Middle Ground
Chapter 35
A/N Short, I know. The next one, though, will be posted tomorrow.
A part of him wished they'd knocked him unconscious. It would have spared him the torture of thinking.
And not in the way he used to feel about that particular activity.
It would have spared him thinking of the million ways his current predicament could, and would, endanger Elphaba.
An ultimatum, Morrible had said.
For Elphaba.
He wasn't entirely sure how that worked, and what Morrible had planned, but it didn't take a whole lot of effort to figure out that, no matter how it went down, it would not end well.
If Morrible gave out an ultimatum, he knew that Elphaba would be smart enough to know it was a trap.
That was not the issue.
The issue was that she'd come anyway. Because she was too hotheaded to think clearly. Because flying off the handle is what she did best.
Because it was him.
She loved him, and she would come.
He had no doubt about it, but he hoped for it anyway. He hoped she wouldn't. That she'd go.
If this was the end of it, the end of them...
Well...
What was the point of getting out of here at all? Really?
If Elphaba disappeared from his life, then what could it possibly hold for him?
And she would disappear...
If she gave in and was captured, she'd be sentenced to death. He would die with her the day that happened.
If she left now in order to escape capture, she'd never be able to return to him.
Either way; their life together was over.
And it was a life. It was the best part of his life.
He loved Glinda, he loved her more than he ever expected to love her when they met, but he didn't want a life with her.
Not the one they'd had, and not any other. It had nothing to do with her either. Not anymore. He had thought it did, once upon a time, before Elphaba had found him searching the skies for her. But he knew better now.
It had nothing to do with her.
But a man couldn't live a happy life with a woman, when he was in love with, ached for, another.
And it wouldn't be fair to either of them. To any of them.
So he sat in the room they kept him in, stared at the wall and hoped against hope, and against every bit of his heart and soul, that he'd never see her again.
Because at least it would give her a chance.
And with the options he had before him, he didn't want one.
So what did you guys do for Christmas? And did you get any good gifts? I'm kind of curious what parts of the world you are all from and what your holiday traditions are...