I don't own a thing. Including rights to characters and so on. I simply write fanfiction like the rest of us.

Dorothy was going to be leaving soon. The Scarecrow, the Lion and he himself had led her successfully to the place where the Gale girl with brown pigtails had her heart set on going, and they would soon be parting from one another. Maybe Dorothy couldn't wait to leave, to head off to that place she referred to as Kansas, but personally, he himself didn't want her to go anywhere. He'd grown quite attached to the fifteen year old, and if he had any say in it at all, Dorothy Gale wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon at all.

No, Nick Chopper, the man-made-into-a-tin-woodsman, would have much rather had Dorothy Gale want to stay there with him, anywhere her heart desired - as long as it was in the land of Oz. He could very well provide for her well enough. Made of tin, though he was, he was still able to use his handy axe to chop down logs in order to build for her a house, as long as he was kept sufficiently oiled up. He could cut down all the fruit trees in the world, or chase down all the fowl and little creatures to cook up for her dinner, every single night. He would do anything in the world for this girl, because helping her all along the way had in-turn helped him, too.

Now, because of Dorothy's perseverance with this so-called Wizard of the Emerald City, the woodsman had something he had wanted and desired for a very long while. He now, because of her, had a heart, and it beat well; he'd have wagered it beat better than any other heart in either the lands of Oz or Kansas. In fact, it beat so very well, that it was causing his metal, once-hollow chest to begin to ache. At first he wasn't sure why, but it became clearer to him as he watched the Wizard untie the large helium balloon basket, hopping into it before outstretching a hand to Dorothy, helping her on into the basket, as well.

"Psst!" the Tin Man whispered to the little dog held in Dorothy's arms, a little pooch by the name of Toto. "Psst, come on boy!"

Though he had said it in a voice barely audible, Toto apparently was capable of hearing it, and sure enough, the little, brown dog was soon jumping from its owner's arms, landing swiftly on his paws on the Emerald platform that the balloon basket had just been untied from.

"Oh no, Toto! Come back!" Dorothy cried out at once, before swinging a leg over the balloon basket, hopping on out of it her ownself, to chase after her pet. "Come back!"

"Oh, no, dear!" came a cry from the Wizard then, who'd remained in the basket. "Hurry back with the pooch! The balloon's taking off!"

Startled, Dorothy quickly turned around, before grasping at a stitch in her chest. "Oh no, don't go away, not after I've come so far to get to you!"

"I'm sorry, dear, but once it's gone up like this, I'm afraid I have no idea how to get it to come back down!"

"But you can't do this to me! Please don't go up any further!" Dorothy exclaimed back, tears in the corners of her eyes as she scooped Toto up in her arms and quickly ran back in her ruby slippers toward the balloon bucket, but it was too late.

"Come back!" Dorothy cried out in vain, clutching onto Toto tightly as she gazed upward, her tears rolling down her face in earnest now as she watched the balloon lift the basket higher and higher and higher, it slowly disappearing from sight into the sky above.

Her lips quivering, the girl with big, doe eyes batted away her tears quickly, shaking her head slowly as she idly stroked Toto with one hand, running her fingers through his fur, though it was more consoling to her than to him; after all, all he had simply done was to do what the metal man had whispered at him to do.

A lump forming in her throat as she continued to stare upward at the disappearing balloon, the Tin Man felt a leap of some sort strike his heart. He was suddenly revitalized; he had hope again. This girl that had both led him to his heart and who'd made it tick so wickedly had lost her way out of Oz. It was sad for her, but all the woodsman could really focus on was how much of an opportunity it was for him now.

"Don't cry, Dorothy," he said, clanking and clanging his way over to her, a metallic hand folding over her shoulder, grasping it.

"Oh, but how can I not?" she sobbed back, turning in toward the Tin Man, crying against his metal barrel of a torso.

"Now, now, things aren't all that bad, are they? I know you wanted to go back to Kansas, but you still have Scarecrow, and the Lion, and, well, you have me, too, you know?"

Still sobbing, though more lightly, Dorothy released Toto to freely run about the Emerald-tiled floors as the woodsman steered her away from the crowd, keeping his hand at her shoulder as they walked, slowly but surely away from it all. Dorothy herself, seemingly lost in a sort of sorrow-filled, trauma-induced trance over what had just happened, only paused to look and see where they'd gone after several moments had passed them by.

"Where have you taken me, Tin Man?" she asked in a thick sounding voice, rubbing away at her dripping nose as she widened her eyes to take in the sight of the surrounding countryside she'd been led to; there was a forest a little ways away, and there were flowers of all colors on the ground.

"Oh, I've taken you to the palace garden," the woodsman said to Dorothy, moving his metal arm downward, before snugging it around her waist from behind; he found that doing so made his heart beat even more quickly, and he was fascinated by the scent of his captive's hair and skin.

"What… what are you doing, Tin Man?" Dorothy asked him in a quiet voice, a strange chill running down her spine, causing the hairs on her arms to stand up. "Why won't you let go of me…?"

"Oh, I don't want to let go of you, Dorothy," he answered her, speaking into her ear as he tightened his arm around her middle further. "Now that I finally have a heart, I can feel love… and it's you that I feel it for. Do you feel the same?"

Feeling a bit guilty as she truthfully shook her head slightly from side to side, the fifteen year old murmured, "I do love you as a friend, Tin Man, but not as anything more."

"Oh, well that's okay then," he replied at once, surprising Dorothy.

"It is?" she asked, expecting him to let her go then, but he did not loosen his grip around her.

"Well, it occurs to me that since I did not feel this love for you until I got my new heart, Dorothy, that there is only one solution to our problem," the Tin Man answered, and something in his voice caused the captive Gale girl to grow a bit nauseated -she was honestly growing quite fearful of her friend's intentions.

Her lips quivering once more, Dorothy dared to ask him in a quiet voice, "What is your sollution, Tin Man?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Dorothy spied the woodsman other arm - his axe-weidling arm - rising upward, coming in closer to her body. "Tin Man?" she repeated, her voice barely above that of a whisper.

Speaking directly into her ear, the woodsman finally answered her, saying, "If it took a new heart for me to love you, then it'll just take a new heart for you to love me. Isn't it obvious?"

Gulping in response, Dorothy began to writhe and struggle against the Tin Man's hold around her, but it was all ultimately in vain. The harder she fought to get away, the closer he brought the axe in toward her. Finally throwing herself forward as hard as she could, Dorothy managed to impale herself on the awaiting, short axe-blade in the process.

Then releasing Dorothy, the Tin Man knelt downward to the ground, turning the young woman over onto her back in his arms. The axe was still stuck directly in the midst of her chest, and blood was beginning to heavily seep from either side of it.

"I… I…" Dorothy began to say, her voice making a gurgling sound, before she coughed hard, and a small amount of blood spewed from her mouth afterward.

"Shhh…" the woodsman said to her, leaning over her to kiss her forehead with his metal lips. "Just go to sleep now, and I'll find you a new heart. And then I'll wake you up again, and we'll be happy, together."

"Please…"

"Shhh…" the Tin Man said once more, before standing up and raising the lethally injured girl up in his arms in the process, to carry her in bridal style away from the palace garden, heading for the nearby woods instead. With a little hard work and concentration, Dorothy would soon have a new heart and body and soul, and she'd return to him the love he held in his brand new heart for her. The Tin Man felt quite sure of this, and so he continued to carry Dorothy away, even as she continued to bleed to death, right there in his arms.

"I'll always take care of you," the woodsman said to her, and it was an ironic last thing indeed for Dorothy to hear, coming from he who had just murdered her so.