AN: This chapter is a bit shorter than usual. The reason for that is that I really wanted to end it where I did. You'll see what I mean by that. And you'll hate me. Remember that I promised Elphaba'sGirl to not add this story to the ones that left her crying in the end, and keep that in mind as you come for me with your pitchforks.

BlueD, I'd love to hang out with you sometimes :P.

This chapter is for Steph, because she's on a twelve-hour bus ride and she asked for this. This chapter is most definitely not for Xanne-Li, because her one-shot was just too mean for words. Speaking of chasing people with pitchforks... *glares at Xanne-Li*

Chapter 11. Trouble, trouble, trouble

"This is just like the time when we were both sick after that dance," Fiyero mumbled. "All the way back when we were still going to Shiz, when we had only just gotten together… Remember?"

He was lying on his stomach, since his back still stung too much to put any pressure on it. His left arm was slung over Elphaba's stomach, keeping her close to him; she had nestled her head in the crook of his neck, and their legs were entwined.

She grumbled something under her breath. "You mean after our dear Miss Galinda had locked us both outside in the rain?"

"Oh, Elphie." Galinda shook her head from her spot at the vanity. "You should thank me for that, really. If I hadn't done that, you and Fiyero would never have gotten back together – you were so stubborn!"

Elphaba snorted. Fiyero chuckled softly.

"That hasn't even been a year yet," he said then, surprised at that thought. "Has it?"

Galinda shook her head. "Seven or eight months, or something," she said. "No more. Can you believe it?"

"It feels like yesterday," Elphaba murmured. "Yero and I were in the bed together, and he fed me chicken soup, and Galinda spent three hours whining over the fact that there was snot coming out of my nose and bacteria in the room, before leaving us alone to go out with Pfannee and Shenshen."

Galinda giggled. "Yes, well, I hate snot," she declared, tossing her hair. She grimaced. "And I hate bactilerias."

Fiyero and Elphaba both burst out laughing. "Bacteria, Galinda," Fiyero managed to get out between laughter. "What's so hard about the word 'bacteria'?"

Galinda huffed. "Too many syllables." She turned around and moved into their small kitchen to get herself something to drink.

"I hate being sick," Elphaba muttered, letting her head drop back against the pillows.

"Oh, I don't know." Fiyero nuzzled her cheek, then rubbed his nose against hers. "I think it's quite comfy."

Elphaba murmured something unintelligible.

Fiyero pulled back, his blue eyes filled with concern. "Your skin feels hot."

An impatient sigh. "Fiyero."

"Glin? Could you take her temperature again?"

"Fiyero."

"Shush, Fae."

She opened one eye to glare at him. "Do you want me to hex you?"

"As if you're in any condition to do so," he said a bit crossly. "Galinda, take her temperature. Now."

Elphaba opened her mouth to say something, but before she could make a sound, Galinda had already hurried back into the room and shoved the temperature under her tongue.

Elphaba spluttered, "Would you stop doing that?!"

"Hm, what? Sorry, Elphie, I can't really understand you – there's a thermometer in your mouth."

Elphaba glared at her friend. Galinda just smirked.

When the blonde pulled the thermometer out of her mouth, Elphaba immediately started protesting again. "Would you two stop fussing? Fiyero's the one that got whipped, not me!"

"Fiyero is also the one whose wounds are healing properly," Galinda said, clearly annoyed with her former roommate.

"My wounds are healing just fine!"

"Fiyero is also the one who is not currently running a fever of a hundred and two degrees."

"A hundred and two?!" Fiyero gave her that look again – the one that told her he was going to fuss over her and worry about her to the point where she would be sorely tempted to strangle him with her bare hands.

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Elphaba tried. "It's gone down… a little," she added weakly upon seeing the looks on Fiyero and Galinda's faces. "Last time it was a hundred and four, so…"

"Elphaba," Galinda said, and the fact that she used Elphaba's full name told the green girl just how serious her friend was about this. "This is not good and you know it. It's been three days since we rescued Fiyero from Southstairs. He has been healing well enough. You, on the other hand…"

"Galinda…"

"Elphie, please," the blonde said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and looking at her friend solemnly. "Your fever should have broken by now. I'm worried about you."

"Well, don't be."

"Galinda?"

The blonde girl looked at Fiyero, who was looking at her with anxious sapphire blue eyes.

"Maybe you should go and get Marlyn," he said.

"Fiyero, no –"

"I think so, too." Galinda got up from the bed and went to grab her cloak. She hesitated, however, and turned back towards her friends in the bed. "Will you be okay? I mean, I'll be gone for a while – even by bubble it takes me a couple of hours to get to the hospital, and then I still have to get back…"

"We'll be fine, Galinda," Fiyero said softly. "Just hurry, please."

Galinda flashed him a quick smile. "I will." With that, she left.

Elphaba turned to lie on her side – the one that was not burnt – to face Fiyero. "Yero, I swear I'm fi-"

"You're not fine," he cut her off, "and you know that as well as I do."

She kept quiet.

He pulled her closer, resting his forehead against hers. "Fae," he said. "I love you."

Those words never failed to make her smile. "I know. I love you, too."

"And I don't want to lose you. No, scratch that – I can't lose you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Elphaba, and… and if something happened to you…" He tried his hardest to keep his voice neutral and steady, but it broke as he said that last part.

"Fiyero!" She was shocked – he could tell.

She cradled his face in her hands, forcing him to look into her eyes. "Yero," she said softly. "Nothing's going to happen to me. It's just a fever."

"It could be an infection," he pointed out to her, his voice definitely shaking now. "What if you…" He couldn't finish that sentence.

She kissed him softly, snuggling closer to him. "I won't, Yero," she whispered. "I promise." She looked up at him with a wry smile. "Come on – I'm the Wicked Witch of the West. If I'm going to die, I'm going to find a more spectacular way to do that than through a stupid fever."

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

She stroked his cheek and kissed him again before burrowing into him, burying her face in his shoulder. "Don't worry, Yero," she whispered. "I'll be fine."

He didn't believe her, but he didn't push the matter – he just pulled her closer and hoped with all his might that she would be okay.

"Excuse me?" Galinda tentatively touched the arm of one of the nurses that were talking about some paperwork. "I'm looking for a nurse named Marlyn?"

The nurse looked up, her mind clearly elsewhere. "Hm? Oh, Marlyn?" She absent-mindedly flipped a page of the paperwork, looking at the other nurse. "Do you happen to know if Marlyn is on duty, Lela?"

The other nurse shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said to Galinda. "Marlyn doesn't work the night shift today. She won't be back until morning – I believe her shift starts at eight."

Galinda bit her lip. She really didn't want to leave Elphaba and Fiyero alone for so long, but she didn't really have a choice, now did she? She sighed. Leaving without having seen Marlyn was not an option. She knew that Fiyero was right to be worried about Elphaba – she shared his worry. Without medication, the green girl would only get worse – it was clear that her wound must be infected or something, or she wouldn't be running a high fever still. Galinda just needed to speak to Marlyn, if only for a few minutes. The nurse would give her some kind of medicine to help Elphaba, Galinda would quickly travel back to Shiz in her bubble, Elphaba would get the medicine, her fever would break and she'd be fine again, and that would be it.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that simple.

But she still needed to speak to Marlyn.

"Is there someone else who can help you?" the second nurse, Lela, asked the blonde girl now. "Do you have a problem that needs medical attention?"

Galinda shook her head. "It's personal," she said. "I'm a friend of Marlyn's, and I… I need her help with something."

The other two nurses gave her sympathetic glances. "You can wait in the hall, if you want to," the first nurse offered. "You can get coffee and something to eat there as you wait for Marlyn. She comes in through the back door sometimes, but if she does, she still has to report to the nurses' station before she gets to work. I'll come and fetch you the moment she does, okay?"

Galinda flashed the other two girls a quick smile. "Okay. Thank you," she said politely, before turning around and taking a seat in the large hall.

She sighed. This was going to be a long night.

It was later that night that Fiyero suddenly found himself roughly shaken from his sleep by Elphaba's flailing limbs.

He was awake in an instant. "Fae?"

She was thrashing, beads of perspiration visible on her face. Her brow was furrowed and she was whimpering.

"Fae." He stroked her hair away from her face, trying to wake her up gently. "Shh, it's okay, sweetheart. It's okay. You're just having a bad dream." He kept on talking to her and she seemed to calm down a little, but then she gasped and cried out his name, and he panicked. "Elphaba!" He started shaking her. Hard. "Elphaba, I'm fine. I'm right here. You're just dreaming, that's all. Come on, Fae, wake up!"

She didn't.

He felt her forehead. She was burning up. Quite literally – even without a thermometer, he was almost positive that her temperature had risen above a hundred and four degrees by now.

He moves as quickly as he could with his injured back, soaking a piece of cloth with water and placing it on her forehead, trying to coax her into swallowing some more of the pills that would lower her fever. He got her to drink a bit of water and he managed to get two of the pills into her, but she was drowsy and unfocused. She murmured his name once, but she barely even opened her eyes; and she sunk back into sleep – or unconsciousness? – almost immediately after.

He crawled back into the bed with her, not really sure what else to do. He held her, whispered soothing words in her ear and dabbed at her forehead with the cold cloth, but it didn't seem to help at all.

Galinda, please hurry up, he begged the blonde silently.

When he heard a sound in the hallway, he thought his prayers had been answered and Galinda had returned – either with Marlyn, or with medicine from Marlyn to get Elphaba's fever to break.

What he had not expected was to find the Gale Force barging into the room.