Author's Note: I dislike notes such as these but I did want to interject to let you guys know that I'll be wrapping up 'Sky Water' within a few chapters. Not all the questions, plot points, will have been entirely addressed in just this story. It was always a plan to use this story as a starting point for my own universe. I will keep writing this universe, but in different fics. 'Sky Water' itself is the groundwork for the way I see the Outer Zone after the mini-series. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for reading along. You're awesome for sticking with it, me, and the characters. - J.L.

"Where the hell have you been?!" there was an excited tweak to his tone that he couldn't cover up as he searched his son's face over the communications screen.

"Well it's not like we're technological geniuses around here." Jeb grumped back, his eyes hard to read in the low light of the barely functioning screen. "It took awhile. And then I didn't wanna leave it running all the time in case someone went messing with it."

"Good." Wyatt nodded, "Good thinking, Jeb."

The younger man's face was a passive a moment before he finally m\let half a smile lift at his lips. "It's good to see you're all right."

"You too, kid." He let his face soften. "Everything under control?"

"Well," the younger man winced as his shoulders shrugged slightly. "I've had some trouble with some of the Unwanteds coming topside and messing around. Re-instated a lotta officers to keep patrols going. There's been a few issues here and there, explosions and such. Nothing that we haven't been able to handle yet. I've instituted a curfew until I hear some solid planning from your end."

Cain nodded, "Zero hasn't tunneled in on you at all?"

"If he has, I'm not hearing a breath of it." Jeb shook his head and obviously leaned closer to the screen as Wyatt could see the dark tired weight under his eyes. "That doesn't mean he hasn't but… I'm paying off a few people to keep track of his movements."

"We got - "

"I know." Jeb interjected and rubbed his hand against his scruffy jaw, making himself look older than he was. "I heard about it around the same time you were probably limping away."

"I wasn't the one limping."

"Royals are all right?"

Wyatt cocked his head in silence, knowing that while he trusted his son… he didn't necessarily trust communications that could be tracked by anyone with a good sense of technology and a communications panel somewhere between the two of them. He let his face go passive and watched his son nod in sudden understanding.

"Send me word, then." Jeb said with a nod. "You know the way."

"I wanna speak again tomorrow, Jeb." He nodded a smile at the screen.

Jeb finally matched it in effort and width. "Will do, Captain."

"I love you, kid." He felt how odd it was on his tongue, tasted the strangeness of saying words that had come so easily to a child to a now grown man.

Jeb's eyes went slightly wider with surprise, his voice caging. "Love you too, Pops."

He turned his hand slowly, edging the razor down his jaw as smoothly as possible while he listened to her idly hum in the other room. Wyatt unwittingly smiled into the sound of it and stared at his reflection as the sound of her voice lulled quiet from outside the door. It had a pretty ring to it and even the mundane moment checkered heat over his throat as he listened to her. He looked over his face, carefully laying the razor back to his skin as he warmed to the domestic moment that would be over far too soon for his liking.

"Hey," her voice was soft as she leaned into the doorway.

"Hey." He answered just as quietly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Her fingers stretched to stroke against the horse that was still laying on the table. "Just… nervous. That stupid?"

"Your parents in combination are enough to make a Runner nervous." He winked at her and rinsed the razor, toweling it down to the table before lifting to wipe against his jaw.

DG moved into the bathroom, laying her cheek warm and heavy against his upper arm as he dried his face. One of her hands curved the bottom hem of the vest he was wearing before tripping up under it to flatten on his stomach, rubbing into the cotton of his shirt. He leaned his lips onto the top of her head as he set the towel down, his left hand turning back to stroke against her hip.

"What's wrong, DG?" His hips drove into hers, backing her up against the table so that she had to press into the front of his chest to keep balanced upward.

Her slim shoulders shrugged. "I'm getting there, Wyatt. It's a lot to wrap my head around."

He nodded and stroked his hands onto her sides, amusement lighting his face as he looked over her. With sure palms against her waist he lifted her suddenly against the edge of the table, forcing both her hands to grip against his chest as he stepped in between her legs. Once of his palms drove behind her quickly to push the trinkets she was keeping away from her as he laid a kiss against her throat.

"You can't just keep doing that to divert my attention." She sighed the words out quietly, one of her hands rubbing at his freshly shaved jaw.

"You're going to go in there, say exactly what you think, what you feel, and what you want." His head lifted as he spoke, eyes bright points of immaculate blue. "Exactly as Queen would."

"And then?" she laughed up a disbelieving response.

"Then I'm going to tell your mother that I'm marrying you whether she likes it or not."

She snorted a laugh and settled her palms on his forearms as he rubbed her thighs in a soothing motion. Wyatt smirked and leaned in to kiss her lightly, his face far brighter than it had been even just a full day before. She accepted the kiss warmly, smiling into it as his hands curled her thighs, one of them rubbing up into the heat of her through her pants.

She broke the kiss and nudged her forehead into his, "Don't you dare."

He just grinned wickedly, "Don't what?"

DG gripped his wrist still as he rubbed hard against the fabric of her pants, teasing against her while he smiled. She shook her head and pulled up at his hand, lifting his easily moved palm up so that she could look over the mark that had almost entirely faded from view. Her lips pressed into the center of the circle and she felt the heat of it momentarily flaring bright before lulling again. His other hand stroked against her cheek before he leaned in and caught her mouth again. Wyatt kissed her slowly and gently, letting her control the slide of their tongues together before pulling back and looking over her face.

"I need you to know something." He broached quietly. "Before we say anything."

Sudden worry darkened her eyes but he kept running his fingertips at her jaw line to settled the agitation. "I'm not just replacing her with you, okay?"

"I didn't say that you are." She shook her eyes down and he let her jaw drop.

"You're too smart not to have considered it." He admitted. "You didn't trap me into this DG, and I'm sorry if you feel like I'm trapping you."

"You're not, Tin Man." She tried to lighten the weight of his words with soft tone and a smile. "We trapped each other."

"It wouldn't have worked if it wasn't a natural truth." His palm lifted spread open between them. "This? This connection? It wouldn't have happened."

"The emerald?" she angled her head up at him.

"The emerald wouldn't support a potential liability in its own Queen unless the benefits outweighed the possible negatives." He said gently. "Your mother knows that. She knows your father is a good man. That he's loyal to her and he loves her."

"Because of the emerald?"

He just smiled, "The emerald knows because she knows it. And she knows it because the emerald knows it."

"You're saying that I couldn't have made you Consort if a part of me hadn't wanted to do it?" She blinked at him. "Or if a part of you hadn't had wanted to - "

"Exactly." He nodded. "Natural truth. It wouldn't have worked."

She studied his face for a moment and his chest loosened into a flood of warmth when a smile passed wide over her lips. "We're in this, cowboy."

He nodded with a laugh, "Pretty deep."

She didn't eat much while she listened to them strategize once again, feeling as though they had been in this moment over and over again before. Only this time… this time Azkadellia was to one side of her while he was relaxed warmly in the chair to her right. His body was slacked slightly into the wood but his hand was alert to his thigh, inched near his weapon while the other reached for his water glass. He sipped at it while her mother was speaking and gave her a subtle wink before setting it back down.

"I need to say something." It wasn't the first time she'd interrupted the conversation and, as it had every time, his hand soothed to lay against her leg gently under the table. "I'm sorry."

Lavender considered her quietly and opened a hand, "Go ahead."

"I don't have a problem with the timetable." DG allowed, "I'm not arguing that you need to publicly name me heir. I'm not fighting you on, well, any of it."

Her mother's eyes narrowed in worried suspicion. "But?"

"But.." DG leaned forward. "I need time to learn everything. I'll need advisors and time with Tutor."

"I agree." Ahamo inserted quietly while he set his fork to his plate. "No one is arguing that, dear."

DG nodded and lifted a hand so that she could continue. "I will do this because it's what needs to happen. I'll do it because…"

"DG." His voice was soft to her right.

"Because this is where I want to be." Her voice still thready but gaining strength as she leaned forward, her hand spreading against the table. "But I will do this the way I want to do it."

Her eyes lifted to her mother's and they watched each other for a moment. She caught the questioning on the older woman's face but didn't swallow the words that she'd let out. His hand squeezed warmly against her leg and rubbed against it slowly, staying connected as she held her mother's fairer eyes.

"I understand." Lavender nodded. "I'm not going to fight with you, Dorothy. I want this to be easy. It won't be, but I want - "

"I'm getting married."

He abruptly coughed on his own tightened breathing, hand clenching against her thigh as her shoulders straightened higher, her eyes focused tightly on her mother's. Wyatt winced his eyes shut a moment and let the other hand to pinch against the bridge of his nose. He heard Glitch's nervous chuckle of laughter from across the table and he opened bright eyes to glare the other man down. There was still a glint of amusement in his eyes and Wyatt rolled a look back to the woman beside him.

"So much for our deal." He murmured.

DG shrugged and banked a broad glance at him, voice clear and confident. "You told me to say what I want to say."

"We'll discuss this later." Lavender soothed out gently, her face a gray mirror of frustration.

"It's only family here." Azkadellia's voice was a sturdy stanchion of support from beside them as she leaned in and lifted her own drink. "I don't see why we can't discuss it now."

"I agree." DG rolled on, "What exactly did you want to discuss? Wedding dresses? Matching shoes?"

"Dorothy." Lavender's eyes went a tweak of gray that she didn't remember seeing often before. "I have plenty of concerns that I would like to address but I would prefer to do so privately."

"DG." He warned against her quietly. "Let it go, sweetheart."

"I will not." Her face, as she turned to him, was an un-aged photograph of her mother's.

They sat three seats away from each other but they were the mimicry of each other, separated only by annuals. The lift of each jaw and the fervor in each pair of eyes. He noted that Azkadellia was the calm and repose between the two of them, sipping quietly on water while she cocked her head to an angle before setting the glass down. She thoughtfully gauged the words on her tongue before letting them out.

"You cannot expect her to become the crown if you don't trust her judgment." Az said gently between them. "You cannot ask her to grow up and deny her any of the pleasures received in becoming an adult."

"Azkadellia." Lavender's voice warned sternly.

She glared pointedly at her mother, "You want her to become you. She will never be you."

"I can do this, Az." DG whispered.

"You shouldn't have to." Azkadellia responded sharply and turned back to her mother. "She chose him. The emerald obviously supported that choice. You may have your private concerns. You may also keep them to yourself."

Ahamo's palm slammed hard against the table in an eerie reflection of days before that even Cain noted, "Girls. That's enough."

Wyatt stared quietly at the obviously tiring face of the other man that sat across from him. Ahamo looked blankly to him a moment before shaking his head so that he was staring down at his hand. He turned the back of his hand against the top of the table, palm lifted up while he stared at it quietly.

"Captain," he breathed out in swallowed emotion, "Show me your hand."

Wyatt made the same movement and laid his hand to the table, the mark flashing up from the table top as he stared at the man who's voice had been quiet but forceful. Ahamo nodded and leaned his head to the side before he looked to his younger daughter. DG lifted her hand slowly and laid it beside Cain's, watching the light in their hands brighten before dimming to a barely there whisper of color.

The older man's head turned to his wife, "I wasn't noble when you marked me."

Lavender's face was still unreadable.

"I was a slipper. I had nothing." He continued tiredly. "I couldn't protect you then the way that he guards her. I had no knowledge of the Zone."

"Ahamo." Lavender's voice betrayed sadness even as her face stayed clear.

"He knows this place and he knows her." The older Consort closed his hand against the surface of the table, pushing his plate away with the other. "We have nothing to say, Lavender."

The Queen turned her head slowly, her face softening as she looked over her youngest daughter's face. She breathed in slowly and shook her head, eyes drifting away from all of them while she lifted a thin hand to rub against her lips thoughtfully. Wyatt stiffened slightly when she pointedly glanced back at him, eyes raking over his face before she took another breath, lips parted minutely.

"Dorothy…" she shook her head.

"I'm not… it's not to hurt you." DG spoke uncomfortably.

"I know." Lavender whispered and slowly smiled at her daughter, the movement seeming odd an awkward to all of them.

It seemed even stranger when she let out a stagnant laugh of surprised hysteria.

"You say that she won't be me?" she cocked a glance at the still furious way Azkadellia was looking at her. "My angels, the both of you already are."

Ahamo chuckled as he pressed his knuckles against his bottom lip. "Stubborn, ferocious, and beautiful."

"I don't understand what's so funny." DG looked between the two of them. "I don't - "

"Children are funny things." Lavender whispered as her laughter quieted, her eyes softening on her daughter. "Especially when they grow up."

He knew that the other man requesting assistance in leaving the dinner table was just a ruse to leave the three women on their own. He'd been cautious of responding until DG had stroked her hand against his hip, nudging gently. Her eyes had been gentle as she'd nodded and smiled quietly at him. His mouth brushed her temple as she left the table and he deliberately caught her mother's glance before moving around the opposite end of the table to offer an arm to Ahamo. They made slow but rhythmic steps into the hall and toward the stairs.

"Don't be offended." Ahamo said in a low but clear tone.

"No." Wyatt shook his head in frustration. "Not at all."

"You understand her reasoning?" the older of the two was making good time up the steps for still being in a significant amount of pain.

Wyatt refused to look at the other man. "Not entirely."

"DG may trust you infinitely, Captain, but it's a mother's job to distrust. She guards Dorothy in her way. You in yours."

Wyatt tipped a sideways glance, "I'm not leaving her."

"Lavender trusts the words of only one man." The older of the two breathed out raggedly, forcing Cain to stop halfway up the steps. "Much as I would assume her daughter does."

She listened quietly to the way her mother spoke, her voice far more relaxed and casual than it was when other people were around. She was softly telling them a long ago Two Princesses story that had DG grinning into her coffee cup as her hands warmed against it. Azkadellia was leaned back in her own chair watching their mother laugh into words that she didn't recall.

"Tutor never again asked either of you to feed the horses." She shook her head quietly, eyes casting sidelong. "I'm not even sure he remembers that."

"I doubt he'd forget." Az gentled as she poured another cup for herself. "He doesn't seem to forget much."

"You should ask him." Lavender murmured, sadness suddenly filling the space where reminiscent amusement had been.

DG was still smiling though, watching her mother's face gentle farther as she leaned back comfortably in her chair. She smiled into the way Lavender looked over the both of them and sighed out a heaved breath.

"Girls… I'm sorry it has to be this way." She shook her head as she stared into her cup and DG swallowed quietly. "You deserved very different lives."

"I'm happy." DG said gently, looking at her mother's paled face. "Not pleased with some aspects of the situation but… generally, I'm happy."

Lavender looked disbelieving at her youngest child, "You cannot be happy that you're being thrown into a situation beyond your control. I know you better than you think I do, DG."

She smiled broadly at the fact her mother's voice softened on the nickname. "I was thrown into a situation, literally, when I slipped through and look what I have now. No, it's not an ideal situation. But - "

"DG." Az's voice pressed from beside her. "You don't have to pretend that you're - "

"I'm not entirely pretending, Az." She set the cup down, "I have family and friends here. I have a place. I belong here…"

Lavender's face had warmed as she smiled at her daughter.

"I have someone that I know would put himself between me and death." Her eyes fixed on the empty cup. "He'll be the father of my children…"

Lavender's face slackened as she once again settled into her chair, shoulders slumping into it as she studied the mixed emotions on her child's face. "Dorothy. Look at me."

DG looked up after a moment, her eyes jangling a mix of emotions that her mother couldn't read.

"You know this?"

The youngest of the three nodded, looking down again as her sister lovingly wiped her hair back behind her ear. "I know it. "

"I have my private concerns." Their mother spoke slow and quiet as she leaned a knowing glance toward the both of them. "And I promise to keep them to myself."

DG could only laugh into the way Azkadellia snorted at the older woman's response.

He didn't realize that she was there, one of his hands lifted and holding a sheaf of papers up from the desk while he wrote quickly on another. He was so intently focused on what he was doing, the hand that was up, finally leaning against his head while he elbowed the desk that he was working at. DG studied him quietly from the doorway of the small makeshift office that he'd taken control of, her shoulder aiming against the frame of the door while she watched him hesitate in writing. After a while of her watching he looked up, moving his hand so that he could see what he had written before and her still form in the doorway caught his attention.

"How long have you been there?" Cain asked gently.

She shrugged idly, "Ten minutes. I just left Az and my mother."

"How'd it go?" he set the papers to the desk.

DG just shrugged once again, "Reports?"

"Coding a message to Jeb and copying it. I'll have three men each carry a copy." He let the nibbed pen roll off his fingers gently as he stretched back into the leather covered chair. "How'd it go?"

She lifted him a tired glance, head tipping to the side, "I'm going to take a bath. A hot one. And when I'm done…"

"Hmm?" he perked his chin up, leading her to continue.

"Could you please make sure that you're in my bed," Her eyes tipped over the spread of his shoulders as a smile tweaked her lips. "Consort?"

He smiled warmly at her and nodded, once again lifting the pen to finish, "Yes, Princess."