It was Winter Break. Nessarose hadn't planned on returning home for the break, but her father had insisted on it, especially after what had happened only a few weeks before. He had come up from the Quadling Country to Colwen Grounds, taking his shockingly normal ten year old son with him.
Nessa knew something was off. She'd only been to Colwen Grounds twice in her life. She had been born there(a rather conveniently placed family visit had resulted in a heavily pregnant Melena going into a slightly premature labor) and had visited when she was four. The next year, Shell had been born and her mother had died. Frex had never visited after that, and Nanny had never chided him to. Elphaba hadn't cared enough to ask to go back, probably sensing that she shouldn't. Nessa never said anything, but wished she could go back to the place with the shiny polished floors and pretty flowers in the garden.
Some how, now the gardens were not the secret gardens of childhood, complete with faeries and magic. Now the gardens were simply somewhat dry flower beds. She curled her nose up prettily, and walked along with Nanny.
The little family reunited, even though it was incomplete. No one said a word about the missing member, until Shell finally said, "So Elphaba's not coming back? She's really gone?" The boy had never experienced real loss- he'd never known his mother and had never paid particular attention to the Quadling people he had been raised among. Frankly, the comment probably wasn't a brother's concern for his missing eldest sister. It was a boy's reflection on his own many failed attempts to run away from home.
Nessa stared at the tea cup in front of her, wishing she could pick it up herself. She heard her father say, "Your Great-Grandfather is looking for your sister. We'll bring her home. She's probably just worried that after that fuss was made, we'll be angry with her, won't welcome her back."
Nessa didn't say she was angry with her sister and wouldn't welcome her back. She didn't think Elphaba was afraid of facing her family. She thought Elphaba could care less and would probably spit on her "loved" ones as embrace them.
Nanny raised Nessa's teacup to her mouth and said, "We'll bring her home, for sure, but what if it's in a casket?" Nessarose choked on her mouth full of tea.
"Nanny!" Frex scolded. "Elphaba is not dead. She's a probably frightened teenage girl! She made a mistake, is all." She could never remember her father sticking up for Elphaba like that, not while she was around. Elphaba had always been blamed for things, the trouble child. Their father had never been so protective of her.
Great-Grandfather seemed to agree with Nanny. "Frex, exactly. She's a teenage girl... The blonde little thing, her friend, whats-her-name..."
"Glinda," Nessa provided.
"Glinda said Elphaba was deeply upset and was in the Emerald City. She said Elphaba couldn't tell her where she was going because she had no plans. Frex, that girl isn't going to last long. It's been weeks. If she was going to come running home, she would've. There's a very good chance she's gone already."
Frex through his napkin down. It was incredibly impolite, but years among the Quadlings had exhausted his manners. The rest of the family went back to their teacakes and didn't say another word.
Hours later, Nessa seeked to see her father before she went to bed. She stood outside the door and listen to him, talking to himself, "...my punishment. The girl's entire existence is to punish me. She wasn't her own fault. She's my daughter, I'm her father. I couldn't protect her from herself. I failed, I failed, again."
Nessarose froze, walked away before her father could see her. Seeing her father's pain did not make her wish her sister was home, to relieve Frex. It only made her resent the girl more. Nessarose had been the golden, holy child. She didn't like seeing Frex so concerned with his other daughter...