Elphaba… A distorted voice, as if from underwater...
Can you hear me? Her head, so heavy, so terribly heavy…
Elphaba, please… Her body aching, stinging, burning…
Wake up, Elphaba… Her eyes too tired to see…
Elphaba! Elphie! Fabala! Fae!
Finally – was it minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? – the incomprehensible sounds took form, and so did her thoughts, finally recognizing her name being called over and over again. She tried to respond something, anything; but her throat was like sandpaper, only allowing her to let out a pained, uncontrolled croak.
"Easy there, baby," she heard, and a moment later, she felt her limp head being lifted up and a stream of cool water carefully poured into her mouth. Her strained muscles stung in contact with the liquid and she coughed a few times before swallowing even a little bit.
"It's okay, honey, it's alright," said someone's soothing voice, and a pair of gentle hands brought a damp cloth to her face, cooling down her forehead, eyelids and cheeks. "Breathe. You're okay now. You're safe."
After a while, fighting through the throbbing headache, Elphaba managed to open her eyes a smidge and let in the tiniest bit of light. She blinked repeatedly, until her eyes focused enough to start to make out the silhouette leaning over her. It was a petite, middle-aged woman with blond curls, a round, smooth face and pink cheeks. Meeting Elphaba's eyes, she smiled warmly, showing little dimples in her cheeks.
"Who—" Elphaba began to ask, her words still coming out as strained croaks; but the woman shook her head.
"Shh, sweetheart, don't strain yourself," she said gently. "My name is Lyria. Lyria Upland. I already sent for Linnie and your friends. They wanted to stay here and sit with you, but I told them I'd throw them all out of my house if they didn't go and get some sleep." She smiled softly. "They should be here soon. For now – rest a little more, darling."
•••
"ELPHIE!"
The shrill sound reverberated in Elphaba's aching head, making her vision blurry once again; and when she focused her eyes, she saw a familiar face leaning over her.
"Oh, Elphie!" Glinda sobbed, very carefully taking Elphaba's hand in both of hers. "I was so scared for you, we all were! Oh, thank Oz you're alive!"
"Fabala!" Another familiar face appeared in Elphaba's visual field and she recognized Nessarose's grey eyes. "Sweet Oz, you scared us half to death! How are you feeling?"
"I—" Elphaba struggled to form a coherent sentence. "What—"
"Girls, don't smother her," said the older blonde woman, walking towards the door. "The poor thing can barely talk, give her some time to adjust. I'll be right next door; call me if you need me!"
"Thanks, Momma," Glinda called over her shoulder, and Elphaba attempted to finish her question.
"What happened?" she coughed out.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
Elphaba searched her memory.
"We met with the Wizard," she said, feeling her ability to speak return gradually. "And I think… Morrible, she… she tried to hurt you?"
Glinda's eyes got a little glossy and she nodded.
"You saved me, Elphie," she said, squeezing Elphaba's hand. "You took a bullet for me, and then you fought her off with your magic! You saved my life!"
"But I…" Elphaba recalled the last seconds of the fight. "I can't remember… Did she… did she get away? I have to find her… she can't… I can't let her… We can't…"
"Fabala!" Nessarose interjected, cupping her sister's cheek. "Morrible is dead."
"W-what? Did… Did I…?"
"Not really," Glinda said. "I think it was her own spell. Looked like whatever you did redirected the lightning, and it just… you know."
She swallowed hard and tears began to flow down her cheeks.
"I thought…" She stammered, struggling to get the words out. "We all thought you were going to die…"
Nessarose squeezed her arm comfortingly.
"It was scary, Fabala," she said quietly. "For a while, it looked like you weren't going to make it…" She brushed a strand of hair off her sister's forehead and smiled softly. "But you did. You're here. That's all that matters."
Elphaba looked around and realized she was in a completely unknown environment.
"Where exactly is here?" she asked, and Glinda slapped herself on the forehead.
"Oh, dear, where are my manners. Elphie, welcome to the Uplands' humble home!" She waved her hand in a presentative gesture. "Once you got a little better, we decided to take you somewhere where you could get some peace and quiet. So I thought, what better place to recover than the Upper Uplands?"
A knock on the door made all three of them turn their heads to see Shilah standing in the doorway.
"Shilah!" Glinda exclaimed and her eyes sparkled with joy. "You did it! She's awake!"
"Yes, I can see that," Shilah half-smiled, crossing the room and crouching down by Elphaba's side. "Elphaba. How are you feeling?"
"Very confused," she said slowly, blinking. "What are you doing here?"
"Um, saving your life, I would hope," he said. "I did warn you not to overuse your powers while you're physically injured, but you have obviously chosen to ignore that."
Hearing his dry tone, Elphaba suddenly remembered the circumstances under which they last saw each other, and she gasped, trying to push herself up into the sitting position.
"Oh no, Shilah… I'm so sorry about what happened… I know what it must have looked like, but I swear—I didn't—We wanted to help all of you, but there was no way—It would have looked suspicious—We were working on it, I swear we were—"
"Elphaba, please calm down," Shilah said softly, placing his hands on her shoulders and gently pushing her to lie back down. "Glinda explained everything to us after we were set free."
"Us? So is everyone…?"
"Everyone is fine," he said, raising his hand with a small reassuring smile. "Now can you please calm down and behave like a proper patient for five minutes?"
Reluctantly, Elphaba lay back down and kept quiet while Shilah touched her forehead, checked her heartbeat and examined the area around the bandaged bullet wound. The examination must have had a satisfactory result, for Shilah nodded slightly to himself and rose to his feet.
"Well, I'll definitely need to go to the Emerald City for some medical supplies; but it looks like we're on the right track."
"So she'll be okay?" Glinda asked, jumping onto her feet. "Oh, Shilah, you're a treasure!"
Ecstatic, she threw her arms around him and pecked him on the lips; before her mind caught up to her emotions and she pulled away, staring at the ground, her face flushed.
"Um," Shilah said eloquently, his eyes huge with surprise, "well, I… I suppose I better go and, um… get those supplies. Yeah."
He all but ran out of the room, blushing all the way to the tips of his ears; and leaving Glinda flustered, Elphaba confused and Nessarose smirking.
"Don't worry," the latter said, seeing the horror on Glinda's face. "He's so sleep-deprived; you can tell him that was all just a dream and I'm sure he'll believe you."
Glinda was saved from responding by her mother, whose head appeared in the doorway.
"Linnie, I'll need you and Nessa in the kitchen."
"What, now?" Glinda whined, her face still pink. "Ma, Elphie just woke up…"
"Exactly, and now there's someone else who wants to see her," Mrs. Upland said, emphasizing the words someone else. Glinda gaped for a second, then realized what her mother was trying to say.
"Oh, of course!" she said, standing up and hurrying towards the door. "Come, Nessa. We'll talk more to Elphie later."
They left, hurried on by Mrs. Upland, who gestured at someone behind the door before smiling at Elphaba and making way for someone else to enter the room and ask, in a quiet, careful voice:
"Fae?"