Fall faded quickly into winter, and as it did Fiyero grew more and more restless, cooped up at home. He was flipping through the newspaper on Lurlinemas Eve, wondering what exactly Elphaba was doing in their bedroom. "Fae?" he called out to her, becoming slightly concerned that it was possible that she'd finally become completely exasperated with him and had decided to leave him, via the fire escape. "What are you doing in there?"

"Nothing!"

Although he was aware that her response came a little too quickly and there was an odd quality to her voice, he dropped it in an effort to avoid the argument they were sure to have if he questioned her further. He went back to the paper, thumbing through it, but couldn't really focus on it and looked up as soon as she stepped into the main room of the apartment, looking guilty. Wincing, knowing that resisting the argument would now be impossible, he just asked, "What is it?"

"I promise this won't take long. I'll be back before midnight."

For a minute he badly wanted to just pretend that his lovely little pregnant wife was running over to the grocery store to buy a bottle of milk. He wanted to pretend that really badly. But he was very aware that if she were just going to the store she would only be gone for about a half hour, not several hours. And the store had been closed for a few hours already. And when she was just going to the store, she didn't swath herself in head-to-toe black like some sort of religious woman. And she didn't hide a gun in the folds of her skirt.

So he couldn't pretend, and the only word that would come out of his mouth was a sad, depressed, disbelieving, "No."

"I promise I'll be careful," she said, wringing her hands, reaching for him.

He twisted in his seat. "Elphaba, no. It's Lurlinemas Eve."

She sat down beside him on the couch, as tense as a spring. "And I will be home all day on Lurlinemas, and every day after that. This is it, the end of my last mission. You knew I was doing this."

He didn't back down and couldn't look at her. "I didn't know you'd be leaving in the middle of the night on Lurlinemas Eve."

"What differance does it make what day it is? You know this buisness as well as I do, why weren't you expecting this?" She touched his cheek and her voice was very soft. "Everything will be fine, I will be home before you know it." She attempted to kiss him, but he turned away from her.

"Stop it." He took a deep breath and counted to ten. He wasn't angry with her, and didn't want her to think he was. "I'm not happy about this, but I guess that doesn't change anything, does it?" He looked at her but she wouldn't meet his eye and had an expression that resembled guilt. "Go, I know you're going to, no matter what I say to you."

"Fiyero-"

He cut her off, raising her chin so he could look her in the eye. "Go, I don't want you to be late. Just promise me you will be more careful than you've ever been before. I love you too much to lose you."

"I love you too," she said as she leaned forward to kiss him gently. She got up off the couch, checking that her clothing covered enough of her skin, and more importantly concealed her weapon. She headed to the door, but slowly.

He would have let her go if he didn't see the slight hesitation of fear as she hovered in the doorway. She let one hand graze her stomach, and glanced back at him. She gave him a smile, but he knew it was fake. He knew her very well, and was perhaps the only one who could see past her brave, bold facade. She was afraid of something but was not going to tell him about.

And so, although he knew it broke every single rule the Resistance had, although he knew he was still supposed to be resting his ankle and his mobility was limited, although she would be angry with him for coddling her, he followed her.

Eighty-four, eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven...

In order to occupy her mind, she counted her steps as she casually walked into the square outside the theatre. She had no idea when she'd started counting her steps, well no, she must have started eighty-eight, eighty-nine steps previous. It would be easy, she'd been getting ready for this for months- at least five because it was before she'd realized she was going to have a baby.

Frankly, she was a little comforted that she was afraid. If she had been completely calm about killing her former teacher, she would have been more than disturbed with her own mental health.

She touched the loaded gun hidden under her dress. This would be easy- she had the easy part, for Lurline's sake! All she had to do was make her way to the top of the building via a sturdy staircase, locate Morrible as she walked into the theatre, and fire. It didn't even matter if Morrible died or not. Even if she missed, as long as it caused enough of a ruckus to distract the police from the small, ragtag group of terrorists making their way into the palace, aiming to murder the Wizard, hoping at least to kill several members of his inner circle. All she was doing was making a distraction- as soon as the gun went off she would duck inside the building that served as their safe house. She would change her clothes inside, and would walk home, carefully playing up the 'innocent expectant mother caught in the wrong place at the wrong time' angle.

Which is exactly what she did. She had no idea if she even hit Madame Morrible, but even if she didn't she had certiantly caused enough of a disturbance. She ducked into the building without looking at what she'd done, waived to another young woman who was a member of the Resistance, dropped the gun, and changed her clothes. She took a deep breath and walked out of the building, carefully avoiding the chaotic square.

She was in the clear, but something made her turn around, just to look over her shoulder.

She saw that the Gale Force was definitely mobilizing, was better organized than anticipated. They had gathered everyone in the square who looked halfway suspicious at gunpoint.

And her dear, brave, loving, foolish husband had followed her. And he was caught with the rest, being led away somewhere.

She froze like a frightened deer, and he saw her, had been watching her. As much as it pained her to turn away from him for what she knew would be the last time, she did, because that was what he would have wanted her to do. She ran like hell and didn't look back, cursing the extra weight she carried and the tears streaming down her face.

Later she would learn that the mission had been a failure. Madame Morrible died a few months later, but it had nothing to do with a gunshot wound, she hadn't even been grazed, although a bystander had been hit by the stray bullet. The other terrorists were stopped by the Gale Force before they made their way inside the palace and were executed.

Yet Elphaba could not bring herself to care.