At 5:47 on Sunday morning, Dorothy receives a text. It’s from Ambassador Crowe, sent to three people. Herself, Nick Chopper, and Richard Lionel. It simply says ‘We’re off to see the Wizard.’

Despite it being her day off, she’s instantly awake. No one has been to Oz in decades. It’s not fucking allowed. By the

United States or Oz. Not to mention the impassable desert.

She’s positive she’s dreaming and just sits in her bed, sheets pooled around her waist and phone clenched against her pounding heart. It can’t be true. If it is, it’s a dream come true.

At 6:02 a second text arrives ‘Wear green?’

Obviously not a dream.

Dorothy hastily types a reply, her fingers flying over the keys ‘Green is the royal color. Its a MFing MONARCHY. NO GREEN.’

Her phone promptly rings. It’s Nick.

“Gale, you did you focus on Oz right?” It’s a silly question. Nick knows that’s what her focus was, he’s just being polite.

“Yes sir,” and she’s polite back because it’s Nick. But she can’t help but ask, “Why are we going to Oz? How are we going to Oz? What happened?!”

“Calm down Gale!” Nick chides. “Give me a second to find out. I just wanted to make sure of my sources, before questioning the boss.” His voice suddenly becomes muffled. She can’t make out his words as he talks to someone unseen. Hopefully he’s talking to his housekeeper. She really hopes it’s not –

Suddenly he’s back. “Alright, officially, Oz is reconsidering it’s isolation policy. Unofficially, apparently the Wizard’s daughter is approaching adulthood. While not actually stated anywhere, he wants to find a husband for the Princess. Now give me basic stats on Oz. We have to start on a game plan.”

Dorothy blinks. She pulls the phone from her ear to stare at it, boggling at the events of the morning. Her brain spins as she tries to sort out the important facts from Oz’s history. Shoving the phone back against her ear, she asks the first question that springs to mind. “Do you have the Ambassador on another line?” Crap. Did that just come out of her mouth?  

“What? No…” Nick sputters.

“Yes, of course I’m on the other line, Dorothy!” comes an amused, muffled shout from Nick’s side of the phone.

“Oh good. Cause there are just some things that I don’t want to know about at six in the morning on my day off.” Holy CRAP. She obviously shouldn’t be opening her mouth this morning. Nick could have her career on the chopping block with a snap of his fingers. But Richard definitely owes her that spa day, the bosses are totally sleeping together.

Nick makes that squeaking sound that means his teeth are grinding together.

There’s some distant laughter, a thump, and the Ambassador shouts again, “Of course Dorothy! And you were saying about Oz…”

“Right, Oz.” She settles back. “Historically a monarchy passed through the women. About a hundred and ten years ago, the monarch disappeared, leaving the Wizard in power. At the same time, Oz cut off relatively all contact with the outside world. We don’t know much of what’s been happening inside since then. At the rise of the Wizard, it produced 16% of the world’s food supply! With it’s policy of isolation, it caused a rapid crash in most markets. Especially what with WWI happening not soon after. What the hell… they want to come back to the world market? They were on the silver standard a hundred and ten years ago. The world is on gold standard these days… how is that going to work? And geez… daughter?... marriage?”

“Security risks?” Nick asks. She tries to ignore the Ambassador’s pencil scratching as he takes notes.

“Uh, natural disasters? It’s surrounded by desert. And prone to hurricane force winds. Which is bizarre. Politically… well Richard, will probably have a heart attack. There was a strong populist movement, and a few uprisings. With no new info… well…” She trails off.

Nick groans. “Richard will have a heart attack. And forbid the Ambassador from going.”

“Hey!” And the Ambassador isn’t even trying to pretend.

“You got set on fire.” Nick hisses. “He’s worried…We’re worried, so sue us!”

“Don’t tempt me!”

Dorothy rubs the heel of her palm into her eye. It is too early for the headache that’s looming. Toto lifts his head and starts whining. She eyeballs him, and he yips. Yep, he knows she’s up and is now ready to go out.

“Sir, Toto needs walking,” she interrupts the familiar bickering. “I need coffee.”

“Okay,” Ambassador Crowe orders. “Nick, coordinate transportation. Dorothy, get me a full report on last known conditions, ASAP. Richard… ha. Someone should be able to sleep this weekend, might as well be him. We’ll hang up now, reconvene on Monday.”

“Yes sir,” Dorothy agrees, already trying to remember where she stashed her volumes of Oz history.

“Sounds good,” Nick agrees and hangs up.

Dorothy sits in shock, until Toto becomes insistent. “We’re off to see the Wizard,” she giggles at him as they walk out the door.