Chapter Thirty-Five: Fine

Fiyero couldn't get out of Morrible's office fast enough. She had wanted to go check on Elphaba – he'd told her that she'd fainted upon finding the body. Luckily, he'd talked her out of it and promised Elphaba would come see her when she felt better. He wondered how much pain she was in. He should never have let her go alone this morning, not with her being pregnant.

When he finally made it back to her dorm, the old woman was not the only company Elphaba and Galinda had. There was a girl without arms sitting in a wheelchair. He supposed she was the old woman's charge.

Galinda greeted him at the door. "We're keeping Elphaba company after her… um, fainting spell," she gave him a look.

He guessed they didn't want the girl to know what was going on so he nodded. "I wanted to keep her company as well." Fiyero pulled a chair up near the bed that Elphaba was lying in and asked softly, "Are you okay?"

She nodded, not looking at him. "I'm fine."

He reached for her hand but she pulled it away, glancing over at the girl in the corner who was now talking with Galinda about sorcery. Fiyero thought it was stupid that she still felt the need to hide. It was just one person, and this girl hardly looked the type to gossip.

"Have you met Nessarose?" Elphaba asked, gesturing to the girl.

The girl looked up. "Hi."

Fiyero almost stuck his hand out to shake hers but caught himself. "Hello. I'm Fiyero."

"You must be the friend that found Elphaba after she fainted."

"I am."

"Well, thank the Unnamed God that you were there. Clearly, He was watching over our dear Elphaba." Nessa smiled sweetly.

He tried not to laugh when Elphaba wrinkled her nose at this. "I suppose He was. It is nice to meet you, Nessarose."

She reminded him of someone, though he wasn't sure who. The girl went back to talking with Galinda.

He lowered his voice. "What happened?"

"Well," Elphaba said, still refusing to look at him, "you won't have to pay to get us to the City and all that."

He blinked. Fiyero honestly had no idea what to say in this situation. "Did it hurt?"

"I said I was fine."

"That was not the question I asked."

"What do you think, Fiyero? Now stop talking about it."

He wanted to be able to talk to her. He wouldn't even mind if they had this conversation with Galinda in the room, but the other two women were getting in the way. Fiyero just sighed and sat beside her. It was over an hour before Nessarose left, and Nanny had to take another "look" at Elphaba before she, too, left. Fiyero had been forced to leave the room for that. When it was finally just Fiyero, Elphaba and Galinda in the room, he said, "I'm so sorry."

"Fiyero, it wasn't your fault."

He grabbed her hand. "Look at me."

She did.

"Just because not all of this was my fault doesn't mean I can't be sorry, Fae."

Galinda sat down near them. "Oh, Elphie." Her eyes were tearing up.

"Oh, Galinda, don't cry."

"I'm not going to go by that name anymore. Dr. Dillamond always called me Glinda. In honor of him, and in honor of, well," she gestured at Elphaba's stomach, "I will go by Glinda from now on."

Somehow Fiyero thought Galinda – Glinda, oops – was more affected by what had happened to Elphaba than Elphaba was herself. Well, at least more than Elphaba would ever admit. Elphaba was probably more affected by what happened to Dr. Dillamond. She got straight to asking him about it. "What happened when you went to Morrible, Fiyero?"

"She walked with me over to the, um, scene. Then she sent me to sit in her office while she dealt with a few things and asked me some questions."

"What kind of questions?"

"Just what I saw in the area when we found him. She wanted to see you but I managed to talk her out of it. At least until tomorrow. She wanted to know why you weren't in the infirmary, but I told her that because of your allergy to water, Galinda – sorry, Glinda – and I knew better how to care for you than nurses."

"Good. And it seems you came up with the same story I did in regards to your illness. You just fainted."

"Well, I did actually pass out, Fiyero."

"But it was more than that and for other reasons."

She nodded.

He sat with her for a few more minutes. Eventually she started to nod off. Fiyero reached out and touched her forehead.

She flinched and looked up at him. "Yero, I need my rest. Maybe it's best if you go."

"After all this?"

"You spent the night here on Wednesday. You don't need to again."

"I promise, Fiyero, if something happens, I'll send for you right away," Glinda assured him.

"I'll see you tomorrow in class, anyway." Elphaba told him.

"Are you kidding me? You are not going to class tomorrow! You just had a miscarriage. Are you insane?" He folded his arms across his chest.

Elphaba glared at him. "I'm going."

"Really?" Fiyero sighed. "I don't think our morning life sciences class will be happening tomorrow, Fae." He hadn't wanted to remind her of that, but she wasn't going to be reasonable.

She blinked slowly. "Oh. You're right. I can't imagine Morrible will have found a new professor that quickly."

"I guess you can't go to class, then."

"I can. Just not in the morning. I should probably go talk to Morrible in the morning, though. She'll want to know what I saw."

"You are impossible!" Fiyero was exasperated. "Elphaba, please just listen to me. You are not healthy enough to go to class. If you faint or something else happens and I'm not there, someone will take you to the infirmary and then maybe they'll find out what really happened and that can't be good."

Elphaba looked at him and bit her lip. "I guess you're right."

"Then may I come back tomorrow morning and check on you?"

She rolled her eyes but nodded. "Yes."

"I love you. You just take care of yourself."

"If you'll ever let me rest, I will."

He kissed her forehead gently. "Sleep well."

Elphaba smiled at him halfheartedly as he left.

He headed back to his apartment and climbed into his bed. The day was almost over but it felt like weeks had passed. But one thing had become clear to him: he could never let anything happen to Elphaba like that again. Fiyero blamed himself. How could he not?

He wanted to do something for her. Fiyero knew he couldn't exactly make everything better, but he wanted to make her feel at least a little happier. Well, she'd be on bed rest for a day or two, at least. Maybe he'd go to the bookstore early tomorrow morning and get her a book to keep her occupied. And he could bring her some good food to eat, too, something easy on her stomach. He couldn't imagine she was feeling that great.

Fiyero fell asleep thinking of all of the things he could do to make her feel better.