Just a little note so everybody is on the same page. This is musical-verse and although it's set after the musical's over it isn't AU. Which means Elphaba is still alive. However I keep referring to her as being 'dead' since the story is from Glinda's perspective and Glinda thinks she did die.

Glinda saw crowds pouring into the streets below as she approached the Emerald City. She sighed and closed her eyes. She knew what all the commotion was about. Nothing else could cause the citizens of Oz to rejocify the way they were right now. Clearly the little girl and her mismatched companions had already arrived back at the Palace. 'Good news really travels fast,' she thought sadly. But this news wasn't good. Not to her anyway.

But that wasn't the way it worked for the rest of Oz. And Glinda was a public figure now. That meant she needed to appear to be on their side, even if that wasn't the case.

As her giant bubble descended towards to huge crowd of people, she willed her tears to dry. She could do this. After Elphie had left her in the Emerald City all those years ago and she had joined the Wizard, she had had to do this quite often; pretend to be happy when she wasn't.

"Relax," Glinda told herself. "This is no different."

But it was different. She had to lay all the rumours to rest, and this time doing that meant she had to stand in front of that huge crowd of people, tell them Elphaba was dead and manage to not look upset about it.

People in the crowd caught sight of her as she floated toward them and began to cheer in merriment.

"It's good to see me isn't it?" she called out in her clear, musical voice. A bunch of cheers and nods erupted from the crowd. "No need to respond," she teased. "That was rhetorical."

Then she turned her head, so there wasn't any possibility of her make eye contact with someone and bursting into tears. 'This is it,' she thought to herself. She took a deep breath and began to make the announcement that would break her heart. "Fellow Ozians..."

She was doing a pretty good job at keeping her emotions under control. The townspeople, of course had no idea, but Glinda the Good was on the verge of bursting into tears; over the death of the most hated person in the history of Oz.

Suddenly a voice broke through the crowd. "Glinda," it asked. "Exactly how dead is she?"

Glinda felt like her already broken heart shatter all over again. But she knew that if it was discovered that she and Elphie had been friends, it would be a bigger scandal than the Wizard's disappearance. So she bit back any visible trace of empathy she possessed for the green girl and answered the question as any good public figure would.

"Because there has been so much rumour and speculation...innuendo, outuendo...let me set the record straight. According to the Time Dragon Clock, the melting occurred at the thirteenth hour: a direct result of a bucket of water thrown by a female child. Yes," she nodded. "The Wicked Witch of the West is DEAD!"

At that the applause became louder than ever and all the Ozians began cheering about how awful wickedness was and how people like the Witch led miserable, unfulfilling lives.

"Glinda," someone asked. "Why does wickedness happen?"

"That is a good question; one that many people find confusifying," Glinda said. "Are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?"

From there she dove into telling the crowd Elphaba's life story. Glinda liked to think that most of what she told the Ozians was the truth, but she didn't know everything, so some things she had guessed from what Elphaba had told her over the years, and others she had made up entirely. It didn't really make a difference though; she knew it wouldn't. In their eyes Elphie was the most evil villain to ever sweep through Oz. The opinion of one lone person; no matter who they were wasn't going to change their views on the wickedest thing Oz had ever seen, and soon enough they had begun cheering so loudly that Glinda gave up on the story altogether.

"Well, this has been fun," she smiled brightly, desperate to change the subject as quickly as possible. "But as you can imagine I have much to attend to what with the Wizard's unexpected departure. And so if there are no further questions-"

"Glinda," somebody cried out. "Is it true you were her friend?"

The entire crowd gasped. Some people tried to hush their children, who had begun crying at the mere mention that the famed Glinda the Good might see the Wicked Witch of the West in a positive light. Others tried to tell the person who had asked the question that they were crazy.

Glinda's stomach sank. She bit her lip. This is exactly what she had been afraid. Up until now she'd thought she was safe. She had no idea what to do, but she knew one thing she wouldn't do. Twenty-four hours ago her best friend had been alive and she wasn't going to damage the relationship she had with Elphaba Thropp. She was going to tell the truth, come what may and hell to pay.

"Well, I...you see...um...yes."

The crowd gasped even louder than they had before. The children resumed their crying and Glinda swore she heard the person who asked the question mutter "I knew it," under their breath.

"Well, it depends on what you mean by friend." Glinda added hastily. "I did know her. That is, our paths did cross...at school."

The Ozians didn't seemed convinced. As memories of her school days back at dear old Shiz floated through her mind, suddenly Glinda was hit with the perfect inspiration. Back before they were friends Elphaba had made it quite clear that she thought Glinda had been nothing more than a self-centred blonde bimbo. And if Glinda was honest with herself, she probably had been. She just hoped that that would be enough.

"But you must understand," she pleaded. "It was a long time ago and we were both very young."

An hour later Glinda was still weeping in her room in the Emerald City Palace. She'd never thought events like this would ever affect her so much. Everyone she had ever truly cared about had left her. Nessarose had been killed because of her selfish actions, Fiyero had been beaten to death in the cornfield and Elphaba, her best friend, the only one that mattered had been murdered right in front of her eyes. She didn't even know what had happened to Boq.

She'd put the Grimmerie away in a secure location in a box that she bundled away at the back of her wardrobe, behind all her ballgowns. She would make sure that she kept the last promise she'd made to Elphie. Now that the Wizard had gone and Morrible was in captivity she would go about changing things in Oz, hopefully in ways that Elphie would be proud of.

But, if there was one thing she knew for a fact it was that Elphaba wouldn't want her to suffer. Glinda missed her terribly, but Elphie's death had been too soon and Glinda wasn't ready to dive into changing Oz just yet. Sometimes, before you could do anything, you had to take a step back and help yourself.

That night Glinda the Good fell into a restless sleep full of dreams full of the Wicked Witch of the West, who had given her the most unlikely thing possible; a true friendship.