Chapter Twenty:
Elphaba woke up early that morning or in her case just got out of bed and moved to the hallway after a whole night of not sleeping one wink. She wandered aimlessly through the corridors of the castle in a numbing trance, not really caring where she ended up or paying attention to where she was going.
But the long stroll did nothing for the empty feeling that was forming in her heart. She shouldn't have realized as soon as she had came here that Fiyero was devoted to Glinda and not her. No amount of touches, of glances, of smiles, or of passing thoughts could ever changed that, or at least not now anyways. It seemed that Glinda's near death experience had only strengthened the love Fiyero had for the blonde and weakened the attraction he had with Elphaba. Elphaba didn't truly know if her heart was all right with that or not.
The void, hurtful hole that was forming in her heart brought a greater pain than anything else in her life had ever caused her. It was one thing to be hated and disregarded all your life but it was another thing entirely to be exempt from any kind of love, parental love, sibling love, friendship love, and true love and that was what Elphaba was going through now. She was not being included in the act of human companionship, in the humanistic nature to be loved and give love in return.
But, Elphaba thought grimly, she should expect nothing less because who was she to ask for love when she herself had never truly loved anyone before?
She turned a corner and unexpectedly bumped into Maybelle who was carrying a tray full of options for breakfast.
"Oh Miss Elphaba, I'm dreadfully sorry," immediately sputtered out Maybelle as she adjusted the tray in her hands, being careful to assure that nothing had spilled.
"It's fine," said Elphaba simply.
There must have been something in her tone that had struck Maybelle as odd for the maid looked at her queerly.
"Is there something wrong, Miss Elphaba?"
Elphaba glanced at her quickly and then retreated her eyes from Maybelle's face.
"No, not at all. In fact everything is great," lied the green woman though it was partially true, "Glinda has made a full recovery." Again, that was a half-truth as well… if that was even the truth anymore. Elphaba didn't know how the blonde was doing and she didn't think it was her place to intervene right now.
"That's wonderful," said Maybelle though it sounded to Elphaba as if she didn't really mean it. That sparked a memory in Elphaba's mind and a question that she had been waiting to ask Maybelle.
"Maybelle," started Elphaba as the maid turned to leave with the tray, "Last night… what were you going to tell Fiyero and I?"
The maid stopped walking, turned on her heel to face Elphaba and looked at her.
"Never-mind you that, Miss Elphaba. It doesn't matter anymore. Besides I'm sure it will come to the surface sooner or later…" said Maybelle darkly as she nodded to Elphaba once more and passed her.
Elphaba was left quite mystified as to what the maid could have possibly been talking about, and then she remembered the soldier fleeing the premises and she wondered if the two were connected. But the main question was left buzzing in Elphaba's head, if they were indeed connected why were they connected?
Glinda woke up sleepily to find Fiyero sitting besides her on the bed with a loving smile on his face.
"Hi there stranger," she said softly finding her voice to still be weak and frail.
Fiyero broke out into a grin, a lovesick puppy dog grin as he laughed slightly, "Hello to you too," he paused, "How are you feeling?"
Glinda looked at him, a slight flickering motion and instinctively tried to sit up, but she found out quickly that to do that required much more strength than she had at the point and she sank back into the pillows.
"Not much better, if you can't tell," she said with a small smile on her face. She grimaced inwardly and tried to keep the smile on her face as best she could but it faltered for a split second and she could tell that Fiyero noticed.
"Don't try to be well just for me because I can tell that you're not," said Fiyero quietly as a hand reached out and stroked the side of her face.
Glinda let the smile fall from her face soon after and bit her lip in pain, "I was feeling much better when I was sleeping," she admitted as the pain that had been in her chest last night had started up again.
"So go back to sleep," encouraged Fiyero for he noticed she had grown the slightest shade paler, "I will still be here when you wake up."
A smug smile made its way onto her lips, "I guess I shouldn't expect anything less," she teased.
Glinda breathed in slowly as she tried to relax but with the stabbing pain in her chest she found that to be quite hard.
"What happened to me last night?" she asked quietly after a period of silence, "The last thing I remember was kissing you and then feeling horribly sick and running to the bathroom."
Fiyero took a long time to answer her, to find the right words to try and explain what had happened without frightening her.
"Well… you had a very high fever all of a sudden and you just sort of passed out," Fiyero said giving her the bare minimum of information that she needed to know.
"Oh, I don't really remember that," said the blonde woman faintly as she shifted underneath the comfy covers and rested her head against a pillow.
"What do you remember?" asked Fiyero hesitantly. He was so afraid that Glinda knew about the glass heart that was now keeping her alive, though Fiyero was still puzzled as to how a glass heart would work, and that she was going to accuse him for what happened to her.
"I remember waking up last night and I remember talking to you throughout the night but I don't remember anything from when I was sick," said Glinda truthfully and it sounded to Fiyero as though she wished she could remember, "Was it bad?"
"Yes," said Fiyero swallowing hard, "It was very hard to see you like that, in so much pain. But you're alright now, aren't you?"
His words were soft, full of love and compassion and Glinda looked at him with gratitude and what Fiyero thought was a flash of remorse and regret for something, something that he obviously did not know about.
"I will be," she said with a tight smile.
A faint smile appeared on Fiyero's face as he put his hand on hers and leaned in to kiss the bridge of her nose in affection.
"Are you up for breakfast?" he asked after the kiss, "I had Maybelle arrange a tray for you."
"I'll try for breakfast," said the blonde weakly as she tried to prop herself up but had to get help from Fiyero who placed a few pillows behind her back to help her stay upright.
"Where is Elphaba?" was Glinda's next question as Fiyero placed the tray in his lap in front of her and skinned an apple for her.
"I don't know. I sent her off to bed last night and haven't seen her since," said Fiyero as he held out the apple. Glinda took it gingerly and bit into it slowly.
"That was nice of you," she commented as soon as she finished swallowing the small piece of apple that she had eaten.
"You're doing much better than you were last night," remarked Fiyero as he watched her eat, "Last night you could barely speak to me."
A blush rose to the blonde's face, as she smiled lightly, "Well aren't you glad that I can speak to you now."
"Yes, I am very glad," replied Fiyero earnestly as he took the apple away from her as soon as she was done with it.
"Is the doctor coming soon, you know to check up on me?" asked Glinda after a while of silence.
Fiyero's face blanched. He hadn't thought of a believable excuse yet to convince her that a doctor was not needed. Fiyero knew that if they told doctors of Glinda's condition that she would instantly become a test subject or worse be ridiculed and presented at a circus like Elphaba had been.
"He already came, while you were sleeping, and he says that you are perfectly fine," it was such a lie and such a bad one at that but Glinda was so tired and so uncaring at the moment that she looked past it and accepted it without any further questions.
"I want to stand," she announced to Fiyero after another maid who had came and left like a ghost had taken the tray away.
"Actually no, I don't want to stand. I want to take a bath and get into a different nightgown," said Glinda after a moment of thought as she realized that she probably should clean herself up and maybe she would feel better after that.
"You can't," said Fiyero in a commanding voice that sounded like he was afraid of what might happen if she did.
Glinda's eyes furrowed as she glared at him, "And why not? Fiyero, I feel disgusting. Just a little bubble bath will do the trick, I'm sure."
"Doctors orders," lied Fiyero as he tried to coax her to get back under the covers for she had hastily thrown them off of her body, "You need to rest for the whole day and then tomorrow maybe you can take a shower."
Fiyero was stalling, he needed to find Elphaba and talk options because they couldn't keep Glinda in bed all day forever and not have her find out about the stitching around her heart.
She pouted softly, her arms crossing her chest and her lips in a deep frown.
"Well what if you helped me with the bath, would that be an option?" she said seductively and though Fiyero was sorely, actually very tempted to say yes he stood his ground.
"No," he said without looking at her and out of the corner of his eyes he saw her eyes flash with sadness and cold anger, "Tomorrow though, I promise."
But it was just another empty promise and Fiyero felt horrible saying it.
"I'm going to find Elphaba, alright darling? Now you just stay here and rest and when I get back you can have some lunch," Fiyero said as he kissed her cheek.
Glinda watched him leave and as soon as the door was closed behind him she threw off the covers, determined to at least comb her hair in the bathroom if she could do nothing else. The blonde shakily stood up on her feet, feeling very dizzy but pushing through it, and clumsily (Glinda had never been clumsy before) stumbled her way into the bathroom.
She gripped the edge of the sink with both hands to steady herself as she tried to remember where she had last seen the comb. She was about to reach for it when the movement of raising her arm caused her to see something strange that was reflected in the mirror that seemed to be underneath her nightgown, right over where her heart would be.
At first Glinda thought it was nothing but the more she peered at the image in the mirror she realized that there was something there.
Forgetting all about the comb, Glinda had one hand gripping the counter while the other was undoing the buttons of her nightgown.
Lowering the nightgown so she could see to just below her breasts Glinda stared horrified at what she saw reflected in the glass.
Her trembling fingers hovered over the spot where her heart was and she touched the new skin gently. Her fingertips moved to the stitches that were embedded in her skin that were holding the new flesh to the old.
Glinda noticed that some of the stitching was coming undone already and she was going to leave it alone when a flash of something clear underneath the new skin caught her eye. Knowing how bad it was to pull stitches when they weren't ready, Glinda gently tugged away a part of the new skin on her chest just enough so she could see what the damage had been. The blonde was quite surprised when she didn't start gushing blood from her chest as she looked.
Again, Glinda thought that it was a trick of her mind that she was seeing but upon closer inspection it dawned on the young blonde woman that she no longer had a real beating heart but a heart made entirely out of glass.
A shrill scream was echoed throughout the entire household after that piece of information became clear to the blonde.
I'm almost done with the next chapter... look at me being all ahead and whatnot! Haha, anyways I should be updating that by Sunday or Monday so stay tuned.
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