For disclaimer and other stuff, see part 1 and thank you for the reviews to XxXxIcePrincessXxXx, Rosie85 and Akasharogue. Starting friday I will be gone until the next weekend. I try to post the complete fanfic before I am leaving, but I can't make any promises. The fanfic is soon coming to an end, altogether 22 chapters. When I return I will start writing the sequel to CHILD OF THE WICKED and I am still looking for a title and am open for suggestions.

Chapter 18

Every minute Fiyero could spare from his life in the Emerald City was spent in Evergreen, sitting at Elphaba's bedside, guarding her while she slept. To his mother, it seemed that he had to make sure that Elphaba wouldn't suddenly disappear from his life again.

Right now his mother stood out the door, observing her son. Kaikoura was worried. She wanted her son to have the happiness he deserved, but what about the two woman in his life? Kaikoura had never met Elphaba. She only knew her from the letter her son had sent home. When she had read her son's letters she had known that he was deeply in love with Elphaba.

And then there was Glinda. Glinda had come home one summer together with Fiyero. He had introduced her, saying that Glinda and Elphaba had been friends.

Kaikoura had talked with her son back then. She had asked him if Glinda was a replacement for Elphaba, which he had denied, fiercely. Fiyero had made sure that no one except his mother knew about his relationship with Elphaba. No one in the Vinkus or the Emerald City or even back at Shiz had suspected that the prince and the freak had been an item.

In fairytales, the prince always got his princess, but maybe in this fairytale the prince should have gotten his green goddess.

Glinda and Elphaba, both were different as night and day.

Glinda was bursting with happiness, only caring about the newest style, trendy colors and the 'who is who' of the Emerald City.

Elphaba was, from what she had learned about the woman, a very serious woman who was firm in her beliefs. She had a couple of her own character traits herself. Maybe Elphaba was the right wife for her son. He needed a woman who balanced out his carefree dancing-through-life attitude.

Kaikoura was sure that her son loved both women in his own way and that the two women loved him too.

Fiyero would have to choose one day soon between the women. He was going to marry one of them.

He had already promised Glinda to marry her and had very nearly made her the future Queen of the Vinkus. If the Wicked Witch of the West hadn't interrupted the ceremony, he would be a married man by now. Kaikoura had only learned recently that the Wicked Witch and the Elphaba she now took care of was the same person.

Kaikoura knew that she had to talk to her son soon. She had to talk some sense into him.

Her son was holding Elphaba's, who was sleeping, hand, peacefully for once, softly talking to her but loud enough that Kaikoura could hear his words.

"I thought I would never see you again. For months I waited for you, waited until you would be back in my arms. But you never came and when I believed that you would never be mine again. I was about to marry your best friend when you came back into my life. Fae, why couldn't you let me know that you were safe all this years? Night after night I have lain awake, asking myself if you were safe and if you would ever return to me, my love. And now I am totally confused. I need you. I need you more then I can explain. I don't know anymore what I should do. I have planned my life, a life without you. I was about to marry Glinda. Fae, please, tell me what I should do. I guess I still love you. How could I ever get over you, when I'd give my life for yours?"

Kaikoura felt tears threatening to spring to her eyes, but she took a deep breath and fought them back. She wasn't going to cry. She had to be strong, for her son and for Elphaba.

She cared for the young woman. Fiyero had told her that he would try to find and save Elphaba's daughter. Kaikoura knew that she would have gone mad if she learned that someone had captured her child. Only mothers could understand the pain Elphaba was feeling since her daughter was taken away from her.

Kaikoura stepped into the room.

"You can never forget the first love," Kaikoura said.

Surprised Fiyero turned around. He hadn't known that his mother had been nearby or even listening to anything he had said to Elphaba.

"We should talk outside and let her rest in peace," Kaikoura suggested.

"But…"

"She will still be here in half an hour."

Kaikoura knew that Fiyero dreaded everytime he had to leave Evergreen and Elphaba's side. But what she had to tell her son needed to be said only between the two of them. Even when Elphaba was asleep she couldn't be sure that the woman would wake up anytime soon and hear them talking.

He nodded and followed his mother out into the hall, leaving the door ajar.

"Fiyero, I am worried about you."

"I am fine."

"You have a life in the Emerald City. You are the Captain of the Gale Force, fiancé of Glinda the Good," she reminded her son, "What are you going to do? You can't have both in your life. Not like this. I know about your feelings for Elphaba, don't try to deny them. I heard you talking to her today. You have to make a decision. It's not fair to continue like this. Neither to Elphaba nor to Glinda."

"Mother, I know. I made a promise to Glinda, a promise to marry her and I meant what I said. I am a man of honor. I wouldn't ever give a promise and not make good on it. Taking a promise back is something I would never do and haven't done. Am I right?"

Kaikoura nodded. To believe that something was right and then to realise it wasn't at all was not easy to accept. Tiggular men were men of honor, she knew that Fiyero would marry Glinda but she wasn't sure if it would make him happy.

"And as for Elphaba, I don't know. I thought I had lost her and now she is back in my life. I only know that I can't and don't want to lose her ever again. She is very important to me. As you have said, she was, and is, my first love," he continued.

"You want to keep her in your life? As a friend or a lover? Make her your mistress?" Kaikoura asked, not really knowing the answer.

Kaikoura and Fiyero had left the door ajar, in case Elphaba would wake up and need something.

And she did wake up and listened to the words that were said outside. Elphaba could hear them talking and was shocked as she heard that Kaikoura suggested that Fiyero should make her his mistress.

Fiyero looked at his mother shocked, too.

He didn't know how to answer this question, as he hadn't thought that far into the future. He needed to get out of the house and clear his mind to think. Without saying another word or even looking into the room if Elphaba was still asleep, he left Evergreen, intending to return when he had an answer to his mother's question.