AN: Glad you all want to kill Frex and not me :P.

Elphaba'sGirl: True - Yero is not dead and Elphaba was married to someone else, but I never mentioned the Vinkus ;). She was married to the king of the Glikkus, so Fiyero is still the prince of the Vinkus.

Moreanswers24, your review once again left me dying with laughter. I quote:
"THEY COULD GET MARRIED AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
HAPPILY EVER AFTER. HAPPILY. EVER.
Elphaba, put the piece of glass down. No, Elphaba put it away.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO [this went on for a long time]"

Sander, that made me laugh, too :P. 'Frex is a fine man'... *shakes head*

Hope you'll all feel a little better after this one...


Chapter 3. If you could only make it

"Excuse me," Fiyero said, stopping a servant as he passed by, carrying a tray with empty glasses on it. "Have you seen Queen Elphaba? I was talking to her earlier, but I can't seem to find her anymore."

The servant hesitated for a moment. "I think she's upstairs," he said finally. "Her father is supposed to take her away soon to get married again, I believe. You know, because of the baby…" He trailed off.

Fiyero thanked the young man and hurried out of the dining room and into the hallway. He looked left, then right; he decided to go right and ascended the stairs he found there, only to find himself in yet another hallway with several doors, stairs, and adjoining hallways.

"'Upstairs'," he muttered to himself as he climbed another flight of stairs. "Even with that knowledge, I could probably keep searching for days and not find her. How does anyone find their way in here?"

He paused when he realised that his own castle, Adurin Iir, was just as big as this one – and probably just as confusing for someone who hadn't grown up in its chambers and hallways.

Fortunately, at some point he caught sight of a maid and he ran across the hallway. "Miss?"

She looked at him questioningly.

"I'm looking for Queen Elphaba's chambers?"

Her face softened and she nodded. "Of course." She pointed towards more stairs. "Up those stairs, then take a left turn into the hallway. It's the second door on your right."

"Thank you." Fiyero sighed as he climbed more stairs and followed the maid's instructions. The door he found was made of thick, dark wood, decorated with carvings of vines and flowers, and it had a golden doorknob.

He knocked on the door.

When no response came, he knocked again. "Elphaba?" he called. "It's me. I'm sorry to disturb you here, but I really need to talk to you."

Still no reply. He sighed and leant his forehead against the door. "Fae, please?"

He was met with only silence.

He knocked again and he kept on calling out to her; but when he didn't hear a single thing, not even the rustling of skirts or a faint echo of footsteps, he started to grow worried.

He tried the doorknob. The door wasn't locked and it swung open right away. He hesitated for only a moment before he stepped into the room.

The curtains were open, allowing daylight to stream into the room. Dark grey clouds were gathering in the sky – it would probably start raining, or even snowing, soon. Fiyero looked around. The bed was neatly made and the shoes Elphaba had worn during the ceremony were on the floor beside the bed. There was no sign of Elphaba, but the door to an adjoining room, probably the bathroom, was open.

Fiyero slowly approached said door, suddenly overcome with an unexplainable feeling of dread.

"Elphaba?" he called again.

When she still didn't reply, he pushed the door open wider.

What he found inside filled him with horror.

Elphaba was lying on the bathroom floor, right underneath a shattered mirror on the wall. She was unconscious and she was breathing, but barely. There was a sharp glass shard right next to her hand and she was surrounded by a pool of blood.

She had tried to slit her own wrists, Fiyero realised, and it felt as if someone had punched him in the face.

He fell down on his knees next to her and pressed his fingers to her neck. There was a pulse. He ripped pieces of fabric off his shirt and tried to bandage up her wrists to stop the bleeding.

"Help!" he shouted over his shoulder, praying that someone was around to hear him. "I need help in here! Hurry!"

Soon a maid came running in; and upon seeing Elphaba, she immediately turned around and ran back downstairs to get help.

Fiyero cradled the green girl in his arms, tenderly running his fingers through her hair and moving her gingerly so that her head was resting against his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Fae," he whispered to her, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. "You'll be fine. I'll do anything to make sure that you will be fine."

The maid returned not long thereafter, with a whole string of staff and guests behind her; but the maid, the doctor, the Glikkun king and queen and King Hamold of the Vinkus - Fiyero's father - were the only ones who were allowed inside.

The doctor quickly examined the raven-haired queen while the older queen stood there with her hand clamped over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. Her husband tried to comfort her. The maid was assisting the doctor and King Hamold stood behind his son, placing his hand on the prince's shoulder.

"Yero?" he asked softly. "Are you okay?"

Fiyero just shook his head wordlessly, and his father squeezed his shoulder.

"She needs to go to the hospital," the doctor spoke up. "Immediately. I managed to stop the bleeding for now, but she needs stitches - and soon."

Fiyero nodded and scooped the young queen up in his arms without a second thought. The doctor gestured for the prince to follow him and Hamold hurried in front of them to usher the guests in the hallway aside, clearing the way for the doctor and Fiyero.

They rushed downstairs and all but leapt into a carriage that would take them to the hospital. All this time, Fiyero kept a firm hold on Elphaba, praying that they would not be too late. He could see the blood soaking the bandages the doctor had wrapped around her wrists and he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to compose himself.

The moment they reached the hospital, Fiyero grabbed Elphaba a little bit tighter and quickly exited the carriage, all but running into the building.

From then on, everything was a blur. He remembered shouting something and nurses came rushing towards them from all angles; Elphaba was lifted out of his arms and onto a stretcher, and then she was wheeled behind doors and he wasn't allowed to follow. He wasn't sure how much time passed; he alternated between pacing, sitting restlessly on one of the uncomfortable chairs, and striding into the men's room to splash some water into his face. Soon his parents joined him, as well as the king and queen of the Glikkus.

Frex and Nessarose were nowhere to be found.

Fiyero found himself wishing that Galinda was here right now. She was the only person who knew Elphaba as well as he did; but she hadn't been allowed to attend the funeral because she wasn't nobility, and so she wasn't here now.

"Why?" the Glikkun queen was whispering, a handkerchief pressed to her face. "Why would she do such a thing?"

Her husband rubbed her back consolingly. "Maybe she did love our son a lot more than we always thought her to," he said softly.

Queen Eleonora – better known as Lori - of the Vinkus, Fiyero's mother, gently placed her hand on her son's shoulder. "Yero?"

He looked up at her.

"Are you alright?' she asked him.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes, suddenly feeling tired.

"Yes," he said. He looked down at his hands and sighed. "No."

Lori knew everything about his previous relationship with Elphaba and how much he still loved the emerald-skinned witch; and it broke her heart to see him like this right now. She couldn't even imagine how awful it must be to find a person you loved the way Fiyero had found Elphaba that night.

They waited for what felt like hours before finally, a doctor came to find them.

"Are you family?" he asked.

"We're her parents-in-law," the king of the Glikkus spoke up. "We're the closest thing to family she has."

The doctor nodded and motioned for them to follow him, which they did.

Fiyero clenched his fists. "Why do they always do that?" he demanded. "I'm the one who loves her more than anything in the world, I'm the one who's been together with her for nearly three years and I'm the one who found her bleeding on the bathroom floor, so what in Oz gives them the right to hear how she is and not me?!"

"Fiyero, calm down" said Hamold calmly, placing his hand on the prince's shoulder. "The Glikkun king and queen will return soon and I'm sure they'll tell you all about her current condition."

His wife stroked her son's hair. "She'll be fine, Yero," she assured him. "Don't worry."

"She slit her wrists," Fiyero growled. "Of course I worry."

His parents exchanged a look, but since they had no idea what they could say to that, they kept quiet.

Finally, the Glikkun king and queen returned; and Fiyero all but pounced on them.

"She's stable," the king told them wearily, his arm firmly wrapped around his wife's shoulders. "She has lost a lot of blood, but she will live. The doctors say that we're lucky you found her when you did," he said, glancing at Fiyero, "because if she had been brought in ten minutes later, the damage might have been too bad to save her. They want to keep her overnight because of the baby, but she should be able to go home tomorrow. Under one condition, of course, and that is that someone will keep an eye on her at all times. If we can't do that for her, then they're going to send her to an institution."

"A mental institution?" Fiyero demanded in a high voice. "Seriously?"

"She tried to kill herself," the Glikkun king reminded him quietly. "She's emotionally unstable. Someone needs to keep an eye on her."

The queen buried her face in her husband's shoulder. "I can't believe she would do such a thing," she cried. "The baby…"

Fiyero's eyes widened – he had all but forgotten about the baby. "Is it okay?" he asked now. "The baby, I mean?"

The king nodded. "It will live," he assured the Vinkun prince. "And so will Elphaba herself." He looked at his wife for a moment. "Only we can't take her home with us…"

"She's coming home with me," Fiyero said firmly, leaving no room for discussion.

His father opened his mouth to say something, but Fiyero cut him off by holding up one hand.

"I'm taking her home," he said stubbornly. "Whether you guys like it or not."

His mother sighed. "Yero…"

"She still loves me," he insisted. "I know she does. And I love her, too. More than anything. So if anyone can help her, get her out of whatever dark place she's in right now, it should be me, right?"

His parents exchanged a look. The king and queen of the Glikkus did, too; then the king smiled at Fiyero and patted his hand.

"Take her home with you," he conceded. "Make her happy."

"I will," Fiyero promised.

The Glikkun queen gave him a watery smile and embraced him briefly. "Thank you."

"Anytime," Fiyero said – and he meant it, too. When it came to Elphaba, there was nothing he wouldn't do.


"Favourite colour?" she asked him.

"Green," he replied immediately, earning himself an elbow between the ribs.

"Ouch!" he yelped, but he laughed as he rubbed the painful spot. "What? It's true!"

She just rolled her eyes.

"Favourite childhood memory?" he asked her.

She fell silent, thinking about that for a few moments.

"My mother," she then said softly. "I remember when I was very young, maybe two or three years old… she would always read me bedtime stories or sing me old Munchkin lullabies before I would go to sleep. I loved those moments."

Fiyero smiled. "I can imagine why."

They were both silent for a while.

"Fae?" Fiyero broke the silence.

"Mm?"

He sat up. "How did she die?" he asked her quietly. "Your mother?"

Elphaba sat up, too, and lowered her eyes. "She died in childbirth with Nessa," she muttered.

Fiyero squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry."

"Me, too." She sighed. "Especially because - never mind," she cut herself off when she realised what she had almost blurted out. She rose to her feet and brushed some grass from her skirt. "Do you want to go get some coffee?" she tried to change the subject.

He caught her hand, preventing her from moving away. "Fae?"

She avoided his gaze.

He pulled her back down to sit in the grass with him again and cupped her face so that he could look into her eyes.

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to tell me," he assured her softly. "But I want you to know that you can tell me anything, if you do want to."

She heaved a deep sigh and leant against him.

"Just… just promise you won't look at me any differently," she begged him. "I don't want your pity."

He kissed her softly. "Never."

"Okay." She took a deep breath. Then she threw it out.

"It's my fault that my mother is dead."

She told him about her father's reaction to her skin and how he had made Melena chew milk flowers to prevent their second child from coming out green as well.

"They made Nessa come too early," Elphaba whispered. "With her little legs all tangled…" She looked down at her hands, folded in her lap. "And my mother never woke up again."

Fiyero was shocked.

"Oh, Fae…" He folded her into his arms. "That's awful. I'm sorry, green girl."

She sighed and rested her head against his shoulder.

"But none of that was your fault," he told her firmly. "It was the milk flowers that made Nessa come too early and killed your mother, not you."

"But if it weren't for me, she wouldn't have had to take those flowers in the first place!" Elphaba insisted.

"She didn't have to," Fiyero corrected her. "She chose to. She and your father decided that she would take the milk flowers. It was a risk they took, and it went wrong. Fae, none of that is your fault!"

"That's what Galinda said," she muttered.

Fiyero pulled back to look into her eyes and he tenderly tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Well, in that case, Galinda actually said something sensible for once," he teased gently, which made her smile.

" She can be sensible," she acknowledged. "If she wants to be."

"And in this case, she was." Fiyero kissed her forehead. "Thank you for telling me, Fae."

She sighed contently and snuggled deeper into his arms, feeling much lighter than before. Not that she believed Fiyero or Galinda when they said that it wasn't her fault; but it was nice to be able to tell someone. It was nice that Fiyero knew. And he didn't look at her any differently, which she appreciated.

"Hey, Fae?"

"Mm?"

"Do you want to go on a date tonight?"

She smiled and accepted the hand he offered her to help her up. Then she leant up to stand on her tiptoes and she kissed him.

"I'd love to."

"She's dreaming," the doctor explained quietly. "She's been tossing and turning ever since she fell asleep."

"Yes, well, she's been through a lot," the Glikkun king said, and his wife nodded in agreement.

"I think it would be best for us to leave her alone right now," the king continued. He looked at the doctor. "You will keep an eye on her, won't you?"

"Of course," the doctor assured them, and the king nodded and led his wife from the room.

Fiyero looked at Elphaba's face. Her nose was scrunched up and she was muttering something unintelligible in her sleep. It was impossible to tell what she was dreaming about, but he hoped it was something good.

He leant forward and pressed his lips to her forehead for a brief moment.

"I'll be back tomorrow," he whispered, "and I'm going to take you home with me, Fae. I promise. And I'm never going to let you go ever again. Not this time."

He straightened up and left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.


Like I said. Fiyeraba ^_^.

Favourite lines?