Title: "Back to Oz"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Dorothy finally gets to return home.
Warnings: Het, Character Death
Word Count: 1,594
Date Written: 5 October, 2011
Challenge: For a DiteysBlessings LJ comm's monthly challenge
Disclaimer: Scarecrow, Dorothy, Toto, Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, all other characters mentioned within, and The Wizard of Oz are ﾩ & TM their rightful owners, none of whom are the author. Everything else is ﾩ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

She was grateful to him most of all even in this, her greatest hour of need. She was grateful to him for being her friend in a land and place where she'd had none. She was thankful to him for giving her courage and helping her to be brave enough to achieve what they had all thought at the time to be their dreams. She was grateful to him for believing in her and helping her to believe and thankful to him that he had stood by her through the end and always understood. Most of all, she was grateful to him for loving her and teaching her what it meant to truly be loved.

Dorothy silenced the sob building in her throat and turned her face against her pillow. Silent tears streaked down her aging cheeks as she remembered him. The rest of her life after leaving her beloved Scarecrow had been spent in a blur amidst doctors poking and prodding her brain, body, and spirit, but none of them could reach her heart. No one had entered her heart since she'd returned to Kansas and found that her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry cared no more for her upon her return than they had when she'd left.

Her dry lips twisted into a wry and grim expression. It had all been a trick by the Witch. The Wicked Witch of the West had gained the upper hand even after she'd killed her. She had been the one to show her her Auntie Em so desperately calling for her when, in truth, they had acted as though she'd not been gone for long at all. They hadn't cared for her, and they'd thought her wonderful adventures to be lies. They thought she made up the truths to which her heart clung, but Dorothy knew the truth.

She had not invented Oz. She had not imagined her beloved Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, or any of the other wonderful or frightening beings she had encountered in their world. It had not been a dream. It had been a reality far dearer and greater than this world in which she was stuck would ever be, and no amount of doctoring, or pleading from her folks, would convince her otherwise. No medicine could strip away her memories.

She would never forget, and she would never stop longing to return to the wonderful land of Oz and all those who awaited her within the city's emerald gates and along the yellow brick road. Coming back home had been the worst mistake she'd ever made, but no matter what they did to her, they could never make her forget. It was because of her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry that she was here now, laying alone in this hospital bed, and it was because of them that she would die here soon.

She knew her time was at hand, but she would never have thought it would have come this way or so soon. She'd heard the nurses murmuring when they thought she couldn't hear them. They spoke of dying from a broken heart, and she wanted to shout at them again that yes, she was dying from a broken heart, a heart and soul shattered by being kept away from those she loved and who truly loved her in return, not her Uncle Henry and Auntie Em but all those wonderful and lovely beings they told her couldn't exist but who she knew did.

She wouldn't do that again, though. She wouldn't argue with the nurses and doctors any more. Her body was spent and broken from their attempts to quiet her. Even her very soul was damaged from the countless shocks they'd given her, but still her heart lived on for now. It would never be quieted, nor its love for her Scarecrow, their friends, and their land dimmed. They wouldn't still away her memories; they wouldn't stop her love, no matter what they did to her.

Dorothy let her tear-filled, blue eyes drift shut. She was so weary of being alone. It exhausted her heart and soul even more than all the contraptions and shocks the doctors forced her through. She had been alone for so long now, and she no longer even had Toto. Just as she was doing now, he had died of a broken heart when her Auntie Em had locked her away in the asylum until she could get well.

It had been Uncle Henry who'd told her with a solemn heart, heavy soul, and down trodden eyes that her little dog was passing away. She'd begged him to let her out, to let her go to him, but her Auntie Em had forbade her to leave the asylum for even a few hours and her Uncle had never gone against her Aunt. He had been the one to tell her on their next visit that Toto had died and he'd buried him where they had found her after the twister.

Dorothy had not spoken to him since and had barely spared her heartless aunt a passing word, as well. They had finally stopped coming to see her, but even after they'd stopped coming, Dorothy had continued to be kept behind the proverbial bars of her room, tortured by the doctors and screamed at, beaten, and shocked for believing in what she knew to be true. She'd never forget Oz or any of those she'd met there, but she longed to forget her blood family.

With her eyes closed now, Dorothy could almost imagine hearing Toto's soft panting again. She reached out and touched the place on the hospital bed where he would have lain had they still been in her old bed back on the farm. Her fingers tingled. The bed was warm, but yet there was no one there when she opened her eyes to look. She closed her eyes again and trembled inside as she felt his little, pink tongue licking her fingers. Despite the sensations, her body was growing cold.

She clung to his memory and to that of the Scarecrow and their friends, the Cowardly Lion and Tin Man, as her mind began to drift. The Lion roared as he slipped from her mind. The Tin Man cried, and she could see him no more. Toto yipped, chasing his tail as he ran ahead of them down the yellow brick road. He looked back and yipped again for her to follow him, and then, he too, disappeared.

Tears sped more quickly down Dorothy's chilling cheeks. She felt the Scarecrow embrace her and trembled as he wiped away her tears. "It's okay," he whispered in her ear, and his smooth and caring voice sent more shivers sweeping through her. He stroked her long, brown hair. "It's going to be okay," he promised her, and her heart warmed for the first time since she had left him. "You'll see us soon." He kissed her forehead, but as he moved away, Dorothy grasped him to her, leaned up, and pressed her lips to his straw mouth.

If she had ever thought about kissing a Scarecrow before meeting him, she would have thought that the straw would make the kiss taste stiff, stuffy, and dark. Yet the sensations that swept through her body as she kissed him were unlike anything she'd ever experienced before. Invisible fire sprang from his lips to pass through hers and fill every inch of her body, even making the ends of her hair and the tips of her toes curl. He caressed her and slowly pulled away. "It's okay," he promised her again. "You'll see us soon."

Dorothy breathed her last that night, and the last image on her mind was her beloved Scarecrow's handsome face smiling reassuringly to her as he slowly faded away. The very first thing she saw when she reopened her eyes after death, however, was his smiling face. There were tears in his beady eyes despite his smile. "Welcome home, Dorothy," he whispered chokingly to her and then threw his flimsy arms around her in the biggest hug she'd ever felt.

Joyous yipping pierced the air, and they turned together to see Toto racing down the yellow brick lane, barking at the top of his lungs. The Lion chased behind him on all fours, and the Tin Man came next, smiling broadly despite the tears shining in his dark eyes as well. Toto jumped into Dorothy's waiting arms, and she hugged him tightly before being tackled by the Lion. Her laughter filled the air, and it was contagious, bringing the others to laugh as well as they covered her in hugs. When the hugs finally paused, she found herself again in her beloved Scarecrow's waiting and reassuring arms, and they kissed once more, this time for the first time in reality.

Dorothy's heart and soul warmed, but even as her spirits sang far more brightly and vibrantly than ever before, her cold body was being covered back home. She had truly died, but in dying, she had finally gotten her fondest wish made true. She had finally returned to her true home. She had finally made it back to Over the Rainbow for, you see, Heaven is different for every one. It's being with the beings and in the place that makes us the happiest and, for Dorothy and her family, the Scarecrow, Lion, Tin Man, and little Toto, it is Oz, and it is there that Dorothy's soul still sings, happily and in love, to this day.

The End