Ultimate Queen of Cliffies: Oh, I think I'll catch up to you eventually…
NellytheActress: So, you think that just because Maddy killed Elphaba, that means that I won't…? *Raised eyebrow*
Frex didn't even know where to start looking for his daughter, but he knew she couldn't have gone far. He checked the library, the parlor, and even the gardens, but he still couldn't find her. Sighing, the Governor rubbed his face. He didn't mean to call Elphaba an embarrassment. He didn't want to think of her as an embarrassment, but he guessed that, deep down, he did. He knew that Elphaba's green skin and illness wasn't her fault, but it was still something he would have to live with. And he didn't want his legacy as Governor to be tainted by his daughter's green skin. Although he knew that it already was, by now. He tried not to think of Elphaba that way, and he certainly never meant to actually say it.
But he had to find her. He had to find her and apologize to her. He just hoped that she didn't have an attack. Blinking, he ran back upstairs and grabbed her inhaler from her dresser before going back outside. He had a faint idea about where his eldest daughter was.
He briskly walked through the gardens and opened the back gate, walking down the hill to the Munchkinland Cemetery. He walked past the numerous graves before he saw a figure sitting in front of one, and Frex didn't even have to think about who it could be. He quickened his steps and knelt down next to the figure.
"Elphaba," he whispered, hearing his daughter wheeze slightly. He knew immediately that she had ran down here and tried to hand her the inhaler.
The green girl frowned at her father and pushed the small device away.
"Elphaba, please. You need this," Frex said, trying to give it to her again.
She looked at him again before taking the device from his hands and taking her medicine. She calmed and her breathing evened out and she pushed it back into her father's hands before bringing her knees to her chest.
"I'm sorry, Elphaba," Frex said gently. "I didn't mean to call you an embarrassment."
"You think of me as an embarrassment?" Elphaba whispered after a long pause.
"No, I don't."
"You do, or else you wouldn't have said it."
"I just…" Frex sighed, knowing that there was not good way to finish his thought.
"I am an embarrassment," Elphaba said before Frex could think of something else to say.
"You're not an embarrassment."
"I am. I know that it's bad enough that your wife gave birth to a green skinned freak, who caused the death of your wife and crippled your second daughter, only to find out four years later that said-freak would be sick for the rest of her short life. I would be embarrassed, too."
Frex blinked. "Wh-What? Elphaba, your mother's death and Nessa weren't your fault."
"Yes, it was. She chewed milk flowers when she was pregnant with Nessa so she wouldn't be born like me, which ended up killing her and crippling Nessa."
"But that's not your fault."
"You think it is."
The Governor bit his lip.
"I don't know why you even bother."
"Bother with what?"
"Taking care of me."
"You're my daughter, Elphaba."
"There have been many times where you could have just let me die… yet you didn't."
Frex didn't even try to hide his shock and horror. "You really think I would do something like that?"
"It would be better for you, wouldn't it? Not having to worry about rushes to the hospital or refilling medications or having a green embarrassment for a daughter."
"You really think that I hate you enough to let you die?" Frex asked, his voice hardening. "Do you really think that?"
"What else am I supposed to think?"
"Elphaba, look at me."
The green girl did, her red, puffy eyes staring into her father's stern, brown ones.
"I do not hate you. I don't know where you got the impression that I hated you from…"
"Well, you don't love me."
"What makes you think that?"
Elphaba paused before whispering, "You never say it."
Frex blinked and softened slightly. She was right. He did barely tell her that he loved her. But he did. He did love her. "I… I do love you, Elphaba," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder, but Elphaba shrugged him off. "What do you want me to say, Elphaba?"
"You don't have to say anything. I know what you're thinking."
Frex was silent for a moment. "When you were in the Vinkus, Nessa received a letter from Fiyero, saying what had happened to you. Nessa was completely distraught… and so was I. We were both so worried about you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you… died… and I wasn't there with you. I was so worried that that was it, that you were going to die in a country across Oz."
"You wouldn't have had to worry about me anymore."
"For Oz sakes, Elphaba! Do you think I want you to die? Do you think I want to see you like this?"
"Do you think I want to be like this?" Elphaba argued.
Frex opened his mouth to respond, but Elphaba wasn't finished.
"Don't you think I want to be normal?" she asked, glaring at her father. "Don't you think I would rather not be like this?" She angrily gestured to herself.
"What do you want, Elphaba?" Frex shouted at her.
Elphaba was silent for a moment. "I was… I want… I don't know, but it's not this."
"Do you hate the way you are?"
Elphaba snorted, and Frex knew what that meant.
"Why do you hate yourself?"
She let out a huffed laugh. "Why wouldn't I hate myself?"
"I'm sorry," Frex said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "I'm so sorry, Fabala."
Elphaba stiffened slightly at the old nickname she hadn't heard in a very long time. She looked up at her father. "Wh-What?"
"I'm sorry you feel like this," he continued. He looked at the grave they were currently sitting in front of and smiled sadly. "You're so much like your mother. Strong, fierce tempered, independent, strong-willed, determined… and you remind me so much of her. When… when you got sick, I was afraid. I was so afraid to get close to you and lose you like I lost your mother. I didn't want to –I couldn't– go through that pain again."
"So… you pushed me away instead?" Elphaba asked softly.
"I… it wasn't my original intention, but I guess it was the outcome."
The two lapsed into another silence. The Governor looked at his eldest daughter, taking her in. For a moment, she seemed to transform into a six-year-old girl. Her soft, innocent features looked back up at him, a whole bunch of questions hidden behind her eyes that her mouth dared not ask.
"Father?" Elphaba asked, breaking into her father's thoughts.
"Yes?"
Elphaba blinked and squirmed slightly. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked back at her mother's grave. Frex took a deep breath before gently wrapping his arm around his daughter. Elphaba stiffened slightly, but slowly melted into her father's embrace. She leaned her head against his shoulder, staring at her mother's grave. Tears sprang to her eyes and she wiped them away, but as soon as she wiped them away, even more came.
The governor looked down at her and gently pulled her closer, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. "It's okay, Elphaba."
"I'm… s-sorry," Elphaba hiccupped softly.
"You have nothing to apologize for, Fabala," Frex whispered, gently rubbing her shoulder.
"But…"
"No. None of this is your fault. I'm sorry."
The two stayed like that, father holding daughter in his arms. Elphaba had stopped crying after a while and simply laid in her father's arms, something she couldn't remember ever doing before. The only person to ever hold her was Fiyero. She tried not to dwell on that fact and simply relax.
"Do you want to go back inside?" Frex asked, feeling the steady rise and fall of his daughter's chest against him.
Elphaba nodded and allowed her father to help her up. She looked at her mother's grave one final time before walking back to the house with her father.
"Elphaba," Frex said as they walked back.
"Yes, Father?"
"I… I just want you to know that… you're not an embarrassment."
Elphaba looked up. "I'm not?"
"No, you're not."
"And… you love me?"
"Of course I love you, Elphaba."
The green girl lips twitched and she leaned closer to her father. "I… I love you, too, Father."
The Governor smiled as he wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulders, placed a gentle kiss in her hair, and led her back up to the house.
Elphaba and Fiyero wrote letters to each other throughout June. The prince kept telling his girlfriend about all the plans he had for his birthday and everything he wanted to share and show her. Elphaba tried not to frown as she read the letters. She couldn't tell Fiyero about what her father had said. She couldn't tell him that her father said she couldn't go. He seemed so excited to see her again, and she just couldn't do that to him. So she simply wrote letters sang how excited she was for him and that she couldn't wait to see him again. She just hoped her father would change his mind and agree.
One evening, Elphaba was feeling a bit lightheaded. She couldn't remember much, but she did remember fainting at the dinner table and her father and her sister shouting her name. She woke up a few hours later in the hospital, with her father and her sister at her side.
"There wasn't enough oxygen getting to your brain," Frex said once he felt Elphaba was conscious enough.
Elphaba closed her eyes, feeling her sister's soft hand slip into hers. Frex announced that he would go tell the doctor that Elphaba was awake, leaving the two sisters alone.
"Nessa…" Elphaba croaked out, slowly opening her eyes.
"Would you like some water, Fabala?" Nessa asked, her worried eyes never leaving her sister's face.
The green girl nodded and Nessa reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the glass of water. The green girl was too weak to protest her sister helping her drink, and simply let Nessa hold her head and tip the glass up to her lips.
"Thanks," she whispered, her voice sounding less hoarse.
The brunette smiled and nodded before returning the glass to the nightstand. "How are you feeling?"
"I've been better."
"Fabala…"
"I'm okay now, Nessie." She reached for her sister's hand again and Nessa latched on, as if she was afraid to let go.
The two sisters didn't say anything for a moment.
"What time is it?" Elphaba asked after a while.
"Almost eleven thirty."
"Aren't you sleepy?"
"I can sleep later."
"Nessa, I don't want you to keep yourself awake like this for me."
"I… I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight."
Elphaba regarded her sister before attempting to push herself into a sitting position.
"Fabala, I don't think you should…"
"I'm fine," the green girl said as she succeeded. She fixed her pillow behind her back, with a bit of help from Nessa, before turning back to her. "But… I don't think we'll be going to the Vinkus."
"I figured."
"You did?"
Nessa nodded. "And Father told me that we weren't going to be able to go."
"You could still go if you want to. Galinda will be there to help you."
"I don't want to go without you."
"But you really want to see the Vinkus. I don't want you to stay behind because of me."
Nessa regarded her sister and noticed that her eyelids were growing heavier. "You're tired. We'll talk about this more in the morning."
Elphaba looked like she wanted to protest, but Nessa was already helping her to lay back down. "… Kay…" she mumbled sleepily as she sank back against the pillows.
Elphaba was allowed to go home three days later, with a new prescription and orders to take it easy for the next few days. The carriage ride back to the mansion was very quiet. Both Frex and Nessa stared at Elphaba as she looked out the window, and would immediately tear their gazes away when she looked at them.
Elphaba insisted that she could walk up the stairs by herself, but Frex put his foot down and told the doorman to help her while he helped Nessa. The green girl didn't look happy, but bit back her protests for the time being.
One week later, on the last Tuesday in June, as the Thropp family sat at the breakfast table, Frex was reading the paper. He paused at a certain headline that made his eyes widen in shock.
"What is it, Father?" Nessa asked, noticing her father's expression.
Frex shook his head and handed the paper to his youngest daughter. Nessa read the headline and frowned.
"What is it?" Elphaba asked, reaching for the paper.
Nessa handed it to her and the green girl's eyes immediately scanned the headline and she gasped.
Queen Alyena Tigulaar of the Vinkus dies unexpectedly at the age of eighty.
So, what did we think about Elphaba and Frex's little conversation? And this little cliffy?
