Family of two

22 - Cauncil meeting

Fuck. Eric cursed – he was running late for the council meeting. Things like that reflected bad on his faction and he didn't like that. Normally it would have been Max' turn, but the older leader had sprained his ankle this morning right before he should have boarded the train, so Sean had asked Eric to take his place, because everyone else was otherwise occupied. Originally it would have been Eric's duty to supervise the fear sims with Four, but as he had a hard time keeping his shit together around that prick anyway, Sean didn't have to ask twice. The way Four had treated Mia when he invaded flat of the young dauntless leader while Teddy had been sick had been the last straw. Nobody would treat his Mia like some whore. Remembering the incident was enough to let him clench his fists.

Upon entering the hall were the council meeting was held, Eric saw Marcus already on stage addressing the other leaders. Seeing that prick only added fuel to the fire he had himself worked into and when Eric finally caught up with what Marcus was talking about he was beyond furious. It took all of his self-control not to get up and wring his neck, when Marcus finished his speech:

"...therefore I would like to make a new rule, that orphaned children aren't allowed to be adopted out of their home faction and every child that has been taken out of their home-faction is to be turned back, when the adoption is less than a year old."

'That fucking scumbag!' He should have known Marcus would try to pull something like that! First rage and then fear were clawing at Eric. If he wanted to keep Teddy and to keep him safe, he had to pursue the majority of the other faction leaders that this was wrong. He had to keep his cool. For Teddy he could do it. Eric inhaled deeply to calm himself down. Vaguely he became aware of his wish to Mia being with him to help him to stay level-headed. Once he had managed to fight down the beast in him, the thought occurred to him, that he was lucky Max had sprained his ankle today since the other man probably wouldn't have had a problem at all with that shitty new rule. Max. Marcus had planned this carefully! He knew the turns the dauntless leader used to take and he hadn't wanted Eric to be present. On top of it every faction was caught up in initiation, which meant less discussing things through to look at them from every angle. That's why normally during initiation nothing as sincere as changing the law was discussed. That bastard. The knuckles of his hands who clamped the table turned white while he tried to calm himself once again by taking deep breaths. Looking up he could see Khan frowning at Marcus. Good. Of cause Condor's leader would know exactly what this was all about. Looking at the other additional council members from Abnegation it was plain to see how upset Andrew was with Marcus. Giving his experiences with the other man everything else would have surprised him.

Eric readied himself for the battle of his life. As much as he would have liked to prepare his arguments better, the dauntless leader knew it to be risky to let another leader speak first. Most leaders didn't like to back paddle and change their opinion openly. Especially not when the one with the better arguments came from a faction not deemed to be good in that particular field. Damn their pride. He himself had to have to swallow his pride in his life so often he lost track. A dauntless soldier was about serving to protect and not everything that had come along with it had agreed with his pride too, but he had sucked it up. Being dauntless did not include wining about that your pride got hurt. That was dauntless for you. So, he had to be the first to say something. Perfectly calm on the outside beside his true feelings, Eric addressed his fellow leaders:

"First of all let me apologize for being late but Max who should have come today was detained due to a minor accident. I came here as fast as I could after being notified of the situation."

On any other day he wouldn't have apologized for something like that moreover since it wasn't his fault to begin with, bit today it was necessary. His efforts were rewarded when the other leaders gave him a friendly nod, while Marcus tried to look neutral, despite Eric knowing him to be thrown off by him appearing instead of Max. Good.

"Being late I wasn't able to hear Marcus arguments, but I like to tell you what I think. I think our ancestors had a reason not to imply such a rule. Yes, we live by faction before blood but that doesn't apply to the children, since they will choose their faction when the time is right. It is well within the parents right to choose whom they want to raise their children in case they die. Those adoptions out of a faction are rare but there wasn't any incident with any of those children in the past. I think Jack Kahn can confirm this."

Eric looked at Jack who nodded in confirmation.

"We should honor the wisdom our ancestors had and not cutting into the parent's right to decide for their children. They know best where their child is welcomed and good taken care of. Forcing a child onto a family for the sole reason that they are of the same faction doesn't seem right."

Janine eyed him like he was her newest riddle while Johanna and Jack looked at him with respect. Hopefully he had done the right thing in speaking of their ancestors. He then saw Jack Kahn standing up.

"I agree with Eric on this matter."

Yesss! Though Kahn new best what this was all about, it could always have been that he didn't like condor-children leaving his faction either.

"You all know that candor values the truth and since only the factions involved know this, I like to inform you that this is not a theoretical request by Marcus, but that there has been indeed an adoption out of Abnegation lately."

Eric could hear Johanna gasped at that. Despite that there had been the three men from Amity testifying at the trial, Johanna hadn't known the real reason behind it, since Eric had asked them not to tell anyone for Teddy's safety. As friendly as Johanna was, she didn't like to be taken for a fool. Right now Marcus true intention had become obvious to her. He had not wanted to address this matter himself because if did, he would have been the one to look like he was acting for personal and selfish reasons. Now all those honors went to Marcus. Eric smirked, but then he felt Janine looking thoughtfully at him and quickly suppressed it. She knew he had adopted Teddy recently and no doubt had connected the dots by now. She also knew he would owe her big time, if she voted against that rule. That and Eric knew for a fact that she disliked Marcus, but he knew that this matter was way too serious to vote out of spite. Janine would hate to have a promising erudite adopted out of her faction. Looking at Marcus it was obvious to him, that he wasn't pleased which what Kahn had revealed. Question was, would he tell everyone the rest of the story? But he didn't. The council leader probably knew that it wouldn't help his case, so he only confirmed the already given information and added that this was indeed what had made him thinking about it.

When it was Johanna's turn, she agreed with him and Kahn, but expressed her confidence, that there wouldn't be an adoption out of Amity in the future as it was unheard of in its history.

Relieve flooded the young father: his son was safe. The majority had declined Marcus' request.

___________________________________________

AN

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Have a nice weekend. I'm currently sitting in the garden, sweating and listening to the birds chirping, while getting more and more hungry due to our nabours having a bbq, which I can smell...