Title: Lifesaver
Author: Amedia (amedia@fanfic.tv)
Word Count: 200
Rating: G
Summary: Cain wakes up in DeMilo's wagon.
Note: Initially posted to my livejournal and to the "tinman100" lj community.
Response to the prompt "wake" on tinman100.
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.

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Cain woke groggy and without a sense of time, automatically pointing his gun at the intruder who just as automatically brushed it aside and went past him. "You've been sleeping for hours like a baby with his pacifier," Glitch said, loading wood into the stove.

The gun did provide a sort of comfort, Cain reflected. Self-defense in a trustless time. Revenge, his vision of the future. Cold thoughts to keep the emptiness at bay.

Glitch was still talking. "… but this is what saved your life, stopped the bullet."

Cain took the little horse in his hand. He remembered carving it, the way Jeb's eyes lit up when Cain placed the toy in his hands. Cain's own father had carved similar toys for him, and he had once regretted that Jeb would never do the same. He remembered Zero's words, letting slip that Cain's wife and son were alive, and felt again the dizzying hope that he hardly dared to believe.

The emptiness receded. Glitch kept going on; Cain accepted his words as a friendly background noise without listening. He sank back against the pillows, the little horse in his grip, the gun forgotten. He had found a better companion.



THE END

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