In most cases if you had to do something you absolutely detested over and over again, it usually got a little easier each time.
Not so much with Wyatt Cain's current predicament.
This was the millionth or so time that he'd been paraded in front of the O.Z. in the past five annuals. He'd gotten accustomed to most of the pomp and circumstance and had never lost his respect with all the traditions that went along with the royal family, except for this one.
If he got one more saucy wink from an old lady, or if one more guy pounded his shoulder that his son wasn't drooling on at the moment, he might just have to pull out his six shooter, grab DG and make a run for it.
As it was, he was stuck standing on a dais in front of the palace in Central City waiting for the whole damned thing to be over with and he was loathe to disturb his son from his nap while his mother was about to wrap up her address to the people and ignite the firestorm that would have his back bruised for a week.
"And so I thank you all for your hard work and sacrifices over the past four annuals. Because of each and every one of you the O.Z. back on track."
Here it comes he thought as the cheers erupted and then quieted in expectation of more words from their Queen…
"We've learned to look to each other as family, a family of all Ozians taking care of one another, helping each other get back on our feet as we learn to walk again without the weight of the Sorceress. Babies have been born in the past few annuals who will never know her terrible rein yet will continue the work we have left undone. It is with great joy and pride that I tell you that there will be another member of the House of Gayle in a few months time, a prince or princess who will love their homeland as much as each of you."
There it was.
The crowd went NUTS.
DG had to announce each of her pregnancies to the people of the O.Z. as part of some unwritten rule of royalty, and she liked it just about as much as him, although she came out of the whole process without being manhandled….a fact he was insanely jealous about.
The first time they'd had to do this he'd almost had a panic attack from the crowd swarming around him. Since the time in the suit he'd experienced mild cases of claustrophobia and he still had some issues with strangers touching him. He'd gone without touch for annuals, he'd forgotten what it was like until he'd broken down and started courting DG. By the time she was pregnant he had thought himself cured…until he'd been swarmed by hundreds if not thousands of his countrymen wanting to shake his hand or hug him outright.
This was the fourth time they'd made this announcement and with each the crowd had grown more boisterous and more speculative as they all wondered the same thing…would it be another prince or would they finally receive a daughter of light?
Everyone had expected their first child to be a girl, in fact he and DG hadn't planned on anything else. No member of the House of Gayle in over a thousand annuals had born a son. He'd been dumbstruck as Raw had handed him a screaming baby boy that long cold night four years ago. He could still hear Jeb's hysterical laughter ringing out in the sitting room just outside where DG lay joyfully exhausted after the delivery when she'd told him the news.
"She's never done a single thing according to plan in all the time you've known her Dad, why'd you expect it to be any different this time?" were his first born's words of wisdom.
He couldn't disagree with him.
His wife defied all dictates of tradition twice more giving Cain a total of three sons. Three boys who'd thawed out and completely owned what was left of his weathered rusty heart that didn't already belong to their mama and Jeb.
He knew the people were anxious for a girl. After all, only a daughter of light could sit on the throne. DG had laughed at him when he'd confessed to her in bed one night he was grateful he had sons before a daughter because if she turned out to be anything like her mother he'd need all the extra muscle he could get.