DISCLAIMER: WICKED is unfortunately, not mine.

Moments of the Ever After

By Vinkunwildflowerqueen

AN. Merry Christmas 2010, WICKED fans! I just thought I'd post this for you all whilst I'm waiting for Carols by Candlelight to start where the amazing Jemma Rix and Lucy Durack (the Australian Elphaba and Glinda) will be performing!

Anyway, a lot of people asked for a sequel to 'Ever Ever After', but I couldn't think of one. I did however, think of a few moments I wished I had written into the story so here they are.

Happy Holidays!

Chapter One: A problem?

Fiyero whistled to himself as he headed through the town centre of Aleppo towards the bookshop where his wife worked; enjoying the rare sunshine that graced the days of the Quoxian winter. Being that it was winter, he had little to do in the fields and instead had picked up some extra work as a carpenter; in which he had a small talent that had developed since leaving Oz. The work allowed him to make his own hours, so he was quite often free to meet his wife for lunch as he was today. He and Elphaba had been married for four months now, and Fiyero still considered them to be in the 'honeymoon stage.'

Elphaba was still waiting for the reality to set back in, as she put it; but Fiyero knew she too, was blissfully happy… well, as close to blissfully happy as Elphaba got. That's why he was less than pleased to enter the bookshop and see the tense look on Elphaba's face.

"Elphaba?" he asked anxiously, his good mood vanishing instantly as he approached her. The last time he could remember seeing a similar look on her face, Nessarose had just been crushed by a house, which didn't exactly calm him.

"What's going on?"

He placed the lunch he had brought for them from home on the store counter, standing opposite his wife. Elphaba looked at him for a moment, and he could practically feel the worry and tension radiating from her.

"We… we might have a problem," she replied, and Fiyero's first thought was that someone from Oz had discovered them.

"Why? What sort of problem?" he asked quickly, fear clutching at his gut. It couldn't be over, they couldn't be discovered, not now- not when they'd been so happy and had almost begun to believe they were safe here in Quox.

Elphaba met his gaze, then hesitated for a moment, as though it was too horrible to actually say aloud.

"I think I'm pregnant."

An overwhelming intense wave of relief washed over Fiyero instantly, and he released a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. Then the magnitude of what Elphaba had said, and how she had said it, hit him and he frowned.

"Wait- our baby is a problem?" he asked her.

Elphaba looked horrified for a moment, and then she looked guilty. "I- I don't know," she admitted, thankful the store was at that moment empty.

Fiyero could tell she felt awful about saying it aloud, although she'd probably been thinking it since she found out the news, and he hurried around the counter to pull her into his arms.

"What makes you think you're pregnant?" he asked her, and she pulled away with a small smile.

"Trust me, Fiyero. I'm pretty sure at this point."

Fiyero took her word for it. "How do you feel?" he asked, asking a different question.

Elphaba sighed. "Physically… a little sick and tired, which was clue one. Emotionally…"

She trailed off, unsure how to word what she was feeling, and Fiyero resisted the urge to jump for joy. They were having a baby! He'd already begun to allude to the idea after they were married, but Elphaba had pointedly ignored him. Only once had she made a comment that marriage was definitely a big enough step for her at the present time; which Fiyero had taken as a sign of hope she might be open to the idea in the future.

However, knowing his wife as he did, he was pretty sure he knew at least one of the reasons she was considering their unborn child as a problem.

"Fae? Are you worried about the baby being green?" he asked her gently, and she looked up at him.

"Aren't you?" she returned and Fiyero shook his head honestly.

"No. I don't care what colour our children are, as long as they're healthy."

Elphaba smirked slightly. "They?"

He grinned. "Yes, they. As in, more than one."

Elphaba rolled her eyes at him; she was already way too stressed at the thought of one to consider more right now.

"What else is worrying you?" he prodded and she sighed, closing her eyes briefly.

"What would happen to the baby if someone found out about us? What sort of life is that? And I don't know anything about raising babies, or having children- and you most definitely don't. And what if the baby was born green? I don't want any child of ours to have the same sort of childhood I did because of their skin colour."

Fiyero squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Fae, that won't happen. Your childhood sucked because of your father… for the most part. This baby… and any other children we have, are going to grow up in a loving home, with two loving parents. And if the people in the village don't think anything of you being green, I doubt the baby being green would be an issue. And nobody knows anything about raising children until they have children, and you have a head start over everyone."

"How?" Elphaba frowned in bewilderment.

The couple were distracted as someone entered the shop, and the Fox who had entered greeted them both before turning to browse the shelves.

"You pretty much raised Nessa, didn't you?" Fiyero asked her pointedly, lowering his voice.

"Nessa turned out to be the Wicked Witch of the East!" Elphaba hissed at him, glancing at the Fox out of the corner of her eye. "I don't think that says much about my parenting ability, Fiyero!"

"Nessa was also a touch insane, love," he replied, ignoring her last statement. "My point is, you still took care of her for years when you were just a child yourself. And I'm pretty sure once news spreads, you won't be suffering from lack of parenting advice," he grinned.

Elphaba had to concede he was right about that, but sighed wearily. "I'm scared," she admitted in a whisper. "I couldn't live with myself if I brought a child into the world, and then we got caught out."

Fiyero firmly grasped her by the arms, tilting her chin up to meet his gaze. "Elphaba, you have to believe me that we're safe here. Our child will be safe, I promise you."

Elphaba nodded finally, and then smiled slightly.

"Ok, I believe you. You can be happy now."

Fiyero knew she was lying through her teeth about believing him, but he couldn't stop the grin from spreading over his face as he kissed her.

"We're having a baby!" he sang quietly in her ear and she laughed.

"We?" she raised an eyebrow at him pointedly.

"Well, you; but I love you so much for it, Elphaba Tiggular, and I am going to be your willing slave for the next nine months," he swore to her with a grin and she fixed him with a stern stare.

"If you start being over-coddling and treating me like an invalid, I swear to Oz Fiyero, I'll turn you back into a scarecrow faster than you can blink. Understood?"

Fiyero didn't doubt that, and nodded. "Can I just be coddling then?" he asked and she rolled her eyes.

"Fiyero!"

"I think that's my right as father-to-be to take care of my beautiful, amazing wife and our unborn child," he said pointedly.

Elphaba rolled her eyes again, but Fiyero turned serious, dropping the jokes.

"I'm serious, Elphaba. You have to let me take care of you while you're pregnant. Because it's not just you anymore… I have twice as much to lose now if you don't take care of yourself."

Elphaba paused for a moment. As hard as it would be to allow Fiyero to take care of her, and more than likely hover endlessly and irritate the hell out of her, if she knew her husband; she knew he was right. This was his child too, and she could tell he already was hopelessly in love with the idea of being a father.

"I know, I'll be careful," she promised him gently.

Fiyero still was wary as he considered something. "You're happy too, Fae, right?" he asked uncertainly.

Elphaba smiled gently and reassuringly. "I'm not going to pretend I'm worried about the idea," she said honestly. "But I promise you, Yero, I'm happy."

She wasn't lying, beneath the many layers of terror and panic that overwhelmed her at the thought of the tiny being growing inside of her at this very moment, there was joy at the idea of having her own family, the family she never got to have. And the look of happiness on Fiyero's face was more than worth any seeds of worry she was feeling.

"You're going to be a wonderful father, Yero," she whispered to him and he grinned. He knew better than to tell her what a wonderful mother he knew she would be, those comments were on par with her beauty, to be instantly disbelieved.

"We, my darling Fae, are going to make beautiful babies together- whether they're green or not," he added before she could.

Eventually, Elphaba served the Fox and then locked the door, and she and Fiyero retreated to the back room to have the lunch he had brought. Elphaba only got halfway through her sandwich before Fiyero understood what had made her realise there was a definite possibility she could be pregnant.

The colour drained from her face abruptly, which was even more startlingly than on anyone else because of the emerald tone of her skin; and she leapt over Fiyero to reach the bathroom, where she threw up everything she had eaten so far. Feeling a sudden surge of guilt that really this was his fault, Fiyero followed her and held back her long hair as she emptied her stomach, rubbing her back soothingly.

"So, that was clue two, huh?" he asked her when she'd finished and sunk back from the toilet bowl wearily.

"Yeah, it was a bit of a giveaway," she replied hoarsely, wanting noting more than to rinse her mouth out.

"Has it been bad?" he asked anxiously.

"It's really only just started, and I've never been pregnant before, so I'm not sure what qualifies as 'bad'," Elphaba answered reasonably.

"Maybe Haggar has a remedy or something that will help?" Fiyero suggested and Elphaba hesitated.

"Maybe. I'd rather keep this to ourselves for the moment," she said honestly and Fiyero agreed after a moment's consideration.

"Will you care if it's a boy or a girl?" she asked him and Fiyero smiled, glad she wasn't asking if he would mind if the baby was born green- a question he suspected he would be answering a lot over the next nine months.

"No, I don't think so," he answered thoughtfully. "I mean, honestly the idea of a girl terrifies me, because at least I'd know how to raise a boy; but I don't mind what gender it is."

"And how do you plan to raise a boy?" Elphaba asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Like I was raised, of course," Fiyero answered as though it were obvious and Elphaba eyed him warily.

"If the phrase 'Dancing Through Life' utters from your lips around this baby, I promise you, Fiyero-"

"I know, I know. Scarecrow," Fiyero finished hastily. "Don't worry, Fae. You know I'm not that boy anymore."

Elphaba sighed heavily. "I know. Sometimes though, I catch a glimpse of him… and I miss him. The arrogant, self-involved, shallow boy that he was," she smirked and Fiyero pretended to be insulted.

"Excuse me, you fell in love with that boy!"

"I know. That's why I miss him," she said quietly and Fiyero kissed the top of her head softly.

"He isn't far away, Fae. He just grew up. And he's better for it."

His arms settled around her waist to rest on her still flat stomach, and Elphaba settled back into his embrace. And as uncomfortable as it was, sitting there on the cold bathroom floor, for a minute, the world only existed of Elphaba, Fiyero and their baby. And all Elphaba's fears vanished, for that one moment.