I’m sitting in the rocking chair in the nursery, Adele in my lap, and my feet propped up on the edge of one of the cribs. We’re the only two in the room, though I can hear Fanny and the toddlers next door, so when Adele starts to wobble with sleep, I don’t have a second thought about pulling my mother’s book from the bag I’ve been carrying around for the baby.
“If freckles were lovely, and day was night,” I murmur to Adele, rubbing her tummy and watching her dose off, “And measles were nice and a lie warn’t a lie,/ Life would be delight,—/ But things couldn’t go right/ For in such a sad plight/ I wouldn’t be I.// If earth was heaven and now was hence,/ And past was present, and false was true,/ There might be some sense/ But I’d be in suspense/ For on such a pretense,/ You wouldn’t be you.// If fear was plucky, and globes were square,/ And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee/ Things would seem fair,—/ Yet they’d all despair,/ For if here was there/ We wouldn’t be we.”
***
“Olivia. Olivia. Olivia.”
I blink my eyes open to someone calling my name. Tobias is kneeling next to the rocking chair, hand heavy on my arm. My neck hurts, and when I move my hands to rub at the skin there, I realize I’m no longer holding Adele. I look around quickly and my brother squeezes my arm to get my attention back.
“Relax,” he says, “Adele’s with Fanny. She came to check on you a few hours ago and you were both out like lights. She took the baby and left you here to sleep.”
“My neck hurts,” I tell him.
“That’s what you get when you sleep most of the day away in a rocking chair.”
“What time is it?”
“Six-thirty. I thought you might want dinner.”
“Shit, who let me sleep so long?”
“Olivia,” Tobias says, hauling me out of the chair by my forearms, “Fanny has been in here twice to try and wake you up. She sent for me when she was unsuccessful.”
“Well, shit,” I say again, raking my finger through my hair. The strands reach down to my lower back; I wonder what it would be like to have them cut.
“How have you been sleeping?” he asks quietly.
“Normally,” I shrug. “Nightmares most nights, tossing and turning, the usual.”
“Marcus, still?”
“When isn’t it Marcus?” I ask.
“When it’s everything else.”
“Point.”
“Dinner?” he asks.
“Sure. I’ll get Adele after we’re done.”
Neither Az nor Harper are in the commissary when my brother and I make it through the line, but Cate is, so we sit with her. Her tray is piled high with several hamburgers, and two slices of cake, while I just have the normal selection of fruits, vegetables, and banana pudding.
“Hey, check it out, it’s the wonder twins,” Cate greets. “Are you both sleeping with Eric, or is it just Olivia?”
“Does anyone here keep their noses to themselves?” I ask.
“No,” Tobias says.
“And I’m not sleeping with Eric,” I say to Cate.
“But you want to.”
“Still not your business.”
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I’d sleep with him in an instant,” she says around the food in her mouth.
YOU ARE READING
stand at the abyss, you fall to your knees (a Divergent fanfiction)
Fanfiction(Eric/OC) Tobias leaves more behind in Abnegation than just his father. When his little sister follows in his footsteps, he does what he can to keep her in Dauntless, and out of others' hands.
