Chapter 71 - Second Birthday

— Tobias

"Happy birthday One!" Everyone shouts as Tris and I help him blow out the two small candles on his cake.

"He's not one, he's two!" Uriah points to the candle in the cake.

"Go away," Amar rolls his eyes at him. "You're messing up the schedule of naming my nieces and nephews.

"Hey, I got Zeke and Shauna on the line!" Marlene yells over the crowd of people in our apartment and I look to the TV in our living room to see my two friend's faces.

"Happy birthday Thomas!" Shauna says, a blue bundle in her arms.

"Happy birthday One! Sorry we couldn't be there, my man!" Zeke squeezes into the frame, a pink bundle in his arms.
George shows Thomas the laptop with the camera and he gets his face really close, making Shauna and Zeke laugh.

"What do you say, baby?" Tris goes into the frame and kisses his little cheek.

"Thank, you!" He says giggling. "Cake!" He holds his plate really close to the camera again making us all laugh.

"Do you have names yet? I wouldn't hesitate too long or else Amar will give them a number." Tris says gaining a laugh from Shauna.

"Oh, I had it down to a science, man." Zeke says as Tris congratulates Shauna on their pregnancy of twins. "We always talked about two kids, but not until after the wedding, because, you know, we wanted to have fun, drink together, not have to worry about any of that yet. Then a week later bam, she's pregnant, and then bam, we find out it's twins. Am I a God or what?!"

I laugh, remembering Zeke's thrill when he discovered they were having twins just months after their wedding party. Tris and I were the first to know, and then they were born just days before Thomas's second birthday.

"I have you know, I am great at picking names." Amar grows defensive and Tris elbows him.

"Well, this is my little girl Erin," Zeke smiles down at his daughter and everyone gushes.

"And this is Jake," Shauna introduces her son, and he gets the same reaction as the little girl did.

They are over at Erudite from the twins being just days old. Shauna had to have a c-section at seven months because of not only them being twins, but because of potential dangers of birth and her previous back injury. Both babies are doing well, and so is Shauna.
Zeke may be the most traumatized, but I think he'll pull through.

I look around our apartment and smile.
Rose is holding Charley who waves around a small stuffed pink bear in her one hand, the other on the bottle her mom is feeding her.
Cara stands near her, smiling at Charley.
Will stands near Caleb with Christina, and then Marlene, Uriah, Amar, George, and Tris's Ambassador friends are huddled around talking to Zeke and Shauna.

Tris just made up with her for the third time last week, two weeks ago she went off saying that she doesn't deserve to be loved.
I told Tris to not forgive her, but her heart is too big, and she doesn't want to blow up her friendship, even though I keep trying to wake her up to realize that Christina is no longer a good friend to have.

My mother comes over and stands next to me, patting Indy's head next to me.

And then I am abruptly met with the reminder that Tris's parents couldn't make it. Both of them caught a virus and were devastated that they couldn't make it to see Thomas.
They did however learn how to call on the phone to wish him a happy birthday this afternoon, which was thrilling for all of us.
I never thought I would live to see the day where an Abnegation willingly put a landline in their home— Andrew Prior specifically out of all the Abnegation.

"I haven't said it lately," my mother says, holding onto my arm for, what seems like, support. "But I'm proud of you. Thank you for letting me into your life, Tobias." Her eyes meet mine and I smile.

I can't find the way to word 'thanks for finally coming around to actually be my mother' without sounding like an absolute douche, so I just let my smile speak for itself.

I look to see Bea on the carpet playing with Thomas and one of his trucks.
I can't believe she's going to be eight years old soon already.

.
"What's that, Thomas?" Tris points to the green truck clutched in Thomas's chubby fourteen month-old hands.

"D-Duck!" He waves it around and Tris smiles.
No, his first word wasn't 'Mama' or 'Dada'.
My son isn't classic like that.
His first word was a failed attempt at saying 'truck', but instead calling it a 'duck'.

"Did you hear that?" Tris laughs, looking over to me.

"He's growing up so fast," I laugh, shaking my head. "I mean, got to hold him to it, they're close enough in sound, huh One?" I kneel down and rub my hand over his blonde curls, making him shake his head.

"Only your boy," Tris continues to laugh, the sound making my heart warm. "Would have his first word be 'truck', but not in fact 'truck', but instead a 'duck truck'."

"What's that suppose to mean?!" I laugh, sitting on the carpet, scratching behind Indy's ear. His tail thumps on the floor in appreciation. "I don't see the problem, as long as he doesn't transfer to Erudite," I laugh, taking my son and putting him in my lap.

"Tuck!" He says with a 'T' this time and shows me the green vehicle. I laugh at his characteristics.

"Yeah, Tom! It's a truck!" I exclaim, spinning the wheel with my finger.

"Tuck, Dada!" He puts the truck on my chest and I feel myself grow warm.

From that day forward, I knew I never would become my father.
Even though I told myself I wouldn't, there always was the residual fear that one day I would snap and become him.
But from then and forever on, I accepted myself as Tobias Eaton, a loving father.

.

People stuck around for about an hour after Thomas opened his presents. Caleb, Cara And Bea were staying here for the weekend to visit and occupied our two spare bedrooms.

"Can we get a dog, Dad?" Bea looks to her father eagerly, tossing the toy for Indy to go fetch. He eagerly runs across the apartment, retrieving the toy and giving it back to Bea.

"Be careful where you throw that, Beatrice," Cara warns when one of her tosses gets close to the hutch in the hallway with pictures on it.

"Sorry Mom," she calls, tugging on the toy that Indy refuses to release, snarling happily as his head shakes back and forth.

"Dogs are a lot of work, dear. We are barely home as it is." Caleb looks up from his phone to answer his daughter's previous question.

"You are welcome to come and play with Indy whenever you want," I stand and sit next to Bea on the couch, distracting Indy enough for her to slip the toy from his grasp and throw it.

Thomas goes to bed not long after the party ends, Tris emerging from his room and closing the door quietly. Bea takes the hint that it is time to stop playing with Indy, so she lets him keep the toy to chew on.

Within the hour, Bea is yawning enough that Tris helps her settle into the guest room with the smaller bed next to Tom's, where Caleb and Cara will be across the hall with the queen bed.

"You really are Mom and Aunt of the century, huh?" Cara laughs when Tris joins us all on the couch.

"They haven't either woken up past midnight yet, so yeah, I guess," she laughs, lacing her hand with mine casually and wrapping her legs under her.

The four of us chat for a while, catching up on the past few months that we have been apart.

"I got a file this week that the Bureau is monitoring what medications we do and don't have," Caleb comments when I bring up the stationed troops at the fence decreasing. "I don't think it may be a bad thing. Maybe they are looking to supply us with more diverse medications—"

"I doubt it," Tris butts in. "They're not here to make peace, there here to keep tabs on us, make sure we aren't stepping out of line. Soon enough they'll bring the strict factions back and we all won't even know our own faces again." Tris says referring oddly to the use of memory serum.

I do force myself to see Caleb's perspective.
Maybe they are looking to fund us and work together.
And if not, maybe that's a way to mend things.
Mix our geniuses with their geniuses, and have it keep the peace between the cities.

"I don't know," Cara shakes her head. "But I don't like it. They also sent paperwork for the hospital to fill out, keeping tabs on our medications as well."

"Does the Bureau still supply some medication for the city?" I ask.

"Some?" Cara cocks her head. "More like ninety percent, and whatever we do get is their excess or old studies. We don't have fresh sources to create our own medication, and they've cut back tremendously on what they have been giving us. Without the income of sources, we are only left with basic over the counter medications."

"That's bad." Tris comments, her voice stale.

Caleb excuses himself to take a shower while Tris catches up Cara on Rose. Turns out she didn't even know that Christina had a sister, yet alone that she has a niece now. The two talk for a while, and I assume Tris is also telling her about how Chris has been acting towards her.
I can tell from seeing the changing forms of Cara's face: shock, anger, and irritation— all things Tris has shown me to read off of people instead of interrogating.
You can learn a lot from not talking and just listening and watching.

I hear Thomas grow fussy and I go into his room, waving to Tris that I'll take care of it on my way down the hall.

"Hey, my boy," I turn on the dim light and pick him up out of the crib, resting him on my chest.

"Shh," I run circles on his back before noticing that he needs a diaper change.

Laying him down on the changing table, I take care of his mess and give him a clean diaper.

"Dada..." he whines when I pick him up again and I continue to rub his back.

"Where's your monkey?" I look around for his favorite stuffed animal that Tris got at her baby shower from Marlene. He sleeps with the thing every night, but now it's gone.

"Tuck..." he whines again and I sigh.

"You know you can't have toy trucks in bed, Thomas," I find the monkey behind his crib and squat down, pulling it free by its tail.

His eyes light up at the monkey and he reaches out, taking its small body in his hand.

I kiss his cheek and lay him back down, tucking him in. The monkey clutched tightly in his tiny hands and I smile.

"I love you, Thomas." I slowly creep out of the room and close the door as silently as possible.

I notice that the apartment has grown quiet, and that both Tris and Cara went to bed. Indy's ears perk up when I enter the bedroom, and I see that Tris doesn't mind him sleeping on the bed tonight.
I do have to agree that sometimes it gets warm between the three of us.

"Is Tom alright?" She asks without opening her eyes.

"His monkey got stuck behind the crib again, but I saved the day," I sigh, creeping under the sheets and curling into Tris's form, our legs touching and my arm draped over her torso.

"I can't believe he's already two years old," she presses her back to my chest and I kiss behind her ear on the skin that I can reach.

"I know, it's crazy."

"Goodnight," she says, yawning.

"I love you."