Author's Note: Just to let everyone know, I'm in the middle of two weeks of tech rehearsals for a show that opens on the 7th. So if updates slow down…::crosses fingers that they won't:: that's why. Oh, and look for my show fic very soon…it actually has a plotline completed now. And thanks to Drew for editing.

~~

Chapter 14

Fiyero woke with the first gray hints of sun. They had only been in the tunnels for a little over a week and yet already he had grown accustomed to the constant, pressing darkness. The rain had subsided to a constant cold gray mist that promised to burn off by midmorning. He pushed the blanket aside and crawled out of bed, leaving Elphaba sleeping. He stretched gingerly, wincing at the sharp pain in his shoulder. The cut was still open and bleeding, though much less than before. The previous day's exertion certainly hadn't helped the wound any, and it was beginning to feel as though his entire shoulder was cold and aching.

"You all right?"

Fiyero turned to see Elphaba sitting up in bed, studying him with concern. He sighed, then nodded, and went over to sit beside her.

"Fine. Just…sore."

Elphaba ran her fingers through his hair, then brought her hands down to rest on his injured shoulder, massaging gently. He leaned back into her touch and closed his eyes, trying to make his thoughts stop their dizzying relay in his mind. Everything was changing so fast after what had seemed like an eternity when his life had come to a grinding halt in the work camps.

"What is it?" asked Elphaba after a moment, kissing his collarbone.

"I was just thinking…about something that happened while I was in the camps." Fiyero pulled away from her and stood, crossing his arms over his chest and pacing restlessly for a moment before coming to a stop in a corner in front of some shelves. "One day…about a month ago now, I guess…It was the day before that girl-Dorothy-the day before they said you-"

"Died," supplied Elphaba, her voice devoid of any emotion.

"Yes," said Fiyero. He began rifling through the stack of linens on the shelf, looking for supplies to take with them. "There was a woman—an old woman—She just *appeared* there. I was working digging trenches—for the water they were draining—that day. And the next thing I knew, there was this ancient woman standing there. She said there was going to be a change. And that I needed to find my family. Then the next day the Wizard left, the tiktoks took over…that was the day I escaped. Half the rest of the camp did too. It was total chaos that day."

Fiyero trailed off and pulled a bag from the closet, dropping things into it for the journey ahead of them. Elphaba sat looking on, her blood like ice in her veins.

"I never even thought what she meant by family," said Fiyero, almost to himself. "At the time I thought she was crazy, just another prisoner, but now…now I wonder."

"You wonder what?" asked Elphaba sharply.

"Elphie." Fiyero went over to her and took her by the shoulders, searching her rich brown eyes. "I know this may be ridiculous for me even to ask but…there wasn't…a child…was there?"

Elphaba wrenched herself away from him and went over to stand in front of the window, gazing out intently. She forced herself to focus on the rain, though the very sight of it made her tingle with panic. She could feel every drop as she watched, burning, searing, digging into her flesh like a thousand needles. That would be a relief now, she thought, compared to the guilt.

Fiyero sighed impatiently. Elphaba swallowed hard, concentrated on drawing the walls of numbness back up around herself like a cloak against the cruel, biting rain.

"There was," she said flatly. "He's gone. It's of no matter now."

"Elphaba…"

She pulled her cloak off the bedpost where she had cast it off the night before, wrapping it hurriedly around the dress she hadn't bothered to take off. She felt trapped suddenly, pressured. She couldn't be in this room with him for a moment longer. She turned to leave, but Fiyero was barring her path before she could make it two feet.

"Elphaba, I need to know. What happened?"

She tried to push her way past him, but he took hold of her shoulders and would not let go.

"You can tell me."

"No," she said stubbornly, "I can't."

"Come on, don't close off on me again like that. Elphaba, I have a right to know."

"No," she repeated softly, "no, you have no right. Where were you when I needed you? A prisoner of your own distrust and stupidity."

She pushed roughly past him and out of the bedroom, leaving him staring after her in shock.

~~

"I don't think he likes me much," remarked Boq as he attempted to scramble up onto the back of one of the Scrow donkeys without further injuring his leg.

"You're sitting on him," said Elphaba, who was in a particularly sour mood after the morning's events, "What do you expect?"

Glinda attempted to pet the donkey's neck, wrinkling her nose in disgust when it snorted loudly at her. Fiyero and Gerema loaded the remainder of their food and supplies onto the back of the other donkey. Gray clouds hung low in the sky and the air was still and hot. It was bound to start raining again by mid-afternoon, but Elphaba had insisted on beginning their journey anyway. She seemed suddenly all too eager to get away from Kiamo Ko, Boq thought nervously. She had found an old umbrella in one of the storage rooms and was holding it like a weapon.

"We are ready," said Gerema in her characteristic unexpressive tone.

Boq shivered and pulled his cloak tighter around him. It was unbearably hot and yet he couldn't help feeling chilled at the thought of leaving the security of the old castle and setting off into the Vinkus with no destination and very few supplies.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked timidly, flinching when Elphaba turned and glared at him.

"Unless you would like to stay here and wait to be enslaved by the tiktoks," said Elphaba meanly.

"Elphaba," started Fiyero, but she wouldn't let him speak.

"All right," said Elphaba loudly, ignoring Fiyero. "We're ready. Let's go." She took hold one of the donkey's bridles and jerked it as hard as she could. The group followed, straggling a few feet behind.

It was late afternoon when the first raindrops started to fall. They had made it all the way out into the very edge of the Thousand Year Grasslands where the grass began to thin and the hills began. A loud crack of thunder brought the group to a halt. The wind began to pick up, blowing little dust devils in the sand. All eyes turned to Elphaba.

"What are you going to do?" asked Fiyero cautiously.

"I don't know. We'll have to find shelter somewhere."

"Elphie," said Glinda, panicked, "there isn't anywhere. We're in the middle of nowhere."

~~

Review please!