A/N: I don't know what to say. Um…Ann Coulter's on crack? Yeah, sounds good.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Elphaba woke up in a stinging sweat. She looked around the little room in momentary confusion, seeing the sleeping Fiyero beside her, panicking slightly in an all-too familiar feeling of forgetfulness until she spotted Liir, Nor, and Cass curled up in their respective corners and the past fifteen years of her life came flooding back. All of it. It was as if a floodgate had opened in her mind and everything repressed, magically or otherwise, came out and hit her all at once.

Ironically, all those memories she hadn't had access to before now blocked her from the realization she had begun to form as they hit her.

It was a simple thought, just one word, but she couldn't find it. She was too busy with this new rush of memories, too busy redefining the boundaries of her world and even her mind by what she found.

"Miss? Are you awake?" asked the young maunt cautiously, walking fearfully into the room where Elphaba had spent most of the last year. Elphaba blinked rapidly, the unfamiliar room around her coming into focus.

"Fiyero? Where's Fiyero? Where am I? What happened?" she cried, sitting up too rapidly and falling back as a wave of dizziness hit her.

An older woman, Mother Maunt, came into the room to relieve the frightened, speechless young novice.

"Thank you, Sister Wendela. I will speak with our patient now." The young woman departed quickly and Mother Maunt perched in the chair beside Elphaba's bed.

"Who are you? What's going on?" Elphaba demanded. "The last thing I remember is…"

The young woman closed her eyes and tried to recall, but a wave of intense pain pushed her probing thoughts away. She fell back against the pillow again. "Wha- what happened?" she asked quietly.

"You are in the mauntery of Saint Glinda. You came to us just over a year ago," the older woman told her calmly.

"A year? But…"

"Yes, a year. You fell into a coma just after you arrived. You had blood on your wrists, but it wasn't yours. There was, physically, absolutely nothing wrong with you." The woman paused to allow Elphaba to absorb this. "Then, a few months after you arrived, it became undeniable that you were…pregnant. Three months ago, you had a son. We called him Liir. He…isn't green, he has dark hair and blue eyes. He seems intelligent, he's proceeding normally. Would you like to see him?"

The older woman had continued to speak, oblivious to Elphaba's growing horror and the absolute shutdown of her emotions. She began to rock back and forth.

"No, no, no, no, no, I'm not a woman, I'm not a person, no, no, I did it, it's my fault, no!"

It was all there, that and a dozen other memories like it. And then the thought that had kept escaping her finally pushed its way through.

How can you remember this now?

Well, who made you forget in the first place?

Yackle.

Elphaba pulled herself out of bed, changed quietly, brushed her hair, cleaned up, and then sat down at the table with her head in her hands to think. But she was startled out of her reverie by the sight of- Oh, Kumbricia, her son- sitting up among his blankets, staring at her.

"Liir," she said, looking back at him. His eyes were like mirrors, and she realized she knew nothing about him, had no insight into him.

"Auntie Witch…Elphaba…" he said slowly, standing. "I-I don't know what to call you."

She laughed nervously; this boy alone had the capacity to perpetually unsettle her and make her doubt herself and her abilities.

"I don't know either," she said. She looked at him again; he stepped closer. "I'm sorry, Liir," she told him quietly. "I'm sorry I wasn't- I didn't-" she dropped her head back into her hands. "It's no excuse, but I didn't know how to be a mother, especially when I didn't know I was one, not for sure, not when I came into it seven years late and still uncertain. My mother…but it doesn't matter," she added. "I'm sorry, and I don't say that a lot, so take it, all right?"

"All right…Mom," Liir said, smiling at her. Elphaba smiled back, feeling a warm band radiate around her abdomen and the baby within. Maybe, just maybe, she could fix Liir. Maybe, just maybe, she could do this of all things right.