AN: So, here's the next chapter!

- ComingAndGoingByBubble & Guest: Yeah. I knew someone was going to do that, but it still made me laugh :).

- Wicked4Life (a.k.a. my Wicked Witch ^^): Aw, that's so sweet! Thank you so much!

But then again - you're all very sweet and I want to thank you all very much. Your reviews are what keep me going!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

'Are you absolutely sure?' asked Fiyero for what must have been the sixth or seventh time. Glinda nodded, watching patiently as he slowly processed what he had just heard. He started pacing, then stopped and stared at the blonde girl. 'How is that possible?'

Glinda shook her head. 'I'm not sure. But it does make sense. It even explains why she…' She made a vague gesture. 'You know. Why she is green. It must have been caused by that strange green liquid inside those bottles…'

'Are you planning on telling her?'

'Of course!' Glinda looked at him as if he was crazy. 'She deserves to know the truth – I could never keep anything like this from her!'

'I know. It's just…' Fiyero sighed. 'I mean, it doesn't really matter anymore now, does it? It's not like they're going to do some father-daughter bonding – not to mention the fact that that isn't even possible anymore, considering the fact that the Wizard is no longer with us in Oz.'

Glinda looked a bit guilty. 'Well… uhm…' She fumbled with the fabric of her skirt. 'He might… still be here.'

Fiyero stared at her in utter surprise. 'I thought you said he was preparing to leave Oz!'

'He was,' she defended herself. 'Only… well, there were some problems. He came to me this afternoon to tell me he was ready to leave, but I told him to wait. Because of… well, this.' She gestured towards Elphaba. 'I didn't want him to leave without her knowing the truth. She should decide for herself what she wants to do – perhaps she would want to talk to him about it, or…' Her voice trailed away. Glinda knew as well as Fiyero did that Elphaba wouldn't want to see the Wizard ever again, father or no father. 'Still,' she insisted. 'She should have the chance to make the decision herself, Fiyero.'

He sighed and nodded. 'You're right. Okay. So… how were you planning on telling her?'

'I don't know, really,' she admitted. 'I tried to think of various ways, but… well, none of them seemed to be the right way.'

'I don't think there is a right way when it comes to this,' Fiyero told her. 'Just wait until she wakes up and tell her. She'll be shocked, that's for sure, but she'll appreciate your honesty.'

Glinda nodded and wanted to say something, but then Elphaba let out a soft moan and Fiyero rushed over towards the bed. 'Glinda,' he said urgently. 'Feel her forehead.'

The blonde came closer and gently laid a hand on her friend's forehead. She gasped when she felt the heat radiating off the green girl's body and Fiyero nodded grimly. 'She's got a fever.'

'Do you think one of her wounds has become septic?' Glinda asked quietly and Fiyero nodded again. 'That would be the most logical explanation.'

'So she needs a doctor, then.' It wasn't so much a question as it was a statement. 'Where are we going to find a doctor that will treat her without running out into the city screaming that the Wicked Witch is still alive?'

Fiyero started to shake his head, as miserable expression on his face, when his eyes suddenly lit up. 'Of course! The Resistance!'

'The Resistance,' Glinda repeated, sceptically. 'Why, of course. And how do you suggest we find a doctor who works for the Resistance?'

'I'm not sure,' Fiyero admitted. 'It was the only idea I could come up with.'

Glinda sighed. 'Well, it's not like I've got a better idea. It's just…'

Suddenly, Fiyero's eyes widened. 'Wait a clock-tick. I do know a doctor who works for the Resistance!'

Glinda shot him a sceptical look. 'You do?'

'Yes!' He jumped up and started pacing around the room. 'Elphaba mentioned him some time ago. I don't remember why she brought it up, but I do remember his name. Or, well… apparently it's not his real name, but it's the name he usually goes by. Quork, that was it. Doctor Quork.'

This time, it were Glinda's eyes that widened in surprise – she hadn't expected to hear a familiar name. 'Quork?' she repeated incredulously – it seemed their luck was finally turning. 'Doctor Quork is one of the doctors who work here, at the palace!'

Fiyero could hardly believe his ears – could they be this lucky? 'Are you sure?'

'Absolutely,' she said, brightening now that they had an executable plan. 'I'll go fetch him right away!'

At that moment, Elphaba started to toss and turn in the bed, her breathing was irregular and came in short gasps. Fiyero quickly wetted a piece of cloth and gently placed it on Elphaba's forehead. Her eyelids fluttered open, eyes unfocused, reminding him of how she had looked when he had found her at Kiamo Ko, nearly dead. 'Fiyero?' she murmured and he took her hand and squeezed it softly. 'I'm right here.'

She stared at him for a moment, her eyes cloudy. 'You're all pink,' she told him, clearly not realizing what she was saying wasn't making any sense. It took Fiyero every inch of strength in his body not to cry. 'You're burning up,' he told her softly, but she didn't seem to hear him. Her eyes closed again, she turned her back towards Fiyero and she scowled. 'Galinda, stop whining!' she protested in an annoyed tone of voice, without so much as opening her eyes. 'I'm not going to buy you a rat for your birthday!'

Glinda would have giggled if the situation hadn't been so alarming – Elphaba was clearly being delirious. Fiyero looked at her worriedly. 'You'd better go find that doctor,' he suggested, and she nodded and got up. 'I'm on my way.'

Fiyero was worried sick. When she had been stubborn enough to get up, however irritating that had been, he at least knew she was getting better. Now, she almost seemed worse than when he first found her. He had tried to wake her up a few times, but to no avail; at the moment, she wasn't so much asleep as she was unconscious. Occasionally, she would whimper or even scream, and he would be hovering over her within a clock-tick, but she never opened her eyes. A thin layer of sweat covered her skin and she was tossing and turning endlessly, which also worried him because she might hurt herself doing so, since her injuries were still far from healed.

Glinda was back within minutes, with Doctor Quork trudging along behind her, but to Fiyero, it felt like she had been gone for much longer. The doctor's eyes widened as he saw Elphaba lying on the bed. 'Sweet Oz, it's true! She is still alive!' He looked like he was about to clap his hands with excitement. 'Master Gold will be exhilarated when I tell him this!'

'Who?' Glinda softly asked Fiyero with a puzzled frown.

'The leader of the Resistance,' Fiyero told her just as quietly. 'Elphaba spoke of him once.'

'The leader, huh?' Glinda shook her head. 'I didn't know she was of such importance to the Resistance. I mean,' she hurried to explain herself as soon as she realised that didn't really come out the way she intended it to, 'I knew she did important things, but I didn't know her to be acquainted with the leader.'

Fiyero nodded, watching Doctor Quork as he made his way over to the bed and carefully started examining Elphaba. 'Elphaba was always being modest about it,' Fiyero said, not taking his eyes off the green girl, 'but from what she has told me about the Resistance, she indeed seemed to be quite important to them.'

'Important?' the doctor, who had overheard their conversation, repeated, looking up. 'It's more than that, my boy! I think I can quite honestly state that without Miss Elphaba, thousands of Animals would have been killed and the Resistance would probably have died, too, years ago, if it hadn't been for her. She's a member of the Inner Circle and even though Master Gold officially outranks her within the Resistance, he considers her his equal and treats her as such.' He pulled a stethoscope from his bag and listened intently to Elphaba's heartbeat and breathing for a while. Then, he placed the stethoscope on the bedside table and grabbed some other things from his bag, continuing to examine the green girl. 'This isn't good,' Fiyero and Glinda heard him mutter under his breath. 'This isn't good at all.'

The blonde shot a worried look at Fiyero and however much he wanted to reassure her, he just couldn't. 'Doctor?' Glinda asked softly after a while. Doctor Quork looked up, slightly disturbed. 'Yes?'

'Can you…' Glinda swallowed before being able to finish her question. 'Can you help her?'

The doctor thoughtfully chewed his lip. 'I can certainly try,' he finally said, evading the question, which didn't make Glinda or Fiyero feel any better at all. The older man looked at them both. 'Young man,' he addressed Fiyero, 'could you please go boil me some water? And you, young lady,' he turned to Glinda without awaiting Fiyero's response, 'I need some towels and several pieces of cloth.'

Both of them were on their feet instantly, while the doctor once again tended to Elphaba.

He took the water from Fiyero and the towels and cloth from Glinda, and without a word, he started to undress Elphaba so he could take care of her wounds. Glinda took Fiyero to the foyer and tried to distract him, but she could tell by the way his eyes kept darting towards the door that he couldn't take his mind off Elphaba. She couldn't blame him, either – it wasn't as if she herself could really think of anything else at the moment. She wondered what took Doctor Quork so long and how everything was going. What if Elphie is going to die? The thought made her feel somewhat desperate. She slumped into a chair, buried her face in her hands and started weeping.

It wasn't long before Fiyero gently put his hand on one of her shaking shoulders. 'Don't cry, Glinda,' he said quietly. 'She'll be okay.'

'How do you know?' she wailed. She felt, rather than saw, him shake his head. 'I don't. But we have to believe it anyway.'

Something about the tone of his voice caused her to stop crying and she looked up at him with red, puffy eyes. Before she could say anything, however, Doctor Quork came into the foyer and Glinda jumped up. 'Is she…'

'She's sleeping,' the older man reassured her. 'I tended to her wounds and I gave her something to help her relax and ease the pain. There's no telling which way it will go from now, though,' he warned. 'She might still… get worse.' Glinda knew that wasn't what he had been about to say, but she kept silent. 'She might get better, too,' the doctor added, 'but that might take time. Lots and lots of time.'

'I have time,' Fiyero said stiffly, but Glinda looked at Doctor Quork vigilantly and she squinted at him. 'What are you suggesting?'

He looked somewhat surprised at this question, but didn't deny the fact there had been a suggestion behind his words. 'I'd much rather take her west,' he finally said, 'to the Great Kells. The Resistance has a hideout there. It's not safe for her to stay here – someone's bound to find out sooner or later.'

Glinda nodded slowly, but Fiyero scowled. 'Tell me,' he said sarcastically, 'does she look to you like she's able to travel all the way into the Great Kells?'

'Of course not.' The doctor almost looked offended by Fiyero's remark. 'Not yet, anyway. But I wouldn't want to wait too long, if I were you. You can imagine the consequences when someone finds out the Wicked Witch of the West is staying in the chambers of Glinda the Good.'

He had a point there, of course, and Glinda knew that Fiyero knew it, too. 'Wait a minute,' the prince then said pointedly. 'Why are you telling us all this? You've just exposed one of your secret hideouts to two complete strangers – that doesn't sound like something a member of the Resistance would do to me!'

'Fiyero!' Glinda chided him, an expression of shock on her face because of his rudeness. But at the same time, she realised, he had a point. And so she, too, looked at Doctor Quork and waited for him to explain himself.

The man looked genuinely surprised. 'Well, you're Glinda and Fiyero, right?' he said, as if that ought to explain everything – which, of course, it didn't. Upon seeing the blank expressions on their faces, the doctor clarified, 'I know I can trust you with our secrets, children. I know Elphaba does. And if she thinks she can trust you, so do I.' It was a simple explanation, but it was the truth, and Glinda knew it. She smiled – a bit bleakly, but a smile nonetheless. 'Thank you, doctor. For everything.'

He nodded and then returned her smile, making him look much friendlier all of a sudden. 'Of course, child, of course. Now, you take good care of Elphaba,' he told them. 'I left some instructions on the bedside table. I'll come by to check up on her tomorrow around noon.' He took off his hat and inclined his head; then he left.

Glinda and Fiyero looked at each other for a clock-tick before running off to the bedroom, where Elphaba was still asleep. Fiyero carefully placed his hand on her forehead. She was still glowing, but at least she seemed more at peace now. He took her hand and just sat there for a moment, at the edge of the bed, looking down at her face, lost in thought.

Glinda, in the meantime, had picked up the instructions Doctor Quork had left on the bedside table and was reading them, frowning with concentration, since she first had to decipher his obnoxious handwriting. 'It says something about an ointment for her infected wounds… is it possible that honey has something to do with that? I mean, it looks like it says 'honey', but I've never seen this bad a handwriting, so I'm not quite sure.'

Fiyero nodded absent-mindedly. 'Honey is a natural way to help treat infection.'

'All right then.' Glinda had never heard of such a thing, but she chose to just believe him and read on. 'He's bandaged her wounds with pieces of cloth. Tomorrow morning, we have to remove the cloth, treat the wounds with the ointment and then bandage them again with clean pieces of cloth. That's something we can do, right?' she rattled on. She just wanted to do something – just sitting here waiting for her friend to either wake up or die was like torture to her. Fiyero, however, didn't really seem to hear her. When she realised that, she said softly, 'You should get some sleep.'

He shook his head. 'I won't leave her.'

'I told you before, you don't have to. You can sleep next to her in my bed.'

He shook his head once more. 'Still. I'm not going to sleep.'

Glinda let out an irritable sigh. 'Seems like she's not the only one being stubborn. She's starting to rub off on you.'

He smiled slightly at that. 'Yes she is,' he admitted softly, his mind someplace else again. Glinda hesitated for a moment, then asked quietly, 'Would you mind if I did go to sleep? I don't want to leave her, either, but I'm really tired and it's going to be a busy day again tomorrow. And I know you'd be there if something was to happen…'

'Of course it's all right for you to go to sleep,' Fiyero replied gently. 'Go on. I'll wake you if anything changes.'

She looked relieved. 'Thank you.' Then she left the room.

Fiyero got up and started pacing. Questions and what-ifs were haunting him non-stop. What if she would get worse? What if she would never wake up again? What if she would…

Was there anything he could do to help her? Anything at all?

Finally, he set himself in a chair, burying his face in his hands. How he wished she was here right now – not just physically, but completely. She would scold him for being stupid, but smiling all the same. She would tell him she loved him and he was not to worry about her, that she could take care of herself. She would roll her eyes at him if he told her how scared he was of the thought of her dying, and she would tell him he would survive without her, he would just have to get on with his life. But that was exactly the point, he realised, dropping his hand. He wasn't sure if he would be able to live without her. He had, of course, lived without her for years, but that was different. Losing her now would mean losing his heart and soul, losing himself. Without her, he wouldn't have a reason to live anymore, because she was his life.

He shook his head, banning the thoughts from his mind. There was no use in mulling over things that hadn't happened yet – there would be plenty of time to worry when there would actually be a reason to.

Doctor Quork came by frequently the following days, taking Elphaba's temperature and checking on her wounds and her condition, but although he claimed her to be recovering, if slowly, she still didn't wake up. Glinda was being amazing, helping Fiyero take care of her friend and keeping him – and her – company whenever she could. She had to fulfil her duties, though, or people might get suspicious, and so Fiyero was often left alone with Elphaba. He would talk to her, even though he wasn't sure if she could hear him. Sometimes he read her a book Glinda had brought them from the palace library. A few times, he even sang for her. But she didn't wake up. She never woke up.

'Is that normal?' Fiyero asked anxiously one day, when Doctor Quork was with them again. The doctor shook his head. 'I'm not sure. Does she respond at all?'

'She talks, sometimes,' Fiyero said, frowning. 'But either what she says is unintelligible or not making any sense. I'm just… I'm just so scared that she might never…' He let his voice trail away, unable to speak the words. Doctor Quork patted him a bit awkwardly on the shoulder. 'There, there. Try not to worry too much, young man.' He looked thoughtful. 'I do know someone who has a better chance of helping her than I do,' he then confessed. 'Another doctor within the Resistance. But…'

'Let me guess,' Fiyero interrupted. 'He lives in the Great Kells.'

The doctor nodded. 'He's an Animal doctor. I would never be able to bring him to her. But we might be able to bring her to him.'

'No,' Fiyero said flatly. 'I'm not taking that risk. She's hurt enough already.'

'It might be her only chance,' the doctor said softly, and Fiyero thought about it for a moment longer. Would it be a sensible thing to do? Travelling didn't seem sensible, not in her condition, but what if that Animal doctor was her only chance at surviving?'

At that exact moment, Glinda burst through the doors, a worried look on her face. 'How is she?'

'The same,' Fiyero told her, and Doctor Quork added, 'We were just discussing whether we should take her to the Great Kells or leave her here. There's an Animal doctor in the Kells that knows more about this sort of thing than I do.'

'Then take her,' Glinda said immediately. She caught the look Fiyero shot her and explained, 'People are starting to get suspicious. I try to act as normal as possible, but the sentries are starting to wonder why they can't allow anyone in my rooms anymore except for myself and Doctor Quork – not to mention the fact that everyone is wondering why I'm spending so much more time in my chambers.' She didn't say the man who had been wondering that had been the Wizard, whom she had talked to earlier that day. If even he had heard about her strange behaviour, it wouldn't be long before other people would start to get suspicious, too. 'However much I hate to say this, Fiyero, Doctor Quork is right. It might be dangerous, but it would be safer to get her out of here. You and I both know what would happen if anyone discoverated her.' And they did, of course. They both knew Elphaba would never survive that.

Fiyero then sighed, finally giving in. 'All right, all right. You are both right.' He sighed again, concern in his eyes. 'The Great Kells it is.'

Glinda nodded enthusiastically. 'Perfect! I'll make sure a carriage will be ready in the morning!'