Chapter 16
A/N Thanks so much for the responses to the last one. I am humbled to see there are still people reading. Thank you :)
They'd promoted him.
He was Captain now.
He'd laughed as he said it. He'd almost danced through the door before he swept her up in an embrace that was jittery and jumpy. Too gleeful to last long.
He'd been so happy.
She'd been the first one there, as she was more and more these days.
She wondered sometimes, as she waited impatiently, the time spent alone giving her too much opportunity to think, if it was because she was getting more eager, less careful.
But she thought, was almost convinced, it wasn't.
It was just easier this way.
She could enter through the window and open the door from the inside out. There were no keys but she'd encountered locks more complicated than simple locks on simple front doors that kept no one out that wanted in. Even in a city terrified of Wicked Witches people were too trusting, building on the idea that because they wouldn't be able to enter unseen, another wouldn't either.
She'd stopped worrying about Avaric.
It had made her uncomfortable to know their space, their place, was actually his. Belonged to him. It felt strange, to know someone else, someone she didn't even like, owned a piece of her. It had become easier over time, though. As the months passed and bad memories faded, she'd almost forgotten about him.
He never seemed to be here. She'd seen him leave once, from a distance. It had made her heart stop, but it hadn't been on a night she was supposed to meet Fiyero, so there had been no real danger. They always made sure not to leave any evidence of their presence. Of anyone's presence.
She'd made it a habit to check on the place every day. Just to see. Just to be sure. But Avaric rarely showed up. Only twice in the past few months had she detected any signs of life. A banana peel in the garbage, a dress shirt over the back of a chair. A bathrobe moved from the bedroom to the bathroom. Never anything more. Wherever Avaric did most of his business, it wasn't here.
It made her feel safer, to know he'd been here. It meant that he didn't know they were. It meant no one had warned him of anything. It meant he simply didn't use this place much. She would see him if he did. They wouldn't be caught easily.
She'd fooled herself into believing. Had managed to create a routine of checking on the apartment, on meeting with Fiyero, on keeping her mouth shut on the job, that she'd pushed aside what it was they were really doing. Who they were doing it with. That it was against all odds and against all rules and should never be found out by anyone. That it couldn't, wouldn't, go one forever. That it wouldn't last.
She'd changed them, somehow, along the way, into a man and a woman, keeping up an affair that shouldn't be happening. An adulterous affair, but nothing more than that.
But there was more to them than that. She was still the Wicked Witch of the West. And he...he was now...the Captain of the Gale Force.
He was the Captain of the army trained to kill her. Their sole purpose was to find and kill her.
And he was happy.
He could help her now, he'd said. She'd be so much safer.
He'd seemed to sure. How could he be?
This was his job, his career, his future. His life.
There would be, had already been, press conferences. Reports. He'd answer to the public now, to the Wizard and Morrible directly. He was the face of the hunt for her life. The poster boy for safety and security. The leading man in the fight against terror.
And he was sleeping with the terror.
She almost, almost, laughed. She couldn't stop the tears, hot and thick, rolling down her cheeks.
She wouldn't be safe, she never was. Being willing to take a risk, entering a bad plan head-on did not equal safety. It didn't mean she would ever be safe. It only meant she was willing to suffer the consequences.
And now...
He'd told her how it worked. How he would make it work. He would lead them in the wrong direction. He would fool them. He'd make sure they never got close.
But he was in the public eye and he wouldn't get away with that forever. He'd be watched. Closely.
And even if he managed to do as he promised. Even if he could ensure she would be safe.
How about him?
Her safety might be increased now, if only temporarily. But his would not be. His risks would grow so much bigger than hers. He'd be risking everything.
Everything.
Glinda.
They were still a couple. The golden couple of Oz. What would happen if he were caught?
Even if the true nature of his relationship with Elphaba would never be known, even if it would only be his corrupted leadership that came to light...
Would they believe Glinda to be innocent? Or would she become an accomplice in something she'd never known, never expected? Something so much bigger and dirtier than she ever had been herself?
Elphaba sank back against the wall and stared at the door Fiyero had walked out of only hours before. They'd spent the night together, as they did. They'd said goodbye with too many kisses and touches and smiles.
Smiles that went from giddy to relieved to true and small and genuine to sad and guilty as the hours passed, morning dawned and the time to part drew closer.
He'd left through the door as she'd turned to the window, knowing she'd have to hurry if she wanted to make it back to her safety house before the sun rose. But she'd been stuck, staring at the door, knowing that something had changed that night.
Because for the first time since she'd run into him in that forest, maybe even for the first time since she'd met him, her attention had been on the world around them, more than on them. More than on him.
She'd kissed him back and she'd shivered at his touch and she'd been impatient enough to rip three buttons off his shirt, but it had been different. Forced, in a way. Desperate.
Something changed, and it would never go back to the way it was. Nothing ever did. Changes could not be undone, decisions not unmade.
There were always lasting effects. Always. Everything left traces.
This was it.
For them, this was it.
Choices had to be made now, there was no going back, and there was no muddling through. No hiding.
The world had come in and invaded their bubble. It would require too much to build it back up.
And he was already taking too many risks. For her. She couldn't let him.
And she couldn't let herself.
But...
She let her head rest against the wall as she stared at the ceiling, her eyes dry, her throat burning.
How...how...would she stop?
Day after tomorrow!