Fic: Follow You Home - California Queen (2/20)

Jun 18, 2008 12:50

Title: Follow You Home - California Queen (2/20)
Author: Erin (erinm_4600)
Characters, Pairing: Cain and DG, but if you saw 'em in the miniseries, they're here or mentioned. Plus some OCs
Rating: PG
Summary: DG left the Zone. Cain followed.
Warning: post-series. Blame n_e_star, for she fed Steve. ;)
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 rest of 'em are mine. Title comes from song of same name by Nickelback.

Prologue One . Prologue Two
California Queen: Part One . Part Two . Part Three . Part Four . Part Five . Part Six . Part Seven . Part Eight . Part Nine . Part Ten . Part Eleven . Part Twelve . Part Thirteen . Part Fourteen . Part Fifteen . Part Sixteen . Part Seventeen . Part Eighteen . Part Nineteen . Part Twenty
California Tin | California Sun
Five | Waking Up (CaliSun 20.2) | Almost Like Being in Love (CaliSun 24.5) | An Hour and 45 Minutes | Hava Nagila | Unexpected

"I'd like to go look at the Tea Room again; have lunch," the woman said to her fiancée. He nodded and they both smiled to DG, who nodded to them and stepped back so they could pass. She watched them walk past and turned her head back as she shifted to head back into the Gallery when she saw him.

Everything stopped.

Cain cleared the last high shrub and saw a trio standing past the archway ahead of him. The woman on the left said something to the man next to her and they moved off to his right. But his gaze was locked on the third person.

Wyatt Cain wasn't a man of fancy words. Actually, he wasn't a man of many words at all. So when the only thing he could think as he looked at DG was that she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, he sure meant it.

DG forced herself to look away from Cain for a moment, glancing to her right and then back, her eyes locking on anything but Cain as she took a step forward and moved toward him slowly. She prepared herself for the chastising she knew was on the tip of his tongue.

Stopping a hair's distance away from arm's-length, she lifted her head to look at Cain. He took in a long breath and asked: "Are you all right?" DG nodded meekly and Cain let out the breath. "Well, first things-" He moved quickly, pulling DG into a bear-hug. She blinked at the shock of Cain initiating the hug and let her eyes close.

Cain felt DG go rigid and pulled away, looking her over to see that she didn't have any visible injuries. She glanced up to him and then away again quickly. Her hamster had definitely left the wheel at the sight of Wyatt Cain.

In California.

Snapping herself out of the haze, DG remembered that she still had a job and needed to tend to her duties. 'Crap,' she thought, knowing that Cain would probably want to drag her back to the Zone right then and there. Would he understand that she had responsibilities and her bosses would, most likely, not accept an excuse of 'Hey, I have to go back to a semi-parallel world where I'm in line for the throne, so I won't be in to work tomorrow, if that's okay?'

Pulling free from Cain's grasp, DG stepped back toward the archway and waved for him to follow. She hurried across the patio and pulled on the large door leading into the Gallery and ushered Cain inside. He didn't argue with her, assuming that she was moving them inside to talk. He stopped as he took in the sight of the large open room, with a gallery leading off to the right behind another set of doors.

DG moved over to the snack counter and unclipped her employee badge, passing it across to the girl manning the station and picked up a sandwich. Holding it up for the girl to see, DG reached for a pamphlet rack and pulled out a map of the grounds and checked her watch. DG had come to learn that the automatic paycheck withdrawal was a lifesaver, if not a dangerous perk of her position.

Cain jumped slightly when DG's hand found his arm and she nodded for him to move around the counter to the other side of the room. As they reached the doors leading outside to the gardens, DG put the sandwich in Cain's hand and held up the map. "Walk through the gardens, look at the art," she said with a wave to the door leading outside and then to another set of doors behind her. "No food in there," she added quickly, pointing again to the doors behind her.

Cain moved to argue, but DG's hands shot up. "I've got three more hours before I can leave. Just..." She took a deep breath and motioned to the grounds on the map. "Stay... here." She sighed and raised the same hand to her forehead for a moment. She really didn't want to deal with him at the moment, and wasn't in the mood to even wait and see if he was going to argue.

But, she didn't want to just walk away from him, so she looked at him. Cain could practically hear her every thought just by looking at her eyes. Clenching his jaw, he nodded once and looked down to the sandwich in his hands. It was wrapped in plastic, which he found odd, but he said nothing. He would respect her wishes.

But only for three hours.

DG turned and walked away with every ounce of regal grace she'd learned in her lessons and moved into the main gallery, and cut across the open space for the door that lead upstairs to the offices. As soon as the door clicked behind her, DG leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, trying to force the panic attack away.

She had to know that someone would come for her; she wasn't that dense. And she had to know that, if anyone, it would be Cain. Part of her wished it had been anyone but him, because they might not have found her; and she could easily evade them, slip away into a crowd and they'd never find her. She had the smarts of this side and, shy of the Nurture Units, none of them should be able to find her.

But for the part of her that wished Cain hadn't found her, there was another part that made her heart jump at the sight of him. 'He had no idea what he was getting into coming through that storm. He's completely out of his element,' she told herself.

'He found you,' DG heard that little voice in her head. 'Of course he found me,' she told herself with a snap as she moved up the stairs. 'It's Cain.' Why didn't he grab her arm and drag her away into a travel storm? Why didn't he yell? 'He should have yelled. Told me he was disappointed in me and made me feel like I was six.' But, he didn't yell. There was no disappointment in his eyes.

It was relief.

And then she went and abandoned him in the lobby. God, she really did cut and run.

__________
The image in Part One is the image that inspired this whole thing, by the way... n_e_star pointed it out. ;)

series: caliqueen (fyh), fic: tin man, series: follow you home

Previous post Next post
Up