Chapter 4

"Who's next?"

Elphaba wasn't an idiot. They'd started with Nessa and then seen her mother, so Elphaba had a fairly good guess who else Klehr wanted Elphaba to see in this alternate world in order to prove her point.

"Glinda? Or Fiyero?" Elphaba pressed when Klehr just looked at her.

"Is there no one else here in Munchkinland you can think of whose life you might have impacted in some way?"

Elphaba started to shake her head, but stopped as it came to her. "Boq."

She huffed, running a hand through her hair. "That one should be fairly obvious, I think. If Boq is alive, and not made of tin and with a beating heart, he'll be fine. And I can't wait to hear your argument for why he was better off being a tin man."

Klehr actually laughed. "I will grant you that perhaps better is a subjective term. But sometimes you have to consider the journey as a whole, rather than just the final destination."

That meant absolutely nothing to Elphaba, but Klehr ignored that, squinting up at the sky instead. "I think, however, this particular journey will have to wait until the morning."

Elphaba startled at that. She too, looked up at the sky and realised how low in the sky it actually was getting.

"How exactly does time work here?" she asked, the thought suddenly occurring to her. "Am I missing my own wedding right now?"

She may be questioning whether or not she deserved to be happy by marrying Fiyero; but she didn't want to desert him at the altar either.

Klehr laughed again. "Don't worry," she reassured her. "You'll be returned home in time. But for now, we should find some rooms for the night. You haven't slept in hours, I'm sure you must be exhausted."

"Yes," Elphaba had to concede. "But I don't think that I could sleep."

There was too much going through her mind, and the fact that she hadn't slept or eaten since… (well, who knew how long it had been if time wasn't moving linear here), that probably wasn't helping.

Klehr got Elphaba a room at the nearest inn for the night, waving off Elphaba's queries nonchalantly.

"I don't need to sleep," she said. "I'm perfectly able to keep myself busy for the evening, and I'll see you in the morning."

Elphaba assumed that Klehr believed that she was going to eat a meal and then have a sound sleep until morning. Then again, if Klehr truly was Elphaba's guardian angel, she shouldn't have expected anything less than for Elphaba to ask the innkeeper for pen and paper and spent the first hour writing down everything she knew and everything she didn't, trying to make sense of it all.

Every detail she knew of the lives of Nessa and Melena in this new world, every question she still had about them. She couldn't stop herself from jotting down predictions about what she might expect to find when she eventually came face to face with Glinda and Fiyero, although she didn't have much guess about either. Surely Glinda was happily married by now, living the society life that she had always talked about at Shiz. Maybe, if Fiyero had still come to Shiz, she and Fiyero were married. Maybe they had children. That image hurt, but if Fiyero had to marry someone who wasn't her, Elphaba hoped it was Glinda.

Elphaba got off the bed and moved to the window, staring out over the Munchkinland streets. It felt so surreal to be back here, looking at streets that were so familiar but at the same time, weren't familiar at all. She hadn't realised in the moment, but the more she thought about it now, the more it bugged her. There was something off and she wasn't sure why.

If Fiyero were here, Elphaba knew what he'd say. That it was a trauma response; that even if Elphaba didn't look exactly like herself right now and no one knew who she was, she was still carrying all her trauma around with her.

"Trust me, I'm a doctor of Thinkology," he'd teased her once, not long after they'd left Oz. "I know things now, Fae."

"I'd tell you what you can do with the diploma that that fraud gave you, but it doesn't have the same impact when you're made of straw," had been Elphaba's retort and Fiyero had laughed harder than Elphaba thought was necessary.

Eventually, Elphaba got up the courage to look at her reflection in the looking glass and for the first time, Elphaba got a proper look at her appearance in this world, unmarked by the green skin. She could only blink at her reflection in surprise. If Elphaba really studied herself, she thought the shape of her face was still the same- thin nose and lips, soft chin; and her skin looked just as sun-kissed in the mirror as it had appeared when Elphaba first opened her eyes in this world. But her hair was decidedly auburn; her eyes were not quite blue or green which made them appear rather grey; and there was a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose that Elphaba genuinely didn't know if they were usually there or not. It was an odd feeling and she turned away from the glass rather quickly.

By some small miracle, she did end up falling asleep for an hour or so and she had to admit that she felt more refreshed for it when she woke up. When she met with Klehr for breakfast, she presented her with her scribbled notes. "I've been thinking about Boq."

"Oh? And?"

"And I honestly can't think of anything I've done to him other than the tin man," Elphaba said honestly. "I didn't know him before Shiz, and we barely spoke while I was there. Even then, it was only because he was dating Nessarose."

Klehr nodded thoughtfully. "Alright. Let's assume that's true."

Elphaba's eyebrow arched as Klehr took the salt and pepper shakers and put them in the centre of the table between them, and then the sugar bowl.

"You, Boq, Nessarose," Klehr said, pointing to each in turn and then pushing the pepper aside. "If we take you out of it, what happens?"

Elphaba slumped back in her chair, letting out a breath. "Well… Boq asked out Nessa to impress Glin- Galinda," she corrected herself. "Which Galinda pushed him to do because she wanted him out of her hair."

"And then? What did you do?"

"I… I got Galinda into Morrible's Sorcery seminar," Elphaba realised. "But that affects Galinda, not Boq. Again, I had nothing to do with Boq."

"But if you weren't here, Galinda doesn't study Sorcery. Does that affect Boq?"

Elphaba shrugged. "I have no idea how," she said tiredly. "Can we just go? Get this over with?"

"Where do you expect to find him?"

"I would assume his family's farm. In Rush Margins- south, I don't know more specifically than that."

Klehr chuckled. "I think I can take it from there."

Elphaba rather expected to travel the normal way, but instead Klehr merely took her hand and they were encompassed by the now familiar green light, so bright that Elphaba had to close her eyes. And when she opened them, they were in Rush Margins, standing in the middle of the town centre with no one blinking an eye at their sudden appearance.

"Okay," Elphaba said to herself, looking around. She had no context clues or landmarks to go off here, so she wasted no time asking the closest person for directions.

"Excuse me," she asked a passing woman. "I'm looking for someone- the Underhill family? Boq?"

The woman's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry. Bfee and Emese moved to Nest Hardings some time ago. They don't have the farm anymore."

That did surprise Elphaba. She hadn't known Boq very well, but she knew that he had planned on taking over the family farm one day. Nessa had talked about it for a long time after that night at The OzDust.

"Oh," she said lamely. "Uh, Boq, their son. Do you happen to know where he is? We went to university together, and I have some news about a mutual friend," she explained.

The woman smiled apologetically, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I don't."

Elphaba let her go, but stared after her. "She's lying," she said quietly.

"Is she?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes and turned to Klehr. "This is going to go much faster if you just tell me. Or are you really going to make me go find a city directory and traipse all over Munchkinland looking up every 'Underhill' listed?"

Klehr chuckled, nodding. "Fair enough."

Elphaba knew there were plenty of possibilities to explain why the Underhills had left Rush Margins; anything from drought to health issues. None of them were particularly concerning or alarming, so she didn't really think anything of it.

Not until Klehr transported them once more, and she opened her eyes to find them standing outside the Nest Hardings Correctional Facility.

"I don't know if the excuse of being an old friend will get you inside to visit him in this instance," Klehr said thoughtfully.

Elphaba gaped up at the building for a moment, stunned into silence. Then she swallowed, set her jaw and turned to Klehr. "Okay. So, would you prefer to tell me yourself; or would you rather I go find his parents and ask them to tell me the story of how their son ended up in prison?"

"Actually, I think we can find a middle ground," Klehr said vaguely.

It didn't take long for her to direct Elphaba to a store where the clerk, apparently, had been at Shiz with them. Elphaba had no memory of them at all, but once she introduced herself as a former classmate, they had no hesitation in at least pretending that they remembered her.

"Oh, those old Shiz days," they said, almost wistfully. "I think you were in my first-year Lit class, right? You hung out with Neeyah Giddish and her crowd?"

"Yes," Elphaba agreed, seeing her way in and leaping for the chance.

"Oz, I'll never forget the rivalry between her and Galinda Upland," they grinned. "I suppose you were on Neeyah's side, right?"

Elphaba cleared her throat. "I tried to stay out of it, really," she lied vaguely. "But I suppose technically, yes."

They leaned forward over the counter towards Elphaba as though they were co-conspirers, lowering their voice although the store was empty. "Do you remember," they almost whispered. "That time at The OzDust when they practically had a catfight over Fiyero Tiggular?"

Elphaba's heart skipped a beat- Fiyero had still gone to Shiz in this world! She smiled weakly at the clerk, steadying herself on the counter as a wave of relief washed over her.

"I feel like that was a weekly occurrence over one person or another," she said, forcing a chuckle. "I couldn't keep up with who was dating whom. But Galinda dated Fiyero, didn't she?"

"For as long as anyone dated Fiyero," the clerk giggled. "You know what his reputation was."

Elphaba's chuckle was more genuine that time. "Yes, I know exactly what his reputation was," she said dryly.

The clerk's brow furrowed. "Who would've thought Fiyero would end up-"

Elphaba flinched away, faking a cough and turned away in pretence of clearing her throat. She wasn't ready to hear about whoever Fiyero had ended up marrying. When she turned back, the clerk had helpfully produced a glass of water, which Elphaba took gratefully and sipped it slowly. Then she cleared her throat and straightened up.

"Actually, I was thinking of one of our classmates the other day, and I couldn't quite recall what happened to him after graduation- Boq Underhill?"

The clerk's face sobered. "Oh, Boq," they nodded. "That's such a sad story. Although, you know, I thought his name was Bick for the longest time."

"Sad story?" Elphaba repeated. "I- you know, I missed a semester due to a family thing. I might have missed this. What happened with Boq?"

Their eyes lit up with the chance to tell the story. Again, Elphaba had never thought she'd be grateful for stereotypes, but dear Oz Munchkins loved nothing more than to gossip.

"Well, you remember how into Galinda Upland Boq was, right?"

Elphaba suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. Apparently some things never changed. "Yes," she confirmed.

"Poor guy took it hard when she was dating Fiyero, but the moment she was single again, he tried so hard to impress her," the clerk shook their head. "You know how it goes- parties, drinking. You end up hanging around the wrong people trying to impress the right people. Do you remember Xan and Rhoza? Power couple who ran a little underground gambling night on campus? Boq got swept up in that crowd, and it got bad- real bad. Especially the more Galinda didn't even notice him, no matter how hard he tried."

Elphaba couldn't hide a wince.

"He flunked out of school, and everything got worse for him. The last I heard, his parents sold their farm to try and pay for his debts. Not sure what happened to Boq after that, but I hope he got the help he needed. He was a good guy, just got in way over his head, you know?"

Elphaba forced a smile, thinking back to the prison that Boq was now forced to call home. "I understand," she murmured.

"But hey, maybe he'll be at the reunion in September!" the clerk said enthusiastically. "You're coming, right?"

Elphaba murmured some kind of response, thanked them and left the store. "I need coffee," she muttered to Klehr, rubbing at the bridge of her nose.

"Alright," Klehr agreed easily.

Once she had her coffee, Elphaba nursed it tightly, staring at the tabletop of the café. When she at last moved to do anything besides take a sip; she took the salt, pepper and sugar to mimic what Klehr had done earlier that morning and place them in the centre of the table.

"I'm trying to figure this out," she said slowly, pulling the pepper towards herself. "How am I involved in this?"

"Why do you think?" Klehr asked unhelpfully, and Elphaba glared at her for a moment.

Klehr's questions were beginning to all sound like questions from a test that she hadn't studied for, yet was expected to know the answers to. And Elphaba had never once not studied for a test.

She pulled the papers she had scrawled during the night out of her dress pocket, flipping through them in the hopes of something jumping out at her. Laying them before her, she took another fortifying sip of coffee before resting her chin on her hand as she studied her own handwriting.

"Boq asked out Nessa to impress Galinda," she said. "But the last time I saw Boq… before, at the train station. He said he couldn't 'do it' anymore. Which I assume means being with Nessa."

"Yes."

"And if Nessa didn't go to Shiz, there was no reason for Boq to ask her out… but Galinda could have palmed him off on some other girl for the same kind of reason."

Actually, thinking back to how Galinda had been back then, 'would have' was more likely than 'could have'.

"But that- that still has nothing to do with me, does it?" Elphaba asked, staring up at Klehr helplessly.

"Boq stayed with Nessa because you left," Klehr said gently. "He may not have loved her the way Nessa wanted him to, but in the beginning? He did care for her. And Boq, he's the kind of person who likes to feel useful, especially in a crisis."

Elphaba supposed your sister committing treason and becoming a fugitive counted as a crisis.

"Right," she said, running a hand through her hair. "So… without dating Nessa to win points with Galinda, he tries to put himself in her social sphere. What happened after he left Shiz? How did he go from gambling debts to prison?"

Elphaba couldn't fathom it, not from Boq- even if the last time she'd seen him he'd been made of tin and part of the mob coming for her blood.

Klehr sobered. "Boq hasn't had an easy time these past few years," she said. "After he left school, he got into trouble- trying to find ways to pay his debts or have money to gamble with. At first it was larceny, and he got a fine. Then he got caught breaking and entering. More cases of larceny, possession of stolen goods, and so on. And then about two months ago, he was found guilty for armed robbery. He might not have gotten the maximum sentence, but between his prior offences and then…"

"And then what?" Elphaba pressed, leaning forward with her heart in her throat. "What did he rob?"

"The building and loans here in Nest Hardings," Klehr replied. "There were five people inside at the time, and an elderly man among them had a heart attack and died. The prosecution convinced the judge to add it to his charges. He's now serving twenty-five years."

Elphaba had known the consequences that awaited her if the Gale Force had ever caught her. A prison sentence would have been the best-case scenario. And even though the Nest Hardings Correctional Facility wasn't Southstairs, it didn't mean that her heart didn't go out to Boq.

"If Boq had the choice between this or being made of tin, which do you think he'd prefer?" Klehr asked her.

Elphaba huffed out a laugh, biting the inside of her cheek as she pressed her lips together. "That's your argument? Boq's life is better for me being born because, hey he's not in prison?"

Klehr smiled sadly. "I know it doesn't seem like much Elphaba, but sometimes-"

Elphaba cut her off with a shake of her head. "When I last saw Boq, he was so… bitter. Not that I can blame him, after everything he went through with Nessa, and then what I did to him-"

"You saved his life, Elphaba," Klehr reminded her. "If you hadn't cast that spell, he would have died."

Elphaba shrugged a shoulder. "Maybe so. But is his life any better for it? If he still holds onto that bitterness-"

"Like you hold onto your guilt?"

Elphaba blinked and then snorted. "Touché," she admitted. She stared off in the direction of the prison. "Is Boq going to be okay in this world?"

Klehr hesitated. "This world doesn't really exist," she reminded Elphaba.

Elphaba supposed that was a placating way of saying that the answer was no, and that Elphaba should be grateful for the world in which she was born into.

"Are you ready to move on now?" Klehr asked her.

Elphaba ran a finger absent-mindedly along the rim of the coffee cup, not looking at Klehr. "Boq, in the real world," she said slowly. "Am I allowed to ask about him?"

Klehr said nothing. When Elphaba finally looked up at her, she was watching her closely.

"He's okay," she replied. "He's quite active in Munchkinland politics, I understand. Ensuring that all Munchkins have rights, and a voice."

Elphaba nodded slowly, taking that in. After what Nessa had done to the Munchkins, that made sense. But she couldn't help but think of the future Nessa had waxed poetic to her about at Shiz, laying out all the future plans Boq had described to her that he wanted for his life- taking over the family farm from his father, having a family of his own.

"Boq's hardly the first person to not have his life turn out how he planned in his youth, Elphaba," Klehr said gently. "He may have been bitter, as you say, when you last saw him; but trust me, he's come a long way since then. He's healed."

Elphaba wasn't sure if healed was the truest description, but without seeing Boq with her own two eyes- which wasn't possible- she'd have to take Klehr's word for it. So she just nodded and drained the last of her coffee.

Elphaba pushed the empty mug aside. "Alright. Is it Fiyero or Glinda next?"

"Fiyero, I think," Klehr answered.

Elphaba took a deep breath, mentally steeling herself to see Fiyero living a royal life with someone who wasn't her.

"Okay," she agreed. "I'm ready."

She wasn't though.

AN. Boq's story was one of the hardest to come up with, especially when I had to think "what's a worse fate than being made of tin?"

Thanks to my friend C who was able to help me a lot here.

Did anyone catch the little reference to It's a Wonderful Life in this chapter?