Chronology: Second installment of the "There for You" series.

Summary: Now that the eclipse is past and the kingdom has been saved, it seems to DG that her part as savior of the O.Z. has been fulfilled. Feeling abandoned by her friends and family, she falls ill with a disease that is rarely survived. It's up to her friends to do what they can for her, for now that her life is on the line she needs a savior of her own.

Rating: T

Genre: Angst/Romance

Disclaimer: If you recognize it from somewhere else, it's not mine. This story is written for entertainment purposes only.

DG leaned closer to her sketch pad for a moment, her charcoal pencil adding in the tiny details of the palace gardens. Far below her, walking along the stone-paved paths, her mother, father, and sister enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine, and she couldn't help but feel a little left out.

It had been close to a month since the eclipse, and in that time she had gone from savior of the OZ to what she could only describe as a commodity. The ball that had been held at the Central City palace a mere week after the witch's demise had not so much been a celebration of the Zone's newfound freedom, as her parents had said, but rather a reinstatement of her mother as the ruler and a declaration of the princesses' eligibility for marriage; an announcement that had surprised Az just as much as it had DG. Since then, a new suitor for one sister or the other had dropped out of the woodwork every few days, though all of them had been turned away. The young men wishing to court DG had simply stopped coming as time went on, and as her parents' focus had turned to Az's future as queen of the OZ, the younger princess found herself fading further into the background. She didn't mind so much about the whole suitor thing, she knew that under their eager smiles and polite conversation they were all gold-diggers. She just couldn't shake the feeling that, now that the kingdom was safe and order was finally being restored, her role in this whole thing had played itself out.

She didn't think it would be so bad if she still saw any of her friends anymore. Raw had returned to the western woods, bringing Kalm back to their tribe. Glitch, his brain returned to its appropriate place and the zipper gone, had been reinstated as royal advisor, and now spent all of his time at court or, on the rare occasion that he had free time, down in his lab. Cain, still insisting on remaining as close as possible to the royal family and, effectively, to the youngest princess of the realm, had accepted the position of head of security. But it was a job that kept him constantly on the run around the palace; checking on the training of new recruits, meeting with the professors of the newly reopened Tin Man Academy and reporting to the Queen and Consort on a near-daily basis. He still visited with her as frequently as he could, but for all intents and purposes he might as well have taken a job on the other side of the Zone.

DG didn't mind admitting to herself that Cain was the one she missed the most. Ever since her roller-coaster first week in the OZ he had been her constant, her source of strength and comfort. What always came back to her mind, though, was her rescue from the Gale mausoleum. She remembered, a little better than she really wanted to, the stifling darkness trapped inside the marble coffin, how his name had been the last one on her mind before her breath finally failed her, how his eyes had been the first she sought out upon finally waking up. A miracle, according to Glitch, that had happened because of Wyatt. Sitting with him after they left the crypt, and then following the eclipse as her long week finally caught up with her, had made her feel secure, wrapped in his arms and leaning against him as though nothing could ever hurt her again. She treasured the time they were able to spend together, walking in the gardens or sitting in one of the palace's many parlors as she drew and he worked on paperwork. He had become a little less conservative with his endearments when he was talking to her, calling her "sweetheart" and "darlin'" in that almost-Southern drawl of his as often as he could just as long as her parents weren't around. After all, traditionally she wouldn't even be allowed to visit with or be seen with a male she wasn't related to unless she was being courted by him; even then, she would have to wait until her older sister had been spoken for. But her parents trusted Cain, and recognized how important he and the other members of their somewhat motley crew were to her, accepting them all as an extended family.

Did she love him? She didn't really know. But in that critical moment of time when she needed someone, anyone, to find her, her magic had reached out to him, had marked him the same way she had been, and had connected them in a way that she didn't even share with her sister. She cared for him, she recognized at least that much, and knew he cared for her in a way that went slightly beyond friendship. Love? She wasn't sure if she was ready to make that leap yet, even though his absence left her life feeling emptier than everyone else put together.

Down in the gardens, Glitch had approached the happy trio somewhat nervously, bowing to the Queen and Consort. Even from the distance, she could see his nervous twitching as though his synapses had taken to misfiring all over again. He obviously had nothing to worry about, for as he was speaking to them she saw the bright smiles cross her parent's faces. Add that to the exuberant leap her sister suddenly took into the advisor's arms, and it didn't take a mad scientist to figure out that the elder princess was no longer accepting suitors.

The sunlight reflecting off the white stone paths and statues made her head hurt, and DG closed her eyes briefly before turning away from the window, dropping her sketchbook and pencils on a table. She winced as she stood, a sharp pain radiating from the back of her head to halfway down her back. It had flared up time and again since the eclipse, and she had initially credited it to that first maddening week she had spent in the OZ. After all, in the course of seven days she'd jumped off a cliff, wrestled with mobats, gotten locked in a sarcophagus and been thrown off a balcony. But now, with just barely three weeks since the eclipse and no end to the throbbing pain that seemed to spread farther every day, she didn't know what to think.

"Hey, you okay?"

She jumped at the voice, her brain barely registering that Cain was standing a few feet away.

"Geez, Wyatt, don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sneak up on you? Deege, you were looking right at me when I walked in."

Another fact to wrap her brain around.

"I was?"

"Yeah," he drew the word out, slowly closing the space between them, his piercing blue eyes searching hers. "You feelin' okay?"

She frowned, shrugging one shoulder in an attempt to hide the stiffness that ran down her side, and sank carefully back onto the window seat.

"My back just hurts," she murmured, her gaze falling to the floor.

"Again?"

She nodded silently, frowning as another muscle lower on her back suddenly stiffened. "Sweetheart?" She glanced up at him, pulling away for a moment when his hand rested on her forehead. "You're burning up, Deege," he sighed, tilting her face up and noting her bright eyes with worry. "Come on, we need to get you to bed. I'll get your family and call a doctor once you're settled," he held her arm to steady her as she stood, then led her out to the hallway. They walked silently, his gaze locked worriedly on her as she focused all the energy she had on not falling over. There was a faint buzzing in her ears, and her vision blurred for a moment, causing her to stumble. "Easy there, sweetheart," Cain's voice sounded distant, like it came from farther down the hall, and she found herself cradled in his arms as he carried her upstairs to her room. He stopped to talk to two guards, and though she couldn't make out what he was saying she could hear the sharpness in his voice before they turned away. When they reached her rooms, he carefully handed her off to two maids and vanished as they helped her into a pair of pajamas, reappearing just as they were getting her into bed and carrying a small ceramic basin and a washcloth. He set them down on the bedside table, murmuring a quiet "I've got her" to the maids as he took their place, supporting DG behind the head as she lied down.

She rolled onto her side, pulling the blankets tighter around herself, closing her eyes at the feel of the cool pillow on her warm face. She heard water dripping, then felt something cool and damp on the back of her neck, the bed shifting slightly as he sat down next to her.

"What's going on, Wyatt?"

"I'm not sure, Deege. I know you haven't been feeling like yourself lately, but even so this fever spiked awfully fast," he murmured, feeling her forehead. "I sent for a doctor, so we'll find out what this is and get it set straight again." Her eyes opened a crack to look at him, noticing that he had discarded his duster and fedora at some point and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. He smiled at her, though his eyes suddenly looked tired. "Don't you worry, Kiddo, everything's gonna be alright." He gently rubbed her back, and her eyes slowly closed again. "Try to get some sleep."

She nodded slightly, pulling the blankets closer, and he sat with her as she slowly dozed off. The quiet sound of a door opening caused him to turn around, and he nodded slightly to himself when he saw Azkadellia's silhouette in the light thrown from the other room. He slowly stood, striding to the nearby window and pulling the drapes closed before leaving the bedchamber.

"Your highness," he greeted her quietly, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him.

"Mr. Cain, you call DG by her given name, you may just call me Az when we're not in court," the elder princess smiled. If he hadn't been around the palace nearly twenty-four-seven for the past three weeks, he never would have guessed that she was the same person who had been possessed by the sorceress. Any fears she had had after her fifteen annuals of possession had disappeared quickly thanks to the constant support of her family and a kingdom willing and ready to welcome the House of Gale back to the throne. Where there could have been a fearful and timid princess there was now a brave future ruler who was more than capable of taking over the monarchy in a few years' time. Now, however, her dark eyes were shadowed with worry. She glanced through the doorway at the still figure of her sleeping sister. "The guard just told me . . . how is she?"

"Fine," he replied, sighing quietly. "I wish I knew what was making her sick, though. She's been feeling off, but this fever of hers just sprang up out of nowhere."

"You sent for the doctor?"

"I did, the same time I sent the guard to find you and your folks," he glanced at her. "Your parents coming?"

The princess frowned, shaking her head.

"They have a meeting scheduled with ambassadors from the neighboring kingdoms," catching the look on his face, she sighed. "I don't like it any more than you do, Cain. If I had the power to, I would pull them away from everything they're doing and force them to come here for DG. But my mother is still the queen, and even if she wasn't, after fifteen annuals I'm not sure how interested they are in being parents to us."

"They spend plenty of time with you," he said, trying to not sound accusatory.

"Because I'm the future ruler of the OZ. As far as our parents are concerned, DG's done what she could for the OZ," she looked in on her sister again. "I hope they come to their senses soon."

Cain nodded in agreement.

"Where's Glitch?" he asked quietly, trying to change the subject.

"Down in his lab, looking for an old medical text or some other thing," she allowed herself a small smile. "He was always taking care of us when we were children. For every scraped knee or bee sting, we went to him. He was in medical school before mother hired him as royal advisor; I would trust him with my sister's health as much as any doctor."

The door from the hallway quietly opened, and Glitch poked his head into the room.

"Hey, guys, how's DG doing?"

Cain simply shrugged. Glitch was the only other person he knew of that had noticed DG's waning health over the past few weeks. The only thing was, until she had actually gotten sick, they both had just thought she was overly tired.

"You find anything, Zipperhead?"

"Well, yes, I did," the advisor replied, coming into the room, a leather folder under one arm and a large book under the other. Cain frowned at the look on Glitch's face, suddenly getting the feeling that he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.

The advisor put the folder down on a nearby table and opened the book to the first page. "This particular book was designed differently than our other textbooks. You start on the first page and find one of the symptoms of the disease you're looking for. It'll direct you to another part of the book, where you look up another symptom, which will direct you to another page. It narrows down the possible illnesses as you look for more symptoms until you find the one you're looking for," he paused, an uneasy look passing over his face. "I searched through all the symptoms I've noticed and never really put together as being part of one illness: back-ache, tiredness, no appetite. With the newest symptom, a fever, I've narrowed it down to a list of fifteen different illnesses she could have."

"There are three others that started today," Cain muttered, thinking of DG's behavior in the parlor and the hallway. "Sensitivity to light, confusion, and dizziness."

Glitch nodded, flipping through more pages, running his fingers down long tables and turning to other pages.

"We've narrowed it down to five," he sighed, taking a deep breath before turning the book so Cain and Az could read it. "All of these share these same symptoms."

Cain glanced at the list, suddenly curious about what was making Glitch nervous. They were all childhood illnesses, most children were through all of them by the time they were twelve; he remembered when Jeb had had most of them, and some of them he remembered having himself when he was young.

"Ambrose, I don't understand, DG's already had all of these, and it even says here that they're all one-time illnesses. If she's had them already, how could they be making her sick again?" Az wondered, confusion mixing with the worry that lined her face.

"That's why I'm glad I found this," Glitch replied, picking the folder back up. "Every hospital has one for its patients, and as advisor to the royal family I have access to this one, which has the name of every citizen of the OZ."

One eyebrow rose on Cain's forehead as he wondered how such a thin volume could possibly hold the name of everyone in the kingdom. "It's a magical register, Cain," Glitch explained. "You can ask for the information by a name and it will bring it up." He opened the folio, and the Tin Man could see that it held a few pages of parchment, all of them except the first inscribed with hundreds of tiny squares. "Look at this . . . Princess Dorothigale of the Royal House of Gale, information on illnesses contracted during childhood."

The folder vibrated in the advisor's hands, the page edges rustling slightly until print suddenly appeared on the first page. "You were almost right, Az," Glitch admitted, pointing to a patch of print. "DG did have most of these; shingles when she was one, ice fever when she was three, and this one, chickenpox, when she was seven and living on the Otherside. Blazerash she received the vaccine for, since she didn't have it by the time she was four and your parents didn't want to risk her catching it after that age, because it can become more deadly if a child over four catches it. But she never caught this one," he pointed back to the medical text. "When DG . . . died and had to be sent to the Otherside, your parents were still trying to get her to catch it, since the symptoms get worse the older a person gets. Don't you remember? From the time DG was old enough to walk and talk your father would take the two of you on regular trips to the Papay fields hoping she would catch it. They don't have this one on the Otherside, so she never had the chance to catch it at all."

"Ambrose, you have to be kidding. Please tell me that it's not true," Az's face had blanched, her eyes suddenly filled with worry.

"I'm sorry Azkadee. I know I'm not an actual doctor, but I would bet all of my marbles that this is what DG has."

Cain tilted his head, his eyes crinkling around the edges as he read the page Glitch was pointing at. He felt himself take a step back in surprise, mulling over what he had read.

"Fangpox?"