Don't tell me it's not worth trying for
You can't tell me it's not worth dying for
You know it's true
Everything I do
I do it for you
Yeah, yeah
#*#*#*#*#Here Is A Line#*#*#*#*#*#*
Eric resisted slamming his head down on the table as Jack Kang and Jeanine Matthews went over the results of the interrogation with Tobias and his mother Evelyn. Ultimately, they hadn't learned anything because Kang realized that number boy and his mother were able to resist the truth serum, which resulted in the genius potential nut job Jeanine being brought in and determining that both were Divergent to different degrees. Now Kang and Matthews were arguing over the ethics of letting the possibly insane blonde woman take the two in for study to be kept as lab rats.
Eric looked over and noticed Tris was eyeing Jeanine like the other woman was a spider that she wanted to be far away from, and he wondered briefly, if Tris was also Divergent. He shrugged the thought away, what her brain functioned was none of his business… unless she went off on a killing spree, then it would be his business. Still, he was more than done with this, so he spoke up, "Are we really arguing about this? Regardless of how their brains work, they've both broken the laws that govern and keep us safe, the penalties for that are clearly laid out and everyone knows them. Ms. Matthews, I don't see how their being divergent affects anything, they broke the law, repeatedly, and went against faction leadership. The penalties for that are clear and were put in place before anyone here in this room was born."
Tris Backed him immediately, "I agree, the rules are in place, why should how their brains work affect the punishment? Even if we were to consider an alternate form of punishment, what you're suggesting is barbaric and inhumane. You would treat people like lab rats. It is exactly the kind of thing we as a society are trying to avoid since that kind of thought process is what led to the destruction of the world and left us to work our asses off to correct the mistakes of the past."
Jeanine looked like she had been slapped and she sat down abruptly, Jack looked at Jeanine as if she really had lost her mind and Eric could just be that an investigation into the woman and her various projects was going to be launched before the week was out. He was okay with that, someone needed to make sure she didn't become the mayor of crazy town and he would fucking volunteer to look into it if that's what it took. Jack looked around the table and his eyes landed on Tris. "Ms. Prior, you have nothing you wish to change about the punishment?"
Tris shook her head firmly, "No, follow procedure, I don't ever want to think about any of this ever again. We can interrogate the Dauntless members who were complacent in his infiltration of the control room and see if they know anything worthwhile about his extracurricular activities at a later time."
Eric nodded; he would love to get a crack at the idiots that thought they could get away with subverting the rules. The safety of the woman he loves, and the people of his faction were worth fighting over and he wasn't about to let Number Boy and is band of idiots fuck with his people. He eyed up Jeanine as well and decided she didn't get to fuck with his people either. He slid his hand from the tabletop and rested his hand on his thighs and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a slender calloused hand wrap around his fingers and tug him into holding hands. He made sure no one was looking and glanced down. Yup, that was Tris' hand wrapped around his. He squeezed her hand and fought off a blush.
Tris was keeping her eyes on everyone else at the table, looking like she was gonna dare them to go against what she said.
Max finally stood up with a firm nod and said, "Well, that's that then, Jack, we will leave the prisoners and a full team with you to ensure everything goes as it should, I hope you don't mind, it's more for our peace of mind than anything else."
Jack Kang nodded and stood as well, extending a hand to Max, "I do understand, Max, you've suffered a major betrayal inside the walls of your own faction, paranoia is to be expected, especially of outsiders." The two men shook hands and Jack hauled Jeanine out of her chair to escort her back to her car.
Once the leaders of Candor and Erudite were gone, Tris slumped against his side with a ragged breath. Eric let go of her hand and warped an arm around her, pulling her closer and glared at Max who was smirking at him. "Is there anything else we need to discuss right now?" Eric asked them.
Everyone shook their heads and Max heaved a sigh, "Everyone back to business as usual, we can put together a team of volunteers to interrogate the complicit parties later. Tris, I know you have a bit of a pile forming on your desk. Hop to it." Everyone got up and stretched, even Tris but she didn't let go of his hand. This time he did blush because everyone could see them holding hands. He coughed but kept hold of her hand because he wanted to, and she was letting him. In fact, they held hands all the way to her office and didn't let go till she was seated at her desk.
"You gonna be okay?" Eric asked her.
Tris took a deep breath and nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine… eventually… maybe."
Eric grimaced and leaned his hip against her desk, "do you want me to walk you back to your apartment?" It was an offer made with no extra meaning behind it, he just wanted to make sure she got home safe.
She looked up at him and a faint smirk flitted across her face. "Can I send you up first to make sure Uriah isn't camped outside my door again?" She asked.
Eric laughed and nodded, "Yeah, I can do recon for you. Are we watching out for just Uriah or Zeke too?"
Tris shrugged, "Both."
He nodded, "Yeah I can do that, if they're there we can sneak to my place instead."
"Sounds like a plan," she said and looked at the pile of paperwork that looked like it wanted to topple over. "I'll see you later?"
Eric nodded and, taking a chance, bent over and kissed her cheek before he darted off to his own office.
#*#*#*#*#Here Is A Line#*#*#*#*
well... here it finally is, it took longer than I thought it would but then again, I ended up with a couple new ideas in other Fandoms my brain insisted needed to be pit out there. so yeah... tell me whatcha think?
~Syl.
