AN: Okay, so some people loved the last chapter, some thought it was too much. I myself agree that it was too much. There's something behind it, though. I admit I didn't NEED the detail I put in, but otherwise it would've been like "she always found it hard to resist him because it felt good". Yeah. Maybe this chapter will explain a bit why I wrote what I wrote.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Hero

Kalendrio watched Elphaba move around the schoolhouse the next day, picking up extra papers from the desks. He'd been trying very hard for the last few minutes to put what he'd seen the evening before out of his mind. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to forget the sight of the Crown Prince and Princess getting intimate on the floor of the schoolhouse. Somehow, royalty and sex had never seemed to go together in his mind. As a child, any tribe member was taught that the royal family, specifically the King, Queen and Crown Prince, were higher and more dignified. Having sex on the ground in the winter at the schoolhouse just didn't coincide with that sort of… dignity.

She smiled at him, but it was a weak, worn smile. There were bags under her eyes and she moved like her entire body ached. When she felt she'd thoroughly cleaned off the desks, she sat down behind her own, larger desk and slumped back in the chair. "This was not my day," she said hoarsely.

"You don't look so good. How'd your husband let you out of the Palace like that?" She had seemed in perfectly good health yesterday, what changed? He pulled a chair over near her and rubbed her shoulders gently.

She flinched and swatted him away. "The last thing I need right now is to be touched," she mumbled.

"Really, though, how'd he let you out? He's always worried about you on days when you're feeling and looking fine, how could he have possibly let you outside like that this morning?"

"He barely let me out of bed this morning," she muttered.

He wasn't sure what connotations she'd meant that to have, but he could guess at two. And judging from what he'd seen the previous night, he could almost pinpoint one. "Then how are you here?"

"He doesn't control me." Her voice rose slightly on this and she seemed, for only a moment, like she had more fight in her. Then she sighed again and said, "Really, I'm just tired." Her pitch got higher and she pretended to whine, "'But Fae, what about this? Fae, I want to do this. Fae, it's not that late.'" She rested her arms on the desk and buried her face in them. "And it's not as if I don't know what he was trying to do. It took me until five o'clock this morning to figure it out, but I am not stupid, and he is not good at tricking me."

"Huh?" Kalendrio was a bit confused at this point.

She looked up from her arms stupidly. "My husband can be the most pathetic creature on the face of this earth."

"What do you mean?"

She blushed. "I'm going to tell you, but only because I have no one else to talk to about this. If you ever mention it again without my bringing it up, I will… I'll use my royal powers to do something or other," she shrugged.

He didn't know if she knew what she could do, but understood the threat. "Okay."

She took a deep breath, knowing she had to trust him with this; there was no one else, after all. He'd listened to her rant about Animal Rights and such, why should her ranting about her marriage be different? Besides, he was her friend, he was closest to her, aside from Fiyero, and he'd never betray her. "Last night, my husband would not let me go to bed. Well, he let me get into the bed, but he didn't exactly allow me to sleep."

"The entire night?"

"The entire night," she confirmed. "It's my fault, really. I shouldn't have let the fact that I was enjoying it prevent me from resisting when it got late, but it was so hard. Before I could even come down from the high he put me on, he's starting another one. You can't imagine how hard it is to stop that when it feels so good. He is never that bad at night. I couldn't figure out why he was behaving so strangely for the longest time, and just we were finally and completely done, I knew."

"What do you mean?"

"He's jealous and paranoid, Kalen." Elphaba kicked the desk weakly. "He thinks I'm not around enough, that I like you more because I talk to you for a little while. I can't put it through his head that I talk to him even more, he just doesn't realize it. I'm gone a lot of the day, yes, but the majority of it, I'm not talking to anyone but a bunch of children. Do you know what he said when it was over? He kissed my neck and whispered, 'I don't think anyone else could do that to you'. I mean, sweet Oz, he thinks he has to remind me who I love! He thinks he has to remind me who satisfies me. He didn't even do what he did last night because he's just a stupid, horny man; he did it because he wanted to remind me that he can satisfy me! I don't know if I'd rather it have been the more simple reason. Sometimes I wonder why I married him."

Kalendrio looked at Elphaba pityingly. "He treated you like…"

"I don't care that he did that! It's why he did it."

"You shouldn't be forced to stay up all night for sex, though."

"It wasn't force. It was good to the very end; I just wish I'd gotten more sleep. I wish he didn't have to be such a stupid, nervous…" Elphaba's throat caught a choke then and she drew her knees up on the chair, hiding her face.

Kalendrio jerked his chair closer and hugged her. "Elphaba," he said her name, knowing that nothing he said would comfort her. He didn't understand how she'd acted the way he'd seen her act with her husband and now feel this way. Yesterday, when she'd looked at Fiyero, it had been like she wanted nothing else in the world. Now she was crying.

"I wish I didn't love him," she whispered.

"But you do." He said softly.

"I want my own life. I want to be myself. But at the same time, I want him." She raised her face and looked at him then, shame, desperation, helplessness, want, hate, regret, everything was written across her face.

"Tell him that, then. Explain that you love him, but he can't keep behaving this way."

"I tried to!" She pushed out of Kalendrio's hug and stood, striding angrily across the room. "It only scares him more. He can't seem to understand that I can love him with everything I have, everything I know, that I can feel as if I would die without him, and at the same time ask to be left alone a few hours a day." Staring out the window, she wiped the frost away and squinted. "Speaking of not being left alone…" She muttered.

Kalendrio hugged her again before Fiyero came in, held her close and then let her go. "I don't know what to tell you."

She nodded, shaking with sadness… or was it rage? He couldn't tell.

The door flung open and Fiyero walked in. "Fae?" His voice was broken. Immediately it was obvious he felt guilty.

"You're early," she said slowly, "why? You're not supposed to come find me for another hour and a half. Or am I not allowed to be alone with someone that long?"

He shut the door behind him and didn't bother with his coat. Instead, he took her straight into his arms, murmuring, "I'm sorry, Fae. I'm sorry. I came early because I thought it'd be best for you to get home and get some rest as soon as possible. It's my fault you're exhausted and I don't want you like this." Fiyero looked down at her, seeing her face burned with tears, noticing her shuddering. "Last night, I…" He stopped himself and looked at Kalendrio, trying to politely ask him to leave.

Kalendrio hesitated. He saw nothing but good intentions in the Crown Prince's eyes, but that didn't mean those good intentions could fix things. Lingering in the doorway, he stared at his feet. "Um, your Highness, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Elphaba stared at him, confused, but didn't say anything as Fiyero carefully placed her in a chair, touched her cheek and followed the other man out the door into the cold. She didn't know what Kalendrio was going to say, but she was too tired to think much of anything.

Closing the door, Kalendrio felt absurd. What was he doing, attempting to give marriage advice to the Crown Prince when he himself was a widow? "Your Highness, if you'll excuse me saying so, I think she's upset for more reasons than being exhausted. She's tired, but I don't think that's necessarily was hurting her."

Fiyero blinked. How in Oz did Kalendrio know he'd kept Elphaba up? Elphaba wasn't normally the type to discuss sex with anyone. If she had said something, maybe something was wrong. A common tribe boy knowing what happened between he and Elphaba… that irked him a bit, but he had other concerns. "Explain."

Kalendrio paused. How was he supposed to say this? "Normally, your Highness, when I talk to your wife, we talk about books or politics, nothing personal. Recently, though, she tells me more, I guess because she doesn't know what else to do. She loves you, your Highness, but as much as she does, she needs her space, herself, something aside from you and her."

Fiyero winced. It all sounded very familiar. When he realized Kalendrio had backed away a little, unsure if Fiyero was taking this the right way, he waved his arm and said, "Go on."

Apprehensively, he told him, "What happened between you two yesterday set her off, but I don't think that's all it is. She hasn't been doing too well. It's hard to tell, most days, but her topics of conversation trail off and she gets agitated. There's nothing I can do except to tell you this, your Highness. I think you need to talk with her."

Why couldn't he have figured this out on his own? Was he really that bad at understanding his own wife? Fiyero nodded and dismissed Kalendrio, feeling ignorant and insensitive. He came back in the schoolhouse and found her half asleep in the chair. "Fae…"

She shook herself awake again and looked up at him, giving him what he now realized was a very forced smile. "What are you…?" She recoiled when he picked her up, remembering what it had led to the last time.

"I'm taking you home and putting you to bed." When she looked at him fearfully, he groaned inwardly. "To sleep." After seeing her so exhausted as a result of him keeping her up, even if she had been willing, she didn't really think he'd pull the same stint again, did she?

Relieved, she relaxed and let him wrap her coat around her and mumbled sleepily as he struggled to open the door, "Thank you, my hero."

There was a short moment when Fiyero wasn't quite sure if she was talking about him…