Since someone already asked: no Selky is not Elphaba's daughter…
Wow...I think this is the longest its ever taken me to update this story…sorry!
I have officially started reading 'Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West'. Up until today I had only seen the musical (and pirated YouTube videos of the musical)…
"Elphie would you mind writing down all the spells you memorized?" It was the next day and Elphaba's fever had finally broken. The witch was still sprawled on the couch, drained and sleepy, but at least she was lucid.
"Is it that bad?" the green girl coughed weakly. Glinda's eyes widened when she realized what her words had implied.
"Oh Oz no," she giggled. "I didn't mean it like that; it would just be convenient if I could practice my magic without your help. I can't believe you thought…Sweet Oz if you died your knowledge of spells would be the last thing on my mind. We wouldn't keep fighting if you were gone."
"Yes you would," Elphaba insisted, her eyes suddenly fiery in their urgency.
"But you're not going to die Elphie," Glinda told her firmly. "You'll be back to kicking Gale Force butt by the end of the week." The blonde threw in some ninja slicing moves for added effect.
"Stop being morbid you two!" Caya called. "We've got enough to worry about; there's no time to put you guys through therapy."
"Ha ha very funny," Elphaba muttered sarcastically, just as Fiyero entered. "Yero you don't think Glinda and I need therapy do you?"
"No comment," the Winkie replied, quickly exiting.
***
"Elphie!" Glinda cried, cart wheeling into the living room in her translucent bubble. "I figured it out!"
"That's great!" the green girl exclaimed. "What exactly did you figure out?"
"I turned the bubble into an impenetrable force field!" the blonde squealed. "Quick, throw something at me!" Quirking an eyebrow Elphaba tossed the book she'd been reading at her enthusiastic friend. Sure enough it bounced off the bubble as if it were a hard shell. "Isn't it amazing?" Glinda cried, bouncing up and down. "The only problem is I can't get out now." At this the witch threw back her head and let loose a very wicked sounding cackle. In her room Selky flinched. "Elphie this isn't funny; I've gotta go…bad." This only made the green girl laugh harder so Glinda crossed her arms and pouted. "Do you have a pink fluffy death wish?"
***
"She overcame the fever spell," Madame Morrible hissed, glaring angrily into a smudged crystal ball.
"Are you really surprised?" Raeb asked in a bored voice. "She always managed to elude you in the past."
"But now I have the Grimmerie!" Morrible growled venomously.
"Well then use that crystal ball of yours to locate her!" Raeb suggested, not looking up.
"I can't," the former headmistress sighed. "A sorceress as powerful as Elphaba casts a subconscious magical shroud around herself, it's impossible for someone of lesser power to find her."
"Well I'm sure that execution you've planned will catch her," Morrible's cruel assistant pointed out.
"Don't be so sure," the old woman insisted. "Elphaba's very wily, she'll be suspicious. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't show up."
"Here's your problem," Raeb told Morrible, finally looking at her. "You assume that everyone's as unethical and immoral as you. However most people have a good heart, a heart you can twist and mangle until you've got them right where you want them. Elphaba's a noble witch; do you really think she's going to let you murder an entire village? I'd bet my bottom dollar that she'll try to stop you, and when she does we'll have her."
***
Selky was bored. She spent every waking minute at her peephole; it was the only form of entertainment that could lift the endless tedium of captivity. Three meals a day kept her body strong, but there was nothing for her avid mind to consume, except the observation of Elphaba and Glinda's unlikely and quirkily odd camaraderie. She's attempted to unravel the reason for their friendship and failed a thousand times over; the two girls had absolutely nothing in common. Perhaps it was the baffling 'opposites attract' rule in action. Since the witch was still sick Glinda always spent at least an hour conversing with her in the living room turned infirmary.
"Do you ever think about what would have happened?" the blonde, having finally found a way to pop her indestructible bubble, mused.
"What might have happened," Elphaba corrected, immediately understanding what her friend was talking about.
"Well what do you think might have happened if I came with you when you left the Emerald Palace?" the petite witch pressed.
"I think that I might have been a lot happier," the green girl admitted. "And I think you might have squandered your whole future and been acutely miserable."
"I still wish I'd come with you," Glinda informed her. "Every day since then I've wished I was brave enough to go with you."
"You don't really wish that," Elphaba murmured quietly. "You don't know what it was like; all those lonely nights hiding in the woods. I wouldn't wish that on you or anyone. It's a wretched way to live."
"Did you ever consider accepting?"
"What?"
"When the Wizard offered you the position," Glinda elaborated. "Did you ever think of accepting?"
"I wasn't really thinking," Elphaba pointed out. "Something about it just felt wrong."
"But maybe you could have swayed him," the blonde pointed out. "The Wizard was a pushover, you could have convinced him to restore Animal rights."
"Let's not dwell on the past," the green girl suggested. "What's done is done. The past is the past."
"Do you regret anything?"
"No," Elphaba answered with cold certainty. A glacier of ice washed down Selky's back. She was beginning to think that perhaps the witch had changed, but apparently the green girl still believed that there wasn't anything wrong with her past deeds. Selky heart burned with grief and anger; tears stung her raw green eyes.
"Glinda let Elphaba sleep!" Fiyero called, entering the room. "She's not gonna get better if you don't let her rest." He sank onto the couch beside his wife and planted a solid kiss on her lips.
"Alright then," the blonde chirped, abruptly in a hurry to leave. "Goodnight Elphie!"
***
Glinda the Good's sudden exit had nothing to do with Elphaba and Fiyero in particular but everything to do with happy couples in general. By the time the good witch was slipping into her bed tears were shaking their way out of her eyes. As unexplainable emotion oozed through her heart the blonde forgot that the metal man in the bed beside hers didn't sleep, and he could hear her quiet sobbing. "What's wrong Miss Glinda?" Boq wondered, his voice concerned.
"Oh nothing," the petite witch replied, attempting to sound unaffected.
"It's clearly not nothing," the Tin Man pressed.
"Do you really want to hear me rant about my lack of a love life?" Glinda asked.
"I'll gladly hear anything you want to tell me," the munchkin insisted. For a moment the good witch pondered whether or not she should bore Boq to death, but the things weighing on her heart were too heavy to ignore.
"Pfannee, Shen Shen and Elphaba are married," the blonde explained. "All my friends from Shiz have happily found their special someone. Don't get me wrong I'm happy for all of them, but back at college I was supposed to be the one with a handsome husband and darling children. Now I know that dream will never be realized. It's a stupid thing to cry about but…" She trailed off.
"It's not stupid," Boq told her. "And why do you think it will never be realized?"
"Because right now we're fugitives," Glinda explained. "And even if Elphaba's plan works and our heroic deeds win back the public I'll just be back where I started."
"Where did you start?"
"Everyone wants the perfect Glinda that's presented to the public," the good witch informed him bitterly. "Back at the Emerald Palace I had loads of suitors, but I couldn't ever care about any of them. They didn't care about me either once they discovered I was as human as everyone else."
"That must be a hard standard to live up to," the Tin Man commented sagely.
"It's an impossible standard to live up to," the blonde huffed. "Sorry for talking your ear off."
"It's no problem at all," Boq said. As Glinda slipped into a peaceful sleep trails of rust were carved down the Tin Man's face by a pair of tears. Even in the same room the petite woman couldn't see how much he cared.
Sorry there was absolutely no action in this chapter but it's a setup for the part when Glinda, Boq, Brrr, and Caya attempt to stop the executions…without Elphaba knowing