So yes, in the previous chapter, Winola Verkin was Willemijn Verkaik and Adele Dazeem was (obviously) Idina Menzel. That's actually also a reference to where I got my own beauty pageant contestant name, because my full name put through an online "Travoltifyer" became Macy Lezwis. :P
19. The Most Celebrated
Elphaba returned backstage fully expecting to find Macy there, being restrained by security guards. Instead, however, she was greeted by Karise and Umbia, who were both wearing sullen expressions.
"I'm sorry, Elphaba," Karise apologised. "It was a false alarm."
A wave of disappointment washed over the green girl. "Really? Are you sure?"
Umbia nodded. "The only incriminating thing Macy has done is stick her tongue down the throat of one of the light technicians," she said, making Karise snort a laugh.
Elphaba sighed. She should have known there was nothing more to it. Her first instinct about Macy had probably been right – she was too stupid to be a criminal. For her, everything was about make-up, popularity, and boys.
She frowned suddenly. "Wait. Doesn't Macy have a boyfriend? A different one, I mean?"
Karise nodded, looking smug. "She does, which is probably why she's sneaking around backstage to frolic with this guy."
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Great."
"Elphie!" Glinda approached her, looking a little sad, but smiling nonetheless. She hugged her roommate tightly. "Congratulotions. I'm proud of you – and Nessa, too."
"Thanks, Glin," said Elphaba, recognising she couldn't say anything about Oscar's manipulating votes in front of Karise and Umbia. "I'm sorry you didn't make it."
Glinda waved her away, even though Elphaba knew her best friend had to be disappointed. "I made it to the top 6, didn't I? That's already quite impressive!"
"It is," Umbia agreed. "Congratulotions."
Glinda beamed at her. "Thanks, Umbia."
Elphaba moved away from them, intending to change back into her normal clothes and return to the Palace with Oscar and the others; but she was stopped by the sight of Morrible disappearing down a hallway. Without so much as thinking about it, she followed the older woman, sneaking after her. She watched her approach a man in dark clothes standing at the end of the hallway. She couldn't get any closer without being seen, but Morrible and the man had a whispered conversation and then the man disappeared and Morrible slipped into a door on her right. Whatever this was, Elphaba didn't trust it.
She waited for a while. Soon enough, Morrible returned and the green girl quickly moved back to the other contestants, pretending to talk with her sister as she kept half an eye on Morrible, who went out onto the stage again.
"What's wrong?" Nessa asked in a low voice.
Elphaba shook her head. "I don't know," she said quietly, "but I don't trust it."
Nessa followed her gaze to Morrible. "She'll be preoccupied for a while yet," she noted, glancing cautiously at her older sister. "Some of the press is interviewing all the judges."
Elphaba looked at her.
Nessa gave her a tiny nod. "I'll cover for you if needed."
Elphaba smiled. "Thanks, Nessa."
She quickly made her way back to the hallway where she'd seen Morrible and the man talking and she pushed open the door Morrible had disappeared through earlier. It was the judges' dressing room and Elphaba easily sneaked inside. No-one was there, just like she had hoped, and the green girl took the opportunity to search Morrible's things.
There wasn't much there. The only personal item of Morrible's was her handbag, which contained make-up, some food, a tiny mirror, a spectacle case, a pocket diary and a couple of pencils. There was also a card with a phone number on it; she quickly copied the phone number onto a loose piece of paper to take with her. The pencils gave her an idea and she searched the desk the handbag had been lying on, hoping to find something handwritten of Morrible's. She eventually found some notes the woman must have taken on some of the girls and she stuffed them into the bodice of her dress. If nothing else, Oscar's security department could compare Morrible's handwriting to the handwriting on the letters. She wasn't sure what would be enough to arrest the woman, but at least it would be something. She hadn't really expected the old fish to keep a bomb detonator in her purse, or a postcard saying I AM GOING TO BLOW UP THE MISS EMERALD FINALE.
She managed to get back without anyone getting suspicious and after she and the others had changed, they all returned to the Emerald Palace. Elphaba gave her father the notes and phone number she'd found and told him about what she had seen. She could tell he was mildly exasperated because she was still suspecting Morrible, but he promised to have some of his men look into it.
They spent the next day sightseeing in the City, but when they returned to the Palace for dinner, it was to find that Oscar and Dr Dillamond had some good news for them.
"The handwriting on the threat letter matches Morrible's," Oscar told her. "That, combined with some reports from both you and one of my security guards about having seen her talking to someone suspicious, was enough reason for us to bring her in. She will be questioned tomorrow."
Although they were all relieved to hear that, Elphaba seemed a little disappointed and when Oscar asked her about it during dinner, she heaved a sigh. "I guess it just feels like an anti-climax," she said. "I've been working so hard to make my participation in this pageant work – I've put hours and hours of lessons and a whole lot of effort into it, I've been keeping an eye out for suspicious activities… and now, because of a hunch and the fact that I managed to sneak into a room and steal some papers, we caught the culprit? It seems too easy. Too coincidental."
"We're not certain Madame Morrible actually did it," Dr Dillamond corrected her. "Not yet, anyway."
"She is, however, in custody and the questioning will tell us soon enough if she's really behind it," Oscar added. "Elphaba, coincidences happen – thankfully, in this case."
Elphaba nodded, poking at her dinner. "All right." It didn't feel all right, though. She still had that nagging feeling that it wasn't over yet.
Fiyero, who was sitting beside her, took her hand under the table. "I'm proud of you," he said quietly.
She squeezed his hand gratefully in reply.
"Does this mean the finale won't be cancelled?" Nessa asked hopefully and Oscar smiled at her.
"That depends on what today's interrogations will bring," he said, "but if it turns out that Morrible was indeed the person behind it, and we can establish that there won't be a threat any longer… then no, it won't be cancelled."
Nessa sighed happily. Glinda, however, didn't say anything. Elphaba knew her best friend had taken her defeat hard, even though she was trying to be a lady about it. She was just staring at her food now, hardly eating anything and looking lost in thought.
"Wait," said Elphaba suddenly. "If we did indeed catch our Bomb Threat Woman…"
Nessa giggled at that.
"…and you manipulated the viewers' votes to get me into the finale… can't I switch?" Elphaba asked, her eyes lighting up. She glanced at Glinda. "With someone who really does want to be in the finale, that is?"
The blonde slowly looked up and blinked at her friend.
"I could just drop out," Elphaba continued to Oscar, "and you could make it so that the girl with supposedly the third most amount of viewer votes, say maybe a certain Miss Upland, would be in the finale instead…"
Glinda smiled sadly and shook her head.
"No, Elphie," she said firmly. "The people have spoken."
"No, they haven't," Elphaba countered. "My father has spoken, but now the threat is gone, so there is no need for me to be in the finale anymore. You know I never even wanted this, Glin, and I know how badly you do want it."
Oscar cleared his throat. "That's very sweet of you, Elphaba, but there's one small problem."
Elphaba gave him a questioning look.
Oscar smiled mysteriously. "I didn't manipulate anything."
"Yes, you did," Elphaba argued. "I'm in the finale, remember?"
His smile only widened and she gaped at him. "You didn't…?"
"He didn't," Chistery assured her, grinning as well. "You made it on your own, Elphaba. He didn't have to manipulate anything. You actually did achieve second place in the viewer voting."
Glinda, despite herself, squealed and threw her arms around her roommate. "Oh, Elphie! I'm so proud of you!" She planted a kiss on Elphaba's cheek. "You can't pull out now, not even for me – this is wonderful! You have to go! You might even win!"
"I don't want to win," Elphaba whined, but no-one was listening anymore. She sighed, protested, and grumbled; but in the end, the others managed to convince her to stay in the competition. Still, to her, it didn't feel like it was over yet and, as usual, Fiyero picked up on it, although he didn't call her out on it – yet.
Later that evening, Elphaba found herself tossing and turning for a while in her bed in the Palace before finally falling asleep, only to start awake again less than an hour later from a vivid nightmare. She sighed and pulled on a pair of slippers and a cardigan, intending to wander around the building for a bit; but before she could leave her room, she heard a quiet knock on her door.
She opened it only to find Fiyero standing outside and she quirked an eyebrow at him. "What are you doing up at this hour?"
"Seeing if you were up, too," he said, giving her that lopsided grin. He took in her dishevelled appearance – messy hair, red-rimmed eyes – and his blue eyes clouded with concern. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she said tiredly, holding open her door so he could come in. "Just another nightmare, that's all. Something with fish and tiaras this time." She gave him a weak grin, but he didn't grin back. Instead, he wrapped her into his arms and held her for a while as she allowed herself to relax against his chest, closing her eyes and listening to his heartbeat.
"I love you," he murmured into her ear.
She pulled away and searched his face. "Why are you really here, Yero?"
He sighed. "I had a nightmare, too," he confessed. Another crooked grin. "Believe it or not, but it was also about Morrible, and you, and… well, let's just say it wasn't pleasant. I guess your worries about her have rubbed off on me. Besides, I could tell today that you're still bothered by this whole thing, so I figured as long as I was awake, anyway, I might as well go check on you."
She smiled a little, leading him over to the bed so they could sit side by side. "I keep being surprised at how well you know me, although I guess I shouldn't be."
"I told you, I paid attention. Trust me – if they had a course at Shiz on you, I'd get top marks."
"That'd be a first, then," she teased him and he stuck out his tongue.
They sat quietly for a while.
"Do you want anything?" Fiyero asked her. "Some warm milk and honey, maybe? Something to help you sleep?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine, thanks." She rubbed her eyes. "I just can't believe it's over. Of course I've suspected Morrible from the beginning and it doesn't surprise me that she's the one behind it all, but I have a feeling that's not all. That maybe she's planned more, or something. It seems too easy, you know?"
"I know wat you mean." Fiyero put an arm around her shoulders and touched his forehead to her temple. "But if you are being completely honest – do you have any actual evidence or clues that Morrible might have something else planned, or is it just a feeling?"
"Just a feeling," she admitted.
"And when you say 'just a feeling', does that mean some kind of vision or prophecy you've seen or is it mainly just the fact that she tried to do some horrible things last year and she's come to embody all things evil in your head so it seems anticlimactic that we caught her relatively easily?"
She had to smile, once again, at how well he knew her, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. "Probably the latter," she conceded. "I mean… I did get something that very strongly resembled a vision, a while ago, but I didn't really see anything. That, too, was just a feeling – a very strong feeling, but just a feeling. The feeling that something bad is going to happen."
"Fae," he said teasingly, "no offence, but you always feel like something bad is going to happen."
She glared at him and he pulled her close, chuckling as he kissed her. "My little pessimist."
"I'm not little and I'm not a pessimist," she told him flatly. "I'm a realist."
His eyes lit up. "But you are mine?"
Her glare intensified and she stomped his arm, but he just laughed again and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "It's over, Fae. It's all right. I get why you would feel that way about Morrible – I'm inclined to do the same thing – but it doesn't look like she has anything more planned than we already know. Not this time."
Elphaba heaved a sigh. "I know. You're right. I'm just… paranoid." She buried her face in his shoulder. "Sometimes I honestly wonder how you can stand me," she said, her voice muffled by the shirt he slept in. "And then I'm not even talking about the magic or the green. Personality-wise, I'm just… nothing like you at all. Sometimes I can't even stand myself, so how can you?"
He shrugged, enveloping her in his arms and resting his chin on the top of her head. "Maybe it's because I love you," he said. "Or maybe it's just because your self-esteem is unhealthily low and you think you're much worse than you actually are. Trust me, Fae – I can stand you just fine. Yes, you can be exasperating sometimes, but never to the extent you just described."
She was quiet.
"Besides," he added lightly, "you're cute when you're exasperating."
He gasped when he suddenly felt an elbow between his ribs. "Ouch!"
"Not cute," she muttered against his shoulder with a scowl.
"The only reason I'm not going to argue with you is because I don't want another elbow between my ribs." He winced, rubbing the spot. "Oz, Fae, that hurt."
She quickly pulled away, looking worried. "Really? I'm sorry, I didn't mean –" She cut herself off with a shriek when he threw her back onto the bed and started tickling her.
"Got you there," he grinned, looking down at her. She scowled at him, but he quickly made that scowl disappear by leaning over her and kissing her softly on the lips.
"Go to sleep," he told her, running his fingers down her cheek before pulling away and rising to his feet. "Stop worrying about Morrible and the threat – it's over now. You just focus on the finale this Friday, which you'll nail, and after that it will be completely over and you won't have to parade around in pretty dresses ever again. Okay?"
"I'm a princess," she protested. "I'm willing to bet my right hand that someday, someone is going to expect me to parade around in a pretty dress again."
Fiyero raised his eyebrows and she sulked, crossing her arms. "Fine."
He grinned and moved back to the bed to kiss her again. "Sweet dreams, hon."
"'Night." She watched him go and then crawled under the blankets again, hoping sleep would come a little easier now that she'd had some distraction.
Hope you like! Off to Germany and Prague tomorrow, but as I said, I'll have wifi so it should all be fine. ^_^