Dorothy sat down on the stairs in the palace, head in hands on knees. She had no idea where she was. None whatsoever. She tried to keep calm, but she felt the tears coming. SHE-WOULD-NOT-BREAK-DOWN-AGAIN-TODA- oh, what's the use? She was tired, she was homesick, and she was lost. That had to entitle her to a good cry or two... or five.

Thank goodness there was no one around; everybody already saw her as the homesick little girl, and this certainly wouldn't help anything. She desperately wanted to be of use to somebody, but how could she? She wasn't strong, and while she was a bit smart, she had never been a big fan of politics, even back in the real world.

Just as she was working herself up to the really cathartic part of her sobs, she heard someone coming up the stairs. She jumped up, startled. Quickly she wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve and straightened out her skirt. She must look horrible, enough to make Auntie Em turn bright red, but she couldn't help it. Taking a deep breath, she called, "Hello?" Her voice cracked, and the sound barely reached the wall she was standing next to. She cleared her throat and called again, "Hello?

A wave of relief flooded over Dorothy as she heard the voice. It was a friend, it was someone who had seen her when she was a lot worse, it was the Scarecrow. She quietly sighed a breath of relief, glad to see a friendly face rather than a Gale Forcer or even Ozma, at this point. The "little girl" was so much stronger than she was...

There had actually been a time when she had thought that he was her friend from the real world, a farmhand. She looked at his straw body. No, there was no reason for him to be anything but a scarecrow. Her dreams were always strange, and she had learned not to rationalize them.

Of course, seeing him just brought back all her memories of that time when she was much worse. Back then, she had felt trapped, and the tasks set in front of her had seemed too big for her to tackle. There seemed to be bad things, evil things everywhere, and she couldn't hide. But then she had gone home- or was that a dream, too? She didn't know anymore.

She smiled, which must have looked odd with the tear lines streaming down her face, and moved to hug him. "Scarecrow! Boy, am I glad to see you here!"

Dorothy smiled at her two friends, but then it struck her as odd that they two of them were here. She had never really seen them as Emerald City people- they always seemed like counttry people, like her, so she blurted out, "What are you two doing here?"

Probably not the best way to say it, but it was said, and so she had to deal with it. She looked away, avoiding their eyes, in case they were angry. Dorothy hated conflict, and she was a master at avoiding it.