"This is it," she said to Myloe when they met in the backroom of a cafe that served as a front for the Resistance. "After this mission, I want out. I've given Oz five years of my life. I'm done."

It was a few weeks later when she said it, three weeks from Lurlinemas Eve. Myloe sputtered, "What do you mean, Fae?"

"I quit. The Resistance always made clear that this was a choice. We could leave when we wanted to, that we would be left in peace if we kept our mouths shut. And after Lurlinemass Eve, I'm out." She leaned against the wall, one hand on her hip.

He blinked a few times. "I don't believe this. What the hell... is there a reason for this?" He gave her a significant look. She realized the hand that was not on her hip was resting on her stomach protectively, a reflex she had picked up. "Perhaps something to do with you being in the family way?"

She snapped at him. "Like I said, the Resistance made it clear we could leave at anytime." When he didn't say anything, she confirmed. "And I think pregnancy is a pretty good reason to leave."

"So this is it? You're turning your back on your cause because your royal lover knocked you up? What are you thinking about doing? He's a tribal Prince, you admitted that. He's going to have to leave you eventually. You'd be better off getting rid of the thing and staying here." He grabbed her arm. "What do you plan to do? You have a job here, you have a place to live. Where do you plan on going? You can't stay in the loft once you quit."

"I'm aware of all of that, Myloe. Believe me, I know my lover is going to have to leave me. You think I don't understand that? I know it better than you could even fathom. But don't you dare insinuate I would be better off getting rid of my child. I know there are times and places where someone might be better off without a baby, but this isn't one of those cases." She shook his arm off of her. "And who says I have nowhere to go? I came to the City by choice. I was a runaway. I didn't get kicked out. I have a family, I have friends." Her words surprised her somewhat. She realized that this was what Fiyero had intended for her to realize in reuniting her with Glinda. She would have somewhere to go once she was alone.

"Tell His Highness I hope he enjoyed screwing you, because he royally messed up our plans."

"I'll be sure to do just that," she said, not letting him get to her. She gave a cheerful smile to spite him and headed back home.

He woke up on Lurlinemas Eve uneasy. He knew her last mission would be today. It scared him to know she would be in danger. He wondered if there was some way to keep her out of harms way. All he wanted was her safety. He couldn't stand the idea of her hurt. He realized that that was the feeling that had caused her to push him away five years before. He felt guilty in that- what had she felt that made his life so worth protecting? He was an adulterer, married with children. His already born children would barely remember him. He hadn't been a particularly brilliant father and had given up his chance to remedy that. He had no real convictions. He had no strong moral philosophy. He didn't stand for anything. He was a political leader, but not because of anything he had done but because he had been born lucky. He'd done so much wrong. He asked himself again what she had seen in him that she had felt made his life so worth preserving.

He watched her sleep. She was in her customary position, head resting on his chest. Her hair wild, tangled. It always seemed to wind up getting in his face while they slept, but he didn't mind it that much. Since he had been around to make sure she remembered to do simple things, like feed herself, her figure had softened somewhat. It was appealing- she'd been very thin when he had met up with her. Her curves were more pronounced. She was the one worth saving, he thought. She's the good one. She's the brave one.

She woke up eventually, and he didn't know how long he had watched her sleep. "Happy Lurlinemas Eve, Fae," he said, kissing the top of her head, trying to push the darkness of his thoughts away.

"Not so happy. My mission is tonight. After that it's over." She streched but didn't vacate his embrace. She seemed to register that he was down, kissing him on the lips, inviting him to her...

Later he voiced at least one of his concerns, "Stay safe,"

"Why should I keep myself so safe?" Her words echoed his own thoughts on his own life. Could she not see herself for the brilliance she was? He doubted she could but wondered how it wasn't obvious.

"Because I love you," he said, answering both her and himself, realizing that love was why they wanted to keep each other safe.

"And I love you too," she confirmed. She brought his hand to her stomach, resting her own on top of it. "So I'll be careful."

She waited silently, not moving, in the alley across from the theatre. It was later that same day. The evening, those darkening hours when afternoon shifted to night. Snow fell in little cloud like heaps, melting painfully on her skin. Morrible came out of the carriage and her physical discomfort left her mind. In one fluid movement she aimed her rifle at the old woman. Her finger rested on the trigger. One... Two... Three...

A gaggle of girls appeared seemingly from no where. Would she be able to get a clear shot in without harming one of them? No, no. They moved too much and were very near to Morrible. One of them was bound to get hurt. So? Part of her said. There are consequences. Every action has consequences. If she killed Morrible, surely it would pay off.

One... Two... Three... No! These were children she was talking about. Children with futures, hopes. Children with friends. Siblings. Mothers and Fathers. Could she take another mother's child away in the name of progress? How would she feel if her own child were killed in the crossfire?

She couldn't do it, and that was when she knew it. She threw the gun down harmlessly in the alleyway and went home.

He heard a commotion from outside. Loud footsteps pounding up the stairs. Too loud to be the rather graceful Elphaba coming home from her mission earlier than anticipated. The cat ran off to some hidden corner. He heard 'One of them is supposed to be living here. That's what the one we caught said.' Then the door blasted open.

It was so fast, he didn't even know what was happening to him. Two grabbed him. He was pinned to the grown and he was so shocked at first that he didn't struggle until it was too late. He noticed the glint of gold on the green Gale Force uniform. He saw the club be lifted. He felt it come down, but it was far away. As if it were happening to someone else, someone else...

He was glad it wasn't someone else. He was glad he was there and she was not. He was glad to be able to take the blow for both her and the baby. He wondered if that was why he loved her, so in this moment he could die for her. He was glad to do it if it meant keeping her safe. He barely felt the pain, knowing that the Gale Force would not come back looking for her.

They left when they saw they had accomplished their task. He could feel his warm blood pulling around him. He wondered if there would be some way to lessen the flow. He knew there was no way to save his life. Too much damage had been done. But could he make it look better for when his Elphaba came home and found him?

Elphaba...

She shook with self hate. She had failed, miserably. Myloe would ring her neck- she'd gone soft. More reason to mock her for having love, for being pregnant. Morrible was still alive because she had been too chicken to kill her. Myloe would tease her for all eternity. Whatever major thing was supposed to happen surely hadn't happened without Morrible's death to serve as a distraction.

But when she realized the door was ajar, that there were bloody footsteps on the stairs, Myloe mocking her seemed like a very minor thing. She ran up the stairs and was vaguely aware that the horrible, high pitched sound that reached her ears, irritated her was her own horrible scream.

He laid in the middle of the floor in that cold, silent room. He wasn't resting- his chest didn't rise and fall with his breath. He was dead. She fell to her knees beside him, touched him chest. She stared in horror at him, looking at those beautiful blue diamonds, praying he was somehow only asleep. His body was cooling. The blood that covered the floor was sticky and thick. There was no way anyone could survive loosing that much blood. Snow fell in through the broken skylight, wisping in, melting on her skin. This was her worst fear. This was her worst nightmare come to life.

She wondered exactly what had happened. She wondered how his final moments had been spent. Had he thought of her as he died? Did she want to know the answer?

She pressed her lips against his bloodied forehead and covered his lifeless body with a sheet from their bed. She gathered a few necessary material possessions, left the apartment, and never went back.

She pounded on the door. It felt like she was pounding, her knuckles hurt with the effort. Everything hurt. Except the door- the door didn't buckle under her blows. She pummeled it but it didn't break. The sound she heard was so quiet. It didn't match up with her effort. She felt herself crying. Had she gotten the wrong door? The ritzy inn was large. Could she have gotten the wrong door? No, no. There was Glinda, the lady. Glinda, her best friend. "Elphie?" The large blue eyes widened as she saw Elphaba's pale face and the random splatterings of blood on her person and her clothes.

"He's gone," she managed to choke out. "It's over, he's gone. Just like how I saw."

Glinda didn't say a word, there was no 'It'll be OK' or 'He's in a better place'. Those wouldn't say enough. The first wasn't true, everything wasn't OK. And no one living could truly know he was in a better place, least of all Glinda. All she could do was open her arms up, pulling her best friend to her, holding her tightly. Chuffery had heard the commotion and stood behind his wife but sensed that this situation was better off without his interference. "It hurts, doesn't it?"

"Yes." Elphaba felt the burn of tears and the tightness in her throat.

Her best friend patted down her hair, smoothed it out of her face. "But you know what? He'd want you to be strong. He never wanted you to hurt. He loved you more than anything else. Will you be strong for him?"

"Yes," she heard herself say.

She was led inside, put in the spare bedroom in the suite. A thick blanket was wrapped around her shaking form. Glinda tended to her for the night, letting her cry. And then, once she could cry no more, she began to heal.