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Eric's POV
"What?" Eric hissed. He kept his voice down in order not to alert Teddy, when he inquired: "What nonsense is this?"
The men from Candor narrowed their eyes at him.
Easily offended, huh? Eric snorted. They had some nerve! They hadn't even introduced themselves properly, but came right up with their preposterous incrimination. Bile rose up within him as he tensed up. Not knowing what was going on did that to him. Damn! He felt Teddy reacting to his tensed body, crying harder into his shoulder. Eric did the only thing he was able to do at the moment, which was to continue to stroke his little guy's back.
It was the oldest of the three Candor, who then countered: "This is no nonsense, we have a written testimony against you. You'll have to answer a trial in Candor. Now, hand over the child, as it is obvious that he his distraught by you!"
The fury Eric had been able to hold in check until now spread like a wildfire within him and he roared: "I will do no such thing! Of cause he is distraught, he was shot at!"
Teddy whimpered at his outburst. Though the sound was faint it made its way through the all-consuming rage inside of the young father, giving way for one single coherent thought: Calm down. For Teddy.
'Breathe in. Out. Breathe in. Out...'
"...hear me?" A scratch of the talk around him reached him but he didn't pay it any attention.
"...hand over...consequences..."
'Breathe in. Out. Caress. Breathe in. Out. Caress.'
Soft hair under callused hands. 'He's still with me. I can feel him.'
Feeling Teddy in his arms gave Eric the strength to overpower the raging fury and confining it the abyss of his mind. Nobody knew just how much he had already buried there. Finally able to pay again attention to the words being said, he was faced with yet the same order.
"Sir! I said hand the boy over!" As stressed out Candor-boy looked and sounded, as deadly calm Eric was now. For Teddy.
"I will tell you how things are going to be..." His stated his voice like his stance unwavering, without any acknowledgement to the staring and whispering crowd around. "You will give me the time to calm down my son. Then I will have someone of my trust look after him. I won't hand him over to you under any circumstances. Only then I will come with you so we can sort this out."
"Max." He addressed the other man his voice and body language demanding the attention and respect from everyone around. "We will to take this to my office." With that he sidestepped the men, taking charge once again.
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A hundred and forty fife. One hundred forty fife stains had gotten at the wall of his holding cell over the years. The ones in the left corner next to where the rendering had come off-showing the bricks underneath-almost looked like a bird and reminded him of that modeling clay bird Teddy had presented him with. He had fucked up then but he would be damned if he fucked up now and let them take his boy from him. Dauntless never give up! He lived by that credo and whoever was behind all this would soon learn that he wouldn't go down without a fight.
Riled up as he had been when the guards had left him, it had itched him to release some of the tension in hitting the wall, but he needed to keep his cool. For Teddy's sake. They had him under constant surveillance. So in order to take his mind off of this urge Eric had looked around, clenching his hands into fists. Once the walls must have been white but now they were greyish and stained. Without noticing it at first he had started counting the stains and now he was in the know: One hundred forty fife.
As much as he had wanted to ignore it Candor had a legal order to restrain him. He had doubted from the beginning that Kang knew anything about this as unbelievable as it may be. An arrest for a leader wasn't normally done by someone from the bottom of the food chain. This one was. Apparently someone was eager to make himself known by going against a Dauntless leader. The signature under his arrest wasn't any he recognized from previous encounters with Candor: Nathanael Nolan. A name he would remember.
Three days had passed. His guard were split in their way of treating him. There were those who thought of him not guilty-mostly to the improper way the case had been handled-who treated him with respect. Then there were those who believed the accusations to be true. All of them would show their opinion as open as only a candor could. Who ever thought that telling another person everything that went through your head was a good thing? That went way beyond honesty or being franc. Eric shuddered in disgust at this faction's mannerism.
At the second day Kang had turned up. His skin pallid and his eyes without the usual keen glimmer in it. It turned out the man had been ill and it only now had come to his attention what had occurred during his absence. Kang had apologized since Nolan hadn't followed the proper procedure. For a spilt moment Eric had thought everything was solved but he had soon learned otherwise: Since there was an open case against him he had to be put on trial. Kang, of cause holding onto his factions credo, had told him it would be better to have it cleared in front of everyone, so his trial would not only be public but in front of every fraction, meaning anyone who wanted could attend the trial. Eric hated it. He would have preferred to solve this as quietly as the last time. The worst though, was when Kang had told him they would put Teddy through a witness interview. A public one! Just to think of his little guy being questioned on front of everyone... Fuck! Eric tossed the cutlery from his empty lunch tray across his cell. He was helpless. There wasn't anything he could do to shield his boy from this procedure. Kang hadn't disclosed who had accused him. He wouldn't learn that until after the Trial. Apparently that was part of the witness protection detail whenever a leader was accused. The young leader snorted. Cowardice that's what this all was. Instead of bringing it face to face with him whoever was behind this had run to Candor. That wasn't the Dauntless way. He wasn't surprised though. Since there wasn't anything to complain about to begin with somebody apparently had made things up and of cause couldn't confront him directly. All this reeked of Marcus, only thing was the man had no connections into Dauntless. The only former Abnegations Eric knew of were Tris and Four. Tris was upfront and would have spoken her mind. She had shown this since the beginning. As pesky as she could be, she wasn't a backstabber. As for Four, Four hated his father for obvious reasons. Four! Realization hit him. It was likely that Four had-as usual-construed the worst of everything he could have seen on the security cameras. Misusing his access to the control room in a misguided righteously mission in his unwavering dislike for the other man. A new wave of anger curse through Eric at this mental picture letting him leap to his feet. "Fuck!" Eric exclaimed, kicking the wall. He was beyond furious. That ignorant asshole!
"What? Can't take it anymore Dauntless? This soon?" The guard who had come to retrieve his tray taunted him as he witnessed the outburst.
With now practiced skill Eric quickly tried to reign in his temper as he glared at the guard. He ignored him otherwise. That low life wasn't worth it. He simply tossed his tray out under the bars with maybe a little more force than necessary. It wasn't his fault if some of the more liquid leftovers splashed against the guard in the process. Eric suppressed a smirk.
"What the..." The guard cried out caught off guard and began to tell him in probably great detail what he thought of it, but Eric had already tuned him out. He had his little come back at this annoying piece of candor trash but he couldn't risk to flip at him completely. So he forced himself to sit down on his cot. Starring at the walls he turned his mind to Teddy and Mia. Happy thoughts in order not to give the impression of a mad maniac able of child abuse.
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Which cover do you like more?
The old one? (It's a little rough at this size.)
Or the new one?
Personally I like how Eric looks in this one.