Title: Learning to Maneuver

Author: purplerhino

Disclaimer: I own nothing except characters not shown in the mini.

Part #9 of the "Learning" Series. Oneshot.

After a year and a half, they were moving. It was enough to drive Jeb Cain mad. He went over everything at least ten times before the final entourage went out.

The last of the personal belongings, clothing, some important furniture had finally arrived in Central City and been searched, inspected and put in place yesterday. The only luggage and personal things in the train were what the royals and court had needed for the last four days. Only eight trucks worth.

It had taken eighteen months for the Central Palace to be cleared of debris, scrubbed of graffiti, and generally restored by architects and artisans. Some of them volunteers. It took a month for everything to be set up for when they arrived.

People had been arriving in the city for a week, hoping to see the royal procession pass. Half the Tin Men were working crowd control and were being backed up by a contingent of the reinstated royal army. Both institutions only back on the job for the last nineteen months.

Who knew how many in the crowd were Reeges, the new rebels of the O.Z. seeking to oust the Gales from the throne and kill the family in retaliation for the witch's reign.

Jeb rode his large Andalusian, Whirlwind, alongside the car with dark tinted windows for the royal family. There would be public speeches tomorrow (another security nightmare) but for today the darkened car was for security amidst the banner waving crowds and cheers.

To the left there was the sharp rapport of a gunshot and one of the dark tinted windows grew a sudden spider web. There were three more firecracker pops and Jeb felt the breath hammered from his lungs as if someone had kicked him twice in the chest, once right below his heart, the pain of those two impacts dulled the punch to his arm. Bullets didn't really propel a person backwards dramatically, though they might stagger. Jeb Cain slumped backwards and to the right, cracking his head against the roof of the royal car. Everything went instantly black.

People were screaming. Military and Tin Men were already closing in on the area where some civilians had already attacked the gunman. Carl Jameson immediately took control and ordered the royal guard to get in tight formation around the car and he banged his fist against the hood of the vehicle to get the diver to speed up. He caught his Captain and helped someone next to the car get him down. Blood smeared the roof of the car, and splattered across the rump of the large, grey horse.

The door of the car opened and Captain Cain was shoved and hauled inside.

The redheaded bodyguard noted with a strangely detached satisfaction that all the guards had guns and rifles at the ready to take send a bullet as much as take one to protect the car and its cargo.

That could have been a distraction for another attempt.

The rest of the hurried procession made it to the Central Palace in ten minutes. Carl's heart was in his throat the entire way. He had no idea how bad Jeb was.

The Central Palace was a towering building of forty five floors wrapped in a marble façade. The living quarters were all above the thirtieth floor. But it was the second floor UNDER the building, the garage level, where the guard sprung to action.

Commander Cain was already running to the car, followed by both princesses and Raw.

The royal family had never been in that car. They'd been smuggled in over night as per the Captain's plan. The parade had been both a show and a decoy.

Phone calls had likely been made within minutes of the attack. The royals had known within moments, in the safety of the palace, that Jeb was down.

"How bad?" the Commander sounded desperate. Of course he was, his son had just been shot.

The car door opened and two men carefully removed Jeb Cain and lowered him to the floor. There was blood slowly leaking from under his head. Two holes were clearly shown on his dark uniform shirt. One just below his heart, the other to the left, where it would have punctured a lung if the other shot hadn't been fatal. Jameson had the morbid thought that blood didn't flow from bodies when the heart stopped. It seeped slowly.

"No!" Princess Azkadellia's cry filled the garage as both of her fists came up in front of her mouth. She was white as a sheet as her sister looked torn between going to her husband or sister.

The Commander was already pulling open his son's shirt, revealing one of Lord Ambrose's more recent inventions. The Vest. Fabric covered a fine meshed chain mail that covered special metal plates made to conform with movement. All the guards wore one under their uniforms. It was heavy and chaffed, but hopefully it did what it was intended to.

The Viewer was undoing the straps along the side, hurriedly removing the vest. He handed it to Jameson, as he was closest. Underneath two dark bruises were forming at the impact points, but there had been no penetration.

"We checked sir. No penetration, no blood. He's breathing. Head's bleeding a lot, but head wounds do that. Had a bandage under him in the car. We wrapped up his arm, too." One of Jeb's rescuers spoke respectfully to Raw.

"Hit in arm?" Raw spoke as he further pulled off Jeb's shirt to reveal heavy wrap around Jeb's bicep, stained heavily with blood. He seemed to deem their work good enough for now. "Clean through, not as bad as looks. Has head wound. Knocked out."

A human Healer and aide were pushing through the crowd of guards now.

"Nothing vital in arm. Brain bruised. Heal that." Raw knelt by Jeb's head and held a hand over both of Jeb's ears.

The human Healer checked the rest. "He's got a cracked rib and I think his sternum is damaged." The man spoke up.

Someone in the back let out a chuckle. "Bullets can't stop the Cap, but a tap to the head does."

Jameson noted it was one of the First Shadow Squad. The Second Squad made up half the guard that had been around the car. They had become a kind of brotherhood, a family, and Jeb was their leader.

"He's alive, Az. See, he's good. Not much gets through that thick Cain skull." DG had gone to her sister mostly because of the lack of room near Wyatt.

Jeb woke up to a vague headache and an odd throbbing in his arm. He felt kind of… distant. He recognized the feeling of the good kind of pain medication.

Azkadellia was standing over him. She smiled brightly as he focused on her. "There you are."

"Az?" Why was she here?

Her smile faded. "Don't you ever scare me like that again, mister. I think my own heart stopped for a few moments."

"Way to treat the wounded guy, Az." DG appeared at his other side. She offered him a glass of water. "Good news. The bullet proof vests work."

"Yeah, thanks." Jeb ran his hand over his chest. It also had a distant ache. "Something tells me when the meds ware off I'll wish it didn't."

"You father's getting a report about the whole thing. He'll be right in here the moment he's done." DG explained. "You scared the crap outta him, too."

"It's a good thing none of you were there." He didn't want to think about any of them being in the line of fire again. And he felt sick when he realized the window that had been hit was where Azkadellia would have been seated. "At least we avoided an assassination attempt."

"Just barely." Wyatt Cain came into the room. "We're all pretty sure you were the target, Jeb."

Everyone looked at Wyatt in shock.

"Me? Why me when the royal family was in sight? I'm hardly important." Jeb choked out.

"You are." DG's wide eyes fell on him. "Not only in your own right, but you're the son of the future Prince Consort."

Cain nodded gravely. "Either the assassins knew the car was a decoy, or figured it was too well guarded. The bullets that hit you were too high for a real attempt at the car, and no other guard was hit. It was you they were shooting for."

Jeb shook his head. "That's stupid." He looked at each of the faces around him. "Killing me would only upset every one. It'd hardly start a revolution."

"But the whole family would show up for the funeral." DG sounded sad. "We rarely all attend a single function together. There's always one to stays back for security. But we'd all attend a family funeral. A really good gunman getting through, or a bomb and the whole lot of us would be wiped out, with most of the most loyal supporters."

"Fuck." Jeb slammed his head back on the pillow and regretted it when the pain of stupidity rushed through.

"Sorry, Highnesses." Jeb's apology for language was only perfunctory.

"Yeah, like we never heard or said that one before." DG waved her hand.

"I've got a job to do." Jeb gave his father a meaningful look. He wasn't going to stop doing what he did.

"I know. And you'd hate being hid away, especially when you're so good at what you do. BUT, you're gonna have two of your own squad with you outside of the palace at all times. You just picked up body guards of your own. People will think they're around for whatever you're doing as extra security, and they will be. Yours." Cain held up a hand to cut off any arguing for the moment. "You're still gonna be on call with the First if needed. Surrounded by your people you'll be in no more danger than any other mission. But when you leave and attend anything public, you get two new playmates. You even get to pick who."

And his own people were already willing to die for him or on his command. Of course, their job was to make the other guy die instead, but the possibility was there.

"There are times I hate you." Jeb sighed. He knew he wasn't gonna win. His father was his superior officer, and he had two princesses willing to back it up as a royal command.

"I think it's in the job description of being a kid. You gotta hate your parents from time to time." Cain gloated.

"I'm not a kid." The glare was as sharp as Jeb's knives.

Cain smirked a bit. "You're still MY kid and will be when you're missing all your teeth and using a cane."

Azkadellia had slipped her hand into Jeb's and gave his fingers a squeeze. "Just don't get hurt again, please."

"I'll do my best." Jeb offered, knowing he could hardly make any promises.