Prior Rings

Chapter 8: Tobias - Police Station

A/N: I'm sorry to take a couple of days longer than expected to post this chapter. I could give a long explanation, but the quick version is that life happens... Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Thank you also to my fantastic beta reader, Rosalie, who managed to review this chapter despite a crazy work schedule and a last-minute power failure! I really appreciate it.

Chapter 8: Tobias – Police Station

David leaves the store in his employees' hands, taking the day off so he can go with us to Pittsburgh's main police station. It's too far to walk easily, so instead we return to where we left the car and drive from there.

The station is in a large, five-story building surrounded by barbed wire fencing. It has an intimidating aura to it, but it's difficult to really know what to make of it, since I'm used to Dauntless being the police force for our city. It's strange to see a standalone building serve that role.

The guards at the front entrance tell us to empty our pockets, put everything from them into buckets, and walk through some type of scanning equipment. The entire process makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and it's difficult to resist the urge to refuse – vehemently. But David and Kevin go first, and when it's obvious the guards are doing exactly what they said they'd do, I finally decide to submit.

The guards look oddly at the jewelry from my pockets, but they pass it through the equipment and return it to me without a word.

We aren't sure where to go next, so we end up making our way to the large, circular receptionist desk that sits in the middle of the lobby. It reminds me of the building we invaded in Philadelphia so long ago, and I feel a twinge as I remember the guards we shot there that day. One of them was looking me directly in the eyes when my father killed him….

"May I help you?" a voice asks politely, and I force my attention back to the present. The middle-aged woman at the desk is watching me curiously, clearly waiting for an answer.

"Um, hopefully," I respond, giving my best Abnegation smile to match the one on her face. "We're trying to track down someone we think might have been questioned during NUSA's last few days. Are there records we could examine for that, or someone we could talk to?"

She cocks her head at that request, pursing her lips thoughtfully, before she consults a notebook. "No one has asked me that before," she comments as she flips through the pages, "so please give me a moment to find the right person."

We do, watching as she pauses on pages at times, scanning carefully for the information she wants.

"Hmmm," she finally says, "I'm not finding a great match here, but let's try Ms. Hamilton. She's in charge of the transition from NUSA's control, so she would probably know more than anyone else."

I nod, waiting patiently while she makes a phone call. When she's finished, she smiles and tells us it will be just another moment.

"You're welcome to have a seat if you'd like," she says sweetly, gesturing to a set of chairs against the far wall of the room. But we opt to stand, looking a bit nervously around the busy lobby as people of all ages come and go. A fair number of them wear the same uniform; it's one I haven't seen before, and I assume it must be the current police uniform.

The figure that eventually approaches us is wearing that same uniform, but that's not what I notice as she draws near. Instead, I compare the way she looks now with how I saw her last, as she lay bloody and weak on the floor of the NUSA vehicle we drove from Toledo to Pittsburgh.

"Lauren," I say, surprised.

She stops, equally startled, before she grins widely. "Four. I should have known." She reaches out to shake my hand Dauntless-style, and I reciprocate, though as awkwardly as I always shake hands.