AN: I've had several people talk about how they can't wait to see how she meets Fiyero, and this is where they'll get their answer!

Also, fun fact about Elphie's mentor! Her first name, Bria, is my derivation of a Celtic name, Briallen, which means "primrose." I thought it was pretty, and I considered having it be her name, and Bria just be a nickname, but somehow I ended up going from that to just shortening it to Bria, so I guess that Bria is the Ozian version of it? lol, interpret it however you want, I just thought I'd share that with you because I love the original name.

SPEAKING of Celtic things, have any of you read my AiW 2010 fic, "Long Live Clan Hightopp?" Well, for anyone who has, you remember Kyla? She is now a supporting protagonist in the book I'm attempting to write! She's almost exactly the same as she was before, only the Scottish accent is out 24/7 now, the Celtic/Gaelic heritage is much more prominent to her character, and her last name is now Starett, but otherwise, she's pretty much exactly the same as she is in the fic! How cool is that?! Anyway...

DISCLAIMER: The only person/people that I own here are Bria Alendar, Fiyero's parents, and Niobe, but that's it. Everyone/everything else belongs to Maguire and/or Schwartz.

OH, and one more important thing! When it talks about them getting into "the lift," all I mean by that is one of those old-fashioned elevators with the gates. I wasn't sure if those had a specific name or whatever, so I just decided to refer to it as a lift because that seemed easiest. Alright, I'm done now, enjoy this while I go play Sims! :)

Elphaba was used to getting up early, but this? This was just ridiculous. She and Glinda, along with all the other girls in the dormitories, had been woken up at about 5:30 a.m., then were given five to ten minutes to get dressed, brush their teeth and hair, do whatever they were going to do with the latter (which, in Elphaba's case, was braid it), then get down to where breakfast was being served. They had half an hour to eat, after which the interns had to go and meet up with the nurses they were shadowing, who would then tell them what they would be doing that day and when they would be doing it, then it was off to work for everyone.

She had been grateful to have Glinda with her at breakfast, but splitting up with her newfound friend was harder than she'd thought it would be. At the blonde's suggestion, Elphaba had opted to leave her locket in their room, and its absence from the place where it usually rested just beneath the dip in her collarbone made her feel...well...for lack of a better word, it made her feel naked. She had worn that locket every single day of her life ever since her mother had given to her on her thirteenth birthday, which had been five years ago. She hadn't truly realized it until now, but that locket had become just as much a part of her as her love for books. She was snapped out of her thoughts when the nurse she was shadowing came back from getting the medicication they were supposed to take to someone.

Nurse Alendar was a curvy middle-aged woman who was a bit heavyset. Elphaba had only been following her for a short while, but she had already seen how quickly the older woman could go from being sweet and motherly to firm and governing when she needed to, though she'd told the green girl that she didn't like having to be that way and preferred to do things gently if it was at all possible. She had forest green eyes with a kind look in them (most of the time), and her light auburn hair was starting to turn gray. So far, Elphaba liked her well enough, but she knew that could always change, so she wasn't letting herself grow too fond of the woman just yet.

"Who exactly are we taking this to?" the green girl asked as she followed Nurse Alendar down the hall. She had to walk a bit faster than she usually did because the nurse moved surprisingly fast for her somewhat stout build, and even with her long legs, Elphaba had been having to move quickly in order to keep up with her mentor. "I can't tell you right now, dear," Nurse Alendar said. "He's...well...For now, let's just say that not many people know too much about him, and that's the way it's supposed to be with this particular young man. I'll tell you a bit about him once we've reached his floor, but until then, just be patient."

This only made Elphaba more curious, but she decided that it was probably best to just leave it alone for the time being like she'd been told to, so she did. She followed the older woman into the lift, and they rode in silence. She was surprised when it stopped on the sixth floor, and even more so when Nurse Alendar stepped out on this floor. "Um...Nurse Alendar?" she said. The nurse laughed and waved this off. "Oh, please, dear," she said, "call me Bria. Only Morrible calls me Nurse Alendar." Elphaba blinked, then nodded. "R-Right," she said. "Um...Bria, then...uh...I don't mean to question you or anything since you are in charge here, after all, but, um...I thought that the sixth floor was practically deserted. From what I understand, the only patient up here may or may not even exist."

Bria stopped short and turned around to look at the young intern. "What have you heard about him?" she asked in a low voice, which struck Elphaba as a bit odd since they were the only ones in the hallway. "Not much," she admitted. "I mean...I know that he's called the Dead-Armed Boy because of a paralyzed arm, and that he's supposedly a prince or something, but that's about it. So...wait...does that mean that...that there really is a patient with a dead arm up here?"

"Shh! Not so loud, someone might hear you!"
"All due respect, Bria, but we're the only ones up here, who could possibly overhear us?"

Bria bit her lower lip, then sighed heavily, put her arm around Elphaba's shoulders, and began guiding her down the hall like that. "He's real," she said in that same low volume. "His name is Fiyero Tigelaar, and yes, he's a prince. The Crown Prince of the Arjiki tribe, to be exact, he's the only son of King Reynard and Queen Zerelda. He had two sisters, but one is estranged, and the other died of tuberculosis two years ago. They were very close, and the grief over losing her is what drove him to insanity. He started throwing these hysterical temper tantrums for absolutely no reason and with no warning, and from the way I understand it, his parents didn't want to admit him, but they felt like they had no choice after he..."

Elphaba shook her head. "After he what?" she asked quietly. Bria looked around, and Elphaba wondered who she could possibly think would be following them down this otherwise deserted hallway, but said nothing. "After he knocked over an amoire and it crushed his arm," Bria whispered. Elphaba's eyes widened into saucers. "Is that how it got paralyzed?" she asked. Bria nodded, the look on her face grave and serious. "You must swear to never breathe a word about this to anyone," she said. "Only a select few people know that he's up here, which is exactly how it's supposed to be. If everyone knew about him, they would all want to see him, and he doesn't do well with lots of people, which is why so few know about him. He's got some trust issues, so we keep the number of people he interacts with to as much of a minimum as possible in hopes that he'll have an easier time trusting even just one of us, because that would be better than nothing."

"So he's a secret, is that what you're saying?"
"Yes! Yes, that's it, that's an excellent way to put it! He's a secret, and now that you're in on it, you have to keep the secret, understand?"

Elphaba blinked. A secret. Not the sort that usually came to mind with the word, but one that was living, breathing, had dreams, fears, hopes, emotions, a name, a family, an identity. She'd never known that it was possible to have a secret like that, so how could she be certain that she'd be able to keep such a secret? She knew the answer to the question as soon as it had come into her head; she couldn't. But Bria was looking at her expectantly, and now that she knew he was real, she was absolutely dying to get a look at the so-called "Dead-Armed Boy" for herself. She had to see him, to have that personal confirmation that he really did exist, to be able to put a face to it all, and more than anything, she had to try to understand why he was talked about so little, and always in hushed tones, why he was kept so isolated from the rest of the patients; she had to know why he was up here all by himself on the nearly deserted sixth floor. The next two words that left her mouth felt as if they were being said by a stranger in her body.

"I understand."

"Hold these, and stay close to me," Bria said in a low voice, handing Elphaba the syringe and bottle she had brought along. The green girl nodded, then braced herself—for what, though, she couldn't say—as Bria opened the door, then stepped inside with Elphaba close behind; as she entered, her eyes briefly passed over the plate on the door where the room number was engraved.

602

At an indication to do so from Bria, Elphaba shut the door softly. "Fiyero?" Bria said. "Fiyero, honey, it's time for your shot."
"Can I finish this first?"
"Of course, sweetie."

Elphaba couldn't see what the boy looked like—not yet, anyway, because his back was turned towards the two women, so all she knew so far was that he had brown hair with faint coppery streaks. He was dressed in the same clothing as the other male patients; a simple white cotton shirt and black cotton pants. She could see that he was barefoot, and he sat cross-legged on the floor using a piece of charcoal to draw a picture of a pretty young girl on the wall in front of himself. Once he'd finished shading in her irises, he dropped the charcoal rather than setting it down, and it rolled off into the corner as he sat back to examine his work. After a moment, he gave a satisfied nod and turned around, and for one breif instant when she saw his eyes, Elphaba's breath caught in her throat.

He had softly angled eyebrows and pale, crystal clear blue eyes with a strong jawline and full lips whose shell pink color was accentuated by the paleness of his alabaster skin, the one exception to this being the shadows underneath his eyes that gave the impression that he hadn't been getting much sleep.

He stared at Bria with wide eyes, then blinked a few times and looked around as if he wasn't quite sure where he was or what was going on, then his eyes landed on Elphaba and he frowned. "Who's she?" he asked, pointing at her. It didn't escape her notice that he used his right hand for it, just like he'd been using his right hand to draw. Bria smiled at the boy. "This is Elphaba," she said, "my new intern. She likes to read, you know."

The boy, who Elphaba knew had to be Fiyero, looked at her and smiled faintly. "You like books, too?" he said. Elphaba nodded. "I love books," she said. "They're my favorite things in the world." His smile widened a bit. "Mine too! I have some over there, see? And there are more with my things that are in storage. I'm only allowed to have four at once, though. Why are you green?" Bria frowned. "Fiyero, don't be rude," she scolded.

Elphaba shook her head. "It's fine, I'm used to it," she said. Turning back to Fiyero, she shrugged. "I don't know. It's just how I've always been. I was born like this, we've never known why." Fiyero reached across himself and grabbed his left arm by the elbow, holding it up. "I've got a dead arm," he said, then let it fall into his lap. "It's useless. All it does is hang there like a stupid scarecrow arm or something."

By this point, Bria was flicking the needle of the syringe, and she'd told Elphaba on their way to his room that she wanted her to keep Fiyero's attention elsewhere during this part, so that's exactly what she was hoping she'd be able to do long enough for Bria to do what needed to be done.

"Bria told me what happened," she said. "That must have really hurt." Fiyero sort of scrunched up his face as if he were trying to come up with the answer to a difficult question, then used his good arm to shrug. "I guess," he said. "To be honest, I don't really remember very much from that day, so I don't really know if it hurt or not. Ouch! Dammit, Bria, why can't you ever do that in my dead arm so I don't have to feel it?! That hurts!"

"If I did it in your dead arm, the medicine wouldn't work the way it's supposed to, I've told you that at least a thousand times, Fiyero, so stop complaining."

Fiyero let out a drawn out whine and fell back onto the floor, limbs sprawled out all over the place. "But it huuuuurts!" he said pitifully. Elphaba covered her mouth so she wouldn't laugh. She knew it wasn't really something to be amused at, but it wasn't her fault that the display he was putting on was so adorable, not to mention how familiar it all looked to her!

On an impulse, she crouched down next to him and turned his head in her direction, which got him to open his eyes. "You're acting like my older brother," she said simply, then stood up and took the syringe back from Bria. Apparently, this statement had piqued Fiyero's interest, because he sat up, which seemed to be a bit difficult for him since he was only able to use the one arm to push himself into an upright position, but he managed.

"You have an older brother?" he asked. Elphaba nodded, and he smiled. "What's his name?"
"His name is Sheltergod, but everybody just calls him Shell. It's him, me, and our little sister, Nessarose. And I cannot even begin to tell you how many times Nessa and I have sat and watched and laughed while Shell put on a much more dramatic version of displays very similar to the one you just put on." Fiyero's smile widened a bit.

"Elphaba," Bria said quietly. Elphaba turned, and Bria made a subtle motion towards the door with her head that, despite how small it was, Fiyero still saw, and his face fell. "You'll come back, right?" he asked. Elphaba blinked in surprise, but Bria came to her rescue. "Of course she will," she said. "She's my intern, so she'll be with me every day from now on." He frowned and shook his head. "No she won't," he said, "because that's what you said about Genevive, and she eventually stopped coming. And so did Namida, and Amphelice, and Sterenn, and Rosmerta, and...You always say that about the interns, but they all stop coming at one point or another, so why should I think that this time will be any different?"

"Because it probably will," Elphaba blurted out.

At the confused looks this got from Bria and Fiyero, she tried to figure out how to explain. "I just meant that...I...well..." She sighed, handed the bottle and syringe to Bria, then crouched down so that she was eye-to-eye with Fiyero.

"I'm doing this because I want to help people, Fiyero," she said. "That's what I want to do with my life. More than anything else in the world, I want to help people in whatever way I can, because not very long ago, my sister needed my help more than she ever had before, and I didn't help her like I should have. And afterwards, I decided that from then on, if someone ever needed my help, it didn't matter who they were or what they needed help with, if they needed my help and I was able to give it to them, that's exactly what I would do. That's why I'm here. To help people. So you know what? I'm probably not going to be like those other girls. I probably actually will be here every day from now on, so of course I'll come back."

"...Promise?"
"I promise."

His smile returned, and after finding where the charcoal had rolled off to, he went back to his drawing as Elphaba followed Bria out of the room. Why, she wondered, was this boy kept so isolated? Why was he here in the first place? Except for his arm, he seemed perfectly fine!

...

Glinda could be trusted to keep a secret, right?

AN: For once, I have nothing to say. OFF TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SIMS I GO! XD