Disclaimer: Don't own Tin Man only Eli! And he likes me most so back off ladies!
When her eyes opened she was confused. Everything was flat and green. This couldn't be right. They were definitely in the North Country and the world wasn't two dimensional by nature. She was pretty positive. Almost for sure. Maybe she should check to be certain. She blinked her eyes rapidly and sat up. Or she tried to. She was almost straight when her side twinged and she flopped back down onto the bedroll she'd been laid on. "Ouch!"
Oh, well, the green was the tent. That was logical. Her arm went around her side and she carefully pulled up an old shirt that she'd been dressed in up to the bottom of her rib cage. As the fabric bunched up she smelled Cain coming off of it and felt better. Where was he anyway? Where was anybody for that matter? She propped herself up on her elbow and craned her neck so she could see her side. She had a really gnarly new scar. That was so not pretty. It was red and shiny and kinda puffy. She tilted her hip to the side and twisted her neck further. Great… her scar had a twin on her back. A matching set, she didn't think they needed to be like shoes. She pursed her lips together and shoved the shirt back down.
She tossed a blanket off her legs and with a determined huff she managed to get to her knees. From her new and terribly impressive height she surveyed her new territory in order to locate a pair of pants. She frowned when she didn't see any and lifted up the blanket thinking they might be hiding. She wouldn't put it past pants in the Outer Zone to hide form their owners. No luck. If she hadn't thought she'd freeze to death if she left the tent she would probably venture outside even with all the soldiers she was sure were milling about. Surely the Tin Man's shirt came to at least mid thigh.
Her contemplation about its length came to an abrupt end when the tent flap was opened and Cain ducked in pulling it closed tightly behind him before any cold air could get in. He froze as he turned bent almost double when he spotted her sitting up on her knees with the blanket stretched out between her hands. He raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for my pants." She bent her head over the other side of the blanket still convinced they might be there if she looked hard enough.
He snorted and crossed the small space between them so he could sit next to her. She dropped the blanket and looked over at him before she threw her arms around his neck figuring she could find her pants later. His arm wound around her back and hugged her closer. As soon as she was close enough to him she swung her leg around so it was hooked around his middle, her other leg following closely behind. He sighed softly into the top of her head as his other arm came up to tangle in her hair as she buried her face in his neck.
"I nearly lost you, Sweetheart." His voice was gruff and muffled by her hair. Her arms tightened around him as she attempted to get closer to him. "He could have killed you. The same man and I almost didn't make it in time." His voice hitched as his fingers twitched over her skin.
She leaned back and grabbed his head so they were facing at one another. His eyes had that haunted look in them again. "Wyatt, I'm right here." Her fingers traced his cheekbones. "You saved me. You always do." She could see him fighting some kind of battle within himself and pressed on knowing the best way to make him feel better was assuring him that she was safe.
"You let me do what I had to. I mean sure, I got shot and it hurt like a mother. But I'm all better-" He looked at her skeptically and poked her side gently. "Oww!" She smacked his hand. "Fine! I'm almost all better." He looked toward the top of the tent shaking his head. She tugged on his hair to get his attention back.
"But bonus! I made a shiny new friend and bunches of Longcoats are dead and the rest are walking straight into my super smart trap. And you killed your arch nemeses and saved the damsel in distress." She pointed to her own chest. "That's me by the way." His jaw twitched but she saw the smile he quickly repressed so she kept up her awesome rant. "Oh! I also got to become a kleptomaniac and steal a bunch of stuff from the evil soldiers, you know the one walking toward my super smart trap?" He opened his mouth to inject something but she cut him off by placing her hand quickly over his mouth. His eyelid twitched "Yup, those ones. I sent the supplies to Jeb. See? So over all, other than the whole I got shot thing, pretty good day right?"
He took hold of her wrist so he could remove her hand from his mouth. "I see how you do it now."
She looked at him skeptically. "Do what?"
"Stop me from getting angry."
She put on her innocent eyes. "I don't have to do anything, Cowboy. I'm too cute to be angry at."
"No, that's not it." He said this firmly and she huffed at him. "You just keep talkin till your crazy nonsense actually starts to make sense. Or I forget why was angry to begin with."
She grinned at him and thrust her hips against him. "That and I'm not wearing pants."
He muttered something unintelligible under his breath taking hold of her hips. "We can't do this now." He sounded so sad. She pouted at him and began to nibble up his neck.
"So let me get this straight. You left me in what I'm assuming is your tent." She arched up so she could lick the shell of his ear. "Without pants." He groaned. "After heroically saving my life and your not going to do anything about it?"
He held her firmly away from him although she refused to unhook her legs completely. "Not right now." His voice was strangled as she ran her fingers around the collar of his shirt. "Your not helping, DG."
"I wasn't trying to help. Well I was. Just not the way you wanted me to."
He grumbled at her then tugged her lips to his in a sweet kiss his fingertips dancing across her scalp. Warm shock waves danced down her body and she hummed moving closer to him again before he abruptly pulled away. He grinned triumphantly at her and she gapped at him. She punched his arm the way he'd taught her and he winced. "You're mean!"
Then he smiled and she got suspicious. "If your going to start insulting me then you don't get your surprise."
She perked up immediately. "A surprise? What surprise?"
He chuckled at her eagerness and his hand disappeared into his vest pocket. Then it stopped and he looked at her. Her eyes darted from his pocket to his dancing blue eyes. He was being purposefully sneaky! When he still didn't move she made a soft whining noise in the back of her throat and began to wriggle around on his lap. "What is it?"
He laughed at her. He laughed at her! "You have no patience at all do you?"
"Not when your taunting me with surprises! Gimme!" She began to poke him in the ribs to get him to give her the goods.
"Alright! Enough with the jabbin!" He pulled his hand form his pocket and before she could see what he had he fisted the object in his hand. She poked him again. He grunted and somehow managed to get her back on the bedroll next to him. Then to her absolute and utter bewilderment he got on one knee and pulled her left hand into his. She looked up at him confused.
His eyes sparkled and she suddenly knew what he was doing and her face began to heat up. His thumb grazed her knuckles as he opened his other hand and she caught sight of a glint of silver. "Dorothy Gale, will you marry me, Sweetheart?" Her jaw worked furiously for a few seconds and then she gave up and nodded her head vigorously. He gave her his DG smile and slipped the silver band over her finger. As soon as it was secure she pounced him knocking him out of his kneeling position and onto his back. He let out a grunt even as his arms wrapped around her back.
She started making the silliest incoherent noises while she peppered his face with kisses. He laughed up at her not even attempting to return her swift fire kisses. When she finally calmed down she grinned down at him and planted one last kiss smack on his lips. "I love you!"
He propped them up using his elbow before pushing them up completely. "I'll take that as a yes. And I love you too. Are you even going to look at the ring?"
She blinked at him in shock. It actually hadn't occurred to her to do that. She'd been to excited about what the whole thing meant. He snorted at her as she processed this so she lifted her hand to eye level. It was a silver band that looked as if it had been woven out of several pieces of metal with a beautiful dark blue oval stone set in the center. She tilted her hand and the stone changed hues. She sucked in a breath and tilted her hand at a different angel. The light blue color the stone had shifted to a sky blue color. "What is it?" She breathed.
"What do you mean?" She looked up at him for a millisecond then back down at the ring turning her hand this way and that.
"How's it change color like this?" This was the most fascinating piece of jewelry ever. It wasn't just shiny. It changed color. So freaking cool.
He reached for her hands twining her fingers with his and she saw a similar matching silver band on his own finger. Her eyes found his again. "It's a water stone. They all change color like that. It's in there nature."
"It's beautiful." He smiled at her obviously proud of himself. "I wanna show Raw and Jeb! Where are my pants?" She scrambled off of him her eyes darting around the tent once more. She suddenly found herself lifted off the floor and squeaked indignantly. Cain ignored this tossing her over his legs a tugging the bedroll back revealing her skirt and socks. "You stashed them under the bed? Why?"
"So you wouldn't leave the tent if you woke up and I was gone. Don't act like I don't know how that mind of yours works. Your boots are behind my pack." She rolled her eyes at him but was too giddy to care at the moment. She bounced off him snatching up the skirt and closing her eyes so she could concentrate more fully on her magic. She was still tired and didn't want to use any more then she needed to before the Longcoats showed up at the battle site. After a few moments the skirt shook itself back into a pair of black pants.
She shimmied back into them and then struggled into her socks and boots as quickly as possible. She fell over sideways in her haste and crashed into the Tin Man's hip as she was putting on her last boot. He looked down at her trying not to laugh and hooked an arm under hers and hauled her up. "Hazard."
She smiled cheekily back. "Grump." Then she tugged on his arm heading for the tent flap. "Time to find my Viewer."
"DG, it's going to be cold. We'll head to the healers tent and find you a jacket, it's doubling as a supply closet." She turned to nod and then tilted her head at him.
"Where's your duster? Aren't you cold?"
"It's in the tent we're heading to covered in blood." Ohh yeah. She remembered that now. She could fix that when they got there. She pushed the tent open sliding her hand down Cain's arm and down to his hand. He held her hand firmly as they ducked out of the tent and into the bright afternoon sun. She shaded her eyes with her free hand trying to block some of the light that was bouncing off the snow all around them. She shivered as the cold began to affect her and Wyatt directed her to the left.
As they headed toward the biggest of the tents several of the soldiers waved to her. She grinned when she recognized them from Milltown and greeted them in return before Cain hustled her past them. She stuck her tongue out at the back of his head and they muffled their laughter when he turned and gave her an accusing look. She shrugged and pointed at the men that were laughing. He glared at her. "I know it was you. I don't know what you did. But it was you." She grinned offering nothing as he rolled his eyes and pulled the tent flap open.
Stepping in she was pleased to note the tent was even bigger than she thought it was from the outside. The top of the tent was at least seven feet high and most of the tent was dedicated to cots for the wounded. Only two were occupied. In the far corner a number of crates and barrels were neatly stacked and waiting to be used. Raw was sitting next to one of the occupied beds in a healing trance while Jeb stood by watching with his arms crossed over his chest.
She waited silently until he was done and looked up from what he was doing. He grinned at her his dark eyes welcoming as he stood up and opened his arms up. She giggled jumping across the space between them. He engulfed her in a warm fuzzy hug and gave a rumbling laugh. "DG very very happy. Feel better?"
"Yeah! Thanks for healing me!" He grinned down at her and set her on his feet. "Look what Wyatt gave me!" She flashed her hand up bouncing ecstatically and Raw had to grab her hand so he could see what she was trying to show him. Jeb was grinning behind him obviously amused by her excitement. He'd probably already seen the rings. Raw eyed the ring carefully and his eyes darted to Cain for a split second before they came back to her face and he smiled at her.
"Pretty. DG like." She smiled even wider her eyes crinkling. "Raw heal spy. Should be awake in a few minutes." She went up on her toes so she could see over his shoulder. Eli was breathing deep and even on the cot Raw had just left. His hand was starting to twitch as his body started to return back to the land of the living.
"Oh good. Thanks again, Raw." She side stepped him and trotted over to the stool plopping down. She heard Cain and Raw move behind her. She saw the Tin Man put his hand on his gun as Raw sat on the edge of the cot behind her. Jeb was standing at the end of the cot his fingers drumming on his thigh. "No worries Jeb. He's a good guy."
Jeb glanced up at her. "How can you be sure of that?"
She shrugged. "I stole a bunch of his memories right before I was going to blast him." All three men looked at her. "What? I had people questioning me! Couldn't have that while I was pretending to be the witch. Lucky he was smart enough to figure out who I was. Plus he saved my life."
"You could make a lifelong friend in a nest of vipers, Darlin."
"I do like snakes. They're all scaly and cool." A soft laugh floated up from the cot. All eyes turned back to the bed. She grinned. "Well good morning, Sunshine!"
"Christ Almighty are you always this perky? I'm pretty sure you just got shot. That or Zero hit me harder than I thought." His eyes opened then he squinted against the light.
Cain gave a long suffering sigh, "Yes, she is." She punched him in the leg. He ignored her locking his icy eyes on Whitfield's hazel ones. "Thank you for holding him up for me."
Whitfield sat up slowly shaking his head and studying the Tin Man. "Your welcome…Wait, didn't you kill him?"
"Naw, I wouldn't kill him. He's a keeper." Eli opened his mouth to ask a question but Jeb cut him off.
"You can ask the Princess about her tricky ways later." His blue amused eyes flew to her face. "I for one would love to know why I had to dodge a trail of raining supplies for twenty minutes when I was innocently trying to eat lunch." She smacked a hand on her forehead. "But that's a story for later. Right now, Eli, I need to know everything you can tell me about the Longcoat army that's heading this way. You have thirty minutes so a detailed summary would be best."
Author Note: Ok I know you all wanted to see the ring so show some appreciation! Review for me! I write so much for you! So please, I'm on my knees… Ok not really. I'm sitting in my favorite chair being serenaded by one of my friends. But still… pretty please?