Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! Virtual edibles of your choice are being sent!

Chapter 4-What is this Feeling?

The shocked guard sent off a messenger to Glinda and scooped the unconscious woman in his arms. He swiftly carried her to the infirmary, a large room not far from the door where Elphaba had arrived.

He kicked the door in with the heel of his boot, causing it to slam against the wall. The woman in his arms jerked and he kept a tighter grip on her. He walled quickly across the white tiled floor, his boots making a rather loud noise.

Once he had laid Elphaba on a bed he called out for the nurse. "Evella!"

A short woman dressed in white bustled out from behind a screen, muttering to herself. "Guards, they're all big babies. Can't live with trapping a finger in the door before they come running – oh my!"

She had spotted Elphaba's still form laid on the bed. She hurried over and pressed the back of one hand on Elphaba's forehead. She tisked and carried on checking Elphaba for injuries. She spotted the girl's feet and set about bandaging them. Evella could hear the girl's laboured breathing and went to fetch a pitcher of water.

The guard had already left the infirmary with no clue that he had just left Oz's most wanted criminal behind.

Meanwhile, in Elphaba's dehydrated mind her thoughts went into overdrive. The monsters of her childhood nightmares returned in flashes and her more recent nightmares replayed in front of her eyes.

A cold tower, rain pelting the walls and windows...Being trapped, not able to escape...Fiyero, dead, eyes staring at nothing...

Running, forever running, never getting anywhere...Animals bodies strewn around, screams in the distance...Glinda, dead, eyes staring at nothing...

Frex, locking her out of the house and Melena telling her she was worthless...A wall of dark water coming towards her and engulfing her, drowning her...Nessarose, dead, eyes staring at nothing...

Boq, dead, eyes staring at nothing...Doctor Dillamond, dead, eyes staring at nothing...Frex and Melena, dead, eyes staring at nothing...

They were all around her and she knew that she had somehow caused their deaths...and then she turned and there she was...Elphaba, dead, eyes staring at nothing...

Elphaba sat up, a deafening scream ripping it's self from her throat. It was the bloodcurdling scream that Glinda heard from down the corridor. She started running.

She still didn't, couldn't, believe that her best friend could be alive. She had seen her die with her own eyes. But when she heard that scream, something in her kicked into overdrive. And so she lifted the hem of her dress of the floor and ran.

Elphaba slumped back against the pillows, coughing. Evella came out with the water and walked briskly over to her new patient.

The girl who lay on the bed was slim, almost thin, with raven black hair. Her skin was pale and the black hair made it seem even more so. Her features looked familiar, but she couldn't place it.

Evella had noticed the strange tattoo on the girl's ankle but had thought nothing of it so she wrapped the bandage over it.

She brushed away a lock of dark hair from Elphaba's face and poured some of the water in the glass next to the bed. She coaxed Elphaba into a sitting position and placed the glass against her lips. "Come on, child, you need to drink," she murmured.

Elphaba opened her mouth a little and allowed a trickle of liquid to leak into her mouth. She swallowed and then her hands reached up and held the sides of the tall glass. She gulped down the rest of the drink and she heard the wooden door to the infirmary open but didn't open her eyes.

Glinda hurriedly looked around the room for any sign of her green friend but was disappointed when she could find none. Her eyes finally rested on the room's only occupant.

Glinda took in the woman and noticed that the black hair was very like Elphaba's but that the girl couldn't be Elphie. She wasn't green.

Glinda turned to leave the room when an elated voice called out, "Glinda!"

She turned slowly, recognising the voice and found that she was looking into a pair of chocolate brown eyes. The eyes were brimming with tears and yet looked ecstatic at the same time. They were Elphie's eyes.

She had last seen them three weeks ago when they had said their sad farewells. She had accepted that she would never see them again, but here they were implanted into this strange woman's face.

The raspy voice continued. "Glinda, it's me, it's really me!"

Glinda strode across the room, her skirt swishing across the floor. She pointed a finger at the girl and said in a harsh voice, "I don't know who you are, but you are not my Elphie!"

And with that she left the room.

*

Elphaba sat in shock for about two seconds before sliding out bed, ignoring the nurses protests and stomped after the blonde. She didn't care about the pain stomping caused her feet or that the tears were trailing down her face. She wanted to talk to Glinda.

"Glinda, you wait, Glinda! Honestly, I'm not going to turn you into a toad! Glinda!"

She finally caught up to the shorter girl and grabbed her arm. "Let go of me!" Glinda cried trying to pry Elphaba's fingers from her arm.

"Not until you listen to me, Glinda," Elphaba rasped. She was still in need of a lot more water.

Glinda stared hardly at the taller woman. She nodded once, allowing Elphaba to speak.

"It is really me," she began. "I really am not green anymore. I don't how, Sweet Lurline, I don't even know who! All I know is that I'm normal, I can fit in and I'll understand if you don't forgive me for lying to you, but honestly, Glinda, did you really believe that I could be melted?" Elphaba let out a short bark of a laugh. "I expected it form the rest of Oz, the Unnamed God only knows how stupid they are, but from you? I thought you would know that I'm a normal person by now." Another laugh. "Also that I'm not a vegetable."

Elphaba's attempt to lighten the mood seemed to go straight over Glinda's head.

"Remember, at Shiz, in History? 'I guess the artichoke is steamed'?" Elphaba did a poor expression of Glinda's high pitched voice.

Glinda narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?"

Elphaba was taken aback. "It's me, Elpha-"

"Stop it!" Glinda shouted shrilly. "I don't know who you are, but you are not my best friend. I don't even know how you found out her name. But let her rest in peace and stop bothering me!"

Glinda turned on her heel, for Elphaba had released her hold on her arm, and stormed down the hallway and around the corner.

*

Evella came out into the corridor and gently led Elphaba back into the infirmary. Elphaba let herself be led for she was still a little shocked by Glinda's reaction. She had expected disbelief but for Glinda to blow up in her face was a surprise to say the least.

She sat back down on the bed and accepted the glass handed to her by Evella. She drank some of it and Evella shuffled back behind the screen leaving Elphaba with stern instructions not to move.

Elphaba, being Elphaba, ignored these instructions once an idea came to her. She opened the door trying to keep it from creaking, as old doors tend to do. Once she closed it as softly she could, she let out a sigh of relief.

She walked down the carpeted hallway, her footsteps not making a sound. She was almost glad that she had lost her boots in the wood as they would have made much more noise. Almost.

Elphaba was trying to remember the floor plan of the Emerald Palace that she had in her and Fiyero's new home. She couldn't wait to get back to Fiyero, to even write a letter letting him know where she was. He would be worried sick.

She found the room she was looking for. She opened the door to the unused Wizard's throne room. She closed it again.

She glanced around the room and there, sitting on a raised pedestal, was the Grimmerie. She rushed over to it and lifted it up.

She held close to her chest for one moment before quickly racing from the room. Now she just had to find Glinda's rooms.

She ran down corridors and around corners desperate for the chance to prove who she was to her old best friend.

Finally Elphaba came across a pink door. She pushed it open and disrupted Glinda as she wrote a letter to some important person or another. "What...?" Glinda exclaimed as Elphaba came into the room. Glinda stood and walked out from behind the desk at which she had been sitting at.

Elphaba quickly looked around the room from something suitable for what she was planning. She saw a fancy chair and grabbed it with one hand. Glinda spotted what was in the other.

"Why – You've been in the throne room – the Grimmerie!" Glinda continued to splutter but Elphaba ignored her.

She knelt in front of the chair, letting her long hair fall over her shoulders. She flipped to the correct page in the Grimmerie and started chanting.

"AHVEN, TATEY, AVEN TATEY AVEN AH MAY AH TAY ATUM AH MAY AH TAH TAY MAY TU SE SAY TA!"

Glinda started to panic as Elphaba repeated the chanting. "You won't be able to read it right, you'll hurt yourself! Please stop!"

Elphaba ignored the blonde as she finished the spell. She looked up and let her arms drop from when she had been waving them other the chair to channel her power to the desired object.

She stood up and sat herself on the chair. Then she felt her feet lift off the ground as the chair recognised its creator and started to float.

"No offense," Elphaba addressed the chair as Glinda's mouth gaped open. "But I prefer my broom."

Elphaba felt the chair raise and lower itself a little in indignation. "Sorry," Elphaba told it matter-of-factly. "But it's true."

"You-you-just..." Glinda stammered but this time in disbelief.

Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "Glinda, dear, I do believe that you were there the last time I performed this particular spell. In fact you've been here every single time."

"Elphie?" Glinda's voice shook slightly.

Elphaba commanded the chair back down again and stood off it. "It really is me, Glinda," she said softly.

Glinda's tears overflowed and she rushed across the room and wrapped her arms around her best friend. Elphaba gently wrapped her arms around the blonde shaking shoulders. She had tears of her own making their trails down her face.

Glinda sobbed on Elphaba's shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you, Elphie." She hiccupped out.

Elphaba sniffed. "I don't blame you, Glin. I wouldn't have believed it myself, had I not witnessed it and lived through it."

Glinda giggled shakily. "It is a little unbelievable. I mean, how could you be...not green?"

Glinda pulled away from their hug and looked at Elphaba's skin. She couldn't believe it. Without the emerald tone in the way, Elphaba's beauty could really shine through. Not that she hadn't always been beautiful, but Elphaba had never believed so now that the green that she called ugly and disgusting was missing from her skin. And now, no one would suspect that she was the Wicked Witch of the West and her inner beauty could make itself known as well.

Elphaba balanced on one foot as she pulled the bandage down a little on one foot to reveal her green flower. "This is the only green left." She shrugged once she had stood properly again.

Glinda took in the little rose before Elphaba hid it with the bandage again. "It's beautiful."

"Thank you."

They stood in silence again for a moment before Glinda's fashion sense took over. "Look at what you're dressed in!"

Elphaba looked down at herself and noticed that her shredded black nightdress was still her clothing. "What about it?"

Glinda raised an eyebrow of her own. "You really haven't changed have you?"

Elphaba's only reaction was to shrug.

Glinda started to lead her friend to the closet on the other side of the room, when the door burst open.

Elphaba and Glinda turned to stare at the figure in the doorway. They both stated who it was a the same time, one elated and the other unbelieving.

"Fiyero?"

"Fiyero!"

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Edit: Thanks to Leia Emberblaze for pointing out that I accidently made it sound like Elphaba was ugly with the green skin. What I meant was that nobody could see her beauty passed the colour of her skin, and without it everyone, including Elphaba herself could see how prettiful she really is, inside and outside.