Elphaba

She returned to their room alone, Madame Greyling having asked to speak with Glinda for a while by herself. Nessa had seen them enter and her eyes had widened slightly to see her sister's bleeding lip and Glinda's rumpled hair and clothing, but she hadn't said a word. Elphaba didn't see her on the way back out to her own room.

She sat for a long while on her bed waiting for Glinda, holding the Grimmerie in her lap and absently stroking its cover. Madame had dispatched an immediate message to the central police installation in town while Elphaba was still there with her - indeed, the pallor of their new Head's face suggested that not only was she shocked by the incident, but she was also afraid of what the Palace's reaction would be if Glinda had been harmed while at Shiz. Madame's fear had proved Glinda correct - they were considered under the protection of the Wizard now, even if protection often seemed a little more like captivity, and presumably Madame Greyling was held responsible for their safety at school.

Elphaba had found that holding the Grimmerie had a calming effect on her, as if it drained her natural power - or not her power itself, but the rage that fueled it - into itself and gave her back a more controlled magical energy instead. It didn't seem to have a similar effect on Glinda, but then Glinda had very little natural magic or rage; perhaps it frightened her in the same way that Elphaba frightened her when she lost control.

When the door opened, only just wide enough for Glinda's body to slip through, Elphaba laid aside the Grimmerie and held out one arm to her roommate. Glinda carefully pressed the door shut behind her and came to sit close with her legs across Elphaba's lap, her face pressed into Elphaba's neck. She didn't cry, but Elphaba held her tightly and leaned them both back against the headboard of her bed. "What did Madame say to you after I left?" she asked quietly.

Glinda shifted so that she could speak without muffling her words in Elphaba's neck. One hand found the ends of Elphaba's long hair hanging over her shoulder and twisted the dark strands around her fingers. "She wanted to ask whether they had . . . well, she didn't really believe that you had got to me in time, I guess. She thought I had lied to you because I didn't want you to know."

"Oh." Elphaba held her breath. "What did you tell her?"

"The truth." Using her hand on Elphaba's hip as leverage, she pushed herself up to look Elphaba in the eye. "You know I wasn't lying to you, right?"

"I know," Elphaba said, but she knew she had said it too quickly. Glinda frowned at her before laying her head back down.

"I would have told you," she said.

"I believe you." Elphaba tightened her hold on Glinda. "Did she say anything else?"

"Just again that they'd find out who the girls were who set the whole thing up. She really wasn't angry that you didn't recognize them."

"In a way I'm glad I didn't," Elphaba remarked.

"Why?"

"I may not love your friends, but I'd know their voices anywhere. If I didn't recognize these girls, it means they weren't close friends of yours."

"Oh." Glinda traced a fingertip thoughtfully over the waist of Elphaba's skirt. "You're right, that is better."

"Are you really going to be all right?"

Glinda lifted herself up and leaned back against the headboard beside Elphaba, their shoulders touching. "Yes," she said confidently. "I could make myself crazy thinking about what would have happened if I hadn't left you a note, if you hadn't been suspicious, if you had, I don't know, run slower, but . . . well, I wasn't hurt, and I can't go on being afraid forever. Although we do have permission to miss class tomorrow, I forgot to tell you that."

"All right. I'll stay here with you if you want."

Glinda poked her in the side, laughing softly. "Skipping class again after we already missed so much? You really do love me."

Elphaba only smiled awkwardly and asked, "Do you want to go and wash your face?"

"I suppose I should." She extricated herself from Elphaba's lap and stood to leave, then impulsively threw her arms around Elphaba again and said, "Thank you for all of this. I can't think what this would all be like without you as my roommate."

"Without me as your roommate, your life would be very peaceful," Elphaba pointed out.

"But I'd miss you anyway," Glinda said, not seeming to mind the absence of logic.

After Glinda had gone into their bathroom and closed the door behind her, Elphaba leaned back and closed her eyes, listening to the quiet sounds of water splashing. She didn't know how long she had been resting that way when her solitude was interrupted by a rapping sound from across the room.

She sat up and looked reflexively at the closed door, but the sound hadn't come from there. Her eyes scanned the rest of the room, and she gave a tiny, hastily smothered shriek of alarm when she saw a face at the window. It was Fiyero. Outside their third-floor window, knocking impatiently on the glass.

"Are you insane?" she hissed, opening the window just wide enough to speak to him. He was perched precariously on the tree branch that came closest to the window, clinging to the sill with his fingers.

"I had to come and -" His eyes widened as he looked at her properly. "Oh - oh, Elphaba."

"What?" she asked more harshly than she had intended.

"Your face," he choked. "Can I come in, please?"

"Someone will see you!"

"They're more likely to see me if I stay out here. Please?"

Sighing, she glanced over at the bathroom door. It was still closed. "All right. Watch out." She opened the window as carefully as she could, then gripped the hand he extended to help him pull himself into the room. "Now what do you think you're doing climbing in our window?"

"Where's Glinda?"

She nodded toward the bathroom. "Washing up. Fiyero . . ."

He shushed her, taking her hand and pulling her closer to him. She breathed in sharply, trying to control or at least ignore the heat that spread through her body when he touched her, when his eyes examined her face with a striking intensity. "Sweet Oz, Elphaba . . ." he muttered, raising his hand and just brushing the tender place at the side of her mouth. She flinched away, both because it hurt and because of the inappropriate feelings his touch elicited, but his other hand held tight to hers and wouldn't let her back away. "I had to come - the whole campus is talking, I had to see you and make sure -"

"Oh, no." She wrenched her hand from his grip and backed off to a safe distance. "Does everyone know already? I had hoped it wouldn't get out."

The compassion in his expression made her rather uncomfortable. "Everyone knows some things. They know two upper-year students and a first year were arrested and taken into town by a whole squadron of police and guards. They know they had to be carried out because apparently they couldn't move on their own. And . . . well, they know what crime they were charged with."

Elphaba frowned in confusion. "So how did you know to come here?"

"Well, people may not know the details, but they've been making some pretty good guesses. A few of the girls said you and Glinda had been locked up in Madame Greyling's rooms all afternoon and - you know there's only one student we know of who could have knocked three people flat like that without touching them." He came closer and reached for her hand again, but Elphaba barely noticed. Poor Glinda. She really had been hoping that somehow the whole thing could have been kept a secret - but she had underestimated the Shiz gossip chains and how quickly any news seemed to spread. Especially scandalous news, and there could be little as scandalous as the most beautiful and popular girl in school being attacked by three other students . . .

"Is that all they're saying?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, but he spoke too slowly, and the look on his face said volumes.

She shook her head. "Liar. We're going to hear it anyway, you know."

His hands slid up to clasp her arms, and she stiffened to keep herself from either melting or running away. "You know what someone always says in a situation like this," he said gently. "That it was - well, you know, the girl's fault. Or that she made it up to get out of trouble. Or -"

"Enough!" she whispered intently. She hadn't imagined it would get quite so bad, so quickly. She jerked her head nervously toward the still-closed bathroom door, from behind which she could still hear reassuring little splashing sounds. "Do you think she needs to hear that?"

His brow furrowed. "Hear . . . Elphaba, you did tell her, didn't you?"

Now she was confused. "Tell her what?"

"I'm sorry, I thought - those girls said specifically that you and Glinda had been in with the Head . . ." He gave her a small, sad smile. "Elphaba, she's your roommate - your friend. Don't you think she could help? I mean, she is going to find out anyway . . . I understand it's hard, but -"

And Elphaba suddenly understood. Without thinking her hands came up to hold onto his arms, mirroring his own position. "Fiyero," she said as gently as she could, "it wasn't me."

"Huh?"

"It wasn't me they tried to attack. It was . . ." She nodded toward the bathroom again. "Her."

He stared down at her, paling. "But - you -"

"I found her," she explained. "One of them hit me when I came to help her."

His mouth opened and closed a few times in silence, before he managed to say, "You said 'tried.'"

"I'm sorry?"

"Tried, you said they 'tried' to attack her."

She nodded in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. "Yes. I got there before they could do anything."

"Are you sure?"

"I swear."

He gasped as if he had been holding his breath, and pulled her into a bruising embrace. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said immediately, releasing her the minute the side of her face came into contact with his chest. "I forgot, did I hurt you?"

He meant her face, she realized. She lifted her own hand to the tender place. "I had almost forgotten about it. Is it very bad?"

"Well, it's bleeding and turning purple." He sank down heavily on the end of her bed. "Oh, Elphaba, I've been picturing the most horrible things."

"Believe me, so have I."

"Elphie, is someone there?"

The voice had come from their bathroom. She called back, "Fiyero's here, Glinda."

"So, is she . . . ?" Fiyero rested his hands on his knees and studied them, letting his question trail off.

"I think she's going to be fine." His position called her attention to the backs of his hands, which she suddenly realized were bruised black and blue, the knuckles cracked and bloodied. "What did you do?"

He followed her gaze to his hands and offered her a crooked, guilty smile. "Tree."

"Ah. Fell out?"

"No, punched one."

She winced. "I see."

"The . . . bastards had already been taken away. Sorry."

"Right."

The bathroom door opened slowly, and Glinda peered out. "Fiyero? How did you get in here?" Her face was clean of tears and not nearly as red as it had been, and her hair had been straightened. Elphaba noticed she had also changed her dress.

"He climbed in," she told Glinda. "Apparently the tree is now a ladder."

"Oh," Glinda said, hands nervously smoothing the front of her dress.

"Obviously we'll be locking the window from now on," Elphaba added.

Fiyero got slowly to his feet and walked toward Glinda as if he expected her to run away. He opened his arms without coming too close, and she stepped into them.

"So I guess everyone's heard?" she asked with her head on his chest.

Fiyero looked over his shoulder at Elphaba, and she explained, "Sort of. They don't seem to have figured out that you were there at all, according to Fiyero. Everyone thinks it was me who was attacked."

Glinda lifted her head and looked worriedly at Elphaba. "You should tell them it wasn't."

Elphaba shrugged. "No, let those girls think that what they did didn't even touch you. It's not as if I had much of a reputation to protect."

"Girls?" They had forgotten that Fiyero didn't know the entire story.

The roommates exchanged anxious looks. In the end it was Glinda, with her hands resting on his chest and her voice low and calm, who explained that she had been set up.

For a long time Fiyero couldn't speak. He looked between Glinda and Elphaba with his eyes flashing and red staining the pallor of his face. Finally he said, in a tone that made Elphaba's heart race, "Elphaba. You'll make sure they're taken care of, won't you?"

She looked straight into his eyes and said, "I promise that they will be."

Their intensity had frightened Glinda; she buried her face in Fiyero's shoulder and waited for him to hold her again. He did for a moment, one hand stroking her hair as he murmured something Elphaba couldn't hear. Then, still holding Glinda close with one arm, he extended the other to Elphaba. Unsure of what he meant, she came close enough to rest her hand on Glinda's back just below his arm. Fiyero raised his hand to her face, letting his palm rest gently against the bruised place; then he slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him and to Glinda. His hand slipped through her hair and drew her head down to rest on his unoccupied shoulder, and he held them both until Glinda had stopped shaking and Elphaba, for reasons she fervently hoped he wouldn't guess, had started.

"You'll be all right?" he asked Glinda as Elphaba started to pull away from them.

She nodded, smiling tremulously up at him. "I may have to sleep with Elphaba tonight," she added in a tone that made it clear she was not entirely joking, "but I'm fine."

He bent and kissed her, drawing it out until Glinda blushed and Elphaba began to fidget with the hem of her blouse. When he turned, the look on his face was so open and warm that Elphaba was momentarily afraid he would kiss her, too. Instead he embraced her again, taking no note of her failure to respond, and told Glinda, "I'll leave you in Elphaba's hands, then."

When he had gone, Elphaba latched the window securely behind him.