AN: I was re-reading If You Close Your Eyes and your reviews to that, and I just thought to myself that no matter how much I loved ending it the evil way I did, you guys were right - Fiyero would never do that. So I decided to add a short chapter in order to clear up what really happened ;).

No-one expected him to swing his rifle to the right at the very last moment, hitting one of his fellow Gale Force soldiers in the chest.

With a look of utter shock on his face, the man slumped to the floor. The others stood there for a moment, gaping; but by the time they realised what was happening and grabbed for their own rifles, Fiyero had already shot one of them in the arm and a third one in the stomach. The fourth tried to run off, but Fiyero spun around and shot him in the leg, preventing him from going anywhere.

He turned back to Elphaba, whose eyes were wide. The blood had drained from her face and she looked like she was about to faint, opening and closing her mouth a few times without a sound coming out.

Just as Fiyero was about to grab her hand and get her out of here, however, something else shook her from her stupor. A gunshot resounded through the streets and Elphaba yelped in pain, stumbling and falling to the ground. Fiyero whirled around just in time to see that the soldier he had shot in the arm had somehow managed to get a hold of his rifle and shoot at Elphaba, though his aim must have been very poor. Fiyero shot him in the chest before kneeling down next to the raven-haired witch. "Fae?" Please let her be okay. Please, please let her be okay, he begged in his head, his heart pounding in his throat.

"I'm fine," she croaked. "It's just my leg."

He saw the blood near her calf and his knees nearly buckled with relief. She was hurt, but she would live. "Hold on."

He quickly took off his jacket and wrapped it around her; then he swung his rifle across his back and effortlessly scooped the green girl up in his arms, cradling her to his chest as he ran off.

"There they are!" they heard someone – Fiyero suspected it to be the remaining living Gale Force soldier, the one he had shot in the leg – shout. "Don't let them escape!"

The sound of running footsteps approached them, followed by a storm of bullets flying their way. Fiyero cursed under his breath, panic slowly taking over. More Gale Force soldiers. Soldiers with guns. He had to get out of here and he had to do so fast. He could not let anything happen to Elphaba.

"Fire!" a voice behind them yelled, and more bullets flew past the pair. Fiyero could have sworn he felt one of the bullets graze his hair as he tried to turn as many corners as he could in an attempt to shake off the Gale Force.

Elphaba clung to him as he sped up. He forced his legs to keep moving through the streets, rounding corners and slipping through alleys, until he managed to lose the soldiers that had been following them. Even then, however, he did not stop; instead, he sneaked out of the city and into the forest surrounding it. He only put Elphaba down once they had reached a small clearing and he spread her cloak on the floor, gently setting her down on it before crouching down beside her, carefully pulling up her skirt to look at her calf.

"Fiyero," she said, her face still a much paler shade of green than usual."What just happened?" She tried to make her voice sound sharp, but instead it just sounded small. It even trembled a little.

The prince was too focused on her injury to pay much attention to anything else, however. "Hmm?"

"What did you do?" she asked him again. "And why?"

He frowned, even as he grimaced in sympathy when he saw the hole through which the bullet had gone in. "What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you kill me?!" she yelled at him, jerking away from his touch.

That got his attention. He blinked at her, as if that was the stupidest question she could have possibly asked.

"If you think," he said, in a voice that didn't really sound like his own, "that I even for a clock-tick considered to actually shoot you, then you must be completely delusional."

She stared at him.

"I told you I love you." He sat back a little in order to be able to look her in the eye. "I meant it. Elphaba, I love you more than my own life and I would rather have died than let anything happen to you, let alone do anything to you myself. I'd kill myself a thousand times over before I would kill you. I would do anything for you."

She opened her mouth to say something, but he wasn't finished yet.

"Anything but that."

She closed her mouth and looked away, and he quickly bandaged up her leg with some strokes of cloth he had torn off his shirt.

"We need to go," he said. "You need a doctor who can take that bullet out of your leg. Do you know anyone who might be able to help?"

"There's…" She swallowed, her mouth and throat feeling dry. This whole thing felt so surreal to her, like a dream… how could this really be happening? "There's an… an Animal village. Nearby, it's just a few miles away…"

Fiyero nodded and lifted her up in his arms again. "Lead the way."