"You're joking?! Dear Oz!" Elphaba gripped the letter so tightly it was on the verge of ripping in her hands.

"Are you alright, Miss Elphaba?" the maid, who'd given Elphaba the letter, looked at her with concern.

"What? Oh! Yes, yes, I'm ok. Thank you," Elphaba said, then raced upstairs to her room and reread Fiyero's letter just to make sure she hadn't hallucinated it.

'It's over. We're coming home for good, angel.'

Fiyero had said that the war might be over soon, but she'd figured it would be at least two months. But it was over. The war was really over and Fiyero was coming home safe and sound in a couple of days according to his letter. Thank Oz!

Elphaba pulled out some paper and a pen and started writing a letter to Galinda telling her the good news. She didn't know yet when they would be going home exactly, Fiyero had mentioned in the letter he would have to take care of a lot of things when he got back, especially since he didn't want to be king.

"Elphaba!"

"In here!" she yelled without stopping what she was doing.

"I'm guessing you heard?" Helena walked inside the room.

"Yes. Did you make an announcement to the people yet?"

"I was actually about to ask if you wanted to do it."

"Yeah, yeah. Just let me…finish this up…real quick," Elphaba hoped her writing would still be legible. She was excited about giving Galinda the news that she was writing the message down really quickly which made her handwriting a bit sloppy. "Do me a favor? Can you read this?"

"Out loud?" Helena smiled as she took the paper from Elphaba, who was practically giddy with happiness.

"No. I meant - as in - is it legible?"

The older woman quickly scanned the page. She smiled when she saw that Elphaba's handwriting changed as the page went on. Some of her letters even overlapped with each other, but it was still legible. Her smile started to fall once she paid attention to what she was reading. Whoever her daughter in law was writing to, probably that friend she talked about every once in a while, she was telling them that she and Fiyero were going to be home 'any day now'.

That's right, Elphaba and Fiyero didn't live in the Vinkus. She couldn't believe she'd forgotten that. And that meant that once Fiyero was back, and he sorted out the things he needed to here, they would go back to their home.

She needed to figure out where she would go then.

She knew Fiyero wouldn't remain the king. And he definitely didn't consider the Vinkus his home, she didn't blame him, so he would obviously want to go back to the Badlands.

She just hoped she would be able to visit them.

"Alright, let me just get this in here…done. Ok, let's go!" Elphaba touched Helena's arm before running out of the room. "Wait, does it need to be formal?" she asked on the stairs.

"What does?"

"The announcement?"

"Oh," right. "No, no. This is a very special, happy, and important occasion, the people will want to know this right away."

"Great. I guess I could just read what Fiyero wrote to me, it would be coming from the king himself."

"There you go," Helena smiled.


Elphaba held Fiyero tightly. "Can you please never go to war again?"

"Believe me, I am retiring from the military," he kissed her hair.

"Good," she smiled.

They'd been pretty lucky, Fiyero hadn't fought in many battles and he hadn't gotten any major or concerning injuries when he had, but it didn't make her worry any less. It was the same as his job back home, there were risks every day, only the war had been different, the risks were through the roof. With him finally back for good, her anxiety lessened tremendously.

"How…how long do you think we'll have to wait until we can start heading back home?"

"Exactly how long, I don't know," he pulled back and gently caressed her face. "But definitely within the week."

"That soon?"

"I talked business with some of my advisors and officials on the way back," Fiyero sat down on the bed and Elphaba followed. "I can make an announcement saying I'm stepping down and they're talking with my mother right now. The monarchy here is going to end."

"Is…is that bad?" Elphaba asked, unsure of what to make of that news since Fiyero didn't sound too sad about it.

"Not really," Fiyero chuckled at Elphaba's confusion. "If my mom doesn't want to be queen again, then I make the announcement ending my reign and that a democracy will be established. The advisors and officials will take it from there to communicate with the people and get the government system rolling."

"And if Helena wants to be queen again?"

"Then she'll be queen. But since we don't have any other immediate family members, after she steps down for the final time, the same thing will happen, they'll move to a democracy."

Noises started to come from outside their room, which most likely meant the meeting with Helena was over. This would be a good time for all three of them to talk.

Elphaba opened the door to the room and saw many people making their way down the stairs while Helena said goodbye to each of them as they passed her at the top. Once the last person had said goodbye to her, Elphaba called out her name and Helena looked up at her.

"Do you have free time?" Elphaba asked.

"I do."

"Could we talk to you for a couple minutes?"

Helena visibly tensed, but she smiled nonetheless. "Of course."

Elphaba let her mother in law step inside before she closed the door behind them. She pulled a chair in front of the bed, where Fiyero was seated, and sat next to Fiyero after Helena sat down on the chair.

Was it bad that it made Helena sad how happy they both seemed?

"Mom, what did you decide at the meeting?"

"Oh! Um, I told them I don't want the throne, actually. They're all making plans to draft an announcement and begin the process of establishing a new government."

Fiyero looked down and sighed, then looked up at Elphaba and smiled. "That's great," he said to Helena.

"Yeah."

"Additional question, do you have anywhere to stay?" Elphaba asked.

"As in…"

"Are you just going to live in the castle still or did you purchase another home here in the Vinkus or somewhere else?" Fiyero explained. "Or do you want to live somewhere specifically?"

"Uh…well, I'm actually not entirely sure where I'm going yet to be honest."

Fiyero suddenly looked nervous. "Ok, well, Elphaba and I were talking and we have space in our house, or if not our house, we could definitely help you find something nearby. Money's not going to be a problem for a long while since I made and inherited a lot being king. Well, the point is," Fiyero chuckled at his own small rambling. "We would love it if you came to live with us or somewhere nearby."

"If you want to. If not, no pressure," Elphaba said.

Helena gaped at them. "What?"

"We'd love for you to be close to us. We would visit, of course, anywhere you choose to live, but we would really love it if you came with us to the Badlands," Fiyero said and Elphaba nodded in agreement.

"Honey, I…" Helena teared up and covered her mouth with her hand.

Elphaba and Fiyero glanced at each other before turning back to Helena. "Mom, are you alright?" Fiyero asked and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes! Yes, I'm - " she cleared her throat. "I'm ok, I'm just…I'm just so…moved? Happy? It warms my heart that you two still want me in your life."

"Of course we do. We love you."

"And I love you guys," Helena stood up and hugged the both of them while trying to keep her tears at bay.

"So that's a yes?" Elphaba asked with a smile.

"I would love to go live with you two, though I wouldn't want to impose by living in your house."

"Nonsense, you wouldn't impose. We offered, didn't we? And if that's the case, then you can live with us while we find a place for you."

"That works," Helena smiled tearfully and Elphaba wiped away a tear that had rolled down her cheek. "So, when do we leave?" she squeezed Elphaba's hand.

"We leave at the end of the week at the latest," Fiyero squeezed Helena's other hand.


Elphaba and Galinda practically jumped into each other's arms when they saw each other again for the first time in almost ten months. Avaric and Galinda both nearly tackled Fiyero to the ground at seeing for themselves that he was alive and unharmed after having been in battle for almost a year.

Introducing Helena to them was a bit tense at first. Galinda had known a bit about how Fiyero's parents had treated him, Avaric knew more. Galinda had taken the first step to greet her while Avaric took quick observation of Fiyero's body language around the older woman. He wasn't about to ask his friend for details right now, he'd just gotten home and was probably exhausted. But Avaric could tell that Fiyero was actually completely relaxed around his mother. He wasn't tense, or nervous, or pretending to be happy.

Fiyero was genuinely happy.

So with that in mind, Avaric greeted Helena after Galinda.

While they had been gone, Galinda and Avaric had moved in together. Galinda still went over to Fiyero and Elphaba's house every once in a while just to collect their mail and set it down on their table and make sure everything was still clean and in place.

Even though they were pretty well off, and would be for some time, Elphaba and Fiyero still returned to their old jobs and they settled into a routine relatively quickly within the first couple of weeks of being back home. Helena moved in with Elphaba and Fiyero and stayed home for the day while they both went off to work. In the meantime, she kept the house tiddy, made them dinner, and basically lent a hand anywhere she could in order to help them. Avaric and Galinda had dinner with them a couple times a week, either at the Tiggular household or at their own apartment. They had a lot to catch up on.

After a few months, Elphaba, Fiyero, and Helena were able to find a fairly big apartment for Helena that was only five minutes away in walking distance and helped her get settled in. They'd both been a bit sad to see her go, they'd gotten so used to living with her, but, at the same time, it was also a good thing.

Now that they could make more room in the house and their finances were in good shape, they could start moving into the next chapter of their lives.

Elphaba was turning 25 soon.


The End :)