Old Fic: The Cure to Claustrophobia

[aisalynn]

 

Title: The Cure to Claustrophobia
Author: Aislaynn
Fandom: Tin Man
Pairing: Mild Cain/DG
Rating: PG
Summary: When they stop for a rest in the forest Cain notices that DG is behving oddly...

Note: This takes place in between the scene where they find DG outside the tomb doors and the scene where she gives everyone a pep talk. :)

They were slightly more than half way back to the resistance camp when the zipper head requested that they stop. Cain’s first instinct was to immediately refuse. They were almost to the camp and didn’t have much time before the eclipse and whatever Azkadellia had planned happened. But DG’s soft voice came from behind him, seconding the plea. He took one look over his shoulder at her pale face and red rimmed eyes, and pulled his horse to a stop.

 

Glitch was already down and off his horse, quickly tying the reins to a nearby branch before darting off into the trees. Cain took his time helping DG swing down from behind him, watching her carefully as he did so. She fidgeted as soon as her feet touched the ground, eyes darting around the dark forest, flickering from the thick foliage on the ground to the leaf covered, intertwining branches that hid the sky from view. Her fidgeting grew worse, and she muttered a hasty “Excuse me,” before darting off into the opposite direction of Glitch.

Cain stared at the spot in the trees where she disappeared, brow furrowed. He glanced at Raw, hoping the Viewer had picked up on something that could explain her odd behavior.

 

“DG upset,” he said mournfully. “Scared.”

 

Cain nodded and swung down off his horse. He handed his reins to the Viewer, and, straightening his hat, he took off after her.

 

He found her in a small clearing just a few minutes walk from the horses. She was a mess: a small, shaking huddle in the center of the clearing. Her hands dug and clenched at the dirt as she took deep gasping breaths between sobs. He ran to her side. “DG! What‘s the matter?” She didn’t respond, just continued with those long, heartbreaking cries. After a moment of hesitation he knelt beside her and put his arms around her.

“NO!” she screamed as soon as he touched her. She pushed at his chest and ripped herself violently away from his grasp. He stared at her, trying to hide his hurt at the reaction.

 

She calmed a bit when she looked at him. “Oh, Cain I’m sorry.” She wrapped her arms around herself, biting her lip and looking away from him. “It’s just that…” The shaking started again; Cain could see her nails dig into her arms in an attempt to control it. “When she locked me up in that--” her voice caught before she could say the word, “It was so…so dark and I couldn’t move, couldn’t--couldn’t breathe.” Her breath sped up, coming in short darting breaths, like she couldn’t get enough. Her eyes darted around wildly again, hand practically clawing at her own arms. He stepped toward her.

 

“Hey. Hey, kiddo.” He grabbed her hands, prying that vice like grip from her self and turning it on him. “You’re okay. You’re not in the coffin, DG. You’re here, in the woods with me and everything’s going to be all right. Just hold on to my hands and breathe.” She took a deep breath. “That’s it. Just breathe. You’re doing fine, kid. Just hold on and keep breathing.”

 

He smiled at her when she had calmed down, watching the panic leave her blue eyes, now wet and puffy from tears. “Feel any better?” He asked softly.

 

She took one more, steadying breath and nodded. “Yeah. Thank you.” He tried to release her hands but she hung on, tightening her grip on them. “Cain, I don’t know how you managed to stay sane all those years.” She gave a little shiver and looked away. “All those years being trapped, unable to move.” Her grip on his hands was almost painful.

 

“Sometimes, I’m not so sure that I am.” Her eyes darted back to his. He smiled sadly.

 

“But, to be stuck that way for years, not able to move…” She trailed off, closing her eyes and taking another deep breath.

 

“It wasn’t the worst part,” he muttered.

 

Her eyes napped back open. “Oh! Cain, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean--”

 

He cut her off. “Shh… Don’t apologize. I know you didn’t.” He was silent for a moment, staring at their interlocked hands. After a few moments, he spoke. “The holograms stopped at night. At night I was left alone to think on what I had lost, wallow in my misery.” His voice was bitter. “It was there in the dark where the tight space would get to me. I couldn’t see, even with the glass window, and I imagined I couldn’t breathe either, despite the tubes feeding oxygen into the suit.” He could feel her eyes on him, but he didn’t look up, instead watched as his thumb moved back and forth across her skin, as if of its own accord. “I got used to it after a while. For so long it was the only thing I knew. But still,” he stopped moving his thumb and shifted his gaze to her face. Wide blue eyes filled with both sadness and understanding stared back at him. “Even now I don’t much care for being…restricted.”

 

They didn’t say anything for a long white after that, content to merely stand there, hands locked, eyes gazing unseeing around the clearing as they each focused on their own thoughts. Cain finally shifted and cleared his throat. “We should get back. Now that Azkadellia has the Emerald we don’t have any time to waste and we’ll most likely have to go look for the head case. No doubt he’s gotten himself lost somewhere.”

 

DG nodded and released his hands, rubbing at the tear tracks on her face and straightening her jacket. She took one big breath and shook out her hair, face set in determination, ready to take on the world once again. Cain put his hands in his jacket pockets, ignoring how empty they suddenly felt.

 

Glitch had indeed gotten himself lost. It was a full ten minutes before they found him, humming to himself and doing an odd sort of skipping dance around the roots of an old tree. “Oh, hello.” He said when he saw them. “Do I know you?”

 

A few minutes later they were back on the horses. This time Cain had DG in front of him, so he could watch her in case she started to panic again. At first he was afraid that being so close like that would upset her, but she settled easily against him, as if she didn’t find his arms around her in anyway confining. Indeed, she even grabbed one of his hands, holding it tightly as if in it he held the very cure to claustrophobia itself.