Wow! Y'all, I am so sorry for this delayed update! Grad school started back up, followed by promotional training at my job, and the fact that this chapter was *sheepishly scratches back of neck* not quite finished. But now I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Elphaba only sat down once she got tired of pacing. She didn't know how long she'd been there, but it felt like forever. She checked her watch. "Forever" was the equivalent of "forty minutes". She didn't know much about brain surgery, usually blocking Tibbett out when he started talking about all the heads he'd cut into, and not knowing how long the surgery was supposed to take made her even more anxious.

She alternated between checking her pager and cell, not wanting to miss any updates on her sister. When none came, she went over to the nurses' station.

"Dr. Thropp, we will tell you any information we have when we have it," the nurse said, sounding more sympathetic to Elphaba than she was with other families.

"Call the OR."

"Now, Dr. Thropp, you know I can't –"

"I need to talk to Dr. Miluyse right now."

"I'm not going to interrupt him while he's operating on your sister."

"But I –"

"Dr. Thropp, we both know that Dr. Miluyse will take good care of your sister, and not just because she's your sister."

"… I know." Her phone vibrated and she pulled it out of her pocket so fast, she almost dropped it. Her face dropped momentarily before she composed herself, clearing her throat of any and all emotion, and answered the call. "Father."

"Elphaba, what in Oz is going on?!" came her father's voice, with horns blaring and speeding traffic in the background. "Why did I get a call from the hospital that Nessarose is in the emergency room?!"

She hurried outside the waiting room, into the crisp, cool air. "Nessa came into the ER with a headache."

"Why did she get a headache strong enough to send her to the ER?"

"I don't know, Father."

"Why don't you know?"

She took a silent breath. If she told her father that Nessa was having brain surgery over the phone, he'd have a heart attack, and be their next admittance. And something told her that Nessa didn't tell their father about the clinical trial. "Because I wasn't stationed in the ER today. But I'm here now."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes." A click and the call ended.

The green woman slowly lowered the phone from her ear and stalked back inside. She was already worried about her sister, and her father's incessant questions weren't going to help her. She didn't know her father was in Shiz, but it wouldn't have surprised her. Even though her father was retired, that didn't stop him from working.

Did Nessa know their father was here? Was she supposed to meet him? Once her brain registered that she had run outside without a coat, she instantly regretted it and hurried back inside.

"Elphaba."

Her head snapped up at the voice and she jumped up. "Tib."

The neurosurgeon looked calm. Too calm. Elphaba had trouble reading his expression, which only made her more nervous.

"Stop trying to read me, Elphaba. Your sister is fine. I was able to clip the aneurysm and she's in recovery."

Relief washed over Elphaba, and she quickly and enthusiastically wrapped her arms around the surgeon. "Thank you, Tib! Thank you so much!"

Tibbett was used to families giving relieved hugs, and also knew of Elphaba's dislike of prolonged physical contact, which is why he was surprised only when she refused to let go of him even after a full minute had passed. "You're welcome, Elphaba. I told you I can clip brain aneurysms in my sleep. Which I didn't do this time," he added quickly when she suddenly pulled away. "You wanna go see her now?"

"I should wait for my father. He called, saying he'll be here soon."

"Look alive, everyone! The Governor of Munchkinland is coming!" Tibbett announced loudly, trying to probe how much he could tease Elphaba now that her worries had been eased. It was a pretty big probe, but he was a risk-taker.

"Former Governor!" Elphaba quickly clarified, glaring at a cheeky Tibbett.

She hadn't been watching the clock, but her father's arrival felt like it came sooner than twenty minutes. The door opened and a middle-aged man flocked by police marched in, heading directly to Elphaba.

"He spotted you pretty quickly," Tibbett noted.

"And why do you think that is?" Elphaba grumbled, fully turning to face her father. "Hello, Father."

"Where's Nessa? What happened? Is she alright?" was her father's preamble-less greeting.

"Father... Nessa had to have emergency brain surgery," she said carefully.

Frex's face dropped. "Excuse me?!"

"She had a brain aneurysm."

"A... brain aneurysm? Dear Oz. Are you the surgeon?" he spurted, ignoring his daughter as he stared at Tibbett. "How's my daughter?"

"Your daughter is in recovery, she did very well, and yes, I'm Dr. Tibbett Miluyse," Tibbett said, extending his hand to Frex, who shook it. "Her aneurysm hadn't ruptured, so I was able to successfully clip it. She'll need a few weeks to recover, and she'll be very tired for a while, but I think she'll make a full recovery."

"She'll be alright?"

"Yes, sir."

The former governor looked relieved. "Thank you. Can I see her?"

"Of course." He spared a quick glance at Elphaba before leading Frex away.

The scene didn't go unnoticed by the entire waiting room. Elphaba tried to ignore the whispers, and prayed her pager would go off, giving her brain a reason to tell her body to move.

"Dr. Thropp?"

She looked up to see Aoide staring at her with wide, sympathetic eyes. "The less attention he gives me, the better."

The nurse didn't look fully convinced, but nodded. "Alright. If you need anything –"

"I think I'll be staying here. Father will want some quality time with Nessa, but I can't make it seem like I've abandoned her. Could you do me a favor, though? Could you run and check on my interns and make sure they haven't set anything on fire?"

"Are you kidding? Of course! I've been looking for a reason to leave this desk for the past hour." Aoide practically bounced out of her chair and hurried out of the waiting room.

"Elphaba, your sister's awake and asking for you," Tibbett said, approaching Elphaba from behind and startling her. "Well, 'asking' is putting it nicely. Her first words were 'bring my sister to me'. I was so taken aback by her tone, I almost curtsied to her."

"You should've curtsied to her. She's used to that type of deference."

He cracked a smile. "Recovery Seven."

Elphaba hurried inside and quickly found the door. She braced herself and carefully pushed the door open. The room was dim, so the lights wouldn't give the brain patient an even bigger headache. Nessa was awake, but groggy, and sitting up, a large bandage wrapped around her head. Frex was sitting in the armchair by the bedside, holding her hand.

"How are you feeling, Nessie?" Elphaba greeted dutifully, closing the door behind her. She didn't approach the bed, and not only because she didn't see another chair.

"Alright… considering. I have a dulled pain in my… head," Nessa said, and Frex reached for the glass of water on her bedside table. He held the straw to her lips, and she took a few sips. "It… it was a really painful headache."

"I know. The surgeon said you should make a full recovery in a few weeks."

"I'll be missing a lot of class. I probably won't be able to return to Shiz until next semester."

"Don't worry about that, my precious girl," Frex said, lightly stroking the back of her hand. "I want you to focus on getting better. Governor Fyter has granted me access to the Berskley Square Townhouse for the next few weeks."

"M'kay…" Nessa slurred as her eyelids fluttered closed and her breathing evened out.

Frex stayed seated for a bit, watching his daughter sleep, seemingly forgetting that he had another daughter in the room.

Elphaba softly cleared her throat, finally grabbing her father's attention. "I have to go back to work, Father. I can –"

"I want to know how this happened, Elphaba," the former governor said, rising to his feet.

Elphaba had a brief flashback of her in her younger years, in her father's office to be reprimanded for Nessa's unhappiness or getting sick in public and causing a scene, and flinched. No matter how tall and confident she got, she always felt small around her father. She couldn't tell whether her father noticed or not, since his posture didn't change. "I don't know."

"When was the last time you checked on Nessa?"

"I called –"

"Not call. When did you take the time to go to her apartment and physically check on her?"

"I… probably a few weeks ago."

"So you wouldn't have noticed her getting sick?"

"You can't predict most brain aneurysms, Father. Most people live for years without any problems. Nessa's headache was the sign that she was sick."

"A sign that you missed."

"A sign that was late-onset."

"You haven't been supporting her enough. She's very busy with graduate school and that stress could've made her sick."

Don't argue anymore, Elphaba. Arguing will only make things longer and worse. Do your best to end the conversation unscathed. Say what you know he wants to hear to make him happy. "I'm sorry, Father. I will do a better job caring for Nessa."

"I will be caring for Nessa for the next few weeks."

She heard the undertone of what he meant loud and clear. 'You are not doing a good enough job. I want it done right, so I'll do it myself.' She was sure this would lead to a stern lecture about how having a job shouldn't stop her from seeing to her responsibility of caring for her sister. "Okay, Father." She looked at her sister's chart. "Dr. Miluyse will want to keep her here for observation for the next five days. After that, if everything looks good, she'll be discharged. I will stay with her while you get settled in the townhouse."

"Ibly is seeing to the luggage. I will stay here."

She heard the unsaid 'alone', so she simply nodded. "Of course. Have one of the nurses page me when you're ready to leave."

"Nessa isn't as strong as you, Elphaba," Frex said as Elphaba was about to close the door. "She's delicate and needs more attention."

This wasn't the first time she's heard that untrue excuse, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. It was nothing more than a nicer way of her father saying he loved and cared more for her sister than her. "I understand, Father." She left before she was subjected to more backhanded lies.

She checked her pager and phone for updates on her interns. Aoide had texted her saying they were fine, their patients were still alive, and nothing was on fire. She knew she had to get to a point where she stopped making jokes about how she thought her interns were foolish when they were quite capable on their own. But then she thought, even if she taught them nothing else, she was going to keep them humble.

"How many diagnoses have we ruled out?" Shem asked, fanning himself with his packet of paperwork.

"Twenty-five," Pfannee said, looking at the latest blood results. "Should we order more tests?"

"Not if we want to keep this under wraps. I'm surprised Dr. Thropp hasn't asked us about the other scans and tests we've ordered."

"We have to find out what's wrong with this man," ShenShen said, rubbing her face.

"We've ruled out almost every other possibility."

"Almost? What are we missing?"

"It could be… gastroparesis."

Fiyero shook his head. "Gastroparesis? You're kidding. That doesn't explain the rashes."

"But it does explain why he's not eating much, and why his urine output is low. The rashes could be something unrelated."

"So why don't we solve the rashes first and then focus on low-pee output." He was getting tired, and tiredness made him cranky. His watch beeped and he glanced at the time. "I'm done for today. Maybe a fresh start tomorrow will help us think better."

The group agreed and bid each other farewell. Fiyero found himself still thinking about their mystery case on his drive home.

The next morning, before they had their chance to sneak away, Elphaba met them at the nurses' station.

"I need a favor. I have to catch up on paperwork this morning, so I'd appreciate it if you could check on my patients. Read their charts, and if you have any questions about medication doses, ask the nurses." Elphaba divvied out patients' files to her four interns.

"There goes our chance to sneak away," ShenShen muttered once Elphaba was out of earshot. "If we check on her patients all morning, we won't get to our patients until this afternoon, let alone our extracurricular project."

"We'll work fast," Shem said, already heading off.

Elphaba grabbed everything she needed from her office and headed down to the recovery rooms. She quietly opened the door to room seven and slipped inside. The lights were dimmed, and she wasn't surprised to see her sister fast asleep. She checked her chart. The nurse had given her pain medicine not long ago, so she'd probably be asleep for the rest of the morning.

Satisfied that her sister was alright, she quietly set up her workstation at the small table by the window and got to work.

She was catching up on sending emails and verifying prescriptions when the door opened, revealing their father.

"Elphaba," he whispered, sounding surprised to see his eldest daughter working in the dimmed room. "I didn't think you'd be here."

"I'm doing office work this morning, and thought it'd be better to do it here. I've been keeping an eye on Nessa."

"I said I would –"

"I know. And I know what you really meant."

He was still, his only movements were the slow, isolated softening of his face and posture. Normally, Elphaba knew what her father's facial expressions and postures meant. And she knew what this calmness and softness meant. And it was reserved for Nessa, never her. As he said before, she was stronger than Nessa and didn't need constant doting and affection.

"It's not good to work in the dark."

"I'm alright. Turning the lights up would give Nessa a headache when she wakes."

"How is she?"

"The nurse gave her pain medication earlier this morning, so she should wake up soon."

He nodded, taking the chair by the bedside. For a while, the only sounds were the soft, machine whirls, Elphaba's typing, and scribbled pen against paper.

"They're not overworking you here, are they?"

Elphaba was so engrossed in proofreading an email that she almost didn't register her father speaking to her. "I'm a doctor. Being overworked is part of the job. But I handle it."

"Nessa said you're the Chief Resident now."

She looked up at him. "She told you that?"

"Is it not true?"

"It is, but I didn't think she cared beyond the fact that I would be at work for longer hours. I didn't think she cared enough to tell you."

"And… you haven't…"

She knew what he was thinking, and she hated it. He couldn't have it both ways; either she was strong enough not to need constant attention, or she was too sick to do anything except stay at home. "I've managed to remain an employee of this hospital rather than a patient." She ended the conversation by turning all her attention to her sister. "I'll have to wake her so she can eat." She lightly shook her sister's shoulder. "Nessie."

The brunette's eyes slowly fluttered open and met hers. "You're not my doctor," she grumbled, her speech slurred as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"No, I'm not your doctor, Nessie," Elphaba chuckled, pressing the button to bring the head to an upright position. She fluffed her sister's pillows and got her as comfortable as possible. "Dr. Miluyse should be here soon to examine you."

"Why are you not at work, Fabala?"

"I am at work."

Nessa's brows furrowed. "Then why…"

"Is she alright?" Frex asked.

"She had brain surgery yesterday. She's awake and alert now, and a fuzzy memory is to be expected."

"I'm hungry," Nessa groaned with a slight pout.

"It's smoothie day in the cafeteria. Do you want one too, Father?"

"I ate before I came," Frex said, taking Nessa's hand.

Elphaba nodded and went to get the smoothies. In all honesty, she wanted one, too, and was glad for the excuse to go. After grabbing a strawberry banana smoothie for herself and an orange carrot ginger for her sister, she hurried back up to the room, but was surprised by who she almost ran into.

"Dr. Thropp!" Fiyero gasped, clutching the papers to his chest to avoid dropping them.

"Dr. Tigulaar. What are you doing over in this wing? Neither of us has patients here."

"I know. I mean… I was just… I had to… check on something. Wait… if you don't have any patients down here, why are you down here?"

"Because I can be. But since you're here, what are you doing next Saturday?"

"Um… I think I'm working 'til four. Why?"

"Dr. Thetial is hosting a dinner party, and has invited me and a plus-one of my choosing."

He blinked. "Oh. Then… yes, I would like to be the 'plus-one of your choosing'."

She nodded. "Good. Thank you. I'm almost finished with my paperwork, and I'll be checking in with all of you in around an hour or two. Make sure all your charts are done."

His pager beeped and he looked down, his face dropping as he read the message. "Crap! I mean… yes, I'll do that, Dr. Thropp." He scampered away, muttering under his breath.

"Whatever that is better be solved by the time I get back up there!" Elphaba called after him.

She heard him yelp, followed by papers dropping, and took that as a sign he'd heard her.

I owe y'all some Fiyeraba after my long impromptu hiatus, so Fiyeraba in the next chapter!