A/N: Monthly update! Bookverse. And I'm terribly sorry as this doesn't fit with one of my previous oneshots. Although, that one about Melena had been more Musicalverse and this one is more Bookverse, so there you go. Problem solved. ;) After this I'm fairly certain that there will not be anymore family dramas that seem to be in surplus lately in this story. For a while, anyway…

Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked

The Favorite

Both of the Thropp sisters had been awaiting the birth of their sibling in breathless anticipation since they knew of the pregnancy. Even though one of them wouldn't admit it, the girls were morbidly curious about what would come out of their mother. Would the newest of the Thropp clan be born with eleven fingers? Would he or she be born without hands or with sapphire blue skin? Considering their own existences, both Nessa and Elphaba were both dreading and hoping the revealing of the baby but could not accept any other reality than that of disfigurement.

It was not to be. When the baby came, both girls were hopelessly let down. Shell, their new baby brother, was undeniably normal. At least, this is what Nanny had told them right after the birth as she wandered past them looking for some extra wet cloths. Nessa rolled over to hand them to her because she knew the water would burn her sister's skin. Once Nanny was gone, the two were quiet for a while.

"I'm glad that he's healthy," Nessa finally announced in a clear, strong voice that Elphaba had a hard time believing. "The last thing that we need is another—" Not even the good Nessarose could finish this sentiment without a considerable amount of emotional pain.

"Another cripple?" Elphaba finished dryly, just beginning to reach the full potential of the mean streak inside of her.

Nessa's face twisted in defiance. "That's not fair," Nessa fired back, tears stinging her eyes. Her ridiculous stubs of legs were more painfully aware to her than ever.

Elphaba realized her mistake and tried to amend it, if only to help spare her sister's feelings. If there was anyone she cared for, it was Nessa, despite their differences. "I'm a cripple, too. Socially, I'm just as disfigured as you are physically." This certainly did not vanquish the tears that began to roll down young Nessa's face.

"I'm glad that he's healthy," Nessa repeated thickly, her throat constricting against the tears. "It's good for Mother."

Elphaba didn't say anything after this. She was too afraid that she might lash out at her sister in her own heartache. Elphaba had shamelessly dreamed that her new sibling would be more horrifying than she. In this dream Melena would then look more fondly on Elphaba and Frex would learn to appreciate his greenest daughter more and all would be better. Now that the fantasy had not come true she felt the emptiness of inevitable sadness creeping into her. Despite this, Elphaba also knew that now Nessa had to accept that she would no longer be the more favored and less revolting child. She did not deserve the brunt of Elphaba's anger as well as this horrible realization.

"Wipe your eyes," Elphaba finally muttered, handing her sister another extra wet but drying cloth. She ignored the burning sensation the contact brought her palm and fingers.

Nessa took the cloth wordlessly, trying to remember the goodness that she should be handling the situation with. Her parents deserved the joy of a normal child. There was no reason for her to feel disappointed by the outcome. She should not discriminate against her brother because he was normal the way that she was discriminated against because she had no legs. Her tears gradually stopped, as if by magic, and she set the cloth down on her lap.

"Come and see your brother," Nanny suddenly urged, sticking her head from the room of birth. "From what I can see of him, he's beautiful."

The girls glanced at each other before Elphaba stood to push Nessa into the room. Both stared straight ahead unblinkingly. Nessa brought a graceful smile to her lips while the tearstains around her eyes and her pleasantly pink cheeks began to fade into nonexistence. Elphaba made no facial expression and simply looked into the dimly lit room with cautious dark eyes, preparing herself for the sight of her unblemished brother.

Once the squeaking of wheels halted, Melena glanced up at their entry into the room and then smiled widely at them. Shell was held carefully and lovingly in her arms. There were no signs of horror, revulsion, or sadness in her eyes. Both girls had heard of their own births and stiffened slightly at the look of joy and acceptance that was on Melena's face this time around. Nessa's stomach in particular turned over rather unpleasantly. Neither noticed the strange exhaustion that was on Melena's unusually pale face.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Melena whispered to her daughters and returned her gaze to the newborn. Then, Frex was visible as he leaned forward to glance over Melena's shoulder at his son. The awe in his face said more than any words he could have used at that moment.

"Wonderful," Nessa beamed, looking at the baby herself. She noted his two, firm looking legs and stared at them in wonder. She had never seen a more perfect looking set of legs on a baby before. Immediately, she realized that he could take his first steps and he could run and skip and hop. These thoughts hardly registered.

Elphaba merely grunted in agreement with Nessa. While she trained her eyes to the wall behind her mother's head, she could not help but notice out of the corner of her eye the pinkish tone to Shell's skin. There was not a single hint of emerald underneath his slightly reddened fair skin. He would not be laughed at by the Munchkin children or receive odd looks when he walked down the street.

"So who decided to name him?" Elphaba asked, hoping she sounded like her usual rude self instead of the shaken and sad girl she felt like. Her attempt seemed to have a larger effect than she realized. Both Melena and Frex glanced at each other, breaking their attention from Shell and frowned in distress.

"We both agreed on it," Melena said hastily while Frex nodded agreeably behind her. "We thought it fit."

Elphaba raised her eyebrows as she noticed an opening. The opening was an opportunity for prodding her parents' place of discomfort as repayment for the pain she was feeling at that moment. "Well, I suppose it will be easy to teach him his name at least. Just show him pretty shells from a beach somewhere or tell him children rhymes and he should catch on quickly."

Nessarose noticed the tone in her sister's voice and she glared up at her sharply. This was a welcome distraction from her previous imaginings of the baby running in circles around her wheelchair. "Elphaba," she warned harshly, "I think it's a lovely name." Elphaba ignored her.

"Of course, he might get confused. Show him a picture of a crab or a snail and he might think he's one as well." Melena was tired and in no condition to deal with cruel words. She winced in pain while Frex grew visibly angry. "We'll have to walk down the street with him on a leash so he doesn't go running after anything with a shell on its back that moves." Now, Elphaba was implying that Shell was going to be stupid without really realizing that she was going to. She tactfully did not allow her own shock to read on her face.

"That's enough, Elphaba," Frex ordered firmly, the seed of doubt planted into his brain. He glanced down at the baby with new eyes. He was searching for a sign of dumbness.

Nessarose was practically in tears again although her breath came in excited bursts. "Elphaba, why must you be so cruel?" she nearly sobbed, forcing her wheelchair away from the emerald green fists that held it. "He's only a baby." She carried on with his cursing and crying for several more minutes, growing more dramatic as each tick-tock passed.

Melena had nothing to say. She merely stared down at her son with a new expression. Fear. There was no physical deformity but what if there was one where no one could see it? Her womb had proven to produce monstrosities, why should this time be any different? What if Shell was dumb? What if he was too dumb to be left unattended at any time?

"Frex, Frex," she nearly moaned, still looking at the baby. "Frex, I couldn't stand it if…" Her thoughts were left unfinished but they hung in the air, hovering over the family in the birthing room.

"Girls," Frex said, barely containing his anger. "It's time for you to leave. You've upset your mother." Nessa stopped her moaning, clearly affronted by his treatment of her when she obviously was on their side. Elphaba merely smiled in an almost gracious manner and yanked Nessa's wheelchair back into her grasp, despite Nessa's loud complaints.

"Of course," she agreed and wheeled Nessa away, feeling much better than she had when she entered the room minutes before. The girls both heard their mother say in a frantic and nearly mean voice, as the door closed behind them, "We should call for the doctor. Call for him straight away. He would know if—"

"That was terrible, Ellie," Nessa chastised sullenly, once more sniffling through a clogged and red nose. "Shell isn't going to be dumb." She did not care if her parents could still hear her or not from the hallway outside of the room.

"You never know," Elphaba disagreed softly. "He could be." There came a brief moment when all that could be heard was Nessa's wheels rubbing against the wood floor as they moved briskly down the hallway.

"Why should he be dumb?" Nessa demanded after she had thought it over. "There is nothing to suggest it." Nessa shook her head defiantly but decisively, "You were just being cruel."

Elphaba's green lips drew together into a thin line as her grip became noticeably strained at the handles of the wheelchair. "What would really be cruel," Elphaba snapped, her patience already stretched thin, "Is if he was not to be dumb. The world cannot be so cruel as to contain a family with two mutants and one normal child."

Nessa had no response to this for a while. She was mulling it over, thinking about it carefully. It was true. Her religious experience told her that things would happen for a reason. The Unnamed God certainly would not allow something like this to happen unless there was a reason for it. So while she did not agree with Elphaba, something in her logic had comforted Nessa. She had brought up a point, misused and misguided, but nonetheless something that Nessa had forgotten. Her tears were once more quieted and a genuine warmth of superiority reached her.

"You sound as if you believe in Fate," Nessa finally said, in a slightly snarky tone, as Elphaba stopped before her door.

The green one shrugged in reply. The cripple composed herself and rolled into her room and firmly shut the door behind her.

A/N: Please review! And please point out any inconsistencies with the book. It's been a while since I read it and mistakes are often made. Once I wrote it I was trying to remember if Melena was supposed to die not long after Shell's birth. I couldn't find it in the book, so maybe someone else remembers?