A/N: Since I'm off sick from work today - two chapters!

********** One Short Day **********

Twenty minutes after the spectacular act-ending number, everyone was settled back in their seats. The performers were all backstage and ready to continue on with the show.

The second half started well, with the tension between Emily and Connor working in their favour for a change. Nobody had ever thought they'd see Connor dressed up in his soldier's uniform, but he held his own with it.

They also seemed to enjoy Jess (whose green and black lace gown gave Becker a few wicked thoughts of his own) confronting Lester about the Wizard's lies. It was weird seeing Lester not be sarcastic, but he worked well with the part anyway. Many in the audience also wondered about Jess' anger about being used - was it just acting, or did it come from somewhere inside of the tiny girl…?

Matt seemed to have a glazed look on his face as he watched Emily move gracefully around the stage as Glinda. The character had reverted to a sweet, shy girl, and her own quiet personality came shining through. When she sang about losing the man she loved to the 'Wicked Witch', the sweetness and longing was well shown.

As Emily slid offstage, sadly, Connor and Jess came back out. They'd worked really hard on this next number, and really tried to play up the relationship between their characters. As soon as he heard the first few words of the song, Becker knew that he wouldn't enjoy it as much as he had the rest.

"Kiss me too fiercely,

Hold me too tight,

I need help believing

You're with me tonight."

Without warning, unbidden images flashed through his head of Jess singing those words to him as he trailed kisses down her neck. In his mind, she sat in his lap facing him, shoulders bare and fingers trailing lines of shivers up and down his bare chest. He leaned her backwards and kissed down to her collarbone before pulling her back up and into a smoking kiss. His hands tangled in her hair and he heard her moan in his mind as she wrapped her arms around him to get as close to him as possible. Their kisses were hard and passionate, and he felt drunk off of the idea of them.

Opening his eyes as he felt his face get warm, he heard Connor singing back to Jess as he pulled her close. Becker clenched his fists at his side, watching his girl sing passionately to the scientist that stood onstage with her. Her arms were wrapped around his neck as he had his around her waist. He reminded himself that they were just friends and that he really would be the one holding her like that later that night. He was convinced that this was the only reason he kept from leaping onstage and pummelling their friend.

Matt glanced at Becker out of his peripheral, and chuckled quietly at the sight of his clenched fists, rigid jaw and angry glare. He elbowed him in the ribs, and the Captain looked over at him. Matt raised an eyebrow and Becker shook his head before facing the stage again. Matt let out another chuckle before he faced front once more.

Connor was suddenly being grabbed by a few guards onstage, and being taken to what looked like a cornfield, while Jess stood closer to the middle and sang angrily. She sang about being punished for good deeds, and resigning herself to being completely wicked as everyone already thought her to be.

After she raced offstage came a very brief scene involving witch-hunters that actually caused Becker a flash of fear. Despite knowing that it was only a show, the idea of anyone hurting Jess made him want to hit something. Once again, he kept his concern for her in check, calming himself even more when she safely returned to the stage for a confrontation with Emily.

They bickered for a few minutes about good and bad, and what to do with what was coming. Finally, Jess seemed to resign herself to her fate as she told Emily that it was all up to her now. Emily then took her cue and began to sing sweetly over the band.

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives

For a reason, bringing something we must learn

And we are led to those who help us most to grow

If we let them and we help them in return."

Becker smiled at the words, thinking of how that had been Jess for him. He'd met her at a time when he's been at his darkest: Abby, Connor and Danny had gone through the anomaly, and Sarah had just been killed in action. He was convinced that he'd never come out of his funk, and then out of nowhere, there she was. She very quickly (although it took him a very long time to admit it) became his anchor, helping to slowly pull him back from the brink. Her sweet disposition had been unwanted at first, but he'd come to rely heavily on it. He was sure that if the beetle incident at the ARC had ended differently, he would have spiralled back into the darkness that had consumed him the previous year.

Suddenly she was singing again, and he recognized the voice from that day he passed the lab. Jess had been the one singing with Emily!

"It well may be that we may never meet again

In this lifetime, so let me say before we part,

So much of me is made of what I've learned from you

You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart,

And now whatever way our stories end,

I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend."

Her voice was so clear and sincere that Becker felt a tug on his heart. Definitely the song that spoke about the way he felt about her. The girls were singing together now, about forgiveness and blame, and how nothing mattered anymore. The audience clapped wildly as they held a lovely harmonic note together before continuing with their song.

Just as they were getting ready to (he assumed) finish the song, Emily looked Matt dead in the eye, catching him off-guard.

"And because I knew you…"

Jess gazed lovingly at Becker, causing him to grin back.

"Because I knew you…"

Both breaking their gazes, the girls looked at each other fondly.

"Because I knew you,

I have been changed

For good."

The music ended around them and the pair onstage hugged as the crowd went nuts. The scene that followed, once more pulled at Becker's heart, because he was forced to watch as the shadow of Jess (as the witch, but Jess all the same) melted into nothing behind a screen. If he hadn't known the story, he'd have been a mess at the idea. For the life of him though, he couldn't remember the end of this musical. It had been a number of years since he took his sister to see it… It was then that Lester and Abby reappeared onstage, and Emily confronted them about Abby's character doing so many evil deeds (no matter what the intent was), and Lester's Wizard being the Wicked Witch's father. That one had gotten a few snickers from the audience as Lester seemed distraught at the idea. Emily sternly told them both that they were never to return to Oz as her bubble came back down to the stage.

As Emily stepped back into her bubble and was lifted off the ground, the scarecrow came tiptoeing out on stage. Glancing left and right (thus giving people the chance to recognize him), Connor dropped to his knees at centre stage and flipped a trapdoor in the stage floor open. "It worked!" he stage-whispered.

Out of nowhere, Jess appeared and the audience cheered. Connor hoisted her out of the hold and they hugged as they spoke their final lines to each other. As he moved to the back of the stage, saying that they had to leave and never come back to stay safe, Jess stayed at centre stage, looking up at Emily.

"Who can say if I've been changed for the better, but…"

Jess joined Emily's sweet voice, as the rest of the cast sang offstage.

"Because I knew you…"

"No one mourns the wicked…"

Emily raised her hand lightly as she sang one of the highest notes anyone had ever heard.

"Because I knew you…"

Jess moved towards Connor as her voice rejoined her friend's.

"I have been changed…"

The cast came back in as Emily was lifted off the stage in her bubble and Connor and Jess walked through the space at the back of the stage.

"No one mourns the wicked!

Wicked!

Wicked!"

The music crescendoed and at the lovely crash of the last note, everyone went silent and the stage went dark. A split second later, the audience was on their feet clapping and screaming.

A moment later, the curtain re-opened, and half of the cast members-at-large came forth to bow at the applause. The second half ran out on stage once they had backed up, and took their bows, before stepping back to allow the main cast a chance at their reception. One of the female canteen workers who had played the Witch of the East came out with one of Becker's soldiers to take their bows, immediately followed by one of Connor's tech geek buddies who'd played a schoolteacher of the witches.

Abby came out next, still in full costume and bowed deeply, her white wig sliding off her head as she did so. Laughing, the audience watched her back up as Lester came striding out onto the stage, arms extended wide. Everyone cheered even louder than before, not only because he had played the part well, but also to make sure that he was in a good mood for the next little while (incase they needed to ask him for anything). Once Lester finally backed away from the front of the stage, Connor came jogging out. A few deep dramatic bows and a lot of applause later, he moved to the side of the stage, and the cast parted like the Red Sea.

The space at the back of the stage that had been closed after Connor and Jess' exit had reopened as the cast moved to the sides of the stage. The lights went up even higher, and Emily and Jess walked out holding hands. If possible, the cheering grew even more deafening. The girls walked forward and bowed together. Then Jess stepped back and Emily curtsied in a very ladylike manner. Matt's smile was massive, and she winked at him before stepping back.

When Jess moved forward, the foot-stomping began. She grinned happily as she curtsied low twice, and then raised herself up again, staring around the room. She motioned for the others to step forward, and the cast took a collective bow before acknowledging their musicians to the side of the stage, as well as the tech crew at the back.

One more bow and the curtains started to close. Just as they did, Jess caught Becker's eye. She'd never seen him smiling so much. He gave her a wink and a nod, and she giggled as she grinned back.