AN: Alright, first off; GoodWitchesofOz, that is an interesting idea. Maybe I'll have her wear something of Fiyero's that he's got stashed away somewhere in the castle! Also, to my (literal) anonymous reviewer (who left their comment under "No name"), here is something for you; thank you, I'm glad you like it! I am aware of...you know who in the book, I've read it multiple times, and, OZ, GIRLFRIEND (i'm going to assume your female)! HOW'D YOU FIGURE IT OUT SO FAST? Congratulotions on being the first person to guess Elphaba's mystery sickness! How 'bout a big round of applause, folks? *audience claps* I'm impressed!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the attention span of a squirrel...sometimes even that of a-OOOH, LOOK, PINECONES! 8D

Chapter 4

Dorothy looked up when she heard the door open. Elphaba came back in wearing an elegant midnight blue gown. She looks like a princess in that dress, Dorothy thought. Really once you get past the color of her skin, she's as beautiful as one, too. And I suppose that if things had worked out for her in a way that let her marry Fiyero, she would be a princess.

"I'm sorry, Dorothy, I just...had a score I needed to settle with an old friend." Upon looking at her a bit more closely, Dorothy realized that something about her made Elphaba seem more...at peace than she was before. She seemed more relaxed, her muscles less tense.

"You seem different," she commented as Elphaba sat down. The green girl smiled and cocked her head, resting her chin against her hand. "How so?" she asked. Dorothy thought for a moment about how to put it into words. "I dunno, you just seem...happier than before you left." Elphaba gazed into the distance momentarily as she fiddled with her pendant.

She bit her lower lip before speaking. "Let's just say that I was finally able to clear the air with an old close friend of mine. I asked forgiveness for the things I've done she blamed me for, and we agreed that even though there was definitely blame to share, none of it seemed to matter anymore."

As she listened, a few things suddenly occured to Dorothy. One, she remembered, all of a sudden, the woman who had appeared when Dorothy and Toto had first emerged from the crashed farm house, the one who had been in a giant bubble and asked if Dorothy was a good or bad witch. What had she said her name was? Glinda something? Yes, Glinda the Good, that was it.

She also recalled Elphaba saying earlier that Fiyero had "run away from his somewhat forced engagement with Oz's most adored bubble queen, Lady Glinda, more commonly known as Glinda the Good."

Dorothy found herself wondering if the Glinda that Fiyero had been engaged to was the same one who'd greeted her when she arrived in Oz. After all, Elphaba had called Glinda the Good a "bubble queen," hadn't she? And the Glinda the Good that Dorothy met had actually been inside a giant bubble with about a million more small ones in the air around her.

Dorothy also remebered the first time she'd seen Elphaba; the puff of red smoke, the magical disguise that made her look more like a storybook witch than the beautiful young woman sitting before her right now. She remembered looking at the Glinda who had been there and seeing a brief flash of some emotion on her face before she composed herself and confronted Elphaba.

What had that emotion been? Dorothy suddenly wanted to know. At the time, she'd thought nothing of it, thinking perhaps it was shock at the arrival "Wicked Witch." But now, Dorothy couldn't help but wonder if, perhaps, Glinda had known more about Elphaba's background story than she'd let on, and maybe, just maybe, the emotion that had flashed on her face had been not shock, but something else entirely.

"...Elphaba?" she said after going over all this in her head. "Yes?"

"Remember how you told me that Fiyero broke off an engagement with somebody named Glinda the Good?" There was a slight hesitance before the older woman replied.

"Yes..."

"And, remember the woman who was there the first time we ever saw each other, when you had your disguise on? The blonde one in the pale blue dress with a tiara?"

"Yes..."

"Well, the woman with the tiara...she said that she's Glinda the Good, and I was just wondering...is it the same Glinda, or is there more than one?" Dorothy looked up to see Elphaba staring down at her lap, smiling to herself as if she was having a pleasant thought or fond memory. "Yes," she said, "it's the same Glinda. Why do you ask?"

Dorothy shrugged. "I just realized that maybe they were the same person and I was curious, that's all." Elphaba laughed lightly. "Trust me, the only way there could ever be more than one Glinda the Good is if somebody was impersonating her, and believe me when I say that anyone doing that would face very severe consequences if they were ever caught."

Dorothy grinned upon hearing a genuine laugh from Elphaba for the first time. "And there's one other thing, too," she added. "Oh? What's that?" Elphaba asked.

"Well, when you showed up after I met Glinda, right before she started speaking to you, I noticed something flash across her face. At first I thought she was just surprised you had shown up, and I didn't really think about it. But, now I can't help but wonder if maybe she knows more about you than she let on, and whatever flashed on her face wasn't surprise, maybe it was something else."

For a moment, Elphaba said nothing. Dorothy studied her face. She was chewing her lower lip, and her expression suggested that she was debating how to reply to Dorothy's statement. Finally, she said, "You're very perceptive, Dorothy, did you know that?" She looked at her. "These observations you make...You notice things...things that nobody else notices...Don't you?"

Dorothy nodded. A half-smile crept onto Elphaba's face. "You'd make a good investigator. Or an investigative reporter, even. You kinda remind me of a friend I had in college." She bit down on her lip again, her head cocked to one side as she nodded slowly. "I noticed that something flash across Glinda's face, too," she said.

"And if you'd been paying just a little more attention, you would've also noticed that same something go across my face, as well," she added after a moment. "Hurt," she said. "Pain. Loss. Even a bit of suffering." If there was one thing Dorothy had expected, it would not have been any of those.

AN: ...I'M SORRY ABOUT ALL THE REFERENCES TO "FOR GOOD," I COULDN'T RESIST! There's gonna be a flashback next chappie (not telling you who has it (you probably already know) or how far back into that person's past it goes!) and also, Elphie will be kind of rambling a bit (although Dorothy kind of asked for her to. she doesn't mind. i hope you won't either). Elphie does a lot of reminiscing next chapter. Also, I'm thinking about throwing in a chapter about what's happening with Fiyero every now and then. Maybe every two, three, four chappies? Please let me know about the clothing stuff, remember, guys!

xoxo,

Maggie & the Gang

PS: The "friend from college" Elphie mentions is Liiku Thriggs, who is IchikoWindGriffin's OC. He's the main character in "Written in Red," which I HIGHLY suggest, Ichi did an amazing job with it.