Disclaimer, you know.

Six days before the wedding.

Dorothy was now sitting in Brianna's ice cream parlor with alex, it was just the three of them there, so it was rather quiet, and a nice place to have a chat. They were waiting for Jude to show up, he was late, and the scepter was idly making impatient pinging sounds.

"Jude will be here soon, I still can't believe your guy's paths haven't crossed yet." Brianna said.

"we've been quite eager to eventually meet him, but it feels like we just keep missing him by a few moments." Alex said.

"well even if you don't somehow manage to meet him today you'll definitely see him at the wedding." Brianna said smiling as she brought them a bowl of peach ice cream.

"he your date?" alex asked curiously.

"no, no heavens no." Brianna said smiling.

"hey Brianna, has Jude gotten here yet?" Ellie asked as she came in.

"no ellie, he should be here soon though, take a seat, your usual?" Brianna asked.

"yes please." Ellie said taking a seat.

At that moment a man ran into the parlor. he looked about the same age as they were, at least from Dorothy's perspective. He was unusually pale for people dorothy had seen in Oz. he had brownish colored hair and dark hazel eyes. He was wearing a grey short sleeved shirt and a pair of matching grey slacks. He didn't even acknowledge alex, dorothy or ellie, he just went over to the counter and grabbed the second apron that was there.

"Sorry I'm late." He panted.

"it's alright Jude, it hasn't been that busy today, besides, we have guests." Brianna said gesturing to dorothy and alex.

He looked over to them and took a set of glasses from his pocket, which he put on. When he saw dorothy and alex he was taken by surprise a bit.

"your majesty, I'm sorry I didn't notice" he said bowing low.

"please, just call me dorothy, and please get up." Dorothy said getting up and walking over to him.

"yes, your majest- I mean dorothy, sorry, got a bit carried away." He said getting up.

"it's alright, but I guess you should know, I'm not a fan of formalities." Dorothy said as alex came over.

"oh, hey ellie, haven't seen you here in a while, how are you?" Jude asked turning his attention to her.

Ellie however was not paying attention, she, for no real reason in particular, was writing down everything that was happening. That is, she was until she got to what Jude had just said and looked up.

"Right, sorry, I've been well." Ellie said before going back to add that part in.

"Ellie why are you writing this all down?" Dorothy asked curiously.

"because while she and Glinda can see through each other's eyes, the connection isn't always strong enough to allow her to hear things, so Glinda has been waiting to see how you guys take to Jude." Brianna said.

"he seems like a nice guy, how is he at remembering orders?" alex asked.

"Jude, get ellie's usual." Brianna said.

He nodded and like a shot, he had a bowl and had a scoop of blueberry, a scoop of peach, two scoops of chocolate and a cinnamon stick in it in no time flat.

"impressive, also, that looks good, I'll have to try that at some point." Dorothy said smiling

"it's really good." Ellie said as Jude brought it over.

"Glinda gets the same thing, I've thought about calling it the Glinda special." Brianna said.

"oh, she'll like that I'm sure." Ellie said idly eating and writing.

"by the by what are Alyssa and Terrance up to?" Jude asked curiously.

"looking for ways to distract themselves until the wedding so they aren't too anxious about it." Brianna said, "I wonder what they're doing now?" she added.

"no idea, she and Terrance have been avoiding everyone, dodging the subject at breakfast, but you know that part, they have circles under their eyes, out of their minds with anxiety I assume, yesterday they were jittery as well, and it's been a progressive thing, like an illness." Alex said sighing as he ate.

"someone should have Glinda, or Locasta, or even Alison, to put them under dreamless sleep." Ellie suggested.

"what about you?" Jude asked curiously.

"I don't feel like I'm skilled enough to try, I could end up putting them to sleep for longer than intended, ill only do it if there's a chance ill fail and it'll only last five minutes, it's no use for me to try deliberately to do it right, especially when I don't feel confident about it, I mean, when I'm transporting myself here to oz, I rarely get the height right." Ellie said sighing.

"that's a thing you have to worry about?" Alex asked curiously.

"not usually, but when you're doing it alone it's harder." Ellie said going back to her writing and eating

"how come I never have that problem with the slippers and the scepter?" dorothy asked curiously.

"because those essentially do all the work on their own, the slippers when you click your heels, the scepter, when we can get a lock on it and summon it, once your hands touch it, you get essentially pulled along." Ellie said glancing up for a moment.

"but keeping one's balance upon arrival, takes a lot of practice." Jude said smiling.

"so how come it's just alex and myself that don't seem to be able to learn that?" dorothy asked curiously.

"decent enough question, no idea." Ellie said taking the cinnamon stick from the bowl and biting it.

"okay then, that was enlightening." Alex said finishing as the two of them finished off their ice cream.

At that moment, ellie blinked a few times before turning to dorothy and alex.

"Glinda wants to see you two, I don't know why, but she's got a piece of paper asking me to send you two on her desk." Ellie said.

Dorothy and alex shared a glance before shrugging and getting up.

"well Jude, it was nice meeting you for once, but we should go see what Glinda wants, ellie you gonna stay here?" alex asked.

"only for a little while, just to finish this, I never leave here without doing so." Ellie said putting her notebook away and turning her attention to her treat.

"it's true, we've been here passed closing before because of it." Brianna said smiling.

Dorothy smiled and walked over to Jude and extended a hand.

"I hope we'll meet again before the wedding." She said smiling.

"I'll try to see if I can be around, other than here, I'm not typically allowed to go to the palace." Jude said shaking it.

"not by Ozma's decree I'm sure?" Dorothy asked.

"heavens no, my uncle, doesn't even approve of me working here, but he's slightly intimidated by Glinda, so I've decided not to push my luck." Jude said sighing.

"well, both alex and I need to have our glasses refitted at some point, I'll see if we can't convince him, at least during the off season" dorothy said holding out her hand for the scepter and starting for the door.

"oh no, I couldn't ask you to do that." Jude said watching as they walked away.

"not going to stop them." Ellie said giggling.

"by the way, what about your parents, what do they do?" Alex asked curiously.

"both my parents are ironically blind, we moved into my uncle's apartment above the shop when it became too much trouble for me to help them alone." Jude said, "and I say it's ironic for obvious reasons." He added.

"I'm sorry I brought it up." alex said

"don't be, you weren't aware, I don't mind sharing it either, its honestly just an annoyance, you know, when you feel helpless since you can't help the people you care about, it was an accident, that struck them blind, but that's a story for another day, I won't keep you any longer." Jude said sadly.

"hope to see you soon, maybe we'll drop by again before closing if you guys are still here." Dorothy sighed.

"if Glinda allows it." Brianna said.

"right." Dorothy said as she and alex left the parlor.

"jude, you know something?" Brianna asked turning to him.

"depends, what?" he asked going back behind the counter.

"I think that went off without a hitch, and we'll be seeing you around the palace more often." Brianna said smiling.

"that'd be great." He said smiling back.