Family of two

10 - Candor

Four

Rumor had it that Eric was under close surveillance by Sean after the incident in the training room. Hopefully it was true, because Eric on a rampage wasn't a pretty sight, so Four was glad Sean apparently had called Eric to account.

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Eric

After some dreadful days of searching for a way out, Eric, Dan and Barry were waiting for the trail to begin. Sean had accompanied him in his position of head leader of the faction but as he had told Eric he would have come anyway, while Julie would look after Teddy. Last night after Teddy had been send to bed they had discussed what to do if Candor ordered Eric to hand Teddy back over to Abnegation. They could fake his death and hide him in Amity. Eric was sure Johanna would do that. Well, he hoped she would do it. But how long could they hide him there? For a short while they could fake an assignment for Eric but sooner or later people would start to ask questions if he suddenly stayed there for month or even weeks. They could hand Teddy over and take him back the same night while pretending to know shit about it. Better: They could fake his death in Abnegation so Marcus would stop looking for him. The flaw in all of these plan was that Teddy would be right in the middle of it. He would likely be confused or frightened. Eric really hoped it wouldn't come to it, that he had to put one of these plans to action.

As they had marched through the glassy hallways towards the assigned small court room for non-public cases, many members of Candor had looked at them with curiosity while others had seemed to be intimidated by their grim demeanor. Sean and Eric had been looking into the law for hours only to come up with nothing. As a result Eric was tensed up and constantly gritted his teeth. Upon entering the room they had been greeted by Jack Kahn and had then walked over to sit on the site of the room opposite from Marcus Eaton, who had been already there. It was only some minutes later as the three Amity-men from the day of the ambush arrived. Dauntless and Amity had greeted each other friendly after the three men were advised their places. The court room had white painted walls whereas the seats were black and the tables out of glass. One of them stood at the front. It was huge with several chairs behind it for the members of the condor court. To the side was a small podium for the people to get interrogated. On the left of the room was a smaller table were Marcus had been placed and on the right side were two short lines of chairs that had been reserved for the Dauntless and Amity. Apart from Jack Kahn there were four other Condors present to witnesses the trail. Jack Kahn walked to the front to open the trial:

"Again welcome to Candor. Today we will seek the truth in behalf of the destiny of Theodore Hamilton born into the faction of Abnegation. Mr. Eaton, please state your case."

Marcus stood up: "I am convinced, that upbringing the child in another faction by someone who is not related by blood is against the faction law. Orphaned children are to be raised in the faction of their parents. The exception would be if the child doesn't have any family members left in his faction of origin and a blood relative from another faction takes it upon himself to raise the child in."

'...the child...takes it upon himself...' Those words again. That man had no empathy towards children, no wonder he abused his own son.' Eric glared at this epitome of phoniness.

"... I am also convinced, that the Dauntless soldiers may have misjudged the last words of Mr. Hamilton. I'm sure he only meant for them to take care of his son during the attack and assure a safe pathway home, not to raise his son in their faction. As a concerned leader of my faction, I also request to get to know with whom Theodore is currently staying, a request Dauntless denied before."

Eric wanted to strangle the man. He wished Jack Kahn had put Marcus under the truth serum but it was only used on witnessed and defendants. But Kahn was Condor – couldn't he catch these blatant lies? He looked at the man and saw him furrowing his brows. Perhaps there was still hope.