Author's Note: I appreciated all your concern for Galinda! You'll find out what happens now. And I'd like to give a special shoutout to Wickedly Hope Pancake. I do believe this is the first time I've been threatened with flying guinea pigs. It was a great motivator!
Elphaba quickly realized that Galinda wasn't going to be waking up on her own. Much too terrified to attempt any magical revival, she yelled for help until a few other girls in the dormitory came running. The next thing she knew, someone had fetched Madame Morrible and Galinda was rushed to the hospital.
Now Elphaba was seated in the waiting room at the hospital, anxiously anticipating news on Galinda's condition. What she wouldn't give to get back the last couple hours of her life and redo them!
At last, Madame Morrible stepped into the waiting room, her lips pursed and her forehead creased. Elphaba looked at her expectantly. "How is she?" she asked nervously.
"She is alive, but still unconscious and weak," Madame Morrible replied, and Elphaba let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Miss Elphaba, I need you to tell me everything you know about what happened," Morrible continued. "Did you witness the incident, or had it already occurred by the time you arrived?"
Elphaba swallowed hard. "It was my fault," she confessed. "We got into an argument, and I lost control of my magic." A fresh wave of tears threatened to spill over despite Elphaba's attempts to blink them back. "I didn't mean to do it, I swear. I never wanted to hurt Galinda," she choked out. "Please, don't let her die."
Madame Morrible placed a comforting hand on Elphaba's shoulder. "I don't believe Miss Galinda will die. We should be able to better help her now that we know the cause of her ailment," she assured the distraught green girl. "In the meantime, considering the attack was accidental and I know your intents weren't malicious, I won't punish you for this. But you must learn to control either your emotions or your magic, because I won't be so forgiving next time. Understand?"
Elphaba nodded. "Thank you," she said, wishing Morrible had punished her like she deserved. Then again, the crushing guilt was bad enough, and she didn't know how much more she could take.
Madame Morrible stepped back and swept away in the direction from which she had come. The moment she disappeared, Fiyero burst into the waiting room, breathless. Elphaba's expression hardened at the sight of him, and she sat up straighter.
"What are you doing?" she said sharply.
"I heard Galinda was in the hospital, and –" Fiyero began.
"You shouldn't be here," Elphaba cut in.
"I had to come. I feel responsible for everything. It's my fault," Fiyero said.
Suddenly, Elphaba seemed to crumble before Fiyero's eyes. "This isn't your fault. It's mine," she said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Fiyero asked in bewilderment.
"We were fighting, and I let my magic take control of me. I couldn't help it; I knocked her unconscious." Elphaba was sobbing now. "Fiyero, I could've killed her! She could've been dead!"
Fiyero frowned. "No offense, but… do you really think your magic could be strong enough to kill someone?"
"I don't know!" Elphaba cried. "I know it gets set off by anger, but that's it. I don't know the extent of the damage I can cause."
Fiyero was quiet for a while. "So this is my fault," he said finally. "You said anger sets off your magic, and I was the one to turn you and Galinda against each other."
Elphaba shook her head. "Let's not play the blame game anymore," she begged. "I'm so tired of arguing."
Fiyero chewed on his lip and hesitated slightly before sitting down beside Elphaba and holding out his arms. Elphaba gladly fell into them, needing support so much at that moment that she didn't care where it came from.
"Miss Elphaba Thropp?"
At the sound of the doctor's voice, Elphaba picked up her head from where it had been resting on Fiyero's shoulder.
"Yes?" she replied in a trembling voice.
"Miss Galinda is awake. She has requested to see you," the doctor said.
Elphaba took a deep breath and nearly started crying again. She'd known there was a good chance Galinda would survive, but there was still a tiny part of her that feared her friend wouldn't make it.
She got to her feet and went toward the door the doctor indicated. Fiyero made to follow as well, but Elphaba stopped him.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to come," she said apologetically. "I appreciate the support, but it might do more harm than good."
"You're right," Fiyero sighed. "Well, good luck."
Elphaba smiled sadly. "Hey, I can't do much worse than I've already done."
Elphaba entered Galinda's hospital room slowly and cautiously. She found the blonde girl looking tired and decidedly un-Galinda-like. Her hair was limp, her make-up was gone, and her skin was unusually pale. But to Elphaba, none of that mattered, because Galinda was alive.
"Glin," she said softly.
Galinda turned at the sound of Elphaba's voice, and her face broke out into a grin. "Elphie!" she said happily.
Elphaba crossed the room to Galinda's bed and hugged her tightly. "You have no idea how good your voice sounds right now," she said. She drew back slightly to look Galinda straight in the eye. "I am so, so sorry about what I did. I don't know how you can even look at me right now without slapping me."
"It's okay, Elphie. It was an accident," Galinda murmured. "I'm fine, you're fine – everything's fine."
"No, it's not. I should know how to control my magic by now. I'm a horrible person and I shouldn't be allowed to study sorcery anymore," Elphaba said, hanging her head in shame.
"I am going to slap you if you keep talking like that!" Galinda snapped. "For one thing, how is stopping your lessons in magic going to make things any better? You're the best sorcery student Shiz has seen in years! Besides, it's not like this happens often enough to be worrisome. And for another thing, I told you that I'm fine. All right?"
Elphaba picked up her head again, stunned. "Why are you forgiving me so easily?" she asked. Had her spell affected Galinda's memory? Had she forgotten what had happened?
Galinda shrugged. "While I was waiting for you to come in, I was thinking, and I realized that I overreacted. Fiyero and I… We said we were boyfriend and girlfriend, but I don't think it was ever as serious as I made myself believe. I should've picked up on the clues and talked about it with Fiyero a lot sooner."
"That still doesn't excuse our kiss," Elphaba objected.
"Maybe not, but who should matter more to me? The girl I've known for a year, though it feels like ten? Or the guy I just met over the summer and wrongly thought I had something special with?" Galinda said. "I'm not going to throw away our friendship over one mistake."
Elphaba let out a chuckle even as she began sniffling. She didn't think she'd cried as much in her whole lifetime as she had in that one day. Now half laughing, half crying, she embraced her friend again. "I love you, Galinda."
"I love you too, Elphie."
After spending all night and a good portion of the following day in the hospital, Elphaba was finally forced by Galinda to go outside and get some fresh air. She wandered around for a while, but with Galinda unable to join her and Nessarose busy studying in the library, she quickly became bored. She was just about to go back inside when she heard Fiyero's voice.
"Elphaba!" he called, running to catch up with her.
"Hi, Fiyero," Elphaba replied.
"How's Galinda?" Fiyero asked.
"Much better," Elphaba answered. "The doctor said that as long as everything remains normal, she should be able to leave tomorrow."
"Good," Fiyero said. "Look, I never got a chance to tell you yesterday, but I was really impressed by how you handled the situation. With no witnesses, it would've been really easy to lie about what happened. Yet you told the truth."
Elphaba blushed. "I was only doing the right thing. Thank you, though."
"Listen, Elphaba, I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime," Fiyero said. "With me," he added unnecessarily.
Elphaba gaped at Fiyero. Those were the last words she expected to come out of his mouth, for a number of reasons.
"Hear me out," Fiyero went on, picking up on Elphaba's astonishment. "Galinda and I are over, the two of you have made up… Why not give us a shot?"
Elphaba finally closed her mouth and found her voice. "I could never do that to Glin. And we might have worked things out, but I don't want to do something that might upset her so soon afterward. I'm sorry, Fiyero."
"Please just give it a try," Fiyero beseeched her. "If Galinda doesn't like it, we'll stop seeing each other. I promise."
Elphaba shook her head. "That's my final decision," she said. "I'm flattered, honestly, but no." She could see that Fiyero was about to speak again, so she rushed to cut him off. "I should probably go check on Galinda. I'll see you later."
With that, Elphaba turned and ran in the direction of the hospital, leaving a dejected Fiyero behind her.
I think I'll have one more chapter after this one, but I need some help. My friend thinks Elphaba and Fiyero should get together in the end, and while I'd love that, I can't realistically see it happening. However, if other people agree with her, you might just find that Fiyero can be very persuasive. So what do you guys think? Let me know in a review or PM or something!