Disclaimer: I own absolutely positively nothing.
They didn't end up leaving till almost noon because one of the turbines decided to blow up. Even she couldn't fix it without some new parts so the trip to town would be twofold. After she washed her grease covered hands she headed to her room on a mission.
She had to dig through her closet to find a purse big enough to fit the compass in. She was literally throwing things left and right as she went down on her stomach burrowing deeper in the bottomless pit. This was crazy. She knew she had one in here somewhere; Momster had gotten it for her as a birthday present last year. She grumbled, her legs pushing her deeper into the closet as she searched.
After what felt like a lifetime her fingers brushed against soft leather. "Ha! Gotcha!" She wrapped her fingers around the bag and started to shimmy backward with it. It was stuck under something. "Seriously? Get out of the there!" Her entire torso was still in the closet. She levered herself up with her free arm and braced her foot on the doorframe. Getting a firm grip on the bag with both hands she yanked on it with her arms as she pushed on the frame with her legs.
The bag came free but an avalanche of cloths, books, board games, and shoes suddenly attacked her. She covered her head with her arms curling into a defensive position as she was pelted. She felt one of the games hit her head and explode outward showering monopoly pieces in every direction. She sat still clutching the purse to her chest for a moment and cracked open an eye.
Popsicle and Cain were standing at the top of her stairs watching her. A contented smile played on her foster fathers face and Cain was looking at her as if she were some kind of natural disaster.
Popsicle hummed happily. "Good your ready then. Your mom's staying here so we can all fit in the pickup."
Cain gave him a double take. "This happens often?"
"What this? You should have seen her when she was trying to get ready for school."
"Do we need to share that Popsic-" She got to her feet then tripped over a shoe and fell back to the ground with a shout. She blinked up at her ceiling not sure how she ended up back on the ground. She came to the conclusion that she was gravity challenged. Then Cain was over her and grabbing her arms. He helped her to her feet and didn't let her go until they were out of the pile of dangerously tripping objects.
"Explain to me how you managed to live this long DG." Cain sounded partly amused and partly weary.
"I have a hard head."
He grunted and they went downstairs and out the door grabbing jackets as they went to her Roboparent's old red pickup truck. She opened the door and scooted to the middle seat belting in and clutching the compass in her lap so no one outside the truck would be able to see it. Popsicle spun the key ring around his finger as he got into the drivers seat and Cain sat next to her. He seemed less nervous about the truck than he had about the air mattress. She figured it was because it resembled DeMilo's wagon so much, minus the gaudy paint and freaky twins.
Starting the ignition the truck sprang to life and they bumped down the dusty roadway. She glanced out the window wishing she still had her motorcycle; the weather was perfect for it right now. Cool and crisp. She figured Cain would have liked to go for a ride. She turned her attention back to the compass and let her magic flow into it.
Once again it spun haltingly. It paused twice more before pointing straight down the road to town. She decided to let the spell go until they reached the city limits. "So where did you tell people I was? Because no one would believe I got tossed into a parallel world and I'm a princess."
He chortled his eyes crinkling at his foster daughter. "Since you'd been planning on running off to Australia we figured we'd stick with that story."
"You were going to run off?" Cain sounded alarmed at this.
She rolled her eyes. "Calm down Cain. I'd been saving up my work money for a year so I could travel. I wasn't exactly content here."
"And what? You were going to go alone?" His voice had hardened.
She glanced up out the window annoyed. She didn't feel a great deal of motivation to share her reasoning for a lone trip with that attitude or with Popsicle in the truck with them. "That was the general idea. The whole stopping the evil witch thing kinda nixed that plan."
He shot her a look that clearly conveyed his feelings on that subject. He was not pleased that she would think to do something so reckless. "Stop glaring at me! Nobody is out to hold me for ransom here. I didn't even know who I was when I booked my flight."
He sighed eyes flicking out the passenger side window. She opened her mouth to continue when she spotted his gun. "Cain! You can't have that here!" She pointed at his six-shooter.
His hand rested on the weapon. "I'm not going to walk around a strange place without my gun. What if someone attacks you?"
Popsicle glanced over at him. "She's right Mister Cain. You don't have a permit for that, you could get arrested if anyone sees you with it."
Cain's jaw clenched. Then his blue eyes landed on her his body relaxing. "Can you hide it with your magic?"
She tilted her head and slowly reached both her hands toward him. She placed one hand on the gun and the other on his cheek. "I'll try to make the illusion so only you and I can see the gun." She felt her forehead crinkle as she wove the spell around the gun making sure Cain's sight was unaffected by the glamour. It was tricky business and she wasn't sure it worked as she pulled her hands away letting the one on his face caress him subtly.
His eyes darkened for a moment at her touch. She grinned and noticed she could still see his firearm. "Can you still see it?"
He tore his eyes from her and grunted an affirmative. "Can you Popsicle?"
"Sure can't Peanut. You've been learnin." He said it in a proud way and she smiled. They drove into town shortly after and she let the compass do its thing. It finally settled as they turned a corner.
"Hilltop? Aww man." What part of her soul thought that Hilltop Café was home? That was so not cool.
"Should I ask?" Cain said dryly.
"I used to work here." He raised an eyebrow at her while Popsicle parked the car in the lot. She stuffed the compass in the purse to hide it.
He got out of the car helping her down and running his hand down her back as he shut the door. She bumped her hip against him gently before she headed toward the faded blue doors. The two men were close behind her and Cain held the door open for her as she walked in. She smiled at him amused with his manners.
It must be a weekday because the diner wasn't crowded. Only three tables had people at them and the two waitresses on shift were leaning against the bar chatting as their customers ate.
One of the waitresses, a young woman with strawberry blond hair turned when she heard the small bell over the door ring. Her face lit up when she recognized her friend. "DG!"
She flew out from behind the counter and wrapped her arms around her laughing happily. She smiled staggering backward. "Hey Shellie. How are you?"
Shellie jumped back with a huge grin on her face. "I'm fine." She started to tug her toward one of the tables. "You have to tell me all about your trip! I have been on pins and needles waiting to hear a classic DG story."
She laughed at her friend and motioned for Cain to follow them. Her mind had kicked into overdrive as she tried to come up with a sufficient lie to tell her former co-worker. Popsicle had gone to the counter when Carter's head shot out to see what all the yelling was about. She settled down at one of the old booths as Cain sat across from her his eyes sweeping the room. He had found every exit and sized up every person in the room by the time Shellie noticed he was there.
She grinned at him. "Hello! Are you a friend of DG's?"
He nodded. She cut in before he could say anything thinking that this lie would be better if she started it off. "This is Wyatt. We met on the plane going to Australia and traveled around together."
"How neat! What was your favorite part?"
She opened her mouth figuring she'd focus on Sydney, seeing as she'd at least read about the place, when Carter started barking at the poor girl. Shellie rolled her eyes and with a promise to return trotted off. Popsicle came over and sat down next to her with a wink. "I figured you might need some quiet to find it Peanut. You'd best hurry while she gets us some drinks."
She reached over to her purse but paused hand over the bag. As soon as she had focused on her magic she had felt something. Her head came up searching for the source. She felt it somewhere in the back of the kitchen.
She sat forward hissing at them. "It's in the back."
She shoved Popsicle out of the booth so she could stand up. "I'll be right back." She saw Cain start to move. "You stay here. I can get back there and no one's going to care. I promise not get killed in the next ten minutes alright?"
He was ready to argue but her Roborent gave an imperceptible nod of his head. Cain sighed unhappily but sat back. She headed over to Carter's window of doom for a chat. It took her five minutes to convince him that she could serve both herself and her table before he let her in the back. He told her to stay out of the way if she was going to socialize and she smiled sweetly at him as if making trouble was the very last thing on her mind.
Walking into the kitchen she sat at an old stool and listened with her magic. She felt a trace of apprehension floating back by the cooler. She shot a glance at Carter to make sure he was focused on the grill before she crept toward the large industrial freezer. Her magic leapt to her hand as she reached for the handle and she had to whip the door open and fly inside before anyone could ask why she was radioactive.
She flicked the light switch up so could see the small cold room more clearly. It was full of boxes and cans containing food products of all kinds. She felt a small amount of magic hiding in the far corner behind a box of tomatoes. She walked over to it and pushed the cardboard container aside. Coiled up in the corner of the freezer a small silver ball of light bounced up and down in agitation.
She could sympathize. She'd never felt very relaxed here either. She bent down so she could get a better look at it. It extended upward then folded in on itself its light pulsing. She held her hand out to it and it recoiled as if it were frightened. The weird thing was she knew it was. She rested her hand palm up on the shelf before it.
"Hey there. You don't need to worry. Please come to me it'll make us both feel better."
The little ball of light rolled around for a moment before popping up and landing on her hand. As soon as it touched her skin she felt a strange sensation shoot up her arm. The light absorbed into her skin and she gripped the shelf as her knees hit the cold floor. She felt dizzy as a dozen or more memories slammed through her accompanied by every emotion she'd felt when she'd made them.
Unsure how long she had been on her knees she rose up shakily and crept out of the cooler. No one saw her and she managed to make it back to the stool without collapsing. Two minutes later Carter told her she could take her food and get out of his kitchen. She grabbed a tray placing the plates on it and pushed out the kitchen door to the diner. She set the food down in front of Cain and Popsicle quickly and placed the tray on a nearby table.
She sank down beside Cain and he moved over enough to let her sit. As soon as he felt her shaking his arm wrapped around her pulling her to him. She let herself lean into him not caring what anyone thought about their closeness. "What happened Princess?"
"I caught it but it felt funny. And it was so nervous I thought it was going to run off."
Cain ran his hand up her side as she got herself under control. Popsicle was obviously worried but made no comment about her proximity to Cain. In fact he seemed to relax when he met the Tin Man's eyes. "See if eating helps Peanut."
She reached out grabbing a fry. She chewed it slowly and found that it did help. She concentrated on the taste in her mouth instead of the memories that were vying for dominance in her mind. Once her body stopped acting like a maraca Cain let her go so he could eat as well. Popsicle finished first and telling them he was going to get turbine parts took the check and left as they finished.
"I hope that doesn't happen every time. I feel like I got run over. But I got the first piece!" She figured that was worth something.
Cain was drinking his water and placed his arm over her shoulder as she finished chewing. His eyes were darting around the slowly filling diner anxiously. If she hadn't lived in the O.Z. for the last few months she would have found this funny, as it was she wanted to get them out before he had a heart attack.
"Ready to go Cain?" He let out a thankful breath and she stood up moving to the door. As he opened the door for her she grasped his hand meeting his eyes. He flashed her one of those rare smiles he saved just for her and she laughed walking out backward so she could stick her tongue out at him in good fun.
Laughter shone in his eyes at her antics and for once neither of them were paying attention to their surroundings. She crashed into someone and Cain yanked her back to him so she wouldn't fall over on top of her latest victim. She heard a man grunt and stumble behind her as she spun around with Cain's arm wrapping around her.
"Sorry! I wasn't watching..."
Elmer Gulch was straightening his uniform and watching her in a way that made her entirely uncomfortable. She stiffened pressing back into Cain in her surprise. She figured she could have handled this better if she hadn't just had a weeks worth of emotions thrust into her.
"What a surprise DG. Your back in town for ten minutes and already getting on my nerves." His voice was clipped although his eyes were sliding over her body as if he owned it. Cain stiffened behind her pulling her to his side possessively.
Gulch snapped his eyes from her body and up to Cain's face. Her Tin Man's eyes had turned to blue ice. He recognized the man from the photograph she had tossed into the fire and had come to the conclusion that he did not like him. Gulch glared back at him not backing down.
His eyes flicked to her and her heart sank at the nasty shine in them. "New boyfriend DG?" He looked back up at Cain. "Have fun with her while you can. She'll loose interest in you soon enough."
He gave her a cruel smile and walked past them into the diner. She stood staring at where he'd been standing stunned by the encounter. She felt like all the excitement of finding the first piece of her soul had been sucked away. "DG, what was that?" Cain's voice was cold as his eyes followed the cop's path into the diner.
"Nothing." She said it emotionlessly. "Come on we need to meet Popsicle."
Cain growled low in his throat when he saw Gulch watching them out the window. "He's watching you."
Great. That was not a good sign. She doubted they would be able to get out of Kansas without another Gulch encounter. She tugged on Cain's arm and started walking toward the hardware store. "Ignore him. It'll only be worse if he knows he's gotten under your skin."
Cain followed her but she could feel how stiff his body was. He recognized a threat when he saw one. "Who is he?" He had gone into Tin Man mode and wanted information.
"He's the local sheriff. The Otherside's version of a Tin Man." He heard the tension in her voice.
"I take it something happened between you two?" She flinched at Cain's blunt statement and the memories it produced.
"You could say that. And if you could not mention that in front of Popsicle that would be great." He looked over at her but she was staring straight ahead. Good thing her Robodad walked out of the store before he could ask her any more questions.
Author Note: Ok I know you were all eager for gulch so here he is. Don't worry he'll be back. Leave me a review or I'll let him give you a ticket.