Well, people have asked exactly how Glitch and Cain came to the decision to share DeeDee. I had planned to leave it ot the imagination, but since you all seem to want to know, I figured I'd work something up. Here it is.

PS: You know about the babies.

PPS: why havent any of you read my two Neal McDonough inspired ficlets? So much for loyalty!

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Ambrose entered the Princess's office and saw that she was not alone. Wyatt Cain stood beside her, the two thick as thieves, shoulders touching as they bent over some papers spread out over her desk.

"So, she drafted you as well?" Ambrose asked lightly, though he'd been fully aware of her plans to tap the tin man for her project and had, in fact, spoken to him since then. DeeDee was not aware of the fact, however.

Cain looked up from the sketches DeeDee was showing him, different concepts for the Mystic Man memorial; the M-cubed, as she called it. He smiled at his friend.

"Looks like it," the blonde replied, going along with Ambrose's pretense.

"I didn't draft anyone," DeeDee protested with a little scowl. "I simply offered an opportunity."

Ambrose snorted. "Funny. It seemed more of a command from my end," he reminded her. She tried and failed to suppress a smile.

"You just needed more convincing, that's all," she informed him, impishly. He smiled back at her. She was right and he was glad she had done the convincing.

"Speaking of convincing," the advisor segued into his reason for intruding. "The Queen wishes to speak with you about the upcoming ball. Something about your dress."

DeeDee's smile immediately vanished and she rolled her eyes with an exasperated huff. She stalked towards the door, her lovely lips drawn down in a frown. Ambrose caught her arm as she moved passed him.

"Play nice, doll," he ordered teasingly. She rolled her eyes again and gave him a little shove, pulling out of his grasp, but the frown was gone and that was all that mattered. He turned to the tin man solemnly.

Ambrose had gone out into the gardens to find his princess. Well, not his princess, unfortunately. He could hear her speaking somewhere close by. He heard a deeper voice respond to hers and sighed. Wyatt Cain. He contemplated whether or not he should interrupt them, as he walked towards their voices. He came around the side of a hedge just in time to see the Princess wave in parting to the tin man and walk off towards the castle. Ambrose turned back to Cain and found the man looking after the Princess as she left, a familiar expression on his face. The ex-headcase sighed quietly to himself. He'd seen the look on the tin man's face countless times and knew that he, himself, had worn it on too man occasions to recall.

"She doesn't know, you realize," the Advisor said, apropos of nothing, approaching the tin man. Cain looked towards the advisor, having been unaware of his presence before he spoke. The blonde blinked at him in confusion for a moment. "How you feel," he clarified. "She doesn't know."

Cain's expression fell slightly. One corner of his mouth curved up in a rueful smile. "Of course, she knows," he insisted quietly. She had to know, he thought. Even without that kiss, it was painfully obvious. Ambrose shook his head at the other man.

"I know," he told Wyatt. "And you know. Everyone else knows. But DeeDee, she doesn't. If she did, she would leap into your arms. She loves you."

"She loves you," Cain contradicted. "I may have kissed her, but she kissed you, if you'll recall."

Ambrose snorted. He did recall, with painful clarity, how she had kissed him. It was beautiful and sweet and entirely… platonic. "Wyatt, if she loved me as anything more than a friend, you and I would not be having this conversation because Dee and I would be wed by now."

"You really don't see it?" Cain asked disbelievingly. His heart had ached enough times watching the woman he loved cast yearning looks at his friend.

"You're the one who doesn't see," Ambrose retorted, is voice irritated. As if he, who could never take his eyes off the girl, would miss something so monumental.

"Both idiots." The men spun towards the intruder and saw Raw standing just down the path. Neither man could form a response, as the insult was entirely out of character for the gentle Viewer.

"Cain and Glitch both blind," Raw said, irritated. "DeeDee loves both. Loves Cain, loves Glitch. Hurting so much because they abandoned her." Both men opened their mouths to protest, but he held up a hand to silence them. "Glitch," he said to Ambrose. "Hides in his lab and doesn't speak to her. Cain," he turned to the tin man. "Runs away entirely."

The Viewer paused, giving them a moment to let it sink in. Whether it had been their intention or not, both men had left her alone without so much as a word of explanation, nor promise of return. It was a hard pill for Cain to swallow. He'd thought so hard about why he was keeping his distance that it never occurred to him that she might not understand; it had hurt him so much when she did not pursue him, he had not stopped to think that she might believe he was rejecting her.

Ambrose was feeling a similar pang of realization and guilt. It had been overwhelming and confusing having both Ambrose's and Glitch's thoughts, feelings, and memories in the same head. He'd needed time to sort it out; time away from her, he thought. But the fact of the matter was that both Ambrose and Glitch had loved Dorothy, in their respective ways, and she had deserved at least the reason why he'd pulled away from her.

"Fix it," Raw ordered, firmly. He said nothing else, but simply turned and left the two men. After a moment, Ambrose walked away without a word to his friend. Cain did not try to stop him. They both had a lot to think about.

"I'm going to tell her tonight at the ball," Ambrose told Cain. "I'm going to tell her everything."

The blonde half smiled. "Funny, I had the same idea," he informed his friend.

"Great minds think alike," the advisor quipped. He thought it was odd that he did not think it was odd that neither himself, nor Cain, felt any animosity or even rivalry towards the other. They both loved DeeDee, but really, how could anyone not? Cain gave a genuine smile at the comment.

"Should I congratulate you now or later?" the blonde asked. He would not hold a grudge against the advisor if, when, DeeDee chose him. He loved the girl and only wanted her to be happy. Glitch was his friend, perhaps the best he'd ever had in his life, aside from the girl in question. He loved the man like a brother and would never wish for his unhappiness. Well, maybe a little; if said unhappiness was the result of the Princess choosing tin man over loyal advisor.

Ambrose snorted. "I've never seen you give up so easy, Cain," he admonished, good naturedly. His tawny eyes twinkled in amusement.

"Oh, I haven't give up just yet, Zipper-head," the tin man scoffed. Ambrose pursed his lips in feigned annoyance.

"If you'll notice, I haven't had a zipper for quite some time," he reminded his friend. Cain nodded.

"I noticed," he intoned. "But you'll always be 'Glitch' to me, Glitch."

Ambrose smiled with a laugh. "You know, DeeDee said the very same thing to me not long ago."

Cain laughed in kind. "Well, like you said. Great minds."

"Precisely why she will choose you, tin man."

"I'm too old for her," Cain protested, knowing the comment was a weak argument. If she didn't care that Ambrose was eighty-seven, why would a few more years make any difference? The dark haired man patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't get so down on yourself, Cain," he said, sounding more like Glitch and less like Ambrose. "You're only a hundred and twenty-four. You've got at least a decade left before she'd write you off as Grandpa Wyatt."

"Oh, those are fighting words, Zippy!" Cain warned, stepping back and raising his fists. The cheerful smile on his face may have ruined the threatening effect. Ambrose stepped back himself and lifted his own hands into his martial fighting stance.

"Good, it's been a long time since I got to pummel someone," he commented arrogantly. The two playfully sparred for a few moments, circling each other, grinning and laughing all the while. "You know, there is one possibility we haven't mentioned."

"What's that?" Cain asked, throwing a light jab that Ambrose easily turned aside.

"Well, she could pick you," Ambrose recited, hand darting out and landing a light smack on one of Cain's cheeks. The man's brilliant blue eyes widened in mock outrage and he feigned a punch to his friend's stomach. When Ambrose moved to block, Cain caught him with his own slap to the back of the dark haired man's head.

"She could pick you," the blonde stated the next option. Ambrose nodded.

"She could pick neither of us," he went on.

"That's true," Cain conceded.

"Have you considered the possibility that she might just take option number four?" the advisor asked. Cain lifted one pale brow in question. "She could very well choose both. She is a princess after all."

Cain snorted incredulously, abandoning the play fighting and crossing his arms. "I don't think being a princess has anything to do with it, Glitch."

"Perhaps not," Ambrose said. "But our DeeDee is not much like anyone else in the O.Z.."

"Now, that, I'll agree with," Cain said.

"Thus, we cannot discount the notion that she will not react like anyone else in the O.Z.. She tends to think outside the box," the advisor went on, quoting a term DeeDee had used once.

Cain chuckled. The Princess had mentioned the concept to him as well and he still found it amusing. "So, you think she'll be greedy and choose both?"

Ambrose looked suddenly serious. "No. To be honest Wyatt, I think she'll chose neither. Because she would want to avoid hurting either of us at all costs. That is who she is."

Cain only nodded, knowing it was true. "Glitch, if she does that, we may very well have to take the initiative."

"And do what, exactly, Wyatt?" Ambrose asked, at his considerable wits end.

"Remember the first day after we met? Remember the river?" the tin man asked. Ambrose frowned in confusion, not following.

"We push her off a cliff?" the brunette inquired, completely lost. Cain chuckled.

"Metaphorically," he said. Ambrose's eyes cleared as understanding dawned.

"I see," he stated. "But, er… what about after the fact? How do we- that is… Do we, uh, get her on different days of the week?"

Cain threw his head back with laughter, gripping his friend's shoulder for support. After a moment, he sobered and patted the mans back reassuringly. He smirked, looking decidedly… wicked. Ambrose blinked in surprise. He'd seen Cain angry, sad, hurt, elated, worried and in love, but never had he seen this particular expression on his face. "Just think of the river, Glitch. It'll come to you."

Ambrose's brow furrowed as he followed the events of that day in his mind. The papay, the cliff, the fall, the river, searching for DeeDee and being so afraid they'd lost her. How terrified he'd been when they found her caught up on that branch. He'd really thought she was dead, but Cain had assured him it was just hypothermia and-

"Oh!" Ambrose piped, sounding decidedly Glitch-like as realization dawned again. He felt his face flush as Cain's blue eyes twinkled at him. "Ooh!"

"Oh, indeed." Cain laughed. Ambrose was much relieved to see that the blonde's ears had tinged pink, meaning that he, Ambrose, was not the only one flustered by the idea. Flustered, he realized, but not put off. It wasn't as though he'd never seen the other man naked. Wasn't as though they hadn't been pressed rather intimately against eachother while Glitch tried to save his life at the ice palace. He'd secretly watched the two of them kissing before the Battle of the Eclipse (as it was now called) and had not been uncomfortable. And if he had to share his beloved DeeDee with another man, Wyatt cain would be at the top of the list.

"It could work," he said, with a thoughtful nod.

"Yes, Glitch," Cain agreed, just as thoughtfully, thinking of the same events as Ambrose. "Yes, it very well could."