Family of two

21 - Different Kinds of Fighting

In the morning Eric was awoken by a clearly much more energetic little Teddy, who immediately wanted to know why Eric was sleeping on the couch, while Eric could only presume that he must have fallen asleep on Mia and wished she'd be still there with him.

Teddy had been able to return to daycare the day after, so Eric had been able to continue to supervise initiation. The fighting had started, which was a good thing, since it was much more interesting and he would be able to visit Mia during worktime, because there were injuries to happen. Despite his reputation he didn't live to see people suffer. He wanted to protect the city which meant he had to be hard on those who choose Dauntless in order to ready them for their duty, which in his opinion also meant to not always pair them even matched. Out on patrol or during a riot nobody would get the luxury to choose whom to fight.

Again one opponent had hit the mats.

"Tom get him off there. Take Spike with you to take him to sick bay." Eric was fairly sure that one got a concussion. It had been the last fight for today. Now all that was left for him to do was to talk things through so they could learn more from it. It was something he had added a few years back.

"All right gather up." With the time the initiates were taking the young leader could feel his patience thinning by the minute as he waited for them to scramble over. "Now, who can tell me what they did right and what their mistakes were?"

They looked at him wide eyed. Not as dauntless as one would expect, hell no, he could see clearly the fear in their eyes. He couldn't believe it. Did they had Dauntless in their test or were they just a bunch of restless kids?

"Anytime now!" He barked and like he presumed their fear to have him coming after them was bigger than whatever fear had been freezing them up in the beginning. Pathetic! Eric wondered briefly if Tom would also have frozen up, he was pretty sure he wouldn't.

Some girl was lifting a hand. Finally. On his sign she spoke up: "Liam didn't cover his right side properly."

After he gave her a short nod of approval the other initiates seemed to have gathered their wits eventually. Took them long enough. Once they had finished talking about the fights Eric decided to let Four handle the rest. Time to visit Mia. He walked happily down the hallways.

"Eric? 'You here to check on your initiates?" The nurse at the front asked. Eva was her name if he recalled properly. "Why didn't you just call like always?"

Ignoring her question, since he didn't feel that it was in any way her business, Eric asked: "How are they?"

"The last one still here. Got a concussion. Everyone else is taken care of. They just needed some stitching or icing."

"Okay. What about Eddy, the one with the concussion? Will he have to stay the night?"

"I don't know yet. How about you simply ask Nelly?"

Eric walked directed to the head nurse. After being informed that Eddy would be released later, he walked towards the children section of the dauntless sickbay. He never had been there before.

Then he heard her voice and followed it.

"Okay, you're al set now. Remember not put too much pressure on your foot."

Walking around the corner he saw a girl who's had her left foot bandaged getting up from the table with the help of what Eric presumed was her mother. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of him and with a hastily greeting in his direction she hurried her daughter away.

"Well, that was odd." Mia commented on the mother's behavior before greeting him properly. "Hi Eric!" She beamed and then she seemed suddenly to be unsure of something. Eric didn't liked that, he wanted her to feel secure with him. That mother hurrying her son out, that he was used to, although now that he was a father himself, he noticed that he felt offended by her behavior. Mia obviously hadn't yet accustomed to the fact that people tented to avoid him. As usual his face portrayed none of his feeling about both these incidents. Then all of sudden he felt Mia giving him a slight peek on his cheek, which lightened up his mood instantly.

Eric smiled down at her: "Hi Mia!"

"This is a nice surprise. What brought you here?"

"I had to check on one of my initiates and wanted to visit you." He admitted and was rewarded with another beaming smile.

In the background was some commotion and then someone called: "Mia, come over here, I could use a hand."

Both of them hurried over to encounter an about six year old boy, trying to get away.

"Don't make such a fuzz!" His mother reprimanded him.

"I'm afraid he's afraid of needles." The other nurse told Mia.

Eric narrowed his eyes as the mother continued to scold the boy, which wasn't much help. She should encourage him to face his fear. He glared at her, which shut her up. He was then proud to see Mia stepping up on the task and after a few minutes the boy sat still and let himself inject with the serum, so Eric decided to reward him with an appreciative nod. When at that the boy squared his shoulders and walked out proud he felt a smile forming on his lips, which he quickly suppressed and covered by a last glare at the boy's mother.

When they were gone Mia said: "Thanks for shutting her up. Sadly there are always those who think it would help if only they scream louder at their child."

The young leader didn't like what he was hearing. In the past he hadn't looked into children's affairs but having his son was about to change things. Apperently the dauntless kids needing protection as well, though it was different from protecting the city. He had to ask Sam if there was some kind of department within Dauntless that looked into possible child abuse. He felt ashamed that the thought had never crossed his mind in all the years prior.

"Eric?" Mia asked once they were alone again. "What is it?"

"Sorry Mia, I was just wondering, after observing that mother, what we do against child abuse."

"Oh." Clearly he caught her of guard. Then Mia looked at him trustfully: "If anyone is in a position to do anything against it, it's you. I've only ever heard that Tara stepped up for some children."

"Did she?"

"Yep!"

"That's good to know."

"You'll find a way Eric. I know you do."

Even if Eric had to admit to himself of being proud that Mia had such confidence in him, he didn't know how to step up on this new task as it was a far cry from anything he had experience in. He couldn't simply put up some kind of patrol like they had for the fractionless but he wouldn't back down from the challenge either.

Sadly the both of them had duties to attend and therefore after a few more stolen minutes Eric had to leave. Walking out of the sickbay, he was already looking forward to seeing her later in the evening. In round about seven hours. Not that he was counting.