No One Mourns the Wicked - But What About the Good?
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Glinda steps out into the hall, and leans against the closed door. A headache throbs at her temples. The hallway wavers in front of her eyes for a moment, she feels like her head is about to split in two. She isn't sure if she has the energy to make it down the hallway, but she closes her eyes, gathers herself up, steps sideways out of her body and into her former persona. Galinda is pretty, wealthy, and popular - what could be wrong?
Feeling better now, Glinda pushes herself away from the door, and begins to walk down the hall - spine straight, a bounce in her step, a plastic smile on her face. Her body cries in a protest that blooms painfully in her skull and spreads to the base of her spine, but perfect Galinda doesn't hear it.
A quarter of an hour later, she returns to the room, closing the door softly. She lowers herself onto the bed, and turns towards Elphaba. "I asked for some tea - they'll prepare it and bring it up here, but they always knock first." She says, and then leans forward eagerly. "Have you found anything else in the Grimmerie?"
Elphaba puts down her pen, tearing her eyes from the book. "I'm not entirely sure. This page looks promising, though." She replies. "If they're bringing tea, I should get out of sight." Elphaba rises to her feet, closing the book. "Is there room in the closet?" As soon as she finishes the sentence, a knock sounds at the door. She freezes, looking at Glinda.
"Yes, yes, the winter clothes are in storage." Glinda answers quickly, waving towards the wardrobe. Elphaba opens it a crack and slips inside. Glinda sits down at the desk, pushing the book to the far corner. "Come in." She calls.
A female attendant opens the door, balancing a tray with a pot of tea and some biscuits on it. She places the tray on the desk, and steps back, though her eyes linger on the Grimmerie before raising to Glinda's face. "Can I get you anything else, Miss Glinda?" She asks, dutifully.
Glinda shakes her head. "No." She replies, and the attendant turns to leave. She pauses in the doorway, but Glinda has turned back to the paper on the desk. It's what they would have expected of her. Once the attendant is gone, Glinda rises and moves to the closet. She opens the door.
Elphaba is sitting on the floor of the wooden wardrobe, gazing at an object in her hands. A tall, pointed black hat. "Where did this come from?" She asks softly, turning her eyes up to Glinda.
Glinda takes the hat from her and places it on the top shelf of the closet. "Where do you think it came from?" She returns, a little heatedly. "After whatever magic you pulled off made you disappear, your hat was all that was left. So I took it - as a reminder." She looks down at Elphaba for a moment, and then steps back so that she can get out of the closet. Elphaba rises with a little difficulty. She returns to the desk, without meeting Glinda's gaze. After a moment, Glinda returns to her seat on the bed, staring out the window as Elphaba works silently behind her.
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The afternoon sun slips behind a cloud and the room dims. Glinda stirs on the bed and sits up. Rubbing her eyes, she looks over at the desk. The tea tray is still on the corner of the desk, ignored. Elphaba is still seated, writing at her paper. Glinda's movement draws her eyes and she smiles, a small, embarrassed expression. "I'll show you what I have, if you want." She says softly, in way of reconciliation.
Glinda returns the smile, and slips off the bed to join Elphaba at the desk. "All right, let's see." She replies.
Elphaba pulls out one sheet of paper, covered with notes written in slightly smudged ink. "I've found the page we need, I'm sure of it. This spell can help us."
Glinda appears to light up - not just her face. Her spine straightens, her eyes brighten. "Oh, Elphie! Really? What will it do?"
Elphaba can't help the small smile that works its way onto her face. "The spell is mysterious - I haven't figured out exactly what it will do. It could do anything from sending a message to our past selves, to actually physically sending us back there."
At this statement, Glinda practically leaps up. "Elphie! We can go back!" She says, excitedly. "I knew you could do it." She rushes to her closet. "What will I wear? I can't be seen at Shiz dressed like this... and Oh! My hair..."
Elphaba watches her friend rush to the closet, her eyes darkening with alarm. "Glinda..." She begins, but she is cut off.
"Oh, Elphie. Call me Galinda. We're going back!" Glinda says, seeming to grow into the carefree schoolgirl of times past, right before Elphaba's eyes. Elphaba stands, and rubs a hand across her face. She doesn't know how to deal with the erratic Glinda. Her friend was not like this when she left her, so long ago. Another casualty of the Wicked Witch of the West.
"Glinda!" Elphaba says firmly. "We are not going back. I am not casting this spell until I am good and ready."
Glinda ignores Elphaba's comments completely, digging around in her closet for something that isn't cotton and loose. "Oh Elphie, you've been hanging around Doctor Dillamond too much. It's Galinda. With a Ga." Glinda's voice is light, attempting a carefree tone.
Elphaba takes a deep, shaky breath, and crosses the room to Glinda. She takes a hold of the thin woman's shoulders, and looks her straight in the face. "Glinda. You have to stop doing this. Pretending won't take you back there." She says, her tone soft, but firm. Glinda looks up into Elphaba's face, and something in her blue eyes breaks. She pulls herself from Elphaba's grasp, and storms across the room.
"No! I will not stop. I will not stop until I fix things." Glinda declares, her voice strained with emotion. "Everything went wrong, everyone died. That's not how it should have happened." Glinda stands beside the bed, her breath coming in shaky gasps, fists clenched. Elphaba remains beside the closet, her face alight with surprise and concern. As she draws near to her friend, she suddenly realizes how pale Glinda's face is, how glassy her eyes look.
"Glinda, you're trembling." Elphaba gently guides Glinda down to a seat on the bed. She gathers up the top blanket. "Here, put this around you." Tenderly, the green woman wraps the blanket around her friend, and takes a seat next to her. "I'm here now. We can figure out something together."
Glinda buries her head in Elphaba's shoulder, and cries.
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AN: I do not own Wicked, Glinda or Elphaba. I do, however, love the story and the characters, and this creative outlet. :-)
Thank you to my sister Heather, who beta reads for me. I've bothered her so much these past few days! Thank you to 'sweet saturn', who helped me debug the first few paragraphs of this chapter. Thank you to everyone who is following this fic. This story would not exist without you. Well, it would in my head. But not here.
Thanks for reading!
Love,
B