Author's note: Glinda angst ahead, to be followed by a much longer chapter - this one is more of a filler than actual plot. :)

That night, as Elphaba and Fiyero made their escape from the Lions’ Den, Glinda the Good stood on her balcony wondering if the guards Madame Morrible had sent to the forest would find anything. Like her fiancé.

How could he have left me for Elphaba? she wondered furiously. They barely even know each other, not like Fiyero and I do!

She suppressed the thought that she didn’t know that much about Fiyero and there were things she hadn’t told him about herself.

That’s not the point! she insisted to that annoying little voice, which she strongly suspected to be her often ignored conscience.

He said he wanted to marry me and he left as soon as he saw her! But then Madame did say he could have a spell on him and despite what I said to Elphie I do blame her for being the one he wants. Is it really so conceited of me to believe that no one could want someone like her when he had me? But why would Elphaba go to the trouble of casting a love spell on someone, even Fiyero? I mean she never showed any interest in him at Shiz!

Was it that she never showed an interest? whispered that treacherous inner voice. Or was it that you were too self-absorbed and involved in your ‘perfect’ relationship to notice?

That’s absurd! Elphaba was never interested in anything but her work and her sister. She even said it, before we left, that she hardly knew him and didn’t expect him to be there.

But she still asked you where he was.

Because we’d spent the last week practically joined at the hip! Until he went all strange and started thinking…

But he didn’t start thinking until after he talked to her…a bit like what happened to you, don’t you think? Oh but wait you don’t!

I do so think about things!

More important things than your hair and your reputation are what I was referring to. Fiyero was right about you, you can’t resist all of this and you hate her because she did.

I don’t hate her!

Glinda put her hand over her mouth, even though she hadn’t spoken out loud, as though she didn’t want to believe what she had just said.

At that her inner voice remained stubbornly silent as if to say there was no reason to continue the discussion when she had just proven the point.

Well even if I don’t hate her that doesn’t mean I like her! It would be stupid to like someone who just ran off with your fiancée!

Your reluctant fiancée, or were you so busy showing off that you missed that?

What do you mean ‘reluctant’? Are you trying to imply that he didn’t want to marry me?

I’m saying that he never wanted to marry you! How blinded by yourself can you be? Don’t you think that if he really wanted you he would have married you sooner? Or at least actually asked you? Think about it did he ever bring up the subject?

We talked about being married all the time!

No, you talked about being married; he just smiled and let you go on about it.

No he didn’t!

Glinda protested immediately but when the voice didn’t reply she stopped to think about it and found that she couldn’t recall a single instant where Fiyero had brought up the subject of marriage first.

That still doesn’t mean that he didn’t want to marry me!

This incessant denial of yours is beginning to irritate me even if it is the only reason I exist.

What do you mean?

It’s simple, my dear, I represent everything about yourself that you know and repress.

I do not repress things …like what?

Well the fact you knew that Fiyero wasn’t in love with you and ignored it for years. Or the way you feel about Madame Morrible.

I don’t know what you’re talking about, I have a great deal of respect for Madame Morrible, she’s been so kind to me.

Oh yes, denouncing your best friend as a vicious criminal is so kind.

You should know that I mean what happened after that! And who’s to say that Elphaba isn’t a dangerous criminal? Look at all the things she’s done since then!

You mean the things they say she’s done.

Come on, all that Animal Rights stuff, it’s Elphaba all over!

They say she murdered people who were harming Animals – do you really believe that she’s capable of that?

She threatened to flatten an entire manor!

Be fair, she had just found her dead sister’s body!! And who do you think was responsible for that?

Why, no one…I mean it was just a freak of nature. That happens.

Ri-ight, a very well aimed one at that.

For all I know Elphaba did it so she could go back and take power in Munchkinland.

Listen to yourself; listen to what you’re saying! The Elphaba you know isn’t like that!

The Elphaba I knew wasn’t like that but how well did I really know her? We were only proper friends for maybe two weeks before she abandoned me!

You could have gone with her! But you weren’t brave enough – it’s like Fiyero said earlier, you couldn’t resist all of this – being famous, being loved and adored by people all over Oz. And all it cost you was the only real friend you ever had!

If she was really my friend she wouldn’t have left me, insisted Glinda stubbornly.

If you were capable of being a real friend, retorted the other part of her. She wouldn’t have had to leave you!

Just leave me alone!

Glinda practically deafened herself screaming those words into her mind…and then there was no nagging voice just the same feelings she’d been trying to wallow in before – her anger and bitterness.

“I do hate you, Elphaba Thropp,” snarled Glinda, glaring at the darkening sky with an expression that would have rendered her unrecognisable if there had been anyone around to see it.

“Despite what I said earlier. I loathe everything about you, I blame you for every bad thing that has happened since we met and I dearly wish that I had never laid eyes on you!”

The Emerald City looks different at night, Dorothy thought, comparing it to the way had looked when she arrived. After her talk with the Boq, a man made out of Tin who – it seemed – had gotten that way thanks to the Wicked Witches, she had been shown to a beautiful set of rooms decorated all in green and told that the Wizard would see her as soon as he was able to make time in his very busy schedule. Dorothy was glad to be alone, though she did wonder why they hadn’t brought the Lion to her room when he had been so insistent that he stayed with her, she hadn’t liked the Press Secretary very much despite the woman’s kind words and reassurances.

She shook her head to clear all of the thoughts out, she was tyring to relax herself enough to go to sleep but her eyes kept getting drawn back to the moonlit Emerald City. It seemed less cheerful and more secretive in the dark and she wondered what sort of secrets a city could have.

But then, thinking of all the things people back home say about cities I’m not sure I really want to know. If nothing else I’ve over the last day and a half or so that I really must be careful what I wish for and if this is ‘ over the rainbow’ I rather wish I had stayed home!

With a sigh she climbed into the soft, green sheeted and quilted, bed and thought back on the events that had led her here – to this City of Emeralds and this room of green, with hardly a friend in the entire world.