A.N. Thanks for the reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters
Over the next five days, the smile never left Elphaba's face. Of course, that was true for almost everyone at Shiz. The freshly fallen snow had put everyone in a good mood. After the walkways were cleared, everything seemed to instantly decorate itself for the holidays. And for the first time, Elphaba actually enjoyed it all.
One morning Elphaba actually woke up before Glinda, something she always hoped wouldn't happen. There were only three major problems with having a broken leg and arm. The first was the inability to stand or walk. The second was the inability to get dressed on her own. And the third, which she hated most of all, was the inability to get out of her own bed. She hated lying there, just waiting for someone to come along and help her get up. She felt completely helpless, and she didn't like that feeling at all. Normally Fiyero was there when she woke up, and he could just lift her out of bed. But this morning he was later than usual, so she was stuck. Unless…
Elphaba began looking around the room for some way she could get herself out of bed. She didn't want to wake Glinda and make her help because that would only intensify the helpless feeling she had. She spotted the chair she had been sitting in the night before, and decided to take matters into her own hands.
She used her teeth to undo the sling, freeing her broken arm. She then clasped both hands onto the back of the chair, but quickly saw that that plan would only end up with her sitting in the chair backwards. She was going to have to back herself into the chair. She managed to move the chair by pushing it with her foot, lining it up with where she was sitting on the bed. She pushed the chair as close to the bed as it would get, and began to ease back until she was sitting on the chair, with her legs still resting on the bed. Using her good leg, she applied pressure to the side of the bed, pushing the chair back. She smiled at her accomplishment.
Meanwhile, the noise of Elphaba pushing the chair around had woken up Glinda, who was very surprised to see Elphaba sitting in a chair in the middle of the room.
"Elphie? How did you get in the…"
"Glinda, I'm perfectly capable of getting myself into a chair."
Before Glinda could respond, there was a knock at the door. Glinda opened it to reveal Fiyero, who was holding the girls' mail.
"Morning, girls. I took the liberty of picking up your mail on the way up here" he said, handing the mail to Glinda. He then focused his attention to Elphaba. "Glinda moved you into a chair? How did she manage that?"
"She didn't. I moved myself." Elphaba replied.
"Don't look at me, I don't know how she did it either. Hey, look Elphie! A letter from Nessa." Glinda said. She handed Elphaba a slightly worn envelope. This had defiantly come from Nest Hardings. Elphaba opened up the letter and, to avoid having to repeat what it said, read it out loud to Glinda and Fiyero.
Dear ElphabaI'm sure that by now you have heard that Father passed away before I could reach him. Although my journey back to Shiz to get you was the cause of this, I do not blame you for it. It was my choice to go back and get you, even though I knew deep down you wouldn't come.
There is something going on here that has been troubling me, however. You know very well that you were next in line to be the next governor of Munchkinland. There is now a petition circulating around Munchkinland saying that you are too young and too inexperienced for the job. Elphaba, I had to tell you about this. I have tried to convince the Munchkins otherwise, but they all agree with the petition. You must come home and defend your position.
Nessa
Elphaba looked up from the letter. She looked down at her leg, then back at her friends. "Well, it looks like I'm on the road again" she said.
"What? You're actually going to go and defend your position? Elphie, why would you go back there? Our plan is working" said Fiyero.
"Right now, yes. I'm not going back to defend my position. I'm going back to convince Nessa that she should stop protesting this. I don't think she's coming back here anytime soon and we can't let her keep trying to convince the Munchkins to let me be their leader. She's very charismatic when she wants to be and it's only a matter of time before she gets them to agree with her."
"Elphie, are you sure you want to travel right now?" Fiyero wasn't thrilled at the idea of Elphaba traveling in her condition. He didn't mind accompanying her there, of course. But he was concerned for her safety.
"Why not? It's the perfect timing. We end classes for holiday break tomorrow, so we'll just go right after we finish class. It won't take more than a few days, and we'll be back before classes start up again. We won't miss anything."
Both Fiyero and Glinda could see that there was no stopping Elphaba in this one. So they reluctantly agreed to come with her on what would be her third journey in a month.
The next day, the classes at Shiz consisted of what classes at any school consist of the day before a holiday break. There were refreshments, discussions of holiday plans, and a general feeling of the year being halfway over. Glinda found herself surrounded by her former "friends" and unable to escape, while Fiyero and Elphaba stayed off to the side, by themselves.
When classes were over for the day, Elphaba led Fiyero and Glinda (well, actually she could only verbally direct them) in getting packed and getting a cab. The travelers were on the road by 5:00, just as it was beginning to get dark. Having made the journey before, Elphaba knew that they would be stopping at an inn within the next 3 to 4 hours, so she resisted the urge to fall asleep. However, this driver didn't stop at any inn. Apparently his shift had only started at 4:45 and driving all night was not a problem for him. Although sleeping in a cab was not the most comfortable situation, all three of them knew that this meant they would be arriving sooner and therefore could leave sooner. Elphaba eventually nodded off on Fiyero's shoulder. Before falling asleep himself, he moved her onto his lap. He fell asleep with her in his arms, as if he was afraid to let go.
A.N. Ok, that took longer than I expected. I had a busy week last week so the only time I could find to write this was during my chemistry class. I'll try to have the next chapter up faster.