DISCLAIMER: Still nope.
AN. Hello from New York! It's been a whirlwind of a trip, and wow my feet are killing me. Last night we saw Phantom of the Opera and tonight we see Dear Evan Hansen. Also today we saw Nia, and I generously offered to update :p
Chapter 4: Hey, Kid
August, 1940
Chapter Two was quiet, caught in the still of a Wednesday morning lull. There were only a few people browsing the shelves, and Elphaba was left to sit behind the counter to try and look busy. Which suited her just fine in this moment.
The bell above the door rang out as it opened and Elphaba looked over and smiled.
"Good morning," she greeted Kalhey.
"Good morning," Kalhey replied cheerfully, expertly manoeuvring the stroller she was pushing through the door.
"You're not working today?" Elphaba asked her.
Kalhey shook her head. "No. Bella had her two year check-up today, so I took the day off," she explained.
She peered down at the rosy-cheeked toddler secured within. "Sabella, can you say hi to Elphaba?"
Two year old Sabella smiled widely at Elphaba. "Hi Elba," she replied.
Kalhey giggled. "Eventually, she'll get that middle syllable, I promise."
Elphaba forced a smile. "I don't mind," she said. "Are you guys looking for anything in particular or just browsing?"
"I thought I'd treat us both to a new book," Kalhey explained. She glanced around. "Slow morning?"
"Yeah," Elphaba nodded. "So, if you need help with anything, let me know."
Kalhey nodded. "Thanks, Elphaba."
Elphaba managed a smile as Kalhey pushed the stroller through the aisles towards the children's section. Alvar had been the one who had given Fiyero his job as a carpenter after he'd become human again, and the couple had made Elphaba and Fiyero feel welcome in Limelle from the first time they'd met.
And although Elphaba knew Fiyero and Alvar had become very good friends and she liked Kalhey immensely, Elphaba was wary about forming too close a bond. In some ways, it felt almost like she would be forgetting or replacing Glinda by making new friendships. But rather ironically, she desperately hoped Glinda had close, good friends that she could depend on.
Left alone again, Elphaba rested her elbow on the counter and flicked through the book on her lap with a frown. Then she shut it firmly and dumped it back on the counter, shoving it aside to join a stack of books that needed to be put back onto their shelves.
A young Horse bought a few used romance novels, and an elderly Tiger couple bought nothing, but happily chatted to Elphaba for a few moments before leaving. As the door shut behind them, leaving the store empty save for Kalhey and Sabella, Elphaba dragged herself to her feet and grabbed the pile of books to put away.
"Finding anything?" she asked Kalhey as she came across her in the fiction section.
"For Bella, sure. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, so it's a little harder," Kalhey sighed. "Any suggestions?"
Elphaba was always happy to discuss literature. "Tons," she smiled. "What was the last thing you read?"
Kalhey frowned thoughtfully. "A murder mystery. Really heavy."
"So, maybe something lighter?" Elphaba suggested.
They went back and forth for it a bit, debating different genres and authors. Finally, they selected a book, and as Elphaba was ringing the purchases up, Sabella began to whine to be let out of her stroller.
"Alright, sweetie," Kalhey said consolingly. "I know, you're hungry, huh? We're going to get some lunch in a minute, I promise."
"Cookie?" Sabella asked pitifully and her lower lip wobbled.
"Oh, Bells," Kalhey laughed lightly.
"Could I ask you a question?" Elphaba asked abruptly, as Kalhey lifted the little girl out of the stroller and bounced her on her hip comfortingly.
"Sure."
Elphaba put the books into a bag slowly. "Before you had Sabella… did you guys want kids?"
Kalhey grinned. "Are you and Fiyero talking about it?"
"Not exactly," Elphaba said slowly.
Realisation dawned on Kalhey's face. "Elphaba, are you…?"
Elphaba winced slightly. "Maybe," she admitted, lowering her eyes. "I- I'm not sure. It's possible."
Kalhey placed Sabella back in her stroller, consoling her with the promise of a cookie if she ate her lunch and hung the bag of books from the handle before turning back to Elphaba.
"Do you want to talk about it? Over lunch or something?" she suggested.
Elphaba had to fight her instinct to flinch at the kind offer. "Thanks," she said awkwardly. "But I've got the store…"
"There's no one here," Kalhey pointed out gently. "And you have to eat lunch, don't you? Especially if you're-"
"Ok," Elphaba interrupted before she could say the words. She wasn't ready to hear them aloud yet. "Lunch sounds fine. If you really don't mind," she added hastily.
"Not at all," Kalhey reassured her.
As Elphaba closed up the store, placing a sign on the door that she'd be back in an hour, she was rather torn between a desire to talk and her instinct to put up her walls and back away. Her internal struggle persisted all the way down the street to a restaurant, as they ordered and Kalhey set up Sabella with some toys to entertain her while they waited for their food to arrive.
"The first time Alvar and I talked about kids, it was right before we got engaged," she said casually. "I wanted three, he wanted eight."
"Eight?!" Elphaba cried in alarm, her eyes widening.
Kalhey nodded knowingly. "Yep. I said that the only way that would happen is if the third time I fell pregnant, it was miraculously with sextuplets," she told Elphaba, who chuckled despite herself. "So, we compromised with four. And he proposed a week later."
Elphaba played with her napkin, staring at her lap.
"We've talked about marriage before," she admitted quietly. "Fiyero, he... well, we talked about it. But we decided in the end, it's not that important to us. Just a piece of paper."
"And kids?" Kalhey asked.
Elphaba shook her head. "Never came up."
For the nearly the first two years of their arrival in Limelle, Fiyero had been made of straw, so the question had been rather redundant. After Elphaba had been able to find a spell to transform him back, she had been expecting it to be mentioned. But he never broached the subject, and neither did she.
That had been five months ago.
"So, how sure are you?" Kalhey asked her.
Elphaba made a face. "Not totally, but sure enough. I've been feeling… off for the past few weeks. Tired, nauseous, dizzy…"
"Vomiting?"
"No."
Kalhey sighed. "Lucky. I was sick for the first four months with Sabella."
"I might not be-"
"Have you missed a period?" Kalhey asked bluntly and Elphaba was taken aback for a moment.
Then she smiled at the other woman. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," she chuckled.
"I'm a midwife," Kalhey reminded her gently. "It's my job. So, period? None?"
"Yes," she admitted. "I was due three weeks ago. It hasn't come."
"Then it sounds to me like you're pregnant. You should get a blood test to find out for sure."
Their food arrived and they began to ate.
"I never really thought about kids," Elphaba said, poking at her salad. "Is that horrible?"
"Of course it's not! I've never been more terrified in my life than when I realised I was pregnant," Kalhey said candidly. "And honestly? It didn't go away until Bella turned one."
"One?" Elphaba repeated incredulously.
Kalhey nodded. "Yeah. It was like she turned one, and then I realised. 'We've kept you alive for a year. You haven't broken anything or starved. Maybe we can do this.'"
Elphaba could admit, at least to herself, that the idea of being pregnant was terrifying. She found it hard to imagine that this feeling wouldn't go away until her child was a year old.
"It's normal to be anxious," Kalhey reassured her. "I see it all the time with first time mothers. Hell, I see it with mothers having their third kid. Have you said anything to Fiyero yet?"
Elphaba shook her head. "No."
"Get a blood test," Kalhey advised her. "If you're not, there'll be another reason why you're not feeling well and if you don't want to, you don't need to say anything to Fiyero. Although I think you should."
Elphaba managed a weak smile in return.
At Kalhey's prodding, before she returned to the bookstore, she went to the local doctor's and got a blood test. The doctor reassured her that she'd know the results by the end of the week, but agreed with Kalhey that it was most likely that she was pregnant.
And so Elphaba was left to return to the store and continue to ponder the question of what to say to Fiyero. He hadn't seemed to notice that she hadn't been feeling well the past few weeks, or that she had been rather distracted the past few days; but Elphaba had been rather glad for the latter, so she wasn't pressed to tell him her suspicions.
The truth was, she wasn't sure how she felt about the idea of having a baby. It had never been something she'd wanted, or spared much thought on. Fiyero had only been human again for eight months, and once that had happened, his focus had been on finding work and settling back into a life where he now required food and sleep.
There was little work available when you were made of straw, aside from some seasonal work that involved fulfilling the traditional role of a scarecrow, which Fiyero admittedly was not good at and involved far too many bird droppings for his liking.
"Stupid birds, with their stupid faces. Think it's funny to crap all over everything," he frequently ranted insults against the crows, not particularly eloquent insults at that.
Even now, he was prone to scowl lividly and mutter curses under his breath whenever they passed a crow. Elphaba would never tell him, but she found it more than slightly amusing.
Fiyero had been overjoyed at the idea of getting "a real job" once he'd been returned to his human form, although he was pretty much overjoyed at everything. He'd never imagined he'd be so happy at needing to use a bathroom once more.
They'd been so ridiculously happy with their triumph, of being able to find a source of magic strong enough to overcome that of the Grimmerie. It was in the midst of this euphoria that Fiyero had turned to her one night as they lay in bed and asked,
"Do you want to get married eventually?"
Elphaba had blanched. "Married? Why?"
He'd shrugged. "That's what people do, isn't it?"
"You want to get married because 'that's what people do'?" Elphaba had asked sceptically.
"I was just asking if you wanted to get married," Fiyero asked hastily. "How you felt about the idea. I wasn't, you know, proposing or anything."
Elphaba had found herself unusually flustered, raising herself onto an elbow as she looked at him. "Do you want to get married? I never got the impression it was really your thing."
Given Fiyero's former reputation, that was putting it lightly.
"I- We don't have to, do we? I mean, will it change anything? We're ok without the piece of paper. Aren't we?"
"We're ok. It wouldn't change anything," he'd agreed. "I just wanted to check."
That had been the last time the topic had come up.
It was Friday afternoon when Elphaba closed the store, stopping at the post office on her way home, there was a letter from the doctor's office waiting for her. As soon as she recognised the return address, Elphaba grabbed it and hurried inside the small cottage she and Fiyero called home.
"Yero?" she called out.
There was silence, Fiyero obviously wasn't home yet. Still, Elphaba shut herself in the bathroom for privacy before she opened the envelope, perched carefully on the side of the bathtub.
She read the results. And then read them again. As the words sunk in, gulped back a wave of nausea. Positive. She was pregnant.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit, she thought wildly, and then realised she was whispering it under her breath and stopped herself abruptly.
She shouldn't be swearing. It probably wasn't the ideal reaction, and was it too soon for the baby to be able to hear?
Shit.
"Fae?" she heard Fiyero call out, accompanied by the sound of the door closing.
Elphaba jumped a mile, and had to steady herself on the bathtub to stop herself from falling in.
Exactly how long had she been sitting here staring at the results before he'd come home? It had felt like an age, but checking her watch, it seemed it had only a few minutes.
"Fae? You home?" Fiyero called again.
She heard him moving through the house, most likely heading to the kitchen.
Elphaba didn't trust herself to speak. She'd so far made it without throwing up, and she was hoping that would continue. She was pretty sure it wouldn't if she opened her mouth just yet.
Instead, she stood up shakily, flushed the toilet and washed her hands and face. She slipped the letter into her skirt pocket and took a deep breath before leaving the bathroom.
She headed for the kitchen, where sure enough, Fiyero was standing before the icebox.
"Hey," Fiyero greeted her as he spotted her.
Elphaba swallowed hard, feeling sick. "Hi. How was work?" she asked, trying to make her voice sound normal and keep her stomach settled.
"Eh, it was ok," he shrugged. "You?"
"Fine," Elphaba answered.
"I grabbed some steak from the butcher on the way home, I was thinking I'd cook them up for dinner, what do you think?"
Elphaba wasn't hungry in the least, but she nodded anyway. "Sure."
"I'm going to grab a shower and then I'll get cooking on the steaks, ok?"
Elphaba nodded and Fiyero kissed her lightly before heading into the bathroom.
While Fiyero showered, Elphaba slowly began to pull out the things they'd need for dinner, still thinking about the letter in her pocket. How did one announce the news they were going to be parents? Should she try and suss out his opinion on the subject before breaking the news? Although what purpose that would serve she didn't know.
By the time Fiyero shut the water off, the only conclusion Elphaba had come to was that perhaps she shouldn't tell Fiyero until she had her own thoughts in order. She felt too overwhelmed just yet to even begin to consider telling him.
Elphaba was jumpy and distracted all night. Of course, now Fiyero would notice and softly inquired if everything was alright, but Elphaba simply nodded and waved it off as a long day at the store.
"Busy?" Fiyero asked sympathetically.
"No, just long," Elphaba managed a tired smile.
She almost brought it up. It was on the tip of her tongue to nonchalantly mention she'd seen Kalhey and Sabella that day and had lunch with them, just to see his reaction. Sabella adored Fiyero- Alvar often joked that his daughter was more excited to see Fiyero than him. But if she did, where did she go from there?
It seemed too much to hope for that a comment along the lines of "Sabella's cute, isn't she?" would lead to Fiyero confessing he'd always hoped for a daughter of their own one day, inevitably followed by a somewhat awkward "what do you think, Fae?".
Elphaba could see it in her mind, but the fact that Sabella was utterly adorable wasn't news to either of them, nor something they'd never commented on before. Usually, the other just agreed and the conversation moved on to other topics.
She wished she'd asked Kalhey how she'd told Alvar she was pregnant the first time.
Sunday morning found Fiyero frowning over the crossword puzzle in the paper on the couch, as Elphaba hovered in the bedroom anxiously. She wasn't completely sure that she was ready for this, to break the news and really make it a reality, but the news was weighing on her chest so heavily she was afraid she'd let it slip.
"Yero? You got a sec?" she asked, entering the living room.
He looked up. "Of course, Fae. What's up?" he asked her, frowning slightly.
Elphaba sat beside him. "I- we need to talk," she said, her face solemn.
Fiyero's frown deepened. "I didn't miss an anniversary or anything, did I? Did I do something? Am I in trouble?" he asked, a note of anxiety in his voice and she managed a small smile.
"No. Feeling guilty, are we?"
Fiyero grinned. "No. It's just, you look so serious."
A sudden fear struck him and his grin faded. "You haven't heard anything, have you? About Oz?"
Elphaba blinked. "What? No!" she quickly reassured him.
Fiyero relaxed, but then noted the strange look that appeared on her face.
"Fae, what is it?" he asked gently.
Elphaba blinked and her eyes filled with tears, despite her best efforts.
"I'm already screwing this up," she said in a trembling voice. "The moment I try to tell you, your first instinct is that we're in danger again-"
Fiyero tossed his newspaper aside and reached for her hands comfortingly. "Elphaba, what are you talking about?" he demanded. "What are you screwing up?"
Elphaba opened her mouth, but found she'd lost her voice. Finally, she drew the letter from the doctor from her pocket and handed it to him.
She hardly dared to breathe as she watched him read the letter. Saw him frown as he tried to figure out just what he was looking at, and then saw the shock that dawned on his face as it sunk in.
"Are- are you serious?" he asked finally, looking up at her.
Elphaba nodded. His face only registered shock.
"Like, for real? You're pregnant?"
Elphaba nodded again, a lump in her throat.
Fiyero looked at the letter again. "This is for real?" he asked again.
"Fiyero," Elphaba said exasperatedly, her voice stronger. "Do you really think I'd make this up?" she demanded.
Fiyero chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "Oz, no."
"Language," Elphaba corrected immediately.
They both made an effort to always speak Quoxian, not Ozian, even at home. By now, they were both fluent, but the habit of using "Oz" in figures of speech was a hard one to break, particularly in moments like this.
But it was a clear indicator that they weren't from here. Not that it wasn't obvious anyway, but they tried not to draw attention to it.
"Yeah, sorry," Fiyero apologised. "I just… wow."
He turned to her and grasped her hands tightly. "Fae.." he said softly. "This is amazing."
Elphaba wasn't sure if this was the reaction she'd been hoping for or dreading.
"Is it?" Elphaba asked anxiously, fighting the urge to break down and sob. "Are you happy? Because, we've never talked about this," she reminded him.
"No, we haven't," he agreed distractedly, staring at the letter again. "I mean, I've thought about it-"
"You have?" Elphaba said, surprised.
"You haven't?"
"Not really," she admitted. "If you've thought about it, why didn't you say something?"
Fiyero looked a little uncomfortable and avoided her eyes. "Well, I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure it was anything to worry about."
Elphaba's brow furrowed in confusion.
"I spent twenty months living as a Scarecrow," he reminded her, as though that was something she would ever forget. "I wasn't sure if there were any… lasting effects of that," he said, reddening slightly.
Elphaba stared at him in shock. She'd never thought about that.
"Oh," she said quietly.
In hindsight, it made sense. It wasn't as though there were a lot of examples of humans turned Scarecrows turned back to humans to know these things. And although the spell- powerful as it was- was relatively simple, Elphaba knew far too well by now that magic could be unpredictable and have unexpected results. She suddenly felt like an idiot for not considering that before.
"Fae," Fiyero said softly, bringing Elphaba out of her stupor and directing her gaze to him. "We're really having a baby?"
The shocked expression was long gone, replaced with one that made Elphaba's chest tighten. There was a light on his face that Elphaba had never seen before, his blue eyes glistening with tears. She could only nod and Fiyero cupped her face gently in his hands and kissed her deeply.
"How long have you known?" he demanded, pulling away.
"I've suspected it for a week or two, but I found out for sure on Friday," Elphaba explained.
Fiyero reached out almost tentatively and placed a hand on her stomach gently, eyeing the flat surface in wonder.
Elphaba's eyes burned with tears that she blinked back desperately.
"Do you feel ok?" he asked worriedly.
"I feel fine," she reassured him. "A little nausea and dizziness, and I'm exhausted all the time, but I'm ok."
Fiyero looked at her carefully. "Are you happy?"
Elphaba paused before answering. "I'm… I'm feeling… everything," she said honestly. "I'm still trying to get my head around the idea. And I don't know, there's so much to think about."
"Like what?"
Elphaba didn't want to dampen the happy mood here, but she knew there were realities about this that Fiyero hadn't thought of yet.
"What if someone found us?" she asked him. "If someone finds us, and we have a baby-"
Fiyero's face softened and he pulled her close to him. "Fae, you can't think like that," he told her quietly. "We are safe here, ok? And if by some chance, someone did find us? I know you, Fae. There's no way you'd ever let them separate us from the baby. You'd die first."
That was true.
"More importantly," Fiyero continued, his voice dropping solemnly. "If you don't know by now that I'd give my life to protect you, and our child-"
Elphaba burst into tears just thinking about it. "I know you would," she sobbed. "But if you had to, and I lost you… I don't have the Grimmerie anymore," she reminded him. "It took so long to find the spell to turn you back. I couldn't do anything to save you now."
Fiyero held her tightly. "You won't need to," he whispered. "I promise, Fae. Everything is going to be ok."
Elphaba wanted to believe him. And as he gently held her in his arms as she wept, it was almost possible to believe it would be.
"So, what happens now?" he asked eventually, when she'd calmed down and wiped her eyes.
She heaved a shuddering sigh, sniffling lightly. "I guess we go see a midwife. Kalhey, I guess. I trust her. Make sure everything's ok, and figure out when… it will be born."
"Ok," Fiyero said slowly.
She sighed again. "We're going to have to move," she pointed out.
Fiyero blinked, that hadn't occurred to him, but he quickly realised that she was right. Their tiny one bedroom house they'd been renting since they'd come to Limelle had no room for a baby. Hell, it barely had room for the two of them, but when Fiyero had been made of straw and had no need to sleep or eat, somehow space hadn't been an issue.
For the first time since Elphaba told him the news, he felt a thrill of panic run through him.
"Oh, right. We've got time though, right? We don't have to move like, in the next week or something? I mean, you can't be that pregnant and the baby will only be… that long or something, right?"
Elphaba raised an eyebrow as Fiyero held out his hands to indicate his approximation of the size of a baby. Apparently in his mind, a baby was only as long as a shoe.
"Yero, the average newborn is between nineteen and twenty-one inches long," she said gently.
Fiyero shot her a questioning glance and she shrugged lightly. "I've been doing some reading."
That didn't surprise him.
"We don't have a spare twenty-one inches here?"
"And that's not including the crib, the change table, chest of drawers-"
Fiyero cringed slightly. "Ok, I see your point."
"We've been to Kalhey and Alvar's a hundred times. You've seen how much stuff they have for Sabella all over the house."
He nodded, thinking hard. "Yeah… what do you think about buying a house?"
Her eyebrows went up again. "Buying a house?"
Fiyero nodded, liking the idea the more he thought about it. "Yeah! Fae, think about it. We have the money- the store's doing great, and I get plenty of work. That's not an issue. We're starting a family. Wouldn't it be great to have a yard?"
"And houses for rent don't come with yards?"
Fiyero grinned. "I just think it would be nice to have a house that ours."
Elphaba considered that carefully, thinking about the tiny form now growing inside her and what it would become.
"I guess we could look around. See what's there," she finally conceded.
Either way they'd be moving. It was just one option involved putting themselves into heavy debt for the next few decades.
"Wow," she murmured, feeling overwhelmed again. "Impending parenthood and potential mortgage. Two years as a wanted fugitive never made me feel this grown up."
Fiyero knew what she meant.
"Maybe we should go for the adulthood trifecta."
She glanced at him. "Is that your very subtle way of asking for sex?"
Fiyero grinned. "No, but now that you mention it, it's not a bad idea."
Elphaba rolled her eyes and he chuckled, taking her hand. "Seriously though. I was just thinking, do we- I mean, should we, get married?"
"Married? You went from 'is this a joke' to marriage in five seconds? Why?" Elphaba asked him, visibly surprised at the question.
"Well, what surname do we give the baby?"
Elphaba shrugged. "Tiggular?"
"But then you and the baby won't have the same surname."
"Ok, then. Thropp-Tiggular."
Fiyero looked thoughtful, and Elphaba sighed. "Look, Yero. We've agreed marriage isn't necessary, right? If we ever make the decision to do it, I don't think it should be because we're having a baby."
"That makes sense," Fiyero agreed slowly.
"I promise we can still discuss the house-buying option," she said gently. "Some might even say the mountainous debt of a mortgage is even a stronger bond than a marriage certificate."
Fiyero smiled, running his thumb over the back of her hand. "Nothing like debt to keep a couple together," he agreed with a chuckle.
"So, Tiggular for the surname?"
"Thropp-Tiggular," Fiyero corrected her.
"Are you sure? Because it's not as though I'm particularly attached to 'Thropp'," Elphaba pointed out. "I really don't care."
He shook his head. "No, I want it to be Thropp-Tiggular," he said firmly.
"Ok. If you're sure."
He placed his hand on her stomach again, and Elphaba got the feeling there'd be a lot of that happening before the baby was born.
"Hey, kid," he addressed her stomach quietly. "I'm your dad."
Elphaba rested her head on his shoulder tiredly, and he kissed her forehead lightly.
"You're going to be a great mom, Fae," he murmured.
Elphaba smiled faintly. "I can't be a worse parent than my father, right?"
"Elphaba, everyone's a better parent than your father," Fiyero replied in distaste. "He's not the standard, trust me."
He fell quiet then and Elphaba looked up at him. "Are you thinking of your parents?"
Fiyero nodded sadly. "It feels weird they'll never know they're grandparents, you know?"
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Fiyero squeezed her lightly with a smile. "It's ok, Fae. Really."
"I love you," Elphaba said.
As though that made up for everything. Although in Fiyero's mind, it did.
"I love you too, hon."
Chapter Title Song: "Hey Kid" from If/Then.