So sorry for the extreme delay! It's been a WEEK, but I'm back!

Fiyero inhaled deeply, coughed, and slowly opened his eyes. He thought he was in his own hotel room, until he felt someone breathing on his neck. He almost startled, but quickly remembered the events of the previous night and slowly turned towards the source of the hot breath.

Elphaba was on her side, her face facing him, her hair coming out of her braid, and wildly fanning across her pillow and face. Her lips were parted, the source of the hot breath on his neck. She looked adorable while sleeping, but he wouldn't dare mention this to her.

"Good morning, sleepy-head," he grinned when she finally opened her eyes.

"How long were you watching me?" she slurred sleepily.

"Not long. It's still pretty early."

She pushed herself up, wiping her hair from her face and reaching for her phone. "It's eight-forty. This isn't early in doctor-time."

"It is in it's-Sunday-and-I-can-sleep-in time."

She leaned back against the pillows. "There are a few more lectures today if you wanna go. Or we can call it a weekend and catch the next train back to Shiz."

"We can walk around the convention center one final time." He grabbed the brochure from the night table. "Or we can tour the city."

"We didn't come here to tour Tenniken."

"We already did what we came here to do. We should have some fun."

"We both have work tomorrow." She turned to him. "How about this; pick a spot for brunch, and we'll have a relaxing meal before we return home. How's that sound?"

"Better than nothing." He immediately began searching for good places on his phone while Elphaba got ready.

When she came out of the bathroom, Fiyero was still in her bed, his thumbs tapping the screen in a fast, steady rhythm. "I didn't know you'd still be in here," she said, going over to her suitcase and pulling out a thick sweater and jeans.

"Sorry, I got distracted." He glanced up. "Your skin is… glowing."

"I used cleansing oils today. I have a pretty solid balance between showering and oils, but I can't use the cleansing oils every day because it dries my skin out, and I can't shower every day for obvious reasons. Today was 'oil day'. Did you find a brunch spot?"

"Yeah. This café isn't too far from here. Lil' Coffee, Big Glee. It has really good reviews." He showed her on his phone.

"This looks nice. Go get ready."

He got out of bed and returned to his room, taking the longest shower he'd had time for in a while. When he opened his room door, Elphaba was waiting outside, leaning against the wall.

"Ready?" she asked, pocketing her phone and pulling her hat down over her forehead.

"Yeah."

The two walked to the café and got a free table near the door. Everything on the menu looked delicious, and within a reasonable price range, and they easily made their selections.

"Elphaba."

"Hmm?"

"Thanks."

She eyed him curiously. "Thanks? For what? Did I unintentionally agree to pay for your food?"

"Er… yes."

She rolled her eyes with a soft chuckle. "Clever."

"I mean thanks for this weekend. I learned a lot and I'm glad I got to spend it with you."

Her cheeks colored. "Oh. Um… you're welcome, I guess. I mean… I'm glad you learned a lot. And I'm glad you got a chance to see your aunt and uncle again."

"Seeing them was a surprise, but a good one. I thought they'd send one of their representatives instead of coming themselves."

Elphaba hummed, finishing her hot chocolate. Once they finished and paid, Fiyero managed to talk Elphaba into taking a walk around town and browsing through the little shops. He was more than willing to spend most of their time in the bookstore, seeing how Elphaba's face lit up as soon as they entered. He wanted a woman to look at him the way Elphaba looked at books.

He wanted her to look at him the way she looked at books.

It was only after making her numerous book purchases that Elphaba realized what time it was and told Fiyero they had to return to the hotel to grab their bags.

"We have to hurry if we're gonna make the next train back to Shiz," she said, practically pulling him behind her as they sped-walked back to the hotel. "Or else we'll be stuck here for another two hours."

"I'm packed. Is this you admitting that you're not?" Fiyero asked, quickening his pace before Elphaba could accidentally pull his arm from his socket.

"… I'm not always as organized as I appear to be." She turned to him, but didn't slow her pace. "Don't tell anyone I told you that."

"Your secret's safe with me."

Thanks to Elphaba's rushing, they made it to the train station with three minutes to spare. "I'm glad we made it," she huffed, downing half of her water bottle and trying to catch her breath.

"I never doubted we would. The real question was whether you were going to dislocate my shoulder with your pulling."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was… did I hurt you?"

"Nah. I'm tougher than I look, and I know I look pretty tough."

"You do," she agreed, and Fiyero thought he saw a hint of a blush on her cheeks.

"And you're stronger than you look, so I'd say we're even."

She cleared her throat. "And I expect a summary of this weekend on my desk by the end of the week."

"First, you test me to make me earn my place here, then you made me write a book report about it?" Fiyero groaned. "This is like school."

"It's like school because you are here to learn. That's what it means to be an intern."

"I never fully identified with that label, since I'm not getting coffee or picking up dry-cleaning."

"Then you can start doing coffee runs for me tomorrow morning."

He couldn't tell whether she was joking or not, but hoped to Oz she was. They were mostly quiet for the rest of the trip, lost in their own worlds, until the conductor announced their impending arrival at Shiz.

"I'm so glad for things to return to normal," Elphaba said as they got their suitcases from the overhead bin. "There's a reason why I don't do much traveling; too much of a routine break."

"I enjoyed our little break, even if I have to write a report about it."

The train slowed into the station and the passengers began to disembark.

"Elphaba?" Fiyero blinked once they were on the platform.

"Yeah?"

Without hesitation, he leaned over and kissed her. While unexpected, Elphaba couldn't say the kiss surprised her. Even though they were standing on a train platform in front of numerous random witnesses, she didn't pay attention to any of them.

He gently pulled away, his lips quirking into a lopsided smile. "Before things return to normal," he whispered. "See you tomorrow, Dr. Thropp." He grabbed his suitcase and headed down the platform stairs to the street.

"Dr. Tigulaar enters the room," Fiyero narrated with a smile as he pushed the door to Imie's room open.

The thirteen-year-old looked up from her book with a frown. "And just where have you been all weekend?" she asked indignantly, slapping her hands against her hips. "You left without so much as a note. I was so worried about you. I thought you had died!"

He was used to the girl's dramatics. "And I was so worried about you, too. And I didn't die. I had to go to a medical conference this weekend," Fiyero said, looking over her chart.

"So you left me here all alone so you could go on a field trip? When's my field trip?" she pouted.

"Once we get your oxygen levels back up and stable. They've dropped over the weekend."

"I've been doing my treatments and everything else I'm supposed to do. Why am I not getting better?"

"Because your body can't use the oxygen we're giving you to help itself."

"So get some better oxygen for me."

He sat on the bed and took her hand. "I wish I could, Imie. But this is the only oxygen that exists. You know I'm doing everything I can to help, and I will find something that will get you to a point where you don't need my help as much."

She sighed. "I know, Dr. Tigulaar. Did you bring me something back from the convention?"

His mind flashed to the pamphlets on the clinical trial to decrease oxygen treatments for Pompe Disease patients, but decided not to say anything. He wasn't going to voice his opinions on the clinical trial while it was still in the "trial" stage. "I did." He pulled out a pen with little stethoscopes on it and handed it to her.

"A pen?"

"Not just any pen. A special pen. Only two people in this entire hospital have this pen."

"Just two?"

"Yeah. One was me, now it's you, and the other is Dr. Thropp, one of the best doctors we have here. So that's a very special, lucky pen."

"What am I supposed to do with a lucky pen?"

He squeezed her hand and stood. "Let it bring you some good luck. I'll check on you later." He left, dropping some files off at the nurses' station, and was about to grab a snack when his phone vibrated.

Shem: Meet in the NWBC in 5 mins.

He hurried to their special meeting place, seeing Shem, Pfannee, and ShenShen already gathered.

"Good, Fiyero's here. We can bring him up to speed," Pfannee said, bouncing in unknown anticipation.

"What's going on?" Fiyero asked, not really liking how suspicious his friends looked.

"You're not the only one who had an interesting weekend," Shem said, clasping Fiyero's shoulders and steering him down the wing towards the back stairwell. "While you were being a tourist, we were being doctors."

"I wasn't being a tourist!" Fiyero protested. "And where are we going?"

"To the fifth floor."

"Why are we using the back stairwell?"

"Because it's closer to our patient's room."

"Who's patient?"

"All of ours." He stopped in front of the patient's room and opened the door.

"What in Oz…" Fiyero gaped.

In the bed laid a sleeping young man, probably not older than they were, covered in red, inflamed rashes.

"He came into the pit Saturday afternoon," ShenShen spoke up. "I was working down there, and he came in off the street. He begged me to help him, and he doesn't have insurance, and I couldn't just turn him away, and… the rash wasn't this bad when he came in. It was just on his hands and neck… but now it's covering his entire body."

"Why couldn't he be admitted?"

"One of the nurses said he was an addict who comes here for pain meds, but I didn't believe her. I tried to tell her about his hands, but she got distracted talking to another patient. And there was a big trauma coming in, and I had to get out of the way. And I just… took him with me."

"You snuck him in."

"And it was surprisingly easy. Maybe security should be increased. I shouldn't have been able to do it so easily."

He looked at the foot of the bed for the chart. "And there's no chart for him?"

"Of course there's no chart. Are you crazy?"

His eyes widened. "Are you crazy?!"

"This is a secret patient," Pfannee whispered, her lowered voice reminding the others to keep their voices down. "We'll figure out what's wrong with him, and the doctors will be so proud of us that they'll –"

"They'll decide against killing us," Shem finished with a smile. "Come on. We'll only be in trouble if we get caught. And we won't get caught. Are you in, Tigulaar?"

Fiyero really wanted to be a part of this medical mystery case. He wanted to be a part of studying this rare case and being a part of discovering the cure. It would be like he was part of the diagnostic team with Elphaba. But he was also painfully aware of the potential punishment that awaited them if/when they were caught. But the thrill of the new adventure slowly began to subdue the rational part of his brain. "I'm in."

"Awesome," ShenShen grinned. "Thanks."

"But wait. How are we gonna order tests for our secret patient?"

"Korienne's helping us. And Dr. Floij down in the lab owes me a favor," Pfannee said.

"Why does Dr. Floij owe you a favor?" Fiyero blinked.

Pfannee shot him a look. "Don't ask questions you don't wanna know the answer to."

He wisely shut his mouth on the subject. "When do we start?"

"Right now." ShenShen went over to the patient and lightly shook his arm. "Mr. Bijj, it's Dr. Minkos. I brought more doctors, and we're gonna help you get better."

The patient slowly opened his eyes, but before he could say anything, he bolted upright and threw up. ShenShen jumped out of the projectile zone just in time, and didn't get hit.

"Alright, let's get started," Shem said, rubbing his hands together and getting the blood work tools prepped.

Elphaba had lost track of how many cups of coffee she'd had. She knew it was more than three, but it couldn't have been more than ten, which left quite the gap. She knew drinking this much coffee wasn't good for her body, but it tasted so good, and she needed the boost of serotonin more than she needed the caffeine. She grabbed food in the cafeteria and met her friends at their usual table. Sarima was on her phone, Boq was reading a graphic novel, and Crope and Tibbett were sharing a salad.

"Please tell me your day is going more exciting than mine," Elphaba said, sitting down with her bowl of soup.

"I delivered five babies today," Sarima said without pausing her scrolling.

"Quints?" Boq asked, his interest piqued.

"No. Five separate babies. As soon as I finished with one mother, I was being paged to another."

"Oh."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bore you."

"I've been clipping aneurysms all morning," Tibbett said, stealing a carrot from Crope's side. "Overall uneventful."

"I had one surgery this morning, then I'm stuck catching up on paperwork all afternoon," Crope sighed. "I hate paperwork."

"Don't we all," Elphaba agreed.

"I miss having my own interns that I can dump all my paperwork onto. They've all grown up. I raised them well, but now I have to do my own boring work." His pager went off. "Oh, my day just got slightly more interesting. I have a consult." He took a few more bites of salad before jumping up. "See ya!"

"Elphaba, what are you bringing to the dinner party next weekend?" Sarima asked, finally looking up from her phone at the green woman.

Elphaba blinked. "What dinner party?"

"The dinner party at my house I just invited you to."

She pulled out her phone, seeing the texted invitation on her lock screen. "You literally just invited me, so I haven't had much time to think about it."

"Okay, then who are you bringing as your plus one?"

Her mind flashed to Fiyero, but she wasn't at a point where she felt comfortable admitting it.

"Boq's bringing Milla," Crope offered, hoping that spilling that juicy detail would encourage Elphaba to do the same.

"I forgot you two are official now," Sarima mumbled.

"It's only been a day and a half," Boq said with a slight blush.

"So I won't hold my breath."

"What can I say? I'm an anesthesiologist. I know how to make people go weak in the knees."

Crope laughed, Sarima glared, and Elphaba was starting to regret every decision that led her to that moment.

"Come on, Thropp. It's an attending dinner party," Sarima said, focusing back on Elphaba.

"So why am I, a lowly resident, invited?" Elphaba asked, studying the invitation's graphics.

"Because I like you, Chief Resident. Boq's invited because we all need the anesthesiologist on our good sides."

"I never said they had to bribe me, but I'm not gonna tell them to stop," Boq whispered to Elphaba.

The green girl gave him a small grin. "Okay. I'll come. Thank you, Sarima."

"And you'll bring a plus-one?" the dark-skinned doctor pressed.

"Yes. I'll bring a plus-one. And you'll see who next weekend."

"I'll take it. Now, I have to check on a few patients before I head over to my parent's house. This is the only time this month that they could manage to get me and my five younger sisters together for a family dinner." She stood, taking her tray with her, and hurried out.

"Elphaba, do you know what the deal is between Sarima and Milla?" Boq asked once the OB/GYN was out of earshot.

The green woman shook her head. "No. Why?"

"She's very protective of her. If she sees us together, she shoots me a dirty look. If I'm walking past them, she'll put an arm around her and steer her away."

"Has she walked in on you two recently?"

"Not for a while. We've been getting better at being discreet. There are lots of hiding places in his huge hospital."

That information filed itself away without Elphaba consciously doing it.

"There's no rule against residents or attendings dating interns. We're all adults here. We can keep things professional."

"It's not frowned upon, but you have to admit, there is a stigma. They think the residents and attendings are playing favorites, which means others won't get a chance to learn, and they think the interns are trying to gain favors… or blackmail."

She thought about her and Fiyero. Would people be having these negative thoughts about them if they were found out? It would hurt him more than it would hurt her. She had a closer working relationship with him than Boq had with Milla. She didn't think she was playing favorites with Fiyero, going the extra mile to make sure she was torturing all her interns equally.

But she knew the truth would come out eventually. She just had to make sure she had as much control over it as possible.

Her pager beeped and she looked down. "9-1-1 in the waiting room?" she blinked, jumping up and rushing out, leaving her food with Boq, who was more than willing to make sure it didn't go to waste.

When she got to the waiting room, she looked around for the emergency, but no one seemed to be in distress. Was this a mistake? Was the page meant for someone else?

"Aoide, did someone page me?" she asked the nurse sitting at the desk.

The young nurse looked up. "Dr. Thropp, your sister is here."

"Nessa?" She looked around, but didn't see the young brunette. "Where is she? Did you send her up to my office?"

"No, she –"

"Elphaba!"

The green woman turned and saw one of the surgeons hurrying over to her. "Soshal, what's going on? Who paged me? I was told my sister was here."

"She is. She's with Dr. Miluyse."

"Why is she with Tibbett? What –" Her brain slowly added the surgical gown, the tense posture, and the serious eyes together, and she froze. "You're making that face. I know that face. I make that face when... Dr. Poynet, what happened to my sister?"

The resident surgeon relaxed her shoulders a tad, realizing her colleague was reacting to her body language. "She was brought into the ER, complaining of a severe, sudden headache. They did a CT scan, and she had a brain aneurysm. Dr. Miluyse is operating on her now."

Elphaba felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. She stared at her friend, wondering if she had heard correctly. No. This must be some mistake. Perhaps it was a different Nessarose Thropp, because there was no way in Oz her little sister was having emergency brain surgery.