WickedlyAsh

"We have a problem," Jae said, turning to Glinda.

"What now?" Glinda said with exasperation. "I haven't even finished celebrating that you're alright!"

"It's Elphaba," Jae said with some urgency.

"What about her?" Glinda asked, now concerned.

"I think when she did the spell to restore my memory, she must have lost some of hers…"

"What makes you think that?" they spoke in hushed tones to avoid worrying the others.

"She doesn't even remember I'm her brother," Jae shook his head.

"What?!" Glinda gasped in shock. "So how far back does her memory loss go?! Like did she freak out when she saw you?"

"No, she seemed to recognize me, like she'd seen me before…but she didn't know I was her brother," Jae explained.

"So she must…does she…does she think Fiyero's dead?!"

Elphaba sat there, in Taye's arms, feeling very comfortable in his embrace. She knew she should still be in mourning over Fiyero's death, but Taye had been such a comfort to Elphaba.

Taye, on the other hand, knew exactly what the situation was. He knew that Fiyero and Idina were probably sitting inside, wondering where they were. But he didn't care. He was in the moment, entranced by Elphaba. Back when they had their first encounter, there had been no time to process situation, since Idina had found them so quickly. But now, now that he had more time to think about everything, he realized how much he actually wanted this, how much he wanted to be with Elphaba.

Taye felt Elphaba's hand caress the side of his face, and he looked down to where her head was leaning on his shoulders. Without saying a word, Elphaba leaned forward, never losing eye contact, until they were only inches from each other. Finally closing their eyes, their lips met as they kissed. Taye was worried that Elphaba was picturing Fiyero, and Elphaba was nervous that Taye was thinking about Idina. But they weren't. At that moment, they were only thinking about each other.

Finally separating, Taye and Elphaba smiled at each other, not regretting the lip-lock they had just shared. However, Taye was worried that someone would come outside looking for them, that someone would ruin the moment.

"Let's go somewhere," Taye said suddenly.

"What? Where?" Elphaba smiled as she asked.

"I don't know, but we need a chance to figure this out, before the others try to make decisions for us," Taye said, imagining Idina's and Fiyero's reactions.

"Alright," Elphaba smiled with no regrets, "let me go inside and get my broom and then we'll-"

"No!" Taye yelled suddenly, worried that someone would try to stop them, "let's just go! We don't need the broom! When I was walking through the woods a few days ago I saw a deserted cabin nearby, we could walk there in less than an hour. Let's just go!"

Elphaba was a little surprised by Taye's urgency, but realized he probably didn't want her to get distracted back at the castle. "Alright," she smiled, taking his hand in hers, "let's go." Smiling and holding hands, Taye and Elphaba walked off into the forest.

"Did you find her anywhere?" Glinda asked out of breath after searching the inside of the castle.

"No, I couldn't find Elphaba anywhere, I just checked the grounds," Jae sighed with frustration. "Maybe it's time we tell the others, so they can help us search…"

"No!" Glinda snapped. "These people get upset and flustered way too easily, there will be an absolute meltdown if people realize Elphaba is missing and has lost her memory!"

"But Glinda I-"

"Shhh!" Glinda hushed Jae as she heard someone coming. They watched as Idina turned a corner, looking confused.

"Hey guys, have you seen Taye? I can't find him anywhere…" Idina asked.

"Well maybe he's with-" Jae started, but stopped suddenly when Glinda elbowed him in the stomach.

"Sorry Idina, we haven't seen him," Glinda smiled.

"Okay, well if you find him, will you tell him I'm looking for him? We had a fight earlier and I'm sure he's pretty upset."

"Yeah, okay, sure!" Glinda smiled, watching as Idina walked away and kept searching.

"Ow, what'd you do that for?" Jae asked, still grabbing his stomach in pain.

"Don't you see?" Glinda asked. "Elphaba thinks Fiyero's dead, Taye just had a huge fight with Idina…"

"Oh sweet Oz," Jae sighed, realizing what had probably happened.

"Exactly," Glinda sighed, pacing the floor. "Idina and Fiyero will be crushed if they find out. You and I need to keep this quiet until we find Elphaba and Taye, no one else can know!"

"Alright," Jae sighed, pulling Glinda in for a hug, kissing her forehead. "Now let's go find them."

Galindafied

Jae and Glinda had searched all of the castle's grounds, but to no avail. Jae considered searching the forest, but Glinda had been whining for the past 30 minutes about her broken heel and ripped skirt. He decided it was best to keep looking at a later time if the accidental lovebirds didn't show up by dinner.

The group sat around the giant dinner table in near silence. Everyone noticed that, strangely enough, both Taye and Elphaba were absent. Idina would have noticed this suspicious fact as well, no doubt, but she was also missing. As soon as Kristin registered these facts and put two and two together, she was out the door and on a search, this time for her close friend.

Idina was found crying on the floor of the upstairs bathroom. Kristin immediately rushed to her side.

Before Kristin could even speak, Idina cut in and cried, "I'm pregnant!"

Kristin wordlessly opened her mouth in shock. That was not what she had been expecting. But she suddenly grew excited.

"Well that's wonderful news! Oh, Taye will be so happy! Aw, you two would have such cute kids! Oh my God! I'm going to be a godmother!!" she squealed in excitement, bouncing up and down. Idina only cried harder.

"Oh! But it is good news…Isn't it?" Kristin instantly stopped celebrating and donned a look of worry. Idina hesitated before she spoke. "You can tell me anything."

The distressed woman drew in a shaky breath before saying, "I don't know who the father is."

"WHAT!" Kristin yelled, much louder than necessary. Or maybe it was necessary. Afterall, Kristin knew everything about her friend. Everything up until now. Kristin stood up and took a step back from the sobbing woman.

"How could this happen? And how could you not tell ME? We tell each other everything!" Kristin paused for a moment, still trying to convince herself that she had heard incorrectly, "But…with who!"

Idina looked down in shame. "Jae."

And now the blonde woman could take no more news. She sure did love her soap operas, but she preferred to keep the drama on her TV screen, thank you very much! Had the woman in the middle of all of this scandalous controversy not been one of her closest friends, she would have already raced out the door and never looked back. But instead, she swallowed all of her thousands of questions, sat down and listened.

"It was before Jaelinda!" Idina helplessly protested. When Kristin looked at her weirdly, she quickly said, "I've been hanging around the WoO kids too much…But anyway, it was right after I caught Taye and…Elphaba."

Kristin nodded in understanding and placed her hand on Idina's shoulder, but Idina continued anyway.

"I was upset. It still doesn't excuse my actions but…" Idina trailed off. "And now I've ruined things with Taye for good! I got mad at him earlier just for kissing another woman! But look what I've done! He'll never look at me again!"

"Well you know what you have to do, don't you?" Kristin instantly took charge.

"No…What?" Idina sniffed.

"Paternity test!"

"It's only been about a month since it happened!" Idina laughed bitterly, "I'm going to be sitting with this guilt for a while before I can even-"

"You can do magic for crying out loud! You don't do well under stress, do you? Stay right here," Kristin said before dashing out of the room. She arrived a little while later with the Grimmerie in hand and placed it in front of Idina. After flipping through the pages, they found the perfect spell.

"Well, here goes nothing," Idina sighed then started chanting. "Ah May Ah Tay Paternus Tahtay. Ah May Ah Tay Paternus Tahtay."

She repeated this several times before something happened. A glowing scroll appeared in front of them. It hovered a few inches off the ground, but nothing else happened for a few minutes. Then suddenly it came to life and rose up a few inches more. Writing started to appear on it, letter by letter.

Jae.

That was all it read. After floating for a few seconds more, it rolled up and dropped to the ground. At that moment, Glinda walked in and eyed the two shocked women, one still with tears streaked down her face.

"Oh…I just wanted to clean up a bit," she pointed to the mud-stained hem of her dress, "I'll just use the downstairs one."

She turned to leave quickly, but Kristin looked at Idina knowingly then called out to Glinda. She turned and poked her head back around the door.

"Yes?" she questioned. She tried to cover up her fear as thoughts raced through her mind. What if they had found out about Elphaba and Taye? Did they know that she knew? What if they were mad at her!

"The best time is now. Before things get even worse. Tell her," Kristin whispered and lightly nudged her friend.

"I- Well I-…" Idina stared at Glinda looking like a deer in the headlights. But she knew that word would get out eventually (especially if the child came out with red hair), and so finally launched into her tale.

"JAE!!"

Glinda's shouts echoed throughout the entire castle, rattling some of the nearby windows.

"Uh-oh! Trouble in paradise?" Tiana speculated while playing a card game with the WoO members.

"JAE YOU BETTER GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!!" Glinda's screams were getting closer.

"I sure hope not! We're already having enough trouble with the Elphaba/Taye/Idina situation!" Holli said a little too loudly. Fiyero looked over at the group oddly and Kaylee elbowed her in the ribs.

"Ow! I thought you learned not to do that when we almost missed our very own production of Wicked!" Holli exclaimed and glared playfully at Kaylee.

"Fiyero doesn't know about that, you idiot! And it's probably best we keep it that way. If Jaelinda really is in trouble-"

"JAE!! THERE YOU ARE! HOW DARE YOU GET ANOTHER WOMAN PREGNANT!"

The entire room went quiet.

"Guess your question is answered, Kaylee," Mikayla almost snickered. Almost.

Back at the cabin, the room was silent. But not from troubling facts being screamed back and forth. No, it was out of content. Elphaba laid in Taye's arms across a white rug in front of the fireplace. The light danced across her features and Taye couldn't help but smile. He couldn't remember ever being this happy. Even when his relationship with Idina had been problem-free. And then it came back to him. Idina and Fiyero were back at the castle, probably searching for them. What would they say? What would the others say? He hated to ruin the moment with Elphaba and didn't want to see her eyes lose their sparkle, but he had to know if she really wanted this. If she felt the same way he did and was willing to leave Fiyero.

"Elphaba."

"Hm?" she replied, somewhat sleepily. Her eyes were closed, but a small smile was still in place.

He didn't know how to put it. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything. But when he thought about Fiyero again, he knew he had to say it, and so got straight to the point.

"Is this just a one time thing, or do you really mean it?"

Elphaba finally opened her eyes and rolled over to face him. The smile had left her face.

"I do mean it. Don't you? I mean I know you and Idina are still…" she started to look a little worried.

"No, no! Elphaba, I'll leave her for you. I just wanted to make sure you felt the same way that I did…Idina and I have been having problems lately, but it seemed like you and Fiyero were happy…" Elphaba stopped facing him, and instead rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She tried to hold back her tears, especially in front of Taye.

Taye panicked. Perhaps he shouldn't have mentioned Fiyero. What if she was having second thoughts afterall? Before he could try and fix things, Elphaba spoke, still refusing to look at him.

"I can't live in the past," she stated simply. She didn't speak anymore on the subject, but rolled back over into Taye's arms and fell asleep.

Nicole

The Witches of Oz kids remained silent in the room for a minute. Obviously, Jae was talking, as Glinda wasn't screeching.

"Wait... if somebody's pregnant, who is it?" Carley looked around, chewing on her lip nervously. "Because it can't be Elphaba if she's not here, and it's not Glinda..."

"BUT IDINA!" Glinda's scream echoed throughout the house.

"... I think that answers your question." Mikayla said something similar to what she had told Kaylee a moment before. "That means she cheated on Taye..."

Nicole blinked. "I miss Earth. The soap operas stayed on the TV screen."

"You can say that again," Kristin muttered, storming into the room. All four feet eleven inches of her were glaring at the wall, the floor, Holli - whatever her eyes happened to land on. Shoshona trotted in behind her, just as worried as she was. Nobody could miss Glinda's screaming.

"So... what are we going to do?" Kaylee looked around, waiting for an answer to her question.

"I say we beat the crap out of them until everything is back to the way it's supposed to be." Nicole crossed her arms, Kristin nodding in agreement.

Kerry walked in, Elise perched on her back, wings fluttering. "I'm with Nicole. Maybe a good beating is what they all need. I'm sure Glinda wouldn't mind pummeling Jae right now, from what I saw of her as Elise flew us by..."

"Oh. That's not good. The last time Glinda got mad, Fiyero ended up as a scarecrow... though that was Elphaba's fault, really..." Allen stood up and, within seconds, the whole group of Witches had left the room, leaving Kristin, Shoshona, Elise and Kerry behind.

"It was before you and me, Glinda-"

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY BETTER!!" Glinda took another step towards Jae, kicking off her broken heels as she advanced. Jae was already backed up into a corner - literally - and had nowhere else to go.

"Look, Glinda, it's not his fault. I had been drinking and I thought he was Taye-"

"THAT'S ONE HELLUVA MISTAKE TO MAKE!" Glinda didn't even turn away from Jae as she yelled at Idina. She was yelling at everybody. Why was she always the one to be left alone when it came to men? First she lost Fiyero to Elphaba. That was okay, becuase Elphaba was happy. But then Elphaba ran off with Taye, leaving Fiyero alone, but that was only after Idina had shacked up with Jae, getting herself pregnant, which she was pretty sure Taye knew nothing about.

darn, her head hurt.

"DID YOU EVER CONSIDER TAYE'S FEELINGS, MAYBE? 'CAUSE I KNOW YOU WEREN'T DRUNK THEN BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T HERE THEN!" Out of the corner of her eye, something sparkled. Glinda turned her head, and the weight of her tiara was still there. That left - her wand.

Faster than she thought possible, she leaned over and snatched it, then stood back up, taking another step towards Jae.

They were now a wand's length apart.

Perfect.

Mikayla had shoved Nicole on her way up the stairs in an effor to get their first, but that had only resulted in more chaos. Kaylee and Holli had tripped over Nicole's legs, causing Mikayla to fall into the wall, which resulted in Allen skidding to a stop and nearly falling back down the stairs, only to be saved by Carley and Tiana hastily grabbing his arms. Nobody, however, heard the noise they made, as it was timed almost perfectly to one of Glinda's screams.

Once they were finally all standing and sorted out again, they hurriedly entered the hallway where Glinda had Jae backed up into the corner, where Idina was standing, wringing her hands nervously, and where Glinda was standing, wand pointed at Jae like spear, without her heels on.

Without her heels on.

A snicker escaped Nicole, and was answered with one from MIkayla. Kaylee and Holli had already dissolved into giggles, and Carley and Tiana has grins on their faces. Allen just rolled his eyes.

Glinda was exactly one inch taller than the woman who had originally played her on Broadway.

And just as intimidating.

"GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T SPEAR YOU STRAIGHT INTO THE WALL!?" As the Witches of Oz kids poured into the room, Glinda aimed the wand at his stomach, eyes flaming. She had /never/ been this angry before, not ever.

"Um, because you love me?" Jae's voice rang hopefully throughout the room.

"Wrong answer." Glinda pulled back the wand-

And a flying 4'11" body hit her in the stomach, sending both Cheno and Glinda flying back to hit Idina, and the three crashed into the wall.

A moment of silence, and the three untangled themselves, all unharmed - including Idina's baby. "WHY DID YOU STOP ME!?"

"I wanted the pleasure of doing it myself." Cheno grinned at her real life counterpart. "Besides, if you're going to spear anybody, spear Taye first."

"Taye... where is he?" Idina looked around at the group slowly forming around them - Annaleigh and Megan had come the other way to watch, and Eden and Teal were perched on the staircase coming from the floor up.

"About that..." Jae chewed on his lip.

"He's with Elphaba, becauase Elphaba would have been here if she knew this was going on." Nicole's mind had managed to put two and two together, and Holli and Kaylee gasped.

"But that means..." Carley turned and whirled down the stairs, followed by Tiana and Allen. The three had formed a near clique, just like Mikayla and Nicole had.

The groups looked at each other. "I think it's time that we took charge," Kaylee said softly. "You leave things to adults and everything goes screwy."

"I agree," Holli said, and Nicole and Mikayla nodded their heads in agreement.

Arms folded, they turned to the group.

Their desicion was made.

It was time to make things right, and the Witches of Oz kids were the only ones who could do it.

And where Idina had cast the spell, the Grimmerie lay open, spine creasing, to the page with the paternity test spell...

PATERNITY TEST
For two people only
Determines who the father is NOT

A/N: :) I love all our reviewers, you guys all deserve a MAJOR Mad Props!! And also, school started for me too last week, so, I'll try and still get updates up frequently. :) Love you all! Muah!