AN: Yes, I'm doing it again. Yes, you can hunt me down.

Caricature of a Witch: No, you didn't find me - thank Oz. I have the most amazing hiding places. *smirk*

FiyerabaRules: *hides in shame* That was kind of harsh of me. I suppose he did have to buy a horse, because after he found Elphaba, they travelled to the cottage in the woods by broom... but that means he left the poor horse tied to the branch. And that after he told it that he'd be back. That was just plain cruel xD. Imagine someone found the horse and took good care of it :3.

I'm not impaled on a pitchfork yet, which I suppose is good. No cliffy this chapter. Next one, though... *hides away again*

OH, ALMOST FORGOT! Look up the story 'Merry Lurlinemas' by the Dutchtralian Twins! It's me and Musicgal3 joining forces for a long, fluffy, cool, funny, cute and light and adorabubble Shiz-era Lurlinemas series of connected one-shots! :D READ IT!

Chapter 6. Lose you now

Fiyero could only watch in horror as Elphaba screamed and doubled over in pain, falling to the ground. He could hear her flesh sizzling and hissing as the energy ball burnt her skin and the flesh beneath it. It hadn't hit her full-on –if it had, she would have been dead right now; but it had hit her, and it was not looking good.

Fiyero crouched next to her, gasping in horror when he saw the damage the magical ball had done. The skin of her upper hip and lower side was almost gone, and the entire area looked raw and extremely painful. What was worse; there were strange, tiny, emerald green sparks of lightning flying back and forth inside the burn wounds, which seemed to hurt her even more. "Fae…"

She was conscious, but she was writhing in pain, biting down hard on her lip to keep herself from screaming. "Fi-Fiyero…"

"What in Oz are those green sparks?" he whispered, not really sure if he wanted to know the answer. "Please tell me they're healing you or something."

She shook her head, teeth clenched. "It's poison," she panted, eyes squeezed shut in agony. She opened them for a moment to look at him. "I… I poisoned the… the energy ball. With m-magic."

Suddenly, he grew angry. "Why in Oz would you do such a thing?!" he yelled at her, frustrated, although he couldn't say whether he was frustrated with her or with himself. Both, he guessed. With her, yes, for endangering herself like this, maybe even for getting hurt… but with himself, too. Because he hadn't stopped her. He'd tried, but he hadn't been able to… and what kind of man did that make him? The fact that he could not even keep the girl he loved safe?

Elphaba's eyes snapped up to his face. "To make sure… that Morrible… would really die," she choked out in response to his question. "I hardly expected… this… to happen." She obviously tried to throw in a hint of sarcasm, but she failed. Instead, a soft whimper escaped her lips.

Upon hearing that sound, Fiyero immediately softened; his anger dissipated and was replaced with so many other things. Sadness. Love. Fear.

He gingerly cradled her in his arms, careful not to touch her side. "Tell me what I can do," he begged her quietly. "Please. Fae… I can't lose you."

She closed her eyes. "I don't know…"

"Fae!" He squeezed her hand hard, making her eyes snap open again. He looked at her. "A hospital," he decided, half-panicking by now. "I'm taking you to a hospital."

She shook her head. "That won't help me," she croaked. "It's magic, Fiyero. And besides, they'd…" She had to pause for a moment to catch her breath, the pain she was in leaving her weak. "They'd probably just let me die," she finished after a while. "I'm the… the Wicked Witch of the West, after all… everyone w-wants me dead."

"There must be something I can do!" Fiyero looked at her, despair clearly visible in his blue eyes. "Elphaba… please…"

She struggled to move a little, working herself to lie on the side that wasn't burnt. "The Grimmerie," she breathed. "Hand me the Grimmerie. It's the… the only thing that might work."

He looked around him frantically, searching for the magical book. It was lying a few metres away, where Elphaba had dropped it when she fell, and Fiyero scrambled towards it. He almost shoved it into Elphaba's hands. "What else can I do?" he demanded.

"Pray," she said through clenched teeth, with just a hint of sarcasm. She opened the Grimmerie and started flipping through the pages until she found the spell she was looking for.

"Andem Sangra Calda Dantum… Tum Nah Sangra Caldapess…"

Fiyero watched, growing increasingly worried as he saw the green sparks inside of her wounds multiplying until they lit up Elphaba's entire side. "Fae, are you sure this is working?" he whispered.

Suddenly, she cut herself off with a cry of pain, and Fiyero grabbed her, holding her and stroking her hair in a bleak attempt to comfort her. "What's wrong?" he asked anxiously. "Fae? Fae, talk to me, honey. Please. What's going on?"

She squirmed in pain for a moment longer. Then she suddenly shuddered and went completely limp, her eyes fluttering shut.

No words whatsoever could describe the way Fiyero felt in that moment.

"Elphaba!" he shouted, shaking her, but she didn't stir. He took a moment to take a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down. Shaking her was most likely not going to help her anything. He needed to keep himself from panicking.

His fingers sought out the spot in her neck where he should be able to feel her heartbeat, and he nearly started crying when he found one. Okay, good. She was still alive. Her heart was beating and she was breathing, and that was the most important thing right now.

He inspected the wound in her side, but his heart sank when he realised that it had barely gotten any better. The flesh was still burnt to shreds, some parts of it even hanging loose from her body, and the entire area still looked awful and horrendibly painful. Had the spell not worked?

Then he realised that at least one thing was different: the tiny, emerald sparks, which had still been swarming inside the burn wounds mere minutes before, were now gone.

He supposed that was a good thing, given that Elphaba had told him that the green sparks were poison. Maybe the spell in the Grimmerie had only been meant to extinguish the magic before it could kill her, and not to actually heal the burns. He knew that the spell book was unpredictable – Elphaba had told him herself that she was never a hundred percent sure of what a spell would do before she cast it.

"Fae," he whispered, stroking her hair away from her face. He didn't realise he was crying until a tear slid down his cheek and dropped onto her face. "Fae, please wake up," he pleaded almost desperately. "I don't know what to do… I don't know how to help you."

She didn't move, and he closed his eyes for a moment in an attempt to regain his composure.

A hospital. No matter what she said about magic being involved, the fact remained that she was badly burnt, and she needed help. He needed to get her to a hospital.

Think before you act, Fiyero. He could almost hear Elphaba's voice in his head. I'm the Wicked Witch of the West. I'm a wanted criminal. If they don't let me die right away, they'll certainly throw me into Southstairs or kill me the moment I am healed.

That was true, and he knew it. There weren't many green women in Oz. None, to be exact, other than Elphaba. What he also knew was that she'd rather die right here and now than allow the Wizard and Morrible to capture her and be succumbed to their sadistic plans with her.

But it was a risk he was going to have to take. He couldn't let her die.

Decided, he lifted her up in his arms, cradling her gently against him. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Don't worry, Fae," he whispered. "I'll make sure you'll be alright."

Then he started running.

When he ran into the nearest hospital, shouting for help, a nurse immediately rushed towards him. "Sir?"

"She's hurt," he said, out of breath. "She… she's burnt. Her side, I mean. I… I don't know what to do, she… she's unconscious and she won't wake up…"

"Calm down, sir," the nurse told him firmly as she motioned for another nurse to bring her a stretcher. "She's in good hands with us. Now, if you would be so kind to place her onto this stretcher, then I can take her away and I'll make sure the doctor will have a look at…" She trailed off suddenly, catching sight of a slim, emerald green hand. Her eyes slowly travelled up the form of her new patient until they found her face.

A face that was uncharacteristically green.

She swallowed, eyes snapping back to Fiyero's face. "Sir…" she stammered. "Is… Is that…" She cursed softly. "It has to be… I mean… Oh, sweet and merciful Oz, what should I…"

"Marlyn," Fiyero said, calling her by the first name that was on the nameplate she was wearing on her uniform. He needed to calm her down… or Elphaba might not survive.

The nurse stared at him, suddenly snapping out of her state of shock upon hearing her own name. "She's the Wicked Witch of the West, isn't she?" she asked him softly, trembling a little. She, like every other person in Oz, had heard the stories of the Wicked Witch of the West; and quite frankly, they terrified her to death. The woman that was in front of her now hardly resembled the wicked, ruthless murderess she had though the Witch to be, but that did not mean that she wasn't a murderess at all. Sometimes appearances were deceptive.

Fiyero, however, just looked at the nurse, and she was a little unnerved to find his eyes filled with tears.

"She is," he said in a choked voice. "But… but she's not wicked at all."

Marlyn hesitated.

"Please," the man before her almost begged her. "Please, just… just help her… If you don't help her, she… she'll die."

Marlyn looked at him, suddenly feeling sympathetic. This man really seemed to care about the Witch, and his tears appeared to be genuine…

"I love her," he croaked. "I can't let her die. Please… please help her."

That was the last straw for Marlyn, and she nodded. "Alright," she said, pretending not to see the look of utter relief that crossed the man's face. "Put her on the stretcher and I'll take her to a room to be examined."

"Thank you," he whispered, but she waved him away.

"It's my job," she said. "Come on, let's find her a room."

She gingerly covered Elphaba with a light, white sheet, covering most of the green; then she started pushing the stretcher through the hallways, meanwhile firing questions at Fiyero. How long had it taken him to get her to a hospital? Had she been conscious at all since she got hurt? What was her medical history?

When she asked him what exactly had happened to earn the green witch burn wounds like these, Fiyero hesitated. "That's, um… a long story," he said a bit sheepishly. "One that… involves magic."

Marlyn faltered. "Oh." She shook her head, attempting to clear it. "Let's worry about that later," she decided, pushing Elphaba into an empty hospital room. "I'll have a quick look at her, okay?"

Fiyero nodded faintly. "Okay."

The nurse looked up at him. "What's your name?"

He seemed to be on the verge of tears again. "Fiyero."

She nodded. "Okay, Fiyero, here's what we're going to do," she said as calmly as possible, knowing that would help him calm down as well. "I'm going to examine her. If the damage isn't too bad, I can try to help her myself, but you must understand that I'm a nurse, not a doctor. If she's very seriously hurt, I'm going to have to call in someone else or she might not survive."

Fiyero nodded again. "I understand," he whispered. "I mean… I don't want her to be exposed if I can help it, but right now I… I just need her to live."

Marlyn placed a comforting hand on his arm. "And we'll do anything to make that happen," she promised him. "Close the door, will you?" She swiftly moved towards the bed and removed the covers, quickly examining Elphaba's side as Fiyero closed the door.

After a few agonising minutes – they were agonising to Fiyero, anyway – Marlyn finally looked up at him. "I won't lie to you," she said simply. "It's bad."

Fiyero swallowed.

"It's not life-threatening, though." She moved around the room to gather some things. "Not yet, anyway. The biggest danger with these kinds of injuries would be infection, but we're going to try to prevent that."

Fiyero followed her with his eyes as she moved around the room, never straying from Elphaba's side. He was clutching her hand like it was a lifeline. "So… what's going to happen now?" he asked in an uncharacteristically small voice.

Marlyn paused for a moment to throw him a sympathetic glance and a reassuring smile. "I'm not very experienced with these kinds of things," she confessed, "but if you're willing to trust me, I think I won't have to call in someone else. I can treat her by myself… you're going to have to decide if the risk of not getting a doctor involved outweighs the risk of what would happen if someone were to find out about her."

"If someone found out and told the Gale Force, or the Wizard or Morrible themselves," Fiyero whispered, imagining that scenario, "she would most likely die."

Marlyn nodded. "I'll try the best I can," she promised him. "I'm just going to go and get some supplies, but I'll be right back. And when I do come back," she called over her shoulder as she swiftly moved out of the room, "I want to hear the entire story."