AN. Thank you to all the lovely people who voted for me in the 2012 Wicked Awards! I was extremely touched, surprised and excited when the winners were announced and to see my name on the list. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.

WEEK 29

Your baby is filling out this week. She's adding fat to insulate her body for the day she leaves her cosy home. You can probably distinguish between feet and hands, head and bottom when your baby-to-be moves inside you. She takes practice breaths but won't breathe air until delivery. Your baby's growth has begun to slow down now, but she will still gain approximately four pounds between now and birth. If she were born now, she would be able to breathe, but might tire easily and need assistance. Her little eyes are sensitive to light.

So the week before Galinda and Boq were due to arrive for their stay, Elphaba and Fiyero were busying themselves with nanny interviews. They were both aware this was a huge decision, and were both very particular about what kind of person they wanted and could trust to look after their child.

Kastle had been busy and sent them over twenty applications for prospective nannies, and Elphaba and Fiyero had gone through and narrowed that down to a dozen, before setting up interviews for those twelve applicants.

"Elphaba, are you ready? The first person will be here in half an hour," Fiyero called out, as he jogged upstairs to find his wife, a piece of toast in his hand.

"Come see this!"

Fiyero entered the bathroom, finding Elphaba in the bath.

"What am I looking at?" he asked her.

Elphaba giggled slightly. "The baby's jiggling the water, see?"

Fiyero watched closely and was amused to see that Elphaba's whole stomach was moving with the baby, which in turn jostled the water.

He laughed. "I think the kid's running out of room."

"Yeah," Elphaba said with a fond smile. "That's a foot," she pointed, to a small lump sticking out of her protruding belly.

Fiyero knelt down by the side of the tub. "How can you tell?" he asked, prodding said lump gently.

She shrugged. "It looks like a foot."

"Fair enough. Do you need a hand getting out?"

Elphaba sighed. "Yes," she said glumly.

Elphaba dressed herself and dried her hair before going downstairs. One of the maids was just placing a tray of drinks and scones on the coffee table in the living room, where the interviews would be held. When she saw Elphaba, she curtseyed.

"Would you like anything in particular this morning, Your Highness?" she asked.

"No thank you, I'm fine," Elphaba replied.

The maid curtseyed again and left to resume her duties and Elphaba sat down, picking up the applications once more for another read.

"Fae, relax," Fiyero urged as he entered and sat beside her.

"I just want to make sure we haven't forgotten any important questions," she said, not lifting her eyes from the page.

They both looked up at the knock on the door, and exchanged a glance. Fiyero nodded to the maid to answer the door and he squeezed Elphaba's hand lightly.

"Here we go," he muttered.

Over the next three hours, they met with the twelve applicants they had selected. When the last one had left, Elphaba tiredly reflected back over the interviews.

There had been the one young woman whom Elphaba had mentally rejected immediately within the first five minutes of the interview, as she had completely ignored Elphaba and spent the entire time fluttering her eyelashes and flirting with Fiyero. Elphaba had sat there gritting her teeth the whole time and her only comfort was that Fiyero had appeared oblivious to her intentions and not reacted.

One woman had lots of experience, but she had never taken care of a newborn before. Another sat down and immediately specified that she didn't do chores around the house, even before Elphaba and Fiyero could point out that with two maids, that really wasn't a job requirement, except for a few small chores regarding the baby. She also specified that she wouldn't work weekends or stay back if needed. Whilst Elphaba and Fiyero weren't expecting that to be necessary, they couldn't always predict what their schedule would be like and had agreed they needed someone willing to be flexible.

The surprise for Fiyero had been at the end of the first interview, when Elphaba had tossed in a surprise question, asking each applicant how they would feel about taking the job if the baby was green.

"I don't want anyone around our child who is going to be like my father," she explained simply to Fiyero when the first applicant had left.

That thought had never occurred to Fiyero, but he paid close attention to how each prospective nanny reacted to the question.

All seemed surprised, and all gave the same response- that they wouldn't treat the baby any differently and would still want the job. But Fiyero noted those that hesitated, however briefly before giving that response.

There were two that Elphaba and Fiyero both agreed that they liked immensely.

Nuka was a woman in her late thirties who had been a nanny since she was eighteen. She was married and had an eighteen year old daughter of her own, who was due to start at Shiz in the fall, studying linguification. She had a wealth of experience and had been pleasant and warm towards Elphaba and Fiyero.

"My daughter always used to say she was going to attend the local university here in the Vinkus," she told them. "But as soon as you were married, all she talked about was Shiz. She looks up to you so much, Your Highness," she told Elphaba, who was slightly startled and very touched by that.

Rayen was slightly younger, only in her early thirties, who had become a nanny five years previous after her husband's death, leaving her to support their twin girls on her own, who were now nine years old. Her brother was actually assistant to the Minister for Public Works, whom with Fiyero was working closely to supervise the Grasslands Project and she shyly admitted she knew of it, although it was not public knowledge yet.

"I hope I'm not speaking out of bounds, especially given my brother's position, but I wanted to say that I think it's a wonderful idea," she said hesitantly. "I was lucky enough when my husband died that our families could help out and I got work, but many others don't have that fortune."

"It'll seem like a better idea with a better name," Fiyero joked, uncomfortable with her praise and Rayen had only laughed.

And now two hours later, they were still trying to come to a decision.

"I can't choose between them," Fiyero said tiredly, tossing the applications to the floor.

"Me either," Elphaba sighed.

"We could spend more time with both of them, and then decide?" Fiyero suggested, but Elphaba shook her head.

"No, I'd feel terrible doing that to whoever didn't get the job."

"Well, we have to do something to decide, because honestly? I'm two seconds away from flipping a coin."

Elphaba chuckled. "Maybe we should let the baby decide?" she said jokingly.

Fiyero brightened. "I like that!"

"Fiyero, I was kidding!" Elphaba replied in alarm.

"I'm not!"

Fiyero got up and came back with two poker chips, one red and one white.

"Poker chips?" Elphaba raised an eyebrow.

"I needed something little," Fiyero defended himself. "Ok, so the red is Nuka and the white is Rayen. Whichever one the baby kicks off first gets the job. We're both agreed we'll be happy with either?"

"Yes," Elphaba replied slowly. "Yero, do you really want to tell our nanny that we hired her because the baby kicked a certain coloured poker chip off of my stomach?"

Fiyero snorted. "Who said we're going to tell her?"

He placed the poker chips evenly on her belly and sat back with satisfaction. "OK, now we wait. Now, don't move."

Elphaba rolled her eyes, but obediently stayed still. They hadn't been waiting long when the baby began punching and kicking, as per usual.

And they both watched as the two poker chips were jostled about, before finally, the white one slid off her stomach.

"Rayen!" Fiyero announced happily.

"I can't believe we just decided who will be taking care of our child with a poker chip," Elphaba muttered.

Fiyero grinned. "I think we should make all decisions this way."

"Don't even think about it," Elphaba retorted.

But the next day, she sent a letter to Nuka, thanking her for her application and her time, and wishing her daughter all the best at Shiz in the fall.

"If she has any interest in history, I strongly recommend your daughter take any class by Dr Dillamond. He's a wonderful teacher, and he was a great mentor to me when I attended Shiz. I'll be sure to let him know to keep an eye out for her."

And then she wrote to Rayen, telling her she had the job and congratuloting her on it; asking her to come by to discuss the next step and what the job would entail. This meeting was just between Rayen and Elphaba, as Fiyero was busy meeting with architects.

"So, obviously the baby isn't born yet," Elphaba began, as iced tea was served.

Rayen laughed. "Obviously. How long do you have left?"

"Eleven weeks," Elphaba answered. "And I will kind of be on maternity leave for the first three months; meaning I won't have any actual royal duties to complete. But we'd like you to start about six weeks after the baby's born."

"That sounds great," Rayen said happily. "That will give me time to settle the girl's into school."

"Ideally, we'd like you to be around from nine to three on weekdays. We're aware you have the girls and don't want to take too much of your time away from them. This way it fits into school hours."

"That would be great," Rayen admitted gratefully.

"And even though you wouldn't be starting for six weeks, we'd like you to get to know the baby beforehand."

Rayen nodded. "Of course. I'd love that."

Elphaba let out a breath and smiled. "I think that's everything. Do you have any questions?"

Rayen shook her head. "No, I think I've asked all my questions at the interview. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Your Highness-"

Elphaba cut her off. "Oh, that's the other thing. Please, no titles. At least, not inside the house," she said. "It's just 'Miss Elphaba' and 'Master Fiyero'."

Rayen chuckled. "Alright. Thank you. I must say, my daughters were so thrillified when I told them about this."

"What are they like? Your girls, I mean?" Elphaba asked.

Rayen eagerly told Elphaba all about her daughters, and before she left, Elphaba promised that she would meet them soon.

"How'd it go?" Fiyero asked her when he returned home.

Elphaba smiled softly. "I think we made the right choice," she answered.

"That's because Baby Fiyeraba's a genius," Fiyero beamed, bending to kiss her stomach.

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Sure," she said and Fiyero chose to ignore the note of sarcasm.

"You must take after your Momma, then," he cooed to the baby. "Hey look- that's a hand! Or a knee..."

Elphaba just laughed.