Fic: Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble - Chapter 7 (Wicked)
Fandom: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Disclaimer: Wicked (c) Gregory Maguire.
Rating: PG-13/R.
Summary: In a slightly different Oz, Elphaba Thropp ekes out her living as a bitter private eye in the Emerald City, the bad green apple of Oz, where rain rarely lets up, crime runs rampant, and sensuous socialites wrap themselves in cigarette smoke.
Chapters: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 / 12
Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble
Chapter 7.
Elphaba made her way through the quiet streets of Emerald City, smoking and thinking. Madame Morrible was a murderer. A man lay cold and stiff in a mortuary because of her avarice. She couldn't be allowed to get away with bloodied hands grasping dirty money - to go on to inflict her evil on the world. The problem was - to incriminate Morrible would be to incriminate Fiyero.
Elphaba could imagine where that would lead. The Winkie Prince caught in the act of stealing a historically important and immensely valuable jewel... It would only be the first of many more trials, for offenses real or imagined. Winkies had it bad in Emerald City as it was. It would soon become intolerable.
The night Elphaba had been born, a pleasure faith show had caused a riot in the town her father, a priest of the Nameless God, had administered to. The mad mob had nearly torn him apart. He had never spoken of it, but she had heard the story. Mob madness - an unscrupulous but charismatic leader - people willing to blame their rotten lives on others... Elphaba had a knack for seeing straight into the heart of evil, and what she foresaw she could not bear. No. Fiyero must not be implicated. There would have to be some other way of dealing with Morrible.
She also wanted to get the necklace itself back, just in case it hadn't been tossed in a bin somewhere after it had served its purpose. Not only was that her original job, but it would make Glinda happy. She knew what gifts from fathers could mean. She figured she was going soft in the head - but be that as it may, she wanted to hand it over and to see Glinda smile.
When Elphaba got back to her office the charm was already beginning to fade. Gradually chocolate brown was changing back to emerald green. Opening the door to the reception room she called out. "I'm just back to change, managed to find a bit..." She paused.
The door to her office was open, yet the lamps were burning low. She removed the hat and goggles, moving closer to the opening. Pushing the door open further she saw why. Draped across her now empty desk was Glinda Arduenna, in nothing but some remarkably small pieces of underwear. Elphaba stopped, aware that her jaw had probably hit the floor by now. She swallowed, trying to remember what she had been meaning to say.
"The meeting... Morrible has the, the..." She trailed off as Glinda raised an eyebrow and slowly undid her hair, shaking it out across her shoulders so that a few strands fell in front of her face. "I need to, um," Elphaba tried to continue, aware that her whole body was rebelling against her, "to find out where she," Glinda had reached around to her back now, "hid it," Elphaba finished as Glinda undid her bra. From then on Elphaba could not be held accountable for her actions.
Moving forward she yanked Glinda upwards, pulling her into passionate kiss. Glinda moaned as she was pushed back down onto the desk. Reaching up she slipped the jacket off of Elphaba's shoulders. Elphaba helped her, shrugging off the jacket and starting on her shirt.
"No more interruptions," Glinda said determinedly. "Your ass is mine, Elphaba Thropp." Elphaba shuddered as Glinda said her name in that voice, a voice full of passion, of possessive lust. She closed her eyes and let herself be pulled down.
-
Elphaba woke up with the early morning sunlight bright in her eye, shining through a slit between the curtains. Her back was slightly cramped. There was a cool breeze on her leg and a warm weight draped over her body. She looked down to be greeted with the sight of now very messy blond curls. Glinda. Right.
She moved, trying to get into a slightly more comfortable position, but this only made her bedmate grip her tighter. Elphaba felt like an over-sized teddy bear. She rolled her eyes, now very much aware that the only way to get out of this situation would be to wake up the other woman. Try as she might, however, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. It felt so peaceful lying there, her breathing matched with the woman on top of her and nothing disturbing them.
She didn't know how long they stayed like that, Glinda holding onto her tightly and Elphaba drifting in and out of a faint daze. Eventually particularly loud crow outside the window managed to ruin the moment. Glinda yawned, shifting so that her elbows leaned on the bed on either side of Elphaba's head..
"Morning," she said softly, voice sore from the previous nights exploits, her forehead almost touching her lover's.
"Morning," Elphaba replied, wrapping her arms tightly around Glinda's slim waist. "How're ya feeling?" Elphaba asked, stroking the downy hairs at the base of Glinda's back. Glinda sighed and rolled over until she was almost off the edge of the cot.
"Wonderful," she said simply, stretching out her body before looping their legs back together. "I've been waiting to do that for far too long."
Elphaba chuckled, shifting slightly on her pillow. "What, two days?"
"Bitch," Glinda muttered lovingly.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Elphaba said, a grin still present on her lips.
"You had better be," Glinda pulled them closer together so she could place a light kiss of Elphaba's lip. "I almost died waiting for you, two days or two hundred."
"Oh don't be so melodramatic," Elphaba replied sarcastically which earned her a light smack on the arm. "And was all your waiting worth it?" she asked after pinning down Glinda's arms at her sides to prevent further injury.
"Every second," the blonde answered smiling.
"Hmm, the complete and utter molestation of Miss Glinda Arduenna," Elphaba started.
"Something to put on your resumé," Glinda said with a laugh.
"Would that be an achievement or a service?"
Glinda thought for a second. "Both."
Elphaba laughed, a real laugh, not her normal snigger or faint chuckle, and pulled Glinda tight to her, soft curves fitting in with the harsh angles of her own body. Glinda smiled
"You look beautiful," she whispered against Elphaba's chest. "Really beautiful." Elphaba stayed silent, not moving. After a few minutes she pulled away.
"I have to go out," she told Glinda, getting up and easing out her back.
Glinda watched as taut muscles moved under an emerald coating. She could almost count Elphaba's ribs. "Why do you have to go? Can't you just stay here?" she asked, draping herself across her lover's back.
"No Glinda, I'm so close now,"
"You said that last night." This time it was Glinda's turn to receive the smack.
"I mean I'm close to finding out where your necklace is."
"Oh, forget the necklace! You're much better than that," Glinda replied, holding on tightly. Elphaba turned and gradually picked Glinda's arms off of her and lay the smaller woman back down.
"Go back to sleep, sweet one. I'll probably be here when you wake up," Elphaba said, planting a kiss on her forehead.
-
Glinda sighed as she watched Elphaba begin to dress. Slowly she stretched out, lounging across the cot and letting the soft sheets brush against her body. No doubt she looked absolutely dreadful after last nights escapades but she found that just for now, she didn’t care. And, she realised, neither would Elphaba.
How strange it was, she mused, that in all the time she had known Elphaba the other woman had never commented on her looks. She knew that Elphaba appreciated them; the fleeting glances and approving murmurs were proof enough of that. But somehow Glinda got the impression that even if she was nowhere near as beautiful as she clearly was, Elphaba’s feelings for her would not change.
It was a bizarre epiphany for her, lying in the cool morning sunlight. Never could she say that of any other lover. Well, perhaps Fiyero, but he could be so very cryptic at times, a trait that he in fact shared with Elphaba. It was all so confusing, she thought. Wasn’t love meant to be simple? For it was most certainly love now.
Glinda sat up against the wall and pulled the sheets over her despite the lack of company. Of all the people to fall in love with it had to be this one. This green, confusing, beautiful woman. This woman who didn’t care what others thought of her, who prized her brain far higher than her looks, who’s independence both frightened and thrilled her.
It had all happened so quickly. She drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly. Had it really only been a few days since she had first met Elphaba? It felt as though they she had known her for her entire life. How could one woman do that to a person? To make themselves so prominent that you can not even begin to imagine a life without them in it?
And now she was off again. Off to chase the bad guy. Glinda giggled at the thought. She never rested, never took time for herself, barely even took time to eat. Well, that was going to change, Glinda decided avidly, if she was going to be around… was she going to be around? She pulled the blanket tighter as a escaped breeze blew in through the cracks in the window. What if after this case Elphaba just moved on, forgot all about her? What if it was just a fling for this woman? After all, Fiyero didn’t last long and who could say why that ended?
Glinda shook her head, refusing to believe that. At least for now she would entertain the thought that she may be just a little bit more in Elphaba’s life then just a fast night in her office. Elphaba was more than that to her at any rate. Glinda lay down again, pulling the bedding around and cocooning herself in the soft material.
Elphaba was a lot more than that.
-
Half an hour later Elphaba was striding down the street with coffee and a small breakfast under her belt. It was much too early for social calls, so she just stopped to chat with Melvina.
Seemed there'd been no murders at Jemmy's last night, at least. The day's papers were full of the Wizard's engagement and of the pretty, young - very young - saint. She and Mel chatted for a good hour about the bit of news that was Madame Morrible. At the end of it Elphaba had the good lady's address in the Emerald City as well as the name of her latest maid. She doubted the jewel would actually be hidden in the Madame's town house - that would be too obvious. It would still have to be turf that Morrible controlled. Still, it was worth a snoop.
Elphaba rode to the north side on a rail-carriage - one of the Wizard's innovations, something like an elongated carriage pulled along a rail, operated by some complicated clockwork and a harried pair of winders who also sold tickets to people wanting to come on. Tiktok nonsense, but Elphaba had been wearing holes in her shoes enough in the past couple of days. She watched the city pass by, section by section. The last time she'd been on a cart she had noticed the city as it was - people drifting by coughing blood into soiled handkerchiefs, raising their canes to beat their servants, screaming in drunken terror, or just trudging on with dead eyes. This morning she returned to herself almost as if out of a daze as the rail-carriage rattled and wheezed to a stop at the edge of the northern residential area. She realized with mixed feeling that she'd been lost in recollections of golden hair and teasing blue eyes.
Fixing a determined scowl on her face, Elphaba jumped the rail-carriage and lit up, considering the area from the burglar's point of view. This was where the wealthiest of the wealthy lived, where they expected a working gentleman to wear his best suit to visit, and where a woman such as her was about as welcome as a boil in an uncomfortable place. Feeling a little wicked, she put one hand in her trouser pocket, cradled the smoke with the other, and strode in through the invisible barrier of Earwig Street and into the world of the rich.
She found Madame Morrible's house three streets and a square into the area. In a city of millions cramped into a high-walled area, here were open gardens, driveways rounding enormous fountains, and houses of just three floors spreading extravagantly across enough space to house a hundred families. Madam Morrible's city-mansion was modest only by comparison to the rest of this elegant waste - a smallish house, but an impressive one, carved with reliefs of the lives of the saints, including some even preacher-raised Elphaba didn't recognize. In front of it stood two great oaks. The garden was walled off with a high black iron fence run over with ivy in a most deliberate manner, to shield privacy. The black gates with their winding iron lead motif stood tall and imposing, daring anyone to enter and admire the whole of the carefully constructed glory. Elphaba rounded the corner to the alley running by the house and let herself in through the servants' gate.
She found the door to the kitchen ajar, the sound of humming and the clatter of dishes coming through. She stepped silently across the short winding gravel path and up the three steps into a wide but deserted kitchen, scrubbed clean except for the last few breakfast dishes being rolled in soapy water by a kitchen maid.
"Hello, Maud," said Elphaba.
The maid wheeled, scrabbling for the still-slippery carving knife, but Elphaba was faster. "There now - we don't want to get hurt, do we?" She took a towel from a rack above the sink and began wiping the knife dry.
"Wh-who are you? What do you want?" Maud said, backing away, her eyes in a mean squint. She was a not unattractive woman of about thirty, plumpish, with short brown curls neatly arranged under her cap.
Elphaba was not surprised to see Glinda's recently former maid here. Where else could a servant go to be re-employed after being sacked for spying on her mistress, save the person she had done the spying for? No-one else would trust her. Perhaps no-one should.
"Oh, you remember me, Maud," said Elphaba, twirling the knife. "You've seen me leave your former mistress's apartment twice. I expect you listened to us at the keyhole, too - I expect you're pretty good at that. You've probably told your current mistress all about me. Makes us something like friends, doesn't it?"
Maud's eyes flickered to the meat cleaver hanging above the sink. Elphaba noticed and leaned on the counter, casually flicking her coat aside to let Maud see Fat Margie in her shoulder hoster. That did the trick. Maud relaxed, seemed to sink into herself.
"I didn't do nothing wrong," she muttered. "Got three kids at home. It was a bloody government assignment. What do you want from me? Can't arrest me. I'd be out in two ticks anyhow, with the friends I've got."
You poor fool, Elphaba thought. You don't even know you're expendable. Worse than that - a liability. Aloud, she said, "I'm not the police. I don't arrest people." She took a step forward, tossing the knife in the air and catching it, twirling it between her fingers. Maud eyed it, then held Elphaba's gaze bravely as her fingers crawled slowly, deliberately towards a bell line on the counter. Lightning fast, without breaking eye contact, Elphaba drove the knife into the counter right between Maud's thumb and index finger. It sank in with a thunk and remained there, shivering and glinting in the morning light. Maud was sweating visibly now, the droplets gleaming in the bright sunlight.
"Do what you do best," Elphaba suggested in a low purr. "Rat out your mistress - your current one. Then I'll go away and we'll all be happy."
"I don't know nothing!" Maud cried. "Honestly, I don't! I passed information on - that's all. They weren't telling me nothing!"
"Where does the Madame keep her secrets? How many houses does she own? Where has she been, where has she gone these past three days?"
"I don't know! She was gone in the morning when you first called at Miss Glinda's. She came back only last night, late. I don't know where she's been, honest - but she didn't take her own coach, I can vouch for that, I had buns and tea with the coachman three times before she called him again. And now she's off again, since an hour ago, but Sweeney's driving her this time."
"That is interesting," Elphaba said. "Anything else? Her hiding places, the people she trusts? Tell me." Her fingers rested lightly on the knife, and Maud spilled every little thing she could think of.
On the way out the garden Elphaba wiped her gloves on her coat and rubbed her right wrist. One droplet had trickled its way down onto her wrist and burned on it a red sore half the size of a penny. Maud had never known how easily she could have won that fight.
-
The youth had been sweeping the coach yard for what felt like hours, steady strokes raking in the filth of the days work. Leaning on his brush he stretched, smiling in relief as he heard the pops and clicks of his spine realigning. He moved over to the edge of the stables to place the brush back in its correct place. As he moved away he took out a small rolled up cigarette and holding it in his mouth he patted himself down, searching for matches.
"Need a light?" asked a voice behind him. He jumped, almost dropping the smoke from out of his mouth.
"Lurline, warn a guy before ya do that, will ya?" he said angrily, grabbing onto the offered match and lighting up.
"I'll remember for next time."
Frowning, the young man turned. The voice didn't sound like any of the other coach drivers or anyone else who worked there. This time he did drop his cigarette.
"Who... Who are you?" he asked, shocked, taking in the sight of the woman before him. That skin! And those eyes! He shuddered, reaching down for his roll up, but the woman was quicker. She raised the smoke to her lips, took a puff then handed it back to the shocked youth. He grasped the cigarette possessively, taking a drag before steeling himself.
"This here is private property, miss. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." His voice stayed steady. Almost. Elphaba smirked.
"Oh, don't worry, your boss knows I'm here. She's rather a good friend of mine, actually." Elphaba chuckled, brushing a bit of ash off of her collar. "I had a word with her to ask which of the drivers had taken a piece of private work over the past few days to go somewhere out of the city. Guess whose name I was given?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," the youth said quickly, nervously taking another drag. The sound of a coach arriving broke the tension, the distant shouts and whinny as the horses were led back to their stalls.
"What's your name, kid?" Elphaba asked him, leaning against the stable wall.
"Melvin, Melvin Alice," Melvin replied, looking suspiciously at the woman before him. "Who wants to know?"
"My name's Detective Thropp, Alice." She watched as the youth winced. "Don't like your name?" she asked, smirking as the young man continued to smoke.
"Melvin, please," he said slowly, an annoyed note creeping in behind the nervousness. I bet all of your teachers loved picking on you, Elphaba thought wickedly as she considered her options.
"Well, Alice, I believe strongly in formality in an interview," Elphaba said sternly, enjoying the young man's distress. "Anyway, I need to know the destination of a certain customer of yours." Melvin shrugged, pulling against the collar of his unpressed shirt.
"Look, I don't know what you are talking about. All of my journeys are logged and accounted for," he insisted, not meeting Elphaba's steely gaze.
"I'm sure they are, Alice, but just so you know, if you are hiding something from me..."
"You can't arrest me! I know the law, you ain't the Em Guard, you can't take me in!" Melvin cut in nervously, smoking more rapidly now as sweat had broken out on his forehead. That was his first mistake.
"No," Elphaba agreed, looking down to the floor with interest. She looked up from under her hat. "But I can beat you into a pulp that wishes it had been thrown in jail," she said silkily, letting the threat sink in. That was enough warning for now. She wouldn't want it said that she had been unfair. Melvin swallowed, his overly large Adam's apple quivering.
"You can't do this - I have rights," Melvin argued weakly. Elphaba snorted, shaking her head. Suddenly Melvin Alice found himself being held by the collar and shoved against the stable wall. His feet dangled slightly off the floor as Elphaba pushed him hard into the brick behind him.
"You are going to tell me all I want to know, young man, or else I will see to it that you sing falsetto for the rest of your life - understand? Just nod, there's a good chap." She really didn't have time for this. Glinda would be up by now and Morrible would be Lurline knew where. Melvin nodded, grabbing onto Elphaba's arms as she held him. "Now Alice, did you give a ride to one Lady Morrible?" she asked calmly, not loosening her grip.
"She didn't say her name." A squeeze tighter around his neck. "But her initials were embodied onto her sleeve," he finished, swallowing. "Please... I can't..." He spluttered, but Elphaba showed him no mercy. Shoving him back against the wall she hissed, "Where did you go?"
"I don't remember," he cried.
"Try!" Elphaba yelled in his ear, pressing there bodies together and letting her sharp elbows press into his body.
"She'll have me killed."
"I'll kill you now!" Elphaba snarled, now almost chocking the youth.
"Shiz!" he gasped. "I took her to Shiz. To the girls' college, left wing! She hurried in and was back in another twenty minutes." Elphaba smirked and released her pressure on the boy.
"Thank you. Now that wasn't too hard was it?" she asked a miserable Melvin as he sagged, rubbing his throat. "Note for later life: cooperate with the good guys, you tend to live longer."
Melvin nodded his head before dragging himself upright. "And you're the good guy?" he breathed, grasping the wall for support.
Elphaba shrugged. "Close enough. I didn't kill you, did I?"
After the youth had run off Elphaba took out a cigarette of her own. Lighting up she took a long drag. So Morrible had run back home, had she? Made sense, really. She would need a carriage now, of course, but that shouldn't be a problem.
"Elphaba!" she heard a call from across the yard. A well-built woman holding a riding crop, her body toned with years of training horses and coach drivers, ran forward and up to the detective.
"Pamela," Elphaba greeted as the woman got closer.
"You've been terrorising one of my boys, I see," the woman said with a smirk.
"I needed some information." Elphaba shrugged, moving her hand back up to her mouth. "And you pointed me in the right direction," she pointed out.
"I didn't mean for you to almost kill him." Pamela sighed, rolling her eyes. Then again, what had she expected?
"He wasn't cooperating," Elphaba replied nonchalantly, flashing her a brief smile.
"You haven't changed a bit. What am I going to do with you?" The coach-master grinned, moving closer to Elphaba, her riding crop now brought between their two bodies, and tilted Elphaba's chin up until they locked eyes. Elphaba was by no means short but Pamela still had a good few inches on her; in fact, she had a good few inches on most people. Elphaba's breath caught as she felt the warmth of the the other's body. They had met many years ago when Elphaba first arrived in the Emerald City, with a mind determined to change the world. Pamela had been there for her to catch her when the bubble burst. It was amazing the kind of consolation an attractive older woman can give to a broken soul.
The coach yard was empty and a wind picked up, swirling Pamela's light brown ponytail out and back behind her. They stood there, two striking figures against a backdrop of browns and greys.
"Nothing," Elphaba said dangerously as Pamela moved closer still, their noses almost touching. This was wrong, this was a life time ago, she had Glinda now. Focus on that. She looked down at exposed arms, the muscular body clad in that tight leather shirt and she swallowed. Some habits were hard to break. Pamela tilted her head, their lips almost touching, and frowned. Moving her face to Elphaba's neck she sniffed, catching a whiff of scent that she knew not to be the detective's own.
"You've found yourself someone new at last, then?" she asked, moving away reluctantly.
"What if I have?" Elphaba asked, raising an eyebrow and taking a drag. She couldn't completely hide the relaxing of her limbs as the other woman moved away from her.
"Then I wish her all the bloody luck in the world and I hope you manage to keep this one longer than the last. If not you know you're always welcome..." Pamela trailed off, more than aware that both of them knew what that offer meant.
"Thanks, Pam, good to know," Elphaba replied dryly.
"What are you doing now, anyway?" Pamela asked, relaxing the conversation slightly.
"Well, honestly? I'm thinking of going back to school."
Disclaimer: Wicked (c) Gregory Maguire.
Rating: PG-13/R.
Summary: In a slightly different Oz, Elphaba Thropp ekes out her living as a bitter private eye in the Emerald City, the bad green apple of Oz, where rain rarely lets up, crime runs rampant, and sensuous socialites wrap themselves in cigarette smoke.
Chapters: Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 / 12
Adventures in the Bad Green Apple: Blood for a Bauble
Chapter 7.
Elphaba made her way through the quiet streets of Emerald City, smoking and thinking. Madame Morrible was a murderer. A man lay cold and stiff in a mortuary because of her avarice. She couldn't be allowed to get away with bloodied hands grasping dirty money - to go on to inflict her evil on the world. The problem was - to incriminate Morrible would be to incriminate Fiyero.
Elphaba could imagine where that would lead. The Winkie Prince caught in the act of stealing a historically important and immensely valuable jewel... It would only be the first of many more trials, for offenses real or imagined. Winkies had it bad in Emerald City as it was. It would soon become intolerable.
The night Elphaba had been born, a pleasure faith show had caused a riot in the town her father, a priest of the Nameless God, had administered to. The mad mob had nearly torn him apart. He had never spoken of it, but she had heard the story. Mob madness - an unscrupulous but charismatic leader - people willing to blame their rotten lives on others... Elphaba had a knack for seeing straight into the heart of evil, and what she foresaw she could not bear. No. Fiyero must not be implicated. There would have to be some other way of dealing with Morrible.
She also wanted to get the necklace itself back, just in case it hadn't been tossed in a bin somewhere after it had served its purpose. Not only was that her original job, but it would make Glinda happy. She knew what gifts from fathers could mean. She figured she was going soft in the head - but be that as it may, she wanted to hand it over and to see Glinda smile.
When Elphaba got back to her office the charm was already beginning to fade. Gradually chocolate brown was changing back to emerald green. Opening the door to the reception room she called out. "I'm just back to change, managed to find a bit..." She paused.
The door to her office was open, yet the lamps were burning low. She removed the hat and goggles, moving closer to the opening. Pushing the door open further she saw why. Draped across her now empty desk was Glinda Arduenna, in nothing but some remarkably small pieces of underwear. Elphaba stopped, aware that her jaw had probably hit the floor by now. She swallowed, trying to remember what she had been meaning to say.
"The meeting... Morrible has the, the..." She trailed off as Glinda raised an eyebrow and slowly undid her hair, shaking it out across her shoulders so that a few strands fell in front of her face. "I need to, um," Elphaba tried to continue, aware that her whole body was rebelling against her, "to find out where she," Glinda had reached around to her back now, "hid it," Elphaba finished as Glinda undid her bra. From then on Elphaba could not be held accountable for her actions.
Moving forward she yanked Glinda upwards, pulling her into passionate kiss. Glinda moaned as she was pushed back down onto the desk. Reaching up she slipped the jacket off of Elphaba's shoulders. Elphaba helped her, shrugging off the jacket and starting on her shirt.
"No more interruptions," Glinda said determinedly. "Your ass is mine, Elphaba Thropp." Elphaba shuddered as Glinda said her name in that voice, a voice full of passion, of possessive lust. She closed her eyes and let herself be pulled down.
-
Elphaba woke up with the early morning sunlight bright in her eye, shining through a slit between the curtains. Her back was slightly cramped. There was a cool breeze on her leg and a warm weight draped over her body. She looked down to be greeted with the sight of now very messy blond curls. Glinda. Right.
She moved, trying to get into a slightly more comfortable position, but this only made her bedmate grip her tighter. Elphaba felt like an over-sized teddy bear. She rolled her eyes, now very much aware that the only way to get out of this situation would be to wake up the other woman. Try as she might, however, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. It felt so peaceful lying there, her breathing matched with the woman on top of her and nothing disturbing them.
She didn't know how long they stayed like that, Glinda holding onto her tightly and Elphaba drifting in and out of a faint daze. Eventually particularly loud crow outside the window managed to ruin the moment. Glinda yawned, shifting so that her elbows leaned on the bed on either side of Elphaba's head..
"Morning," she said softly, voice sore from the previous nights exploits, her forehead almost touching her lover's.
"Morning," Elphaba replied, wrapping her arms tightly around Glinda's slim waist. "How're ya feeling?" Elphaba asked, stroking the downy hairs at the base of Glinda's back. Glinda sighed and rolled over until she was almost off the edge of the cot.
"Wonderful," she said simply, stretching out her body before looping their legs back together. "I've been waiting to do that for far too long."
Elphaba chuckled, shifting slightly on her pillow. "What, two days?"
"Bitch," Glinda muttered lovingly.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Elphaba said, a grin still present on her lips.
"You had better be," Glinda pulled them closer together so she could place a light kiss of Elphaba's lip. "I almost died waiting for you, two days or two hundred."
"Oh don't be so melodramatic," Elphaba replied sarcastically which earned her a light smack on the arm. "And was all your waiting worth it?" she asked after pinning down Glinda's arms at her sides to prevent further injury.
"Every second," the blonde answered smiling.
"Hmm, the complete and utter molestation of Miss Glinda Arduenna," Elphaba started.
"Something to put on your resumé," Glinda said with a laugh.
"Would that be an achievement or a service?"
Glinda thought for a second. "Both."
Elphaba laughed, a real laugh, not her normal snigger or faint chuckle, and pulled Glinda tight to her, soft curves fitting in with the harsh angles of her own body. Glinda smiled
"You look beautiful," she whispered against Elphaba's chest. "Really beautiful." Elphaba stayed silent, not moving. After a few minutes she pulled away.
"I have to go out," she told Glinda, getting up and easing out her back.
Glinda watched as taut muscles moved under an emerald coating. She could almost count Elphaba's ribs. "Why do you have to go? Can't you just stay here?" she asked, draping herself across her lover's back.
"No Glinda, I'm so close now,"
"You said that last night." This time it was Glinda's turn to receive the smack.
"I mean I'm close to finding out where your necklace is."
"Oh, forget the necklace! You're much better than that," Glinda replied, holding on tightly. Elphaba turned and gradually picked Glinda's arms off of her and lay the smaller woman back down.
"Go back to sleep, sweet one. I'll probably be here when you wake up," Elphaba said, planting a kiss on her forehead.
-
Glinda sighed as she watched Elphaba begin to dress. Slowly she stretched out, lounging across the cot and letting the soft sheets brush against her body. No doubt she looked absolutely dreadful after last nights escapades but she found that just for now, she didn’t care. And, she realised, neither would Elphaba.
How strange it was, she mused, that in all the time she had known Elphaba the other woman had never commented on her looks. She knew that Elphaba appreciated them; the fleeting glances and approving murmurs were proof enough of that. But somehow Glinda got the impression that even if she was nowhere near as beautiful as she clearly was, Elphaba’s feelings for her would not change.
It was a bizarre epiphany for her, lying in the cool morning sunlight. Never could she say that of any other lover. Well, perhaps Fiyero, but he could be so very cryptic at times, a trait that he in fact shared with Elphaba. It was all so confusing, she thought. Wasn’t love meant to be simple? For it was most certainly love now.
Glinda sat up against the wall and pulled the sheets over her despite the lack of company. Of all the people to fall in love with it had to be this one. This green, confusing, beautiful woman. This woman who didn’t care what others thought of her, who prized her brain far higher than her looks, who’s independence both frightened and thrilled her.
It had all happened so quickly. She drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly. Had it really only been a few days since she had first met Elphaba? It felt as though they she had known her for her entire life. How could one woman do that to a person? To make themselves so prominent that you can not even begin to imagine a life without them in it?
And now she was off again. Off to chase the bad guy. Glinda giggled at the thought. She never rested, never took time for herself, barely even took time to eat. Well, that was going to change, Glinda decided avidly, if she was going to be around… was she going to be around? She pulled the blanket tighter as a escaped breeze blew in through the cracks in the window. What if after this case Elphaba just moved on, forgot all about her? What if it was just a fling for this woman? After all, Fiyero didn’t last long and who could say why that ended?
Glinda shook her head, refusing to believe that. At least for now she would entertain the thought that she may be just a little bit more in Elphaba’s life then just a fast night in her office. Elphaba was more than that to her at any rate. Glinda lay down again, pulling the bedding around and cocooning herself in the soft material.
Elphaba was a lot more than that.
-
Half an hour later Elphaba was striding down the street with coffee and a small breakfast under her belt. It was much too early for social calls, so she just stopped to chat with Melvina.
Seemed there'd been no murders at Jemmy's last night, at least. The day's papers were full of the Wizard's engagement and of the pretty, young - very young - saint. She and Mel chatted for a good hour about the bit of news that was Madame Morrible. At the end of it Elphaba had the good lady's address in the Emerald City as well as the name of her latest maid. She doubted the jewel would actually be hidden in the Madame's town house - that would be too obvious. It would still have to be turf that Morrible controlled. Still, it was worth a snoop.
Elphaba rode to the north side on a rail-carriage - one of the Wizard's innovations, something like an elongated carriage pulled along a rail, operated by some complicated clockwork and a harried pair of winders who also sold tickets to people wanting to come on. Tiktok nonsense, but Elphaba had been wearing holes in her shoes enough in the past couple of days. She watched the city pass by, section by section. The last time she'd been on a cart she had noticed the city as it was - people drifting by coughing blood into soiled handkerchiefs, raising their canes to beat their servants, screaming in drunken terror, or just trudging on with dead eyes. This morning she returned to herself almost as if out of a daze as the rail-carriage rattled and wheezed to a stop at the edge of the northern residential area. She realized with mixed feeling that she'd been lost in recollections of golden hair and teasing blue eyes.
Fixing a determined scowl on her face, Elphaba jumped the rail-carriage and lit up, considering the area from the burglar's point of view. This was where the wealthiest of the wealthy lived, where they expected a working gentleman to wear his best suit to visit, and where a woman such as her was about as welcome as a boil in an uncomfortable place. Feeling a little wicked, she put one hand in her trouser pocket, cradled the smoke with the other, and strode in through the invisible barrier of Earwig Street and into the world of the rich.
She found Madame Morrible's house three streets and a square into the area. In a city of millions cramped into a high-walled area, here were open gardens, driveways rounding enormous fountains, and houses of just three floors spreading extravagantly across enough space to house a hundred families. Madam Morrible's city-mansion was modest only by comparison to the rest of this elegant waste - a smallish house, but an impressive one, carved with reliefs of the lives of the saints, including some even preacher-raised Elphaba didn't recognize. In front of it stood two great oaks. The garden was walled off with a high black iron fence run over with ivy in a most deliberate manner, to shield privacy. The black gates with their winding iron lead motif stood tall and imposing, daring anyone to enter and admire the whole of the carefully constructed glory. Elphaba rounded the corner to the alley running by the house and let herself in through the servants' gate.
She found the door to the kitchen ajar, the sound of humming and the clatter of dishes coming through. She stepped silently across the short winding gravel path and up the three steps into a wide but deserted kitchen, scrubbed clean except for the last few breakfast dishes being rolled in soapy water by a kitchen maid.
"Hello, Maud," said Elphaba.
The maid wheeled, scrabbling for the still-slippery carving knife, but Elphaba was faster. "There now - we don't want to get hurt, do we?" She took a towel from a rack above the sink and began wiping the knife dry.
"Wh-who are you? What do you want?" Maud said, backing away, her eyes in a mean squint. She was a not unattractive woman of about thirty, plumpish, with short brown curls neatly arranged under her cap.
Elphaba was not surprised to see Glinda's recently former maid here. Where else could a servant go to be re-employed after being sacked for spying on her mistress, save the person she had done the spying for? No-one else would trust her. Perhaps no-one should.
"Oh, you remember me, Maud," said Elphaba, twirling the knife. "You've seen me leave your former mistress's apartment twice. I expect you listened to us at the keyhole, too - I expect you're pretty good at that. You've probably told your current mistress all about me. Makes us something like friends, doesn't it?"
Maud's eyes flickered to the meat cleaver hanging above the sink. Elphaba noticed and leaned on the counter, casually flicking her coat aside to let Maud see Fat Margie in her shoulder hoster. That did the trick. Maud relaxed, seemed to sink into herself.
"I didn't do nothing wrong," she muttered. "Got three kids at home. It was a bloody government assignment. What do you want from me? Can't arrest me. I'd be out in two ticks anyhow, with the friends I've got."
You poor fool, Elphaba thought. You don't even know you're expendable. Worse than that - a liability. Aloud, she said, "I'm not the police. I don't arrest people." She took a step forward, tossing the knife in the air and catching it, twirling it between her fingers. Maud eyed it, then held Elphaba's gaze bravely as her fingers crawled slowly, deliberately towards a bell line on the counter. Lightning fast, without breaking eye contact, Elphaba drove the knife into the counter right between Maud's thumb and index finger. It sank in with a thunk and remained there, shivering and glinting in the morning light. Maud was sweating visibly now, the droplets gleaming in the bright sunlight.
"Do what you do best," Elphaba suggested in a low purr. "Rat out your mistress - your current one. Then I'll go away and we'll all be happy."
"I don't know nothing!" Maud cried. "Honestly, I don't! I passed information on - that's all. They weren't telling me nothing!"
"Where does the Madame keep her secrets? How many houses does she own? Where has she been, where has she gone these past three days?"
"I don't know! She was gone in the morning when you first called at Miss Glinda's. She came back only last night, late. I don't know where she's been, honest - but she didn't take her own coach, I can vouch for that, I had buns and tea with the coachman three times before she called him again. And now she's off again, since an hour ago, but Sweeney's driving her this time."
"That is interesting," Elphaba said. "Anything else? Her hiding places, the people she trusts? Tell me." Her fingers rested lightly on the knife, and Maud spilled every little thing she could think of.
On the way out the garden Elphaba wiped her gloves on her coat and rubbed her right wrist. One droplet had trickled its way down onto her wrist and burned on it a red sore half the size of a penny. Maud had never known how easily she could have won that fight.
-
The youth had been sweeping the coach yard for what felt like hours, steady strokes raking in the filth of the days work. Leaning on his brush he stretched, smiling in relief as he heard the pops and clicks of his spine realigning. He moved over to the edge of the stables to place the brush back in its correct place. As he moved away he took out a small rolled up cigarette and holding it in his mouth he patted himself down, searching for matches.
"Need a light?" asked a voice behind him. He jumped, almost dropping the smoke from out of his mouth.
"Lurline, warn a guy before ya do that, will ya?" he said angrily, grabbing onto the offered match and lighting up.
"I'll remember for next time."
Frowning, the young man turned. The voice didn't sound like any of the other coach drivers or anyone else who worked there. This time he did drop his cigarette.
"Who... Who are you?" he asked, shocked, taking in the sight of the woman before him. That skin! And those eyes! He shuddered, reaching down for his roll up, but the woman was quicker. She raised the smoke to her lips, took a puff then handed it back to the shocked youth. He grasped the cigarette possessively, taking a drag before steeling himself.
"This here is private property, miss. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." His voice stayed steady. Almost. Elphaba smirked.
"Oh, don't worry, your boss knows I'm here. She's rather a good friend of mine, actually." Elphaba chuckled, brushing a bit of ash off of her collar. "I had a word with her to ask which of the drivers had taken a piece of private work over the past few days to go somewhere out of the city. Guess whose name I was given?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," the youth said quickly, nervously taking another drag. The sound of a coach arriving broke the tension, the distant shouts and whinny as the horses were led back to their stalls.
"What's your name, kid?" Elphaba asked him, leaning against the stable wall.
"Melvin, Melvin Alice," Melvin replied, looking suspiciously at the woman before him. "Who wants to know?"
"My name's Detective Thropp, Alice." She watched as the youth winced. "Don't like your name?" she asked, smirking as the young man continued to smoke.
"Melvin, please," he said slowly, an annoyed note creeping in behind the nervousness. I bet all of your teachers loved picking on you, Elphaba thought wickedly as she considered her options.
"Well, Alice, I believe strongly in formality in an interview," Elphaba said sternly, enjoying the young man's distress. "Anyway, I need to know the destination of a certain customer of yours." Melvin shrugged, pulling against the collar of his unpressed shirt.
"Look, I don't know what you are talking about. All of my journeys are logged and accounted for," he insisted, not meeting Elphaba's steely gaze.
"I'm sure they are, Alice, but just so you know, if you are hiding something from me..."
"You can't arrest me! I know the law, you ain't the Em Guard, you can't take me in!" Melvin cut in nervously, smoking more rapidly now as sweat had broken out on his forehead. That was his first mistake.
"No," Elphaba agreed, looking down to the floor with interest. She looked up from under her hat. "But I can beat you into a pulp that wishes it had been thrown in jail," she said silkily, letting the threat sink in. That was enough warning for now. She wouldn't want it said that she had been unfair. Melvin swallowed, his overly large Adam's apple quivering.
"You can't do this - I have rights," Melvin argued weakly. Elphaba snorted, shaking her head. Suddenly Melvin Alice found himself being held by the collar and shoved against the stable wall. His feet dangled slightly off the floor as Elphaba pushed him hard into the brick behind him.
"You are going to tell me all I want to know, young man, or else I will see to it that you sing falsetto for the rest of your life - understand? Just nod, there's a good chap." She really didn't have time for this. Glinda would be up by now and Morrible would be Lurline knew where. Melvin nodded, grabbing onto Elphaba's arms as she held him. "Now Alice, did you give a ride to one Lady Morrible?" she asked calmly, not loosening her grip.
"She didn't say her name." A squeeze tighter around his neck. "But her initials were embodied onto her sleeve," he finished, swallowing. "Please... I can't..." He spluttered, but Elphaba showed him no mercy. Shoving him back against the wall she hissed, "Where did you go?"
"I don't remember," he cried.
"Try!" Elphaba yelled in his ear, pressing there bodies together and letting her sharp elbows press into his body.
"She'll have me killed."
"I'll kill you now!" Elphaba snarled, now almost chocking the youth.
"Shiz!" he gasped. "I took her to Shiz. To the girls' college, left wing! She hurried in and was back in another twenty minutes." Elphaba smirked and released her pressure on the boy.
"Thank you. Now that wasn't too hard was it?" she asked a miserable Melvin as he sagged, rubbing his throat. "Note for later life: cooperate with the good guys, you tend to live longer."
Melvin nodded his head before dragging himself upright. "And you're the good guy?" he breathed, grasping the wall for support.
Elphaba shrugged. "Close enough. I didn't kill you, did I?"
After the youth had run off Elphaba took out a cigarette of her own. Lighting up she took a long drag. So Morrible had run back home, had she? Made sense, really. She would need a carriage now, of course, but that shouldn't be a problem.
"Elphaba!" she heard a call from across the yard. A well-built woman holding a riding crop, her body toned with years of training horses and coach drivers, ran forward and up to the detective.
"Pamela," Elphaba greeted as the woman got closer.
"You've been terrorising one of my boys, I see," the woman said with a smirk.
"I needed some information." Elphaba shrugged, moving her hand back up to her mouth. "And you pointed me in the right direction," she pointed out.
"I didn't mean for you to almost kill him." Pamela sighed, rolling her eyes. Then again, what had she expected?
"He wasn't cooperating," Elphaba replied nonchalantly, flashing her a brief smile.
"You haven't changed a bit. What am I going to do with you?" The coach-master grinned, moving closer to Elphaba, her riding crop now brought between their two bodies, and tilted Elphaba's chin up until they locked eyes. Elphaba was by no means short but Pamela still had a good few inches on her; in fact, she had a good few inches on most people. Elphaba's breath caught as she felt the warmth of the the other's body. They had met many years ago when Elphaba first arrived in the Emerald City, with a mind determined to change the world. Pamela had been there for her to catch her when the bubble burst. It was amazing the kind of consolation an attractive older woman can give to a broken soul.
The coach yard was empty and a wind picked up, swirling Pamela's light brown ponytail out and back behind her. They stood there, two striking figures against a backdrop of browns and greys.
"Nothing," Elphaba said dangerously as Pamela moved closer still, their noses almost touching. This was wrong, this was a life time ago, she had Glinda now. Focus on that. She looked down at exposed arms, the muscular body clad in that tight leather shirt and she swallowed. Some habits were hard to break. Pamela tilted her head, their lips almost touching, and frowned. Moving her face to Elphaba's neck she sniffed, catching a whiff of scent that she knew not to be the detective's own.
"You've found yourself someone new at last, then?" she asked, moving away reluctantly.
"What if I have?" Elphaba asked, raising an eyebrow and taking a drag. She couldn't completely hide the relaxing of her limbs as the other woman moved away from her.
"Then I wish her all the bloody luck in the world and I hope you manage to keep this one longer than the last. If not you know you're always welcome..." Pamela trailed off, more than aware that both of them knew what that offer meant.
"Thanks, Pam, good to know," Elphaba replied dryly.
"What are you doing now, anyway?" Pamela asked, relaxing the conversation slightly.
"Well, honestly? I'm thinking of going back to school."