'Push, push,' urged the midwife.

Melena grunted in pain as she felt another contraction. As expected, the mysterious stranger had disappeared as swiftly as he came, leaving her alone again.

Apparently, her husband was not very clever as he did not suspect that the child belonged to another. She briefly considered killing it but by the time she found out she was pregnant, the servants told Frexspar and he was delighted at the prospect of having his first child.

Accompanied by a long thin wail, the baby slid into the midwife's waiting hands. The midwife cut the cord and cleaned the baby.

Then she fell silent.

There was a long pause.

'It's as green as a ferny cabbage!' the midwife exclaimed and held the baby up in the light so that everyone could see.

Frex, who had been smiling serenely during the whole labour, stood up and recoiled as if hit.

Melena gasped. Was Oscar Diggs responsible for this … deformity?

'Take it away!' thundered Frexspar to the midwife before leaving the room himself. He didn't even spare a second glance at Melena, who had started to sob.

Did she love this… thing?

Melena looked at the tiny green baby sleeping in the nursery. She was forbidden by Frexspar from contacting the baby, who was currently being cared for by the servants. And yet, here she was in the dead of night, having snuck away from her sleeping husband to see the baby.

Her husband insisted on naming her after Saint Aelphaba, who in legends disappeared behind a waterfall and did not reappear until several centuries later. Melena found herself disliking it for the name clearly revealed Frexspar's hatred of the girl.

Perhaps on some primal level, he knew that the baby was not his.

Stirring, the baby's eyes fluttered open. They were a deep soulful brown, just like her late sister's eyes had been. Feeling an unexpected surge of emotion, Melena bent down to pick the baby up for the time.

Elphaba was surprisingly light and smiled contently at Melena.

Maybe she would grow to love the child one day, thought Melena as she hummed an old song from her childhood when she was still free and Sophelia alive.

The second time she fell pregnant, Frexspar watched her like a hawk. Every day, he would force her to chew those bland, bitter milkflowers to prevent the next child from coming out green.

But as she went into labour, Melena knew that something this time was wrong. She felt fainter than before and the labour lasted much shorter than it had been with Elphaba. She looked up from time to time to see copious amounts of blood, more blood than she had ever seen in her life.

By the name the baby's head crowned, Melena knew that her death was imminent. She looked up one last time to see Elphaba's green face peering at the scene from the window. Frexspar had banned the toddler from attending, confining her outside to stop her greenness from infecting the new baby.

Melena felt a stab of pity for her oldest child and silently mouthed 'Good luck' at Elphaba.

Then the world went dark and Melena was free again to dance, laugh and sing through the fields for corn from her youth.