*beaming smile* It's good to see me, isn't it? I'm quite excited to start posting this story. I really liked writing it - I hope you'll like reading it as well! It's inspired by the musical The Bodyguard, but as always, I've given it my own twist, so it's not just a re-telling of the musical or the movie.

1. Arrival

As the son of the most prominent businessman of the Vinkus – and as somewhat of a former celebrity himself – Fiyero Tiggular had, of course, been to the Emerald City before. After all, it was seen as a cultural, architectural, social, and political paradise by most Ozians and he had come there quite often, representing his father at social gatherings or important events. He'd attended meetings and galas, dinners and parties, and the openings of several new businesses and renovated historical buildings. He had driven around the City in a limousine, stayed at the most expensive hotels, eaten at the best restaurants, drunk champagne from glasses rimmed with gold, and brought beautiful girls back to various luxurious hotel rooms for some happy, happy nights.

Now, however, he found himself not nearly as awed as he used to be when he regarded the building before him over the top of his sunglasses. Maybe it was because he was not staying at a fancy place this time. He was no longer the golden boy he used to be, destined to take over his father's role as Governor of the Tiggular Bank once Jorge Tiggular would retire. He hadn't been that boy for a while now, but this was the first time he had been back in the Emerald City since then.

The building he was facing now was called the Palace by most people, even though it wasn't actually a palace. It was, nevertheless, an enormous building, pretentious yet impressive and, like everything else in the City, green. It was most widely known because the mayor of the Emerald City, Oscar Diggs, both lived and worked there. Despite Fiyero's status and his previous visits to the City, he had never actually been inside the Palace and he couldn't deny that he was quite curious about its interior – both in terms of decorations and in terms of people.

Security, he observed, was pretty tight; he first had to show his invitation to the guards at the gate and once he had parked his car inside the grounds and reached the door to the actual building, he was checked over by two other guards. They made him hand in the small gun he kept in the back pocket of his jeans, but they failed to notice the two knives he always kept, respectively, in his boot and tucked into his belt. This told him that no matter how secure everyone thought this place to be, it was clearly not secure enough.

Through the door, he entered a large hall, decorated with all kinds of art, with a giant staircase ahead. He went to the desk in the corner.

"Hello," he said in a bored tone of voice. "I'm here to see a Miss Galinda Upland?"

"Of course," the young woman behind the desk gushed, taking him in from head to toe. "Fiyero Tiggular, right?"

He winked at her. "That's me."

She giggled at him and typed something on her computer before picking up a phone. "Mr Tiggular here for Miss Upland," she said into the phone before putting it down and smiling charmingly at the sandy-haired man across from her. "She'll be arriving shortly to pick you up. You can wait here for her." She batted her eyelashes at him, but Fiyero just thanked her and turned around. He'd spent enough time with girls such as this one and he didn't feel like talking to her for much longer.

He tucked his sunglasses into his hair and took to studying some of the paintings as he waited. The walls on either side of the staircase were lined with glass doors, behind which Fiyero could see foyers, offices, and long hallways going Oz-knew-where.

He knew a bit about the lay-out of the building. It had six floors, including the ground floor, and on each floor worked a different team of people – everything administrative on the ground floor, communications and inter- and intra-governmental affairs on the first floor, legislation and finance on the second floor, and planning, development, and human resources on the third floor, if Fiyero remembered correctly. He walked over to a sign by the lifts with short descriptions of the departments found on each floor and smiled when he found that he had been correct. Unlike back when he still went to school, and later university, he did do his homework these days.

He knew the mayor and his family lived on the fifth floor – the top floor of the building – and that the guest rooms were also located there. The offices of Mr Diggs himself, as well as his deputy mayor and their more important employees, were located on the fourth floor. Fiyero wondered if that was where he would be going now.

He wandered around the hall for a bit, but it was at least another ten minutes' wait before someone behind him squealed, "Mr Tiggular!"

Fiyero turned to find himself face-to-face with a bouncy, blonde young woman. She was dressed smartly in a cream-coloured skirt and jacket, with matching high heels on her feet and a beaming, relieved smile on her face. He wondered how she could walk so quickly in those shoes as she came hurrying towards him and grabbed his hand, shaking it with a little more enthusiasm than was necessary.

"Oh, I am so happy to see you!" she gushed. "You're supposed to be the best bodyguard in all of Oz, apparently due to your upbringing – is it true that young Vinkun men have to go through some sort of maturing ritual that involves surviving in the wild? A friend of mine said so. Anyway, never mind that," she prattled on before he could even reply, "it was so good of you to come!"

He huffed a laugh. "Yeah, well, you said the pay would be worth it."

She paused, not entirely sure if he was joking or not, but she shook it off and went back to beaming at him. "We're so happy to have you here. How do you find the Emerald City?" she asked, linking her arm with his and dragging him closer to the lifts beside the staircase again.

"Splendid," he replied. "I've been here before, of course."

The young woman giggled. "Of course." She sobered quickly, however, as she pressed the button to call for the lift. "It really is good to see you. Oscar – I mean, Mayor Diggs – and I have been growing rather desperate lately," she admitted. She looked at him as they stepped inside the lift. "You see, Mr Tiggular... I told you about the letters Elphie has been receiving, right? When I wrote to you?"

"By 'Elphie', I assume you mean the deputy mayor, Elphaba Thropp?" he asked, furrowing his brow. Frankly, he couldn't imagine anyone referring to the stoic, powerful woman that was the deputy mayor by so perky a name as 'Elphie', but he was sure the blonde couldn't mean anyone else.

She giggled again. "Yes. I'm sorry – it's habit," she apologized. "I've called her 'Elphie' ever since we first became friends. Which reminds me – I haven't even properly introduced myself, have I? How rude of me!" She flashed him a wide smile. "Galinda Upland," she informed him with a little curtsey, "of the Upper Uplands. Officially, I am in charge of HR; but I am also Elphie's PA, manager, babysitter, stylist, slave, and best friend – or that's what it often feels like, anyway." She smiled fondly. "Don't get me wrong – I love Elphie to pieces, but she definishly needs help with a lot of things."

Fiyero nodded, wishing she'd just get to the point already. The lift doors opened with a ping and they stepped out onto the fourth floor. Fiyero followed the petite blonde down a hallway, noting that the few people milling about there hardly paid them any attention. "What were you saying about those letters you've been receiving?"

She took a breath. "Someone seems intent on... being with her," she said. "Elphie, I mean. I think the writer of these letters is in love with her – in a creepy, obsessive kind of way. The letters don't exactly threaten her life, but some of them describe in some detail what this person wants to do to Elphie once they're alone; and the mayor and I are worried that he is going to do something terrible to her. Kidnap her, or rape her, or... I don't know. We just fear for her safety."

"And they're actual letters?" he asked. "Not emails or anything like that?"

Galinda shook her head. "Real letters, on paper, with no return address," she confirmed. "They're hand-written, but the handwriting is never the same in two sentences – either the letters are written by more than one person or the one person who does write them is very careful to make his handwriting impossible to track down. Sometimes they're just short notes, other times they're longer letters, but they all seem to be coming from the same person."

Galinda had told him some of this on the phone already. She'd sounded near tears when she'd called him, all but begging him for his help because she was so worried about her friend. Fiyero's main motivation to take the job, however, had been both the promised pay and the boost it would give his reputation. If he managed to protect the deputy mayor of the Emerald City from harm and thus gain the favour of both her and the mayor himself... well, it could never hurt, could it?

"She doesn't know," Galinda continued as they moved into a foyer at the end of the hallway and she motioned for him to sit down in one of the velvet arm chairs. He sprawled on it, quickly scanning the small space around him almost out of habit. Chairs, potted plants, desk with computer and magazines, coffee and tea machines. "We haven't told Elphaba, the mayor and I, and all her letters are checked by me, so she hasn't seen them. We don't want to worry her when it might not be worth worrying about – she has enough on her plate as it is. Still, we need to put an end to it."

"Huh." He hid a yawn, watching in interest as Galinda fired up the coffee machine on a table in the corner. "What are you going to tell her about me, then? Don't you think she'll get suspicious if she suddenly finds herself guarded day and night?" He got up and moved closer to Galinda, breathing in the scent of the coffee. It wasn't the fresh brew he usually began his day with, but machine coffee was still better than nothing.

"Probably," Galinda admitted, turning around to hand him a cup, "but she's used to threats every now and then. Not everyone agrees with her views and policies, after all. Besides, you won't need to be beside her all the time. Only when she goes out in public. As you have probably noticed, security here at the Palace is quite tight already."

In one swift move and with only one hand, Fiyero extracted his knife from his boot, yanked Galinda against him, and pressed the blade against her throat. She squeaked in surprise and fear and he casually sipped his coffee, which he was still holding with his other hand, before saying into her ear, "If I had wanted to kill you, you'd be dead right now. Somehow I think your security is not quite tight enough, Miss Upland."

He let go of her and she smoothed out her clothes with a sour look on her face. "Well," she said tersely. "You could have just told me that. You didn't have to show me."

He chortled.

Galinda strode away from him, clearly ticked off. "I suppose that, while you're here, you could look into a way to improve general security at the Palace as well."

He flashed her a dimpled grin that melted the displeasure right off her face. "That might not be a bad idea," he agreed, casually tucking the knife back into his boot.

Galinda frowned and held out her hand, tapping her foot impatiently. "I would prefer for you to hand that over to me before I let you see the deputy mayor, Mr Tiggular."

He rolled his eyes, but complied and handed her the knife. "What makes you think Deputy Mayor Thropp is in any danger at all?"

"The fact that the notes and letters are getting more threatening and more detailed, for one," said Galinda. "And there's more. They were just letters at first, but Elphaba also noticed that she was followed around a few times lately. She thinks it's just someone who is trying to scare her a little. Like I said, there are always people who disagree with her views and policies. Threats aren't exactly new to her. I feel like this is different, though – more serious. The mayor agrees with me. We'd feel much better if someone was there to protect Elphie and if we could somehow find out who is behind all this."

"And the pay?" Fiyero asked, mildly bored. Elphaba Thropp sounded like just another important person needing protection from a supposed threat that may or may not be real. Usually, it turned out not to be real at all. He'd had countless jobs like this one and they were never very interesting, but he knew he'd do it nonetheless – for the pay and the reputation if nothing else.

His question earned him another frown from Galinda, but she replied, "I'm sure we can work out an arrangement that suits both our interests, Mr Tiggular. I will go and get Elphie and Oscar so we can start making plans."

He waited. He removed his sunglasses from where he'd tucked them into his hair and put them away in his bag. He walked around the room and flipped through one of the magazines lying on the desk against the wall. The room was open on one side, allowing him to look down the hallway they had entered through – it wasn't so much a separate room as it was a large alcove at the end of the hallway. He could see employees walking up and down the hallway almost constantly, knocking on doors and poking their heads around the corners of offices to ask their colleagues something. The walls of the hallway, too, were lined with art, he noted. Everything here at the Palace seemed grand and ornate and for a brief moment, it made him miss the large mansion that had been his home until about three years ago.

He was just standing in front of the window, enjoying the view, when he suddenly heard running footsteps coming up behind him. He whirled around just in time to see a flash of something storming at him with a loud battle cry and Fiyero, out of habit, instantly ducked away, spun around, grabbed his attacker, and slammed him to the floor.

"Ow!" the person yelped. Big, brown eyes streaked with green blinked up at him and he swore under his breath when he realized that he was pinning down a child. It was only a boy, probably not even ten years old, and he looked dazed – he had probably just wanted to play. Fiyero hoped he hadn't given him a concussion or anything by throwing him to the floor like that.

He jumped when another dismayed cry came from behind him. A little girl angrily tried to push him aside. Fiyero scuttled away from the boy and the girl glared daggers at him before kneeling down next to Xalo. "Xalo, are you all right?"

Fiyero winced when he realized that the girl's skin was green. That could really only mean one thing. He swore quietly under his breath and quickly said, "I'm sorry, kid." He held out a hand to help the boy up. "You okay?"

The boy just blinked at him. The girl shot him another angry look and he could have sworn there were some green sparks dancing around her hands, but then he blinked and they were gone.

"What did you do?" a sharp voice demanded. He looked up and there, striding down the hallway, was the person he had been dreading to see – Deputy Mayor Elphaba Thropp.

She was a tall woman in her mid-twenties with long, black hair in a ponytail that swished as she walked. She was dressed in long, grey trousers and a white blouse. Her skin was as green as emeralds and her eyes were narrowed and blazing behind a pair of spectacles as she briskly marched towards him. Galinda was jogging to keep up with her, once again impressing Fiyero with her ability to run in high heels.

He cursed their timing. He'd thought before that the little green girl's glare had been impressive; but now, with Elphaba's eyes on him, he was pretty sure that this woman was the reason the expression "if looks could kill" existed in the first place. He wondered if her looks could actually kill. She was a sorceress, after all – everyone knew that.

"Nothing!" he protested, but she merely narrowed her eyes at him dangerously and swept past him. He hurried to get out of the way as she moved over to the children.

"Mum! He hurt Xalo!" the little girl said, confirming Fiyero's suspicions of her being Elphaba's daughter. She was looking at the boy in concern and Elphaba ran a hand over her miniature's dark brown hair consolingly.

"He'll be fine, sweetie." She crouched down beside Xalo. The girl leapt back to her feet and went to stand with Galinda in order to give Elphaba more room.

"Where does it hurt?" the dark-haired witch asked Xalo gently.

"I'm okay, I think," the boy said, furrowing his brow. "My back hurts a little. And my head."

Elphaba helped him sit up and placed one of her hands on his spine and the other on his head. She closed her eyes, her lips moving. A soft, white glow engulfed her hands for a moment; then it was gone. "Better?"

"Yes." Xalo grinned widely and leapt to his feet. He quickly hugged the green woman. "Thanks."

"Go off and play," she told him, mussing his hair. She looked at the girl and smiled. "You, too, honey. I have to talk to this man for a little bit, okay?"

"Okay," the two chirped and ran off.

Elphaba straightened and looked at Fiyero, her dark brown eyes piercing. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. Galinda cleared her throat, but she was ignored.

"So," Elphaba said, slowly looking him up and down. "Would you care to explain to me why you were attacking a little boy?"

"I wasn't attacking him!" Fiyero defended himself. "He was attacking me!" At Elphaba's raised eyebrow, he amended, "He was playing, of course, but I didn't know that. I'm a trained bodyguard," he stressed. "When someone comes running at me, I take that person down."

She crossed her arms. Galinda heaved a sigh.

He cocked his head a little to the side. "I didn't know you had a kid. Come to think of it, I've never heard of you being married or in a relationship, either. Where's the girl's father?"

"What makes you think that is any of your business?" she asked him flatly. "You come barging in here, slam an eight-year-old to the ground, and then start asking me personal questions without so much as introducing yourself to me. Forgive me, but you're not making a great first impression." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

He held up both hands. "Look, I'm here to help you and –"

"I don't need your help," she interrupted him. "I know Galinda thinks some extra security couldn't hurt, but I am perfectly capable of handling myself, thank you very much."

Before she'd finished speaking, Fiyero had grabbed her arm, spun her against his chest, and was pressing the blade of his second knife to her throat. He grinned triumphantly. "You were saying?"

Galinda looked horrified. "I took your knife away from you!" she exclaimed in shock, gaping at him. "Where did you...?" She trailed off and he shrugged.

"I'm always well-prepared." He cast a sideways glance at the young witch in his arms. "And you, Miss Elphaba, don't appear to be as capable of handling yourself as you're trying to make me believe you are."

He became aware of her body growing hot against him only a heartbeat before he suddenly found his hand smacked by some searing, invisible force, sending the knife flying across the room. He cried out in pain and clutched his hand; but before he could recover, Elphaba had already whirled around and he was flung backwards, stumbling against the wall and then crumpling to the floor, still cradling his aching hand. He raised his head to look up at her incredulously.

Yes, he had heard about her magical talents, but he had not seen this coming.

There was a smirk on her face as she turned around. "Yes," she deadpanned over her shoulder. "I think I am simply desperate for your protection, Mr Tiggular."

She swept down the hallway, humming a song under her breath. Galinda buried her face in her hands. Fiyero let his head thump back onto the floor with a grunt.

The next update will be on Sunday, but in the meantime, I'd love for you to tell me what you think! That dark hole is still there for me to crawl into, if you want me to...