Disclaimer: Tin Man is not mine.

Coming to Milltown had been the worst idea he'd had in years. Not that he had known what was going to happen but he hadn't thought on it nearly as much as he should have. All he'd wanted was to give the kid a break, a treat, after the year she'd had. He knew better than anyone what she'd forced herself through since they'd killed the witch. She hadn't been eating right, she hadn't been sleeping, she'd pushed herself too hard and too fast with her magic.

So when they passed by the rundown old place after she spent nearly three weeks healing the Papay Fields he had thought seeing her foster parents would cheer her up. He knew she'd been wanting to see them but things had been hectic. For once he ignored their tight schedule and headed toward the town. The moment she realized where he was taking them she had let out a squeal of joy and tackled him with one of her hugs while he was driving. They had nearly crashed into a tree but the smile on her face as she started bouncing in her seat had been worth the near death experience.

Her excitement when she bounded out of the truck made him smile as he kept a close eye on her while she walked farther into the town. A few of the citizens waved to her and she gave them a cheery smile. This was probably the only town in the realm he would have let her walk off on her own in. The robots were fanatically loyal to her even if she wasn't going to be the next queen. It didn't seem to bother them in the slightest, at least not the ones that had come to Central City to help get things back in order.

As she wandered around looking for the robots that had raised her he saw Father View float out of the town council hall. He waved to the cyborg and frowned when the mayor's head whipped between him and the princess's retreating figure. On alert in an instant his eyes scanned the small square for danger as he hurried toward the robot with his hand on his gun.

"Tin Man." He nodded his head quickly in acknowledgement. "Why have you brought her here?"

He tipped his hat back slightly as his eyebrow quirked up. "She wanted to see her nurture units. Is she not welcome here?" There was an edge to his voice. She sure as hell better be welcome here.

"Princess Dorothy Gale will always be welcome in Milltown."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I haven't been able to fix my children." The mayor looked at him as if he should know what that meant.

He frowned in annoyance. "What?"

The robot started to hover erratically. "I've been sending updates to our queen. The witch destroyed their CPU's. I'm afraid I can't retrieve their hard drives."

"What?" He had no idea what that meant. Out of the corner of his eye he saw DG spy her foster father and hug him enthusiastically.

Odd arms unfolded from his cylindrically body. "Their memories are gone." His head snapped around in time to see the kid step back with a look of confusion on her face. He saw her mouth moving as she stared uncomprehendingly at the grey haired man in front of her. "The only thing they know is what's happened in the last few months."

His stomach dropped. "Damn it." He walked toward her quickly, cursing himself ten ways for being such a fool as she began to turn around. Her eyes were desperately searching for the mother that no longer knew her.

Before he could get to her she had spotted her foster mother and darted toward her. He was close enough to hear her slightly panicked voice. "Mom?"

The blond robot tilted her head and gave her an empty smile. "Are you looking for someone, dear?"

DG sucked in a sharp breath and he caught her around the waist before she could say anything. He tilted his hat toward the robot with his free hand. The last thing he wanted was to upset her former nurture unit and have her attack them. "No, mam. Sorry to bother you." The kid was stiff in his arms as he began to drag her back toward the truck. They had made it three feet before she snapped out of her stunned state and dug her heels into the ground, her eyes trained on the people that had raised her. Leaning down quickly he whispered in her ear before she could start to fight. "I didn't know, Deeg. Come on now."

Her legs unlocked and she stumbled after him with her head turned back over her shoulder. He was afraid to loosen his grip on her as they walked back out of the town. Nodding his head to Father View once, he opened the passenger door and set her inside. He started the truck and looked over at her. The girls face was blank as she stared straight ahead. Once they were back on the road he reached out to push some of her hair out of her face.

"Kid?" She shrank away from him and turned her head to look out the side window. He dropped his hand with a sad sigh. "Kiddo, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you-"

"You didn't know." Her voice was emotionless. "You were trying to make me happy. It's ok."

This was in no way 'ok'. The girl had lost her family. At least the family she knew, the family that raised her. The one that had seen her grow up, the family that had taken care of her when she was sick and hurt, the people that had celebrated with her, the family that had loved her because they knew everything about her. He was going to tear the queen and consort to pieces for this. Why they kept thinking keeping things from her was the best way to go was anything but beneficial. This blow could have been softened. They could have told her this instead of once again having her run headlong into the cold reality that her life had become.

The princess didn't speak again. She just sat there, still and silent, until they stopped to make camp. He pulled well off the road and got out to hide the tracks the truck had made. Things may be a lot safer these days but he wasn't taking any chances when DG was with him. Even if she did know how to use her magic now he didn't want to stumble into a fight where she was forced to use it. Certainly not when a fight was preventable.

When he came back she was clearing off a space for a small fire and their packs and bedrolls were sitting neatly under the base of one of the large trees that surround the tiny clearing he had managed to find. She looked tired, more than she usually did. He supposed she'd lost the will to pretend she was perky.

Deciding it might be best to let her work this out on her own for a bit he went about his usual routine without comment. Over the last month of traveling around they had developed an easy pattern when they put up a campsite. They were pretty efficient and had managed to find the quickest way to have everything set up between them after a couple of trial runs. He glanced up at the sky and spotting clouds massing overhead he pulled the small tent they had brought out of the back of the pickup.

Once it was set up he tossed their bedrolls under the canopy. Deeg had a fire started by the time he was done and was sitting with her back against one of the trees. Her hands were thrust out toward the flames as she tried to warm them. She didn't react when he set a pot over the fire and started to boil some water. He was hoping to get some food in her while she was still in a passive state of shock.

He wasn't fast enough. The soup he had been making was nearly done when she stood up abruptly and retreated to the canvas shelter. He rubbed his eyes as he heard her rustling around before everything went still again. Eating quickly he banked the fire and made one last sweep of the camp before heading to the tent. The second sun was setting as he pulled the flap open and there was barely enough light for him to see her curled up in a tight ball in the corner with her eyes closed. Her breathing was pretty even but he couldn't tell if she had fallen asleep or if she was pretending to stop him from talking to her.

If she was faking it worked. He removed his holster, hat, and boots before he laid down next to her. Stretching his arm out he covered her with his duster before he shut his eyes. He doubted he had been asleep for more than an hour when he heard her move. Why she thought she would be able to make it out of the tent without waking him up was a mystery. She knew better than anyone how light a sleeper he was. Maybe she thought the light rain that had begun to fall would cover any noise she was making. DG hadn't made it four inches before he snaked his arm out and pulled her back to him as he sat up.

"Cain-" Her voice was choked, "-I'm just going to sit in the truck."

"No, you're goin' to stay right here with me." He wasn't going to let her go through this by herself. He knew from experience what it was like to feel the loss of family alone. The girl didn't deserve that.

"Please." He didn't need to see to know she had started to cry. "You need to sleep. Let me go."

"No." He tightened his hold on her and laid them both back down. She struggled briefly through her tears before a sob broke out of her. Tucking her against him he held her with one hand as he found his duster with his other. Wrapping it around her shaking body he began to rub her back as she tried to fight back her grief. Her soft crying was coming out in short ragged bursts. She was trying to stop herself. "Don't fight it, DG." He twisted so he could cover more of her. "You'll feel better if you get it all out."

A shudder ran down her body as she struggled with herself. He knew she didn't let what she was feeling out that often. He had never been sure what stopped her. Sure, she had lost control in the cave, but other than that she hadn't shed as much as a tear in his presence. He had silently questioned her behavior more than once, especially after she realized he wasn't sleeping well.

She had started staying up with him, never asking why he couldn't sleep, simply waiting patiently for him to decide if he wanted to talk about it. Eventually he had, though it had taken him nearly eight months. She had listen quietly as she held his hand in her smaller one. When he was finished she had wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek when he finally managed to pry his arms from around her. It had been the first time in years he had felt like he could breathe. Since then he had relaxed considerably. He still had nightmares on occasion but the guilt he had been carrying with him for so long wasn't strangling the life out of him anymore.

He found out a few weeks later that he wasn't the only one she had been watching with those sky blue eyes. Glitch and Raw had found themselves in her calming presence nearly as often as he had. The Furball told him she had been helping him with Kalm whenever she had a free moment and then the Headcase had started babbling about her idea to get his brain back in his head one night at dinner. He wasn't sure when she'd had time to work that out but he'd be damned if she hadn't.

He'd started watching her more closely then. He'd always kept an eye on her but he had questioned his own attentiveness three days in. The girl wasn't sleeping more than three or four hours a night. She skipped meals regularly and was doing more in a day than she should have been even if she had been eating and sleeping like a normal person. When he confronted her about it she had given him an innocent smile and told him that she'd simply been busy that week. The girl had flat out lied to his face. By the time he had processed that innocent little DG was as honest as any longcoat he had ever encountered she had vanished to attend a lesson with Tutor.

When her parents had told her that it would be in the realms best interest for her to heal what parts of it she could she had smiled brightly and agreed to do what she could. The moment he could he volunteered to go with her. If he didn't she was going to kill herself. He had started to recognize the signs of self-punishment she was displaying. He was pretty sure she was trying to make up for something that had never been her fault, or even within her control.

He was afraid to know how far she was going to go with it after seeing what she was capable of doing in the past. She was stubborn. She was tenacious. And she was hell bent on making everything right again. He had begun to suspect that somehow, in her mind, that idyllic right didn't include her anywhere in the picture. Once that realization had dawned on him real fear had set in. He was afraid to leave her alone for any stretch of time. He wasn't sure what she was going to do and he cared about her too much to let her do anything stupid.

So he had made her pace herself over the last month. Two days into the trip and she had started fighting him. If he hadn't been ready for it he would have lost his temper. He found out pretty fast that the princess knew how to fight dirty. She had snuck off three times in the first week they were in the orchard to heal the trees when he was sleeping. Poor kid didn't realize he was more than capable of fighting dirty too. He started sleeping closer to her and put up small sound traps so he would hear her when she got up. The fourth time he had caught her and told her firmly to go back to sleep she had started fuming.

Apparently it wasn't funny to her after that. The shouting match that had followed had her storming away from him as her magic started fanning out of her control. He gave her ten minutes to cool off before going after her. She was sitting at the base of a tree with her eyes closed as she tried to rein her light back under control. He had sat down beside her and thrown his arm over her shoulders. When she tried to shrug him off he had held on and pressed a quick kiss to her temple before telling her he could wait for her to talk too. She had slumped and nodded without opening her eyes. DG hadn't mentioned the incident since then but she hadn't fought him much after it either.

At least not until now. Now she was fighting tooth and nail to keep herself quiet. "You're goin' to make it worse if you try to stop it."

"It can't get worse." She pushed at him as if he were going to let her go somewhere.

"Believe me it can." He never stopped stroking her back. "Eventually you're goin' to have to stop fightin'."

She was nearly gagging on her tears. "Fine! Let me go to the truck!"

He frowned. She wasn't trying to keep herself from crying. She was trying to keep herself from crying in front of him. "There's no shame in grievin'." One final shudder ran down her before she gave in and pressed her face into his chest as she bawled. The last time he had comforted a crying woman had been a lifetime ago. When the princess was in that cave it had been Raw that had gone to her. Now he had her clinging to him while she convulsed and all he could think to do was to keep her as close as possible. When the sobs didn't let up he slid her up so she could hear him as he whispered soothingly in her ear. All he could think to tell her that was true was that she was safe with him and he wasn't going anywhere. He thought that might have helped since she buried herself closer to him and her hitching sobs lessened, but he wasn't sure, maybe she had simply run out of steam.

His hand snuck under her hair and he worked his fingers into her stiff muscles. After a long while she stopped crying and simply lay against him trembling badly. "Try to relax, Darlin'."

She moved her head away from his neck and stared at his vest. He wiped her tears away and leaned down so he could press his lips against her forehead. Blue eyes wandered up to his and he tickled her cheek as he rested his head against hers trying to convey his concern without words. A moment later and he realized words might have been a better idea.

Her hand slid from his chest to the back of his neck as she tilted her head up and pressed her lips against his. His body reacted to her before his brain could. He groaned and the hand he had against her back pressed her closer. The moment he reacted she shoved him onto his back and straddled him. She had deepened the kiss and begun grinding her hips against his before he snapped back to reality. Grabbing her wrists he flipped them over and ripped his mouth from hers. His heart was beating hard as he stared down at her and she wrapped her leg over his hip forcing him more snuggly between her thighs.

Fighting back another groan he tightened his grip on her arms and tried to drag his brain out of the fog she had thrown him in. He may have wanted her. If he was honest with himself he had more than wanted her for some time. He wanted her in all the ways he had ever wanted a woman, but this wasn't right. This wasn't how they were supposed to start. Not with tears still fresh on her cheeks and her desperate for him to make everything or anything stop hurting. "Stop." He ordered her gruffly.

The princess froze below him and suddenly the only sound in the tent was the sound of her ragged breathing and the increasing downpour outside. Her leg fell back to the ground and humiliation was evident in her eyes. He opened his mouth to reassure her, knowing she wasn't thinking straight, when she wrenched her body hard and somehow managed to throw him to his side. DG was out of the tent before he could figure out what had happened.

"Wait a…" Sitting up quickly he pulled the tent flap back in time to see the door of the truck slam closed. Considering her hiding place for a second he sighed and walked into the rain after her. He was soaked through before he reached the handle on the door. Opening it up he saw her tear stained face hidden in her arms as she pressed her small body up against the far side of the cab. The kid was curled up so tightly he was afraid she was going to slip between the small crack between the seat and the door.

She began to shake noticeable harder when he shut the door behind him. Sweeping his eyes over her his heart contracted painfully. DG was terrified. Of him. The girl was trying to melt even farther back into the bench as he sat there. "Deeg." He kept his voice soft as he slowly reached out toward her. He needed to coax her back out to him.

The moment his fingers brushed her wet arm she whimpered, unable to get any farther away from him. "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything to be sorry for." The kid shook her head violently into her arms. Frowning, he slid an inch closer to her. "Princess?"

"Please don't call me that." Her voice was broken. She was broken. "Please. Anything but that."

"Alright, DG." He pushed her wet hair behind her ears. "Will you come back to the tent? We need to get you dry."

"No."

Struggling to not grab her and haul her back he tried to reason with her. Getting into a fight with her now would be pointless. She was upset and he knew the only reason he was even considering manhandling her was because he didn't know what to do with her. DG wasn't acting anything like she should. His kid didn't run from him. His kid wasn't afraid of him. His kid took care of herself without question or fail. He found himself reacting to the woman in front of him in a way he never would have with his happy princess. All he wanted to do was drag her to the closest warm place and hold her until the hurt stopped.

"You're goin' to get sick." Silence was his only answer and he pushed forward gently. "Come on, Darlin'. We can't stay in here all night."

The door on his side of the truck suddenly sprang open and he jumped as his head spun around. When he saw nothing but the rain he glanced back over at her. She had opened it for him with her magic while making no move to leave. That wasn't all that subtle. If she thought he was goin' to leave her out here while he retreated to the tent she was out of her head. This couldn't keep happening. They were having this out right now no matter how bad the timing was. Maybe her emotional blow would make her a bit more honest than she had been before. With a growl of frustration he wrapped an arm around her and started dragging her over the worn leather toward the downpour.

"Leave me alone, Cain." She jerked back toward her corner and he barked at her sudden dash for safety.

"I've had enough of this from you." His boots hit the mud and he tossed her over his shoulder as he kicked the door shut. She twisted and he tightened his grip as he took four more steps to the tent and tossed her inside. The princess hit the sleeping bags and slid a few inches as he crouched down and entered the tent behind her. Her shock over his behavior had her frozen where she landed as he closed the tent flap firmly. Once it was secure he sat down and glared at her. "I'm not leaving you alone anymore. You've had nearly a year to be alone. You've done a mighty fine job of it too. Not many people could hide it near as well as you can."

"What are you talking-"

He cut her off. "And now you know your parents are gone too." Tears welled up in her eyes again and he fought back the nearly overwhelming guilt that hit him. He needed to get through to her but this was downright unpleasant. "How long do you think you're goin' to be able to keep this up, Deeg? You don't eat, you don't sleep, and you drain yourself on a nearly daily basis. You're working on projects you have no business being part of and I've seen you using what energy you somehow manage to dig up tryin' to put everyone else's lives back together. Eventually you're goin' to break down or kill yourself." She dropped her eyes and he reached out and forced her head up so she couldn't look away. "Is that what you've been tryin' to do?"

When she tried to scramble away he roughly grabbed her neck with his free hand and held her still as his eyes narrowed. Her breathing grew erratic as words tumbled from her mouth. "I'm just trying to make everything better!"

He locked his eyes with her so nothing would get lost. "They are better! They've been better since you killed the witch! What are you doin', Deeg?" Her eyes darted around the tent as she looked for a way to escape and he shook her. "Answer me!" His voice cracked over her harshly and she dragged her defiant streak out from wherever it had been hiding for the last several hours.

"Leaving!" His grip loosened in surprise and she threw herself away from him as she panted. "I can't go until everything is fixed!"

"What?" He felt as if she had sucker punched him.

Turning her head away from him she continued quietly. "What do you want me to tell you? That I can't sleep because all I can dream about is the witch and the memories I lost? That my magic is out of control and if I don't drain myself I start to blow things up on accident? That my sister is afraid of me? That my real parents don't know what to do with me? That you lost your wife and barely know your own son because you were trying to stop what I let loose? That Glitch was held down and tortured because of me? That Raw lost nearly half his tribe because I couldn't control myself?"

"You were six!"

"I knew better!" Her blue eyes flashed to his and he saw such self-loathing there that he wanted to shout at her. "I can't go back and undo it!" As quickly as her anger rose up it fell back down. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't listen to Az." Tears started falling again and her words began to thicken. "I'm sorry I never listen." Her legs came up and she gripped her pants. "Why can't I listen? What's wrong with me? How do I manage to ruin everything no matter where I go?" He wondered what she thought she had done in her life on the Otherside for that to come out as he reached out and pulled her against his chest.

"There's nothing wrong with you." Now that he knew what had been bothering her so badly he felt better equipped to deal with the situation. "You were curious." When she started to shake her head he sighed and tangled his hand in her wet hair. They were going to have to get out of these clothes soon. He was starting to feel a chill and he knew she was wetter than he was. "You heard someone cryin' and tried to help them. The same way you helped Furball and me. It wasn't your fault that your parents weren't watchin' you or that a woman with at least thirty times your life experience tricked you. You were a child, Darlin'. One that wanted to keep a stranger safe. It's not your fault that she took advantage."

"I let her get Az." He hadn't thought she had any more tears in her as she buried her face against his soaked vest. "I let her take my sister when I was the one that set her free."

"She grabbed the first one of you she could. It could have been you just as easily." Pressing closer to him he rested his forehead on the top of her head. "Oh, Darlin'. You can't go blamin' yourself for what someone else did. It's over now. You did what no one else could. You fought her and won. You saved all of us."

"It doesn't feel that way."

He sighed into her dark curls. "No, I suppose it doesn't. Some things are goin' to take longer to feel right than others. Some things won't ever feel right at all. That's how it goes, but you need to know I'll be here. Just like Glitch and Raw." She nodded silently and he struggled internally for a few moments. "I don't want you to leave, Deeg."

"I don't know what to do if I stay."

"Do you know what to do if you leave?"

There was a pause before she answered. "No."

"Then it seems to me like you should probably stick with me for a while then."

When she spoke there was such exhaustion in her voice. "I'm tired, Cain."

That hadn't been the promise to stay he had been waiting for but he wasn't sure how much more pushing she could take. "I know." Reaching to the side he dragged their packs over. "Change into something dry and then you can sleep for as long as you want."

Sitting back she took her bag and dug around for a moment before finding fresh set of clothes. Turning his back he waited as she tossed her wet clothes away and settled back under his duster when she had changed. Moving swiftly he followed her example as she stared at the inside of tent. Lying back down next to her he wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her back against his chest. Her body was stiff as a board and he whispered low into her hair. "Sleep, Sweetheart. We'll work everything out when we get back to the shinnin' city."

His words were met with nothing but silence, and despite her honest declaration of weariness she lay awake for a long time. Eventually he reached up and began to stroke her hair soothingly. When his fingers accidentally brushed against her cheek he felt her lean slightly into his touch before she caught herself and turned her head back into the blankets. Struggling with guilt, want, and worry he shifted until his chin was over the crown of her head. A small tremor passed through her and he curled up around her. She needed to rest and he knew she needed space from what had happened before he tried to broach this subject with her.

DG deserved attention and honesty. He could do that for her once she had come to terms with what she had learned. First he had to get her home. He'd work out the rest in the morning.

Author Note: Ok. I know I'm a bad author. I haven't posted, this isn't Emerald Shield, and my responses to your reviews have been non-existent. My only excuse is that life turned into a freight train and hit me. Between school, a life re-evaluation, getting ready to move, and a sudden need to write a book I've gone insane (Well, more insane). I really am going to try to get stuff written for you guys on a more regular basis now that my finals are done but after my epic fail at writing the next chapter of Emerald Shield I am no longer making promises about how soon that will be. Hokay. Leave me one!