For once Wyatt Cain was without his hat also, his duster and jacket. He stood, hands on his hips looking at DG who dangled something in front of his nose.

He looked as relaxed as he ever got in a white, open at the neck, shirt and dark blue vest with black stripes.

"What is it?" The Tin Man asked.

The princess wore heather gray slacks made out of a material that had a texture somewhere between tweed and flannel and an untucked men's style pink blouse. Her dark locks were up in the style she called a pony tail. Violet gems gleamed at her ears.

"It's a present." It was a thin bracelet woven of gray leather strips decorated with a few beads of midnight blue. "I figured that the most famous cop in the O.Z. might want to go undercover at some point. I enchanted it with a cloaking glamour."

Tutor had been impressed with her ingenuity. It never would have occurred to him to link a solid object to a glamour.

Cain cleared his throat awkwardly, "That's thoughtful of you, kiddo."

She ignored that and took his arm and slipped it around his wrist with her cool fingers, "You activate it by pressing the second to the left bead. You turn it off by pressing it again."

"Don't think that giving me a present is going to get you out of your firearms lessons," Cain said gruffly. It would be useful. And wasn't it just like her to think up the perfect gift.

DG rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't dream of it." She kept stride with him as they walked to the firing range. He nodded to various castle personnel and off duty guards. All of whom kept bowing as they saw just who Cain was with.

"How are your fencing lessons going."

"I'm down to getting knocked on my ass only five times a day," DG replied wryly.

Cain laughed.

DG felt her own lips quirk up in response to his all too rare laughter.

The firing range didn't have bull's-eye targets or even the ones shaped like an outline, no here they were full sized body dummies so you'd get a good idea of what was really involved.

DG shuddered at the sight of the faceless manikins. Cain caught the look of dismay.

That he was borderline obsessive on the safety of the Royal Family was not to his mind a bad thing. In fact it helped. He just wished they cooperate more.

The reactions of his proposal that they all learn to fire a weapon was met with many different reactions;

Ahamo already knew how. Cain couldn't bring himself to ask the queen to learn. Henry and Emily had laughed at him; it wasn't necessary for the robotic couple to learn, he was inclined to believe them when Emily held him over her head with his collar pinched between two fingers. And Azkadelia had left the room when he had brought up her learning something that might conceivably be used to hurt another being.

So, DG was going to learn. In fact he had vehemently insisted she learn after he found out that there was a betting pool on what dangerous situation she'd get into next. At first he had been furious at the very idea and had blustered angerly at Ambrose, who with his maddening patience, had pointed out that maybe humor was how the staff kept themselves from banging their heads into walls out of shear frustration.

Now, Cain was down for ten platinums for taken captive by crazed poetry reading munchkins on the second Tuesday of the next month.

On a side table there were a sizable amount of weapons on display. DG blinked at all the hardware. "Do you have the whole armory here?"

Cain ignored that. "Let's start with the basics." He took down a familiar looking weapon. It was identical to his gun. Steel with the circle and star etched into the metal "This is standard Tin Man issue." He handed it to her hilt first.

DG looked at it like it was a viper. She took it from him carefully. "Now what?"

"Now you learn to take it apart, clean it and put it back together," Wyatt grinned at her anxious expression.

It took her a good hour and a half before he was satisfied that she had the procedure down. Next he taught her how to load the gun.

Cain led the princess by the elbow to a range that was already set up with a faux human target.

"Now what you want to do is to get your feet a little farther apart," Wyatt instructed. He repositioned her hands on the gun. "Just cock back the trigger and let 'er rip." He stepped back a few feet prudently, she'd shot her archery instructor in the butt. Personally, Cain didn't want that to happen to him.

DG positioned her gun, the cool steel feeling strange against her skin and slowly pulled the trigger. The gun let off a loud bang startling her, the backlash caused her to stumble back a step. The bullet hit the dummy with a distressingly thud. It didn't help that it started to bleed. Okay, so the blood was orange but, that didn't really make it any better.

Cain took in her wide eyed distress. He gripped her tense shoulder gently, "It's alright, princess." He looked at the target critically. She plugged it in the left shoulder. DG would have to get a steadier grip for a kill shot. "We do it like this so it's not such a big surprise when it's for real."

"I get that it's just…" DG's voice trailed off.

Cain brought up his other hand and cupped her other shoulder. "What you need to do is bend your knees a little more. You're so little the backfire could throw you back a few feet."

DG obligingly bent her knees. Her heart was beating faster but it wasn't from the shock of firing a gun. Cain's hands and the attached arms had traveled around her to cradle her. His large, strong hands now cupped her smaller hands, which held the gun. The long warm length of him flush against her back, she could feel each breath against the back of her throat.

"Now, what you do…is lift the gun and get your target into sight," His breath was warm against her ear. "That's right."

Their joined hands lifted slowly. "Now, squeeze the trigger." The gun fired and DG jerked back into Cain's arms.

She jerked again when his lips grazed her earlobe. "Let's try this again," his voice low.

For a half hour they continued before switching to firing one handed. When the session came to a stop DG was flustered, out of breath and faintly blushing.

Cain was annoying cool, calm and collected.

"Not bad," Wyatt said as DG put the gun down. "We'll try again in a few days."

"Okay," DG said as her thudding heart went to normal.

There were times when she really wondered whether Cain even noticed she was a girl.

----

A contingent of Royal Guardsmen stared as Wyatt Cain poured a bucket of what had to be freezing cold water onto his head.

"Just don't ask," the Tin Man ordered his subordinates.

"Wouldn't dream of it sir," the 2IC said obediently.

With that Cain strode out into the freezing courtyard with the most peculiar expression.

DG's in trouble—must be Tuesday!