Chapter Five

Over the next several days, DG found out that she didn't know very much about Wyatt Cain. Aside from the obvious traits he wore like his duster. Loyal, stubborn, brave, strong, blah, blah. And bossy. Mustn't forget bossy. Granted, she hadn't let that one get to her while they were trying to save the OZ. After all, it was her show then, and he was along for the protection detail.

But, it was the little things she didn't know about him. How he liked his coffee for instance. They hadn't had any on the road, since running for your life countered creature comforts. And she found out quickly enough. He drank it black. Which she should have realized because as the OZ's resident answer to a cowboy, of course he would drink it black. Wyatt Cain wouldn't sissy up his coffee with cream and sugar. Hell, if given the chance, she was sure he'd chew the beans and spit them out like tobacco.

And she wasn't feeling good. Which made her testy. Not that he'd done anything to really earn her testiness. She was just finding some of his habits…distracting. Like the fact that he was a complete neat-nick. She wasn't a slob or anything, but she was prone to leaving her pants where they dropped, her hairbrush on the counter in the bathroom and her art supplies kind of helter skelter.

Not Cain. Everything in its place should have been stamped across his forehead. He had a tendency to clean up after her. Which, thanks to the hormone roller coaster she was on, annoyed the living hell out of her. And his super, over attentive, what do you need attitude was grating her last nerve too. To tell the truth, this Wyatt Cain was obnoxious.

Where was the one she'd traveled with? The one that bossed her around and got so damn frustrated when she didn't listen? Where was the man that had stood next to her on that hill and lent his strength as they went into battle?

Where was the man that had kissed her like she was the most amazing thing he'd ever encountered on their wedding day?

He hadn't tried anything with her the last few days, which both relieved and aggravated her. In fact, aside from sleeping next to her every night, he pretty much gave her a wide berth. Well, not all the time. He would sometimes come up behind her and run his hand across her back. Or she could swear, that right when she was in that half dream stage between waking up and asleep, she'd feel him press a kiss into her hair. She pretty much understood that he was letting her set the pace, to let him know when she was ready for more.

But dammit! Did he have to be so gallant all the damn time? She was starting to think that some pod person had crept into the castle and taken her Tin Man away.

DG sighed and tossed away the pictured she'd been working on. There were no cameras in the OZ from what she could tell and she was trying to draw Cain the way he looked on their wedding day. She knew that there was some royal painting thing commissioned, and if they didn't want her to show, they'd best get on with the modeling.

But that seemed so cold, so…. royal.

There should be snapshots of her shoving the cake up his nose. Or of her dancing with her father and laughing when Glitch spun her around too fast. There should have even been a picture of her kissing Jeb on the cheek and him blushing ten shades of red because of it.

Seeing as how none of those things had happened, it would be hard to have pictures of them. But they should have.

She looked around the suite and couldn't help feeling like the pauper taking a holiday in the princess's castle. She didn't want all this stuff. It seemed kind of hypocritical to have it when the country was in a state of turmoil. The unwashed masses-or the washed, she didn't know-were restless. They weren't telling her anything, of course. But gossip had a way of getting around.

All you had to do was say 'Hi' to Lissy and you found out what was happening in this country as well as the five closest. And Lissy didn't care if you were a pregnant, newlywed who was supposedly too ignorant of the politics of the realm to handle it.

Even her own husband-another strike against him at this point-was treating her like a porcelain doll when it came to the unrest across the land. He was gone, right now, out talking to his son and probably her mother as they try to decide what to do. She might not have had any idea of how to fix the country, but at least she would have been informed.

"Come in!" She near screamed when the knock on her door came.

"Well, you sound happy."

"Hi Az. Coming to keep the little pregnant princess company?" Az settled on the couch next to her, the epitome of grace and decorum. DG suddenly felt like an ugly duckling next to her.

"Not if you're going to be rude." She said, her dark eyes amused.

"Sorry. That seems to be my only mood lately." The only good thing she could say about things at the moment was her urge to throw up everything seemed to have passed for the most part. Fatigue still plagued her and her boobs were awfully tender, though.

"It's understandable, I'm sure." Az crooned, patting her sister absently on the leg.

"Yeah. To what do I owe this visit?"

"I just came by to see how being married is suiting you."

"You want to know if we did it." DG said, cocking an eyebrow and trying not to laugh at the blush that stained her sisters cheeks.

"Of course I don't. I would never ask such a question." Her sister sputtered.

"Really? I would if I were you."

Az stared at DG for a full five seconds, trying to gauge if DG were teasing her. She shook her head in amused disbelief when she realized her younger sister wasn't.

"Very well. Did you?"

DG snorted and decided she loved her sister very much right then.

"No."

"You sound disappointed." It was DG's turn to blush,

"Well, no. Or, uhm, it's not that…huh. I wasn't comfortable."

"So? What's the problem then?"

"He said we would when I was ready. And it's not that I'm ready, but he's not exactly doing anything to make me ready. Wait…that doesn't sound right."

"He's being a gentleman?"

"Yes!" DG slapped her knee for emphasis.

"Most women would appreciate that." Az told her.

"I know that. And I do. But, damn. I mean, I like kissing him. The whole two times we did. And it completely rocked my socks." Az looked confused at this term, but she didn't interrupt. "But since the wedding, he's only kissed my cheek or my head when he thinks I'm asleep."

"Talk to him. It worked before didn't it? You were dead set against marrying him. You talked to him and here you are."

"Yeah. I know." DG flopped back against the couch and grabbed a pillow to pluck aimlessly at the seam. "Do you want something to eat?"

"No, I've already had lunch."

"Really? Mother and father out of their meetings?" It seemed that their parents were always in meetings these days. She looked up when it took Az a moment to answer and her radar went up when she saw the blush once more staining her sisters cheeks. "Or maybe you didn't eat with our parents."

"No. No I didn't." That was all she said, prompting DG to throw the pillow away and lean forward.

"Oh? Do tell."

Az fidgeted and glared at DG, her mouth drawing into a thin line with embarrassment. "I'll have you know, it was completely innocent."

"Well, if you have to declare it innocent, it rarely ever is. Spill."

"Fine!" Az looked extremely uncomfortable and DG might have felt sorry for her if she hadn't latched onto the idea of Az having a date and not telling her about it. Now, she had to suffer the wrath of her left out sister. "I ate lunch with Jeb Cain."

"Jeb?" This took her back a bit. "Wyatt's Jeb?"

"Yes, your stepson."

"Whoa Az, that's weird." DG said with a laugh. Az snorted in a rather un-princess way but she couldn't quite hide the hint of a smile that played on her lips.

"I suppose so."

"When did that happen? And why wasn't I told?" Now she was really annoyed. Her sister was stepping out with her stepson and she was just now finding out? How unfair.

"Nothing has happened. I just had the luck to come upon him in the palace and I asked him to join me for lunch. It's not like I get a lot of company these days." This was said with just the tiniest bit of misery. DG automatically felt guilt seize her and she reached out to clasp her sister's hand.

"I'm sorry, Az. I didn't mean to tease you." She should have been eating with her sister. Even if she'd puked for an hour afterwards, DG should have dragged her sick, pregnant ass downstairs and spent time with her sister.

"Don't, Deeg. You've had your own problems to deal with lately. Don't go taking on mine as well."

"I can't help it."

"Try." Az told her firmly, squeezing DG's hand and smiling. "I had a nice lunch with a nice man. It's a first for me. Be happy."

"Are there going to be anymore nice lunches with this nice man?" DG asked.

"I don't know. We spent a lot of time together while the wedding nonsense was going on. We got a bit friendly. Let's just keep it at that."

"All right." DG didn't want to give Az any more grief. If that's all it was, great. If there was more…well, still weird. But great too.

"Are you really upset that Wyatt isn't trying to charm his way into your bed?"

"Oh, he's in my bed. We're just not doing anything in my bed. Where I come from, married people don't normally sleep in separate bedrooms." DG told her when Az looked a bit scandalized. "And we slept practically next to each other for a week before the eclipse. I already knew he snored. Glitch does too. And Raw talks in his sleep."

"Well, I think that's more than I wanted to know about them." DG just shrugged.

"I don't know. I'd like to say it's just the pregnancy and the upheaval of the wedding and all that's got me all…blechy. But, I think I'm just bored. Nobody talks to me about anything. When I walk into dinner the talk stops. And my lessons with Tutor have been cut back so I can't even play with my magic as a distraction."

"Oh? Like hours of listening to him say 'let the light flow through you' is a lesson?" The sisters shared a snicker at that. "DG, they just don't want to worry you about things you can't change. I'm not even sure mother can change them. If a time comes when you need to know, they'll tell you."

"Do you know?"

Az huffed and rolled her eyes. "I know even less than you. And what I do know I gleaned from that fluff of a maid Lissy."

"Me too."

"If you want to know anything, just ask her. Twit."

"Az, be nice. It's not like she can help herself. At least she's not vindictive about it, like her mother."

"True. That woman is…" Az shuddered delicately, the image of the hard eyed woman that stood guard on their mother's office coming to mind.

"Yeah." They sat in silence for a few moments, content to just be together.

"Are you scared?" DG didn't need to ask what she meant.

"Terrified. I have no idea what to do with a baby." DG had always known, that somewhere in that faraway, still unseen future of hers that she would have kids. She generally liked kids, although she didn't always like their parents. But that would have been a long time off. She'd still had plans, things she wanted to do. And all that was before she found out she was a princess of a world in an alternate dimension. At least she thought they were in an alternate dimension.

Now here she was, pregnant and married to a man she liked, not loved. Granted, her libido seemed to be alive and kicking and she certainly wouldn't mind seeing her husband naked. But this whole situation was surreal at best.

Tears, that always seemed ever present these days, welled up and burned her eyes. She felt, rather than saw Az move and suddenly she was wrapped in her sister's arms. The strangeness of that didn't overwhelm the feeling of comfort and she let go. Everything that had been building up in her since that twister tore through her front yard poured out of her in a river of tears and onto Azkadelia's beautiful blouse.

Luckily, the storm of her emotions was intense, but short. When the worst was spent, she pulled away from Az and gave her a grateful smile.

"Thank you."

"For what?" Az asked, retrieving tissues and a glass of water. She had a huge wet spot on her front but she didn't seem to care.

"For that." DG pointed at the spot with a watery chuckle. Her sister barely looked down.

"Here." She handed DG the tissues and the water. "I'd give you something stronger but I don't want my brother in law dragging me down to the retaining cell." She received an unladylike snort in response. "Now, it will be ok. You, I have no doubt, will be an excellent mother. And I'm pretty sure Wyatt will make a good father. A little intense, but a good father. It'll give him the chance he missed with Jeb." There was a softness to Az when she said this that had DG's ears perking up.

"Aha. There is a little something something going on."

"God, you are like a dog with a bone." That sounded very un-princess-like and DG loved it.

"Thanks, Az. For just being here." She said seriously.

"Oh, well…. Of course." Az blushed and looked incredibly pleased.

The sound of the door opening had them both turning to the door. Wyatt walked inside, took one look at DG's tear reddened face, Az's wet blouse and DG could all but hear the alarm bells going off in his head.

"Everything ok?" Az merely arched a brow at the accusatory look he shot her.

"I'll talk to you later, Deeg." Azkadelia patted her knee and got up, breezing past the Tin Man with barely a backwards glance.

"Bye." DG wiped her face clean and sipped more water, casually ignoring her husband as he eyeballed her. She wanted to smile, since this was the first time he'd acted like the Cain she knew then the pod person she'd married.

"DG, are you ok?"

"Peachy. How's the OZ?" She got up to take the water back into the kitchen and found herself looking at his chest.

"I can get that for you." Great, Pod Person alert.

"I can manage. I'm pregnant. My legs aren't broke." She veered around him, refusing to look at him.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing." She was practically bristling with irritation and he hadn't been in their suite five minutes. She heard the concern in his voice and felt guilt for her irritation, which made her even more irritated. Hello, vicious cycle.

Out of habit and to have something to do, DG opened the icebox and peered at her choices for lunch. She wasn't really hungry, but it beat looking at the hovering husband. She could feel him, standing at the wall between the sitting area and the kitchenette staring at her. She could sense his edginess, his want to figure out what was wrong but not knowing how to go about it.

When did he turn into such a wuss?

"Cain, quit staring at me." DG closed the door with a snap and turned to face him. He flinched, looked away then stared at her some more.

"Look, what's wrong. I can't help you if you don't tell me."

"I don't know what's wrong. Things that shouldn't bother me are. I'm pregnant, tired, scared and married to someone that runs hot and cold with me and I don't know what to expect…from anything. I feel like I'm going crazy and the one thing I thought I could count on was you."

"Why don't you think you can count on me?" Finally, she saw a chink in that perfect man armor he'd been wearing since he'd stepped up to tell her mother he'd marry her.

"Because you're not who you were." She didn't know how to say it plainer than that.

"DG you aren't making sense. Why don't you just go sit down and I'll make you some tea."

"God dammit I don't want any God damned tea!" She pounded a fist against the icebox door, ignoring the pain that sang up her arm. Cain got that leery look on his face that people do when presented with a rabid, wild animal.

"Ok. Why don't we just sit down?" He shrugged out of his duster and tossed it across the back of a chair.

"I don't want to sit down." This was said a little louder than her last comment and for the first time she saw a spark of temper in his clear blue eyes.

"Then why don't you tell me what you want?" He hadn't shouted, but it was definitely said with an edge to his voice. She felt a grim satisfaction with that.

"I want you to be the man I spent a week with before the eclipse. I want you to look at me and not see this little princess that needs your protection. I am not your cause, Cain." She stared at him, her eyes threatening to spill tears again and she fought to keep them back. They had only been married a week, but his constant vigilance over her, like she was some sort of fine china was driving her crazy. She'd had doubts about the marriage to begin with, but his attitude towards her was making it worse.

"I told you that I would take care of you."

"I don't want you to take care of me. You said we were partners. Well I'm not feeling like a partner. I'm feeling like the ornament you put in a box and protect with bubble wrap." She could see her term threw him for a second, but she didn't feel the need to explain. "Quit treating me like I'm going to fall apart."

"Fine!" Aha, there he is, DG thought when he threw his arms up in frustration and tossed his beloved hat across the room. "Tell me how you want me to be and I'll be. I was trying to be your husband."

"Did you treat Adora like this?" The blunt question had him rear back in surprise but she at least saw him put some thought into it.

"No." Came the answer after a much shorter time than she expected.

"So why treat me that way?"

He looked like he really didn't have an answer for that. He opened his mouth once or twice, like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Then, he finally seemed to compose himself and he looked up at her. His eyes, the first clear memory she had of him were his eyes, locked with her and she could swear that she saw his soul right then.

"I lost everything. My wife, my child. My life. Everything because of a war. Now…now, darlin', there's a chance for another one. And I promised to protect you. To keep you safe, not just from marrying a stranger. You and that baby, you're my second chance." He looked away from her, his words touching her heart and making it ache. She felt horrible for being so emotional. But she figured, she had an excuse, no matter how lame.

"I'm probably not saying it right. And I'm sorry for treating you like a cause."

"No, you said it just fine. But, you have to remember that I'm just DG, not the pregnant princess that you got stuck marrying. And another thing…" She rushed on when he started to protest that. She felt her skin pink up at what she was getting ready to say, but she figured some levity was in order. "When I said I wasn't ready for sex, that didn't mean you were supposed to stop kissing me."

His mouth quirked, then a hint of a smile curved his lip. "You want me to kiss you?"

"Not if I have to ask for one." She said huffily. He started to move towards her then, and suddenly she felt like the pray of a particularly large predator. She backed up a step. She couldn't help it.

"You could have just kissed me, instead of waitin'." Eep, she thought. She probably could have. If she'd had the nerve.

"Well, you know…I didn't want to overstep my…what?" DG's train of thought veered largely to the left when he paused in front of her. They were so close she could feel his heat. He leaned over, crowding her, until his lips were a hair's breadth from hers.

"Do you want me to kiss you, DG?" he whispered, his eyes boring into hers and making her heart skip.

"Yes." She breathed, nearly crying when his mouth closed over hers. A tiny moan slipped for her lips as heat suffused her body with just that gentle touch. She felt his hand slide around her waist, pressing her sagging body against his. She opened her mouth and ran the tip of her tongue across his bottom lip, sliding it inside his mouth when his own lips parted. It was his turn to moan and she felt a thrill that she'd caused it.

"So," he said when they broke apart gasping for air. "Wanna start this over again?"

"Yeah, I think so." He chuckled and pressed a kiss into her hair. At least she was awake this time. "Will you tell me, what's going on?"

DG looked up at him then, begging him silently to trust her. She didn't realize he already did.

"Ask me whatever you want. I'll tell you what I know."

A/n-sigh. I hope you all like this one better than you liked the last chapter of Tinman/Runaway Princess. Remember, reviews grease the wheels of the muse's thinking machine. TTFN. Oh, yeah. apologies if this is completely incoherant. I didn't fine tooth comb it as much as I usually do. :D