Gelphie // Fic // Strawberries 24/?
Title: Strawberries 24/?
Pairing: Elphaba/Galinda, Elphaba/Fiyero (Though no interaction here)
Rating: PG
Author: elekanahmen
Disclaimer: These characters are property of Gregory Maguire, Winnie Holzman, Stephen Schwartz, and all others involved in the book and musical production of Wicked
Warnings: She's not really nice to Liir...
Summary: Elphaba becomes a mommy... well... sorta.
Dedications: To whoever hasn't left yet... To whoever hasn't killed me for taking so damn long... To everyone who has supported this story in it's growth. *sheepish grin* sorry so long. Hoping to write another chapter this weekend. I've been so ridiculously busy with school and work and life... I'm sorry this chapter has taken two and a half years. I'll try to make it up to you. No promises.
It was organ music... or was it Nanny humming? Maybe it was the groan of the carriage... no, no I wasn't moving. It must have been organ music but how... I sat up with a start and a girl with mousy brown hair jumped beside me, a washcloth in her hand. What... but where... I opened my mouth to speak but no words formed. The girl gestured at the idol on the bedside table, eyes cast up toward the halo around her head, ruffled skirts gathered as she genuflected to the unknown God... of course. Saint Glinda... the mauntery...
But how long... I'd slept long and dreamt of Glinda and Fiyero punctuated with darkness and dripping daggers and fierce blows to the stomach. I tried to sit up but the girl pressed her hands against my shoulders, holding me down. She ran her hand down and caressed my stomach gently, my eyes following, widening at the sight of my stomach, distended and heavily pregnant. No, no, this could not BE. I could not have... slept for this long...
The girl rang a bell that had been sitting silently beside the idol before dipping the cloth in the basin of steaming oil, wringing it out and laying it gingerly on my forehead. I raised a hand to protest, thinking it water, but sighed a mingled sigh of relief and satisfaction as the tension slowly drifted off and I felt sleepy again.
An old maunt looking strangely familiar bustled in, grinning widely "Sister Aelphaba... you have awoken. Many moons you have slipped in and out of delirium in that bed, and how fat with child you've become." She cackled softly before clumsily clattering a bed table down over my thighs. "Girl, feed her. And take care of her if she should leave us again."
The edges of the room began to get blurry as the Girl slowly fed me the stew that the old Mother Maunt had left. The Girl smiled a soft, motherly smile, as if seeing a child eat properly for the first time. I glanced around, desperate for some sense of when it was, and a flicker of gold and red on a window sill powdered with snow told me it was winter, near or after Lurlinemas. I sipped some more soup from the spoon and swallowed just as a sharp jab to my stomach reminded me of everything that had happened. A baby was rearing in my stomach, kicking me... not just any baby.... Fiyero's baby... Fiyero lost to Oz knows where... and Glinda, sweet Glinda... Only alive if the assassin sent after me did not do her job either or if Glinda was safely hidden.
I slowly drifted back into the blackness of sleep or something like it, with the soft lull of the organ playing Lurlinemas hymns rocking me to sleep. Before the darkness swallowed me I felt the Girl's soft hands brushing the hair from my face and her gentle lips kissing my forehead as she removed the cloth to warm it again.
The months that passed turned into years, and I watched the little boy that I was told was mine grow from an infant to a toddler to a nosy, whiny boy who seemed to only know the word "why," though Mother Maunt would never let me smack him with a broom handle if he said it too many times. He was called Liir, and he had bright green eyes, light brown skin, and the faintest pattern of light blue diamonds that ran only from the base of his neck down his spine and was always covered by his tatty brown shirt, save for when it went to the washer woman with his equally worn black britches. I was told that when he first grew teeth, he vexed Sister Girl by biting at her fingers when she tried to feed him.
I was sweeping the entryway to the Mauntery when I felt a tug at my skirts. "Sod off," I murmured, finally able to speak after leaving my vow of silence.
"Sister Elphie, you told me to bring you the newspaper when Mother Yackle finished with it," Liir said softly.
I turned and bonked him softly on top of the head with the broom bristles. "You're late. She's done with that paper after dinner."
"She was sleeping with the cat at her feet. That cat hates me."
"Good judge of character."
"You're mean." He replied, his lower lip pudging out slightly, reminding me entirely too much of his father, who was a champion pouter himself.
"I'm honest." I snatched the paper from him and sat down on the ground. I grimaced at the headline, 'Lady Glinda, Press Secretary and Head Adept for His Wizardship on New Travel Restrictions for animals.' At least I knew she was alive and well. I traced my fingers delicately over the photograph poorly printed on the rag paper.
"Who's she?"
"What's it to you?"
"You look at her the same way you look toward the west."
"You're annoying."
"Yeah." Liir shuffled his feet and picked up the abandoned broom, resuming where I'd left off sweeping.
"We'll be leaving soon. My time at the mauntery will be done with when the month is out. I have to take you with me whether I like it or not."
"Are we going to find her? Or my father?"
"Mother Maunt said you're a bastard, do you know what that means?"
"No..." He looked at me with a confused, curious look.
"It means you don't have a father."
"Everyone has a father, Sister Girl told me so."
"Don't believe everything you hear."
"I don't have to believe you, then!" He threw the broom at my feet and ran into the mauntery. I sighed and watched after him, his little footprints left in the dust. I picked up my broom and shook it gently, freeing it of the dust it had gathered on the ground. With a sigh i tore the photo of Glinda out and discarded the rest of the paper in the dustbin by the door. I gathered my skirts and made my way into the Mauntery to tell Sister Bursar that it was time for me to leave and continue my interrupted travels west.
Pairing: Elphaba/Galinda, Elphaba/Fiyero (Though no interaction here)
Rating: PG
Author: elekanahmen
Disclaimer: These characters are property of Gregory Maguire, Winnie Holzman, Stephen Schwartz, and all others involved in the book and musical production of Wicked
Warnings: She's not really nice to Liir...
Summary: Elphaba becomes a mommy... well... sorta.
Dedications: To whoever hasn't left yet... To whoever hasn't killed me for taking so damn long... To everyone who has supported this story in it's growth. *sheepish grin* sorry so long. Hoping to write another chapter this weekend. I've been so ridiculously busy with school and work and life... I'm sorry this chapter has taken two and a half years. I'll try to make it up to you. No promises.
It was organ music... or was it Nanny humming? Maybe it was the groan of the carriage... no, no I wasn't moving. It must have been organ music but how... I sat up with a start and a girl with mousy brown hair jumped beside me, a washcloth in her hand. What... but where... I opened my mouth to speak but no words formed. The girl gestured at the idol on the bedside table, eyes cast up toward the halo around her head, ruffled skirts gathered as she genuflected to the unknown God... of course. Saint Glinda... the mauntery...
But how long... I'd slept long and dreamt of Glinda and Fiyero punctuated with darkness and dripping daggers and fierce blows to the stomach. I tried to sit up but the girl pressed her hands against my shoulders, holding me down. She ran her hand down and caressed my stomach gently, my eyes following, widening at the sight of my stomach, distended and heavily pregnant. No, no, this could not BE. I could not have... slept for this long...
The girl rang a bell that had been sitting silently beside the idol before dipping the cloth in the basin of steaming oil, wringing it out and laying it gingerly on my forehead. I raised a hand to protest, thinking it water, but sighed a mingled sigh of relief and satisfaction as the tension slowly drifted off and I felt sleepy again.
An old maunt looking strangely familiar bustled in, grinning widely "Sister Aelphaba... you have awoken. Many moons you have slipped in and out of delirium in that bed, and how fat with child you've become." She cackled softly before clumsily clattering a bed table down over my thighs. "Girl, feed her. And take care of her if she should leave us again."
The edges of the room began to get blurry as the Girl slowly fed me the stew that the old Mother Maunt had left. The Girl smiled a soft, motherly smile, as if seeing a child eat properly for the first time. I glanced around, desperate for some sense of when it was, and a flicker of gold and red on a window sill powdered with snow told me it was winter, near or after Lurlinemas. I sipped some more soup from the spoon and swallowed just as a sharp jab to my stomach reminded me of everything that had happened. A baby was rearing in my stomach, kicking me... not just any baby.... Fiyero's baby... Fiyero lost to Oz knows where... and Glinda, sweet Glinda... Only alive if the assassin sent after me did not do her job either or if Glinda was safely hidden.
I slowly drifted back into the blackness of sleep or something like it, with the soft lull of the organ playing Lurlinemas hymns rocking me to sleep. Before the darkness swallowed me I felt the Girl's soft hands brushing the hair from my face and her gentle lips kissing my forehead as she removed the cloth to warm it again.
The months that passed turned into years, and I watched the little boy that I was told was mine grow from an infant to a toddler to a nosy, whiny boy who seemed to only know the word "why," though Mother Maunt would never let me smack him with a broom handle if he said it too many times. He was called Liir, and he had bright green eyes, light brown skin, and the faintest pattern of light blue diamonds that ran only from the base of his neck down his spine and was always covered by his tatty brown shirt, save for when it went to the washer woman with his equally worn black britches. I was told that when he first grew teeth, he vexed Sister Girl by biting at her fingers when she tried to feed him.
I was sweeping the entryway to the Mauntery when I felt a tug at my skirts. "Sod off," I murmured, finally able to speak after leaving my vow of silence.
"Sister Elphie, you told me to bring you the newspaper when Mother Yackle finished with it," Liir said softly.
I turned and bonked him softly on top of the head with the broom bristles. "You're late. She's done with that paper after dinner."
"She was sleeping with the cat at her feet. That cat hates me."
"Good judge of character."
"You're mean." He replied, his lower lip pudging out slightly, reminding me entirely too much of his father, who was a champion pouter himself.
"I'm honest." I snatched the paper from him and sat down on the ground. I grimaced at the headline, 'Lady Glinda, Press Secretary and Head Adept for His Wizardship on New Travel Restrictions for animals.' At least I knew she was alive and well. I traced my fingers delicately over the photograph poorly printed on the rag paper.
"Who's she?"
"What's it to you?"
"You look at her the same way you look toward the west."
"You're annoying."
"Yeah." Liir shuffled his feet and picked up the abandoned broom, resuming where I'd left off sweeping.
"We'll be leaving soon. My time at the mauntery will be done with when the month is out. I have to take you with me whether I like it or not."
"Are we going to find her? Or my father?"
"Mother Maunt said you're a bastard, do you know what that means?"
"No..." He looked at me with a confused, curious look.
"It means you don't have a father."
"Everyone has a father, Sister Girl told me so."
"Don't believe everything you hear."
"I don't have to believe you, then!" He threw the broom at my feet and ran into the mauntery. I sighed and watched after him, his little footprints left in the dust. I picked up my broom and shook it gently, freeing it of the dust it had gathered on the ground. With a sigh i tore the photo of Glinda out and discarded the rest of the paper in the dustbin by the door. I gathered my skirts and made my way into the Mauntery to tell Sister Bursar that it was time for me to leave and continue my interrupted travels west.