Visiting DG

[madeofrawesome]

Who: DG [OPEN TO ALL]
When: Begins January 18th, 11 PM [ENTRIES LIKELY OUT OF ORDER]
Where: Side Room of Infirmary
What: Visiting the Princess-Patient

It took nearly five hours to heal DG as much as he coul, and Raw was shaky on his feet from the exertion. Her hand was whole, but likely would be stiff for a couple of days after she awoke. The cuts on

Comments

[w_cain]

After a lengthy talk with Jeb, one that oddly enough, they should have had before the boy was shot and drugged, Cain went seeking Az.

He was being a father tonight as much as a lover and Ozma be damned, he didn't give a flying fuck if Ahamo sent him to the deadly desert.

He hadn't found Az at all.

He had found Scraps and a small blond child she had declared her new little sister, Eliza, playing hopscotch and jacks in a hallway. Both at once. The rules were apparently made up as they went.

By dinner time he was in no mood to eat, and had not yet found Az, so he returned to his vigil.

The sight of Az's guards alongside DG's spoke volumes.

He nodded to the men and entered the room.

Az was weeping over her sister. He'd done that, in private, and not so private.

Wyatt licked up a chair and placed it right besides DG's bed, within easy reach of the princess' hand or face.

"You saved her life Azkadee." He used the pet name Glitch had for her, knowing how she hated her full name.

"Zero would have come for vengeance no matter what. Without you, she would have bled to death, alone, in that dark hole of a room." His own eyes misted again as he sat and pulled the older sister into his lap.

Protocol be damed. Az wasn't getting the support, appreciation, or hell, the love, she needed from elsewhere. She was family. Would be. Maybe even twice over.

He was a father, ands she was a daughter, and even though they weren't each others, right now they could be what the other needed.

Cain couldn't hold or comfort DG. And Jeb was way past the stage.

"You are no responsible for what evil people do. You weren't responsible for the witch, and you certainly aren't responsible for Zero now. You're once person." He stroked her hair and back as he would a child. There was nothing offered but comfort.

[az_of_the_oz]

The door opened, and Az froze, as much as she could anyway while still crying. Picking up her head, she reluctantly looked up to face the person who had entered, fear flickering when she saw who it was. She was not afraid of physical violence from him, not entirely, she had avoided him so that she would not have to hear blame coming from him. How many times had she been there when his life was wrecked, been on the other side of the steely hand of pain and destruction? Even as unwilling as she had been.

She had seen the recording of what had been done to his family, a secret she would do her best to take with her to the grave. She knew all too well what he had been forced to watch and listen to for eight annuals.

Head shaking violently in denial at his words, a sob burbled up her throat and escaped her when he spoke of her sister dying in that room they had been held in. "I heard her scream," she confessed. "I heard the sound of her head hitting the wall. And I couldn't do anything to help her. All my magic and I was worse than useless the moment he caught me." Too much concentration was needed for what few defensive capabilities she had, and Zero and she both knew that he made it too difficult to think straight.

Cain sat beside her and pulled her into his lap, shock's icy clinch keeping her from doing more than continuing to cry. The walls she had tenuously built during the day to keep her facade up were crumbling to dust around her, it was too...too much. Her tears were soaking his shoulder, her hands fisted in the front of his shirt, while her body shook with heartbreak and a torrent of tears.

"And Jeb?" She questioned, refusing to pull back so that she could meet his eyes. Forcing the words past unwilling lips, she spoke between sobs. "He was shot, his mind twisted and used to hurt me because Zero thought it was good entertainment, no doubt." The memory was suffocating her, making it hard to breathe. "I love him, and he once loved me. Even before, you didn't approve, and now? Gods, how much more can you hate me?"

[w_cain]

"I don't hate you because I've learned that once you were a terrified, but brave little girl who didn't stand a chance against a thousand annual old witch, but you tried. Azkadellia didn't do a thing wrong other than to somehow manage to survive fifteen years as a prisoner inside herself. The Witch was to blame."

He continued to stroke her long hair and back wit one hand.

He both did and did not need to know about DG screaming. He knew what those screams were like. All too well. And as hurt as she was, the fact that he still had to stun her with a blow to the head just went to show what a fighter DG was, and what a pathetic worm Zero was.

He needed people powerless to feel powerful. And DG wasn't about to give him that.

"As for your magic... I know less about that than you know about taking apart a revolver. But I know if you're terrified and can't hold your aim people get hurt that you aren't aiming for. Zero scares you. He's one of you're boggles, I bet. What you didn't do, what you couldn't do.... none of it matters compared to what you did do."

Jeb. Heh. Why not jump in with both feet. "When Jeb's all clean and checked out, he's gonna love you. And he's gonna feel guilty. And like a jackass. Let that last part go for a bit, in the future he might need to remember that feeling." Wyatt tried to joke. But He loves ya, so it isn't gonna go away with a spell, darlin'."

[az_of_the_oz]

Az scoffed softly as her sobs tapered off, feeling drained and tired. "Brave? No," she muttered under her breath. When had she been brave? When she had let her baby sister wander into an Ancient cave and touch that stone face? Or maybe when Zero had grabbed her and she had done nothing but be a useless crying wreck? "DG fought, I didn't," she reminded him.

His motion of stroking her back and hair was comforting, and she indulged herself by not tearing away from yet another person she had hurt. One of those she had hurt the most. It was selfish and spoiled, but she could not shrug off the platonic contact, right now it meant too much towards her pulling herself together.

"When the two Longcoats came in...I...one flew backward and did not get up, had to be dragged out. But when the other one grabbed me, was going to-" she stopped, pausing before she could continue. "I couldn't do anything. Kieran stopped him, she knew him, made him promise he wouldn't-" Shaking her head slightly, she remembered the feel of his hands around her throat, squeezing tightly so that she could not draw breath for several moments. "Then they were arguing, she shot him, and men came in to pull her away. And left me alone with him."

She had not been able to even slow his attack, and soon she had given up all attempts. Just tried to reduce the contact to tender areas that he was able to make, "It amused him, that I couldn't fight back." Shame threaded its way through her mind and voice, she should have been able to do something. DG had fought until she was unconscious, Az had fallen so quickly.

Gods, she hated Zero. For the horrors he committed, and for the power he had over her. "Last thing I ever wanted was for him to get his hands on you Deeg. Not you too." The statement was barely audible, directed at the still figure on the bed as she turned to look at her sister, before she had to look away.

Cain's joke fell flat, if only because the idea of Jeb in the future had so much possibility for pain for her. She stayed silent, hoping he was right, but not ready to lay down anything precious to bet on it.

[w_cain]

Cain was no Viewer. He had no idea what Az was thinking . Not without her sharing.

"People react to situations in different ways, princess. What works in one situation can get you killed in another. Nothing I can say is gonna make you feel better. You're gonna have to deal with this in you're own way." He held her like he had held Jeb when his grandmother had died when the boy was seven.

He'd been hurting then as well. He didn't much in the way of answers. But sometimes just sharing pain helped. No matter the age.

"You hitting one longcoat... if you killed him, it may have sent a shock back at you. You aren't the witch, not only woulnd't you have absorbed it and enjoyed it, you'd reject it and shield from it. There's no shame in that. Az, you were afraid for more than yourself. One of the few things I *DO* know about magic is emotions can either strengthen it or really play havoc with it. I think I payed more attention to the pooch that day than Deej did." He pressed a fatherly kiss to the top of Az's head. Into her dark hair.

"Later, I'm gonna be havin' a talk with the Duchess and her 'spy'."

That was gonna take tact he might not possess. Maybe Dave should take care of the Duchess, with a trained diplomat in attendance. But Az's story about this 'spy's enjoyment was stinking worse than a week old corpse.

"You spend as much time as you want here. I know *I* am. I'd forgive you, princess, but I don't see anything to forgive."

"My boy... he's always had this stubborn streak, a bit pig headed. Likes to have things his way. Don't know where he might get that. I blame his mother. He apparently doesn't remember the last few years. It's commin' back. He was reacting on lies and memories without facts. It doesn't excuse him. And you owe him one hell of a slap. But he will come around. Or he'll be guarding the boarder of the desert for a month."

[az_of_the_oz]

He was right. No simple words could take away her mixture of pain, shame and guilt. It would take time and events for her to be able to properly sort out everything, figure out a way to truly understand what had happened. She nodded in response, even if she was not sure what her own way of dealing with it was. Her original tactic of trying to pretend most of it did not happen had only come back to bite her in the rear, as she still had those issues that needed to be resolved.

She was not used to being comforted, not in any sort of parental fashion. A few instances when she was much much younger, when her mother both had the time and realization that Az was scared or hurt. Having the Queen as her mother, and an involved Prince Consort had left her little time one on one with either of them. They had made an effort more when she was older, when they realized that between their two daughters, they needed to devote more time to them.

"I should have been able to do something..." she persisted. "Been able to fall back on something when my magic failed me. Been able to stop the steel toed boots or heavy fists of the Longcoat."

His word choice confused her, "Spy? He was a spy?" She had known that she had been Zero's ex-wife. But the Longcoat had been a spy? For Ix? "I knew he was sharing her bed, but..."

When her tears were completely brushed away, Az laughed softly, the sound coming out somewhat broken. "Of course, his mother. Has nothing at all to do with a certain stubborn former Tin Man? Must be a Cain trait." She pulled out of his arms, climbing to her feet. A soft swallow, and she turned to look at him, "I should go." She looked over at her sister, bending to brush a kiss on her forehead, and then nodded to Cain and left.