Strength

A.N. Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters

The next four hours passed slowly for Fiyero and Elphaba. Eventually, Fiyero took to pacing around the small waiting room. Elphaba wished that she could join him, just so that she could be doing something.

After a few minutes, Elphaba broke the tense silence that had filled the room. "Fiyero, I'm sorry."

Fiyero stopped pacing and sat next to her on the couch. "Elphie, what are you sorry about? None of this is your fault. You know that."

"No, I know that we ours were the only two rooms that got shot into tonight. Let's face it, whoever did this was most likely looking for me. I should never have come back here. Too many people hate me. I'm sorry I put you and Glinda in danger."

It hadn't occurred to Fiyero that they might have been specific targets. He remembered carrying Elphaba around Nest Hardings earlier that day, and how she had been the recipient of many cruel looks.

It dawned on Fiyero that the petition that was supposed to make everything better had actually made things worse.

He pulled Elphaba closer to him and said, "Listen, Elphie. Even if they were looking for you, that doesn't make it your fault that it happened. Glinda's injury wasn't that bad, and we'll be out of here soon. And then you never have to come back again."

Elphaba was about to respond when the doctor entered the room. He gave Elphaba a look that made Fiyero want to punch him, and then turned his attention to Fiyero.

"She's going to be fine, but she should go easy on that arm for awhile. She's just down the hall. You can go see her and take her home now."

Fiyero decided not to punch the doctor. That was all they needed, to have more people mad at them in this town. He lifted Elphaba off the couch, holding her more tightly than usual, protecting her.

Both Fiyero and Elphaba breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Glinda awake and alert. Her arm was bandaged and in a sling, and that was about all that was wrong with her.

"Please tell me you can walk." Fiyero said to her.

"Yes, of course. Why?" It seemed like an odd thing for someone to ask Glinda if she could walk right after she'd been shot in the arm. A question such as "Are you ok?" seemed to be more in order.

"That's good, because let me tell you, carrying the two of you here at the same time was near impossible."

Elphaba felt terrible at that moment. Her best friend had just gotten shot, and she was being forced to walk because of her. Luckily, Glinda really did seem alright.

Dusk was just beginning to fall as they left the hospital and hired a cab to take them back to Shiz. As the cab drove away, Elphaba looked back at the sunset, one of the most beautiful she had ever seen.

"Oh, sure. Now the place looks nice" she thought to herself.

As the cab got closer and closer to Shiz, the mood in the cab became lighter and lighter. Fiyero joked about how he now had two injured girls to take care of, and that he might have to hire Boq as an assistant. Elphaba reminded everyone that the cast on her arm would be off in just five days, and the cast on her leg a little more than a week later. Eventually, sleep deprivation and, in Glinda's case, pain-killers caught up with them and they all drifted off to sleep.

They woke up just in time to see Shiz looming over the horizon. As the cab pulled up to the curb by the front gate, Fiyero announced that he had a request.

"Now, I want us all to swear that we will not go on another journey for the rest of this school year. I think we've all had more than our fair share of traveling in the past few weeks."

"Fiyero, you know you're just saying that because you're afraid that if we do travel again you'll be the one to get hurt."

The three of them settled back into their normal routine very quickly. Of course, there wasn't much of a routine to settle into with it being holiday break. They spent most of their time in Elphaba and Glinda's room, laughing at memories from before any of this started. Everything seemed alright, for once.

Elphie, however, knew that everything was not alright. There was something wrong with Glinda; she had been having problem's sleeping. On their fourth night back, when Elphaba once again awoke to Glinda's whimpering across the room, she decided she should do something.

"Glinda, honey? Are you ok?" she said from across the room. Had she been able to walk she would have gone over to Glinda's bed.

In the darkness, she could see Glinda sit up a bit and turn her head towards her. "Yeah…yeah, I'm fine. Go back to sleep, Elphie. Don't let me keep you awake."

"You don't sound ok. This is the fourth night you've been like this, Glinda. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's nothing."

"Glinda…we both know it's not nothing. Why don't you come over here and tell me what's going on."

Glinda thought for a moment before carrying her pillow over to Elphaba's bed. Elphaba shifted over to allow Glinda enough room to crawl into bed next to her.

"Comfy?" she asked. When Glinda nodded, she said, "Now, what's wrong? Why have you been waking up every night whimpering like that?"

Glinda's whimpers gradually turned into tears as she spoke. "I've been having these dreams…these nightmares…about getting shot. I know it's over and I'm fine but these dreams are still so scary…"

Elphaba wrapped her good arm around Glinda's shoulder. "I know, I know. Would it help you sleep if you stayed over here?" She thought back to the night she first learned of her mother's death and how Glinda staying next to her as she slept had helped her so much.

Glinda nodded, and let her head fall on her friend's shoulder. It was an odd feeling for Elphaba to be on the giving end of this situation, having been on the receiving end so many times before. As Elphaba held her friend, she realized that this outburst was most likely not a sudden thing. Glinda must have been holding all of this in since all of this began, trying to be strong for Elphaba. The guilty feeling she had felt in the hospital returned.

Once Glinda had fallen asleep, Elphaba stayed awake for a while. She wasn't sure why, but she felt she owed it to Glinda.

A.N. Well, that took awhile. Sorry about the delay. I'll try to be better with the next chapter. Sorry about leaving you guys with the cliffhanger, too, but you knew I wouldn't let anyone get hurt too badly, right?