Title: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Author: NAWag1R
Characters: Jeb, DG, Cain, Mom, Popsicle, Zero; eventual Jeb/DG
Rating: R
Betas: azkadelliacain and magickboxgirl
Summary: Jeb and DG are sent to Kansas for their own protection after Zero escapes after a prisoner transport is ambushed.
Disclaimer: I don't own them If I did none of you would ever see Jeb again.
Chapter 1
My alarm clock goes off at 7:30 am. I sit up and look around my room. For a moment I can almost convince myself that it was all a dream. I can almost make myself believe that my parents downstairs are really my parents and not robots. I can almost forget that I am a princess of the OZ. And I can almost forget that Jeb Cain is waiting on the other side of my door for me so he can try to talk me out of going to work.
"DG!! Breakfast is ready!" mom calls.
"I'm on my way!!" I yell back. Oh well back to reality. I throw off my blankets and grab a sweatshirt. Jeb and I argue all the way to the kitchen.
"I'm just saying that you don't have to go." It's always the same.
"And what am I going to do, Jeb, just sit around and watch TV. I need to do something and going to work keeps my mind off the fact that our families are in danger until Cain can find and stop Zero." I yell back at him. Sometimes I wish Cain had let Jeb kill Zero or at least killed him himself. But then I realize that it would have destroyed them both.
"Would you two quiet down? Everyday for a week you two have been having the same argument. Both of ya shut up and eat." Dad says to us.
"Sorry Popsicle." I sit and grab some eggs and bacon. Jeb does the same.
"I don't know why you have to yell at me. It's not my fault that the transport was ambushed and he escaped." Jeb grumbles. He's cute when he acts like a teenager. Wait. What? Where did that come from? Jeb Cain is not cute. He's irritating and annoying.
I finish eating and go back upstairs. I pull out my uniform and put it in my backpack. I grab a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and lay them on my bed. I turn on my stereo and pop in a CD. I get in the
shower and let the water and the music wash over me. I finish quickly and in another half an hour I am dressed and back downstairs.
"Okay, I'm out. I'll see you all later!" I grab my backpack, leather jacket, keys and helmet and I'm out the door before Jeb can complain about me taking my motorcycle. It wasn't hard to get my job at The Hilltop back after I gave Carter the sob story of finding out I was adopted and then trying to find my family. I park the bike in back and head inside and change. I hate this dress. Thank God Jeb hasn't seen me in it. He'd make some smartass comment and I'd have to punch him. Well, here goes another day at work serving pie to locals again in a little one horse town outside Topeka. Why do these things happen to me?
Gulch comes in and I'm thinking for sure he is going to chew me out or haul me off to jail for skippin' town. But apparently Mom and Pops smoothed things over and paid the fine after they got back here. They were sent here 3 weeks before Jeb and I got here, to get the house cleaned up and everything.
Work was pretty easy today. It surprised me. I go change and climb on my bike and drive home. I don't really want to go home because I am really not looking forward to listening to Jeb bitch about the motorcycle among other things. I really need to think of a way to shut him up. I mean I know that he's one of the Royal Guards but we are not in the OZ right now. Here he's just an 18 year old. That's part of the reason I think he's so pissy. He literally doesn't exist here. That's got to be hard.
I pull into the drive and park the bike in the garage, leaving my helmet on the seat. Walking in the house I smell dinner, Mom's chicken stew. Good that was always my favorite after a particularly bad day and this week has been a doozie.
"I'm home. I'm going upstairs." I tell mom as I pass through the kitchen.
"Alright, sweetie, go on and get cleaned up. Dinner's gonna be soon," she tells me.
I head up to my room to shower and change. It's getting late so I change in to my favorite flannel pajamas and head back down to help. I notice that I haven't seen or heard from Jeb since I got home. And while thankful that I haven't been arguing with him I wonder where he's gotten off to.
"Hey, Mom, where's Jeb? He's usually right at the door when I get home ready to tell me that 'Princesses don't ride motorcycles'."
"He's out helping Pop. I told him if he wasn't going to help in the house then he could help out in the fields."
I nod as I hear Jeb and Pop coming in the kitchen door. Pop sends Jeb up to clean up while he sets some vegetables in the sink. I set the table and fill glasses with water. If it weren't for the fact that I know that Jeb Cain is in the house I could almost pass this off as normal. Jeb comes down wearing flannels, towel in hand drying his hair, shirt half buttoned and feet bare. He starts to open his mouth to say something to me but I cut him off.
"Look I just got home and you just got in so why don't we wait to start fighting till after dinner." He just nods and sits down across from me and starts eating.
The rest of the night was quiet. I am curled up on the couch with a book when Jeb comes in. He sits on the other end of the couch and doesn't say anything for a while. Finally he speaks.
"Princess, we need to talk."
"I've told you not to call me Princess here."
"Right, sorry. But we still need to talk."
"Okay, what is it?"
"I got a message from my Dad today."
"They use the portal spell I made?"
"Yeah. It worked great. He said that they are having a hard time finding Zero. It's like he just vanished. He wants us to stay here for a while longer."
"Yeah, I figured that was going to happen. Well since we are going to be here for a while we need to find a way to live together without fighting all the time."
"I know."
"You have to remember that here I am not a princess. I'm just DG, Hank and Emily's daughter. And you are not Captain Cain. I know that it's got to be hard for you. You can't go out and really do anything without me or Mom and Pops. Look, I'm sorry that you got caught up in this…"
"It's not like I didn't know what I was getting into when I joined up with the resistance. I did. And when I conned Zero in to telling us what he knew I knew he'd want to kill me if he got the chance."
"I've got errands to run tomorrow and I'm off work so you can come with me if you want."
"Sure I guess that'd be ok," he said not looking at me.
"For what it's worth, I'm glad that you're here with me, Jeb."
It's Saturday and I get up and get ready a little earlier. I head out to the turbine in the east field and get it running. It wasn't too bad off and it will keep running for a while. I need to get some parts for it. Now I'm in the garage under the truck trying to find the rattle Pops told me about. I just hope it's not the driveshaft to the 4wd. Shit. It is the driveshaft. It looks like it's almost sheered in two. I'll have to go get a new one. Well, might as well change the oil while I'm here. I start to crawl out from under the truck when something hits my leg. I jump and hit my head.
"Ow!! Damn it!! Son of a bitch!! That fucking hurt!" I shout as I pull myself out from under the truck and see Jeb. "What the…, Jeb?"
"Sorry. What are you doing under there?" he asks.
"Nothing at the moment, but I was checking out the drive shaft." He's looking at me funny. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You have some grease on your face."
"Great. Hand me that shop towel that's on the bench over there." He tosses it to me and I wipe my face. "Well the truck isn't going anywhere today. So if you still want to go with me we'll be taking the bike or the Jeep."
"Um… Jeep I guess."
"Alright, I'm going to go clean up a bit. Get something to eat and we'll leave in about an hour and a half."
I head for the house and climb the stairs to my room. It was a surprise, when Jeb and I arrived, that there was a bathroom attached to my room. I guess that they didn't want the hassle of the two of us having to share one. I turn on the water and while I am waiting for it to warm up I dig through my CD's, pop one into my stereo and turn it on. I have really missed my CD's. I think I am going to ask Glitch to find some way to rig my stereo to work in The OZ. Maybe I'll send him a cheap one to work on. After my shower I grab a pair of comfy jeans, my favorite Converse All Stars, and my "Boys are Stupid" t-shirt. I put my hair in a quick braid, grab my backpack and head downstairs. Mom, Pops and Jeb are in the kitchen when I get there.
"Hey Pops. Don't drive the truck. The drive shaft is almost sheered in two. I'll order a new one while I'm out today. We're taking the Jeep. And we should be back before dinner. Jeb, you ready?"
"Yeah, I'm ready."
Out in the garage I pull the tarp off my old YJ. If I missed anything as much as my CD's and my motorcycle it's my Jeep. I start pulling the soft top off of the green Wrangler. I never noticed that it's almost an emerald green. I just can't seem to get away from that color. Once I get the top down and tucked away I climb in, buckle up and wait for Jeb.
"It's just a Jeep it's not going to bite."
"It has no roof."
"Oh don't be such a baby. Get in." He climbs in and buckles his seatbelt. I start the engine and we get going.
First stop is the auto parts shop and I place an order for a new driveshaft for Pops truck. Next is Wal-Mart for oil and a filter and Jeb finds some clothes he likes. All that took up what was left of the morning and we are both hungry. We head to the Hilltop for lunch. We talk and try to get to know each other while we wait for our burgers and colas. The food was eaten and we get back in the Jeep and go to the hardware store and I pick up the parts I need for the turbine. After that we drive home. I put the Jeep in the garage and leave the oil and filter in the front seat. We go in the house and Jeb takes his clothes to his room while I give Pops the receipt for the driveshaft I ordered. I walk back outside and pull out an oil pan and slide it and myself underneath the Jeep. It's funny the things I find soothing. Any normal princess would find the idea of manual labor degrading and distasteful. Me? I'd rather be elbow deep in grease and motor oil than standing around chatting up some noble. I take off the oil plug and let it drain. I replace the oil plug and crawl out from under the Jeep. I change the filter, pull the dipstick, wipe it
down and set it aside. I grab the oil and a funnel and fill the reservoir and replace the dipstick. Oil change finished I wash my hands in the shop sink and go sit on the swing under the big tree in front. It not long before Jeb came out and sat on the grass under the tree.
"I'd ask what growing up in the OZ was like but with the witch stirrin' up trouble it probably sucked. Not to mention that you had to grow up on the run from Zero and without your dad. I'm so sorry."
"Why are you sorry? It's not like you did it. Hell everyone in the Zone thought you were dead."
"Did your dad tell you what we discovered in the cave at Finaqua?" I ask him as I get down off the swing.
"He just told me that you learned how the witch possessed Azkadellia." He stands up.
"It was my fault. All of it, the Sorceress, Zero, Glitch's brain, the viewers, everything that happened to you and your mom and dad, was my fault. Az and I were in the woods and I heard someone crying. I followed the sound to the cave. We went inside and I touched the stone door of the witch's prison. I didn't know what it was at the time though. She came after me first. She tried to get me to let go of Az. Then she lunged at us and I got scared and ran. That's when she took Az." I go and sit in one of the chairs on the porch. Jeb follows me and sit down also. I know he probably doesn't want to know that everything that happened to his family, to his father, is my fault, but he listens anyway.
"Why are you telling me this, DG?"
"Because no one has told you yet and we are going to be here together for a while and I don't want you to find out and hate me later."
"Do you really think that two untrained girls could have stood up against an ancient evil witch?"
"I don't know. We could have tried."
"You'd both have been dead."
"Maybe. Who knows?"
"Well it's over now. So what does it matter. All anyone in the Zone knows is that you, Dad, Glitch and Raw saved kingdom. It doesn't matter now how it started. I don't blame you and I don't hate you."
"Thanks, Jeb. For what it's worth though, I'm sorry. Dinner's gonna be ready soon, we should go inside." He stands and offers me his hand, I take it and he pulls me to my feet. For a moment I am staring into his eyes. Wow, he has incredible eyes.