Seventeen hours. It had been seventeen hours since she went into labour.
The doctors had told him he wasn't allowed into the room, so he paced nervously in the hall. He brushed a hand through his dirty-blonde hair, she cried out in pain. Oz, how he wished he could be in there holding her hand.
Elphaba collapsed backwards onto the hospital bed.
"It's a girl!" the doctor announced happily
"What color is she?" Elphaba demanded
"Pale as milk" the doctor replied
"Thank Oz" She could barely move; she was so tired
"We're going to let your husband back in the room now"
He wasted no time in running to her side. He squeezed her hand a little and she smiled weakly at him as he helped her sit up. The doctor placed their baby in her arms, leaving the room to give them some privacy.
The child cooed in its mother's arms.
"She so beautiful" The green woman whispered admiring the infant's dark hair and emerald eyes.
"She looks like you" he insisted staring lovingly into her chocolate eyes
"She has your eyes" She stared back into his green ones, "She looks like my mother"
She let her tears fall; escaping Oz was one of the toughest things she'd ever done, there were so many people she wished could be there. She wanted to see her mother; mesmerized at the thought of being a grandmother. She wanted to see her sister; she would have been Auntie Nessa. And Glinda, who would have been 'thrillified' at the thought of being the child's godmother. But none of those people were there in Fliaan, They didn't even know they were alive, but it was better that way; safer for her child.
"Have you thought of a name?" he asked; breaking the silence
"Sort of" She replied, lowering her eyes to the child
"I think I know what you want to name her" he smiled
"Really?"
"Do it" he insisted
"Melena-Rose Tenmeadows" She beamed at the child who let out an innocent giggle upon hearing her name
"Beautiful" He kissed the child's forehead
"I love you Avaric"
"I love you more, Fae"
Elphaba sat alone with her memories. It seemed that Melena's childhood had flown past, yet it was so long ago. How old was she now? 70? 80? She had lost track, she remembered Avaric had passed five years earlier, or was it ten? So Melena must be in her thirties at least, the old woman tried to do the math in her head. She remembered the day her baby girl left for the Emerald City, to start a life of her own.
"Melena, please be safe!" Elphaba pleaded with her daughter as she headed out the door.
"I will momma, I'll be safe" The young woman tried to hold back her tears
Elphaba told her to wait as she ran to grab a box from the very back of her closet. She handed it to her daughter who took it with a questioning glance. Upon opening it she gasped, inside were the most beautiful pair of shoes she'd ever seen.
"They were your aunt's" Elphaba's eyes brimmed with tears
The ruby coloured shoes glittered in the light from the doorway, Dorothy had left them behind.
"I love you momma, I'll keep these shoes always"
"Good luck baby girl" The verdant woman let her tears fall down her emerald cheeks.
She closed the door on her way out.
** ** **
Elphaba had been reminiscing for hours when there was an abrupt knock on the door.
"It's open" she called from where she was sitting; fear of the gale force had stopped being necessary a while ago. Was the 'Wicked Witch' really a threat, old as she was, wrinkled as a prune?
A woman walked in and sat beside her.
"Nessarose how nice of you to visit!" she cried; her mind escaping her
"No mom, it's your daughter. It's Melena"
The old woman began to weep, "how many years and you only visit now!"
"I'm sorry mom. I've come to tell you some news"
"Good news?" Elphaba asked hopefully
"I'm afraid not. Glinda the good died today" at this the former wicked witch cried even harder
"Glinda? Oz!"
"I know mom" she hugged her mother, "I have to go now" Melena stood up
"No Melli stay! You're the only one I have left!" She begged to her only daughter, "You're the only one I have left"
Melena-Rose left the ruby slippers by the door.