DISCLAIMER: in the fisrt chapter...

A/N: Horrible, horrible, yes, I know. My internet connection went poof. Hopefully, it will stay fixed for sometime. Hope you haven't given up on me. ENJOY! And please keep reviewing.

OVERPROTECTIVE

The bed was large.

Too big, really. It fit too many people to actually be called a bed. But, all thoughts of disdain to the size of their marriage bed had been quickly dissipated when her stomach started to swell and her ankles throb. Who knew being pregnant would cause so many hurts and aches on an otherwise healthy body?

So, Elphaba had learned to love the softness of the large mattress and the smooth sheets. Especially, when her beloved Yero laid beside her, simply to be near her and their growing son. Those were moments when she allowed herself to believe in happily ever after.

Long, gentle fingers caressed her stomach, drawing circles around its extension and earning kicks and punches in response. Fiyero had grown fascinated by the imprint of hands and fists upon her stretched stomach. And Elphaba. Well, she had grown accustomed to the gentle touches and wandering hands.

"Have I told you today how much I love you?"

Elphaba smiled, eyes still closed. "You are being all mushy again, Yero."

"And?" She couldn't see it, but she certainly could imagine the confused face her husband wore when asking such an innocent question. Elphaba merely snuggled deeper into his arms, hiding her face in the nook of his shoulder.

Another long moment of peaceful silence.

"Fae?" She hummed in acknowledgment, yet didn't move. Elphaba was too comfortable. "Are you sure it's safe to travel all the way to the Emerald City?" And with that question, the tranquility dissipated. There was no denying the way her body tensed. "Elphaba?"

She sighed.

"I… I don't really know if it has anything to do with the Emerald City, but…"

"But?"

"I had a vision." Fiyero could have asked what the vision had been about. She could have demanded answers or simply chosen not to listen to anything at all, simply forbidding her to go. Thank goodness, he wasn't brainless. So, he held her, showing comfort and waiting for her to continue.

"I saw Liir." Pause. "Actually, I think it was very similar to a vision I had just before I woke up at Shiz…"

Fiyero pulled back a bit and gazed at her troubled face. She seemed to be pondering the new found information.

"I saw him, calling out to me and he was covered in blood. It was horrible."

"What do you think it means?" His wife sighed again, allowing her heavy lids to drop once again.

"I don't know. Visions are always so ambiguous and hazy" A hand rose to caress the swell of her stomach. "Perhaps… maybe."

"What?" His voice was soft and encouraging, so very Fiyero that her lips curved upwards. It soon vanished, though.

"Maybe it was a message saying he was in danger. Or maybe, it's a message to me… A warning. Yeah… could be a warning."

A celebration throughout Oz…

Fiyero saw her loose herself again in thought. No one better than Elphaba, after all, to understand hindsight. Some things only make sense when you can see the whole picture. And, despite all the many puzzles she possessed, Elphaba knew she was far from understanding the whole thing.

Too many invariables still.

"Fae?"

"I think the best we can do is keep alert. We can't, however…" The imperative was directed at Fiyero, who already had his mouth open. "… stop living our lives."

He sighed, aware he would be unlikely to win such an argument. "I guess you could be right." That didn't stop him from being worried.

And, though she would refuse to admit it, even under pressure, Elphaba was concerned too. The vision, whatever it meant, hadn't come as a completely surprise. No, she had been waiting for that rotten apple on the full plate; had known it existed. Because, well, it had been too easy, her happily ever after.

For her, nothing had ever come easy.

Pushing all thoughts of impending doom away, at least for the moment, Elphaba snuggled into Fiyero's willing arms and inhaled deeply. She held him tightly, as she had done those first days of marriage when the doubt of his actual presence by her side had been too great. Galinda's voice echoed in her thoughts.

You had to live in the here and now.

And live she would, seizing every second of happiness, without distressing about the darkness of tomorrow. No matter how long or short that bliss turned out to be.

As long as it was hers to have…