A/N-So, yeah. I'm back. I hope you missed me and I hope this update is worth the wait. I can tell you, I reread this whole story and I guess since I hadn't looked at it in a year, I can actually say it's good. LOL. I was afraid, even after all this time that sending them to the Emerald Isle was a convoluted plot point, but it worked well. So, on with the explanation of just what the heck Glitch is doing there and what's up with the royal family. Enjoy! (Don't worry, Gentle will be updated too) Oh and if someone can come up with a plausible way for Wyatt Cain and Hatter to be in the same story, please do it. Un beta'd as usual. Sorry. ;-P

Chapter Fourteen

Wyatt barely waited for Jenna to be out of sight before he flipped the ledger around and found Glitch's room number.

"Let's go get a cup of coffee, wait for Jenna to come back. Then we'll find out what the hell is going on."

"Where's Az? She should know." Jeb asked, settling into the booth across from his father and DG.

"I don't know. I haven't seen her since this morning. Probably in her room."

Almost as if she were conjured up, Az breezed into the lobby, her hair wind swept around her face and wearing something that looked suspiciously like a pair of Jeb's pants. DG could only blink in surprise as Jeb turned to follow her gaze, standing abruptly to go collect her.

"Zelda." he called softly. Even from the diner, DG could see the blush that spread across Az's face and the guilty look like she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't.

"That's…odd." Wyatt said, reaching over to place his large hand over hers. DG wasn't sure if he was talking about her sister's attire, or the way Jeb was gently taking Az's arm and leading her into the diner. She found she didn't care as Cain rubbed soothing circles across the back of her wrist. She knew he could feel her nerves jumping, her almost desperate want to know why Glitch and Raw were there and what was going on at the Palace. She was scared and annoyed, but his touch helped focus her, reminding her of what they'd been doing earlier, before they'd been interrupted. Again.

Was she ever going to have any amount of uninterrupted time with her husband?

As soon as she thought it, she felt guilty. Who knew what was going on back at home, and here she was worrying about not getting to ravish Cain like she'd wanted too.

"Glitch is here." She heard Jeb tell Azkadelia as they made their way back to the table.

"WHAT?!" Az gasped, her eyes widening almost comically. "Why? How? What about mother and father?"

"We don't know yet, Az-er, Zelda." DG quickly corrected herself. The diner wasn't too busy this time of day, or night as it were. But there were a few workers inside, trying to get a final meal before retiring to their homes. These were most likely the single men with no wives to cook for them, or no will to cook for themselves. The Season was fast approaching, which meant later nights of work for the residents of the Emerald Isle. DG was a little curious to see what this place would be like, once the doors were open for visitors.

"Once Jenna gets back from showing them to their rooms, we'll go find out." Coffee that DG didn't remember ordering appeared before her and the others as the new girl Jenna hired to help slid the cups in front of them. AAz immediately picked up the sugar and started to pour it into her cup just as DG grabbed the milk.

Neither Cain man asked for either.

"What's taking so long?" DG huffed, sipping the warm drink and savoring it. Cain's hand had disappeared from her wrist once Jeb sat back down with her sister and she missed the touch. But, instead of reaching for the hand that wasn't wrapped around his cup, she placed her hand on her stomach. A sudden, intense image of Wyatt kissing her there, his hand warm and strong over their son sprang to her mind. It was all she could do not to turn and kiss him right their in front of his son and her sister, and tell him she loved him, damn the consequences.

Thankfully, Jenna chose that moment to show up.

"Here we go." Cain threw a couple of coins on the table to pay for their coffee, and then tapped DG's shoulder to get her to slide out.

"Still up?" Jenna asked with a bright smile.

"We're heading up now." Wyatt told her with a tap to his forehead. He and Jeb took the lead, trying to look as casual as possible, chatting about the repairs going on and the heat of the day. DG settled behind them with Az.

"I've heard of trying to get into a guy's pants before, Zelda dear. But I didn't think it meant literally." Az's eyes snapped to hers, her face flaming.

"Stop it. It's nothing like that."

"I know. Since Jeb isn't in them. You are. Why you are in them is what I'm trying to find out." Or just how you got him out of them. DG looked at her sister expectantly, trying to ignore the butterflies that were waging war in her poor stomach with each slow, tortuous step they took down the hall. Az looked sheepish and she shrugged a delicate shoulder inside a shirt DG just now realized was her husbands.

"They left them," Az told her, plucking the shirt to indicate it as well. "Or you missed this when you packed up your stuff. And…well…I've always watched you walk around in your, jeans, right?" DG gave her a short nod, already understanding where her sister was going. "I just really envied the freedom you seemed to have in them. I wanted a taste of that."

DG sighed and wrapped an arm around Az's waist. "And what did you think?"

"It's different." Az replied with a smile. DG giggled and nodded.

"Yes. It is." DG said, returning the smile. When she looked back at the men in front of her, she realized that as she and Az had been talking, they'd gone upstairs and were now standing in front of the door. Wyatt's crystal blue eyes met hers, the worry in his gaze making her eyes prick with sudden tears. He looked away and rapped three times on the door.

Raw pulled open the door and didn't look in the least surprised to see them.

"Hey there, furball." Cain said, clasping the Seer's hand tightly.

"Good to see, Cain. Cain's." Raw corrected as Jeb stepped up behind his dad. Another shake of the hand and they went inside. Az gave Raw a tight smile and stepped inside quickly. She had never really figured out how to deal with Seer, after all the witch had put his people through. DG stepped up next, her worry and fear making Raw grimace. "DG looks good. Healthy. Baby doing well." He whispered, giving her a smile that an indulgent papa might give his daughter. She couldn't help but smile back. His eyes turned sharper, the look on his face knowing. He actually smirked at her. DG felt herself blush to her roots and quickly hurried past him.

Once inside, it was apparent that by the time they showed up, Glitch hadn't had the opportunity to unpack so much as his boxer shorts. In fact, his bags still stood in the middle of the room, untouched. Glitch was standing in the sitting room, his back to them as he peered out into the night. DG wondered what his thoughts on the Glinda statue had been. She thought he'd probably asked her to dance.

"Glitch?" He turned then, and DG couldn't stop herself from walking over to him and throwing her arms around his neck. She felt him stiffen, felt the awkward pat on her back and she knew. "I'm sorry, Ambrose." She slid away from him, meeting his dark eyes with her own. She hoped that her misery of losing her friend wasn't obvious.

"I'm Glitch, DG. I'll always be Glitch." Ambrose told her, his stiffness lessening somewhat. He reached up and touched her cheek, smiling sadly. She nodded, fighting the threatening tears and she brushed a kiss across his pale cheek.

"What are you two doing here?" Wyatt demanded. He pulled DG to him when she stepped away from Ambrose, his solid, steady strength a balm. She leaned into him and braced herself for the bad news that was all but written on the former advisors face.

"It's not good." He started, glancing over at Raw who faced the group solemnly. "Sometime ago, we learned of a plan to get inside the Palace and kidnap your parents. To use them to force Azkadelia out of hiding." Ambrose glanced over at Az then, his eyes skittering over her form, his brows lifting in surprise at her attire. Then Jeb angled closer to her, probably due to the look of sick horror that filled her face, and Ambrose yanked his gaze away from her.

"How were they going to get into the palace?" Wyatt asked, his eyes narrowed, trying to sort out the plan in his head.

"Using a system of old tunnels that were dug underneath for access to the dungeons. Secret tunnels, so to speak. Long forgotten in the Century or so since they'd been last used. Left out of the schematics the last time a major renovation had been done on the palace."

"For the love of Glinda," Wyatt spat. He ran a hand over his platinum hair, fire shooting from his ice blue eyes. He could feel DG trembling against him. "What happened?"

"They got in. By the time we'd learned of it, the plan was already in motion. Several former Longcoats and citizens, even some of our own guards."

"Oh God." DG pressed a deathly pale hand against her lips to squelch the sob that wanted to bubble up. People inside the castle had turned against them. She'd known that was a possibility, but hadn't really considered it a threat. How stupid she could be sometimes, even after all she'd been through.

She had to remind herself, she'd only been in the OZ for less than half a year. It was time to wake up and pay attention.

"What happened to them? Where are mother and father?" Az asked, her voice a bare whisper, but her words shooting through the air like bullets. Ambrose looked at her again, the look on his face so tender, so…broken…DG felt her heart break.

"Taken. There were so many. We weren't prepared. Stupidly thought our walls were impenetrable."

"When did this happen?" Jeb asked, his eyes narrowed as if something in Ambrose's story didn't jibe. DG felt Wyatt's hand tighten at her waist and she looked up at him. His own gaze was suspicious, hard, staring at the man he'd called friend like he was a stranger.

"Three weeks ago."

"But, how is that possible?"

"Three weeks!"

"How the hell did you let this happen, Glitch?"

The only one that wasn't gasping or cursing in disbelief was DG. She stared not at Ambrose, but Raw, who was staring right back looking incredibly sad.

"We got letters." She said, her quiet words breaking through the din and setting Ambrose's lips into a thin line.

"Of course you did." he told her sadly, his dark eyes watching her carefully.

"That's why mother never answered our questions." Az said her words lifeless.

"She couldn't." DG confirmed. Ambrose shook his head.

"Are they still alive?" Wyatt asked this, the arm around DG's waist holding tight in case the answer was what he expected.

"As far as we know. They've been sending out riders to get the news as far as possible that the Queen and her Consort have been captured. Raw and I managed to stop the messenger heading this way."

The grim way he relayed that had DG not wanting to know just how they did that.

"It probably won't be long before they send another one." Jeb said.

"We need to move. To get you and Azkadelia as far away from here as possible." Wyatt determined, glad to see the nod of agreement from the three other men in the room.

"I can't. I have to go back. It's not them they want. It's me." Az had slumped against the back of a chair, the news making her shoulders sag and her skin go almost translucent.

"Az, don't be crazy. Mother and Father would never want you to sacrifice yourself. That's why they sent us here to begin with." DG reminded her.

"So they just sacrifice themselves? Is that right? It's my fault. All of this, is my fault. If it's a head they want. They can have mine."

"Az, that's not going to solve anything. Do you really think they'll let your parents go, just because you turn yourself over." Jeb came up with this and Ambrose agreed emphatically.

"But their lives…"

"Would willingly be given for the safety of their daughters." Ambrose told her, moving to stand in front of her. He placed his hands on her shoulders, his eyes staring into hers. "You can't save them, Az. I hate to say it, but the House of Gale has fallen. And you dying won't save it. Or your parents."

DG wanted to be sick. The rolling, horrible nausea she'd been spared for so short a time roared back to life. But this time, she knew it wasn't because of the baby inside of her. Images of her parents, people she'd just been getting to know all over again were playing in her mind. The way they laughed together. The gentle touches and tender gazes they never cared who saw. The selfless way they'd tried to serve the people of the OZ only to be turned into pawns once more.

Her mothers smile, her fathers laugh. The possibility that she might never get to experience either again had her head spinning.

"Wyatt," she managed, spots dancing before her eyes.

"You ok, sweetheart?" Through the spots, she saw his concern and she barely managed to shake her head.

"No." She breathed, just as the world turned black.

****

DG came awake slowly, each of her senses coming back to awareness one by one. The first thing she realized was she was lying down. The second thing she realized was that there was a significant amount of warmth against her back. Hard warmth, strangely enough. The third thing she felt was the steady coast of a hand over the skin of her arm and the solid sound of someone breathing behind her.

"Cain?"

"Right here, sweetheart."

Just that, that soft endearment said in his low, rough voice had tears springing to her eyes. Her shoulders shook and breath hitched painfully as she tried to stem the tide.

"Let it out, darlin'. It's just you and me here." A dam seemed to burst with those words and a wretched sob tore its way out of DG's throat. Arms of steel wrapped around her as his hand found its way to her hair to stroke, to hold her together as she completely, thoroughly fell apart.

Everything came out of her then. The stress of finding out her life had been a lie, finding a family she hadn't known existed. Realizing she was pregnant then having to get married. Now, knowing that her parents were more than likely going to die. All of it tore through her, around her, out of her like long shards of glass. She buried her face in her pillow at the same time she tried to scoot back and inside of Cain, maybe to hide from this awful pain that was tearing her to shreds.

"I've got you, love. I've got you. I'm here DG." She heard him whisper somewhere over the din of her sobs. Somehow, it just made her cry harder.

If only she could believe those words. Then maybe something in her world wouldn't be so wrong.

The funny thing about harsh emotions, the kind that tear you up from the inside, is they usually pass in thunderstorm bursts. Within minutes, DG was hiccupping, sniffling and trying to wipe her tears away with the sleeve of her dress. Not very ladylike she knew, but she was too well cocooned in Cain's embrace to want to find a tissue.

"Where is everybody?" She sounded like a clogged drain.

"In their rooms, I suspect. I didn't pay much attention once you passed out." Cain slid away from her, the loss of his warmth making her shiver. He was back quickly, however, handing her a handkerchief.

"Thanks." DG wiped her nose, trying to blow it delicately. Finally, she just let out a loud honk that embarrassed her fully and had Cain chuckling at her back.

"Better?"

"Yeah. Loads." She folded the hanky then wiped her eyes. Cain settled back around her, his grip looser this time, but still there, keeping her together. She stared for a long time at the wall, memorizing the hand stitched framed sampler of a water pitcher full of tulip like flowers. She wondered vaguely if Jenna made it. "What do we do now?"

She sounded so tiny, so lost to her own ears. Cain sighed heavily against her back, his fingers tracing lines over her stomach. She felt that strange little bubble in her stomach and she wondered if that was their son reacting to his daddy's touch.

"I don't know." That fact that he admitted it was incredible to DG. Cain, Wyatt Cain, admitting he was lost was something worth writing in the history books. She just settled for filing it in her own mind as she placed her hand over his on her tummy and pressed it flat against her. She felt the possession there, the fierce protectiveness in that hand that would kill to make sure she and their child was safe.

It made DG feel almost ok again. Almost.

"Do we have to leave?" This place seemed like home to her. Much more than the palace and even the farm house in Kansas. This was where she and Cain spent the bulk of their young marriage. This was where she thought she finally got to know the real Cain. The man that liked to work in the sun, who liked to snuggle in the morning before he got out of bed, although he'd die before admitting it. The man that had developed an easy relationship with the son he'd been ripped from all those years ago. The man that had made love to her for their first time like she was the only woman in the world.

Like she was the only woman that had been in his world.

"I don't see any other choice. They'll look for their messenger. When they don't find him, they'll send another. We can't be discovered." His hand splayed wide under hers, the warmth of his hand on her stomach through the thin cotton of her blouse a comfort.

DG just nodded, not trusting her voice with her throat so tight. She rolled a little onto her back, feeling Cain shift to accommodate their new position.

"I'm scared. I don't want my parents to die." She whispered. Cain's brows pulled together in surprise at her admission of fear. She knew, to him, she seemed fearless. Stupid was probably a better word. But this…this whole situation was much more than she thought she could handle.

"I won't let anything happen to you." He whispered back, his tone fierce, his eyes flashing with his determination. She didn't acknowledge his omission of her parents. There was nothing he could say about that.

They stared at each other for a long time, letting the quiet surround them as the night slipped by. Cain's hand slid up her torso, cupping her breast through her shirt. Her breath hitched in her chest, the sound encouraging him to palm the fullness. Her nipple peaked at just that, and she watched as his eyes turned stormy.

"DG," he rasped, saying her name. The sound sent shivers over her skin. Without hesitation, she lifted her hands and quickly undid the buttons. When they were done, Cain slid his hand inside to massage her breast, his blunt fingers gently tweaking the hard tip.

"Wyatt," she breathed in response, arching into his touch, silently begging him for the oblivion of pleasure. When his lips replaced his hand she moaned, low in her throat. Her hands found his neck, cradling her against him as he suckled first one, then the second nipple. She felt his hand skim under her skirts, dragging them up to cup the firmness of her behind. She'd forgotten until that moment that she had no underwear on.

His lips coasted down her skin, his teeth nipping lightly, his tongue laving the tiny pain away. She stretched under him, inviting him to taste as he willed. Pleasure hazed over her, soft and warm like water. All she could feel was him, all she knew was him. When she felt his lips on her thigh, she giggled at the tickle she felt. That giggle was followed by a moan when he pressed those lips to the slick cleft between her legs.

"God yes," she groaned, dropping her head back when his tongue slid between her folds. She heard him chuckle, felt it vibrate in her core and she felt the tremors start. His tongue buried itself deep, tasting her in the most intimate way, before sliding out to circle the tight bundle of nerves at the base of her sex.

She writhed beneath him as her climax built. Each pass of his tongue inside of her, each pull of his lips on her clitoris sent her higher. Her hips thrust against him, her fingers clutched desperately at the covers.

"Oh, oh. Wyatt!" She cried as she came, her body pulsing with such intense pleasure it almost hurt. Cain slid up her body while her body still clenched and he slid inside her with one stroke. His lips claimed hers, stealing her surprised gasp. She tasted herself on his lips and desire blew through her once more.

They moved together, hips grinding together in an effort to get their together. Cain tore away from her kiss, burying his lips in her neck. His movements came harder, less focused. She rose to meet him, her own need clawing towards release.

Cain fell over the edge first, his moan lost in her hair. He reached between them and lightly pinched her clitoris, making her shriek in surprise as the orgasm slammed through her.

They lay, gasping together for several moments, before Cain felt together enough to move. She clung to him, rolling with him until she lay half sprawled across his chest, her hair fanned out across her back and his shoulder.

Nothing else was said between them. They lay entwined; both wide awake as the twin suns rose outside their window.

You know. I have to thank Maddy Cain for this. Mainly because I reread The Consort and it did a lot to inspire me to pick this up again. Well, that and for some reason, an over abundance of Alice fan fiction. Reviews are appreciated, even needed. As I've been gone from this for a long time. :D (by the way, where's that sequel?)