AN. I've heard 3 different theories so far about what's going to happen at this dance. One of them is right- but you won't find out which yet!

I think you guys are really going to like this chapter ;)

Chapter 29

Fiyero's statement somewhat had the desired effect. There was a definite decrease in the volume of articles printed about them over the next week, and there were no more articles about her family; though there were three articles that speculated they were close to announcing an engagement. That was annoying, but in the grand scheme of things, Elphaba could cope with that.

Three days after Annalie had come to see them, Elphaba received a letter from Frex. She picked it up with Galinda when her roommate went to check for mail from Link, as had become her custom.

"Why are you frowning?" Galinda asked her confusedly as they entered their room.

Elphaba shrugged. "I just wasn't expecting Papa to write. Not when Annalie was just here… and it feels unusually thick."

Galinda shrugged. "Maybe there's something inside from your brother?"

Elphaba snorted. "I hope not. The last note I got from Tomaz, was asking me if he could borrow twenty dollars to hire Ottah as his lawyer to negotiate a raise in his allowance."

Galinda giggled. "Did it work?"

Elphaba grinned. "Well, I gave him the money, but negotiations didn't go well."

Galinda laughed, and went to change before she met Pfannee, Shen-Shen and Milla for dinner. While she was in the bathroom, Elphaba settled on her bed to read the letter from her father.

According to the date at the top of the letter, it had been written on Tuesday while Annalie was visiting them at Shiz.

In it, Frex apologised for everything. Not for the first time, but he wrote at in great detail about things he'd never told Elphaba about before, including the therapy he'd done in her youth. Elphaba had never asked about it before, figuring it was a private matter.

Frex wrote about how he and Melena had discoverated they were expecting her, the pregnancy and the story of Elphaba's birth. There was much about her mother and her death and the years before hiring Annalie. Frex wrote about how proud he was of Elphaba and the woman she'd become.

'I know that no matter how much time passes and whatever I've done in the past thirteen years to make up for my mistakes, I still failed you. It's been my greatest fear since that first day I took you for cocoa that I was too late, that my actions in those early years hurt you in a way I can't fix.

Your letter that came yesterday made me worry that I was right. Fabala, you are only responsible for your own actions. Please don't ever think that you have any blame to bear for the mistakes I made. Every action has its consequences, and if standing down as Governor is the price to pay for my mistakes, I will do it. Although I truly do not believe it will come to that.

I keep re-reading the statement in yesterday's paper that Fiyero wrote. As difficult as it has been these past seven months to come to terms with the fact that you are truly no longer a child, and you're on the verge of creating your own life and your own family; I could not be happier as a father to know that you've found Fiyero and opened your heart to him.

Having come to know him over the summer and seen you together, I knew that he loved you. But reading and re-reading this statement, I know that I can truly rely on him to do whatever it takes to make you happy and keep you safe.

You, your sister and brother are my greatest accomplishments in life, Fabala. The most important things to Anna and I are your safety and happiness. I could not be prouder of you, and I don't want you to ever doubt that.

All my love,

Papa.'

Galinda was startled to emerge from the bathroom to find Elphaba sobbing brokenly over the letter.

"Elphie, what's happened?" she demanded, rushing over to her.

Elphaba handed her the letter wordlessly. When she finished reading it, Galinda wasn't sure what exactly to do or say, so she simply hugged her tightly.

"See, even your father thought Fiyero's statement was sexy," she finally said when Elphaba had calmed down somewhat.

Elphaba sobbed out a laugh as she wiped her eyes. "I don't think that's how Papa would describe it," she said. "Or at least, I hope to Oz it's not."

Galinda giggled.

That night, Elphaba went down to Nessa's room and let her sister read the letter, who also cried while reading it.

"Are you going to let Fiyero read this?" she asked afterwards, blowing her nose.

"Do you think I should?"

Nessa nodded. "Yes. Or at least the part about him. I think he'd like to know that Papa approves of him."

"He would," Elphaba agreed thoughtfully.

Nessa smiled faintly at her sister. "Do you remember in the Emerald City, when you said that if you had to marry someone to protect us, you would?"

"Sure."

"Fiyero told me afterwards that we'd never have to worry if something happened to Papa, because he was around," Nessa told her. "We didn't get to finish the conversation before you came back into the room, but I'm pretty sure the point he was getting at was that he's not going anywhere."

Elphaba blinked back fresh tears. "That does seem to be the plan," she agreed softly.

Nessa beamed at her.

"What about you and Boq? I've noticed he's been around a lot more this semester," Elphaba asked, eager to get the heat off of her.

Nessa blushed. "We spent a lot of time together this summer," she said vaguely. "While you were off doing things with Fiyero. Nothing's happened. We're just friends."

"Yeah, I was 'just friends' with Fiyero too at first, remember?" Elphaba pointed out.

Nessa rolled her eyes. "But… he did ask me to be his date to the dance," she admitted.

"That's great, Nessie. Just don't tell Galinda yet. She'll make you read that dating guide," Elphaba warned her.

Nessa giggled. "Sure."

She handed Frex's letter back to Elphaba. "Thank you for letting me read that, Fabala. It's a wonderful letter."

Elphaba tucked it safely into her skirt pocket. "That's ok. Do you want to meet for breakfast tomorrow?"

"Can we make it brunch instead?" Nessa asked. "I've got a bunch of reading to do for my Impressionist Art class and I want to get it over with in the morning."

"Sure," Elphaba agreed.

Fiyero had gone out with some guys in his building that night to festivate someone's birthday, so Elphaba figured she wouldn't see him until Saturday afternoon. Elphaba had planned on a quiet morning to get some study done herself.

However, it was nine o'clock the next morning when Xia knocked on the door, rather urgently.

"Nessarose would like to see you and Miss Galinda downstairs as soon as possible," she greeted Elphaba when she opened the door.

Elphaba frowned. "Uh, sure. Ok. We'll be down in a minute," she promised.

She turned to Galinda, a little apprehensive. "No paper is going to print anything about Fiyero and I on a Saturday, right?" she asked. "I just can't deal with any of that today."

Galinda was still half-asleep but shrugged. "I don't know. Do we really both have to go? I'm tired," she complained.

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Come on, Glin. Nessa wouldn't have asked unless it was important. Maybe Boq asked her out?" she wondered absent-mindedly.

That got Galinda's interest. "Boq and Nessa?" she demanded.

Elphaba winced. "Ah, maybe. He asked her to the dance."

Galinda quickly got out of bed and got herself ready for the day and then they headed downstairs to Nessa's room, where she was waiting impatiently.

"What's the big emergency this early?" Galinda demanded.

Nessa was positively quivering. "I think I found King," she said, her voice trembling.

Galinda gasped and Elphaba's eyes widened.

"What? How?" she demanded.

"I was doing my reading for class," Nessa explained, her words stumbling over themselves in her rush. "And I was reading about this Impressionist artist, named Kole Ingram."

Nessa handed Elphaba the book that was on her lap, pointing to a picture of a painting that was in the bottom corner of the page.

"Look at the signature in the painting," she urged.

Elphaba squinted half-heartedly at the painting and then gave up. "Nessa, it's so tiny and I'm not wearing my glasses," she sighed. "Galinda, can you read that?"

Galinda frowned at it for a moment. "Kind of," she said slowly. "It looks like K Ing and then a squiggle?"

Nessa nodded eagerly. "Yes! Don't you see it? K Ing? King?"

Galinda's face lit up, but Elphaba looked sceptical.

"Nessa, I don't know. It sounds like a bit of a stretch."

"It's more of a lead than you've had so far," Xia said from where she sat in the room.

Galinda turned to Elphaba. "We can at least look into it right? How would we check?"

Elphaba shrugged. "It should be easy enough. Is he a famous artist? Would he have a biography or something?" she asked Nessa.

Nessa hesitated. "I don't know. The name was a little familiar, but I didn't really know of him. I think he's mostly known for this one painting," she explained, gesturing to the book. "I can ask my teacher? I'm sure Dr Tarrana would know more than me."

Elphaba nodded. "Ok. Well, I might go check the library. See what I can find."

"I'll come with you," Galinda was quick to offer, which made Elphaba smile knowingly.

Nessa decided to try and see Dr Tarrana now, not wanting to wait until her next class or office hours; but she promised to meet them at the library once she was done.

"What if he doesn't have a biography?" Galinda asked Elphaba as they headed for the library.

"Even if he doesn't have a biography of his own, he still might be mentioned in some art books," Elphaba replied. "We can at least see if it's plausible he attended Shiz at the same time as Ali."

She was trying not to get her hopes up that they had finally found King, but there was a swarm of butterflies in her stomach that she couldn't suppress.

Elphaba had never been near the Art section of the library before and she was rather overwhelmed by the size of it.

"What kind of artist did Nessa say he was?" Elphaba frowned, wondering where to begin.

"Impressionist, I think."

Elphaba nodded and began to pull books from shelves.

Some mentioned Kole Ingram, but not all. Those that did spoke of a few same paintings and his technique but had no personal information about the artist at all.

Nessa joined them before they found anything.

"Well?" Galinda demanded of her.

Nessa was beaming. "I asked Dr Tarrana about Kole Ingram. She said that Ingram was only moderately successful as an artist. There's a few paintings that are relatively well known in some art circles, but the casual art fan wouldn't recognise his name alongside, say Guseo or Kragge."

Elphaba and Galinda stared at her blankly.

"Nessa, you know I'm not an art person, these names mean nothing to me," Elphaba said patiently. "Did Dr Tarrana say anything helpful? That would help us confirm is Kole Ingram is King?"

"Oh, yes. She said she wasn't sure if Kole Ingram had attended Shiz. Apparently details about his private life are very hard to come by, because he preferred to let his art tell his story and never gave interviews. But she said it was known that he was a Quadling and his work was most prominent in the 1840s and 50s."

Elphaba frowned thoughtfully. "Ok," she said. "Nessie, you and Glin keep looking through the art books. See if you can find out anything more."

"Where are you going?" Galinda asked as Elphaba began to walk away.

"I'm going to grab the yearbooks for the years Alivia was here," she explained. "I'll be back in a moment."

She grabbed the yearbook for 1836, where they had found Alivia, Wynter and Jair, and brought it over to the others.

"Was Kole Ingram on the list of names you made?" she asked Galinda as she flicked through pages carefully. "The names that might be King?"

"I don't think so," Galinda frowned. "The name doesn't ring a bell. Besides, I was mainly looking for names that had 'King' already in them or surnames that started with 'K'," she admitted.

"I never would have thought to look at an 'Ingram'."

Elphaba wasn't sure she would have either, so she couldn't fault Galinda there.

But there, listed under second year students for 1836, was Kole Ingram.

"Oh my Oz, that's him!" Galinda squealed.

Elphaba and Nessa both shushed her hastily.

"You think that's really him?" Nessa asked hopefully.

"Of course it's him. Look at him, he's gorgeous," Galinda argued.

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Galinda, him being good looking proves nothing."

She rooted in her bag for pen and paper.

"Could Link try and find us any public records for him?" she asked.

Galinda nodded immediately. "I'm sure. He's almost as invested in this as I am now," she giggled.

Elphaba smiled faintly. "Kole Ingram was a second year, meaning he's more than likely a year or two older than Alivia," she mused thoughtfully. "That's assuming he got his scholarship straight from school… I don't even know what schooling in Quadling Country would have been like at that time."

"Now that we have a name, can't we see his student file? Like you did with the others?" Nessa suggested. "That would have his date of birth in it, wouldn't it?"

Elphaba shook her head. "If he lost his scholarship and dropped out of Shiz, the file was probably destroyed. Alivia's wasn't there either," she reminded her sister.

"Well, Dr Tarrana said she may be able to find some information on Kole Ingram for me," Nessa said. "At least she might be able to find out the years he was born and died."

Elphaba nodded in acknowledgment, frowning frustratedly. "I really thought for a moment we'd get a bigger break through," she admitted.

"Are you kidding, Elphie?" Galinda demanded. "We know who King is! It's a huge break through!"

Elphaba was still frowning. "We don't know it's him for sure," she pointed out. "We just know that they both went to Shiz and were both Quadlings."

Galinda rolled her eyes. "It's him," she insisted stubbornly.

Elphaba looked between the yearbook and the art books for a moment and then lifted her chin determinedly.

"I'm going to the Gazette archives," she announced.

"Why?" Nessa asked. "To look for what?"

"I don't know yet," Elphaba confessed. "I'll let you know when I know."

First of all, she had to track down Rais and beg him to lend her his key to the Gazette office, which he wasn't thrillified about on a Saturday morning, but Elphaba was nothing if not persistent.

The Gazette office was empty and completely silent, which made it easy for Elphaba to lose herself among the archives, until Fiyero found her late that afternoon.

"What are you doing?" he asked her wearily, sitting down on the edge of the nearest table.

Elphaba tore herself away from the archived issue she was currently reading to glance at him, and a faint smirk teased its way across her lips for a moment.

"Good night last night?" she asked him innocently.

"It was a late night," Fiyero acknowledged. "I got back to my room around three am."

Elphaba chuckled. "It's actually nice to know you haven't completely changed," she admitted.

Fiyero grinned faintly. "That's not an answer, Fae. What are you doing?"

Elphaba gestured to the papers around her. "Looking for… well, I still don't know. How did you know I was here?"

"Galinda. She told me that you girls found King, and then you disappeared here."

Elphaba nodded. "Kole Ingram," she said, the name still sounding odd to her ears after referring to him as 'King' for so long.

"We still don't have any hard proof, but it's our most likely possibility."

"So, how does this relate to the papers?" Fiyero asked.

Elphaba shrugged, pushing back her hair tiredly. "Kole Ingram was an artist. Nessa says he was only 'moderately successful', whatever that means. But I'm hoping he at least warranted the odd mention in the Arts section of the Gazette once in a while."

She sighed, frowning distantly. "I wish I had access to archives of the bigger papers from here," she complained. "The Oracle or The Chronicle. I don't know when I'll get my next chance to go to The Emerald City."

"Galinda said she was going to ask Link to find records," Fiyero frowned.

"Yes, but I'm impatient," Elphaba confessed with a small smile.

Fiyero grinned. "Any luck so far?"

"Not yet. But Nessa's hopefully going to get more information from her Art History teacher too."

Elphaba sighed and then looked up at Fiyero.

"Can I show you something?"

"I thought you didn't find anything?"

"I haven't," she said quietly. "This is something else."

Fiyero frowned at the solemn look on her face and agreed. Elphaba got up and put the papers away, before leading him back to Crage Hall and up to her room.

There, from her nightstand drawer, she pulled out the letter from her father.

"I got this from Papa yesterday," she explained. "And I want you to read it. It's long, but I want you to read it."

"Ok," Fiyero agreed without hesitation.

Elphaba knew by now that Fiyero was a slow reader, although it didn't bug her any less than it used to. While he read, she paced the space between her and Galinda's bed, biting her nails.

When he finally finished reading, Fiyero put the letter down and looked up at Elphaba softly. Elphaba paused in her pacing, turning to face him.

Fiyero got to his feet and wrapped her tightly in his arms.

"I'm sorry about everything you went through as a kid," he murmured in her ear. "I wish I'd known you then. And I'm so glad that Annalie came into your life to help your father realise everything he had."

Elphaba looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest.

"I told you my father would like you eventually."

Fiyero's grip tightened on her, even as he shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey, I'm a likeable guy."

Elphaba chuckled and he kissed her lightly.

"Have you thought any more about seeing the psychologist?" he asked her.

Elphaba's eyebrows rose in surprise. She hadn't told Fiyero about Annalie's suggestion.

"Annalie told me when she was here," he explained.

"When?" she demanded.

Fiyero shrugged. "When you were in the bathroom."

Elphaba pulled away with a sigh and sat on the bed, rolling her eyes slightly. "Of course she did," she muttered.

Fiyero sat down next to her, taking her hand in his.

"It could be a good idea," he suggested. "Give you someone to talk to."

"I can talk to you," Elphaba pointed out.

"Of course you can," Fiyero agreed, squeezing her hand. "Always, Fae. I just mean someone with actual advice."

He hesitated briefly. "Coming to terms with the… abuse," he said with difficulty and Elphaba winced slightly.

"I know things have changed, but it still happened. I saw how hard that hit you," he said gently.

Elphaba sighed again. "I'll think about it," she said.

Fiyero raised his eyebrows at her pointedly until she rolled her eyes.

"Ok, I'll do it. One session," she warned him. "That's it."

He grinned. "I'll take it."

Once the others filled him in, Boq offered to help Elphaba search the archives, which she accepted gratefully.

"Hey, I offered to help! You said no," Fiyero complained.

"Yes, because you'd help for five minutes and then start distracting me or get bored," Elphaba replied knowingly.

Fiyero grinned unashamedly. "Yeah, that sounds right."

It thrillified Fiyero to see Elphaba become more like herself after Annalie's visit and her father's letter and he was pleased to see her turn her attention back to the letters. Even if that meant spending hours in the Gazette archives or obsessing over how to find out more information about Kole Ingram when all they could do was wait to hear from either Dr Tarrana or Link.

Dr Tarrana came through with information for them first, giving Nessarose what information she had been able to track down on Thursday after class.

"Kole Ingram was born in 1817 and died in 1886," Nessa told them as they ate dinner at The Wilted Rose.

"That's only fifty years ago," Fiyero noted, doing the math quickly. "That makes him sixty-nine when he died."

"That sounds young. Is that young?" Galinda asked.

"If he was living now it'd be below the average life expectancy," Elphaba replied. "But I'm not sure about back then. What else did Dr Tarrana find out?"

"Not much," Nessa admitted. "Just some information on his art that wouldn't interest anyone but me, I suppose. But she did say that there's a woman in Gilikin who has the largest private collection of Ingram's art in Oz. Her family owns it all. If you ever see one of his paintings in a museum or gallery, it's on loan to them from this family."

That caught Galinda's interest. "What family? Does she know?" she demanded.

"The Stengel family," Nessa replied, frowning a little. "Why? Do you know them?"

Galinda's eyes were wide with excitement. "No. But Kole Ingram never became hugely famous, right? But some woman in Gilikin just happens to own all his work? What if there's a connection between the Stengel family and Alivia?"

Nessa's eyes widened, but Elphaba frowned.

"Nessa, we haven't found anything suggesting Alivia and Blaze had children."

Galinda wasn't deterred. "Ok, but who else would buy all his art?" she demanded.

"Art lovers?" Nessa suggested, looking a little offended.

After all, this was the field she was hoping to make her career in.

"Maybe it's related to one of Ali's sisters?" Fiyero suggested. "She had two, didn't she?"

"But I thought Alivia's family didn't approve of Kole? Why would they buy his art?" Boq asked.

"Once someone becomes famous enough people change their minds," Galinda said wisely. "I'm going to ask my parents if they know anything about the Stengel family."

So that night, Galinda wrote to her parents to ask about the Stengel family. Elphaba sat at her desk, organising her notes on the story of the letter- the notes that were still in no way, shape or form a book on the subject.

"I'm updating Link too," Galinda said. "What were the dates? For Kole Ingram?"

Elphaba looked up. "1817 to 1886," she answered and then turned to her. "Are things serious with you and Link? You haven't dated anyone else this semester. Not since you met him."

Galinda looked up from her letter thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. It's hard to judge when we've only seen each other a few times. I'm just enjoying writing to him for now, and it is handy having him as a contact for information, isn't it?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Galinda, don't lead him on if you don't like him, just because of the letters. That's not fair. Isn't that in your ridiculous book?"

"Um, flirting is fun, and the best part!" Galinda insisted. "I'm not leading him on. I'm… exploring what's there. And besides, he writes some beautiful letters, don't get me wrong. But I need someone who's able to flirt back with me. Who can keep up. I need more time to figure out if Link can do that."

"That makes sense," Elphaba said.

"Besides," Galinda continued. "As the Bible says, 'Flirting will either ignite a spark, flame it, or keep it from dying, depending on where you are in the relationship. And being willing to risk a fire hazard doesn't make you a pyromaniac."

Elphaba stared at her blankly. "I- I can't even go there with that one," she said and turned back to her work.