What if...

A few long months

Tris' POV

It's been six very long months. Natalie's gotten so much worse. I was supposed to find a job but with her being sick I couldn't do it. Currently she's laying on my lap as we watch that stupid show about the sponge. I feel horrible. Back in March she turned four and felt well enough to go to the park. That's the last time she's been out of the house except to go to the doctors. Tobias and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary but nothing romantic. It was simply being with Natalie watching her favorite movies while eating dauntless cake. The doctor told us she wasn't given enough death serum to kill her instantly. It was also a very early version of the serum that didn't work very well. Thank god. It's currently June and Tobias' 24th birthday is next week. "What should we do for daddy's birthday?" I ask Natalie as we play with Princess. "I want to go out for dinner" she says. This takes me by surprise, we've offered to go out but never has she. "Are you sure sweety? Do you feel up to it?" she smiles and let's Princess lick her cheek. "I'm having a good day!" she smiles. She's grown up so much since I first came back. "Ok. I'll make reservations at Anthony's!" I say. She squeals with excitement as I get the phone. Then I hear Mason cry from his swing in the living room. But Natalie got there before I did. She's only four but was so good with him. Soon enough he stopped crying and instead started giggling while Natalie played peek-a-boo with him.

That night we dress up in our nicest clothes and take Tobias out to dinner. Christina and Will came to the house this time to watch the twins. "Sweety are you sure you're ok? I'm fine with takeout." Tobias says looking to the back seat. "I'm sure daddy. Happy early birthday!" Natalie smiles. When we pull up and take our seats I see an awful sight across the restaurant but decide not to say anything. It's better if he doesn't see me. But he does. "Beatrice!" Caleb says coming towards us. I immediately get out of my chair and drag him by his shirt collar out of the restaurant. I take him a few blocks down and when the restaurant was out of view, I beat him to a pulp. Screaming things like "you killed her" or "you bastard" or "fix her." Caleb just took the beating not once putting up a fight. When my knuckles were split and my arms got tired I stopped and it was my turn to fall to the ground. "Beatrice." It's all he says. His eye is purple his nose is bleeding and he's holding his jaw. "I am So sorry. I just, I don't know." He mutters. I'm furious. "I don't know? She is dying and all you can say is I don't know." I hiss. Standing up I give his stomach a powerful kick and walk back to the restaurant.

When I walked in I acted as if it were all normal. But Tobias saw my knuckles and smiled a little. "That'a girl" he laughed. Dinner seemed to go by without any flaw and we decided that ice cream was needed. So we drove to the local ice cream place and got banana splits! That's when she was visibly wobbling as she walked. "Natalie. Sweetheart look at me. Are you feeling ok?" she was paler than at dinner and looked tired. But she nodded. And I just knew it was for her father. "movie night?" Tobias asked picking her up. Her smile returned and she nodded. I drove home and Tobias sat next to me making funny faces in the rearview mirror so she could see.

Tonight's feature: the lion king. Again. This was Natalie's favorite movie ever. I was leaning on Tobias' shoulder and she was sprawled out in our lap. Right as Mufassa died she started squirming then stopped and said "no." I looked at Tobias and he shrugged. "No what?" I asked. But she didn't respond. "Not leaving" she said again. I sat her up but she wasn't looking at me, she was looking somewhere over my shoulder. "Princess what's wrong?" Tobias asks. But she still doesn't answer. Instead she closes her eyes and leans against me and says "ok." I just lost my little girl. I felt her chest stop rising. She just lost the fight. Tears spilled over in gallons from my eyes. I just held her, I couldn't move I couldn't talk, just hold her and cry. "We need to take her to Caleb." Tobias says as he goes to the stairs. "What? Why Caleb?" I say through sobs. "Just trust me." he shouts from Kayla's room. I get up and don't even bother to change out of my yoga pants and t shirt. I pick her up and carry her to the car. When Tobias safely puts the twins in the car he speeds away to some unknown place. "How do you know where you're going?" I ask. He lets out a heavy sigh, "I've done this before."