Strength

A.N. Thanks for the reviews. A word about quotes; I know that some of the quotations in my stories (not just this one) don't have the ending quotation mark. That is a formatting error that happens when I upload chapters, but one of the joys of owning a Mac is that the new version of QuickEdit doesn't seem to like my Internet Explorer very much, even though it's 5.2, so when I hit save changes it doesn't do anything. I knew someone would bring the quotes up eventually. It only seems to happen when the quotations end a line of text. While we're on the subject of my computer screwing things up, you may have noticed a capital E with an accent over it. That is also put there during uploading, replacing an ellipse. Once again, I can't fix it right now. It bugs me just as much as it bugs you, so I'll try to fix these things soon. Anyway, I digress. Back to the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

As the carriage entered Nest Hardings, Elphaba slowly woke up. She recognized the familiar village of her childhood right away. Despite having only spent the first three or four years of her life here, she always considered this to be her home.

The carriage pulled up to a very large, albeit somewhat dilapidated house: the governor's mansion. Seeing as how Frex had been wandering around being a missionary, the house had fallen into a bit of disrepair. However, it was obvious that the house was still in pretty good condition, and Elphaba breathed a sigh of relief at knowing that the house was still standing and would remain that way for the duration of their visit.

As the cab came to a halt, Elphaba could see her father waiting by the doorway, as if he was expecting their arrival at this exact time. As she, Glinda, and Fiyero began the project of getting Nessa out of the cab, he slowly walked toward them, no doubt wondering who these two strangers were accompanying his daughters.

Of course, he was immediately drawn to Nessa. "My pet, how are you? Come, let me help you out of that cab."

Fiyero stood and watched as Frex got Nessa's wheelchair out of the cab and wheeled her up the path into the house. He looked at Elphaba, who was still getting the bags out of the cab. Frex's greeting for her, Fiyero noticed, was absent.

Fiyero and Glinda grabbed their bags and followed Elphaba to the front door. When they walked inside, they saw Frex comforting a crying Nessa.

"Father" Elphaba said, causing Frex to look up at her, albeit very briefly.

"Oh, Fabala. I'm glad you could come as well. I wasn't sure if you would elect to join your sister at the ceremony. You never were good with public events, what with your, condition. No matter, I'm glad to see that you've retained your strength for the sake of Nessarose. We cannot have both of you breaking down and crying, can we? Now, who are these people you've brought with you?"

"Father, this is Glinda, my roommate at Shiz, and Fiyero, a good friend of both mine and Nessa's. They accompanied us on the journey as an extra means of support."

"Oh, yes. I see." Frex said, rather unenthusiastically. "I suppose you and your roommate can put your bags in your old bedroom, and we will have to find a place for your friend, Fiyero, was it, to stay."

Elphaba nodded, and led both Glinda, and Fiyero who was carrying most of Glinda's bags, down the hall to her bedroom. When she opened the door, Fiyero felt his heart ache. The room consisted of two twin beds, a dresser, and little else. But what made Fiyero's heart ache was the room across the hall. Judging by the wider doorway, he guessed that room was Nessa's. With the door wide open, he could see that Nessa's room had been fully decorated held many toys and games that must have amused Nessa growing up. Even though Elphaba had never admitted it to him, Fiyero was beginning to see that Nessa had indeed been the favorite child of the family.

When Glinda had gotten all of her bags into the room, she immediately went to the bathroom to freshen up, leaving Elphaba alone with Fiyero. For a few moments, Elphaba sat on one of the beds, without looking up. Fiyero slowly moved to sit next to her.

"So why were there two beds in here?" Fiyero asked, trying to initiate some form of conversation.

"When my parents were expecting Nessa, they were afraid she would be green, like me. So they planned to have both of us share this room and save the room across the hall for their third, normal child. But when Nessa was born with white skin, they decided that she should have her own room. They didn't need to lock her away with me." Elphaba took very deep breaths as she spoke. After she finished her story, she looked up at Fiyero. "Fiyero? Go grab some tissues. I need to cry."

Fiyero looked around the room, searching for anything that he could hold under Elphaba's eyes. Unfortunately, the meager furnishings did not include many things that could be used for this purpose. "Hang on, Elphie. I'll find something" he said as he opened up his bag. He rummaged through his belongings, wishing for the first time that he had been more organized in packing. He lifted out several shirts, some pants, and pajamas. On the bottom of the bag were two towels, one smaller than the other.

Using the smaller towel, he quickly covered up all of the skin below Elphaba's eyes. She was breathing heavily, struggling to keep the tears in. Fiyero sat behind her and put his free hand on her shoulder.

"It's ok, let it out" he said softly. He rubbed Elphaba's back as she cried, making sure that none of the tears made contact with her skin.

Glinda returned from the bathroom, and with a quick sigh of "Oh, Elphie, it's alright" joined Fiyero in comforting Elphaba. As Glinda and Fiyero worked to comfort their friend, another person stood at the door.

Frex stood in the doorway silently. He didn't want them to know he was there. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. Elphaba was crying. She was expressing emotion. "Maybe I've been wrong all this time" he thought.

A.N. Sorry this has taken longer, but things have been kind of crazy and with the site being in read-only mode for two days it got delayed even more. And I promise, there is going to be a plot emerging from this. Please review.