Nightmare

A panicked whine pieced the silent night air and Elphaba shot awake in alarm. Even though she had been in a deep sleep mere seconds before, she would recognize that scream anywhere. It belonged to her roommate and best friend...

"Glinda!" Elphaba called out on reflex. She nearly fell out of her bed in her haste to figure out what was wrong. She ran over to Glinda's bedside and shook her awake. When Glinda's blue eyes finally shot open, she gave out another cry of terror. From her perspective, all she could see was a tall and dark figure, looming over her.

"No, no,! Stay away! Leave me alone! Leave her alone!" Glinda twisted away from Elphaba. Elphaba instantly let Glinda go and tried to make herself look smaller, raising her hands in surrender.

"Hey, hey! Glinda, Glinda! It's me! It's Elphaba Thropp!" she continued to try and soothe her roommate. It took a moment or two, but Elphaba was finally able to get through to her roommate and Glinda finally realized just who it was, looming over her bedside.

"Elphie!" Glinda cried in recognition and understanding, then she launched herself at Elphaba and hugged her tightly. "Oh! Elphie! It's you! Thank Oz, it's you!" she blubbered.

"Woah, woah, woah! Take it easy there, Glinda! What's going on? What happened?" Elphaba tried again to soothe her roommate. Unused to giving comfort, however, all she could do was awkwardly pat Glinda on the head as Glinda continued to babble and sob into her chest, still clinging to her like a drowning man to a rope. "Come on, Glinda, come on, pull yourself together!" she grunted uncomfortably. She felt bad about being so blunt with Glinda, but she wasn't sure what else she was supposed to be doing at a time like this. She wasn't used to being hugged either. "Do you want to talk about it?" she tried next. That finally seemed to work.

It still took a few seconds for Glinda to gain enough composure to speak coherently, but at last, the little blond was able to catch her breath and she shakily explained to her roommate what she had just witnessed.

"I just... I had... a nightmare," Glinda began, sounding almost ashamed of herself.

"And what happened in it?" Elphaba tried to speak as gently as possible. She carefully pushed Glinda back onto her bed and joined her at her side so that Glinda was no longer hanging halfway off the mattress, trying to hug her.

"You... well... you... died..." even though it was very dark in their dorm room, the moon being of no use this night, Elphaba could still see Glinda's face twist in pain at the memory of the incident.

"I died," Elphaba echoed softly, also slightly surprised by just who had starred in her bad dreams.

"I couldn't see who, or what, did it. It was just some shadowy figure," Glinda shook her head in anger and dismay. "I don't even remember where we were. It wasn't any place I had ever been in before! All I could remember was you, and me, and that shadow. That awful shadow!" Glinda's voice broke a little but she continued to speak. "It killed you. It threw some kind of spell or magic potion at you and you began to melt, right in front of me. Right before my very eyes. And you, you were screaming. You were in so much pain... But I couldn't do anything! I couldn't move! I couldn't speak! I could hardly even breathe! I was totally immobilized. I could only watch, I could only watch. And you were in so much pain, screaming, dying. You... and I couldn't... I don't know what I..."

Glinda broke off again, having re-upset herself. She did not start sobbing or screaming, but she buried her face in her hands and started to tremble, shoulders jerking in the darkness. Elphaba felt her heart twist in pain again. Although she had to admit that this was a very strange dream indeed, probably a result of Glinda pulling too many all-nighters in one week and whatever might've been in that punch that Fiyero had stashed in his dorm, none of that mattered at the moment. All that mattered was that Glinda was upset, and it was all because of Elphaba (in some sense).

"Hey, hey, it's not your fault. You did nothing," Elphaba tried, unfortunately, her gentle words only seemed to make the situation worse.

"But that's just it!" Glinda wailed, voice raising for the first time that night. "I didn't do anything! I only watched! I didn't... I couldn't... I couldn't save you!" Glinda began to run her hands through her golden girls, hyperventilating. Elphaba could only watch hopelessly. It seemed that no matter what she said, that only upset Glinda more, but she couldn't just leave Glinda to suffer like this... Wait a minute!

An idea suddenly came to Elphaba and she slowly began to get up from Glinda's bed.

"No!" Glinda shrilled again. "Don't leave me! Please, don't leave me!" Glinda had never sounded so lost and lonely before and Elphaba touched her cheek gently to reassure her.

"Don't worry," the green girl promised softly. "I'm not going far. Just let me get something from my bed. Ok?" Elphaba tried to get up again, but Glinda had since grabbed her hand and refused to let go. Elphaba smiled sadly at her roommate through the darkness before sighing affectionately. "Oh, come here, you little idiot," she murmured gently. "Help me with our beds..." and she held onto Glinda tightly as they stood up together.

A few minutes later, Elphaba and Glinda were nestled side by side in the pink and black double bed that they had made.

"Oh, thank you Elphie! I feel so much better now!" Glinda sighed happily, sounding a lot more like her old self again. She snuggled closer to Elphaba. She was still a bit shaken up by that awful nightmare, but she was already starting to feel better with Elphaba so close to her.

"Of course," Elphaba replied, still slightly uncomfortable with how snuggly Glinda was getting, but she pushed aside her discomfort and reminded herself that this was Glinda, here. Glinda didn't mind sharing a bed. Glinda wasn't freaked out or bothered at all by it. Instead, she moved closer to Glinda as well until their sides were pressed together and right before the two of them both slipped back into the dreamworld, Elphaba sleepily whispered one last thing to the warm body beside her.

"Don't worry, Glinda, nothing like that awful nightmare will ever really happen, and I will never ever leave you..."

AN: Cliché as this is, this was my very 1st Wicked fic. You can choose to see Elphaba and Glinda as romantic or platonic here, I don't care. Either works. I'll be mass-posting as many Wicked fics as I can now, in honor of the fact that this month is the month in which this musical came out, 15 years ago.