Eric's squeezes his eyes shut as his head once again spins, and everything around him sounds muffled, almost like he is submerged underwater. It feels as if he has to pry his eyes open, but he finally does and it takes everything he has to keep his focus.
"Eric, are we boring you?" Jeanine asks. Her voice pierces to his very soul, and Eric once again reminds himself that he has to keep his features even because even over a video conference, Jeanine and Max can read him like a book.
It's been a little over three months since Eric and Peter returned to Erudite from their first mission beyond the wall, and since then it's been increasingly difficult to keep up the charade with Max and Jeanine. Peter has warned him more than once that his poor attitude was starting to creep into their virtual meetings with the leaders, but today it's all Eric can do to just keep his eyes open and his focus on the screen.
Jeanine and Max left the faction suddenly last week, moving deeper off the radar, and presumably into their own "safe house" outside of the fence. For as much as they have driven the importance of the protection and boundaries of the fence into their followers heads, the hypocritical leaders have done nothing more than look out for their own safety while ensuring their followers were fear mongered into staying within the faction fighting the good fight for Jeanine and Max.
It infuriates Eric.
Mostly everything does these days, unfortunately. When he and Peter returned, they set out on learning as much as they could about how Max and Jeanine were using the implanted device to track Eric, without drawing any suspicion. This meant that Eric had to put the bulk of his trust into Peter, which is not something he was at all comfortable with no matter which side of things the two were on. Eric is not one to easily trust, and the weight of trying to protect his wife, all while pretending to be the perfect soldier for Max and Jeanine was heavy. He spent more time than he cared to admit just barking orders at Peter, even though technically he reported to the other man. Peter gave Eric a lot more leeway than he would anyone else, but his patience was also wearing thin with monitoring Eric's foul moods. It's been months since Eric's wife angrily told him to leave her alone, and no matter how much Eric tried to reach out to her since that one encounter she had refused to budge.
"Eric…" Max presses.
"Apologies. I've not been sleeping well." Eric explains.
"Suck it up." Max growls. "What did you find during your last surveillance?"
"More empty camps…" Peter begins but he is cut off by Max.
"I asked him." Max points towards the camera in Eric's general direction. "Coulter, you need to fucking focus. We've been completely out of contact with you for several days now, and you show up today looking as if you've been on a bender. Do we need to remind you of your purpose with us?"
"No. I'm well aware that you want Tris. If you want her, I'm your best bet at getting her here alive." Eric replies.
This answer is a complete lie. Ever since their first surveillance mission outside of the fence, Eric and Peter have been on the same side, and with Eric's permission, Peter immediately let his contacts outside of the wall know that they were working together. Eric knew that Peter was in direct contact with the group that was protecting Tris, and through those contacts Eric had been trying to speak to her, but she had flat out refused.
The worst was when Eric learned that Tris had filed the necessary paperwork with Jack Kang to have their marriage dissolved due to fraud.
Fraud.
His own wife believed he had defrauded her. She explained in her legal paperwork that Eric had abandoned her to become a faction traitor, that he was involved in illegal activities to overthrow the government, and that as a result of these actions she had miscarried their child. On paper, all true. In reality, she knew better, yet just a few days ago Eric learned she had won her request and they were no longer married.
At this point, Eric was pretty sure that his now ex-wife would never trust him again, but he damn sure wasn't going to let Jeanine or Max think there were any problems between the two.
Jeanine and Max had been pressuring Eric to find Tris, because they knew even if their young leader was lying about his feelings for his wife, the tracker implanted inside of him would lead them directly to their prize. Their mission was so much more than just one young woman, instead it was the bigger picture of trying to join forces with the numbers that Jeanine knew were united outside of the fence.
They were the numbers she needed on her side to not only take over Chicago, but to spread her vision across the entire country.
She narrows her eyes at Eric, but she is alarmed by his obvious discomfort. He is unusually pale, and he seems to be swaying in his seat, it causes her guard to slip.
"Eric, is there something wrong?" Jeanine suddenly asks, and for once there's no trace of venom in her voice.
"I feel like shit." Eric replies.
That answer is not a lie. Eric is recovering from a dangerous surgical procedure to remove the implant, which he practically forced with his erratic behavior since learning that his marriage was legally over. Peter was able to ward off Jeanine and Max's demands to see him for only three days, with the excuse that he had taken Cara for training on the last surveillance trip, buying him just enough time to have the surgery to remove the device, but not nearly enough time to recover.
"Cara, isn't there something you can develop, or have Fernando do to help Eric? He looks practically dead, he has barely any color to his face, and I refuse to believe the excuse that it's the poor camera setting when you and Peter look refreshed and healthy. Has anyone examined him?"
"I agree Jeanine, he should be examined thoroughly. Unfortunately, you've caught us immediately upon our return from a surveillance assignment, so he's been unable to check in for a medical exam. However after this call I will personally assure he is seen." Cara answers.
"Take him away right now and get him examined." Jeanine replies icily. Cara nods and stands, expertly blocking the camera so she can help Eric to his feet without Jeanine or Max seeing how truly sick he is.
"Peter?" Jeanine calls out, Cara and Peter glance at each other, and Peter pulls the plug on the camera. He helps Eric to his feet, and gets him situated against Cara so she can help him from the room.
As Eric and Cara exit, they can hear Peter apologizing profusely for the "accidental" unplugging of the device, and Jeanine's dreadful voice gets tinnier as they make their way down the hallway. They haven't made it far before Eric begins to struggle to stay upright.
"This is bad." He murmurs. "Please get Tris..."
"Wait here, I'm calling Fernando." Cara whispers as she helps Eric into an abandoned office.
Cara Fox and Eric had grown up together in Erudite, along with her younger brother William, and the three were fast friends as dependents in the studious faction. The three were pretty inseparable as children, and as they became teenagers their future paths were becoming a bit more apparent. Cara's insatiable hunger for knowledge destined her to remain in Erudite, while Eric and William's daredevil attitudes and desire to protect the people they cared about pushed them into a future in Dauntless, with Eric transferring first.
Before he transferred, Cara and Eric tried dating, both almost immediately realizing they were better off as friends, especially when Cara realized she was developing feelings for another man in their faction. Their brief attempt at romance didn't change their friendship, and they managed to maintain their close relationship even after Eric left. When he became a leader, he spent more time in the Erudite faction, and the two were able to spend time together without anyone questioning their motives. Eric was even able to attend her marriage as a guest of Jeanine just a scant few months after their initiation, and he was quite impressed with Cara's husband Fernando.
When Cara's brother William transferred two years after Eric, he made a promise to Cara that he would look after him. Will fit into Dauntless like he was born there, and he quickly made friends with a group of his fellow transfers that included Beatrice Prior. While Eric initially planned on being more hands-on in initiation to keep an eye on Will, he was instead knocked off his feet by the beautiful transfer from Abnegation. Will and Eric kept their distance as they had often discussed prior to his transfer, it was best if he appeared to be just another dependent from Erudite so no accusations of favoritism could be levelled against Eric. Will had started to hear the rumors about Jeanine, and those rumors had placed a target on his old friend's back that he wanted no parts of, so he had no problems keeping his own distance from Eric.
While Cara was initially skeptical of Jeanine and her leadership, she remained a loyal faction member, and her developments in serums and tracking devices was highly respected. When she was commissioned to develop a small implantable and undetectable device that could not only track the person in which it was implanted, but also disable or kill the subject if needed she didn't think twice. She believed it would be a valuable tool for use within Candor or Dauntless, the two factions who were exposed to all level of criminals in their pursuit of law and order.
She had no idea she was developing a device to be used in a time of war, and also was completely unaware the first person it would be implanted in would be her best friend, Eric Coulter. When she realized what had happened, she found him, and the two took great care to meet in private to discuss what his current situation was.
Cara's known Eric for their entire lives, and she knows he's not the criminal he's been forced to be.
Once Eric had returned from his most recent mission, he'd confided in Cara that his wife had successfully petitioned Candor to dissolve their marriage, and she was a bit taken aback but not completely shocked. For as close as she and Eric have always been, even she had no idea that he'd not only been dating an initiate in her brother's class, but had also secretly married her before she was off of her probationary period. Eric and Cara used to share everything, it was him that she initially confided in when she began dating her now husband Fernando when he was a full member and she still a dependent. While there is only a four year age difference between them, it would have been considered taboo for an up and coming surgical student to be involved with a teenage dependent. Cara had fully expected Eric's Abnegation turned Dauntless wife to turn on him when his involvement in Jeanine's war was exposed, and she was truly shocked when she'd heard that Tris had stood up for him when he was captured in Candor.
When Cara found out that Tris had fully turned against Eric, she tried to understand the reasons behind it, even though Eric couldn't. Cara knows Eric is a good person, but she also understands why Tris would be so angry at him. He helped to destroy her home faction, and his involvement in Jeanine's war caused her family and friends to turn against her. She was now considered a fugitive, and the worst part of all was she lost a pregnancy that she managed to successfully carry through the worst parts of the war thus far.
It was all because of Jeanine and Max, but for so many people on the outside looking in it looks like it's all because of Eric.
Once Jeanine and Max disappeared again, Eric had begged Cara to help him get the implanted device removed. Cara enlisted the help of her husband Fernando, because she knew the complicated design of the device would be extremely dangerous to remove. She had been the lead designer, she knew that certain movements or events would cause tentacles from the main device to deploy, and those small shards would travel through the circulatory system to the various organs, including the heart, which guaranteed death.
She was terrified to remove the device, but she knew Eric well enough that she also knew he would leave on his own and take his chances of Jeanine detonating it herself once she learned of his unauthorized departure. Cara knows that Eric wants to find his ex-wife, and even though she's tried repeatedly to talk him out of it he wouldn't be deterred.
Cara had finally convinced her husband to perform the dangerous operation to remove the device once it had been confirmed that Jeanine and Max had no plans of immediately returning to Erudite. She's not completely in the inner circle, however she's been well aware that the two fugitives were remaining deep in the bowels of Erudite until they felt pressured to once again go into hiding.
"Eric, I just need you to stay with me and focus. Fernando is on his way here." Cara says.
She's concerned for her friend, he should be in bed recovering, instead had to be made presentable for a mandatory video conference with Jeanine and Max. Eric's heart had been damaged when the device was removed during the surgery, for as careful as Fernando was in removing the device it had managed to partially detonate – a fail safe that Jeanine had another developer put into place before the final prototype was implanted. When Cara realized the implant was a mutated version of the one she had developed she was sure her oversight was going to cost her best friend his life.
Eric was a fighter. The love he has for Tris is potentially only overshadowed by one other emotion: the hate he has for Jeanine. He wanted the implant removed so he could track her down and kill her.
"I told you this was a terrible idea." Fernando says as he rushes into the room. He quickly evaluates Eric's condition while several orderlies are helping him into a transport bed. "We literally put his heart back together three days ago, and yet you insisted he be stood up in front of Jeanine today?"
"I had no choice," Cara hisses at her husband, "Jeanine demanded to see him and we couldn't risk her trying to activate the tracker."
"We still have that risk!" Fernando shouts. He turns to the orderlies, "take him back to exam room eleven, I will be right there." He then turns back towards his wife and gestures for her to follow, "Cara, we have no idea when Jeanine will try to track him again. No one knows what she's doing. She could come back here at any time and find him here like this. Then what?"
Cara does her best to keep up with her husband's brisk stride. She has no answers for his questions, they are the same she keeps asking herself. Jeanine disappearing wasn't expected, as she had Erudite guarded and locked down like a fortress, and everyone who was still here truly believed that she had outside help guaranteeing her safety. When she and Max disappeared under the darkness of night, she thought that it was possible that they were meeting with their allies. She's learned through her own position that it was more likely that they were in hiding, and it's possible that whatever allies she had assumed they had were no longer reliable.
She enters the exam room and does her best to stay out of the way of the staff who are working on Eric. It was already dangerous for Fernando to have recruited the smallest team he could work with to perform the actual surgery on Eric, and relying on only that team to help with the unexpected complications during his recovery was daunting.
"Cara, go down to the blood bank, get all of the B positive blood they can spare." Fernando orders, breaking her from her thoughts.
"What's wrong?" She asks.
"Get him prepped for surgery." Fernando commands his team. He turns back to Cara, "Cara, I need you to move. He's losing blood, I'm afraid he may have perforated the repair on his aorta. We'll be in the leadership operating room."
"Oh my God…" she whispers.
She snaps into go-mode, and runs as fast as she can to the blood bank. After she gathers everything she can, she takes a chance using her cell phone to call Peter.
"Why are you calling me?" He asks in the form of a greeting. She never calls him directly, she always uses their secured communication devices.
"You need to get to her." She says breathlessly as she runs back to the ER.
"Cara…" He begins.
"Do whatever it takes. It's bad. It's very bad. It's deadly." She whispers into the phone before disconnecting. She bursts into the operating room, stopping in her tracks when she hears the long, solid beep from the monitors and watches in horror as her husband shocks her best friend's heart in his open chest.