Sipping Coffee
Title: Sipping Coffee
Author: Amedia (amedia@fanfic.tv)
Pairing(s): Cain/Glitch
Rating: PG for unpleasant memory angst
Summary: Cain's offer of coffee triggers one of Glitch's memories.
Note: Initially posted to my livejournal and to the "tin and straw" and "glitch wyatt" lj communities.
Response to challenge #1 from this post by avari maethor.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Imagiquest Entertainment. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Amedia's Tin Man stories:
Silhouetted
The Reason
Preposterous
Cain awoke first, shortly after sunrise, kicking his way out of the bedroll until he was free. He still had a horror of confinement; it had only been a few weeks since he'd been released from his metal prison. He stood and stretched, reveling in his long-sought freedom. Making his way over to the other side of the campfire, he poked at the other bedroll with a toe. Not quite hard enough to be a kick. More of a nudge. "Rise and shine, Glitch," he said cheerfully.
"Mmmmph," said his traveling companion, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Cain shrugged and went to his saddlebags.
He had figured that today might be something of a letdown. He and Glitch had spent the last few days riding with Raw to the border of his own people's country, and the Viewer had left them yesterday to go on alone. Raw was returning to his people as an ambassador from the Queen, with a dignity he had long been denied, and the others had wished him well. It had been a joyous farewell, with many promises of future reunions, but it was still farewell.
Cain had felt pretty somber afterwards, and he guessed Glitch felt much the same way; they hadn't talked much when they set up camp last night. It would be nice to have something of a cheering nature this morning. He felt down around the bottom of the nearest bag and pulled out what he'd been looking for.
By the time Glitch was fully awake, Cain had a fire burning briskly and an iron kettle boiling. There was a fragrant smell in the air. "Is that coffee?" Glitch asked, sitting on his bedroll and yawning.
Cain turned and smiled at him. "Thought you might enjoy a treat this morning."
Glitch grinned broadly. "Oh yes. I haven't had coffee since... since..." He stopped speaking and looked pensive. "When *did* I last have coffee?"
Cain was still chuckling when he abruptly realized Glitch was dead serious. "Are you remembering something?"
Glitch looked in his direction, but not at him. Ever since Raw had briefly connected him to his past, once with his own fragmentary recollections and then with the other half of his brain, he seemed to be having recurring flashes of memory. Ordinarily Cain thought that was a good thing. This time he wasn't so sure.
"I last had coffee," Glitch said hesitantly, "when they used to give it to me." Cain wondered who "they" were, but he didn't want to interrupt. "In china cups, with cream and sugar. And drugs. It would be laced with drugs to make me talk." Glitch was staring at the ground now, no longer looking anywhere near Cain. He looked ashamed. "They couldn't make me tell the truth, but they could make me talk. I couldn't stop talking. I wanted to tell them exactly the wrong things, so they'd build the machine wrong, but I couldn't keep it all straight in my head, and I was afraid I'd tell them the right answers, so I would just talk nonsense."
He began to shake. "Then they would give up and start the beatings again. That was better. Ha. Not better. Simpler. I didn't have to keep track of what I'd said - I didn't have to talk at all." He dragged a sleeve across his face, then buried his face in his hands. "I'm not crying. I'm not crying in front of you. You'd think less of me. You already do, you must. I couldn't feed them consistently false information. I couldn't send them on a wild goose chase. I couldn't fool them. All I could do was refuse. For all the good it did. They got what they wanted in the end."
Cain knelt in front of Glitch and pulled the trembling hands away from the tear-streaked face. "I don't think less of you. Ever since I saw those memories, back in the hut..." He shook his head. "You're the bravest man I know." Glitch still wouldn't look up at him. "And you held out. You delayed them. They were still working on the machine when we got there. Remember how angry the Witch was, because it wasn't quite done?"
Glitch looked up, a light in his eyes. "That's right. But--" the light faded again, "--it *was* done on time. Maybe just barely, but it was." He looked away.
Cain laughed and gestured to the sky. "Then why, my friend, are the suns still shining?"
Glitch followed Cain's pointing arm and smiled. Cain stood up, pulling Glitch to his feet along with him.
"We did it, didn't we? We stopped it, all of us together!" Glitch said proudly, and then startled Cain by throwing his arms around him.
I thought I told DG that my pep talks came with less hugging than hers, thought Cain, but he couldn't bring himself to be grumpy, not with his arms full of a joyful Glitch who was beginning to rediscover and make peace with his past. So he hugged Glitch right back. "We sure did, sweetheart," he said. "We sure did."
THE END
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