Catalyst
Rating: M
Pairing: DG/Cain
Summary: She really needed to put a better lock on her door because Cain was definitely violating her personal space. Then again, knowing him, he’d shoot the lock off and then where would she be? Probably in a room that had a door with a smoking hole in it… She needed to make some friends that didn’t pop out of cramped and questionable materials, but she digressed.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Tin Man.
As he watched DG scribbling notes like mad at the small desk in the corner of his sitting room he was sure no one could call her anything but fully committed to what she put her mind to. She had been at this for three days now, barely stopping long enough to sleep, let alone sit down for a meal. He had to literally force her to stop and eat more than once and she had inhaled the food so fast he hadn’t even had a chance to ask her how things were going, and that was when she wasn’t in the library with her sister and Tutor. The only time he’d seen her was late at night when she had brought more books than she should have been able to carry and so many notes he wasn’t sure how she was keeping track. The last two days he had actually gone to sleep without her and she’d been up before him, leaving him to wonder if she’d ever come to bed to begin with.
Now it was past midnight, again, and he wanted to go to bed, with her this time. He had been pushing near as hard as her and he was starting to show the strain of it. It hardly helped that Jeb was still fuming at him, all but ignoring his presence, and he felt utterly unwanted. With Deeg so caught up in her own work she hadn’t noticed the added stress, and despite himself he was loosing control of his temper. Nothing was better at driving it up than uncertainty with Jeb, and without the kid diffusing him he was at his wits end. He was sure the added stress of knowing they were all in danger and everyone was banking on his plan working was helping in the slightest. He might think the plan was a good one, but he’d seen enough schemes go wrong to know this could unravel at their feet with deadly consequence.
Standing up from his chair he put his report to the side and walked over to her. He saw her sketching something like mad, some sort of human image with numbers and symbols all around it, and set his hands on her shoulders. She hummed distractedly at the touch, never taking her eyes off her work, and he kissed the top of her head. “Come to bed, Darlin’.”
“I need to finish this.” She said, not meanly or as a way to chase him off, simply as a fact of the matter. “I’ll be there soon.”
Unwilling to argue the point he ran his thumbs over her shoulders in a silent acceptance, about to move off, when she hissed at the slight touch. He paused, dropping the pressure at once and titling his head so he could see her face. She hid it quickly but he caught a flash of pain in her face before it vanished. “Kid?”
She smiled at him brightly, very brightly, and he was suspicious at once. “I used a little bit too much magic. It’s fine.”
“How much is a little bit?” He asked, knowing she would only hurt if she was drained, and that only happened if she used far too much magic. Holding up her free hand she put her thumb and finger close together to show him. He continued to stare at her unblinkingly and she smiled even more. He was less than convinced. “DG.”
Setting the pen down she reached up and squeezed his hand as she leaned back and set her head on her chest. “I’m fine. I need to get this done. It’s been trickier than I thought, but we’ve almost got it.”
“You can’t go drainin’ yourself when someone is likely to attack you again at any moment. What are you goin’ to do if that happens? You can’t defend yourself if you’re drained.”
The kid frowned at the sharpness in his tone. “We need to get this right. You’re plan is good, everyone thinks so. If it works this’ll all be over in the next few days, and besides, you’re here with me.”
“I can’t protect you from everything!” He snapped, his temper finally hitting its end, and the kid jumped at the sudden anger. “I think that’s been pretty damn apparent the last few weeks!”
“Cain?” She asked, turning in the chair as he stalked off across the room, trying to pace off some of his frustration. It occurred to him in a flash that now that he was talking to her about what was going on in his head he was having a problem internalizing things. How that had happened he wasn’t sure, but for the life of him, at this moment, he couldn’t bottle it back up again.
At a loss, and hardly wanting to get in a fight with her when she’d done absolutely nothing wrong, he headed to his bedroom. “I’m goin’ to bed. Try to sleep at some point.” With that he stepped into the other room and forced himself to shut the door softly instead of slamming it closed the way he wanted to.
No sooner had he shrugged out of his vest and set his gun on the small table next to the bed than there was a soft knock on the door and it eased open. “Wyatt?” the kid stepped hesitantly into the room. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He said, focused on his cuff links instead of her. He was ashamed of the momentary loss of control and he didn’t want her to see that in his face on top of the anger and frustration.
The kid leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, nothing says Wyatt Cain is fine like a mini explosion of rage and screaming.”
“I didn’t mean to yell.” He said sincerely.
“I never said you did.” She watched him from across the room, as if she could sense his need for space. “Are you going to make me ask again or are you going to tell me? Of course, there are other more annoying options as well. I could get all naggy and up in your face, but I doubt either of us would really enjoy that.”
No, he very much doubted that either of them would have a good time doing that. “Everything caught up to me is all. I’ll be fine once this is done and over with.”
She sighed. “I suppose half a truth is better than a flat out lie.” He winced at that call. “Do you want to try one more time?”
“I don’t rightly know what to say to you.” He said.
She watched him for a second. “Is it because you don’t want me to worry about something or you really don’t know what to say?”
He was constantly amazed by her insight into his thought process. “A bit of both.” He admitted.
“I’m not sure you know, but the less you tell me the more worried I tend to get. I’m afraid you Cain men have this protection thing muddled about midway through the whole thought process, although the idea behind it is sweet all the same.”
He eyed her. “Cain men?” He asked, catching onto the plural.
She hummed in agreement. “Apparently Olivia is about to pummel your son so she can get answers. He’s left her in the dark over what’s happening. I told her to corner him and bully it out of him, which in retrospect, while good for her, is likely going to get him even angrier at me.”
“He isn’t angry at you-“
“Oh, he is furious with me.” She interrupted. “Which pales in comparison to the seething rage he’s been directing at you.” He let out a frustrated breath and sat on the edge of the bed so he could get his boots off. Deeg walked over and sat down next to him. She was quiet for a few seconds before speaking. “This isn’t what I want for you. I know how important Jeb is to you. I know how much you love him. If what we have is going to separate you from him again maybe we should break it off.”
That had him freezing as he shoved his second boot under the bed. His stomach dropped unpleasantly and he straightened up, looking her dead in the eye. Her face was calm but he saw real pain in her eyes. “You don’t really want that.” He stated.
“What I really want is for you to be happy. You won’t ever be happy without Jeb.” Something dark passed over her eyes. “But maybe you could be happy without me. There are other women out there, and you could make any of them happy and I’m sure a few of them could make you happy right back.”
“DG-“
She cut him off. “I won’t be the reason you don’t have a family again. God knows I’ve hardly made your life easier anyway. All I do is get you into more trouble every other day.”
He didn’t want to hear anymore of this. “Stop it, Kid.”
She slumped all over. “I can’t stop when I know how upset you are. I have ninety-nine percent of my attention on the most complex spell I’ve ever heard of or could even imagine, and I can still see you’ve worked yourself up again. And yeah, I know part of it has to do with Vy-sor, but let’s face it, that’s not the bulk of it. This is a problem for you, I’m a problem, and a big one.”
Reaching over he grabbed her carefully and dragged her into his lap. Her arm went around his shoulder automatically to keep her balance and to her credit she never broke eye contact. “You aren’t a problem.” He cupped her face tenderly. “And Jeb would be just as angry no matter who I was with. He’s a man in a lot of ways, but this is too much for him. He can’t understand how I could let Adora go and pick someone else. He’s gone and gotten emotional about it, which he has every right to do, but he doesn’t deal with emotions well.” He gave her a rueful smile. “Bit of a family trait.”
“Wyatt-“
“I’m not discussin’ this. It’s ridiculous. I love you and you love me. Complications happen to everyone. This one happens to be our complication.” He knew, once again, that he was benefitting from past experience where she had none. Where she saw the ultimate destruction of their relationship he simple saw an obstacle that they would deal with and overcome.
“You mean on top of me being a princess with serious memory loss? With me being someone who’s so crazy busy I haven’t seen you in almost three days despite sharing a room? Besides me being someone who attracts dangerous things the way a magnet attracts metal? Other than that, and all my other random emotional baggage, this is our complication, the possible destruction of your relationship with your only child?”
“You and your dramatic flair.” He said with some amusement despite the seriousness of this conversation. He rubbed her cheek gently, going serious again. “Darlin’, I love you. We’ve got some problems right now, no point in denyin’ that, but you can’t go turnin’ tail and runnin’ every time we hit a snag.”
“I’m trying to help.” She said sadly.
“You scarin’ the life out of me tryin’ to leave isn’t doin’ anything to help either of us. And I know right enough I’m not helpin’ either.” He kissed her carefully. “This whole situation is scarin’ me. You keep findin’ yourself in bad situations I can’t seem to get you out of. I don’t like you in danger, I don’t like seein’ you afraid, and I don’t like you workin’ yourself into a drain. I know you can take care of yourself but this is gettin’ downright lopsided. I’m supposed to be takin’ care of you but I just can’t seem to get a foot up in this situation. I’m not sure I can protect you when all this goes down. I’m not sure you can understand how frightenin’ that is for me.”
She nodded when he was finished, rubbing his shoulder reassuringly. “You’re protecting me more than you seem to realize. This isn’t lopsided. You keep me sane in the insanity of our lives. I would totally buckle under the pressure if you weren’t here.” Her arms slid around him in a hug. “I didn’t mean to upset you more. I really just want you happy.”
“You do make me happy.” He assured her. “No one makes me happy the way you make me happy. Stop thinkin’ that you leavin’ is goin’ to make anything better. It won’t make anything better. You make me better bein’ here.”
“Okay.” She said, holding onto him tightly for a moment before sitting back. “I’m scared too even if it isn’t in the same way.” She cuddled herself closer to him. “I was also pretty freaked out that you might agree with me about breaking up.”
“That should be a pretty good indication it was a bad idea.” He kissed her again, holding her close.
“Do you want me to talk to Jeb?” She asked, searching for the right answer to this and hoping he knew. Honestly though, he wasn’t sure he knew the answer other than to let this ride itself out.
“Let’s worry about that after we take care of Vy-sor. I’m sure Jeb will still be angry four days from now.” He smiled at her teasingly. “He’s got the stubborn persistence to hold onto it for at least ten times that long.”
That had her lips twitching. “You be nice about your son. He’s just the same as you are.”
“That’s why I get to pick on him. It’s my fatherly right to point out his flaws so I don’t have to deal with mine.”
She laughed, her eyes sparkling the way they were supposed to. “You’re a rotten man.”
“I can’t imagine why you would want me.”
She shoved at his shoulder at his teasing. “Dork.”
He smiled and kissed her forehead, sensing they were both calm again and settled with one another. “Now, how long have you been drained?”
She sent him an annoyed look but shook her head in surrender. “Since your office blew up.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of candy wrappers. “I feel I may have a problem. I’ve become a junk food junky in less than a week. It’s remarkable.”
“You’ve been in a drain for three days?”
“Please don’t get mad.” She requested. “We needed to get this spell right and you know I’m the powerhouse. Az has been siphoning off my magic so she can construct more. The longer she can go the farther we get, so I’ve been sharing my light with her.”
“I’m not mad.” Well, he was but not with her. He was angry all the way down to his core with the situation. “I’m worried. How long can you go like this before you collapse?”
“I suppose we’ll find out.” She responded without much worry. He figured he would worry enough for the both of them.
“You drive me crazy sometimes.” He told her even as he kissed her forehead. “Do you want me to go get you more sugar?”
Her lip twitched. “What a ridiculous question to hear. Who would have thought that would ever come out of your mouth?” He rolled his eyes and she brushed his back with her fingers. “Actually the candy stopped helping yesterday.” He frowned and she grimaced. “I think I need to rest, but I can’t get comfortable enough to fall asleep.”
“You’re hurtin’?”
She shrugged. “It’s really more of a dull ache. It’s annoying and Raw told me he can’t really do anything with his gift because it’s from my magic not my body.”
If a healing gift wouldn’t work and the sugar stopped helping too he saw only one option. She needed to relax enough to sleep and maybe he could help with that. “Go take a hot bath and I’ll give you a massage. That might help.”
“You don’t need to do that.” She told him.
“This is non-negotiable.” He told her firmly as he set her on her feet. “Go on now.” He gave her a little push toward the bathroom.
“Bossy.” She told him sassily as she walked into the bathroom and tugged her shirt up over her head. He watched her move with avid interest as she disappeared and then began to change as the water in the tub started. He left her alone to soak, occupying himself with getting his room back in order while he had a moment, and fifteen minutes later she came out wrapped up in a towel. She headed toward his dresser, and he knew she was after one of his shirts because she liked to sleep in them, but he diverted her. Grabbing her hips he kissed her neck and spun her back around.
“No you don’t. Get on the bed.” She smiled slightly and he grabbed one of his shirts for her before following after her. He set the garment on the bed next to the pillow so she could put it on later if she wanted to. She was sitting with her legs crossed under her when he turned back around. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, noting how much she liked the affection as she leaned into his touch. “Where’s it hurt?”
“My back is the worst.” She told him after another kiss of encouragement.
“Lay down on your stomach, Darlin’. I’ll make it better so you can sleep.”
She twisted around and stretched out over the blanket. “Thank you.”
He leaned down and kissed the back of her neck as he eased the towel off her. “Let’s make you feel better.” He rubbed her carefully at first, unsure of exactly how tender she was at the moment. About a minute in and he worked out that she was very tender, so much so he was shocked she managed to sit in a chair for as long as she had. Then he began to wonder if that had made the whole thing worse because it seemed the majority of the ache was in her lower back and shoulders, the places she generally put strain on while she wrote and read. He hit a sensitive spot and she flinched. He decided to set up some ground rules. “Deeg, you’re goin’ to have to tell me when and where it hurts. I don’t want to make it worse.”
“It hurts all over. I don’t know how you want me to direct you here.”
“Fair enough.” He said, putting the flats of his hands on her back and running them all the way up her spine. That had her relaxing a little and she stretched out farther. It took him about twenty minutes to make the pain stop, but he knew the second it began to vanish. She simply went limp all over and her eyes fluttered shut. He rubbed her for another ten minutes before kissing her shoulder and getting up to turn off the lights. The kid shifted and pulled the shirt he’d brought over on before crawling groggily under the blankets.
He slipped in next to her and she cuddled up against him. “Thank you, Wyatt.”
“You’re welcome. Do you feel better?”
“A lot better.” She assured him softly. “Everything will work out.” She mumbled, slipping farther toward sleep. “Crafty tin man brain came up with a great idea.”
The reminder had his stomach knotting back up but he didn’t let her see it. He kissed her forehead and held her close. “Go to sleep.” He urged softly as he made a promise to himself that he would protect her no matter what happened. “I’ll see you in the mornin’.”
“Let’s have breakfast together.”
He liked that idea and stroked her hair back easily. “Maybe the chef will have those apple muffins.” He said hopefully, the idea of his favorite backed good momentarily erasing his worry. For some reason that had her giggling and he raised an eyebrow. “What’s funny?”
“Nothing, I just have to show you a spell I learned if that’s the case.”
Shaking his head, and knowing better than to ask, he adjusted the blanket around them. “You’re drained away and you want to show me a spell?”
“You’ll appreciate it when you see it.” She assured him with a grin, that was when he knew he was in trouble. He was suddenly torn between wanting to know and wishing the chef would never bake another muffin for the rest of his life.
Author Note: Wow! I updated! I really have no excuse except writer’s block for the huge long horrible delay. So I really am sorry about it. I’ll do my best to have another chapter up in a day or two as I am now back in the Tin Man writing mode, and don’t worry the next few chapters will be more action packed.
Pairing: DG/Cain
Summary: She really needed to put a better lock on her door because Cain was definitely violating her personal space. Then again, knowing him, he’d shoot the lock off and then where would she be? Probably in a room that had a door with a smoking hole in it… She needed to make some friends that didn’t pop out of cramped and questionable materials, but she digressed.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Tin Man.
As he watched DG scribbling notes like mad at the small desk in the corner of his sitting room he was sure no one could call her anything but fully committed to what she put her mind to. She had been at this for three days now, barely stopping long enough to sleep, let alone sit down for a meal. He had to literally force her to stop and eat more than once and she had inhaled the food so fast he hadn’t even had a chance to ask her how things were going, and that was when she wasn’t in the library with her sister and Tutor. The only time he’d seen her was late at night when she had brought more books than she should have been able to carry and so many notes he wasn’t sure how she was keeping track. The last two days he had actually gone to sleep without her and she’d been up before him, leaving him to wonder if she’d ever come to bed to begin with.
Now it was past midnight, again, and he wanted to go to bed, with her this time. He had been pushing near as hard as her and he was starting to show the strain of it. It hardly helped that Jeb was still fuming at him, all but ignoring his presence, and he felt utterly unwanted. With Deeg so caught up in her own work she hadn’t noticed the added stress, and despite himself he was loosing control of his temper. Nothing was better at driving it up than uncertainty with Jeb, and without the kid diffusing him he was at his wits end. He was sure the added stress of knowing they were all in danger and everyone was banking on his plan working was helping in the slightest. He might think the plan was a good one, but he’d seen enough schemes go wrong to know this could unravel at their feet with deadly consequence.
Standing up from his chair he put his report to the side and walked over to her. He saw her sketching something like mad, some sort of human image with numbers and symbols all around it, and set his hands on her shoulders. She hummed distractedly at the touch, never taking her eyes off her work, and he kissed the top of her head. “Come to bed, Darlin’.”
“I need to finish this.” She said, not meanly or as a way to chase him off, simply as a fact of the matter. “I’ll be there soon.”
Unwilling to argue the point he ran his thumbs over her shoulders in a silent acceptance, about to move off, when she hissed at the slight touch. He paused, dropping the pressure at once and titling his head so he could see her face. She hid it quickly but he caught a flash of pain in her face before it vanished. “Kid?”
She smiled at him brightly, very brightly, and he was suspicious at once. “I used a little bit too much magic. It’s fine.”
“How much is a little bit?” He asked, knowing she would only hurt if she was drained, and that only happened if she used far too much magic. Holding up her free hand she put her thumb and finger close together to show him. He continued to stare at her unblinkingly and she smiled even more. He was less than convinced. “DG.”
Setting the pen down she reached up and squeezed his hand as she leaned back and set her head on her chest. “I’m fine. I need to get this done. It’s been trickier than I thought, but we’ve almost got it.”
“You can’t go drainin’ yourself when someone is likely to attack you again at any moment. What are you goin’ to do if that happens? You can’t defend yourself if you’re drained.”
The kid frowned at the sharpness in his tone. “We need to get this right. You’re plan is good, everyone thinks so. If it works this’ll all be over in the next few days, and besides, you’re here with me.”
“I can’t protect you from everything!” He snapped, his temper finally hitting its end, and the kid jumped at the sudden anger. “I think that’s been pretty damn apparent the last few weeks!”
“Cain?” She asked, turning in the chair as he stalked off across the room, trying to pace off some of his frustration. It occurred to him in a flash that now that he was talking to her about what was going on in his head he was having a problem internalizing things. How that had happened he wasn’t sure, but for the life of him, at this moment, he couldn’t bottle it back up again.
At a loss, and hardly wanting to get in a fight with her when she’d done absolutely nothing wrong, he headed to his bedroom. “I’m goin’ to bed. Try to sleep at some point.” With that he stepped into the other room and forced himself to shut the door softly instead of slamming it closed the way he wanted to.
No sooner had he shrugged out of his vest and set his gun on the small table next to the bed than there was a soft knock on the door and it eased open. “Wyatt?” the kid stepped hesitantly into the room. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He said, focused on his cuff links instead of her. He was ashamed of the momentary loss of control and he didn’t want her to see that in his face on top of the anger and frustration.
The kid leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, nothing says Wyatt Cain is fine like a mini explosion of rage and screaming.”
“I didn’t mean to yell.” He said sincerely.
“I never said you did.” She watched him from across the room, as if she could sense his need for space. “Are you going to make me ask again or are you going to tell me? Of course, there are other more annoying options as well. I could get all naggy and up in your face, but I doubt either of us would really enjoy that.”
No, he very much doubted that either of them would have a good time doing that. “Everything caught up to me is all. I’ll be fine once this is done and over with.”
She sighed. “I suppose half a truth is better than a flat out lie.” He winced at that call. “Do you want to try one more time?”
“I don’t rightly know what to say to you.” He said.
She watched him for a second. “Is it because you don’t want me to worry about something or you really don’t know what to say?”
He was constantly amazed by her insight into his thought process. “A bit of both.” He admitted.
“I’m not sure you know, but the less you tell me the more worried I tend to get. I’m afraid you Cain men have this protection thing muddled about midway through the whole thought process, although the idea behind it is sweet all the same.”
He eyed her. “Cain men?” He asked, catching onto the plural.
She hummed in agreement. “Apparently Olivia is about to pummel your son so she can get answers. He’s left her in the dark over what’s happening. I told her to corner him and bully it out of him, which in retrospect, while good for her, is likely going to get him even angrier at me.”
“He isn’t angry at you-“
“Oh, he is furious with me.” She interrupted. “Which pales in comparison to the seething rage he’s been directing at you.” He let out a frustrated breath and sat on the edge of the bed so he could get his boots off. Deeg walked over and sat down next to him. She was quiet for a few seconds before speaking. “This isn’t what I want for you. I know how important Jeb is to you. I know how much you love him. If what we have is going to separate you from him again maybe we should break it off.”
That had him freezing as he shoved his second boot under the bed. His stomach dropped unpleasantly and he straightened up, looking her dead in the eye. Her face was calm but he saw real pain in her eyes. “You don’t really want that.” He stated.
“What I really want is for you to be happy. You won’t ever be happy without Jeb.” Something dark passed over her eyes. “But maybe you could be happy without me. There are other women out there, and you could make any of them happy and I’m sure a few of them could make you happy right back.”
“DG-“
She cut him off. “I won’t be the reason you don’t have a family again. God knows I’ve hardly made your life easier anyway. All I do is get you into more trouble every other day.”
He didn’t want to hear anymore of this. “Stop it, Kid.”
She slumped all over. “I can’t stop when I know how upset you are. I have ninety-nine percent of my attention on the most complex spell I’ve ever heard of or could even imagine, and I can still see you’ve worked yourself up again. And yeah, I know part of it has to do with Vy-sor, but let’s face it, that’s not the bulk of it. This is a problem for you, I’m a problem, and a big one.”
Reaching over he grabbed her carefully and dragged her into his lap. Her arm went around his shoulder automatically to keep her balance and to her credit she never broke eye contact. “You aren’t a problem.” He cupped her face tenderly. “And Jeb would be just as angry no matter who I was with. He’s a man in a lot of ways, but this is too much for him. He can’t understand how I could let Adora go and pick someone else. He’s gone and gotten emotional about it, which he has every right to do, but he doesn’t deal with emotions well.” He gave her a rueful smile. “Bit of a family trait.”
“Wyatt-“
“I’m not discussin’ this. It’s ridiculous. I love you and you love me. Complications happen to everyone. This one happens to be our complication.” He knew, once again, that he was benefitting from past experience where she had none. Where she saw the ultimate destruction of their relationship he simple saw an obstacle that they would deal with and overcome.
“You mean on top of me being a princess with serious memory loss? With me being someone who’s so crazy busy I haven’t seen you in almost three days despite sharing a room? Besides me being someone who attracts dangerous things the way a magnet attracts metal? Other than that, and all my other random emotional baggage, this is our complication, the possible destruction of your relationship with your only child?”
“You and your dramatic flair.” He said with some amusement despite the seriousness of this conversation. He rubbed her cheek gently, going serious again. “Darlin’, I love you. We’ve got some problems right now, no point in denyin’ that, but you can’t go turnin’ tail and runnin’ every time we hit a snag.”
“I’m trying to help.” She said sadly.
“You scarin’ the life out of me tryin’ to leave isn’t doin’ anything to help either of us. And I know right enough I’m not helpin’ either.” He kissed her carefully. “This whole situation is scarin’ me. You keep findin’ yourself in bad situations I can’t seem to get you out of. I don’t like you in danger, I don’t like seein’ you afraid, and I don’t like you workin’ yourself into a drain. I know you can take care of yourself but this is gettin’ downright lopsided. I’m supposed to be takin’ care of you but I just can’t seem to get a foot up in this situation. I’m not sure I can protect you when all this goes down. I’m not sure you can understand how frightenin’ that is for me.”
She nodded when he was finished, rubbing his shoulder reassuringly. “You’re protecting me more than you seem to realize. This isn’t lopsided. You keep me sane in the insanity of our lives. I would totally buckle under the pressure if you weren’t here.” Her arms slid around him in a hug. “I didn’t mean to upset you more. I really just want you happy.”
“You do make me happy.” He assured her. “No one makes me happy the way you make me happy. Stop thinkin’ that you leavin’ is goin’ to make anything better. It won’t make anything better. You make me better bein’ here.”
“Okay.” She said, holding onto him tightly for a moment before sitting back. “I’m scared too even if it isn’t in the same way.” She cuddled herself closer to him. “I was also pretty freaked out that you might agree with me about breaking up.”
“That should be a pretty good indication it was a bad idea.” He kissed her again, holding her close.
“Do you want me to talk to Jeb?” She asked, searching for the right answer to this and hoping he knew. Honestly though, he wasn’t sure he knew the answer other than to let this ride itself out.
“Let’s worry about that after we take care of Vy-sor. I’m sure Jeb will still be angry four days from now.” He smiled at her teasingly. “He’s got the stubborn persistence to hold onto it for at least ten times that long.”
That had her lips twitching. “You be nice about your son. He’s just the same as you are.”
“That’s why I get to pick on him. It’s my fatherly right to point out his flaws so I don’t have to deal with mine.”
She laughed, her eyes sparkling the way they were supposed to. “You’re a rotten man.”
“I can’t imagine why you would want me.”
She shoved at his shoulder at his teasing. “Dork.”
He smiled and kissed her forehead, sensing they were both calm again and settled with one another. “Now, how long have you been drained?”
She sent him an annoyed look but shook her head in surrender. “Since your office blew up.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of candy wrappers. “I feel I may have a problem. I’ve become a junk food junky in less than a week. It’s remarkable.”
“You’ve been in a drain for three days?”
“Please don’t get mad.” She requested. “We needed to get this spell right and you know I’m the powerhouse. Az has been siphoning off my magic so she can construct more. The longer she can go the farther we get, so I’ve been sharing my light with her.”
“I’m not mad.” Well, he was but not with her. He was angry all the way down to his core with the situation. “I’m worried. How long can you go like this before you collapse?”
“I suppose we’ll find out.” She responded without much worry. He figured he would worry enough for the both of them.
“You drive me crazy sometimes.” He told her even as he kissed her forehead. “Do you want me to go get you more sugar?”
Her lip twitched. “What a ridiculous question to hear. Who would have thought that would ever come out of your mouth?” He rolled his eyes and she brushed his back with her fingers. “Actually the candy stopped helping yesterday.” He frowned and she grimaced. “I think I need to rest, but I can’t get comfortable enough to fall asleep.”
“You’re hurtin’?”
She shrugged. “It’s really more of a dull ache. It’s annoying and Raw told me he can’t really do anything with his gift because it’s from my magic not my body.”
If a healing gift wouldn’t work and the sugar stopped helping too he saw only one option. She needed to relax enough to sleep and maybe he could help with that. “Go take a hot bath and I’ll give you a massage. That might help.”
“You don’t need to do that.” She told him.
“This is non-negotiable.” He told her firmly as he set her on her feet. “Go on now.” He gave her a little push toward the bathroom.
“Bossy.” She told him sassily as she walked into the bathroom and tugged her shirt up over her head. He watched her move with avid interest as she disappeared and then began to change as the water in the tub started. He left her alone to soak, occupying himself with getting his room back in order while he had a moment, and fifteen minutes later she came out wrapped up in a towel. She headed toward his dresser, and he knew she was after one of his shirts because she liked to sleep in them, but he diverted her. Grabbing her hips he kissed her neck and spun her back around.
“No you don’t. Get on the bed.” She smiled slightly and he grabbed one of his shirts for her before following after her. He set the garment on the bed next to the pillow so she could put it on later if she wanted to. She was sitting with her legs crossed under her when he turned back around. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, noting how much she liked the affection as she leaned into his touch. “Where’s it hurt?”
“My back is the worst.” She told him after another kiss of encouragement.
“Lay down on your stomach, Darlin’. I’ll make it better so you can sleep.”
She twisted around and stretched out over the blanket. “Thank you.”
He leaned down and kissed the back of her neck as he eased the towel off her. “Let’s make you feel better.” He rubbed her carefully at first, unsure of exactly how tender she was at the moment. About a minute in and he worked out that she was very tender, so much so he was shocked she managed to sit in a chair for as long as she had. Then he began to wonder if that had made the whole thing worse because it seemed the majority of the ache was in her lower back and shoulders, the places she generally put strain on while she wrote and read. He hit a sensitive spot and she flinched. He decided to set up some ground rules. “Deeg, you’re goin’ to have to tell me when and where it hurts. I don’t want to make it worse.”
“It hurts all over. I don’t know how you want me to direct you here.”
“Fair enough.” He said, putting the flats of his hands on her back and running them all the way up her spine. That had her relaxing a little and she stretched out farther. It took him about twenty minutes to make the pain stop, but he knew the second it began to vanish. She simply went limp all over and her eyes fluttered shut. He rubbed her for another ten minutes before kissing her shoulder and getting up to turn off the lights. The kid shifted and pulled the shirt he’d brought over on before crawling groggily under the blankets.
He slipped in next to her and she cuddled up against him. “Thank you, Wyatt.”
“You’re welcome. Do you feel better?”
“A lot better.” She assured him softly. “Everything will work out.” She mumbled, slipping farther toward sleep. “Crafty tin man brain came up with a great idea.”
The reminder had his stomach knotting back up but he didn’t let her see it. He kissed her forehead and held her close. “Go to sleep.” He urged softly as he made a promise to himself that he would protect her no matter what happened. “I’ll see you in the mornin’.”
“Let’s have breakfast together.”
He liked that idea and stroked her hair back easily. “Maybe the chef will have those apple muffins.” He said hopefully, the idea of his favorite backed good momentarily erasing his worry. For some reason that had her giggling and he raised an eyebrow. “What’s funny?”
“Nothing, I just have to show you a spell I learned if that’s the case.”
Shaking his head, and knowing better than to ask, he adjusted the blanket around them. “You’re drained away and you want to show me a spell?”
“You’ll appreciate it when you see it.” She assured him with a grin, that was when he knew he was in trouble. He was suddenly torn between wanting to know and wishing the chef would never bake another muffin for the rest of his life.
Author Note: Wow! I updated! I really have no excuse except writer’s block for the huge long horrible delay. So I really am sorry about it. I’ll do my best to have another chapter up in a day or two as I am now back in the Tin Man writing mode, and don’t worry the next few chapters will be more action packed.