A/N: A shout out to my anonymous reviewer! Glad you liked it. More on our thief in this chapter.


Chapter 6

Sleep was not had by the new leader of Oz. The guards were spread out throughout the entire Palace, but they had not found the missing medicines. The grounds were searched as well and either they were incredibly well hidden or whoever stole them had somehow managed to make it out of the walls without being noticed.

"Lin, you have to let me cast a spell so you can at least get an hour or so of sleep. You probably should have come to me first, but it was good we got this theft noticed," Elphaba said. She and Fiyero had leapt out of bed to help search as well. The Captain had made a beeline for Private Roth who was able to confirm that Private Schultz had not been near the infirmary that day.

"Stealing all of those medicines, if you don't know what they are or what they do, is dangerous. Giving someone the wrong medicine could kill them," Boq spoke up. He'd joined the search as well, but he wasn't feeling it because he didn't need to sleep. Glinda yawned again and without her asking, Elphaba cast a quick spell. The blonde almost fell asleep in her oatmeal but luckily Bayram grabbed it away from the table before Glinda's face ended up in it.

"She's got a meeting in ninety minutes," the Lieutenant pointed out.

"The spell will make her feel like she got three times as much sleep as she really did. It's not ideal but it's better than her going into her lunch meeting with the Munchkin envoy half asleep. What is her ten o'clock meeting? Can I handle it for her?" Elphaba asked, hoping to give her maybe another hour of sleep.

"I suppose you could. Maybe you should take Boq with you," Bayram said.

"I need to talk to Doctor Talib," Fiyero suddenly bolted out of his chair, standing upright at the table.

"What's going on?" Elphaba was immediately concerned.

"I didn't think to ask him if any of the new masons saw him yesterday," the Vinkun admitted.

"We've all been half asleep so that's not something we thought of. Go, I'll handle morning roll call and we'll reconvene after you chat," Bayram told him. Fiyero quickly nodded and headed out of the room.

"Ok, so the ten o'clock meeting?" Elphaba shifted the focus back to what they'd been talking about.

"It's a Council meeting. Arif wanted to give everyone the skinny on the Munchkin envoy. You could certainly update Glinda when she wakes up," the Lieutenant told her.

"Sounds like a plan. I'm going to freshen up and then I'll meet you in the Council Chamber, Boq," the green woman said.

"See you there. I hope you can rest a little," the Tin Man said.

"Hopefully after I update Glinda," she gave him a slight smile and headed off to the room she was sharing with Fiyero.

"This is quite disturbing Boq," the Lieutenant frowned.

"I'm still confused how someone broke into the medicine cabinet," the Tin Man admitted.

"Well, the good doctor didn't keep the key under lock and key, as it were. But he kept it in a drawer that only he and his assistant knew where it was. The problem is the assistant isn't in town. He left before the theft so…" Bayram shrugged.

"So, you think someone watched the doctor and stole the key when he wasn't looking," Boq raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed, which is why the Captain's point about the masons makes me wonder," the Lieutenant said. The Tin Man frowned and began to wonder if there was more to it. What if a Wizard sympathizer had posed as a mason? What if they're using the medicine to make a poison? None of the thoughts in his head were good.

To Be Continued…