DISCLAIMER: The characters of Wicked that you recognise here are the property of Stephen Schwartz and the producers and creators of the show. I'm just borrowing them for my leisure.
AN. Sorry for the delay- weather here has been affecting my internet!
Chapter 29: Back to Normal
When Elphaba and Arora arrived back in Munchkinland, the first thing they did after dropping their luggage at the cottage was to go up to Colwen Grounds. Frex, Nessa and Boq pounced on Arora, all torn between wanting to talk about the Vinkus and reprimand her for running away.
"Would it be alright if I leave Rora here for a bit while I run down to The Pinnacle?" Elphaba asked her father.
"Of course," Frex agreed. "You can both stay for dinner."
Elphaba thanked him, called goodbye to Arora and left quickly. To be honest, checking in at The Pinnacle could have waited until the next day, she could admit. But she needed a few minutes to herself.
The whole carriage ride back, Elphaba had held herself together for Arora, who was rather distraught. Oddly enough- to Elphaba at least- what seemed to be upsetting Arora the most was not Fiyero siding with Galinda and Avaric over her, but that Fiyero seemed to have confirmed what Frex had told her- that Elphaba wasn't good enough for him, and that was why they had broken up.
"He didn't say that, Rora," Elphaba had said gently as they crossed Oz.
"He didn't have to!" Arora insisted. "He didn't deny it either."
There was also the matter of Avaric and Galinda's discussion of taking custody away from Elphaba. No matter how Elphaba reassured her that it would never happened, Arora was shaken by the idea.
For Elphaba, her first instinct was to protect and comfort her daughter. But she was struggling too. In every daydream and fantasy she'd ever had about Fiyero getting to meet their daughter, he had never walked away from her. But he'd stood there, and believed Galinda's version of events over Arora's.
That had hurt Elphaba even more than Fiyero rejecting her.
"Elphaba!" Knox greeted her enthusiastically as she entered The Pinnacle. "You're back!"
"Hi," she replied tiredly. "Catch me up."
He stared at her. "Catch me up? No, 'Hi Knox, here's your present for filling in for me while I was away?'"
Elphaba raised an eyebrow silently.
"Alright, let me catch you up," he said swiftly.
Elphaba was grateful that she could throw herself into something productive, something normal. She spent two hours with Knox going over everything she'd missed in her absence and anything important that was going on.
"How's Arora?" Knox asked quietly as they went over the latest inventory list.
"Fine," Elphaba replied shortly. "She's home, she's… she's happy to be home. What's next?"
"When are you actually back?"
"Tomorrow morning. Knox, please. Focus."
Finally, Elphaba said goodnight to Knox and the staff and returned to Colwen Grounds for dinner. She was met at the door by Nessa, who looked worried.
Immediately Elphaba's heart clenched.
"She's still here, right?" she demanded, a note of panic in her voice.
Nessa looked confused for a moment and then realisation dawned. "Of course she is," she reassured her hastily.
Elphaba exhaled in relief, and stepped through the door.
"Oz, Nessa, don't do that to me," she sighed wearily. "If she's here, what's with that face?"
Nessa hesitated. "I'm just… worried about Arora. We've been asking her questions about the Vinkus and her father, and she just… shuts down. Just like you when you came back from the Vinkus. The last time, I mean."
Elphaba sighed again. "I got that, Nessa. Thanks."
"Fabala, what happened? Arora wasn't supposed come back for another week, you said in your last letter."
Elphaba paused and looked around. "Where is Arora?"
"Upstairs with Father and the boys."
"Boq?"
"In the living room."
Elphaba led the way into the living room and greeted Boq before sitting down.
"I know I mentioned to you in my letters that Fiyero is engaged," she began.
"Yes," Nessa nodded. "You didn't mention who he was engaged to though."
"Galinda Upland."
Nessa's face perked up in interest. "Really?! Oh, she set Boq and I up! I'm so glad you got to meet her!"
"I'm not," Elphaba said flatly. "She's a bitch."
Boq choked slightly.
"Elphaba!" Nessa scolded her sister. "What if any of the children were in earshot?!"
"They're not," Elphaba protested. "Don't worry, I would have censored if they were."
Nessa didn't seem comforted by that reassurance.
"Um, I'm not doubting you here, or defending Galinda, but how exactly was she a bi- a, um… unpleasant?" Boq asked, quailing under his wife's glare.
"She's fake, condescending, snobby and manipulative," Elphaba retorted. "She kept calling me 'Elphie'," she said, making a face.
"And you let her keep her head?" Boq asked in amazement. "Why?"
Elphaba sighed. "Being the bigger person for the sake of my daughter," she said glumly. "It's the worse part of parenting," she sighed.
Boq nodded in agreement.
Elphaba briefly recapped everything she hadn't mentioned in her letters, finishing with what had happened at the engagement party.
"Fiyero called Arora a liar?" Nessa demanded, her eyes narrowed.
"Not specifically," Elphaba admitted. "He just agreed with Galinda and said that Arora must have misunderstood the conversation. But… Oz, if you had seen Arora's face…"
She rubbed her eyes tiredly. "She barely said two words to me the whole way back. And she hasn't been this clingy with me since she started kindergarten."
"She loves you," Nessa said softly.
"I know. But I don't know how to reassure her that Galinda and Avaric would take her away from me only over my cold, dead body," Elphaba vowed. "I don't know what's going to happen with her and Fiyero… after all this, I want them to have some relationship. But I don't want her around Galinda."
"Give Arora some time," Nessa advised.
"Give Fiyero some time, too," Boq added. "Even if he doesn't believe Arora, he won't walk away from her. At least from what you've said about him in your letters, I don't think he would."
"I hope so," Elphaba murmured.
Arora was so despondiary that Elphaba didn't even have the heart to follow through with the grounding that had been promised upon her return to Munchkinland.
Arora seemed to prove that she really was her mother's daughter as the next two weeks passed. She seemed intent on pretending like the last few weeks had never happened, and they had never gone to the Vinkus. She wouldn't talk to Elphaba about Fiyero or the Vinkus and the only sign she made of acknowledging it was the correspondence with Kasmira she was keeping.
The first sign of enthusiasm Arora displayed in days was when Elphaba picked her up from Colwen Grounds after work one day.
"Guess what Uncle Boq told me when he got home today?"
"What?" Elphaba asked her, a little distracted.
She was still wondering when she'd be able to arrive to pick up her daughter without wondering if she'd actually be there or not.
"They're doing a kid's art program at the community centre. It starts next week and goes for two weeks."
"Since when are you into art?"
"Since now. Uncle Boq says Norina's doing it, and some other kids from my class. Could I go? Please, Mom?"
Elphaba looked at her thoughtfully and sighed. "How much is it?"
"Opa said he'd pay the fee if I wanted to do it."
"That's not what I asked, Rora."
In the end though, Elphaba had relented and agreed that Arora could do the art program.
Elphaba was admittedly hurt by the wall of silence Arora was putting up. She and Arora had always been close and had talked about most things. She wasn't used to the distance between her and her daughter.
"I figured it would happen once puberty set in," she sighed to Nessa. "But I thought I had another couple of years before she didn't want to talk to me."
Nessa was sympathetic to her sister's plight, but had little advice for her.
"You know the worst part?" Elphaba continued. "For ten years, I've never been mad at Fiyero... except for maybe when I was in labour," she amended thoughtfully. "But I'm so pissed at him for hurting Rora."
"Have you tried writing to him? Telling him this?" Nessa asked.
Elphaba shook her head. "No. I think… I think I'm done," she admitted. "Obviously, if there's any matter concerning Arora, that will be something we should discuss together. But I don't want to talk any more about our relationship or the past. He's Arora's father and that's all."
"Do you still love him, Fabala?" Nessa asked softly.
Elphaba hesitated. "I loved him a decade ago," she said simply. "Now… I don't really know him. I don't think he's the same person and I know I'm not."
She looked thoughtful and perhaps slightly wistful for a moment, and then shook her head.
"It doesn't matter, anyway. He's with Galinda. I can't imagine how, but she must make him happy. And she'll be a very appropriate queen."
Nessa didn't know what else to say to her sister. Frex seemed to be content to go along with Arora's plan to ignore everything that had happened, he hadn't even spoken to Elphaba about the Vinkus or Fiyero. Although he had offered Kasmira the guest room at Colwen Grounds when she would come to visit in October for Arora's birthday.
"Oz knows you don't have room at the cottage, and the dowager queen of the Vinkus can hardly sleep on the couch."
"She'll be visiting as Arora's grandmother, not as the dowager queen. I'm sure she'd be fine on a couch," Elphaba had replied, mainly to see her father's face at that idea.
One Saturday, just two weeks since they'd left the Vinkus, Elphaba and Arora were having a baking day. Elphaba wasn't working, and for the first time, it almost really did feel like things were normal again. Arora was cheerful and excited to be baking chocolate chip cookies as she rambled to Elphaba about what she and her friends were doing in the art program, sneaking chocolate chips from the container when she thought her mother wasn't looking.
Elphaba hated to be the one to kill Arora's good mood, but she felt that avoiding the subject any longer wasn't a good thing. They had to talk about this.
"So," she began, trying to sound nonchalant. "Since we've been home, have you had any word from your dad, kid?"
Arora's face fell. "No," she said quietly. "Just Grams."
Elphaba sighed. "Honey, I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter," Arora shrugged.
"Yes it does," Elphaba argued. "He's your father, kid."
"But he hasn't written to me."
"Have you written to him?" Elphaba asked pointedly, and Arora made a slightly sheepish face in reply.
"Kid, your dad's only had a few weeks of being a parent. When you were a few weeks old, I was terrified and had absolutely no idea what to do. And it wasn't that difficult- all you did was eat, sleep, poop and cry."
Arora giggled slightly, and Elphaba smiled.
"Cut your dad some slack," she advised. "I know he hurt your feelings, but… he's still your dad. He's new at this."
Arora dropped a handful of chocolate drops into the mixture.
"He called me a liar."
"He didn't. He just said Galinda was right."
"You said he called me a liar," Arora retorted.
Elphaba made a face. "I was mad," she admitted.
"Because Galinda was being a bitch?" Arora asked wisely, and Elphaba gaped at her.
"Arora!"
"I heard you say it to Uncle Boq!" she defended herself.
Elphaba pointed the wooden spoon at her daughter. "Hey, you can call people a bitch- within the appropriate context and never around your grandfather or your aunt- when you hit puberty, ok? Until then, watch the language. Deal?"
"Deal," Arora sighed. "When's the appropriate context?"
Elphaba paused. "You know, we'll have that conversation in about three years. I'll lump it in with the parental-obligated conversations I'm dreading."
Arora frowned. "Like what?"
Elphaba finished mixing the cookie dough together and shoved it across the counter to her daughter.
"Stop talking and start making cookies, kid."
Arora carefully made a row of little balls of dough on the first cookie sheet and then looked up at her mother.
"Mom? I miss Dad," she admitted.
Elphaba smiled softly. "I know, hon. I bet he misses you too."
They worked in silence for a few minutes, filling the cookie sheets with cookies.
"Aunty Nessa said that you don't want to tell me about why you and Dad broke up because you don't want me to be mad at him," Arora commented after a while.
Elphaba made a mental note to have a word with her sister about what she said to Arora.
"That's true," she agreed.
"But since I'm already kind of mad at Dad, does that mean you can tell me now?"
Elphaba looked at her pointedly.
"I know you always said it's complicated, and you'd tell me when I'm older," Arora continued. "But that was before I actually met him and everything. Don't you think I can understand it now?"
Elphaba snorted. "Nope."
"Mom."
"Arora."
"Just tell me something. Please?"
Elphaba sighed. "I suppose I should before you run away again," she muttered resignedly.
When the cookies were in the oven baking, Elphaba sat Arora down in the living room.
"When I found out that I was pregnant with you, it was a weird time," she began. "Your dad and I were engaged, but no one knew about it besides your Grams and Grandpa. Grandpa had just died, and your dad was devastrated and was getting ready for his coronation."
"So… I was an accident?" Arora questioned.
"You were a surprise," Elphaba corrected.
"Your dad was struggling with losing his dad and becoming king. He had really big shoes to fill… that's how he was feeling anyway."
"And that's the choices he had to make?"
Elphaba nodded. "Once I knew how he was feeling, I couldn't tell him about you. I didn't want to make that choice harder for him. Does that make sense?"
Arora considered that carefully and then nodded. "Yeah, I guess… it's like how I didn't want to ask you about him because I knew it made you sad."
Elphaba smiled softly. "In a way," she agreed. "But, in future, running away is never the answer. Understood? I don't want you to be afraid to ask me anything, Rora Rose. Even if it makes me sad."
"Ok," Arora agreed.
Over the next few days, Arora began to ask Elphaba tentative questions about Fiyero. Elphaba was careful about what she told her, but she felt better that they were communicating at least.
"Hey, Mom?"
Elphaba glanced up, in the middle of about three things at once. She was trying to get ready for work and had to drop Arora off at the community centre for the art program on the way. Typically, they were running late.
"Yeah, kid?"
"Can you post these from work today?"
"What?" Elphaba asked distractedly, taking a better look at what her daughter was holding out to her.
It was two letters- one addressed to Kasmira, and one to Fiyero.
"You wrote to your dad?" she asked, a note of surprise in her tone.
Arora nodded. "Yeah."
Elphaba placed the envelopes securely in her bag. "I'll post them for you," she promised. "Now will you get your shoes on? We're late."
Arora ran off to do as asked, and Elphaba let out a breath. This was a positive sign, and she was relieved to know that despite Galinda and what had happened at the engagement party, Arora was reaching out to Fiyero.
Elphaba just hoped that Fiyero was willing to do the same. Elphaba rather suspected that Fiyero may have taken Arora's leaving the same he'd taken her departure a decade ago, and that was what had stopped him from contacting Arora so far.
She was thoughtful as she dropped Arora off at the community centre and continued onto The Pinnacle. And the first thing she did before getting to work, was put Arora's letters into the outgoing mail box.
She dropped Kasmira's in, but held onto the one for Fiyero, just for a moment.
"I know you're a good father. I know you love her," she whispered under her breath. "Please don't let her down again."
And she dropped it into the box. All they could do now was wait.
