[Updates will be coming up thick and fast because I have free time, so here is another instalment. I haven't had many reviews for this story since I posted the last chapter, and I'm a little put out by that.]

Galinda couldn't quite comprehend the concept of gangly, green Miss Elphaba Thropp, scourge of the ignorant, educator of Life Sciences and the most driven woman in Oz as a mother. She just stood, staring at her professor and blinking.
And worse still, Master Fiyero, Arjiki Prince of the Vinkus, was most likely the father. Oh, Lurline, he was getting an heir faster than he had originally bargained. Collecting her scattered thoughts, Galinda struggles to fathom her words into coherent sentences.

"M-miss Thropp, are you q-quite sure... that you are in fact-" she stammered, her syntax stilted with shock.

"Pregnant? No. I am not certain. But I have a strong conviction of... my situation." Miss Thropp sounded almost calm, even in the face if such a life-altering discovery. Granted, it took a great amount to faze her, but still; nothing, over pregnancy? Her inability (or reluctance) to address her problem was far more significant to Galinda. If she didn't acknowledge the possible child inside of her, it wouldn't exist in her mind. For such a work-driven woman, she had a knack for procrastinating her own feelings, noted Galinda. But Miss Thropp needed advice, not personality tests.

"You must check, so that you know for sure, Miss Thropp. Then you can inform Master Fiye-"

"No! Fiyero cannot know about this!" Miss Thropp cut her off sharply, her voice firm, hands moving in a downward slash of forbiddance. Galinda was incredulous.

"Fiyero cannot know about his child?"

"No, he can't. He would hate me for this, it was my fault in the first place, I knew I could be... but I still-"

"Yes, alright, that's all I need to know." It was Galinda's turn to cut off Elphaba, with a hand out to halt her. The socialite knew she wouldn't want to be aware of Master Fiyero and Miss Thropp's exact... interactions.

An awkward pause descended between the two women. Neither was willing to broach the subject again. Finally, Elphaba sighed, and relented.

"I can just go into the City, visit a specialist and be done with it. I won't be gone long and the problem will be solved." She was cool and collected once more, face set in a mask of blankness. Galinda suddenly registered what 'going to the City' meant.

"No, no, have you lost your mind?! You can't terminate your child without the father's knowledge! At least tell the poor boy first!"

"It's my body, I control it!" Defended Elphaba.

"I'm aware! But Elphaba, he needs to know!" The air went out of Elphaba's sails and she deflated.

"Miss Galinda, he doesn't. You are the only one who can know. Madame Morrible would cast me out quicker than a flash, my family would disown me and Fiyero would leave me for sure." The bleakness of Elphaba's situation was heartbreaking to a gentle soul like Galinda. But her core of steel forged stronger on this matter.

"Miss Thropp, listen to me." Elphaba raised an eyebrow at the Frottican's tone, but before the green woman could open her mouth, the blonde rushed on.

"Fiyero loves you. I see it in the way he looks at you, I see it in the way he stares and watches your every move. And I saw it when we took you home after your sister came, he carried you through Shiz for all to see, tucked you into bed and kissed your forehead so tenderly, I damn near cried. Because he loves you, Elphaba, and he will love you still once he knows about his child."

Elphaba's eyes sparkled with unshod tears, and she quickly brushed away the errant drops before any harm was done to her skin.

"Cannot believe I'm doing this," Elphaba muttered darkly, "but you win, Miss Galinda. I'll tell Fiyero. But you must stay quiet." Rich, brown eyes pierced periwinkle blue, and Galinda nodded sagely and slowly, a genuine hand over her heart.

"On my life."

XoX

Returning to the classroom was awkward, in a word. But Elphaba had an excellent excuse ready. She would lie with the truth.

"I was under the misapprehensian that I was going to vomit." No one was willing to ask any further. The subject was just too much for a collection of hungover young adults to have at nine o' clock on a Monday morning, so a painful silence reigned for the remainder of the class.

Except for Fiyero. He was drunk on another substance and it was just as dangerous, but stunningly addictive. He had no power against the pull of Elphaba Thropp.

Although he was aware of Galinda's glaring presence right next to him, he wished to know what was wrong from Elphaba's lips. He tried every trick in the book to gain her attention, and almost broke their cover when he reached out to grab her arm. Luckily, Elphaba swiftly blocked his hand from view and plucked the quill from his hand, marking a little note in the margin of his paper and a few advisory pointers. Whilst making these notes, she whipped the pencil from behind her ear and scribbled a request at the end of his paper, all the while still talking about cells and tissue. Fiyero realised what her aim was and responded accordingly, asking questions about continuing his points in his future essays.

Come to mine tonight. Be careful and discreet.

That note haunted Fiyero in the corner of his mind, dancing just on the periphery of his vision. Unable to ignore it for the day of lessons, Fiyero brought it out countless times and almost lost it to his Politics teacher when he was caught reading it again instead of making notes.

Finally the learning day came to a close, and Fiyero scuttled to his dorm to discard his satchel and school tie. He changed into a silk shirt and red waistcoat, throwing on the disguise of an illustrious young man, rather than a stressed University student. Hurrying down the spiral staircase, he counted the steps to distract himself from the impending meeting. She wouldn't dump him, would she? Decide, out of the blue, that she didn't want him any longer? But his thoughts turned to the way she clutched at him, held him, kissed him. She needed him as much as he needed her. They were each other's fix, their little happy in a grey world.

Sneaking out was laughingly easy, and before long, Fiyero was on his way to the discreet little apartment Elphaba kept for herself. Ignoring the beggars and whores promising 'a good time for young sir', he leapt up the stairs three at a time. Reaching the battered door, with hinges almost falling from the frame, he reached to knock, but lost his nerve.

Almost hitting him in the face, Elphaba swung the door open suspiciously, hearing heavy footfalls on the steps to her little eyrie. Glancing at him quickly, she pulled him unceremoniously into the flat.

Slamming the door hard behind her, Elphaba breathed a sigh of relief. But Fiyero stepped closer, winding his arms around her waist. She jerked quickly away, not wanting contact with her abdomen. She had rushed to the Apothecary after her last lesson had been released, and performed the test quickly. She had also consulted her diary. She was late. Now she was going to tell Fiyero, at great personal discomfort.

"Yero, I need to tell you something, and please listen to me carefully," she pulled away from his embrace, hands on his chest, "You need to listen."

"When do I not, Fae?" he purred in response, and reached for her middle again. She fought him off gently, and pushed him into a sitting position on her bed. She had no idea how to begin. How do you tell your illicit lover - who is also your student - that you're with child, his child? Pacing back and forth, she wrung her hands. Finally, she turned to face Fiyero. She had to let him know slowly, build up to it gently.

"Fiyero, what comes once a month?" His face wrinkled adorably, brow furrowing.

"The binmen?" Fiyero wasn't sure where Elphaba was going with this.

"No, Yero, for a woman. What comes once a month for a woman?" she sighed. His confusion was almost laughable. Almost.

"Oh. You... you..." His face filled with colour.

"Menstruate?" she answered bluntly for him.

"Yes." Fiyero was still blushing furiously at the topic of conversation.

"Well, I'm late, Yero." His face didn't change one iota. The gravity of her confession didn't register with him at all.

"Yero, I'm late." She tried again, trying to convey their situation through her eyes. Fiyero still remained blank. Elphaba tried another tactic.

"I threw up this morning, because of the smell of the jam in Miss Galinda's pastry. Just the smell of it made me vomit." Another clue in the framework, but Fiyero still stayed impassive, mouth opening and closing with answers he wouldn't articulate. He was lost in confusion. What was she saying?

"Oh, for Lurline's sakes!" Elphaba finally lost her steady cool, "I think I'm with child, you fool!" The ugly confession hanging heavily in the air between them, she spun around and threw herself on the desk chair. Her hands hiding her face, her shoulders shook with emotion and heaving sobs. Fiyero reached for her instinctively, but the weight of her blurting still held him down. With child. Elphaba was with child, his child. But what if she had other lovers apart from him? The thought twisted a dagger of jealousy into his heart, the image of her writhing in ecstasy under another man.

"Elphaba," he asked slowly, not sure how to phrase his painful question without offending her, "are you quite sure it's mi-"

Elphaba spun around, face like an angry banshee's. She screeched:

"I was a virgin when I met you, Fiyero, and since then, the only man I've been with, is you. Unless this is divine intervention, you and I caused this. So yes, it is most definately yours." She turned her back on him again, "You can leave if you wish. I won't blame you for it." she mumbled.

Fiyero was floored. Above all of her confessions, this was the most shocking of them all. She believed he'd take the coward's route out, forget his lover and his child, leave her alone in her responsibility. Striding towards her, Fiyero was suddenly angry at her assessment of his character. Without warning, he lifted her from the chair, and carried her to the bed, ignoring her screech of annoyance and kicks and blows. Laying her down gently on her back, he crawled on top, so that his face was level with hers.

"Let me up." she hissed, and even in anger, she was beauty embodied. Oh, how he loved her. Dipping his mouth to hers, he kissed her passionately, with dizzying skill. Before long, she responded, kissing back with heat. But she soon gained sanity again, and pushed him off. Anger returned faster than the blink of an eye.

"What are you doing," she demanded, "why haven't you left?" Fiyero gripped her around her waist, careful of her abdomen. He laid his palm down across her midsection.

"You think I'd leave you, pregnant with my child, alone to deal with the responsibility of parenthood?" he asked, voice low and husky with anger and passion. Slightly scared by the expression of intensity on his features, Elphaba just nodded silently. Fiyero kissed her again. When he broke away, they were both gasping for air.

"Well, you're wrong. I love you, Fae. I want you, and I will want you until I die. Ti yw fy myd, f'unig cariad, a thi sydd yn berchen ar fy nghalon." You are my world, my only love and you are the one who holds my heart. The Vinkun slipped out, his mother tongue saying what his second language couldn't. Elphaba stared into his eyes, strengthened by his confession, in her language and in his, his hand on her stomach and his expression. She tackled him, so that she was on top, and kissed him roughly.

"I." Kiss. "Love." Kiss. "You." she gasped, between fierce kisses.

"I love you too, Fae." he smiled into the kisses, stroking her sides, eager to hold her in his arms.

"Yero, my hero." she sighed into his chest, and his heart melted.

[Even though our star-cross'd lovers are happy, it can't last...]