I love how suspicious you all are of everything and everyone (including me, because you all know me so well).

7. Complications

"Mama?"

The mere word had Elphaba looking up from her laptop in concern. Both her children had been calling her "Mum", rather than "Mama", for years now – unless they were scared, sad, or in pain.

Huddled in the doorway, Fawn appeared to be all three at once. She looked smaller and much younger than her age as she stood there, looking at her mother with wide green eyes. Elphaba instantly rolled her desk chair backwards and moved over to her daughter, pulling her into her arms.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked, gently, but urgently.

"It's Duran," said Fawn, her voice shaking. "He… he came to the Palace. Auntie Galinda sent me to find you. Someone hurt him, Mama!"

Ignoring the fear that crept down her spine at that, Elphaba continued to hold her daughter until Fawn stopped trembling. She gently ran her fingers through the little girl's hair. "Will you come with me, sweetheart, or would you rather stay with Grandpa?" She could understand it if Fawn was too scared to face a wounded Duran again.

She shook her head. "I want to come," she said, Elphaba's own determination shining through, and the green woman smiled sadly. Fawn was definitely her mother's daughter. She had proven that time after time in her short life so far.

The two quickly made their way downstairs to the foyer where Fawn said Duran had been taken and the moment Elphaba laid eyes on her friend, she sucked in her breath with a sharp hiss. Ever since graduating Shiz, Duran had been in the military, so she knew he had to be used to his fair share of pain; but he definitely seemed to be in pain now. "Sweet Oz, Dur, what happened to you?"

He turned his head and winced at the movement. She couldn't blame him. He had a black eye and a split lip, his jaw was bruised and there was a stitched-up cut in his forehead. His arm was in a sling. Even though his wounds looked like they had been taken care of, it was still an awful sight to behold and Elphaba couldn't blame Fawn for being upset over it.

Galinda was sitting in the armchair beside their university friend, looking worried. "He won't say anything to me," she said to Elphaba. "The girl at the reception desk called me when I had just finished going over the security plans for Fawn and Xalo's birthday with Fiyero, saying Duran was here, asking for you, and she didn't know what to do. I brought him up here, but he says he only wants to talk to you and I wasn't sure what to do, either, so I sent Fawn to go get you."

"It's all right." Elphaba smoothed her hand over Fawn's head once more before gently pushing her in Galinda's direction. The little girl climbed into the blonde's lap and Elphaba crouched down in front of Duran. "Dur? What happened?"

"What happened?" he repeated, sounding a little strange because of his split lip. He also sounded pissed, which was something she had hardly ever experienced before. Duran was usually a very easy-going guy – he almost never got upset over anything, although she supposed she couldn't blame him this time. Still, that didn't explain why he would be pissed at her. "Why don't you ask your boyfriend?"

Elphaba blinked. "What?"

"Your boyfriend," Duran said again, glaring at her. "The one who beat me to pulp after our dinner because he saw us together and apparently got jealous."

Galinda had gone very still and wide-eyed. Elphaba continued to look puzzled.

"I don't have a boyfriend," she said. "What makes you think it was my boyfriend beating you up? Did he say anything?"

"He only kept saying "Stay away from Elphaba. She is mine and mine alone". Whoever this guy is, Elphaba, I thought you had better taste than him. He seems like a possessive creep to me."

"I already told you, I don't have a boyfriend," said Elphaba impatiently. "Dur, there must have been some sort of mistake. I am not anyone's property and there is no-one who could lay such a claim to me, because I'm not in any kind of relationship – I haven't been in nearly ten years, not since… well, you know." Since before Shiz, when she'd fallen pregnant with the twins. He knew that story – the general gist of it, anyway. "Are you sure that's what he said?"

Duran nodded, flinching again at the movement. Elphaba gave him a sympathetic look. "Hold on." She carefully let her hands hover over his face and arm and closed her eyes for a moment, chanting a simple healing spell under her breath. It wasn't enough to make his injuries disappear completely, but it was enough to significantly diminish his pain.

He sighed in relief when the white light faded. "Thanks, El."

She sat back on her heels. "Now tell me."

"All I know is that it was a guy dressed in all black with the hood of his sweater drawn over his face," said Duran, shifting a little. "He sounded and moved like he was our age, at least not much older. He kept telling me to stay away from you as he beat me, that you were his and that I would pay for it if he saw me alone with you again. Then he just walked away. I don't know who he was. I didn't even see his face."

Elphaba frowned. "But that doesn't make any sense." She glanced at Galinda, who still looked stricken. "Does it?"

Galinda blinked and then slowly shook her head, tightening her grip on Fawn. "No. It doesn't."

"Who could this guy be?" Elphaba demanded, starting to pace up and down the room. "I hardly even know a lot of men our age. Galinda keeps helpfully pointing out to me that I should get out more if I ever want a relationship because I can't date guys I've never met and that I know too few "dateable" people. The only men our age I have contact with on a regular basis are Duran, Cohvu, sometimes Gazilon," he was another university friend of theirs, but she couldn't imagine him being behind this, either, "and…" She trailed off, her eyes narrowing as she stopped pacing. "…Fiyero."

Galinda gaped at her friend, finally finding her voice again. "You think it was Fiyero?! But why would he do such a thing? Elphie, he may be annoying, but he's not cruel! He wouldn't beat up one of your friends!"

Elphaba sighed. "I guess you're right." She shouldn't go around making such accusations; she just didn't know what else could be going on. Who was this person and why did he think she belonged to him?

Fawn, meanwhile, had been looking from Duran to her mother to Galinda and back again, still curled up in the blonde's lap; and when Elphaba's gaze finally fell on her, she softened.

"This is not the time or the place for this discussion," she said, moving over to Galinda to help Fawn back to her feet and putting an arm around her daughter. "I don't know anything for sure, anyway, Galinda. I just think it's a little suspicious."

Fawn looked up at the green woman hesitantly. "Mum? Do you really think Fiyero hurt Duran?" she asked.

Elphaba sighed again and shook her head, steering Fawn away from Galinda and Duran and back into the hallway. "I don't know, sweetie," she said. "But one way or another, I will find out."

"Elphaba." Fiyero stopped her in the hallway when she was on her way to her office later that day. "What's wrong?"

She frowned at him. "What makes you think something is wrong?" Did he know something? Were her suspicions maybe more well-founded than she'd thought?

"You're looking stressed and distracted and I just saw Xalo attempting to comfort Fawn with chocolate chip biscuits in the kitchen," Fiyero told her. "What's going on?"

She bit her lip and then decided to bite the bullet. "Where did you go after walking me to my rooms? The night I had dinner with Duran?"

He furrowed his brow. "I went to my own rooms and into my bed," he said slowly. "Why?"

She shook her head. "No reason." She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, but she felt a little ashamed for suspecting him to have beaten up Duran nonetheless and she certainly wasn't going to tell him that she did.

"Elphaba?" he pressed and she sighed, turning back to look at him.

"Do you remember Duran?" she asked. "My friend from university – the one I had dinner with last night?"

He nodded. "What about him?"

"He was here just now," she said. She shifted a little, hugging herself. "Someone beat him up when he was on his way home."

Fiyero swore, taking a step closer. "Because he was seen with you?"

"Yes." She looked at him strangely. "How do you know that?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn't have a good answer to that unless he wanted to reveal what Galinda and her father had been keeping from her – and he had no desire of doing so without their approval. Instead he asked, "Is that why you asked where I was? Did you think maybe I saw something?"

He saw the flicker of guilt in her eyes, the hint of suspicion, and he suddenly understood. "You thought I did it." It wasn't a question, because he already knew the answer.

She kept her mouth shut and he barked a mirthless laugh, running his fingers through his hair. "Wow. This is just… just great. In your mind, I've gone from simply annoying to a creepy, jealous prick who beats up other people, haven't I? You know my reputation, as you so kindly pointed out to me before, so it won't surprise you that many women have thought many bad things about me over the years, but I'm pretty sure this tops it all."

She flushed, but she held his gaze steadily as she said, "I'm not accusing you, but I also don't trust you. I don't really know you. You can hardly deny that."

"True," he said. "I can't. And you know what? Even if I did, you wouldn't believe me, because you've already made up your mind about me. Truce or no truce, you decided before I even set foot in this building that I was just an arrogant, selfish, lazy, stupid, and brainless jerk who got himself disowned by his own family because of his terrible behaviour. From there, the step to "cruel stalker beating up my friends" can't have been too big. Am I right?"

He was right, she supposed, and she felt ashamed at that; but she also still stood by what she'd said earlier. She didn't know him. It wasn't that strange that she suspected him, was it?

"I guess you are, to some extent," she admitted calmly. "On top of that, you've been trying to flirt with me ever since you got here; so yes, it did cross my mind that maybe you fancy yourself in love with me and went after Duran when you saw how much fun I was having with him last night. I'm not accusing you, but it's something I should consider."

He snorted. "Yes, I've been flirting with you. I've also been flirting with Galinda and with every other girl I've come across since I came here. It's what I do. That doesn't mean anything."

She sighed wearily. "Fiyero, I know I said I shouldn't judge you by your reputation, and I stand by that; but all the rumours I've heard about you don't exactly convince me that you're a trustworthy guy. Is it so strange that I am trying to consider every possibility?"

"You're one to talk about rumours and reputation, aren't you?" he said bitterly. "I may have gotten kicked out of my home and slept with my share of girls, but at least I didn't get myself pregnant when I was still a teenager!"

Elphaba recoiled, the blood draining from her face and looking as if he had just punched her in the stomach.

"Well," he said, taking a step closer and forcing her to take another step back, "I made up my mind, too, Deputy Mayor Thropp. I'll be out of here by morning. You can find someone else to protect you if you still think that is needed. I'm done with your attitude." With that, he closed the door in front of her nose and locked it.

Elphaba felt like she had only slept for a few minutes when her bedroom door opened just a crack and a voice whispered, "Mum?"

"Yeah?" she mumbled sleepily, raising her head.

Xalo was poking his head through the door, looking a little worried. "Fawn had a nightmare," he said. "She's in my room, but she's still really upset."

Elphaba pushed herself out of bed, slipping on a robe and a pair of fuzzy slippers as she followed her son into the hallway. This wasn't a very rare occurrence; the twins each had their own bedroom, but their rooms were next to one another and whenever either of them had a nightmare or couldn't sleep, they often sneaked into the other's bedroom. They then spent the rest of the night like that, feeling better together than they would alone. Usually, however, Elphaba didn't even know about this until morning came and she found one of their rooms empty. Only very rarely did they come to her in the middle of the night, so she suspected Fawn must truly be upset.

The little green girl was curled up in a ball in the middle of Xalo's bed. Her eyes were open, but she didn't move, not even when Xalo crawled onto the bed with her and started stroking her dark brown hair or when Elphaba sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, sweetie," said Elphaba softly, reaching out to pull her daughter closer. "What happened? Did you have a bad dream?"

Fawn nodded, turning to crawl into her mother's embrace, arms going around her neck and dark head on her shoulder, burying her face in Elphaba's neck. The young witch held her daughter tightly, stroking her hair whilst giving Xalo a reassuring smile over his twin sister's head.

"Will you tell me what it was about?" Elphaba asked gently, never stopping her motions over Fawn's hair, and the little girl shuddered a little.

"There was a man," she whispered. "He tried to attack Xalo and me, and then you came to protect us, but he just pushed you aside and you fell and you didn't move..." She sobbed and Elphaba held her tighter, trailing soothing circles on her back.

"It's all right now, sweetheart," she murmured. "It wasn't real – it was just a dream. I'm here, and Xalo's here, and no man is going to hurt me or either of you, okay?"

"But someone might hurt you," said Fawn, her lower lip wobbling as she pulled away to look at her mother. "That's why Fiyero is here, isn't it? To protect you, because someone wants to hurt you." She buried her face in Elphaba's robe again. "I don't want anyone to hurt you, Mama."

Elphaba's heart broke. She caught Xalo's eye over her daughter's head and, upon seeing the fear he was trying to hide, she shifted Fawn so she still had one arm around her and held out the other to her son. Xalo quickly snuggled up against her as well and she pressed kisses to the tops of their heads, rocking them back and forth.

"No-one is going to hurt me," she said. "It's like you said – that is why Fiyero is here, and he will do his job. Okay? He won't let anything happen to me."

"But you said he was stupid," said Fawn, her voice muffled because she still had her face pressed against Elphaba.

Elphaba huffed a laugh. "He is stupid," she agreed, "but he is also the best bodyguard in all of Oz. If anyone can protect me, it's him."

"But he said he was leaving," said Xalo. "I heard him tell Auntie Galinda. He said he was taking the first taxi to the airport in the morning."

"He's not going anywhere," Elphaba promised. "Don't you worry so much, my little monkeys. We'll all be fine."

She held them for a while longer, until she could tell that they had both calmed down; and then asked, "Do you want to sleep in my bed tonight?"

They both nodded and she led them out of Xalo's room and over to her own, where they climbed into her bed. She put her arms around them as they each curled up against one of her sides. They fell asleep easily; she, however, stayed up for another long while, thinking. She'd have to find a way to stop Fiyero from leaving in the morning.