A/N: Hi guys! Ready for another chapter? Here goes nothing!

Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked, nor am I making any money from writing this story.

Butterfly: Part Two

Glinda the Good sat up abruptly in the brass four poster bed fitted with pink linens that she had slept in every night since she could remember. She had had the strongest of the Ozian Guard transport it to the castle, and wished she had the courage presently to laugh at the memory, but when the tapping at the window that had startled her awake occurred again, all thoughts of mirth left her. The tap sounded odd, as though it were someone announcing their presence, but this was the fifth floor of the palace. No one was that tall, were they? A tree then? It had been somewhat windy when she was walking through the palace gardens after supper. But although the Munchkinlander gardener the palace employed was from tall stock (like Elphaba), he was still shorter than average so that the plants he tended did not stretch themselves past the third flo-

Wait a clock tick. Elphaba. As far as Glinda knew she had left Oz, but that had seemed to be only at Fiyero's insistence. If she had managed to get on her broom...or even send one of those dreadful monkeys... A screech of frustration from outside the closed window broke into Glinda's thoughts, and her head snapped to the direction the sound was coming from to see one of the monkeys she had just been speculating about. In fact, this monkey was vaguely recognizable to her. As if shot out of a cannon, Glinda was across the room in a flash, and opening the balcony door.

"Chistery!"

The monkey flapped inside hurriedly and made a somewhat ungainly landing on the bed where Glinda had been moments before, his balance thrown off by the squashy overstuffed mattress that Glinda insisted upon. Chistery made a jerky movement, bending his waist, if monkeys had such things, in what Glinda supposed was an attempt at a bow. She laughed softly and dismissed this stab at propriety with a wave of her dainty hand. When she had recovered herself she saw that Chistery was holding a scrap of parchment out to her, and she took it, going pale at the all too recognizable handwriting. She scanned the note briefly, her eyes widening as she read, and when she finished she looked back up at Elphaba's winged messenger.

"So she's alive."

Chistery's nod confirmed it, and Glinda stood still as stone for a few moments, thinking hard. She seemed to be struggling internally. Her role here in the Emerald City was nothing short of important, and it wouldn't do at all to just up and disappear into the night without even so much as a goodbye to her loyal subjects. That was more Elphie's style. Elphie. Her Elphie, was in danger, and so apparently was an infant, although the hastily written note hadn't explained how exactly Elphaba Thropp came to be in possession of an infant. But small children don't just fall out of the sky, either.

Glinda laughed ruefully and forced herself to remember that small children did in fact occasionally fall out of the sky. Hadn't Dorothy Gale done just that? Her mind now whirring with unanswered questions and sparked by her curiosity, she looked at Chistery and nodded. A few waves of her wand and she was dressed to travel, a single trunk with only the barest necessities at her side. She wore a replica of the same simple white traveling dress she had worn when she arrived at Shiz, although there was a touch of lace at the neck as she had become a public official since then. Her wand was situated in a discreetly placed hip pocket in case of emergency and on her feet she wore simple white flats.

She felt a little sad at leaving her beautiful clothes and things behind, but then she supposed if she took everything with her the whole thing would look much too thorough, and the Gale Force would come searching for her in a trice. With a last glance around her beautiful room, she waved her wand to conjure her bubble, stepped inside, and floated into the night, following Chistery into the western skies.

***

Elphaba began to pace worriedly as dawn drew near with no sign of her monkey messenger or her best friend. Leila had become restless again during the long wait, and Elphaba was completely at a loss. She had been young when she raised Nessarose, she reasoned forcing thee uncomfortable realization that she was losing touch with the civilized ways to the back of her mind. Bottles had been ready made by her father for the first year or so, because of Elphaba's young age. But by the time she was old enough to fix Nessa's meals on her own, Nessa had been ready to try solid food. But Leila was not, and there were no readymade bottles for her now.

A tug on her skirts brought her out of her thoughts scowling down at the poor creature who had disturbed her. It was a female flying monkey, one that had offspring, if Elphaba remembered correctly.

"What is it Viola?"

The monkey began making a horrible racket, worse that Leila's squalling, and Elphaba rolled her eyes to look up at the ceiling. She began chanting nonsense under her breath and watched with grim satisfaction as Viola brought herself under control and waited, head down for Elphaba to acknowledge her again. The spell that gave the monkeys the ability to fly was quite painful, unfortunately, and while Elphaba would never hurt them further or use spells as punishment, the wretched creatures didn't know that, and pretending to do so established order very quickly in a pinch.

Viola looked up at Elphaba, keeping her excitement to a soft chittering, and presented Elphaba with a rough hewn wooden bowl. It contained a scrap of coarse cheesecloth, formed into a small pouch that contained a small helping of mashed banana. Elphaba only stared at it for several long moments until; finally it was snatched from her grasp by a pale white hand. A human hand. Shock registered for a moment on Elphaba's features before…

"Thank you Viola, that will do quite nicely"

Elphaba whirled around at the sound of the familiar voice, and went to embrace the petite blonde woman who stood before her, bathed in the gold light of early dawn coming in the tower window, and making her look very much like the angel that Elphaba knew she was. But an impatient wail from Leila put any thoughts of reunion aside for the moment as Glinda fetched her, cooing distractedly, and gave her to Elphaba, squeezing the banana mash tightly within the cheesecloth and grinning triumphantly, as a milky liquid was strained out of the mash and dripped into Leila's open mouth changing her cries to coos of contentment.

When Leila had finished, she slept, worn out by the circumstances of her arrival and the long wait for Glinda, and the two friends stood facing each other reveling in the silence for a moment. Then as if on cue they embraced tightly, as though trying desperately to make up for lost time. Elphaba held Glinda close, and whispered

"Thank Oz you're here Ginda, Thank Oz you're here."

A/N: So what did you think? Please review, and let me know. I promise there will be more of the witches' reunion next chapter, and also the arrival of Fiyero!