Disclaimer: Tin Man is not mine.

Her eyes fluttered open and immediately snapped closed when light hit them. Moaning miserably she covered her head with her hand. She felt god-awful. Her head was pounding and her stomach was telling her how utterly unhappy it was with her recent life choices. "Oh, God."

There was a noise somewhere to her left and then she heard the tin man. "You alive, Deeg?"

"Yes." She curled up in an attempt to make the pain stop. It didn't work. She came up with another solution. "But could you kill me?"

"Wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me." She could hear the amusement in his voice and it hurt her head.

"I have to disagree with you. It would be kinder to put me out of my misery." She felt around herself with her hand being sure her eyes were in no danger of having light get in them. She thought she should ask a few key questions. "Where am I?"

"Your bed."

"How did I get here?"

"I put you there."

She paused momentarily and assessed her body. She was under some sort of blanket. She was fairly certain her clothes were on, but her head wasn't working right. She should make sure. "If I get up I'm not going to embarrass myself am I?"

"Do you think you have somethin' I haven't seen before?"

"Please, tell me that's a question about your own general experience as opposed to a personal one about me."

He chuckled and she cringed. "Relax, Deeg. You have all your clothes on. Except for your left sock. Somethin' about it didn't strike you the right way. Do you want some coffee?"

"Please."

"Alright. Try to get yourself cleaned up. I'll be back in a few minutes."

She mumbled something, it wasn't even a word, and heard him leave. The door shut softly and she rolled so her back was to the window. The sun was shinning through the glass very rudely. Trying to open her eyes again she cracked one cautiously and looked around. Gathering herself, she sat up and waited until the room stopped spinning before she got to her feet. Congratulating herself on managing to stand without falling over, or back on the bed, she staggered to the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Deciding it would be best to leave the lights off she fumbled for the taps on the bathtub and plugged it blindly. This would be better. While the tub filled and steam began to fog the room up she made her way to her sink. Groping around she found her toothbrush, and after knocking over several toiletries, found her toothpaste as well. Five minutes later and her mouth no longer tasted like bile and old socks. It made her feel marginally better about life. When she slipped into the hot water and sank up to her shoulders it helped too.

Leaning her head back she had barely started to relax when there was a sharp knock on the door. "Kid?"

She let out a small shriek of surprise and flailed, splashing water everywhere. Wasn't it bad enough her head felt like it was about to explode? Why in gods name was the tin man making noise? "What's the matter with you?"

"I wanted to be sure you hadn't passed out and drown yourself."

She moaned pathetically. "No."

"Then clean up and get out of there. We both know you don't want me to drag you out." She sighed in response. "Five minutes and I'm coming in. Best get that tail movin'."

"Why are you being mean?"

"I'm not bein' mean. I don't want you blackin' out in the tub. You didn't sleep that long. You still have enough alcohol in your system to knock you on your ass. I don't know what your tolerance level is. You're down to four and a half minutes."

"Okay." That actually made sense. He moved off and she grabbed her shampoo. She managed to get herself clean in three minutes. Standing up she stepped onto the tile and realized she didn't have a towel out. Dripping all over the place she went to her cabinet and dug one out. Drying her hair quickly she wrapped the towel around her chest and went to the door. Thankfully, Cain was nowhere to be seen and her bedroom door was closed.

Dressing quickly she sat on the edge of her bed and started to dry her hair with her now damp towel as she folded her legs up under her. It was really easier to keep her balance with her legs crossed. For some reason it made the room less prone to spin too. Why that was the case she didn't know but she wasn't about to question it in the state she was in. The tin man knocked on the door a minute or two later before walking in. When he saw her sitting rather listlessly on her rumpled blankets his eyes softened a bit. Moving to her she saw he had a mug in his hand and she dropped the towel next to her so she could take it. "Thanks, Cain."

"Don't worry about it, Kid." He patted her arm before retreating to a chair in the corner. Grabbing the back he picked it up and plunked it down in front of her. Sitting down he took her in critically. Used to his quiet contemplation she let him feeling both rumpled and stupid. Taking a sip of the coffee she let the heat seep into her before resting the mug on her knee with one hand and pressing the heel of her other hand over her forehead. "You alright?"

"Other than the hangover?"

He chuckled. "Other than that."

"I don't know." She sighed as pieces of the last day or so came back to her. "Did I kill a bunch of people yesterday?"

His humor faded away. "You did."

"Then I'm thinking I'm probably not okay." She took another drink and decided the tin man really needed to cut down on the caffeine. If this coffee were any stronger it would probably knock her off her feet. This thought led to another. That being why he was here making coffee for her when he was supposed to be doing manly fathering things out in the woods. He wasn't supposed to be here. "Why are you here?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Messenger came and got me."

"Oh." She looked down at the dark liquid. "Did you just get back?"

"No. Been here since last night."

"Last night?"

He studied her briefly and she saw something pass over his face before he went impassive again. "You'd already had a few by the time I got here."

"Christ." She rubbed her temples. That meant she was drunk in front of him. He hadn't just walked in on her passed out which was bad enough. Super. Spectacular. She was sure that went over real well. "I'm really sorry. Whatever I did or said. Or didn't do or say. My fault. I didn't mean it. Whatever it was. Or might have been or… whatever."

"Relax, Kid. You're allowed to have a bad day." She nodded and tried to force more coffee down. "I do have a question though." She looked at him apprehensively. "Who's Ken?"

Her eyebrows drew together. "Ken? Ken who? I'm not sure I know anyone named Ken."

"You said someone named Barbie didn't deserve him."

She blinked at him in utter bafflement. "Barbie? As in the doll?"

He was now as confused as she was. "Doll?"

"Yeah." She drank some more. "It's a toy on the Otherside. I don't think I want to know how that came up."

He was quiet for a second. "The conversation had some strange jumps."

"I'm sure." She didn't even want to know. She didn't want to think about what may or may not have come up or where the leaps in their talk had taken them. If he didn't say anything she wasn't going to ask. She knew better than to dive headfirst into a conversation she couldn't remember having. With her luck she would end up telling him something embarrassing that he didn't know and somehow managed to avoid in her drunken state. She was going to go with ignorance was bliss and hope for the best. "Are you sure I don't have anything to apologize for?"

"I'm sure."

She believed him. Cain had never lied to her even on the occasions she rather wished he had. "Okay, is there anything else I need to do?"

"No. You're on vacation if I do recall."

"So are you. And yet here you are, back in the palace watching me, which isn't even your job by the way. You're supposed to be leading the army not dealing with me." She felt horribly guilty. "You should have stayed out with Jeb."

"That wouldn't have been safe for anyone. I have a pretty strong hunch those men that attacked you were waitin' for us to leave."

"What?"

"I'm with you most of the time. Whole kingdom knows that. Whole kingdom knows Jeb's about as hard to get past as me. Tryin' to get past two generals is damn close to impossible. My bet is those men were goin' to come here and kill you then come after us while we were separated and relaxed. Smart actually. They just weren't bettin' on you showin' those claws of yours. You keep 'em retracted most of the time. Lulls people into a false sense of security. Saved your life and your sisters."

She didn't argue the point. She didn't want to talk about this. She wanted to forget about the whole thing. She latched onto something else. "No one tried to kill you did they?"

"No."

"That's good."

He watched her while she finished the coffee then stood up and took the empty mug from her. "Did that help?"

"A little." And by a little, she really meant not at all. But it had been thoughtful of him anyway.

"If you're up to it I need to ask you a few questions."

"What?"

She could tell the tin man didn't really want to say anything but he did anyway. "I need to know everything you can tell me about what happened yesterday."

"Why?"

Cain's eyes closed off and she wasn't sure what he was feeling as he answered her question. "There wasn't much left for me to look at for clues. You vaporized or mangled everything that was on them. Couldn't even tell there had been six. Only reason I knew that was because you told me."

She was going to be sick again for sure. Maybe she should go ahead and throw up now to save time. Then they could get all the way through this. "Oh."

"I'm sorry, Kiddo. I need to know."

"No, I understand." She looked down at her coffee so she wouldn't have to see his face while she told him. "Az and I were in the lower kitchen. She wanted to learn to make cupcakes so I told her I'd show her." She was never going to be able to make them again now. "I think we were there for about twenty minutes. Maybe a little less than that. I was looking for vanilla in the cupboards and she was mixing in the eggs when four men came in through the door and two more came at us from the other direction."

"Where'd they come from?"

"I don't know. I didn't see. They could have been waiting in the pantry I guess. I never went in there to get anything and there's plenty of room." He made a prompting noise to get her back on track and she kept going. "They had guns. One had a long knife." She held her hands apart to show him.

"A dirk."

"Maybe? I don't know. I remember it had a funny looking handle."

"Funny how?"

She fought for the details. Everything had happened so fast. She doubted she looked at it for more than a millisecond. "It was metal but it had some sort of engraving in it." She changed her mind as soon as the words left her mouth. "Not an engraving… more like a… like more metal was inlaid in it. I only saw part of it though. His hand covered the rest."

"They ran at you?" She nodded. "They were going to kill you?" She nodded again. "What happened next?"

"Az screamed and threw the bowl at one of them. I knew that wasn't going to help." Her fingers were gripping the mug hard. "Everything happened really fast."

"But you were faster." That wasn't a question. "What did you do?"

"I don't know."

"I'm not judgin' you, Deeg. I need to know."

"I mean I don't know." Her voice cracked. "I'm sorry. I'd tell you if I knew. I don't know what happened. I saw them coming at us and I snapped. I have no idea what happened. My magic just… It just exploded out of me. The same way it did when we were in the Papay Fields before I could use my magic. I didn't know I could do that. It just happened."

"Okay." He stood up and took the mug from her and set it on the ground. He crouched down and held her shoulder in one hand and cupped her cheek with the other. She couldn't make herself look at him. "It's okay."

Not really. She kept talking. "That was all. They were all dead and I grabbed Az and pulled her out while I yelled for the guards. I made sure Az was in her room and then Glitch showed up. I figured she was fine and left. I was covered in blood." She rubbed her forehead again. "I took a shower then stole your whiskey. Sorry about that. I knew where it was and really needed to stop thinking."

"I know you did." His thumb ran over her cheek. "That's hard for you to do on a good day." His hand left her face and he squeezed her arms.

She nodded. "Is that all? I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"That's all for now. Once you perk up a bit you need to go see your sister. She's been worrying about you. Told her you were sleepin' and she didn't want to wake you up."

She wasn't sure she was ready to deal with Az. She loved her sister but she had a hunch there would be some sort of high pitched noise erupting out of her when she showed up. Her head protested at the thought of such a thing. "I'm going to need a few more minutes."

"I know. You don't need to hurry. Glitch and Jeb have her more than occupied. Might be a good idea for you to try to get somethin' in your stomach before you do anything else."

She sighed. She'd really rather go back to sleep but she didn't need Az blowing down the door to make sure she was still alive. Unfolding her legs had the tin man standing so she had room to get up. When they got into her main room she saw he already brought food up to her. This man was ridiculous. Only Cain would bring her breakfast after she passed out drunk in front of him the night before. Sitting down at the table in the corner she sighed before picking up a piece of toast. She didn't think she could handle putting anything on it and took a small bite as Cain settled across from her.

After she managed to choke down a few bites she looked at him. "We can't stay here can we?"

"No."

She figured as much. That was a bummer. She hadn't even gotten to go swimming yet. "When are we leaving?"

"First thing tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Sorry, Kid. I know you needed a break."

"We all needed a break. Including you."

"Maybe. We'll be safer in the city though. I don't know how they got through the maze. That's botherin' me something awful. They shouldn't have been able to do that. Azkadilla can't work it out either. Your mother or Tutor might know but they're in the city."

She nodded in understanding. She didn't know enough about magic to help but she thought Az should. She knew why Cain was nervous about staying here. If they were attacked again there was no guarantee she could stop them considering she had no idea what she did in the first place. There weren't that many guards with them either. Jeb, Cain, and Glitch were the only ones that came with them. They all piled into a truck and took off before anyone but her parents knew they were gone. The soldiers that were here were permanently assigned.

The soldiers hadn't known they were about to get visitors until they walked through the maze and Cain started barking orders. Poor things scattered so fast it made her head spin at the sight. She had seen Jeb's eyes glint with steely amusement as the soldiers tried to get a handle on the situation. There were only fifteen of them here, which meant it was impossible to avoid detection in the crowd. Cain and Jeb ran them ragged for the next few hours as she, Glitch, and Az retreated to find rooms.

When the Cain men turned back up the tin man was muttering under his breath as Jeb fought back laughter. When she asked what was the matter neither answered for a minute. Then Jeb gave in and told her his father threatened to reassign all of them to a less pleasant post if they didn't get their acts together. Since then the soldiers had been nothing but alert and conscientious about their surroundings. It made her even more nervous about the attack than she had been before. Someone should have noticed those men sneaking in to kill them while they baked. "Deeg?"

Her head came up and she realized she had been staring blankly at the crumbs on her plate while she held the half eaten toast in her hand. "What?"

"Where did your mind just run off to?"

"Nowhere." She finished her food as fast as possible and stood up. "Let me dry my hair and I'll go talk to Az."

He nodded and she retreated. Locking herself in her room she picked her towel back up and flopped on her bed. Rubbing her head uncaringly with the cloth she sighed into the blanket. So much for vacation. Real life had decided to smack her in the face. Not cool.

Author Note: Glad everyone liked the last chapter! I think I got more reviews in ten minutes than I did for the last half of Holed Up. Sorry it's taking me awhile to get chapters up but it's the end of the semester and things are crazy. I'll try to post again next weekend but no promises. Leave me one!