Ok, so I know my updates aren't exactly regular, but I'm trying my best I promise. Here's a nice long chapter for you :)
Disclaimer: Wicked is not mine
"Whereabouts in the the U.S. then?"
"Kansas. Born and raised." I grinned.
"And when did you leave? How old were you?"
"Early twenties, I think."
"And you said you have a daughter?"
The officer seemed frustrated when I didn't respond.
"You did say that, didn't you?"
"Yes. I did say that."
"Can you tell us anything about her? About your family?"
"Well I- I didn't really have a family."
"And your daughter?"
"I never met her until she was twenty one."
"Where is she now?"
I paused, unsure of what to say. I felt my throat shrivel closed, refusing to let out the words that I wanted, but I fought back with a cough and a quick sip of water.
"She's dead."
Elphaba looked down at her stomach, legs hanging over the side of her hospital bed. She wasn't showing yet, but she would soon. There wasn't really a question about it. She was pregnant; she was certain. Still, she clung blindly to the tiny possibility that maybe- just maybe- she was wrong.
Fiyero had been circling around the back of the room for the past hour, every now and then stopping to lean over the window sill. The nurse stood in the opposite corner, eying them both warily.
Tell her.
But she couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to say the words out loud again, because then it was real, and this couldn't be real. No, Elphaba didn't say anything to the nurse, instead opting to walk up to Fiyero's side and grab his hand, eyes glued to the floor. Fiyero squeezed her hand a little tighter, noticing that the nurse was paying very close attention to them now.
"Reminds me of Shiz." Fiyero commented.
"How do you mean?"
"I- I don't know..."
Elphaba lifted her head to glance out the window. Most of the landscape was completely grey, with the exception of a few verdant hills that poked out in the distance.
"I don't see it." She announced.
"You looked up." Fiyero grinned in response, once her eyes finally met his.
Elphaba eyed him quizzically for a moment "What?"
"You were staring at the ground. You used to do that sometimes at Shiz."
"Oh."
"Do you ever miss it?" He almost regretted asking the question after twenty seconds without a response. Much to his relief, one finally came (albeit in the form of a few mumbled words).
"Sometimes. Do you?"
It was Fiyero's turn to pause. He hadn't thought about his own answer to his question. What he did know was that Elphaba had been right: he was unhappy when he was at Shiz. But now he had Elphaba.
"No. I don't think I do."
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the nurse biting her lip anxiously. She was transferring her weight from one foot to another so that she looked as though she was the branch of a Quadling tree in a storm. He turned back to Elphaba, who was gnawing at her own lip, and a thought occurred to him.
"You don't regret... coming with me, do you?"
"No. Why? Do you?" Her voice wavered slightly as she spoke. This time he really did regret his question, because now Elphaba was scared.
"No, of course not!", he answered hurriedly in an attempt to salvage the situation, " I just wanted to make sure that you..." He felt his voice trail off before he could finish the sentence. He turned back to the window, only to hear a short whine from behind him.
"I'll call a doctor." The nurse squeaked, pressing a button on the wall beside one of the beds. It was only at this point that Fiyero noticed the splash of beige on the floor by Elphaba's feet.
It was the scowling doctor who arrived around a minute later, shortly followed by a man who cleaned up the mess by the window, and promptly left the room. After a brief check over Elphaba, the doctor too turned to leave, but was stopped by a female voice.
"Doctor Michelle-"
"Doctor Jones." She corrected through gritted teeth.
"Doctor Jones, I've- been meaning to talk to you." Elphaba continued, growing increasingly hesitant as she spoke.
"Go on then." Doctor Jones sighed, turning back to Elphaba.
"I was just wondering where Fiyero and I will go. After we're discharged."
"We don't know. That's why you're still here." She replied bluntly, now standing right over the bed that Elphaba was sat on.
"Of course, I know that, but you must have some idea. I saw you talking to the police earlier, so I thought-"
"Look, none of you have been giving straight answers to the police." She snapped, "Until you do, no one can decide where you'll go."
"None of us."
"Pardon?"
"It's just you said 'none of you'... You mean the other man too- the man from the newspaper."
"Wow you really are-" She cut herself off with by clearing her throat before continuing with a strained voice that clearly wanted to become a yell. "As you've already been told, we can't give out information about patients to just anyone."
"I know...him. Talk to him, please."
"I've spoken to your father. He wanted to give you this." Doctor Jones announced after bursting through the doors of the hospital room that afternoon. She held a small piece of paper in one hand and a clipboard in the other.
"My father? " Elphaba felt her stomach twist itself into knots. Her father was here? Well, she'd never found out how exactly he'd died (after all, 'shame' wouldn't suffice as a cause of death on any official document). It was entirely possible that he hadn't died at all and was here instead.
"Did you not just ask for me to speak to him?"
"He's not my father!" The words came out in an anxious laugh, something that took Elphaba herself by surprise.
"Right. Well he asked me to give you this." Doctor Jones responded, placing the small piece of thick cream paper on the bed side table.
The paper was folded and bent at the edges, and covered in several brown smudges. Clearly it had been held a lot. Elphaba lifted it gingerly into her hand and turned it over.
She froze.
"Elphaba, what's wrong?"
It was Fiyero's voice calling out from the other side of the room. Only, he could just as easily have been right beside her, or sat on top of one of the hills the two had seen through the window. Her whole body was pulsating in some sort of fervent storm.
Stop it. Stop it. You idiot!
But she couldn't stop it. Already, she could feel it. Feel the pressure building up. Feel it coursing through her until, suddenly, she felt nothing at all.
Thoughts? I found this chapter really hard to write, and I'm really not sure if Elphaba or Fiyero are in character, so I'd appreciate opinions and constructive criticism :)