Archive of Our Own

It had been, Glinda reminded herself as Fiyero gently unbuttoned her dress, the perfect wedding. She had looked beautiful as she made her way to the altar, her veil trailing behind her, and Fiyero had looked so handsome as he waited for her. She had looked perfect, and he had looked perfect, and they had looked perfect together, and the whole wedding had been perfect, and yet-

Fiyero carefully lifted her hair out of the way and tucked it in front of her, then he kissed her shoulder as he finished with the buttons. "Are you happy?"

"Of course I am," Glinda replied automatically. "This is exactly what I've always wanted."

"Exactly?" Fiyero repeated, and Glinda wondered if she was imagining the thread of doubt in his voice.

"Exactly," she confirmed. "Or- Almost exactly."

Fiyero held out a hand to help her step out of the dress, then he brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles lightly. "Tell me what's missing, and I'll do my best to fix it."

"You can't," Glinda said, taking her hand back to pick up the discarded dress and drape it over a chair. She pulled a sheer robe on over her underthings. "It's nothing, really."

"Glinda," Fiyero said, stepping up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He had taken off his jacket, but he still wore his fine uniform pants with the gold brocade stripes down the side, and his shirt was still secured up to the collar. Glinda could feel it against the nape of her neck as he leaned forward. "I want to make you happy," he breathed in her ear. "Tell me what would make you happy."

Glinda pulled away, marching over to a seat and throwing herself in it. "I was happy, until you started asking me questions," she accused. "I was happy. I was a happy, perfect bride. That's how it's supposed to be."

"You're not happy, though," Fiyero said, crossing the room to kneel in front of her. "I want to help, darling. Tell me how I can help."

"It's-" Glinda looked down at him, at his earnest and gentle and loving face. She had sprung the marriage on him, she knew, and yet he had gone along with it gamely. He had said he would marry her if it made her happy. He hadn't answered when she asked if it would make him happy. He loved her, she did think he loved her, but the wedding hadn't been what he wanted. The wedding hadn't been to make him happy. The wedding had been to make her happy, and it hadn't even worked.

"It's nothing you can fix," she finally said. "It's silly, really."

"If it's upsetting you, it's not silly."

"I'm not upset," Glinda said quickly. "I'm not, I just- Oh, it doesn't even make sense."

Fiyero took her hands in his. "That's alright. I'm not very smart anyway."

"Don't talk about yourself like that," Glinda scolded reflexively. It was a practiced rebuke against self-deprecation, one that was only meant for Fiyero half the time, and its other half refused to leave Glinda's mind.

"I'll stop if you tell me what's bothering you."

Glinda sighed and looked down at their joined hands. "I know it's silly," she said slowly, "and I know it doesn't make sense, but- I had been hoping that Elphaba would come."

Fiyero's hands tightened on hers minutely. She wondered what he thought of her. "Elphaba," he said, his voice flat.

"I know she couldn't come to the wedding," Glinda added quickly. "It wouldn't be safe, not right now. But I'd thought maybe she would come before, to wish me luck or to tell me she was happy for me or- It doesn't matter. She didn't come."

Fiyero looked at her for a long moment, then he asked, "If Elphaba had come, what do you think she would have done?"

"What?"

"If she'd come to see you before the wedding," Fiyero repeated patiently, "what do you think she would have done?"

"I- I think-" Glinda pictured it. Swallowed hard. "She would have told me she was happy for me. She- She would have said she'd always known we would end up together. She would have said we- we were perfect, and she wished us the best."

Fiyero hummed. "And what would you have wanted her to do?"

"I- That. I would have wanted-"

"No," Fiyero said softly, "that's what you think she would have done. If anything could have happened, anything you could imagine, what would you have wanted?"

Glinda swallowed again, but her throat still felt dry. "I- I would have wanted her to say- to say-"

Fiyero pushed himself up on his knees so his face was closer to hers. "Yes?"

"I would have wanted her to say that she was happy for us, but that- That she-"

Glinda shook herself, hard. She tore her hands away from Fiyero's and threw herself upright, marching away from him. "Why are you asking me this? She's not here, she's not coming, there's no point-"

"I love her too."

Maybe it should have hurt, to hear her new husband say he loved someone else. Maybe it should have been a shock. But it was Elphaba they were talking about, so the only thing Glinda could think was, Of course. Of course Fiyero loved her too. Who wouldn't? Who could know Elphaba as deeply as they knew her and not love her, at least a little bit? And Fiyero… Fiyero had so much love in him, and so of course it would spill over. Of course he would love Elphaba.

Love her too, he'd said.

"How could you tell?" Glinda asked, turning back around. "I mean, that I…"

"How could you not?" Fiyero asked, an echo of Glinda's own thoughts. "We both know her too well not to love her."

"I wish… she loved us," Glinda said quietly. "Loved me. I wish she'd come before the wedding and told me she loved me."

"I think she does," Fiyero said, taking a step towards her. "I've seen how she looks at you, just like I've seen how you look at her. I think she loves you."

"Maybe. But I didn't love her enough to go with her, and so she doesn't love me enough to come back."

For a moment, it looked like Fiyero was going to reach out for her again, but he didn't. "You know she can't come back. It's not safe for her."

"I know. But maybe- I've been talking to the Wizard, and-"

"Do you really think you can trust the Wizard?" Fiyero asked, his face grimly serious. "Do you really think you can trust him with Elphaba's life?"

"He's the Wizard," Glinda said feebly.

"Exactly."

"He- Oh, I just want her to be able to come back! And we can't do anything about the Wizard, so we have to work with him! Elphaba just needs to learn how!"

"Can't we?"

"Can't we what?"

"Do something about the Wizard?"

Glinda gaped at Fiyero, then she rushed over to the doors to the balcony to make sure they were all shut. "You can't say that!" she cried when she turned back around. "If he heard- If his monkeys heard-"

"Why are we working with a man we can't even criticize without being afraid of retaliation?" Fiyero demanded. "Elphaba has been right all along. We both know she's been right all along. Maybe she shouldn't come here. Maybe we should go to her."

"We don't even know where she is! She doesn't want to be found!"

"Would you want to be found, if you thought everyone was just trying to find you to arrest you?"

"I- I don't-" To her horror, Glinda found tears springing to her eyes. "I don't know, Fiyero! Is that what you want to hear? I don't know what to do, and I don't know how to fix things, but I just want Elphaba back, and I want her to be safe, and I want everything to be happy, like it was back when we were at school. Why can't we just be happy again?"

She dropped into the closest chair and covered her face with her hands, trying desperately to fix her expression into something she could let other people see. She needed to stop crying, she needed to put on a smile, she needed to-

She felt a hand on her knee, and then Fiyero carefully pulled her hands away from her face and pulled her close, and Glinda collapsed onto his shoulder and cried.

"It's alright," Fiyero whispered into her hair as he held her. "It's alright, Gal," he said, and Glinda sobbed harder, because he hadn't called her Gal since they were at Shiz, since before the Emerald City, since they were together and happy.

"I miss her," Glinda whispered, clutching at Fiyero's shirt as if that could stop him from leaving her like Elphaba had left. "I miss her."

"I know you do," Fiyero soothed. "I miss her too."

"She- She was right. She was right all along, and I was too cowardly and weak to go with her, and now it's too late."

Fiyero went stiff, and Glinda held him tighter in desperation, and then he said, his voice very strange, "It might not be."

"Is this a bad time?" another voice asked, and Glinda flung herself upright so fast and so gracelessly that she almost smacked Fiyero in the face.

"Elphaba?"

"I just wanted-" Elphaba stood in the doorway of Glinda's balcony, looking as hesitant as she had back in those first days at Shiz. "I wanted to come before the wedding, but I was with Nessa, and then- It doesn't matter. I- Glinda, are you crying?"

"Oh, Elphie," Glinda gasped, and she flung herself forward into Elphaba's arms.

"Glinda?" Elphaba asked tentatively, holding her very stiffly. "I don't understand, what-"

"Come inside, so no one sees you," Fiyero said, ushering them both inside and closing the balcony door. "No one saw you, did they?"

"I won't let anyone take you away," Glinda said, lifting her head quickly. "I won't- I'll fight them if they try!"

"No one saw me," Elphaba said, sounding increasingly confused. "Are you two alright? Did something happen?"

Glinda looked at her for a long moment, at her confused, concerned face, and started to laugh. She knew it sounded hysterical - was hysterical - but she couldn't stop it. Elphaba looked like a deer caught in the sights of a hunter's gun. She looked to Fiyero, clearly hoping for help, but Fiyero just stepped forward and pulled both Glinda and Elphaba into a hug.

"What happened?" Elphaba asked, sounding utterly lost.

"We missed you," Fiyero said simply.

Glinda's laughter had turned back into tears. "We missed you so much," she told Elphaba desperately. "Oh Elphaba, we missed you so much."

"I- I thought- But you're working with the Wizard? And you two… You got married today, aren't you supposed to be happy?"

"Oh, I couldn't be happier!" Glinda cried. "You're back, Elphie, and I couldn't be happier."

"I think I could be," Fiyero mused, "if we were all safe."

"I didn't mean to put you in danger," Elphaba said, trying to step away, but Glinda clutched at her tighter, and Fiyero didn't let go. "I just- You two are worrying me right now."

"Is it so hard to believe we missed you?" Glinda asked. "That we love you? Because we do, Elphie, we love you so much."

"You-" Elphaba looked to Fiyero like he might disagree, but he just shrugged the best he could without letting them go.

"How could we not?"

"How could you- None of this makes sense!" Elphaba yanked herself away, and Glinda just barely resisted the urge to pull her back. She clung to Fiyero instead, and she hoped that, if it came down to it, Fiyero would choose to stay with her.

She hoped none of them would have to choose at all.

"You two just got married," Elphaba said, whirling on Glinda and Fiyero. "You two- It's always been you two. You're in love with each other, and you're the perfect shining couple, and all of Oz loves you, and- and I've never been a part of it, because I'm not the girl who gets to be part of something like that. That's how it works."

"It doesn't have to!" Glinda protested. "We're not perfect, Elphie. We never have been. And we're… We're better with you."

"We both are," Fiyero agreed. "We've missed you, Elphaba, so much. How could we enjoy our wedding if you weren't there with us?"

"Unless…" Glinda said, feeling her heart clench and squeeze awfully. "Unless you don't want us. If you don't want us-"

"How could anyone not want you?" Elphaba burst out.

"Is it so strange to think we might feel the same away about you?" Fiyero asked.

"Yes!"

"Why?" Glinda demanded. "Why, Elphie? You're beautiful, and you're smart, and you're passionate, and you care so much, and I won't listen to another person tell awful lies about you, even if it's you telling them about yourself!"

"Glinda-"

"We love you!" Glinda cried. "We love you, and you can't stop us, so you're just going to have to let yourself be loved!"

Elphaba looked to Fiyero again, but he just laughed. "You heard the woman. You'll just have to let yourself be loved."

"I… don't understand this at all," Elphaba said slowly, "but are you… serious? This isn't some sort of joke?"

"I've never been more serious in my life. I love you, Elphaba Thropp. The only thing missing from our wedding was you."

"She's right," Fiyero agreed. "But I do have a thought. Shocking, I know, but true. Elphaba, you might have been missing from our wedding, but I don't see any reason you need to be missing from our wedding night."

The very thought tore through Glinda, wild and hungry. "Oh Elphie, please stay. Please don't leave."

"Isn't the wedding night supposed to be about the couple?" Elphaba asked, but Glinda thought she sounded like she could be convinced otherwise.

"Maybe," Fiyero agreed lightly, "but I think we've always worked better as a trio. Come on, Elphaba. Spend the night, and we can come up with a plan in the morning."

"Or we can go with you tonight," Glinda added. "To the woods, or wherever you are. Although the bed here is probably more comfortable."

Fiyero laughed. "Probably. What do you say, Elphaba, wouldn't you like a comfortable bed for the night?"

"I still don't really understand this," Elphaba said slowly, "but… You two really love me?"

Glinda nodded. "We really do."

"And… the plan in the morning?"

"We need to figure out a way to make Oz safe for you," Fiyero said. "And for the Animals, of course."

"And we need to stick together until we figure it out," Glinda added. "So either we can all stay here and put on an act for the Wizard, or we can all go into hiding with you, but I'm not leaving you again."

"You would really… give all this up?" Elphaba asked, looking around Glinda's beautiful apartment. "For me?"

The doubt stung a bit, although Glinda knew Elphaba had every reason to doubt her. Glinda had refused to go with her before, had clung to her comforts instead of what she knew was right. But she regretted it, and she would always regret it, and she wouldn't do it again.

"In a heartbeat."

"See, that's how much we love you," Fiyero told Elphaba. "We're both rich and spoiled and used to being rich and spoiled, and yet we would run away to the woods with you, where I'm certain there's not a single decent tailor."

"It's a good thing I have a pair of boots somewhere in my closet," Glinda said, not mentioning that those boots had in fact originally been Elphaba's. "I'm sure I can find a simpler dress too, if I look hard enough."

Elphaba looked at them, and then she let out a breathy little sound that was almost a laugh. "You're really serious about this, aren't you. You'll really come with me to the woods."

"Well, I did have a thought about perhaps using my family's castle in Kiamo Ko, since none of them use it," Fiyero admitted, "but for now, yes, we'll go with you to the woods."

"I'll go with you anywhere," Glinda said. "If you let me."

Elphaba stepped up to Glinda and reached out for her, but instead of taking her hands, she cupped Glinda's face with her hands. For a moment, Glinda could hardly breathe, then Elphaba's gaze flickered over to Fiyero.

"Don't hold back on my account. Kiss her."

Glinda wasn't sure if Fiyero was talking to her or Elphaba, but she did as he said, and she surged forward to kiss Elphaba.

It wasn't a very graceful kiss. Their noses bumped together, and Elphaba was tentative in a way that made Glinda wonder if she'd ever been kissed before. But Glinda knew what she was doing, so she guided Elphaba gently, turning her head and deepening the kiss.

When they split apart, Fiyero was there. "I think it's my turn," he said, and he leaned in to kiss Elphaba. Unlike Glinda, he let her close the distance, and Glinda found herself in the odd position of watching her new husband kiss the woman she'd just been kissing. Elphaba and Fiyero fit together perfectly, but while Glinda might have felt jealousy at one point, now she only felt love for them both.

"The bed is over there," she said when they finally pulled apart. "And both of you are overdressed."

"So we are," Fiyero agreed, his voice a bit breathless. "Look, Elphaba, Gal's hardly wearing anything. We should catch up with her."

"Come with me," Glinda said, starting towards her bedroom. "And feel free to leave behind as much clothing as you'd like."

She let her robe slip off her shoulders as she walked, and she smirked when she heard two audible gasps behind her. A moment later, she heard soft thumps on the ground as clothes were shed, and footsteps that approached the bedroom, and then someone - probably Fiyero, she assumed - closed the door behind them with a soft click.

It was still dark when Glinda woke to quiet voices, but the soft sort of darkness that came on the cusp of dawn. She opened her eyes to see Elphaba and Fiyero murmuring to each other while Fiyero gently toyed with Glinda's hair. For a moment, she felt something that could have been jealousy, then Fiyero looked down at her with a smile that was so warm that she felt almost guilty for doubting him at all.

"Good morning."

"It's too early to be morning," Glinda countered. "It's still dark out, so it's still night."

"I should probably leave before the sun rises," Elphaba said apologetically.

Glinda reached for her frantically. "You're not going anywhere! At least, not without us!"

"Glinda," Fiyero said cautiously, "Elphaba and I have been discussing that. We have an idea. But…"

"But you'll play a key part in it, so we need you to agree to it too," Elphaba finished.

Glinda looked between the two of them. "Why do I have the feeling that I won't like your idea one bit?"

"Because you probably won't," Elphaba said simply. "But it might be our best shot."

Glinda looked at Elphaba and Fiyero, then she sighed and pushed herself so she was sitting upright. "What are you two planning, then?"

"I leave," Elphaba began, and before Glinda could protest, she continued, "and you take down the Wizard."

Glinda hesitated. "I- What?"

"We could all flee," Fiyero said, "but we won't be safe until the Wizard isn't in power any longer, and he'll be easier to stop from here than the woods or Kiamo Ko. He'll be easiest for you to stop, specifically, because you're the closest to him and he trusts you."

Glinda opened her mouth to ask for details, or maybe to protest, or maybe to try and convince Elphaba to stay, but what came out was, "You'd trust me to do that?"

"Shouldn't I?" Elphaba countered. "You… You said you loved me. I think that means I can trust you."

"Well, yes, but- He and Madam and Morrible always say things that- I wouldn't betray you on purpose, Elphie, but-"

"You won't be alone," Fiyero. "I'll stay here with you. We'll stop the Wizard and Morrible together. And we'll do our best to clear Elphaba's name."

"But what if…" Glinda looked up at Elphaba. "I don't want to be too weak to help you again."

"You won't be," Elphaba said, as if it was as easy as that. "I trust you."

"But what if you shouldn't?"

"It's not your choice to make," Elphaba said with a shrug. "I trust you. You're just going to have to let yourself be trusted."

"Oh, it's not fair to use my own words against me like that!"

Elphaba grinned, the sort of mischievous grin Glinda had missed so much. "They were good words."

"Then Glinda and I will stay," Fiyero declared, "and Elphaba will go to Kiamo Ko, where she'll be safer than she is in the forest and where she can provide sanctuary for Animals who need it." He looked over at Elphaba. "How quickly do you think you can get there? Do you need much from… wherever you're living now?"

"I pack light," Elphaba replied dryly. "I don't need much, just the Grimmerie and a few personal things. My books, my clothes-"

"That little green bottle," Glinda said suddenly, her eyes going wide. "Oh, oh, Elphie, did you bring that with you here?"

Elphaba blinked. "The bottle? No, it's back in my house. Why?"

"I think- Oh! I'll be right back."

Glinda sprang out of bed, ignoring the confusion on Elphaba and Fiyero's faces, and raced to her closet. She'd put it in the pocket of her dress, so if it was still there…

"Ah ha!" she cried triumphantly, racing back into the bedroom. "Elphie, your bottle looks like this, right?"

Elphaba took the little green bottle from Glinda and turned it over in her hands. "It looks exactly like this," she said in a soft, awed voice. "Glinda, where-"

"The Wizard gave this to me," Glinda said, pounding one fist on the bed in triumph. "He's always drinking out of a little green bottle. He's got a whole bunch of them. He offered me a drink a few weeks ago, and I thought the bottle looked familiar, so I took it so I could try to remember where I'd seen it before. And it was back at Shiz, under your pillow!"

"But…" Elphaba looked at the bottle, then back at Glinda. "Why would the Wizard have a bottle just like mine?"

"Elphaba," Fiyero said slowly, "how certain are you that Frexspar Thropp is your biological father?"

Elphaba's eyes went wide. "I…"

"Oh," Glinda whispered, "oh, I can use this."

"Glinda?"

"I can use this," Glinda repeated fervently. "Elphie, give me the bottle back. No, first look and see if there's anything that's different from your bottle."

Elphaba looked at the bottle carefully, then shook her head. "It's identical."

"Okay, then give it back." Glinda held out a hand, and Elphaba handed her the bottle. Glinda ducked into the bathroom and dumped the liquid out into the sink, then she rinsed it and rushed back to the bed. "Alright. I have a plan. I haven't totally figured out how Madam Morrible fits into it yet, but this should help us deal with the Wizard."

"Already?" Elphaba asked, her eyes going wide. "We only just brought up the idea!"

Fiyero started laughing. "You don't do things by halves, do you, Gal?"

"What would be the point of that? Now Elphie, when you leave the forest for Kiamo Ko, you're going to leave some things behind for Fiyero and his Gale Force to find. Including" - she wiggled the bottle - "this. I'll take it from there. Ooh, and I might have figured out a way to get rid of Madam Morrible too."

"You're a force of nature," Fiyero told Glinda.

She beamed at him. "Thank you!"

"You really think you can do it?" Elphaba asked. "And make things better for the Animals too?"

"If things work out the way I want them to, and I think they will, we can fix things for the Animals ourselves. But Elphie… It might take a while. And we might have to… play along a little. Do you trust me?"

All things considered, Glinda expected some hesitation. Elphaba had said she trusted her before, but Glinda was suggesting playing along now, something Elphaba notoriously hated to do and was usually right to eschew. But there wasn't even a moment's pause. "I trust you," Elphaba replied immediately. "What's your plan?"

Glinda grinned. "We're going to give the people of Oz a story they'll never forget."

The story spooled out slowly over the next few weeks, but by the time the whole thing had been told, it was all anyone could talk about. The Wicked Witch, it turned out, had never been wicked after all, but was in fact the secret daughter of the Wizard himself. No one had known, not even her or the Wizard, until Madam Morrible figured it out during Elphaba's early days at Shiz and immediately feared that Elphaba would pose a risk to her position at the Wizard's side. It had been Madam Morrible who had done the wicked things she'd pinned on Elphaba, all to blacken her name and keep her from her father's side. But now, the truth was out, and Madam Morrible had been arrested, and Oz was safe once more. The Wizard, wanting to spend more time with his newfound daughter, had stepped down from power and left the ruling of Oz to its new Triumvirate of Glinda, Fiyero, and Elphaba, who had promised to usher in a new age of magic, equality, safety, and joy.

"I still don't understand how you managed to pull all this off so quickly," Elphaba said as she watched Glinda take off her makeup.

"There was no reason to delay," Glinda replied. "Fiyero, do you know where my- Thank you, dearest."

Fiyero handed Glinda a wipe with a grin. "I still think the bit about Madam Morrible's initials is the best part."

Glinda shrugged, although she wore a wicked grin of her own. "Nothing I said was wrong."

"Sometimes, I worry about the people of Oz," Elphaba groaned. She'd said much the same earlier, when someone in a crowd had called to Glinda, "Glinda! How did you know that Madam Morrible was so wicked?"

"Well," Glinda had replied, "her initials are MM. What do Ms look like if they're turned upside down?"

There had been a moment of silence in the crowd, then another voice had called out, "Like Ws!"

"And what does WW stand for?" Glinda had asked.

Again there had been silence, then someone had gasped loudly and cried out, "Wicked Witch!"

Glinda had nodded serenely. Fiyero had almost choked trying not to laugh. Elphaba had kept from groaning aloud through sheer force of will.

"The people of Oz like stories," Glinda said with a shrug. "I just came up with stories that were better than Madam Morrible's."

"How much does the Wizard believe?" Fiyero asked.

Glinda hummed. They'd more or less put the Wizard under house arrest, but he'd seemed so legitimately shaken by the revelation of Elphaba's parentage that it hadn't been hard. "He believes that Elphaba is his daughter. I don't know how much he believes Madam Morrible was conspiring against him. But he knows Elphie was never wicked, of course. And he knows that at this point, the people have accepted our story enough that fighting it would be hard."

"Not impossible," Elphaba countered. "You fought Madam Morrible's story."

"Madam Morrible's story wasn't nearly as good as ours," Glinda dismissed. "And there was no truth in it. There is some truth in this. You are the Wizard's daughter, and Madam Morrible was framing you for wickedness. If the Wizard tries to take that back and go back to the old story, people will question it, and his position is precarious enough that I don't think he wants anyone questioning him." She shrugged one shoulder. "He was able to gain the people's love by being their mysterious savior, but we were able to gain their love by being public saviors with very visible faces, and that generally tends to work better. You can fear a mystery, or be intrigued by it, but you'll love someone more if you actually see and know them, and the people see and know us."

"You," Fiyero said, kissing Glinda's shoulder, "are incredible, and arguably much scarier than Elphaba."

Glinda turned to kiss him properly. "You say the sweetest things."

"It's not arguable," Elphaba said. "You're scarier than me, absolutely. You always have been."

Glinda kissed her too. "Thank you, dear."

"Some people might not take that as a compliment," Elphaba added.

Glinda waved a hand dismissively. "Some people aren't me. I know better."

"My wife, everyone," Fiyero said with a grand gesture. "And, darling wife, I think we should take our mistress to bed."

"Stop calling me your mistress," Elphaba groaned.

"You are sort of our mistress, though," Glinda countered. "Someone else who's joined our marriage."

"You fit the definition, I'm afraid," Fiyero agreed. "We simply have the most beautiful mistress in all of Oz."

"You two like flattering me too much."

"We're only saying the truth," Glinda said, kissing Elphaba on the cheek and pulling her along as she left the bathroom. "And the truth is that we have a very smart, very powerful, very beautiful mistress. You simply must learn to accept that."

"Then I'm the mistress to the smartest, most powerful, most beautiful couple in Oz."

"Well, of course we know that. Fiyero and I are very smart and very powerful and very beautiful."

"Of course," Fiyero agreed. "Which is why we have a very smart, very powerful, very beautiful mistress. We all have to match."

"You two are impossible."

"We just love you," Glinda said, kissing Elphaba's cheek. "Now come to bed, dearest."

Elphaba's lips twitched into a smile, unable to help it. "There's no where else I'd rather be."