Some revelations in this chapter (although I'm sure you guys aren't going to go along with them just like that, but instead say it's too obvious and go with a different suspect after all, hehe... You'll find out the truth soon enough!).

Kudos to AJeff for being the 300th reviewer! :)

27. Dinner

"What are we having for dinner today, Mum?" Xalo asked as they were all going back inside a little while later.

Elphaba, however, smiled mysteriously. "The three of you are having pasta," she said, at which the twins both cheered.

Then Fawn frowned. "The three of us?"

Elphaba smiled at her daughter and Fawn held her breath. "Oh! You and Fiyero have a date?"

"We do?" Fiyero asked in confusion.

Elphaba gave him a mischievous little grin. "We do." She kissed the top of Fawn's head and ran a hand over Xalo's. "Off you go. Have fun with Grandpa and I'll see you in a bit, okay? Fiyero and I won't be leaving the Palace, so if you need anything, you can just come and find us."

"We'll be fine with Grandpa, Mum," said Xalo, as if that much should be obvious. "We're not kids anymore."

"Yeah, Fae," Fiyero said, winking at the twins. "They're nine, not stupid."

They both grinned at him in reply.

Fiyero had expected for Elphaba to take him back outside for a walk, or to the smaller, more intimate dining room just down the hall, or perhaps to her own rooms; but his confusion grew when he realised she was leading him to the kitchen. She greeted Harron and then gently pushed Fiyero over to stand at one of the counters while she went to get some supplies from the walk-in fridge.

"Fae," he said when she returned with a small pile of food. "What are we doing here?"

She stopped and turned to look at him. "This morning, you said that you'd love to learn how to cook," she said. "I hope you were serious about that."

He stared at her, then at the things on the counter, and then at her again. "You… You're going to teach me how to cook?"

"I thought it'd make a nice surprise," she said. "If you don't want to, though, we can just do something else…"

He cut her off by picking her up and hugging her tightly for a moment before putting her back on her feet again. She let out a small squeak, but she was laughing. "I'll take that as a yes."

He beamed at her. "I'm sorry. It's just… no-one has ever really done that for me before," he admitted. "Paying attention to me like that, and then remembering what I said and acting on it… It means a lot to me. Thank you."

Her eyes softened and she put her hand over his. "I know what you mean," she said quietly and he knew she really did. She'd probably never had anyone do such a thing for her, either – not before Oscar and Galinda came along, anyway.

He gave her a lopsided grin. "Okay, so you're going to have to guide me in this, because as I told you, I really suck at cooking," he said, making her chuckle.

"Relax," she said lightly, letting go of his hand and pushing a cutting board and a knife in his direction, followed by a pile of peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, and onions. "You can start by chopping vegetables."

"I can do that much, at least," he joked, gathering the vegetables and rinsing them in the sink before picking up the knife to start chopping. "What are we making?"

She smiled. "Just a simple recipe. Stir-fried vegetables with chicken and oven-baked potatoes. I thought we should start easy." She nudged him with her hip. "Maybe next time we could try lasagne."

"Um…" He made a face. "Perhaps that's not such a good idea."

Her eyebrows rose and he confessed, "I tried to make lasagne once when I was still at university – one of the universities I've been through, anyway – and my roommate and I both got food poisoning. Ow," he added when he cut himself with the knife.

He could tell that Elphaba was suppressing a grin when she helped him rinse the cut. "Don't worry, Yero, you'll be fine. I'll help you. Let's start with this – you're doing great, you know."

"I'm chopping vegetables," he stressed and she shrugged.

"So? You're chopping them very well. Just make sure to keep an eye on what is a vegetable and what is your own finger and you'll be fine."

He stuck out his tongue at her and she laughed before taking his finger between her hands, chanting softly under her breath. When the faint glow around her fingers died away and she removed her hands, his cut was gone and she returned to seasoning the potatoes as of nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. She either didn't notice or ignored the way Fiyero studied his hand in wonder. Her magic never failed to amaze him.

"Okay," she said. "I know what I said earlier, but I'm too curious. What did you find out today?"

Fiyero sighed, returning to the counter to continue chopping. "Not much," he said glumly. "Not much at all. Duran continues to deny that he has anything to do with it and we'll have to let him go tomorrow morning, anyway, because without further proof that he did something wrong, we can't keep him."

Elphaba shook her head. "It seems to me like he really doesn't have anything to do with my stalker, Yero," she said.

"I have the same feeling," he admitted, "but if it's not him, then who is it? Gazilon? Cohvu? Avaric? Just some stranger? It could be anyone, really. Well, anyone in the military, I suppose."

Elphaba didn't say anything and when he looked at her, he saw she had gone deathly pale.

"Fae?" Fiyero asked, his blue eyes clouding with concern as he lowered the knife and moved closer to her. "What's wrong?"

She put down the spices she'd been holding, feeling sick. She suddenly recalled what she'd told Fiyero about Avaric on their friendship date and it felt like someone punched her in her stomach. "Oh my Oz…"

"He said he was in the military, just like Duran. He said he did secret missions no-one else could know about."

The military. Avaric was in the military – that would explain the cufflink with the military insigne. She'd thought he'd been boasting or at the very least exaggerating the whole secret mission thing when they'd first met, that he'd been trying to impress her… but what if he hadn't been? What if he was, in fact, some sort of special agent in the army? For someone like that, sneaking into the Palace was a piece of cake, as was tracking Elphaba's whereabouts. He could have placed a tracker on her car or somehow listened in on her phone conversations – there were a lot of different ways in which he could have found out where she was going, when, and with whom…

"Elphaba." She only noticed that Fiyero had grabbed her shoulders when he gave her a little shake in an attempt to bring her attention back to him. "Hey. What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost. Are you ill?"

"Avaric," she said, her voice coming out strange. She swallowed and told him her theory. "He told me himself that he was in the military, so it would explain the cufflink. And…"

"And a secret mission soldier, or even ex-soldier, would easily have been able to do all the things your stalker has done," Fiyero filled in, clearly following the same train of thought. "Oz." He looked baffled as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Avaric… Do you know where he lives?"

Elphaba shook her head and tried to stop the shaking of her hands. "No. I don't know anything about him," she said. "I only have his email address and his phone number."

Fiyero looked grim. "We'll figure it out. Give me a second." He pulled his phone from the pocket of his jeans and dialled a number, turning away from her and pacing up and down the kitchen as he called. "Benn? You can let Duran go with an apology. It's probably not him after all, but we've got a new suspect. Could you track down the address of Avaric…" He faltered and glanced over at Elphaba.

"Tenmeadows," she answered his unspoken question and he nodded.

"Avaric Tenmeadows," he said into the phone. "He might be our guy. See what you can dig up about him." He hung up and slipped the phone back into his pocket. "I should probably head back to the station myself, to supervise –"

"Oh, no, you don't," said Elphaba sternly, moving past him carrying an oven dish filled with seasoned potatoes. She placed the dish in the large oven, pressed a few buttons, and then turned back around to face him. "You've done enough today, Fiyero. I'm serious. We have a suspicion that you asked your men to look into, Duran is going free for now, and there's nothing more you'll be able to do until they've got some more on Avaric, anyway." She pointed at the counter. "So you'd better just pick up that knife and carry on chopping. You still have some chicken to carve, too, and the potatoes will be ready in half an hour, so you should hurry."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, grinning a little as he did as he was told. He liked her playful mood. It was much preferable over the fearful, gloomy anxiety that had been hanging over them all for the past couple of weeks, ever since the attack in Munchkinland. He supposed her spending some time reading and doing fun things with her family had relaxed her somewhat.

Together, they fabricated a wonderful dinner, which they ate in the smaller dining room so they would have some privacy. Fiyero was a little hesitant to try the food at first, especially since Elphaba had put him in charge of stir-frying the chicken and the vegetables; but when he tasted it, he had to conclude, much to his surprise, that it was actually really good.

"See?" Elphaba said when he admitted this to her. "You're not nearly as bad at cooking as you think you are. Have a little faith in yourself."

He took another bite and nodded. "I like it," he said once he'd swallowed it. The vegetables were exactly right, the chicken was well-done and tasted delicious thanks to the marinade Elphaba had soaked it in earlier that day; and the potatoes, cooked with skins in the oven, were perfect. Fiyero wondered where Elphaba got her recipes and how she managed to use exactly the right combination of spices for each dish. When he asked her, however, she simply shrugged.

"I've never used any recipes, except when I was a child," she said. "I told you – I've cooked for Nessa and the Big, Bad Bully many times and I liked trying out different things. I guess I just have a sixth sense for spices, or something."

"You have a sixth sense for everything," he muttered and she snorted.

"Not quite." She ate another potato, swallowed it, and added, "Besides, now you're learning how to cook, too, so that'll be one more skill to add to your own resume. How did you do that before you came here? I mean, I'm assuming you lived on your own most of the time since you left your home."

"I did," he confirmed. "Sometimes I temporarily moved in with a client, like I did with you, but usually I stayed in an apartment somewhere, since I travelled a lot – and yes, I was on my own. The answer is simple. Convenience food and takeaway."

She made a face. "I suppose I should have expected that."

"And I'll admit, in the beginning, when I still had my playboy ways, I often managed to charm the girl of the day into making us both dinner."

"That does sound like you, yes," she agreed, at which he scowled. "What? It's the truth, isn't it?"

He had to concede that she had a point and she smirked at him before returning to her food.

By the time they finished their dinner, it was the twins' bedtime and Elphaba and Fiyero both went to tuck them in. The kids both slept together in Xalo's room that night and Xalo asked, "Fiyero? Will you tell us a story?"

Fiyero laughed. "All right." He thought for a moment and then told them a slightly modified story about one of his former clients – a woman who had hired him because she believed there was a ghost living in her attic who came down each night to plunder her kitchen and, she was convinced, to kill her one day when he'd start hungering for a different kind of food. Of course no such ghost existed; it just turned out her husband often got hungry in the middle of the night and had been too embarrassed and too afraid of her wrath to admit to his wife that he ate all the food.

Both kids nearly rolled off the bed with laughter at the story and when Fiyero finished, they asked for another one.

"Tomorrow," said Elphaba. "It's bedtime for you two monkeys." She bent down to kiss Xalo and Fawn good night. "Sweet dreams, my darlings. Don't dream about ghosts now."

"Or scary men trying to kill us?" Xalo asked.

"Or scary men trying to kill us," Elphaba agreed, attempting to keep her voice light. "You're safe here. Nothing is going to happen to any of us."

Fawn nodded. "I know," she said, snuggling into the blankets. "Because Fiyero is here, and he's the best bodyguard in all of Oz, so he won't let anything happen. And you, me, and Xalo have our magic, too, and the scary man doesn't have that."

"Yeah!" Xalo said enthusiastically. "We can totally take him!"

"We totally can," Fiyero said with a wink. "Good night, you two."

"Good night," they chorused and Elphaba quietly closed the door behind herself and Fiyero.

She looked drawn and he said quietly, "It's hard on you, isn't it? Knowing they're afraid now."

"I wanted nothing more than to protect them from this," she said with a sigh as they moved down the hallway. "I never wanted them to find out about the threat, but of course, after what happened in Munchkinland… It makes sense that they're scared and they seem to be coping rather well, I know. Kids are resilient. They'll be fine. I just… wish I could better protect them. Not just from physical harm, but from this kind of fear, too. Nine-year-old children shouldn't have to worry about men attempting to kill them or their mother."

"I know." Fiyero drew her into his arms and nuzzled her hair. "But as you said, they're doing really well and they're resilient. Once this is all over, it will be nothing more than a big adventure to them."

"I hope you're right," said Elphaba and Fiyero squeezed her gently for a moment before letting go.

"Come on," he said. "No more worrying now. We still have quite a few hours ahead of us and I intend to use them in a wholly different way. Something more… fun."

"Oh?" she asked innocently. "What did you have in mind?"

He pressed her against the wall and captured her lips with his in a kiss that took her breath away and made her knees feel weak. When he pulled away and saw the look on her face, he grinned. "Something like that, perhaps?"

"Your bed or mine?" she mumbled dazedly, echoing his own words from two days before; and Fiyero laughed out loud before scooping her up in his arms and carrying her over to his rooms for something that had nothing whatsoever to do with worrying.