A/N: Ok, chapter…actually, I've lost count…but it's 2:50 am right now so bear with me.
Disclaimer: Not mine, that much I know.
"Weren't we going to get a permit or something, Shell, didn't you say?" asked Liir. Elphaba and Fiyero looked at each other and burst into laughter.
"Oh, right," said Liir, embarrassed. "Unless you and Fi- he- stay here, and Shell and I go and then Shell can pretend to be transporting you to another cell or something, and it would be less suspicious-"
Elphaba looked slightly impressed- well, she didn't look sarcastic, and for her that amounted to about the same thing, but Shell was shaking his head.
"I didn't know Elphie was even here, and I'm not supposed to. I may have been able to avoid being suspected of treason simply by virtue of my family connections, oh, don't glare so, Elphie, you are a traitor-"
"A traitor to what? Dictatorship? Then a traitor I am, and proud to be one," Elphaba said.
"-But anyway, they'd never have trusted me with custody of you, and a good thing, too, since, frankly, you frighten me too much for me not to do what you say-"
"Oh, shut up," Elphaba said.
"Can we just find Nor already?" cried Fiyero agitatedly.
"Yes, please," Elphaba concurred.
"Fine," said Shell, leading them down another hallway and turning at the end of it, where they were hit, simultaneously, by a tremendous stench and a blast of frigid air.
"Welcome to the Animal quarter," said Shell. Fiyero and Elphaba looked incredibly furious.
"You put my daughter in the Animal quarter?" squealed Fiyero. Elphaba shot him an angry look.
"What's wrong with that?" she hissed, then turned to Shell. "You have an Animal quarter?" she yelled. "Why are they segregated?"
As they moved down the hallway, she grew more furious and vocal, while Fiyero stewed in silence.
"Why are they kept in this squalid place, with no opportunity for cleanliness, just so that you can point to them and say, 'Look, Animals are dirty, they are not on a par with humans, so we'd better lock them up,'?" she cried, saying the last in the pretentious, shrill voice she had once used to mock the Wizard.
"Elphaba, shut up. This is a prison, they have no right-"
"A prison? And just what have any of them done? Refused to stop speaking, to return to the slavery their ancestors endured? Refused to leave their professions, or even just refused to give up their children in-in some kind of ritual cannibalistic slaughter?" She was more furious than either Liir or Fiyero had ever seen her, and that was most certainly saying something.
"We're here," said Shell, ignoring his sister, who had gone a deep forest green. He unlocked the cell door. Fiyero stood clenching his fists, breathless with anticipation. Liir watched him intently, riveted. Was this man, so filled with concern for his child, really also Liir's father? Liir found himself hoping too hard that it was true.
Elphaba watched the boy who was maybe her son watch her lover. She saw Liir's eyes go wide as a puppy's with hope, and Elphaba groaned inwardly. She had told herself it was wrong to raise children to hope, for their hopes were sure to be dashed, but she had never been able to directly break Liir's heart. She had let him have his little flirtation with Dorothy, had even let herself hope that the Scarecrow approaching Kiamo Ko was Fiyero, but she could not bear to see the hope Liir cherished now dashed as others had been. But there was no time for her to do anything, nor to examine her newfound semblance of maternal feeling, however short-lived it might turn out to be, for the door to the cell creaked open, and Fiyero gasped.