AN: I think the description says it all, and the rest you'll find out after this chapter :). Just so you know: the title implies that this has anything to do with 'A Christmas Carol', or at the very least with Christmas/Lurlinemas, but that's not the case - I just thought the title fit nicely.

This story is inspired by, but not based on, the film 'Just Like Heaven'.

A very merry Christmas to all of you, my dearest darlingest reviewers!

Chapter 1. Haunted

Fiyero was sitting on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands, wondering how this had happened.

An accident.

There had been several rumours going around campus for the past few days. Some of them were actually sort of plausible – like the one about a magic spell having gone wrong; but others were so ridiculous they made his blood boil. He just couldn't stand the fact that even now, they were still making fun of her.

"I heard she tried to commit suicide by jumping into Suicide Canal," Pfannee had stage whispered to her friends the day before.

Milla had shaken her head. "Didn't you hear? She's allergic to water," she'd informed the others. "I heard she got caught in a downpour of rain and her skin melted right off of her."

Avaric had scoffed. "And you girls actually believe that?"

"Why not?" Shenshen demanded. "Admit it, Avaric – that skin is just unnatural and creepy. It wouldn't surprise me if she really turned out to be allergic to water."

"She's not," Pfannee knew. "Some of the boys pulled that prank on her once, remember? Threw a bucket of water all over her? She didn't melt then."

"I still think she tried a spell to degreenify herself and it backfired," Avaric declared. He grinned. "Wish I'd been there to see that."

"Or maybe," Pfannee had giggled, "maybe Galinda finally realised what a pain the frog really is to have as a roommate and she tried to beat her to death with stiletto heels!"

All this time, Fiyero and Galinda had been standing in the hallway just behind them. Fiyero had been boiling with rage and Galinda had tried her hardest to keep him from attacking the group of friends, but at that last statement, he had felt her stiffen and he knew they had gone too far.

He'd stomped over to where they were standing, his expression murderous. He'd pushed Pfannee down onto the floor, punched Avaric in the face, and stood there yelling at them for Oz-knows-how-long, until Morrible finally hurried towards them and forced him to come with her. She'd told him she wouldn't punish him because she understood why he had done it, but she didn't want it to happen again.

And so now here he was, sitting in his room… alone. He couldn't stand to look at Galinda right now, her baby blue eyes filled with sorrow, her head down, except when she would look up at him with this hopeful, pleading look on her face, as if asking him to reassure her, to make it all better.

He wanted to. He really did. Even though he did not love her, he did care for her, and he hated to see her in so much pain… but couldn't she see that he was hurting, too? He couldn't comfort her. He didn't even know how to comfort himself.

And so here he was, sitting on the edge of his bed, staring off into the distance – or, well, at his wall, really – without actually seeing anything.

He'd worried about so many things. After what had happened with that Lion Cub, he had started to think. He had started to realise that he wasn't in love with Galinda and never would be. More importantly, he realised that he actually was in love, for the first time in his life, but it wasn't with the bubbly blonde. No, it was with her awkward, green roommate.

Ever since then, he had thought and worried more than ever before in his life. Around Elphaba, he had to think before he spoke, because if he said something brainless, she'd punish him for it. He had to be careful not to let her know about his feelings for her, because if he did, he knew she would run away.

He had worried about having to break up with Galinda and how this would affect Elphaba, given that they were best friends and Elphaba was more loyal to the blonde than anyone. He had come up with at least ten different ways for him to break up with his girlfriend as gently as possible, yet none of those ways seemed good enough. On top of that, he had to think of a way to tell Elphaba he loved her without having her running away from him and never coming back.

But never, ever, had he considered the possibility that he might not get the chance to tell her after all. The thought that something might happen to her, something bad, had never even crossed his mind.

And now it could be too late.

He let himself fall back onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Run over by a carriage. The irony wasn't lost on him. One of the boys in his Economics class had been a witness to the accident – he said that Elphaba had been reading while walking, not really paying attention to her surroundings. The driver hadn't seen her and she had been hit by the carriage. That was now three days ago, and she had been in a coma ever since.

He rolled over on his side, looking at the picture on his bedside table. It was one of the very few pictures that had ever been made of Elphaba; it was one of their entire group together as they were lounging at the Shiz Café, now a few months ago. Nessa was sitting in her chair next to Boq, who was handing her a mug of hot chocolate, both of them looking utterly content. They had just gotten back together, Fiyero remembered. When Nessa had found out about Boq's true reasons for asking her to the OzDust that one night, she had been so angry she had broken up with him – which had led to him finally realising how much he really cared about the wheelchair-bound girl. He had apologised to her and told her he loved her then, and they had gotten back together. That had been a few days before this picture had been taken.

Galinda was sitting on a couch across from the pair, clearly giggling about something. Elphaba was curled up in an armchair next to the blonde, a book in her lap, as usual; but her body was turned towards Galinda, her head tilted slightly backwards as she laughed along with the blonde girl. He loved the picture because it captured the real Elphaba, the way she could be when she was at ease and relaxed and happy, instead of the cold, sarcastic green girl she presented to the world most of the time.

Fiyero himself was next to Galinda in the picture, sitting on the couch with a smile on his face. His arm was casually draped across the back of the couch, where his girlfriend was sitting; but his eyes were on Elphaba.

He sighed. If only he'd known about what would happen, he would have done so many things differently. He would have broken up with Galinda right away, he would have told Elphaba about his feelings for her… if he had, at least they could have had some time together.

But then again, maybe that would only have made things harder now.

"Oh, Fae…" he whispered, touching the picture, then picking it up to look at it more closely. He clutched it to his chest, blinking hard in an attempt to hold back the tears that were stinging his eyes.

He put back the photograph and got up, quickly moving into the bathroom to splash some water on his face, but it didn't make him feel better in the slightest. He pressed his face into a towel, breathing hard.

When he came back into his bedroom, he sank down on the edge of his bed, staring at the photo. "Just wake up, Fae," he whispered. "Please wake up soon."

"I'm sorry," someone whispered, and his head shot up. He quickly looked around the room, but he didn't seen anyone.

Then someone appeared from the shadows in the doorway and he gasped. "Fae?!"

She looked completely shocked. "Fiyero?! You can see me?!"

"You…" He pointed a trembling finger at her. "You're not supposed to be here!" he cried, completely stunned.

She stepped further into the room, her dark eyes never leaving his. "Given the fact that I woke up next to my own unconscious body a few days ago," she said, "I'm going to assume that you mean I'm not supposed to be here in general; and not that I'm not supposed to be here, as in, in the boys' dorm. Which, by the way, is also true, because girls aren't allowed in here and especially not at this time of day, but hey, no-one can see me, so who cares? And… and I'm rambling," she realised. "Sorry. I guess my being in a coma didn't change the fact that I always talk too much."

He was still gaping at her.

She shuffled around a bit uncomfortably. "Could you say something, please?"

"H-How?" he choked out.

She shrugged. "Believe me, if I knew, I'd tell you," she said. "Maybe this is some kind of coma-induced hallucination. I suppose that's it."

"I'm not in a coma," he pointed out, slowly coming to his senses again. "And yet here you are."

"Are you sure you're not dreaming?" she asked him.

"Only one way to find out." He held out his arm. "Pinch me."

She scoffed. "Fiyero, even if this is not a dream, I would never be able to do that," she said, though she was moving closer and reaching out to touch his arm. "I'm not real. My body is still at the hospital. You could never touch –"

That was the moment her fingers pinched the skin of his arm. They both felt the contact and they immediately jumped back.

Elphaba was staring at his arm with wide eyes and Fiyero felt a little faint. This couldn't be really happening, could it? Here was Elphaba, who was supposed to be in a coma, and she was some sort of… ghost… spirit… whatever… and she could touch him. He could touch her. Not just that – he could see and hear her, too. And he was the only one who could.

He voiced the one coherent thought that was running through his mind. "How in Oz is this possible?"

She looked just as faint as he felt. "I – I have no idea," she whispered, reaching out for something, anything, to support her. She found the arm of a chair and slowly lowered herself down into it, her face a few shades paler green than usual.

"What happened?" he asked her softly. "You said you woke up next to your own body a couple of days ago…"

She nodded, clearly dazed. "I don't know what happened," she croaked. "I just opened my eyes and I found myself standing next to… well, myself. I quickly figured out what was going on, that I was in a coma…" She trailed off. "I… I spent the past few days trying to find out how this is possible," she said. "How I'm still here, but not really here. No-one can see me, Yero. No-one. I tried to talk to Galinda, to Nessa, to Boq… Sweet Oz, I even talked to Madame Morrible! I thought that what with all her magic powers, at least she would be able to see me, but… but she couldn't. No-one can. But you…"

She rose to her feet again and started pacing the room. "I don't even know why I came here," she said. "I soon discovered that I could travel somewhere, anywhere, by just thinking about a place and imagining myself to be there. I've been travelling back and forth between Shiz and the hospital like that. I wanted to hear more about my… condition… but I also wanted to keep an eye on Galinda, and on Nessa… I slept in my own bed in our shared dorm every night," she whispered. "I would go there when Galinda had fallen asleep and be gone again before she woke up in the morning – I mean, I can apparently still touch objects and I didn't want to creep her out by having her find an invisible person in my bed in the morning." She ran her fingers through her long, straight hair. "And then I thought of you… and I decided to come and check up on you, and…" She bit her lip. "I don't understand any of this."

He reached out to place his hand on her arm comfortingly, but she jerked away from his touch.

"Shh, it's okay," he said, reaching for her again. This time she allowed him to touch her, and he was a bit surprised for a moment. He wasn't sure, but he had expected her to feel… different, somehow. She didn't. She felt just the same as always, she looked the same, she sounded the same… she even smelt the same, he realised as he moved closer to her to trail soothing circles on her back.

"It'll be okay, Fae," he said, trying to keep his voice confident. "We'll find a way to fix this."

She gave him a sarcastic look, which, for some reason, made him chuckle. It was just such an Elphaba thing to do.

"Don't talk nonsense, Tiggular," she said gruffly, moving away from him to sit down on his bed. "How are you going to fix this? Take my… well, me… and put it back into my body?"

His eyes brightened, but she burst his bubble before he could get his hopes up. "I already tried that. It was the first thing I did – trying to lie down on my own body and get back into it. Didn't work. If it had, I wouldn't be here right now."

His face fell. "Oh. Well, maybe we could…" He faltered. He really had no idea what else they could do to fix this situation.

She plopped down onto his bed. "I guess we'll figure something out," she said with a sigh. "Tomorrow. But right now it's late, and…" She fidgeted with her hands in her lap, looking down. Then she looked up at him again. "I don't really want to go back to my dorm room," she confessed. "I mean… I want to be with Galinda right now, but at the same time I don't. She doesn't even know I'm there and I just can't stand that look in her eyes…" She trailed off.

"I know," Fiyero muttered. "Believe me, I know what you mean." He met her gaze. "You can stay here," he said. "If you want to."

A small smile graced her lips. "Really?"

He nodded and experienced the pleasure of seeing her smile widen. "Thank you, Yero."

"Anytime." He approached her, reaching behind her to grab some pillows from his bed. "You can sleep in the bed," he said. "I'll just take the couch."

She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his finger at her. "Not a word. The couch is fine." He pulled a blanket from his closet and made himself a bed on the couch, which really wasn't all that uncomfortable.

Suddenly, he thought of something, and he raised his head to look at her. "Fae? Do ghosts even sleep?"

"I'm not a ghost," she muttered indignantly. "Ghosts are the leftovers from dead people – if you believe in that stuff, which I don't."

"You know what I mean," Fiyero said in mild exasperation. "What do you want me to call your current form, then? Spirit?"

She scoffed.

"Soul?"

"I don't have a soul."

"If that's true, then what in Oz am I talking to right now?"

She fell silent, unable to come up with a retort. She lay down and pulled the blanket over herself. "Yes, I sleep," she answered his question curtly. "Goodnight, Fiyero."

Despite everything, that made him grin.

Reviews make great Christmas presents! :D Favourite lines?