Neither of them got much sleep, Fiyero was nearly sure, as the last few hours of the night melted into a gray dawn. He had gently moved Elphaba from the couch to the bad and spent the night face-to-face with her, afraid she might stop breathing if he closed his eyes even for one second. Glinda made no sound, but the lack of her characteristic light snoring, which she would always vehemently deny, only assured him that she wasn't asleep either. The sunlight began to creep into the room before either of them spoke, and when a few golden rays peeked in through the window, Fiyero felt Elphaba stir next to him.

"Fae?"

Elphaba coughed a few times, opened her eyes, made a failed attempt to sit up… and started giggling.

"Heyyy," she said in a high pitched voice. "Uh. Why does everything look so weird?"

"Oh," Fiyero sighed, placing his head on her forehead to check her temperature. "It must be the 'slight side effects'…"

Behind him, Glinda gasped anxiously.

"Elphie!" she exclaimed, rushing to Elphaba's side. "How are you feeling?"

"Elphie. That's so stupid," Elphaba said, giggling again. "Elphie and Fifi."

She frowned all of a sudden and looked at Glinda angrily.

"I hate it when you call him that. It's like he's your pet dog. Like he belongs to you. But he doesn't. He never belonged to you, he doesn't love you, and he never did! He loves me!"

"Fae, it's okay," Fiyero said hurriedly as Glinda took a step backwards, confused. "You're here now. You have nothing to worry about."

Elphaba's eyes went wide and shook her head, hiding her face in her hands.

"No, no, no, you wanted Glinda, of course you did, I remember now… You were perfect together… you were going to be married… But you left her? You left with me... And then Nessa…" She paused abruptly, then let out a sob, covering her mouth with her hands. "Nessa! It's all my fault… Oh, Nessa, forgive me…"

"Elphie, what are you talking about?" Glinda asked, trying to comfort Elphaba, who shrunk away from her.

"Don't touch me!" she cried. "You betrayed me! And for the Wizard… Oh, I'll kill him! It was all his fault! Boq, and Nessa…and Doctor Dillamond… and Fiyero… Fiyero…"

"Fae!" Fiyero exclaimed, grabbing her arms. "I'm here, see? I'm here. It's okay. Everyone is okay. Boq, Nessa, Glinda, me. We're all okay."

Elphaba kept shaking her head.

"No, no… No, that's impossible… Because you came to save me, and they… It should have been me… Fiyero, I'm sorry… I'm so sorry, this is all my fault…"

"Fae, please," Fiyero said softly. He hated seeing her like that, and, even worse, he was afraid of her blurting out more than she should. "Nothing happened to anyone! It's just the medicine, Fae. It's going to be okay."

He wrapped his arms around her, as delicately as he could, and by and by, felt her sobs grow softer.

"Yero?" she muttered after a while. "Do you think we can fix it this time?"

He hesitated, glancing at Glinda.

"Of course."

"And if not… will you go with me to the Dragon Clock again?"

"I'll go anywhere with you, Fae."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

That response seemed to satisfy Elphaba. The tiniest smile appeared on her face and she leaned into Fiyero, closing her eyes as he gently stroked her hair. He stayed seated even after she'd fallen back asleep a few minutes later; afraid that moving would wake her up. He was so focused on sitting still that he almost forgot Glinda's presence in the room, flinching in surprise when she spoke.

"What in Oz's name was that?" she whispered with an utterly confused look on her face. "I know Shilah told us to expect some mild hallucinations, but that sounded both much more and much less coherent than I expected… Do you have any idea what she was talking about?"

Fiyero chuckled uneasily.

"Not at all," he said, shrugging. "I suppose she's just really out of it, you know?"

Glinda looked at him carefully, and he couldn't shake the feeling that she was seeing right through him. And all of a sudden, he was flooded with the memories of their time together. The time he didn't, couldn't, fall in love with her. The time he did love her, but not in the way she wanted him to. The time he kept lying to her. The time he was unable to bring himself to leave her. The time he did leave her. The time he broke her heart. The time she forgave him. The time he heard her desperately cry out his name. The time she believed him to be dead. The time she couldn't remember. The time he would never forget.

I wish I could tell you everything, he thought. And I'm sure Elphaba does, too. But there is one tiny problem. You'd never believe us.

•••

"Feeling any better?" Glinda asked, sitting on the edge of Elphaba's bed and handing her friend a mug of steaming tea. A few days had passed since the tumultuous night, and although Elphaba's health seemed to improve rapidly, just like Shilah had promised, Glinda and Fiyero were still adamant about ignoring her protests and having her remain on bed rest.

"Much better," Elphaba said, gratefully accepting the hot drink. "Thanks."

She lifted the mug to her lips, and almost spilled the tea all over herself when Glinda, without warning, exclaimed:

"Wait!"

Elphaba looked at her questioningly.

"Sorry, I didn't think… It's still too hot. Let it cool down for a moment."

"Oh, it's okay—"

"Elphaba. Put. It. Down."

Seeing her stern look, Elphaba grudgingly set the mug down on her nightstand and crossed her arms over her chest. Glinda nodded, content, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Now, I want to talk to you about something," she said, fiddling with her fingers. "Elphie… we're friends, right? You know you can tell me anything?"

Elphaba watched her for a moment, then nodded slowly, not sure what to say.

"Because," Glinda said, raising her eyes, "for the longest time, I've had this… really strange feeling, like everything was suddenly out of place. Like things in my life no longer made sense the way they used to; like there was suddenly something happening that I just couldn't grasp. But, even worse than that… I've had this feeling that you were hiding something from me. At first I assumed it was just you dating Fiyero, but that feeling didn't stop after you finally admitted that you were together."

"Glinda," Elphaba said cautiously, "I don't know why—"

"But then, after you took the healing potion, you started talking strange—"

"I was out if it, I had no idea what I was saying—"

"That's exactly what Fiyero tried to tell me, too. But then the way you talked to him, the way you acted towards me… The things you said…" Glinda sighed. "Elphaba, I want to help you. I want to trust you. But I can't do that if you're hiding things from me. So please, tell me – what is it that you've been hiding?"

They stared each other down for a moment, after which Glinda sighed. She stood up and rummaged through her dresser drawer, retrieving a large linen bag.

"Shilah gave me this the night he left," she said, opening the bag and showing Elphaba a crate filled with a collection of tiny glass vials in different colors. "Look." She pointed to a bottle of a faintly blue-tinted liquid, and Elphaba squinted to make out the word Truth.

"I guess you can figure out what this does," she said. "And, well… I'm not proud to admit that I was going to use it on you."

She lifted the mug of tea from the nightstand, raising her eyebrows; and Elphaba, having caught on, stared at her incredulously.

"But I changed my mind!" Glinda exclaimed quickly. "Okay? I told you not to drink it, because I didn't want to force you to tell me the truth. I want you to tell me because you want to tell me. Because you trust me."

Elphaba was speechless for a long while, trying to sort out her conflicted feelings. She had talked to Fiyero about this, and while they both said they wished Glinda could know about what they'd been through, they agreed that telling her would only lead to more trouble, since she would never believe them. But now, with this new development… Possibly, she would?

"Trust goes both ways, Elphie," Glinda reminded her. "If you want me on your side, I need to know the truth."

Elphaba sighed.

"This is insane," she coughed out. She stared at Glinda for a while, and her friend's focused, serious gaze assured her that there was no going back anymore. Elphaba took a deep breath and reached for the mug.

"Elphie, wait! What are you doing?!"

Elphaba didn't respond; just took a big gulp of the still warm tea.

"Now you'll have proof that I'm not making things up," she said. "Otherwise, there's no way you'd believe me."