Chapter 20

Glinda and Ella lay asleep on the cot next to Elphaba's bed. Ella was snuggled up against her mother and snoring lightly. Glinda had one arm draped around her daughter and the other holding onto Elphaba's hand. All was quiet and peaceful. The only noise that filled the air were the light inhale and exhales of breath.

It had taken Glinda forever to finally settle down and allow sleep to take her. Her swirling thoughts and feelings would not allow her to relax enough for sleep. The sun was starting to rise by the time Glinda finally dozed off. She knew she would not sleep for long. Ella would be up in a couple of hours and wanting to do something.

True to her word a couple of hours later Ella began to stir. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around the room. Ella frowned as she saw Elphaba was still not awake yet. She wished she would wake up so that her mommy would be happy again.

Turning her attention back towards her mother she saw that she was still asleep. Instead of waking her like she normally would, she let her sleep. Ella could handle being unentertained for a while if that meant that her mother was sleeping peacefully.

The two-year-old sighed and removed herself from her mothers embrace. Glinda moved a little but remained asleep.

Ella went over to the other side of Elphaba's bed hoping to gain some distance from her mother. She didn't want her waking up from Ella's voice.

The two-year-old reached the other side and stepped up on a nearby stool so that she could reach Elphaba. Once her hand was able to reach out she brought it to the green girls hair. Playing with it she began to speak.

"Please wake up." She pleaded in a hushed voice. "Please." She continued stroking the green woman's hair, braiding the side of it as she had seen her mother do before.

"Mommy is sad without you." The little girl thought that if Elphaba knew how much her mother really missed her then she would come back. "She cries at night." Ella stilled her hand and looked down towards Elphaba's wounds.

"I don't understand." She stated. "You are all fixed. Why won't you wake up?" she brought her hand down to where Elphaba's gauze lay upon her skin.

A single tear fell from the girl's eyes and landed on top of the gauze. Ella couldn't understand why Elphaba couldn't just wake up. She had seen people sleep before but never for so long. She didn't understand what was happening and why her mother was so sad. Elphaba would wake up eventually and everything would be okay. She tried telling her mother this the night before but that just seemed to make her mother sadder.

"You need to wake up." She stated again and looked up towards Elphaba's face to see if she heard her.

The green woman showed no indication that she had. Ella's little heart broke. She hated that she couldn't do anything to wake this woman up. She hated that her mother was so sad.

She lifted herself up from the stool and flung her leg over the side and climbed into the bed. There was enough room between Elphaba and the guardrail that she was sure she wouldn't bother her wounds.

She nudged herself between Elphaba's arm and the side of the bed. Laying her head down on Elphaba's chest she began to cry softly.

Glinda awoke to the sound of crying in the room. She looked down to see that Ella was no longer in bed with her. She looked towards Elphaba's bed and saw where the noise came from.

Lying across Elphaba's chest was her daughter weeping quietly. The scene before her broke her heart.

"Sweetie." Glinda spoke up. Ella looked up when she heard her mother's voice. "What's wrong?" Glinda got up out of bed and walked over to where Ella was.

"I don't get it." Ella brought her hand up to try and dry her tears. She hated accidentally waking up her mother.

"What don't you get?" Glinda reached over and pulled Ella away from Elphaba so that her daughter sat in her lap.

"Why won't she wake up?" Ella clung to her mother. Glinda was afraid of this. She knew that someone as young as Ella wouldn't be able to understand what was going on.

"She's ill Ella. She needs to get better before she can wake up." Glinda slowly rocked Ella in her arms.

"She doesn't look sick though." Ella allowed herself to be rocked. It had been awhile since Glinda had done this action and Ella found it comforting.

"I know she doesn't look it on the outside, but on the inside she is sick." Glinda began humming a tune into her daughter's ear trying to ease her pain.

"I want her to wake up." Ella pouted. Glinda smiled and continued to hum.

"I do too." Glinda broke away from her humming to say this and then quickly resumed.

Ella was going to say something more but found herself becoming sleepy once again. She tried to stay awake but her mothers voice and the rocking motion was too much for her. She allowed her eyes to shut and she once again fell asleep.

Glinda heard her daughters breathing slow down and knew she was asleep. She continued rocking back and forth and humming, more for her benefit than her daughters. It was a distraction from what was going on at the moment.

It broke Glinda's heart for her daughter to be in pain over what had happened to Elphaba. She knew this was all too much for the little girl to handle.

Glinda continued rocking her daughter and eventually fell back asleep herself.

XXX

Elphaba groaned as she used all of her strength to drag a suit of armor behind her towards the brick wall.

"Come on damn it." Elphaba cursed her shoulder for not cooperating.

Elphaba had had the idea to stack the suits of armor on top of one another. Maybe then she could climb them and reach the top of the dome. So far she had managed to drag seven of the pieces of armor out. Once she arrived back in the brick dome she would stack them in one corner and take a ten-minute break before going back.

Elphaba saw the brick wall in sight and picked up the armor with both hands, cradling it in her arms. It took all her strength to hold big chunks of pure metal and run with them.

She ran towards the wall with lightening fast speed and was soon inside the brick dome. She dropped the armor while breathing heavily. This had been easy the first few times but was now becoming increasingly difficult.

The weight put on her injured shoulder did not help the situation at all. Elphaba prayed that this idea would work; if not she didn't know what else to do nor did she have the strength for anything else.

Elphaba rested a few minutes regaining her composure. When she felt ready she went over to where she had dropped the armor and picked it up sliding it over to the pile she had created.

Stacking the suits of armor had been a lot more difficult than she assumed it would be. She had to hoist the armor over her head to put it on top of the other one.

Once she finished she stood back and admired her handy work. The Pile was about 7 feet tall. She tried to calculate that in her head.

"Okay so you are five foot four inches tall, the armor is seven feet, that would mean…" she tried to work out the math in her head. She factored in the hole in the ceiling as twenty feet away.

"I'm still seven feet and eight inches short of the hole." She said aloud and then realized what that meant for her. "Damn it!" she cursed. Even with her arms reaching towards the hole that added only about another foot or so. She tried factoring her arm span in and came to the conclusion that she would still be a good six feet and a couple of inches short. She needed more armor.

She backed away and tried to figure how many more pieces of armor it would take. She had captured eight all together and knew there were three still left in the other room. That made eleven total.

She tried calculating how many suits of armor she had now and how much space each of them took up. When she added the three other suits she would go back and get she was still short a foot or so. There was no way she was going to jump and try and hold on with her arm the way it was. Her shoulder would surely tear and make matters much worse for her. She even had the possibility that she might fall to factor in. She would be twenty feet up in the air and if she fell she might have more than just her shoulder to worry about.

She needed that twelfth piece of armor. The one she had yet to defeat.

Trying not to think about that just yet she readied herself to go back into the other room. She would retrieve the three other pieces of armor and see if her calculations had been correct.

"Here goes nothing." She huffed and then once again disappeared behind a brick wall.

XXX

Fiyero lay still on the floor of his cell coughing. He had just had the shit kicked out of him by his former girlfriend. He was wallowing in his own self-pity when he heard the door to his cell open up. He shut his eyes afraid of what might happen next.

"Are you all right?" Fiyero heard someone question him. He opened up his eyes to see one of the guards staring down at him.

"Fine." Fiyero choked out and tried to stand. It had been the same guard that had escorted Glinda in to see him earlier.

"You don't look fine." Leland moved over and offered out his hand to help Fiyero up.

"I'm fine." Fiyero stated once again. He didn't want anyone to know how much pain Glinda had caused him. He figured if they knew it had been the little petite blonde who beat him up than they would surely laugh at him.

"All right." Leland helped Fiyero over to his cot. Fiyero sat down and moved his hand up to wipe some blood from his nose. The blonde had definitely broken it.

"What do you want? Come to torture me some more?" Fiyero spat out. He didn't care if he was nice to the guard or not. They had been anything but mean to him since he arrived. In Fiyero's eyes he was innocent. The only thing he ever did to truly hurt someone was to punch one little guard out and take his outfit. That was all! Yet they were treating him as if he had raped a little kid or murdered someone of high standing.

"No." Leland stated. "I came to see how you were." There was sincerity in Leland's tone that was surprising to both him and Fiyero.

"You came to see how I was?" Fiyero replied in disbelief. His jaw hung slightly open.

"Yes." Leland nodded his head. "I may not like you for what you caused to happen to an innocent woman, but that wasn't entirely your fault. Miss Glinda should not have beaten you up like that."

Fiyero was grateful there was one person in this palace that had seen past his or her own bias. "I never meant for that woman to get shot." Fiyero honestly said. He really hadn't meant for anyone to be harmed. All he wanted to do was get to Elphaba and talk to her.

"I believe that." Leland didn't know what to believe so he agreed with Fiyero. "I am curious though…" he started to talk. Fiyero looked up at him willing to answer any question from the one man that believed him in the whole palace. "When we met earlier and I asked you why you were here why did you say love?"

Fiyero hadn't been expecting this sort of question. He had expected more drilling on who he was and why he wanted to harm Miss Glinda.

"I am here for love." Fiyero stated and then decided to elaborate. "I am in love with a woman who left me to go back to Glinda."

"Back to Glinda?" Leland was curious as to what Fiyero meant.

"The love of my life used to be best friends with Glinda. I ran into Glinda the other day and found out that my love had come here. I knew that there was no way to get to her unless I snuck inside. That's when this whole mess started." Fiyero sighed. Now he would never get to Elphaba.

"What is her name?" Leland was curious. No one had entered the palace recently except Iris and Glinda and Iris had never met before she came to the palace. Surely if they had then they wouldn't have acted like they didn't know one another.

"I can't tell you that." Fiyero replied. He really couldn't speak Elphaba's name. For as much as he hated her right now he was too much in love with her to hurt her like that. He would lose all chance at getting back with her if he spoke the name Elphaba in front of anyone.

"Why not?" Leland was suspicious. Why was this man not telling him the name of his love?

"She wouldn't want me to." Fiyero honestly said. Leland regarded the man beside him and decided not to push the subject any further.

"What does she look like then?" Maybe if Leland could gain a description then he could match up someone to it.

Fiyero tried to decide if giving a description was safe enough or not. When he decided that no one had probably seen her since she was green then it would be okay.

"She is beyond gorgeous." He smiled as he recounted everything he loved about the witch. "She has jet black hair, dark brown eyes, angular features, and the cutest smile in the world."

Leland listened and tried to think of anyone who matched his description to the woman he described. The only person he knew who fit all of those was Iris. He asked a few more questions to see if his idea panned out.

"How tall is she?" he asked innocently enough.

Fiyero had to think for a moment or so. "Five foot four I think." He replied.

That was the height of Iris. He had to ask another question. "Is her hair curly?"

Fiyero laughed as he imagined Elphaba with curly hair. "No. She has the straightest, longest hair I have ever seen.

Leland had asked all the questions he wanted to ask Fiyero. There was only one person that fit that description and she was in a coma right now.

Leland had something against Iris now that he could use to his advantage. Her ex had tried to sneak into Glinda's palace only days after Iris's arrival. He was sure that he could come up with some kind of scheme where the two of them were still linked. He could tell Master Guff that Iris had provided inside help to get him that far.

Once all of Oz knew of her treachery then they would want nothing to do with her and she would be sentenced to death for treason.

On the other hand Leland now had something he could hang over the other girls head to get his way. He could blackmail her saying that if she didn't love him then he would tell everyone of her connection with Fiyero.

Leland exited the cellblock happier than he had been in a long time. He was finally going to get his way.

XXX

Glinda awoke to a light tapping on the door. She looked up and saw Tahj's head sticking through the door.

"Good morning Glinda." He smiled and entered the room.

"Morning Tahj." Glinda smiled back. Ella was still asleep on her stomach and chest and so she chose to speak quietly.

"I give you a cot and still you fall asleep in that blasted chair." He joked and pointed towards the chair Glinda was in.

"I didn't fall asleep here last night. I was just napping." She chuckled.

Tahj was happy to see that Glinda was still able to laugh in her current state. He noticed the little girl asleep in her mother's arms.

"How is Ella doing with all of this?" He was concerned for the little girl. He knew that two-years-old was too young to have to deal with any of this.

Glinda sighed as she remembered back to earlier. "Not so good. She doesn't understand why Iris just can't wake up." Glinda's voice became sad once again.

"It's hard on a kid that young Glinda. Hell it's hard on anyone." He tried to tell the blonde that this wasn't her fault, and that all kids would not be able to understand what was going on.

"I know it is." She agreed. "I just hate seeing her in pain over not being able to comprehend this." Glinda began rocking back and forth again once she felt Ella move in her arms. She didn't want Ella to wake up just yet. She wanted her to stay in a peaceful sleeping state for as long as possible. At least there she would be away from all of this drama and pain.

Tahj didn't know what else he could say to ease Glinda's mind. There was nothing he could really do. He couldn't force the woman Glinda loved to wake up any more than she could. Glinda and Ella would stay in the same mood until something happened. Either they would have to let Iris go or they would continue to be in pain. He hoped they wouldn't have to pick either option. He wished that the woman could just wake up.

"How is Iris today?" Tahj finally thought of something to ask. He had forgotten to ask about Iris when he walked in the door.

"Same." Glinda replied and tried to plaster on a smile. She continued to rock back and forth with Ella in her arms.

"And the baby?" Tahj asked.

"Same." Glinda replied monotone.

Tahj realized that all he would receive from the blonde at that moment in time were one-word responses.

"Okay. Well I'm going to head off. My shift starts in about one hour." He got up from a chair he had been sitting in.

Glinda watched Tahj walk towards the door. She knew that she shouldn't have been rude with him and should have been more welcoming to speak with, but she couldn't bring herself to feel guilty about it.

"Take care." She said as he exited the room leaving her alone with Ella and Elphaba once again.

"Come back to me." Glinda whispered into the air not really loud enough for anyone to hear.

XXX

Elphaba had managed to drag the remaining suits of armor to the encased brick dome. She had stacked them on top of one another and now began to climb them being cautious of where she stepped.

She had decided to use only eleven of the suits of armor and chance a leap towards the hole in the ceiling. She hoped that this decision would not be one that she regretted later.

Her instincts had told her to take the leap and believe in herself but her mind told her she needed the last suit of armor to make it. She decided a leap of faith was required in this circumstance. She needed to get to Glinda and didn't have any more time to waste on tracking down and killing another suit of armor.

Not only did she lack the will to do so she also lacked the stamina. She would be able to defeat her opponent under normal circumstances but what was happening now was way beyond normal.

As Elphaba reached the top of the stack of metal she looked up to see how far away she really was from the hole. The hole was a good four feet above her head. She would have to jump and grab on to the sides with all her strength. If she made one mistake she would come crashing down into shards of metal or worse, fall twenty feet to be met by concrete. She couldn't allow herself to fail.

She took a breath to steady herself and bent her knees in an effort to jump higher.

"I'm coming my sweet." Elphaba whispered into the air before using all of her leg strength to jump straight up.