erinm_4600
in
12to32
Fic: First Date
Title: First Date
Author: Erin (erinm_4600)
Characters, Pairing: past-Cain/DG; a few OCs, but most everyone's mentioned. And it's vague on purpose...
Rating: PG (with a Kleenex warning!)
Summary: First dates are complicated enough...
Warning: post-series, by about 30 years/annuals *Written for Round 11 of prompt-in-a-box. Prompt #6: "You're a good liar, but not good enough." Thanks to queenof1000days and luxuria_oceanus for the beta and rissy_james for the last-minute, late-night advice! *sends cookies* I would blame moony_blues for sending the angst truck my way... but Steve started plotting this one a LONG time ago...
Disclaimer: The original characters belong to L. Frank Baum and their respective actors. The current characters belong to Sci-Fi, the movie folks and their respective actors. The OCs are mine.
Sleeping Beauty | Dark to Light, Part I | First Date | Found | It's Just a Book... | Wake-up Call | Birthday Present
At a booth in the corner of a Central City diner, sat a man and a woman. They shared a simple meal and entertained a simple conversation, both having quite the pleasant evening. The place was fairly empty, so it was almost as if they had the entire restaurant to themselves.
A few minutes after their plates had been cleared, the woman took a deep breath. "Can I just say," she said with a smile, "that your eyes are the most amazing shade of blue I think I've ever seen." The man sitting across from her smiled slightly and glanced down, probably so she wouldn't see him blush.
"I'd have to say the same for you," he nodded slightly, giving her a sincere smile. Now it was her turn to glance away. Her eyes moved to the painting centered over their table for a few moments. The scene was a simple country landscape, complete with a white farmhouse and a windmill.
There was something about the picture; she felt the pull, almost like she knew the place. Feeling the thought slip away, the woman closed her eyes, trying to hold it there by sheer will.
"Are you all right?" the man asked, concerned, yet not. She smiled and nodded before opening her eyes. She noticed something in his eyes, but didn't know quite what it was.
"That place," she said, nodding to the painting. He smiled and shifted slightly in the seat. She watched his hands, wanting to laugh as it seemed the poor man didn't know what to do with them. They were on the table, then off; fiddling with the spoon then wringing the napkin.
"That, there, was painted by our last queen," he said, nodding to the picture. She glanced to the painting again and noticed a small scribble in the lower left corner. That's where she would have put it, as well. "That's where she grew up, on the Other Side."
"And how do you know that?" she asked, giving him a slight smile. There was that look again. It was something so familiar, like there was a shared secret that she should know, and the look from him was the hint.
"She told me so," he said with a wink.
"You're a good liar," she nodded, giving him a sly grin, "but not good enough..." He let out a good, deep laugh and nodded. Reaching up, he tapped a small card mounted next to the frame. Seeing the details about the image printed there, she gave him a narrowed look and smiled again.
"Coffee?" a young woman asked, stepping up to their table with two cups and a carafe. The man nodded and glanced over to his companion, who also nodded. She watched as the young girl poured the steaming liquid into one of the cups, and smiled as it was passed to her.
"So you knew the queen?" the woman asked, skeptically, twisting the mug on the table slowly. She missed the glance between the man and the younger woman as he nodded in thanks.
"That I did," he nodded. "I was rather honored to be able to call her 'friend'," he said, pulling his own cup closer. The woman smiled and glanced down as she lifted her cup carefully to her lips.
"Mm," she said a moment later. "I don't remember ever having such a good cup of coffee," she said, directing a grin to the young girl. The girl smiled and nodded before taking a deep breath and looking at the table.
"Can I get you anything else?" she asked, placing a friendly hand on the man's shoulder. He looked across the table, waited for his companion's response and then glanced back to the girl.
"I think we're good, thanks." She smiled again and gave his arm a squeeze, which he responded to with the slightest nod, before turning away. They finished the coffee at a quiet pace, neither really knowing what to say.
"I wanted to thank you," the woman said a moment later. "For dinner," she added as his head tilted to one side. She was far too old to be acting like a girl on her first date, yet that's what this was. She'd seen him around lately, and he was always polite. Then, a few days ago, he'd asked her to join him for dinner.
"I should be thanking you," he laughed. "You could've turned me down, after all." For a moment, she wondered what he would have done if she had turned him down. Would he ask again? Would he follow her all over, hounding her and trying to break her resolve?
"Something tells me, sir, that I'd never be able to say no to you." She didn't know why, but she was certain this was true.
"Well, we'll just have to see about that, then, won't we?" he asked with a smirk. "Probably should be getting you back home, though. It's late," he said, nodding to the clock on the far wall, even though it really wasn't that late. Pushing out of the seat, he offered a hand to her.
The feeling of his hand in hers was odd, but somehow familiar to her. Like it was made to fit into hers. Shaking the thought away, she turned her head up and smiled. "Perhaps, next time, we should start a bit earlier. And you can tell me more about your being friends with a queen."
"I'd like that," he said with a nod. He nodded to the young girl with the coffee, who gave both of them a wave, and he led her toward the door. Once he'd helped her into her overcoat, she insisted on helping him with his own.
"Shall we?" he asked, holding the door open for her.
"Let's," she nodded with a smile and stepped out into the comfortable night air.
As they walked down the sidewalk, arms linked, she asked to hear a story from his youth, when he was free of cares and bad joints. So he told her about chasing horses through a field, driving his mother crazy and getting into trouble with his best friend.
As they turned the corner, the sound of music could be heard, wafting out of one of the open doorways along the street. "That sounds lovely," she said, stopping outside the small club. Closing her eyes, she listened to the music for a moment before he nudged her arm.
"Would you do me the honor of a dance?" he asked, nodding toward the door. She nodded and they moved into the building. There was a small crowd on the dance floor and a scattering of people at the tables surrounding the open space.
"I must warn you, sir," she said as he took her hand in his. "I may break your foot." He laughed and gave her a smile.
"I'm sure you'll do just fine." As they moved around the floor, she smiled. As with his hand in hers, they seemed to fit together, even on the dance floor. For not knowing the man - not really - she felt like this was the only place she belonged. 'Dear Lord, woman,' she chided herself. 'Knock it off.'
"I do believe I should be jealous of whoever you used to dance with," she teased slightly. His eyes moved to hers for a moment and he nodded.
"That would be my wife," he said with a sad smile. She noticed that he was trying not to look at her; probably trying to keep up the manly exterior, she guessed. But, the few moments when he did catch her eye... There seemed to be a great deal on the man's mind.
"How long has she been gone?" She didn't want to overstep, but she could see it in his eyes. At that moment, his eyes locked on hers, as if he was looking for something hiding behind hers; some "meaning of life"-epiphany. For a moment, she swore it was disappointment.
"Long enough," he finally replied, giving her a small smile. Blinking, he let out a breath and stepped back slightly. "See," he nodded to their feet. "Told you you'd do just fine."
"Well, I didn't want to embarrass you," she smirked and they shared another laugh as they continued to move around the room.
Nearly an hour later, the two of them were back outside, enjoying the evening. "How long will you be visiting Central City?" she asked as they reached the end of her street. The temperature was still rather pleasant, but it would be getting colder within the hour; a weird quirk of the Zone.
"I should be in town for a while," he said with a nod, giving her a sideways glance. As she turned away, he couldn’t help but smile at the grin creeping up her face.
"Well, that's just dandy," she nodded and patted his arm. Nodding to the man guarding the entrance of the royal palace, they both headed inside and stopped in the main hallway.
"May I escort you to your door?" he asked, remembering his manners.
"Yes, please," she said, eyeing the staircase. Every now and then, she felt a knot in her stomach when she looked at them too long, but she couldn't remember why. He moved slowly, seeing the look in her eyes.
"Everything all right?" Shaking the thought away, she glanced up to him and smiled. They took the stairs slowly, simply because neither of them was as young as they used to be. All right, he may have been slowing down to prolong the evening a bit longer.
Moving down the hallway, they finally reached her door and he took her hand, pulling it up to press a quick kiss to her knuckles. "Sweet dreams, Princess," he said quietly. She smiled at the endearment and glanced away for a moment as the blush returned.
"Maybe we'll run into each other tomorrow?" she asked as he let go of her hand. He nodded and she reached back for the door handle. As she pushed the door shut, her eyes found his again. There was something about him that was so familiar to her, but she just couldn't remember what it was.
~*~
As the door clicked shut, Wyatt Cain raised a hand to the wood panel and closed his eyes as his chin touched his chest. Raising his head a moment later, Cain blinked a few times and took a deep breath before pulling his hand back from the door. Lifting a hand to his neck, Cain pulled the chain free, pressed a kiss to the pair of rings hanging from it and moved back toward the stairs.
He was nearing the next door - the one to his room - when the Queen of the Outer Zone came around the corner. "I heard you were back," she said with a grin. Cain pulled away from his door and nodded, opening his arms as she moved toward him. Her arms went around him and she squeezed tightly, resting her ear against his chest.
Cain pressed a kiss to the top of her head and then rested his chin to the same spot for a moment before she pulled back. "Anything?" Leigh knew better than to get her hopes up, but she couldn't help it after the last few weeks. Cain looked down and gave her a sad smile. Her face scrunched slightly and Cain pulled her back. "It's not fair, pop."
"Life's not fair, Kiddo."
"But, after everything..." she started, but stopped herself. They'd had this discussion more times than even she could count, and they always came to the same conclusion: DG was right. Life did suck.
She'd been gone far too long, and they both missed her terribly. It had been hardest as DG started to slip away, for she fought to remember everything for as long as she could. And the more she tried to remember one thing, the faster she forgot another. Lately, they had both seen her get close, but the memories would slip away before she could catch them.
As far as DG knew, she was an honored guest of Queen Leigh and the royal court. She didn't remember her friends, though she did have a tendency to ask if anyone had seen a lost zipper; she barely recalled her past - not that it seemed to bother her; and she had no memory of her husband or her daughter.
No one knew exactly what caused it, either. Glitch thought it might have something to do with being raised on the Other Side, while Raw and Cain thought it was because she'd done too much to restore the Zone. Az, Ahamo and the Queen had been gone for a while when the symptoms began to surface, so it was up to Glitch, Raw and Cain to help DG through yet another task.
At first, DG was forgetting simple things like where she set a pen or an appointment with some councilmember. One afternoon, Cain found DG in a panic because she couldn't find Leigh. Cain assured her that Leigh was fine; the fifteen-annual-old was visiting Jeb's family, helping with her cousins while Jeb and his wife prepared for another baby.
For five annuals, the Medicos worked with DG, trying to find a cause. The Medicos agreed with Raw and Cain, that stress and overtaxing herself were probably responsible for most of the memory loss; between that and the loss of her sister and parents, DG had spent so much time trying not to think about it that her mind and body fought back.
By the time Leigh was old enough to take the throne, it was clear something more was going on. Leigh had come to both of them, wanting to know what they weren't telling her. When DG couldn't tell her what was wrong, simply because halfway through, she forgot what she was trying to say, DG knew it wasn’t stress.
Raw couldn't get a read on her and Glitch didn't know what to do, so she went back to the Medicos. After running all the tests they could think of, no one had a clear answer. The Nurture Units accessed the files they had from the Other Side - out-of-date as they were - and the most obvious diagnosis for DG's condition was some type of dementia.
There was still doubt, however, because the reports and studies from the Other Side didn't take magic into account. Between the witch literally sucking the life out of her, the Queen giving her magic to DG and sending her to the Other Side for safe keeping, fifteen years of the magic sitting dormant, and then a sudden reemergence and constant use, it seemed that the problem stemmed from the magic.
When Cain found her slumped against the bottom of the staircase, DG jumped straight to denial. She was frustrated, not because she'd taken a tumble and sprained her ankle, but because she hadn't remembered there was one more step. She knew something was horribly wrong with her. But saying it out loud made it true, and the idea of forgetting Cain and Leigh was something she just couldn't accept.
Cain had moved behind her, sitting on the first step as his arms went around her. She laughed and asked him if she could blame Tutor for demanding she "let the light flow through" her, then started shaking as the tears she'd been fighting finally let loose. Cain held her tight, rocking her as she sobbed, swearing that she would never forget Cain, as long as she would live. She would never forget him.
She would always remember.
___________
This story was inspired by two songs: She Can't Remember and He Can't Forget by Michael Peterson, which you can hear HERE at his MySpace and She Remembers Love by Lila McCann; the lyrics are HERE. There's a few other songs that I also listened to while writing... Maybe I'll put them together.. maybe not.
Oh, and the crazy random happenstance of this sounding like The Notebook is just that: a crazy, really random happenstance.
Author: Erin (erinm_4600)
Characters, Pairing: past-Cain/DG; a few OCs, but most everyone's mentioned. And it's vague on purpose...
Rating: PG (with a Kleenex warning!)
Summary: First dates are complicated enough...
Warning: post-series, by about 30 years/annuals *Written for Round 11 of prompt-in-a-box. Prompt #6: "You're a good liar, but not good enough." Thanks to queenof1000days and luxuria_oceanus for the beta and rissy_james for the last-minute, late-night advice! *sends cookies* I would blame moony_blues for sending the angst truck my way... but Steve started plotting this one a LONG time ago...
Disclaimer: The original characters belong to L. Frank Baum and their respective actors. The current characters belong to Sci-Fi, the movie folks and their respective actors. The OCs are mine.
Sleeping Beauty | Dark to Light, Part I | First Date | Found | It's Just a Book... | Wake-up Call | Birthday Present
At a booth in the corner of a Central City diner, sat a man and a woman. They shared a simple meal and entertained a simple conversation, both having quite the pleasant evening. The place was fairly empty, so it was almost as if they had the entire restaurant to themselves.
A few minutes after their plates had been cleared, the woman took a deep breath. "Can I just say," she said with a smile, "that your eyes are the most amazing shade of blue I think I've ever seen." The man sitting across from her smiled slightly and glanced down, probably so she wouldn't see him blush.
"I'd have to say the same for you," he nodded slightly, giving her a sincere smile. Now it was her turn to glance away. Her eyes moved to the painting centered over their table for a few moments. The scene was a simple country landscape, complete with a white farmhouse and a windmill.
There was something about the picture; she felt the pull, almost like she knew the place. Feeling the thought slip away, the woman closed her eyes, trying to hold it there by sheer will.
"Are you all right?" the man asked, concerned, yet not. She smiled and nodded before opening her eyes. She noticed something in his eyes, but didn't know quite what it was.
"That place," she said, nodding to the painting. He smiled and shifted slightly in the seat. She watched his hands, wanting to laugh as it seemed the poor man didn't know what to do with them. They were on the table, then off; fiddling with the spoon then wringing the napkin.
"That, there, was painted by our last queen," he said, nodding to the picture. She glanced to the painting again and noticed a small scribble in the lower left corner. That's where she would have put it, as well. "That's where she grew up, on the Other Side."
"And how do you know that?" she asked, giving him a slight smile. There was that look again. It was something so familiar, like there was a shared secret that she should know, and the look from him was the hint.
"She told me so," he said with a wink.
"You're a good liar," she nodded, giving him a sly grin, "but not good enough..." He let out a good, deep laugh and nodded. Reaching up, he tapped a small card mounted next to the frame. Seeing the details about the image printed there, she gave him a narrowed look and smiled again.
"Coffee?" a young woman asked, stepping up to their table with two cups and a carafe. The man nodded and glanced over to his companion, who also nodded. She watched as the young girl poured the steaming liquid into one of the cups, and smiled as it was passed to her.
"So you knew the queen?" the woman asked, skeptically, twisting the mug on the table slowly. She missed the glance between the man and the younger woman as he nodded in thanks.
"That I did," he nodded. "I was rather honored to be able to call her 'friend'," he said, pulling his own cup closer. The woman smiled and glanced down as she lifted her cup carefully to her lips.
"Mm," she said a moment later. "I don't remember ever having such a good cup of coffee," she said, directing a grin to the young girl. The girl smiled and nodded before taking a deep breath and looking at the table.
"Can I get you anything else?" she asked, placing a friendly hand on the man's shoulder. He looked across the table, waited for his companion's response and then glanced back to the girl.
"I think we're good, thanks." She smiled again and gave his arm a squeeze, which he responded to with the slightest nod, before turning away. They finished the coffee at a quiet pace, neither really knowing what to say.
"I wanted to thank you," the woman said a moment later. "For dinner," she added as his head tilted to one side. She was far too old to be acting like a girl on her first date, yet that's what this was. She'd seen him around lately, and he was always polite. Then, a few days ago, he'd asked her to join him for dinner.
"I should be thanking you," he laughed. "You could've turned me down, after all." For a moment, she wondered what he would have done if she had turned him down. Would he ask again? Would he follow her all over, hounding her and trying to break her resolve?
"Something tells me, sir, that I'd never be able to say no to you." She didn't know why, but she was certain this was true.
"Well, we'll just have to see about that, then, won't we?" he asked with a smirk. "Probably should be getting you back home, though. It's late," he said, nodding to the clock on the far wall, even though it really wasn't that late. Pushing out of the seat, he offered a hand to her.
The feeling of his hand in hers was odd, but somehow familiar to her. Like it was made to fit into hers. Shaking the thought away, she turned her head up and smiled. "Perhaps, next time, we should start a bit earlier. And you can tell me more about your being friends with a queen."
"I'd like that," he said with a nod. He nodded to the young girl with the coffee, who gave both of them a wave, and he led her toward the door. Once he'd helped her into her overcoat, she insisted on helping him with his own.
"Shall we?" he asked, holding the door open for her.
"Let's," she nodded with a smile and stepped out into the comfortable night air.
As they walked down the sidewalk, arms linked, she asked to hear a story from his youth, when he was free of cares and bad joints. So he told her about chasing horses through a field, driving his mother crazy and getting into trouble with his best friend.
As they turned the corner, the sound of music could be heard, wafting out of one of the open doorways along the street. "That sounds lovely," she said, stopping outside the small club. Closing her eyes, she listened to the music for a moment before he nudged her arm.
"Would you do me the honor of a dance?" he asked, nodding toward the door. She nodded and they moved into the building. There was a small crowd on the dance floor and a scattering of people at the tables surrounding the open space.
"I must warn you, sir," she said as he took her hand in his. "I may break your foot." He laughed and gave her a smile.
"I'm sure you'll do just fine." As they moved around the floor, she smiled. As with his hand in hers, they seemed to fit together, even on the dance floor. For not knowing the man - not really - she felt like this was the only place she belonged. 'Dear Lord, woman,' she chided herself. 'Knock it off.'
"I do believe I should be jealous of whoever you used to dance with," she teased slightly. His eyes moved to hers for a moment and he nodded.
"That would be my wife," he said with a sad smile. She noticed that he was trying not to look at her; probably trying to keep up the manly exterior, she guessed. But, the few moments when he did catch her eye... There seemed to be a great deal on the man's mind.
"How long has she been gone?" She didn't want to overstep, but she could see it in his eyes. At that moment, his eyes locked on hers, as if he was looking for something hiding behind hers; some "meaning of life"-epiphany. For a moment, she swore it was disappointment.
"Long enough," he finally replied, giving her a small smile. Blinking, he let out a breath and stepped back slightly. "See," he nodded to their feet. "Told you you'd do just fine."
"Well, I didn't want to embarrass you," she smirked and they shared another laugh as they continued to move around the room.
Nearly an hour later, the two of them were back outside, enjoying the evening. "How long will you be visiting Central City?" she asked as they reached the end of her street. The temperature was still rather pleasant, but it would be getting colder within the hour; a weird quirk of the Zone.
"I should be in town for a while," he said with a nod, giving her a sideways glance. As she turned away, he couldn’t help but smile at the grin creeping up her face.
"Well, that's just dandy," she nodded and patted his arm. Nodding to the man guarding the entrance of the royal palace, they both headed inside and stopped in the main hallway.
"May I escort you to your door?" he asked, remembering his manners.
"Yes, please," she said, eyeing the staircase. Every now and then, she felt a knot in her stomach when she looked at them too long, but she couldn't remember why. He moved slowly, seeing the look in her eyes.
"Everything all right?" Shaking the thought away, she glanced up to him and smiled. They took the stairs slowly, simply because neither of them was as young as they used to be. All right, he may have been slowing down to prolong the evening a bit longer.
Moving down the hallway, they finally reached her door and he took her hand, pulling it up to press a quick kiss to her knuckles. "Sweet dreams, Princess," he said quietly. She smiled at the endearment and glanced away for a moment as the blush returned.
"Maybe we'll run into each other tomorrow?" she asked as he let go of her hand. He nodded and she reached back for the door handle. As she pushed the door shut, her eyes found his again. There was something about him that was so familiar to her, but she just couldn't remember what it was.
~*~
As the door clicked shut, Wyatt Cain raised a hand to the wood panel and closed his eyes as his chin touched his chest. Raising his head a moment later, Cain blinked a few times and took a deep breath before pulling his hand back from the door. Lifting a hand to his neck, Cain pulled the chain free, pressed a kiss to the pair of rings hanging from it and moved back toward the stairs.
He was nearing the next door - the one to his room - when the Queen of the Outer Zone came around the corner. "I heard you were back," she said with a grin. Cain pulled away from his door and nodded, opening his arms as she moved toward him. Her arms went around him and she squeezed tightly, resting her ear against his chest.
Cain pressed a kiss to the top of her head and then rested his chin to the same spot for a moment before she pulled back. "Anything?" Leigh knew better than to get her hopes up, but she couldn't help it after the last few weeks. Cain looked down and gave her a sad smile. Her face scrunched slightly and Cain pulled her back. "It's not fair, pop."
"Life's not fair, Kiddo."
"But, after everything..." she started, but stopped herself. They'd had this discussion more times than even she could count, and they always came to the same conclusion: DG was right. Life did suck.
She'd been gone far too long, and they both missed her terribly. It had been hardest as DG started to slip away, for she fought to remember everything for as long as she could. And the more she tried to remember one thing, the faster she forgot another. Lately, they had both seen her get close, but the memories would slip away before she could catch them.
As far as DG knew, she was an honored guest of Queen Leigh and the royal court. She didn't remember her friends, though she did have a tendency to ask if anyone had seen a lost zipper; she barely recalled her past - not that it seemed to bother her; and she had no memory of her husband or her daughter.
No one knew exactly what caused it, either. Glitch thought it might have something to do with being raised on the Other Side, while Raw and Cain thought it was because she'd done too much to restore the Zone. Az, Ahamo and the Queen had been gone for a while when the symptoms began to surface, so it was up to Glitch, Raw and Cain to help DG through yet another task.
At first, DG was forgetting simple things like where she set a pen or an appointment with some councilmember. One afternoon, Cain found DG in a panic because she couldn't find Leigh. Cain assured her that Leigh was fine; the fifteen-annual-old was visiting Jeb's family, helping with her cousins while Jeb and his wife prepared for another baby.
For five annuals, the Medicos worked with DG, trying to find a cause. The Medicos agreed with Raw and Cain, that stress and overtaxing herself were probably responsible for most of the memory loss; between that and the loss of her sister and parents, DG had spent so much time trying not to think about it that her mind and body fought back.
By the time Leigh was old enough to take the throne, it was clear something more was going on. Leigh had come to both of them, wanting to know what they weren't telling her. When DG couldn't tell her what was wrong, simply because halfway through, she forgot what she was trying to say, DG knew it wasn’t stress.
Raw couldn't get a read on her and Glitch didn't know what to do, so she went back to the Medicos. After running all the tests they could think of, no one had a clear answer. The Nurture Units accessed the files they had from the Other Side - out-of-date as they were - and the most obvious diagnosis for DG's condition was some type of dementia.
There was still doubt, however, because the reports and studies from the Other Side didn't take magic into account. Between the witch literally sucking the life out of her, the Queen giving her magic to DG and sending her to the Other Side for safe keeping, fifteen years of the magic sitting dormant, and then a sudden reemergence and constant use, it seemed that the problem stemmed from the magic.
When Cain found her slumped against the bottom of the staircase, DG jumped straight to denial. She was frustrated, not because she'd taken a tumble and sprained her ankle, but because she hadn't remembered there was one more step. She knew something was horribly wrong with her. But saying it out loud made it true, and the idea of forgetting Cain and Leigh was something she just couldn't accept.
Cain had moved behind her, sitting on the first step as his arms went around her. She laughed and asked him if she could blame Tutor for demanding she "let the light flow through" her, then started shaking as the tears she'd been fighting finally let loose. Cain held her tight, rocking her as she sobbed, swearing that she would never forget Cain, as long as she would live. She would never forget him.
She would always remember.
___________
This story was inspired by two songs: She Can't Remember and He Can't Forget by Michael Peterson, which you can hear HERE at his MySpace and She Remembers Love by Lila McCann; the lyrics are HERE. There's a few other songs that I also listened to while writing... Maybe I'll put them together.. maybe not.
Oh, and the crazy random happenstance of this sounding like The Notebook is just that: a crazy, really random happenstance.