Title: in our bedroom after the war
Pairing: implied Cain / Glitch from SciFi's Tin Man
Rating: G
Summary: After the O.Z. is saved, there's nowhere for Cain to go but home.
Disclaimer: All for fun, not for profit.


With the O.Z. saved and order restored, he discovers there is no reason to overstay his welcome. To be certain, DG is grateful for his help and ever considerate. The Queen rewards him for his role in reuniting her with the throne, but despite DG's kindness, he takes his honours and sets off.

There is nowhere else to go, so he returns to the dilapidated house which was for so long his prison. He sets to work rebuilding it, and slowly but surely over the months it grows to bear a small resemblance to the home it had once been. He slaves for long hours under the hot sun of summer, armed with a box of tools and planks of wood. The physical labour keeps his mind from wandering too far, though sometimes he looks in the wrong direction and feels a sudden jolt of sickness. He doesn't need a holographic projector to remind him of what he has lost.

Jeb drops by now and then, but he has a restless soul and never stays more than a handful of days. He cooks for his father, something Cain too often forgets to do for himself, and lends a hand in the more ambitious projects his father has planned. In the evenings they talk about the restored regime. Jeb describes his work rounding up the last of the rebel elements and his new infatuation with a lady of the court.

Cain only asks about Ambrose once.

"Ambrose?" Jeb repeats, a foreign word on his tongue. "Oh."

His son's expression says, "I'm sorry," and Cain doesn't need clarification to know that the surgery was not a success.

Jeb leaves the next day, throwing one final concerned glace over his shoulder. He has never understood his father's dedication to rebuild a life lost so long ago and preserve memories of a family he barely had.

Cain watches him go down the path before turning back to his work. It's still early in the morning, and he was planning to weed the garden. He has recollections of Adora in the garden, tending to yellow and lavender flowers or gathering potatoes for the evening meal. He sets about his work, thinking about which vegetables to plant in the new year, if there are flowers with petals like a snowstorm, and loses track of time.

At nights, he tosses and turns in bed. He knows vaguely that it's not because the bed is empty or because the house lacks the soft snoring of a young child, but because he is constantly awoken from sleep by a metallic knock knock knock. He leaps from the sheets, gasping for breath, feeling as he did when he was released from that tin suit.

One day he is repatching the roof when the voice that drifts toward him on the wind is not Adora's. Startled from his task, his mind loses focus and he is unnerved. His memory skips back to conversations of more recent times. He remembers feeling less fragmented back when he had someone else to piece back together.

From that moment there is an ache, the loss of something physical and tangible at his side. The short time it took to save the O.Z. is a fleeting reminder every time his gaze wanders towards the lake.

He stares at the spot where the holograph played on repeat, the scene of his son and Adora at the hands of the Longcoats. All he sees are the weeds and brown grass which have been trampled by his very own feet. He packs up his tools and calls it a day, turning in though it's just seven in the evening.

He keeps rebuilding that old place. When Jeb visits he calls it a home instead of a shack, and Cain promises it too him as a country house for vacations with his lady and their daughter. Jeb promises to bring her in the new year, says she has a smile just like her grandmother.

He is painting the last few boards on the side - green, he isn't sure why, but green - when he hears footsteps. He doesn't react at first because it's always Jeb, who usually helps himself to an apple from the kitchen and wanders around admiring the changes since his last visit. Only when he's through his tour does he come over to hug his father. Cain finishes his paint job and stands, stretching out his back and legs. Finally he looks over.

The figure walking up the overgrown path toward him is silhouetted against the sun, but immediately he can tell that it's not Jeb. Jeb inspires a warm and well-worn comfort in him. And so for the briefest moment he thinks it's Adora and starts toward her. But then the figure raises its arm and brushes a hand across its forehead, and the long sleeves flapping in the wind tell him that it's not her. Somehow he's more relieved than disappointed.

He recognizes the action, the light skip of a walk, the mess of hair an instant later. He nods to himself, then picks up his paint brush and cans. He carries them over to the old shed and puts them away, before going to the old pump to wash himself off. He glances up to see Glitch pause in the doorway of his home, flashing a crooked smile at Cain. His shoulders sag from exhaustion and his clothes are dirty and torn.

Cain towels off his hands, then follows Glitch inside and closes the door behind them both.