Determinant: One choice will change everything

Epilogue 2: Tris - School

A/N: Wow... This story has passed 2,000 reviews on the fanfiction net site where I originally posted it, as well has having a number of reviews here! You are truly a wonderful group of readers to bring this story so far, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support. It means so much to me to see reviews continuing to come in for a story that I completed so long ago. Truly, thank you all so much!

In celebration of passing the 2,000 point, I'm posting an additional epilogue from Tris' point of view. I hope you enjoy it!

Epilogue 2: Tris – School

It's a brisk November day, and I pull my jacket more tightly around me as we walk the long route to Abigail's school. My eyes wander over my husband as they so often do, watching the way the wind plays with his hair. After all the years he kept it Abnegation-short, I still find it surprising sometimes to see the strands blowing in the breeze.

"You ready for this?" Tobias asks, giving my hand a squeeze as he meets my gaze. To be honest, he's right to wonder. I've certainly faced much larger and more hostile audiences than where we're heading, but there's something intimidating about the idea of sitting down with sixteen first graders to discuss how we changed their lives.

"I don't know," I mutter. "If we screw up, do you think Abigail will ever forgive us?"

Tobias just chuckles. "She's too much like you not to."

It's always funny to me when he mentions how much our daughter takes after me, because I see so much of him in her. But I suppose that's our original faction showing through – we each want to see the other, because we love each other more than ourselves.

"Besides," he adds as we stop at an intersection to wait for traffic, "they're six. How dangerous can they be?"

"Hmm," I answer, my lips twitching as I remember my fear landscape from so many years ago. "I recall six being a pretty scary number."

A small smile forms on his face as he pulls me closer. "True," he murmurs, brushing his lips along my cheek, "but I like it much better than seven, so we should definitely talk to them this year."

This time, it's my turn to laugh. Wrapping my hands behind his neck, I pull his mouth to mine, letting myself lose all tension to his presence. By the time we pull apart, I feel ready to face the unknown yet again today. We've tackled it together so many times, I have no doubt that it will be fine.

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It would be helpful if they had some adult-sized chairs, but we don't complain as we take our seats in the circle that Ms. Connor set up. It's not much of a problem for me, but Tobias looks more than a little uncertain as he perches on the tiny chair that seems unlikely to support his weight.

He's wearing his "Four" face as he moves his gaze over the kids, but they seem utterly unintimidated. Perhaps it's because he looks ridiculously oversized straddling his seat, or maybe they're all a bit Dauntless at heart, but they seem to like his tough guy look. It makes me smile to see the way they take to him.

"Okay," I begin, drawing their attention, "as Ms. Connor said, we're here to talk about what NUSA was like. And about what we did to stop them and to form the UCA. And about why we did what we did."

I pause as sixteen pairs of small eyes look at me, and suddenly I have no idea how to get them to understand any of this. They've been studying the subject for the entire school year so far, as part of the fifteenth anniversary of the UCA, but that doesn't change the fact that none of them were alive during the time we're here to discuss. They only really know the world as it is now.