It's okay, guys, please don't die! You'll be happy again after this chapter, I promise!


28. How To Save A Life

Frexspar was standing in the doorway to their largest guest room, watching his green daughter sit with the Vinkun prince. She was stroking his hair repetitively, softly murmuring to him, although Frex could not hear what she was saying.

She hadn't even changed out of her clothes yet. Her dress was ragged and bloody, her hair fell in limp tangles down her face, and she looked pale – he wondered briefly if a green person could really look pale, but decided then that she definitely did. Once again, his gaze drifted down to the slight swell of her stomach. A baby. Elphaba was having a baby. He was going to be a grandfather.

Feeling his gaze on her, she looked up; and it was like he watched a door close in her eyes. Her expression became unreadable, as it usually was around him. He felt a pang of something at that – of what, he did not know, but it didn't feel pleasant.

He cleared his throat. "Would you like to take a bath?"

She shook her head. "I'm not leaving him."

"His life is no longer in danger, Elphaba."

"Still." There was that stubbornness that had always so annoyed him. "I have to be here when he wakes up. I'm not leaving him alone."

He sighed. "Suit yourself."

He left then and she continued to run her fingers through Fiyero's hair, watching his face for any sign of movement. It felt so surreal to sit here with him, in her old home in Munchkinland, after thinking for so long that he was dead... he wouldn't be now, though. He'd be fine.

When Frex had opened the door to find them on his doorstep, she had genuinely thought he would either slam the door in her face or call the authorities. He'd stood there and gawked at the pair for roughly a minute before finally coming to his senses. With her help, he'd carried Fiyero inside and into the nearest guest room, lowering him onto the bed. Frex had run off to call their family doctor, who had come immediately. Having known the Thropp family his whole life and realising the power Frex held, he'd promised not to breathe a word to anyone about the identity of their patient or about the fact that he, as well as Elphaba, was staying at the governor's mansion. In fact, whilst examining Fiyero, he'd confided in Elphaba that he believed the rumours about her parentage to be true and that he would support her if she were to try to become Oz's new ruler, since he had known her since she was little and he said he trusted she would do well.

For now, however, the doctor tended to Fiyero's wound and stitched him up nicely after that. He'd left some medication and promised to check up on the prince again the following day, but he'd reassured Elphaba that Fiyero should be fine now. His body merely had to recover from the shock of all the blood loss and he would most likely be awake again before the doctor would return the next day.

After the man had left, Elphaba had used a wet cloth to clean the blood off Fiyero and she had gratefully, albeit a bit warily, accepted the nightwear Frex gave her to dress the prince in. She'd been sitting by his bedside ever since, softly talking to him as she waited for him to wake up. She hadn't even slept.

Frex and Nessarose had both come in at some point the next morning, with Frex demanding to hear the whole story, and she'd told them everything. Nessa had been sympathetic, assuring her sister that everything would be all right now, that they would help her, and constantly saying how happy she was to see Elphaba again and how worried she had been about the green girl. Frex had hardly spoken a word at all. When she'd thanked him for letting them in and helping them, he'd merely nodded.

"Fabala?"

Elphaba looked up to find her sister in the doorway and she managed a tired smile. "Hey, Nessie."

She wheeled herself closer, frowning as she studied the dark-haired witch. "You look horrible, Fabala. Why don't you go and wash up a little? You can take a dress of mine..."

Elphaba bit her lip. "I just... I don't want to leave him alone."

"He won't be alone," Nessa assured him. "I'll stay right here until you get back, I promise. It doesn't have to be long, but you really do need to take a bath, Fabala. You're covered in blood."

The green girl looked down, only now really realising her sister was right, and she sighed. "All right, but I won't be long. And you have to stay here. Don't leave him alone."

"Of course not."

Elphaba nodded and with one last look at Fiyero's face, left the room; and Nessarose wheeled herself closer to his bedside to have a good look at him as well.

"You'll have to be okay, you know," she told the unconscious prince. "You're going to be a father now – you can't just walk away from that. Not to mention the fact that my sister needs you. After everything she's already been through, everything she's ever needed in her life and didn't get, don't you think you owe it to her to at least give her this?" She grimaced. "Okay, that's not fair of me, but you know what I mean. You'd just better be all right soon, Fiyero. I don't know what it would do to her if you were to die now." She sighed and took his limp hand in her own. She'd never been particularly close to him, but she knew how much Elphaba loved him. He might even become her brother-in-law one day, if everything somehow worked out...

"Nessa?"

The wheelchair-bound girl was startled from her thoughts by her sister's voice. Elphaba was wearing a dark brown dress of Nessa's now – the youngest Thropp didn't own any black dresses – and she was towelling her wet hair, clearly not having wanted to wait to dry and brush it before coming back here.

"That was a quick bath," Nessa said and Elphaba smiled faintly.

"Yeah, well." She sat down beside the bed again.

Nessa eyed her critically. "It's a good thing you're skinnier than I am," she muttered, "or you wouldn't even have fit in my dress with that baby bump." She reached out for Elphaba's stomach, then stopped herself. "Can I?"

"Sure, although there's not much to feel yet." Elphaba allowed her sister to touch the slight baby bump. "It's just a bump."

"You can't feel him move yet?"

Elphaba looked at Nessa, uncertain. "No. Why? Is that not normal?"

"I'm sure it is, Fabala," the younger girl assured her. "It's not like I know anything about carrying children. Maybe Father would know..." She trailed off and the corner of Elphaba's mouth twitched.

"Maybe."

Nessarose sighed.

"Nessa?"

"Yes?"

Elphaba hesitated, then blurted it out. "Do you think he's going to call the authorities on us? I mean, he didn't want to leave us outside, but now he had a doctor look at Fiyero – maybe he feels like he's done his duty to make sure we stay alive and then he'll turn us in after all..."

"No," said Nessa after thinking about that for a while. "No, I don't think he'll turn you in. I might have thought so before, but he's seemed... different... since you two arrived last night."

Elphaba nodded and Nessa gave her a look. "Fabala, why don't you get some sleep? I know," she said before Elphaba could open her mouth to protest, "I know you don't want to leave him alone, but I'll stay right here with him until you wake up. You look exhausted and it's not good for the baby if you push yourself like this."

"But –"

"Elphaba," Nessarose said sternly. "You don't want to do anything that's bad for your baby, don't you?"

Elphaba stared at her sister for a while. "You..." She shook her head. "Oz, Nessa. You sounded just like Mama just now."

Nessa gasped a little and Elphaba gave her another weary smile. "I remember her using that tone with me. You're a lot like her, I think." Her smile faded and she just looked tired again. "All right. I'll sleep. But the moment something happens, you will come and get me, okay? And I want you to wake me up after two hours even if nothing does happen."

"I will," Nessa promised. "Just take the guest room next to this one and leave the door open – you'll be able to hear me calling if something happens without me having to come get you."

"Okay." Elphaba hesitated for a moment, but then pressed a kiss to Fiyero's forehead and rose to her feet. She really didn't want to be away from him, but she knew she had to take care of herself and her baby and she did need sleep right now.

Nessa picked a book from the bookshelf in the corner of the room and started reading, since there wasn't much she could do until either Fiyero woke up or two hours had passed.


A soft groan from the bed, about an hour and a half later, was the only thing alerting Nessa to the fact that the prince was waking up. She looked up from her book, startled by the sound, only to find Fiyero's bright blue eyes blinking back at her.

"Am I dead?" was the first thing he asked.

A relieved laugh bubbled up from Nessa's throat. "No," she said, smiling. "You're not dead. You're in Munchkinland – our family home, actually. The governor's mansion."

His eyes widened. "The governor's... but then..." The look on his face turned hopeful. "Nessa, is... is Fae here, too?"

"Oh, Oz, yes!" Nessa exclaimed, horrified at herself. "I promised I would wake her, and here I am chatting with you! Fabala!" she called, louder now.

Elphaba appeared so quickly that Nessarose suspected her sister might not have been asleep at all. "What?" the dark-haired witch asked urgently. "Is something wrong?" Then her gaze fell on Fiyero's face and she gasped. "Fiyero!" She was by his side in a clock-tick. "Oh, sweet Oz, you're awake! Are you okay? How are you feeling?" She quickly wiped some tears from her eyes, forcing herself to calm down a little.

He reached out to touch her cheek. She caught his hand with both her own and a brilliant smile lit up his face. "Fae," he breathed.

"It's me," she confirmed, smiling as well, though those stupid tears kept welling up in her eyes. "It's okay, Yero. You're safe now. Oz, I can't believe you're alive..."

Nessa had discreetly left the room by then, but neither one of them had even noticed. They were too focused on one another after all this time.

"Me?" he said with a small laugh. "I can't believe you're alive!" He grimaced. "Although... how, um... how did I survive?" he asked. "I'd have sworn I was done for when they shot me."

"You almost were," she said softly. "I was around and I heard the shot... I cast that healing spell on you that I used on my ankle earlier. It worked enough to save your life and I brought you here – I didn't know where else to go. Father took us in and had a doctor take care of you, but it was a close call." She gave him a shaky smile and then she suddenly burst into tears.

"Elphaba," Fiyero said gently, carefully scooting a little to the side. "Come here."

She curled up against his side, burying her face in his neck as all the fear, pain, and grief from the past two months came pouring out. Fiyero put his arm around her and simply let her cry, running his fingers through her hair in a calming motion.

When she calmed down a little, he said quietly, "I know you thought I was dead, Fae, and I'm so sorry. I couldn't let you know that I wasn't. I tried to look for you – Glin, Boq, Gazilon, and Swan all helped me – but we couldn't find you anywhere."

She chuckled tearfully. "I hid well – or I tried to, anyway. I've been spotted on my broom quite a few times, but they could never track me down after that. I made sure they never knew where I disappeared off to."

"I know," he said, grinning slightly. "Gazilon – not to mention the rest of the Gale Force – was really frustrated about that."

She sobered. "How, Fiyero?" she asked quietly, keeping her gaze down instead of looking at him. "How did you survive? I was convinced I saw you running into a burning house to save a girl... her mother was beside me, she was hysterical, and then the house suddenly collapsed and there was fire everywhere..." She didn't go on because she didn't want to start crying again. Damned hormones.

Fiyero understood, though, and he shook his head. "That can't have been me," he said. "I was busy trying to find a way out, trying to find you, and trying to dodge the Gale Force at the same time; and at some point I had just inhaled too much smoke and I must have passed out. I don't exactly remember what happened, but I woke up much later with a small group of people who'd managed to escape and rescued me and some others. At some point, someone told me he had seen you got shot. It wasn't until Gazilon saw me and told me Galinda had seen you that I knew you were alive."

"The woman next to me got shot," she said, wincing a little at the memory. "The girl's mother. Not me. He must have seen it wrong – it was dark, of course, and there was fire everywhere."

Fiyero exhaled slowly. "I was so scared, Elphaba, and I'm so happy you're all right." His hand drifted down to lightly touch her swollen stomach. "You are, aren't you? All right? Both of you?"

"We are," she confirmed, closing her eyes and snuggling up against him.

He was quiet for a while. Then he asked, "Fae?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you kill Madame Morrible?"

She stiffened a little, but she couldn't lie to him. "I..." She licked her lips nervously. "Yes. But Yero, I thought you were dead and I just –"

"Hey, you don't have to justify what you did," he assured her. He nuzzled her hair and when he felt how tense she still was, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You know I won't think any differently of you, sweetheart. I understand why you did it. Even if you hadn't thought me to be dead, I'd have understood." He touched her cheek, making her look up at him. "I love you," he said solemnly.

He could see the relief in her eyes, which filled with tears all over again. She sniffled. "I love you, too, Yero. So much."

He smiled and tried to lean in to kiss her, only to realise with a grimace that there was no way he was going to be able to sit up anytime soon. Elphaba just gave him a small smirk and leaned in herself, kissing him softly before curling up against him once more.