Her Secret

Thank You For Your Candor

"Sure. What's up?" Jeanine asks Jack, stepping out into the hall.

"Yeah, uhm. . . there's not really an easy way to say this, but the people have voted to put you on trial. We want to make sure you are not a threat to our faction."

"Wait, but I already testified for her side!" Tris says, also entering the hallway.

"Tris, it's fine," Jeanine says. "They just want to make sure I'm actually innocent and it's not just what you were led to believe."

Jack nods, and Tris sighs reluctantly. "Are you going to arrest her then?" Tris asks.

"No, but we will track her. Kind of like a house arrest thing," Jack explains. Jeanine nods before taking Tris' hand in hers.

"See. Everything will be fine," she says with a small smile. She then looks over at Jack. "I'm not going to lie. I genuinely think a couple of months ago, you would be too scared of me to put me on trial. Is it because I'm nicer?" she jokes.

"Oh. I dunno," Jack says with a shrug.

"No. You've changed. Grown into a better leader. I think that it's a good look on you," she says with a small thumbs up. Since Jack took over at around the same age Jeanine had, she always felt that she could somehow help him out and give him advice. Jack had reminded her of, well, a more honest version of her younger self.

"My girlfriend gives compliments?" Tris asks, interrupting Jeanine's thoughts.

Jack nods in slight agreement with Tris. He however seems slightly timid as he doesn't want to piss off Jeanine. "Thank you, though," he says quietly. Jeanine nods, and Jack turns around and heads off.

"You've grown a lot too, you know," Tris says, catching Jeanine's attention.

She shrugs before hesitating. "I'm not sure if I have. I'm constantly scared that I'm failing to be a better person everyday. I don't know, like I'm some kind of fraud. I don't ever feel like that's me, you know. I guess I just am not really sure who I am anymore. I went from being the powerful Erudite leader to . . . whatever I am now. All in the matter of a couple of weeks."

Tris wraps an arm around Jeanines waist, effectively hugging her from behind. "Hey, I know it can be hard sometimes. And really hard other times. But I'm honestly just happy you're here with me." Jeanine turns her head and places her chin on the top of Tris' head.

"Thanks, Tris," she says, taking in the scent of her girlfriend's hair.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the two are interrupted as Jeanine is collected and taken to the courtroom in Candor for her trial.

"Jeanine Matthews, I assume you know the drill, but if not I would like to stop and clarify about what will happen in this courtroom," Jack Kang starts. "This will be a fair trial. We will first inject you with truth serum. You must then provide us with your name before answering our following questions.

Jeanine nods. Having attended a decent amount of trials in her youth, she was well informed about how the process worked. She then looks over at the needle Jack's guard is holding. "Do you mind if I do it myself? I think almost everyone here knows I'm pretty experienced with needles," she says with a small shrug. The guard hands it to her and Jeanine quickly injects herself before handing the needle back to the guard.

"Alright. First question. What is your name?" Jack asks.

"Give it a minute. It hasn't taken effect yet," Jeanine says.

Jack looks at her, seeming slightly confused. "And you'd happen to know this feeling why. . .?"

"Norton injected me with it a lot. Once you've used it enough times, you get to know the feeling," Jeanine says, seeming unbothered.

"That seems mildly concerning," Jack replies.

"He was just a really interesting character." Jeanine shrugs. "Anyways, we're good now. You can ask me questions."

Jack nods. "First of all, what is your name?"

"My Full name? As in middle included?"

"Preferably."

"Jeanine Iréne Matthews," she replies.

"I think that's the first time anyone has been told your middle name," Jack comments.

"Probably. My mother thought it would be cool cause she was named after Marie Curie and Iréne was her daughter or some shit," Jeanine mutters. "Excuse my language. I just have fun things to say about that woman."

"Marie Curie? Her daughter?"

"No my mother," Jeanine says, a hint of venom in her words.

"What sort of things?" Jack presses.

"Mr. Kang, is it really necessary for me to unpack my mommy issue trauma in court to decide whether or not I launched an attack? Because at that rate, we should throw in my daddy issues and my trauma from Norton," she says with an eyeroll. Jeanine had buried much of that so deep that it didn't really affect her anymore. Even if it did, she had no intentions to display that emotion in court. Especially in front of hundreds of people.

"I suppose not. Moving on. Where were you on the night the attack was launched?"

"Tris and I were sleeping at my apartment. I got a phone call from Eric and he informed me that he started an attack. If you want. you can check my phone records," she says, handing her phone over.

"Miss Matthews, what good is looking through your call history going to do?"

Jeanine looks up at him. "You can access old phone calls. You realize that kind of stuff can be stored in the cloud, right?"

Jack seems surprised, even going as far to raise an eyebrow. "Password."

"Can I have the phone back?" Jeanine is handed her phone and quickly finds a recording and plays it on full volume.

"I have started it," a voice, that was recognized to be Eric's, spoke.

"No. I told you to call the attack off!" Jeanine hisses violently. "I want no part of this."

"It's too late. It's already started. The people will love to blame you, Jeanine."

The call then shuts off. "Well this has certainly been one of the most interesting trials I have judged so far," Jack says, looking over at Jeanine. She seems sad.

"What's wrong?" he asks her.

"I just feel like I could have done more to prevent this. . ."

"Jeanine. As we saw in the cal, this was all Eric's fault-"

"No! When I was twenty four, I took an oath. I was sent through emergency approval after Norton died, and became erudite's youngest faction leader in history. I vowed to protect this city, Jack! I failed!"

"I think that's enough for now," Jack says, trying to shut down the conversation.

"Thank you for your Candor," The entire court repeats.