Chapter 10. ....And I Say Hello
Disclaimer: It's......it's.....I can't say it.......*scribbles it on piece of paper* There! *slams paper onto story chapter* {Written on paper: IT'S NOT MINE!}
Thanks to populardarling and dg4g for reviewing 9.
So, here's chapter 10. I've gotten a few questions about what happens when Fae casts the spell, and here's your answer. I hope I didn't disappoint.....
….the loft.
She looked around quickly, slightly confused, before her eyes landed on Fae, still sittiing on the counter, reading from the book. Still chanting.
When Fae finished, she looked up, expecting to see a vacated chair, and was instead met with Elphaba. The woman blinked.
"Well, hello."
Elphaba smiled sheepishly, afraid to move for fear that the older woman would either snap at her or try and comfort her. She did neither.
"So…apparently it didn't…..work." Fae said, lips pursed, looking back at the spell, reading it silently.
Elphaba shrugged, staying seated. After watching Fae for a few moments, she moved her gaze around the room. Nothing had changed. Everything was exactly the same when she vanished. The bedroll was still rolled up in the corner. The cups were still on the table. The broom was still leaning against wall.
Fae was still sitting on the counter, the book in her lap.
Finally, unable to take the silence any longer, Elphaba got up, and slowly walked towards the door. The sound of feet on the floorboards caused Fae's head to snap up.
"Hey! Where are you going?"
Elphaba turned to her. The girl was putting the majority of her weight on her unsprained ankle. She winced.
"Uh.....I.....I was going to go outside."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Fae cried, picking the book up and dropping it with a THUD on the counter. Then, she scrambled down from the counter and hurried over to the girl. "You can't just....go outside!"
"Why not?" Elphaba asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because....." Fae stopped and thought. ".....you can't."
"Why can't I?"
"Because....you can't."
"And why can't I?" Fae's eyes did several scans of the surrounding area, running through the multitude of excuses in her head. There weren't many.
Four, at most.
"Uh...." Fae closed her mouth.
"Unless you can give me a valid reason why I can't go outside, I'm going outside." Elphaba said, taking hold of the doorknob.
"It's dirty out there." Fae said, reaching out to grab her and then thinking better of it. Elphaba raised an eyebrow.
"I'm going outside." She said, giving Fae a quick one over before pulling the door open and gingerly making her way down the stairs. Fae let out a little whimper and bit her lip.
She's too fucking stubborn for her own good. For....your own good. For.....her......for you....Oh, damn it Fae, you're too fucking stubborn! Now do you remember why you always got reprimanded by Frex? Fae shook her head.
After giving a quick survey of the room, she hurried down the stairs and out the door.
"Elphaba!" She creid, hurring down the last few stairs. "Elphaba! Elpha-"
She shoved the door open, feeling it collide with something.
"Oof!" Fae poked her head round the doorway, to see Elphaba sitting sprawled on the pavement. "Ow! What was that for?"
"What are you doing on the ground?" Fae asked, coming outside.
"I was standing outside getting some air, until you opened the door and knocked me down." Elphaba said.
"Oh, sorry." Fae said, coming over and extending a hand, which Elphaba took gratefully. Fae pulled Elphaba to her feet, and dusted her off. "Come on. Let's head inside and I'll wash that uniform."
She led Elphaba back into the corn exchange and to the loft.
"Hey Fae."
"Hmm?"
"Why didn't you want me going outside?" Elphaba asked, as they made the last two stairs and entered the loft. Fae walked over to the kitchen area, filled a tub with water, and pulled on gloves.
"Take that off." She instructed, as Elphaba closed the door.
"Off? In here?" Elphaba asked. Fae turned to her.
"Yes in here. Where else do you think you can undress?" Elphaba looked around. Her eyes landed on a door on the other side of the room.
"That closet?" Fae tilted her head, raising an eyebrow, a don't-give-me-that-crap look on her face.
"'That closet?'" She repeated. Elphaba nodded. Fae snorted. "That's not a closet. It's an old storage room, that held corn husks when this was a corn mill. You're not undressing in there." Elphaba looked around.
"Do I have too undress here?" Fae nodded. Elphaba huffed. "Fine. But turn around." Rolling her eyes, Fae did as told. "Okay, you can turn around."
Fae turned, to see Elphaba's clothes on the table. The girl stood in front of Fae, covering herself. Her long raven hair was draped over her chest, covering her breasts, and her arms were crossed over her chest. She stood behind the chair. Fae rolled her eyes and grabbed Elphaba's clothes, dropping them in the basin.
"Um?" Fae turned, stopping her scrubbing. Elphaba crouched behind the chair, hiding as much as she could, and she reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"Yes?"
"Wh.....what do I wear now?"
Fae stopped, and, taking off the gloves and placing them on the counter, she went over to the chest, and rummaged through it, before pulling out a pair of underwear and a dress. Then, she tossed them at Elphaba.
"Wear these for now." Elphaba caught them, and instantly pulled on the undergarments. Then, she held up the dress.
"Will it fit me?"
"It should. It's too small for me." Fae replied, pulling the gloves back on and returning to her washing. Elphaba nodded, and, making sure that Fae's back was turned, pulled the dress on.
"Um, Fae?" The woman turned, to see Elphaba standing behind her, her back to her. "Would you, hook me?" Fae took the gloves off and quickly did the hooks on the dress.
The woman was right, it did fit. The dress was a deep, midnight black, with a small pattern of black thread around the waist, looking like a belt. It just graced Elphaba's ankles, and fit perfectly at the waist and bodice.
"It was one of my old dresses. Wore it in college, when I went to Shiz." Fae said, as she continued washing Elphaba's uniform. "I.....I wore it.....to Doctor Dillamond's funeral." Fae said, her voice growing soft at the mention of her former professor. She stopped washing and stared off into the distance for a few moments, reliving that heartbreaking day.
Elphaba, who had turned around, and was brushing her hair off her shoulder, stopped. Her head snapped up, and she turned to Fae.
"Dr. Dillamond? You know Dr. Dillamond?" She asked, moving closer to Fae. The woman nodded.
"Yes, I knew him. He was a brilliant professor. He knew all there was to know about the Life Sciences." Fae said, chuckling. "H...he was working on finding a link between humans and Animals when he died." Fae said. "H...he'd almost found it. He almost made that breakthrough.....and then....." She stopped, biting her lower lip and returning to the wash.
"What?" Elphaba asked, watching intently.
"He was found.....dead....in his lab. Madame Morrible said that....that he had fallen on a lens and that it had clashed a major artery. But it wasn't true. I was there the day they discovered him..... they brought him out on a stretcher, covered with a sheet, and....the wind picked up the end of the sheet....and blew it back. I saw the blood. Saw the way his.....eyes bulged and his mouth opened in horror. Saw the way his neck was turned. It was.....unnatural."
Elphaba sat down at the table, enthralled by Fae's story.
"Glinda's Ama Clutch ended up in the infirmary not long after. She....was in the last throes of some.....made-up mysterious disease Glinda had imagined." Fae said, chuckling softly, sadly. "We asked her.....if she'd seen what had happened to Doctor Dillamond. She said that....that night....she had gone to close the curtains, and seen Doctor Dillamond in his lab, with someone else....and that.... there appeared to be a struggle. So she.....went over to the lab....and....suffered some sort of fit...and ended up in the infirmary that night. When....when we asked her what she'd seen.....she said......something about....a knife.....and.....Doctor Dillamond......and....a.....tick tock thing...." Fae said, looking off into the distance, eyes narrowed, as if trying to make out the form from far away.
"Grommetik." Elphaba said, resting her chin in her palm. "Madame Morrible's metal servant is a tick tock creature. It gives me the creeps. There are days when I see it, and I just want to dismember it, or kick it into a wall, or drop it into the Suicide Canal. It worships her. And it follows her everywhere. I bet it follows her into the bathroom." Elphaba said, chuckling.
Fae let out a gentle laugh, returning to the wash.
"I wouldn't be surprised." Fae said, as she pulled out Elphaba's jacket and rung out the water, before draping the jacket over a stool. She sighed.
"So what happened?" Fae turned, to meet Elphaba's eyes. "To Ama Clutch?"
Fae thought a moment, wrinkling her nose.
You've already told her....er, you....the story, you might as well finish it. Besides, it's not like she'll.....you'll.... remember any of this when she......when you....go back. If she goes back. She knew she was right. She'd already started the story, she might as well finish it.
"Well, Ama Clutch got worse over the course of the night, and......around midnight.....she passed on. It just about killed Glinda, who thought she was the cause of Ama Clutch's death. Which, when you look at it, she was. We had the funeral the next afternoon, and Madame Morrible had us in her study for tea. I remember....Nanny kept complaining about....no saffron cream for the biscuits." Fae chuckled softly. "Afterwards, we...all went out to the Peach and Kidneys and held our own funeral for Ama Clutch. After that, several of them went to the Philosophy Club. I didn't go. I sent Nessa back to Shiz with Nanny."
"And Glinda?"
"I asked Glinda to come to the Emerald City with me. We were going to meet the Wizard. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I had.....brought along some of Doctor Dillamond's papers to give to him, in hopes that he would....realize what Doctor Dillamond had been working on and continue it. I was wrong....." Fae trailed off, pulled Elphaba's undergarments out of the basin, rung them out, and draped them over another stool. Then, she returned to the basin.
Elphaba remained silent. Finally, Fae spoke.
"Full of girlish hopes, that's what I was. Optimistic. A child. Being used as a pawn in Madame Morrible's political game. Just...a lowly pawn...being moved across the board by the player....in the hopes of becoming a queen and winning the game with checkmate." She pulled Elphaba's dress out of the basin, rung it out, and draped it over a chair. "And....when I realized....I removed myself from the match....took myself out of the game....disappeared from the board. And I've been removed from the match for the last six years."
She took the gloves off, and set them on the counter, before putting her clothes in the water and putting the gloves back on.
Elphaba waited. The only sound was Fae washing the rest of the clothes.
Quickly, Fae glanced at Elphaba, hoping she hadn't altered Elphaba's future.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And I hope it answered a question or two.
~Fiyero's Girl-Elphaba