~Jade's POV~
I hit the net. My body bounces back up high into the air, and I still have the grin I had on my face when they first picked me up. I land once again, and bounce just a little bit more before the net warped around my body, creating a dip. I rolled off to the side of the net and threw my leg over. I jumped down onto the cement floor and then suddenly, "AHHHH!" Is all I can hear from above. And all I can see is Miles flailing his arms as he fell fast through the whole, and landed onto the net.
I grab the net and pull to the point Miles begins to roll towards me. Doing this reminded me of the day Tobias did the same when I first landed onto this net. I lend my older brother a hand as he also jumps down from the high net. "He pushed you didn't he?" I ask laughing. "The little booger sure did. Didn't even give me a warning either." Miles tells me in a forced upset tone, and knowing him all to well, he eventually started laughing with me. Just then, "WOO-HOOOOOO." Is what both me and Miles could hear from above, and we watched as our little brother began flip-falling in through the whole.
He landed on his feet and launched back up into the air higher then both me and Miles combined. It was to the point he bounced back up through the hole again. When he finally landed, he rolled himself over and off the net with ease. "What a show off." Miles says just before he ruffled up Liam's hair. "Says my envious older brother. And actually, now that I've said that, which of you is the eldest? Since I'm apparently the youngest." Liam asks us, and his curious expression made me smile wider.
If that was honestly even possible, considering just moments ago, a part of our family had finally been reconnected, along with a piece of each of our hearts. "That would be me," Miles says raising his hand, "I was an only child for abouuut, eleven minutes and thirty-two seconds." He pauses, "Then came this gremlin ruining my glory." He adds hesitantly, ruffling my hair this time. I gasp and then smack his hand away, "Oh my ass! You know damn well you love me, and my existence. Don't mind him Liam, he's just acting like a really mean bigger brother, deep down he's softer than cotton balls." I say as we all begin to walk away from the net. "Honestly, I can tell. I'm sorry bro but, you're a shit actor." Liam says, making us all laugh. "Okay okay fine. I can't actually be mean to family, it's just not in me." He responds genuinely, and I smile at him.
And so does Liam, "you're right sis, softer than cotton balls." He says to me, and I laugh. All three of us eventually head back to our Aunt's apartment. Liam knocks on the door as me and Miles stand together behind him. She answers the door and just gazes at his him. She slowly placed a hand onto his cheek and smiled, just before engulfing him into sweet embrace.
Me and Miles smile at each other for a few moments before looking back at the heart warming scene. Our aunt sees us over Liam's shoulder and beckoned for us to join, and we gladly did. After a few moments of peaceful silence went on, our aunt suddenly gasped and slightly pulled away. "Oh my gosh! This means I have a sister in law! Ooooooh she must be gorgeous by just the looks of you young lady." Our Aunt exclaimed, and then once again she gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth. "Liam! This also means..." she trailed off looking up at him.
He nodded, "I have an actual family. I have real, biological. . . Parents." He says to her, taking both her hands in his. "But don't get me wrong, I'll be forever grateful for the two women that raised and took care of me. And they will always, have a special place in my heart. I wouldn't be who I am today without you or Jane." Liam says with genuine emotions coating his voice. I could tell saying his adoptive mothers real name felt odd to him. "And we're grateful as well," I say, referring to me and Miles with a pause, "if it weren't for you stepping in and mentioning his mother to both Johanna and Max, I don't think we'd be together as a family right now. A choice you made years ago, made this moment possible, and I want to thank you for that. And if she were here today, I'd thank Jane as well, for taking in our little brother." I add on smiling. And both Liam and Miles hug me from the side.
Our aunt clasped her hands together as she gazed at us, "Oooo, don't any of you move I'll be right back." She tells us, and about a minute later she comes running back out her apartment with something in her hands. "What's that?" Miles asks curiously, and I stared at the bulking white medium square in her hands. "A Polaroid camera. Now pose you three." She says putting the said camera up to her eyes, and I smiled wide with my arms around the backs of each of my brother's. It flashes and something starts coming out of a crack in the camera. Our aunt takes it out and shakes it a little.
"One more. Different pose!" She insists and I find myself getting picked up again. Miles holds me up by the side of my arm while I threw my other arm around his neck, and Liam held up my legs. "One... two... three!" And the camera flashes again. She takes this one out and hands it to me as they set me down. I shake it just like my aunt did, unsure, and then the picture begins to appear slowly.
The picture was heart warming. I was laughing, and both Miles and Liam were smiling wide. "It's amazing. Thank you, so much." I say to my aunt, and she momentarily cupped my right cheek. "Now I have a picture of all of you, and also, you now have something to give to your guy's parents if you ever get to see them again." She tells us sorrowfully, and I remember something. Something important. "We can actually see them right now." I blurt, and Liam nearly breaks his neck when looking at me, his expression nearly ecstatic.
"You're right Nat, when mom visited us on visitation day, she told us she convinced Dauntless Leadership we could go to Amity to see dad since he couldn't come to visit." Miles explains, and I squeeze Liam's hand. "If that's the case then I'm coming too. I'd love to see the look on my brother's face when he sees all of us. And I'd also love to meet your guy's mother." Our aunt says, and I begin to feel my smile widen. "Then what're we waiting for? Let's go!" Liam shouts, and begins to pull me and Miles in the direction of the nearest exit.
Our aunt closes her door and follows close behind us. We barge out the double doors that were on the side of the building, where the train tracks laid. "What time is it Miles?" I ask, considering I remembered he had a watch on his wrist. He pulls back his sleeve, "It is, 3:03." He says, "which means the next train should be coming any minute." He quickly adds. And we all wait for about a solid two minutes before we start to hear the blaring screech of the train breaking.
And then we see it rush pass us quickly, but it was slow enough for all of us to jump in with ease. The whole ride there we all talked, and we listened. We listened to our aunt tell us funny stories of Liam's childhood. And we tell our aunt stories of when me and Miles were kids also. We were all so deep into conversation, I barely notice the train had slowed, meaning we were now beside Amity.
I stand and look out the train-car door, and all I see, smell, hear, and feel is home. I see big vibrant trees, fields of tall green grass, crops, separated one and two story houses, and the wooden and glass dome building I've grown to love. I step back and launch myself out of the train. I land on my feet and I spin to see the partial of my family hop out of the train as well. We start to cut through the forest, running.
I don't know why but, I found myself clutching onto my beloved necklace, with the thought of my childhood still lingering in my mind. We eventually get through the short forest and across the field. And as expected, Amity members heading our way stopped in their tracks and subtly avoided us, regardless of the smiles on our faces. I look back and chuckle at our aunt and Liam as they curiously scan their surroundings. Birds were chirping, kids were laughing, and people were getting along, helping each other and . . . smiling.
I turn around completely and begin to walk backwards, "Welcome to Amity you two." I say, and they both smile themselves. "It all looks so. . . peaceful. . ." I hear my little brother say as I lead them to the main house of Amity first. "Wait until you meet their representative, Johanna. She's more peaceful then the scenery." I say, and I knew I wasn't wrong. You could say the most foulest, and the most rudest comment to her and she'd still react in a calm manner. "We need to speak to her this time, since during initiation, me and Miles visited, and went straight to our house and not to her at first." I also say, just before stepping into the barn like house and climbed up the stairs to her office.
As I enter she looks up from her desk, and furrows her eyebrows with a smile. Her short black curls covered one side of her face, partially covering her signature scar. "What a nice surprise. Un-allowed, but it is absolutely lovely to see you Natalie and Miles. I appreciate you coming to me first, unlike last times surprise visit." She says standing, and her eyes land on our aunt coming up the stairs. At first she froze for a few moments, before she began walking around her desk and toward us, "Now, there's a face I can not forget." Johanna says, and engulfs our aunt into a embrace. Our aunt hugged back, "it's nice to see you Johanna, after all these years." She says happily.
I look behind me at Liam, and he was basically hid behind both me and Miles. He was looking at a bookshelf behind us, seeming to be reading all of the books titles. "Same goes to you dear. But I do apologize, eighteen years have certainly worn away at my mind. Remind me of your name." Johanna politely asks of, and our aunt does. "Oh don't you worry, Annalise Harris." She says, and Johanna then freezes, and her gleeful expression drops. "Harris? Your last name is Harris?" The leader asks in pure disbelief, and I step in. "Yes Harris, this is actually our aunt Johanna. Our father's sister. At their choosing ceremony, my father choose to come here but, she had decided to stay in Dauntless." I say locking an arm with my aunt.
My old factions leader clamped a hand over her mouth as she stared blankly at the ground, obviously connecting the dots in her mind. "Oh my. . . So I. . . h-he's your actual nephew?" She pauses, "why hadn't you told me your last name back then? W-what does he look like? How is he? I have many questions." Johanna began asking nearly frantic, she also seemed happy. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" I say as I slip from beside my aunt and pull Liam from the bookshelf. "Johanna, this is William. Liam, meet Johanna." I say looking between the both of them. Johanna now had both of her hands over her mouth while she looked at the tall young man in front of her.
She takes in his appearance, "I remembering holding you, when you were just merely hours old, in the Amity truck on the way to Dauntless like it was yesterday." She pauses, "I remember trying my best to keep you warm, since the truck didn't have doors to keep the cold out. At one point, you even opened your eyes and smiled up at me." She says not breaking eye contact with Liam, not even for a second. She continued to look up at him, and soon, her eyes began to pool with tears. "I should have realized it then that I was making a mistake. I was breaking apart a family and, even though I thought I was abiding by our ancestors peaceful regulations and requirements, I realize now I was only causing pain, and anger to others. To the people closest to me. And for that, I am truly sorry. Too all of you." She says, making genuine eye contact momentarily with all of us. "But I am not sorry for one thing," She adds, catching my attention, "I am not sorry for listening to you, Annalise. I am not sorry for placing him in your arms, and walking with you into Dauntless Headquarters years ago. I am not sorry for who I chose to place him with, because as you can all see, there couldn't have been a better place for him." She finishes, and I smile, because she's absolutely right.
Our little brother couldn't ask for better parental figures then Jane and our aunt. Just then, I feel a small gentle hand slide onto my shoulder and I turn around, and so does Miles. There stood a woman and a man in Amity attire, and without hesitation they engulfed both of us into a group embrace. We hugged our parents, and they smelled like home. Our mother looked as beautiful as ever, and our father look healthier than expected, considering the reason for the cast and splint on his leg.
"A neighbor of ours had saw you both earlier and told us you came here. Why are you two her-. . ." Our mother abruptly cut off her own words, and I could see her eyes got stuck on something beside us. I watch as Liam and our mother made eye contact. "Is that. . . ?" She mutters looking to me, and I nod with tears already blurring my vision. She walked away from us, our father's hand in hers, pulling him with. She stepped in front of Liam, her face contorting into joyful sadness.
Liam looked down at her with his bottom lip quivering. ". . . Mom?" He murmurs to her, and I could just barely decipher what he had said. Our mom placed her petite hand onto his right cheek as a tear fell from her eye, "My baby. . . ." She says quietly, just before they embraced each other like their was no tomorrow, with tears falling. Our mother released him and up stepped our father, "My Son. . ." He says, right before they bear hug each other. I had never seen my father cry, so seeing such a touching moment brung my own tears afloat as I leaned my head onto Miles. I watch Liam release our father and dig into his pocket.
And in his hand, were both rings. He handed our father his ring, and hands our mother her's. They put their wedding bands on and entwined their hands, just before beckoning for both me and Miles. We join them and our parents embrace all three of us at once. To see my family come together once and for all. To see my brother meet his mother and father for the first time.
To finally be able to see our family as a whole again, is the best feeling in the world. We stayed together in the embrace for a long while, and I didn't mind one bit. We're eventually released, and our parents look at each other, "we finally got our baby back. We have all of our babies back Anthony." My mother says to my father, still emotional. And I peak over my father's shoulder at my aunt, who happened to be twiddling her thumbs. "We only found him with a little someone's help." I say, still looking at my aunt, and my parents turn to see what I'm looking at.
My father gasped a bit, and chuckled, "Is that who I think it is?" He says and she nods with a smile. "It's nice to see you big brother." She says, just before they embraced each other. They both sniffled a bit as they held onto each other, and how they hugged reminded me of how I would hug Miles, and now Liam. They released each other, and my father turned and grabbed my mother's hand. "Honey, I would like you to meet my sister, Annalise. Anna this is my wife, June." He introduces, and my mother and aunt hug.
"It's so nice to finally meet you Anna, I've heard lots about you from Anthony here." My mother says kindly, and the Amity in her was surely showing. "Oh call me Lacy dear, and I'm presuming all good things right?" My aunt questions, making my mom laugh a bit. "Oh of course, he told me how good of sister you were to him back before your guy's year of choosing. And all the fun memories as well." My mother says, and my aunt smiles at my father, and he returns one as well. Eventually, my father looks around at us, at all of us.
"Well? What do you say Harris family?" He pauses, "Shall we head home? Together?"