Chapter 25: There's No Place Like Home

Discussions the next day were more pleasant and Elphaba managed to get permission to continue Dr. Dillamond's work. Apparently that had been something that Kal hadn't told anyone he'd intended to allow her to do. It made her wonder if he'd intended to let her at all, not that it mattered now. She just wanted to go home.

Home. Suddenly, Kiamo Ko was home. More accurately, though, Fiyero was home. The word "home" had never had a pleasant connotation for her before, but it was a comforting thought now. As the train rattled back towards the Vinkus, she curled up beside him.

He smiled as she did. "So we're done with this. You're coming back with me. Forever. You're still certain that's what you want?"

"I thought you trusted me."

"I do. But I also know how much this mattered to you. You're walking away from it."

"I'm not walking away, though. I'll do my own work where I want to. I don't need to be in the middle of everything. I don't fit in there, anyway. I fit with you."

"I think I'm at the point where I'm glad you did what you did. If you hadn't, I don't think either one of us would be happy like we are now. I realize that wasn't the intended result, but I'll take it."

"Me, too."

The people greeted them eagerly upon their return. Fiyero spent days traveling to the homes of the fallen men from the war and speaking individually to their families to let them know he hadn't forgotten what his men had done. He could only handle one grief-stricken family at a time, so it took him months.

"That's the last one. I know it wasn't a lot, but these were my people and they…"

"I brought them into this war. I wish you'd have let me come with you. You shouldn't bear that burden yourself." But she was bearing her own burden, one she hadn't shared with him.

"It's what I felt I had to do."

"You're a good man, Fiyero. You're always telling me I'd be a better king than you, but I would never have thought to do what you've been doing."

"We make a good team."

"You know, I think we do. But maybe we need another member."

There was a look of hope in his face. "Are you telling me something?"

"Fiyero, I'm pregnant. And this time, nothing's going to get in the way."

"I'm going to watch every food or drink you take get prepared," he said.

"Don't be ridiculous." Elphaba laughed. "You will do no such thing, my love. I will."