From Here On Out

twenty five

"Four wheels to get there, and enough love to share"

Present Day

If there was a darker, more depressing day... Tris had yet to see it.

The sky had matched the earth as everything was cold and grey. The black fabric clung tightly to Tris's chilling body, as she stood beside Tobias who was dressed in the same.

His head was casted to the ground, his eyes never really lifting throughout most of it. Tris would look over at him, or just through the corner of her eyes. Just in time to catch single tears rolling down his cheeks, one by one taking place on the dry ground.

Her lace black gloved hands held tightly to his the whole service, afraid to let go. There wasn't an abundance of people who showed, and Tris had expected that. She knew Evelyn lived a very secretive, lonely life.

But her son was there, and Tris knew that was all she would've cared about.

The white roses that stood around them, in large groups seemed out of place as the weather was well below freezing. But they were beautiful none the less.

Once the casket, holding her elegantly dressed body, was placed into the frozen December ground. They walked, hand in hand.

Tobias not able to head straight home, and Tris knowing that she just needed to be there for him.

|     |     |     |

A Year and A Half Ago 

He held her.

She was held.

He didn't let go.

She wouldn't have to be alone.

She had lost her grandmother today, well a few days ago but today was the funeral. The true goodbye.

Tobias was there, right beside her. Comforting her the way he knew she needed to be, to just know that she wasn't alone in this. That he could put is problems aside and be there when it really meant something.

As she fell asleep there in his arms, as the day turned into night. He stayed awake, to make sure nothing would keep her from getting the rest she so desperately needed. He promised her that he'd keep the bad dreams away, the he'd be there when she woke.

And he was.

She wouldn't have to be alone.

He didn't let go.

She was held.

He held her.

|     |      |     |

Present Day 

They found a small path, that led to a stone bench where they both sit. Although their legs are cold to the bone, and the snow blows lightly around them they stay there.

Her hand that hadn't let go of his still hung tightly, squeezing it here and there making sure he knew she was still there.

Tobias lets out a shaky breath, the first real noise she heard escape his mouth that day. She watches as it freezes in the air.

"She wasn't much," Tobias says, and his voice is strained in a way Tris wasn't used to hearing in his voice. "but she was my mother."

Resting her head on his shoulder, "I know."

He was right, she wasn't much. She missed years of his life, caused Tobias to endure pain for most of them. But she was his mother, his blood.

"I-- I asked her for it." His voice drops as a lump grows in his throat. "I asked her to get tested."