing here? Maybe without the arguing this time."
"That sounds fair." He let go of her hand and cupped the side of her face for a moment before planting a gentle kiss on her lips. "You haven't been drinking have you?" He quipped again.
"No!" She exclaimed, shoving his shoulder lightly.
"Okay. Then let's talk."
***
Sorry this chapter is a bit short! I couldn't think of a better place to end it. Hope all of you wonderful people are having a fabulous week! I'm ready for warmer weather and no more sick kiddos! Trying to update more often, but I'm also in no hurry for the story to end, if that makes sense! Thanks for following along guys, you all make my day with your votes and comments 🖤