AU: Thanks again for the reviews! You have no idea how much I appreciate them :).

Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked.

Glinda woke up in the most uncomfortable position she had ever found herself waking up in. It took her a moment to realise that she was sitting at her desk, with her cheek resting on a book that was on the desk. She now remembered what she had been doing when she had apparently fallen asleep – she had been reading a book about medical stuff, to see if there was anything in there that might help her help Elphaba. The book hadn't been particularly interesting, however, and so it came as no surprise to her that she had fallen asleep while reading it – it was certainly not the first time a book had bored her to… well, not to death, exactly. To sleep.

She tried to lift her face from the book, only to discoverate that the pages were sticking to her cheek. Grumbling, she peeled the pages off her skin and slowly tilted her head left and right. Her neck hurt – apparently, a book didn't serve too well as a pillow. She looked up to find Fiyero and Elphaba both still fast asleep in her bed, and decided to let them have their well-needed rest. She herself, however, would have to go get ready for the day; with all the celebrations still going on throughout Oz, she was required to make a public appearance every now and then, and today she had to give a speech to the inhabitants of the Emerald City.

Quietly, she got up, picked a beautiful, pale orange ball gown to wear, and snuck into the bathroom to wash up and get dressed. She was just about to write a note to inform Fiyero and Elphaba of where she was going and when she expected to be back, but by the time she left the bathroom, Fiyero had gotten up, too. He followed her towards the foyer, so they could talk without waking Elphaba. 'I have to go now,' Glinda explained quietly, 'but I'll make sure no one will discoverate you in here. I left some food in the kitchen in case you get hungry – my personal kitchen, of course, not the public one; I also left some kind of herb tea in there, for Elphaba. The book I was reading yesterday said something about those herbs easing pain, and I happened to have some of those in my kitchen, so…' She shrugged. 'I figured it couldn't hurt. I also intend to go talk to one of the palace doctors this afternoon – see if he could perhaps offer some helpful advice.' They were pretty sure now that Elphaba's condition was no longer life-threatening, but she had figured they still could use all the help they could get without exposing Fiyero and Elphaba to anyone.

'Thank you, Glinda,' Fiyero said and he squeezed her hand. 'For everything.'

She shrugged again. 'Don't be silly. You're my best friends – of course I'll help you.' She fell silent then, lost in thought, before she added, 'you just take good care of Elphaba while I'm gone.'

'I will,' he promised, and she knew he would. She waved at him and left her chambers then, telling the guards not to let anyone in, not even the sentries. They didn't think it to be an unusual request; Lady Glinda had asked them far stranger things before.

Fiyero picked up the book Glinda had been reading and quickly skimmed it. It proved to be quite a useful book, really, he thought; he found the herb Glinda had mentioned before, the one she had made tea of and that would ease Elphaba's pain, but he also found rather accurate instructions of how to treat broken bones, bruises, and other severe injuries. After helping her wash up yesterday, he had carefully examined Elphaba for injuries, and he had actually been quite shocked with what he had found. He was no medical expert, but he was fairly certain she had cracked a few ribs, and her headache and dizziness indicated a concussion – according to the book, that was. Her right ankle was broken and her whole body looked bruised; the left side of her face was purplish and swollen, as was, frankly, most of the rest of her body. She had assured him it was nothing, but he knew she was in pain – he could see it in her eyes, even though she would never admit it.

He heard a sound and quickly turned around to see Elphaba move and slowly open her eyes. He was at the bedside in an instant. 'Hi,' he said, smiling at her. 'How are you feeling?'

She blinked a few times, her eyes a bit blurry and unfocused, but then she lifted her gaze to rest on him and she, too, smiled. 'Fine, I guess.' She looked around and asked with a puzzled frown, 'Where's Glinda?'

'Off to fulfil her duties,' Fiyero declared. 'Don't worry, she said she'd make sure no one would be disturbing us. Are you hungry?'

Elphaba shook her head – a gesture she immediately regretted when a wave of dizziness washed over her. She closed her eyes for a brief moment. When she opened them again, Fiyero was looking at her with concern in his eyes, and an irritable sigh escaped her lips. 'Please don't look at me like that.'

'I'm just worried about you!' he protested, and she looked up at him. 'I know. And I appreciate it. Just… don't.'

He came to lie next to her on the bed and carefully wrapped his arms around her. 'When it comes to you, I'll always be worried. You know that. Especially since you have this slightly irritable tendency to get into trouble every time I turn my back on you.'

'You know what I told you before,' she murmured, her eyes closed. 'I don't cause commotions…'

'You are one,' Fiyero finished for her, smiling fondly at the memory. 'I remember.'

'That still is the case, you know.'

'I know. And it's yet another thing I love about you,' he told her sincerely. 'If only your being a commotion wouldn't cause you to be in danger all the time, that would ease my nerves somewhat.'

She chuckled softly – another action that she immediately regretted, this time due to her cracked ribs. She hated this – she hated being in pain, not being able to do anything. She hated being weak.

'You're not weak,' Fiyero whispered in her ear, somehow reading her mind as he sometimes did. 'You're badly injured. You nearly died, Elphaba. Please give yourself a break. Just let Glinda and me take care of you for a while.'

'You say that as if I have a choice,' she grumbled, and Fiyero laughed softly. 'You're right – you don't. We'll take care of you, even if that means we have to chain you to this bed.' He gently kissed her forehead, then sat up. 'If you don't want to eat, I'm at least going to get you something to drink.'

She nodded, her eyes still closed, and he went over to the kitchen to fetch the tea Glinda had told him about. He decided not to tell Elphaba what kind of tea it was – he knew she wouldn't want them trying to ease her pain, if only because she would wanted to prove to them that she could handle the pain. And although he knew she could, he'd rather want her not to have to.

He helped her sit up and handed her a cup of tea, which she obediently finished within a few minutes. He put the cup on the bedside table and helped her lie down again, with her back towards him, so that he could lie next to her and carefully slide an arm around her waist. 'You can go to sleep, if you want to,' he whispered in her ear. 'You need it.'

'This is definitely not how I had imagined the first days of our new life together,' she grunted, causing him to smile. 'Well, I don't mind,' he said truthfully. 'As long as I'm with you, I don't care where we are or what we're doing.' He paused for a clock-tick, then added quietly, 'And you have absolutely no idea how immensely happy and relieved I am that you are still alive.'

She squeezed his hand in response. 'Well, you know me,' she said with a rather sarcastic little snort. 'I'm very hard to kill.'

'That much, at least, is true,' admitted Fiyero, pulling her closer. She cuddled against him, closing her eyes and drinking in the sensation of having him so close. 'Please don't ever leave me again,' she whispered softly. He kissed her hair, then brushed his lips against her cheek and whispered in her ear, 'Never. I promise. But only if you promise me the same thing.'

'I do,' she said, sighing softly with happiness. He kissed her softly, on the lips this time, and she let herself marvel in the sensation for a moment. She knew in her heart that they could never really promise what they had just promised each other. She knew it was a promise they were probably not going to keep. Still, it made her feel better.

And none of it really mattered, anyway. Because here they were, together, and he loved her, and everything was perfect. Just for this moment, she thought, smiling faintly. As long as he's mine.

'Lady Glinda?'

She turned around, her dress rustling with her every move, to face the sentry standing behind her. 'Yes?'

'There's someone here to see you. A man. I asked him for the reason of his visit and he said something about his balloon finally being ready?' She heard the question in his voice, but pretended not to. 'I know who he is. Let him in,' she ordered instead. The sentry nodded and disappeared.

Glinda sighed a bit irritably, smoothing the skirt of her gown. The Wizard had had some problems with his balloon, so he had remained in Oz for the past few days. Thank Oz that stupid balloon was finally ready. She couldn't wait to never see his face ever again.

Then a thought struck her. She hadn't thought she would ever be able to tell Elphie what she now knew – that the not so Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the green girl's father. But now Elphie was alive. The Wizard hadn't left yet. Shouldn't she at least tell her friend about all that before the Wizard left?

On the other hand, Elphaba was still injured. Excitement wouldn't be good for her in her condition. But she couldn't let the Wizard leave without telling Elphaba… could she?

She tried to shake the thoughts from her head as the Wizard entered Glinda's personal study. 'Why, your Ozness,' she remarked, rather sarcastically – she started to think she had spent too much time with Elphaba. 'How honoured I am to have you visit me today! How can I be of service to you?'

The Wizard flinched a bit, but didn't say anything. 'I just came to tell you my balloon is ready,' he told her quietly. 'I will be leaving Oz within a few hours.'

Glinda sighed, knowing this was something she had to do, but not liking it at all. 'However much I would love for you to leave as soon as possible, there's something I have to take care of before I can allow you to depart,' she told him sternly. 'So please just go back to your room until I come to fetch you.'

Surprise showed in his eyes, but he merely replied, 'Yes, your Goodness,' bowing awkwardly and leaving the room. Glinda went over to the table to take a look at her schedule for the rest of the day and was pleased to find it empty – she had fulfilled her duties for the day. That meant she had the rest of the afternoon and the evening to spend any way she pleased, although she didn't really want to do anything but make her way back to her rooms and sit with Elphaba and Fiyero for the rest of the day.

She wished she didn't have to tell Elphie about her discovery, but she knew she had to. This was far too important – she couldn't keep something this big from her best friend. She was just a bit worried about what Elphaba's reaction would be.

While walking through the hallways of the palace, she tried to think of the best way to break the news to her friend. Elphie, there´s something I need to tell you… something you're not going to like. No, she had to come up with something better. Elphie hated it when she didn't come straight to the point. Hey Elphie, you know the man who destroyed your whole life? Yeah, he's your father.

She sighed. Maybe this wasn't a good idea at all. Maybe she had to wait until Elphaba had gotten a bit better. Maybe…

Maybe she should just accept this as something that had to be done and stop worrying about it.

By the time she had come to that conclusion, she had reached the doors that lead to her chambers, and she greeted the guards with a slight nod of her head before entering. She carefully closed the door behind her and went straight towards the bedroom, abruptly coming to a halt when she saw that Elphaba was out of bed.

'What are you doing?' the blonde demanded sharply. Elphaba, who was carefully hopping around the room, now balanced herself on her left foot and looked up. 'Oh. Hi, Glinda.'

'What do you mean 'hi, Glinda'?!' the blonde squealed. 'You're not supposed to be up!' She threw her wand in a corner and hurried over to Elphaba, who dismissed her with an irritable hand gesture. 'Well, I am up, and I'm fine. Stop being overprotective.'

'Where's Fiyero?' Glinda demanded. Surely he wouldn't have let Elphaba out of bed if he had been around!

'In the kitchen,' Elphaba replied, trying to put some weight on her right foot but wincing when a sharp, fiery pain shot up her ankle. 'He was hungry, so I told him to go get himself some food – that I could manage on my own for a few minutes.'

'Which you clearly can't,' snapped Glinda, trying to get her friend back to the bed. The green girl didn't budge, however, and Glinda glared at her. 'You are so very annoying.'

'Why, thank you,' said Elphaba mockingly, limping towards the window and steadying herself with one hand against the window cill. She didn't feel that well at all, to be quite honest, but she would never admit that to Glinda – or to anyone, really. She suppressed the dizziness and fatigue that threatened to overwhelm her and carefully sat herself down in one of the chairs next to the window.

Glinda stamped her foot, the way she used to back at Shiz when she didn't get her way. She knew it was a childish thing to do, but she didn't care. 'Elphaba! Get back to that bed right now!'

At that point, Fiyero, alarmed by Glinda's shrieks, rushed into the room. 'Glinda? Is everything all ri- Elphaba! You're not supposed to be up!' he interrupted himself, clearly shocked. Elphaba merely smirked. 'Hi, love. Did you find anything to eat?'

He stared at her; then he shot a look at Glinda. 'She won't listen to me!' the blonde girl said, defending herself. 'Not that she ever does, but…' She made a helpless gesture and Fiyero nodded. 'I know,' he grumbled. He looked at Elphaba threateningly. 'Do you remember what I said to you before about chaining you to the bed…?'

The fact that half of her face was bruised and swollen was the only thing that kept her from pulling a face at him. She settled for an irritable sigh. 'I'm fine,' she repeated for what felt like the thousandth time. Before she could say anything else, however, Fiyero had already scooped her up and set her back on the bed, gently urging her to lie down. 'You're feeling warm,' he observed with a worried frown. Elphaba merely rolled her eyes. 'How does that surprise you? You've been smothering me with blankets!'

He nodded, but the concerned look did not leave his eyes. 'Here, have some water,' he urged, handing her a cup. She drank obediently and didn't protest when he told her to close her eyes and sleep. 'You need your rest, Fae,' he said, gently stroking her hair out of her face. 'Please. Just let us take care of you for a while.'

She didn't say anything, but she did close her eyes and a few minutes later, she was fast asleep. Fiyero carefully got up and went over to Glinda. 'How did your speech go?' he asked and she looked at him, genuinely impressed by his ability to care about other's small, unimportant problems, while he had so much heavier things on his mind. 'Quite well, thank you,' she replied. She looked at her sleeping friend, then at Fiyero, uncertain if this was the right time to share her secret about the Wizard. But then again, she decided, it would probably never be a good time, and if she told Fiyero first, maybe he could help her find the right way to break the news to Elphaba.

She took a deep breath. 'Fiyero? I… I have to tell you something.'

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