"Come on, Dr. Dillamond. You can do it," Elphaba encouraged, kneeling in front of her former collage professor.
The Goat, now goat, Dr. Dillamond, looked up at her, his eyes filled with tears. "Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."
"Fae?" a male voice asked. Elphaba turned around to see her husband, Fiyero, walking up to them. "What are you doing?"
"I'm hunting rabbits," Elphaba said, dramatically rolling her eyes. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to get Dr. Dillamond to speak again."
"Fae –"
"No, Fiyero. I have to do this. This is my fault. It's my problem that I have to fix."
Fiyero sighed, knowing that arguing with his wife wasn't going to do any good. "Okay," he whispered, kissing her cheek and walking into their small cottage on the outskirts of Oz.
Elphaba turned her attention back to Dr. Dillamond. "Alright, we'll start easy. Say my name."
Dr. Dillamond looked up at his former student. He could tell that this was physically draining all of her energy. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"El," Elphaba started, phonetically pronouncing her name. "Pha-ba."
"Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa."
"El-pha-ba," she tried again.
"Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa."
Elphaba bit her lip, determined not to cry. Why couldn't she get Dr. Dillamond to speak? What did the Wizard do to him?
"Let's try this again," Elphaba whispered. "El-pha-"
"Baaa."
"El," Elphaba whispered.
"El," Dr. Dillamond repeated.
"Pha," Elphaba said, hope evident in her voice.
"Pha," Dr. Dillamond repeated.
"Ba," Elphaba finished.
"Baaaa," Dr. Dillamond bleated.
"Elphaba," Elphaba said, clinging to the goat's every word.
"El-pha-baaa," Dr. Dillamond said, struggling to pronounce her name.
"Oh, Dr. Dillamond," Elphaba cried, throwing her arms around the old goat.
"El-pha-baa," Dr. Dillamond whispered.
"You did it," Elphaba said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
"Elphabaaa," Dr. Dillamond said, getting the hang of speaking again. "Elphaba."
Elphaba looked up, surprised at how clearly Dr. Dillamond pronounced her name.
"T-T-Thank y-you," the goat, now Goat again, smiled.
Elphaba threw her arms around her old teacher again, too overcome with emotion to say anything.
"Elphaba," she whispered back.
"Elphaba," Dr. Dillamond whispered back, wrapping his hooves around Elphaba in a hug.