The Write Words Again
Fandom: Pushing Daisies
Pairing: Ned/Chuck
Summary: Chuck reads Ned’s side of the story. Takes place after “Corpsicle.” Sequel to “The Write Words”
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I only own these characters in my thoroughly romantic, yet twisted imagination
It had been two days, 10 hours and 32 minutes since the Piemaker and a girl named Chuck left the cemetery. In that time, they had talked little and made eye contact even less.
If they could have held hands, hugged each other and maybe even made love, they might have been able to slip back into each other’s lives more easily. To gulf the chasm that was her grief. But the healing that often comes from physical contact, what Chuck liked to call an emotional Heimlich, wasn’t even an option for them.
Chuck hadn’t returned to the Pie Hole since the night Ned told her the truth about her father’s death. Being that close to Ned, going back to the routine they’d established since he’d brought her back to life, well, something about it didn’t feel quite right. Yet.
While Ned worked, Chuck wandered around the small apartment they shared, watching old movies on TV, reading books and staring out the window. And with each hour, she felt the shock of Ned’s revelation recede a tiny bit more.
Today she picked an especially juicy book, “Courtship Rituals of Medieval Times,” and lay on the couch with a wooden spoon covered in chocolate chip cookie dough. A piece of unmarked paper fluttered out of the book as she opened it. (She had purchased it at a used bookstore and it’s amazing what you can find in someone’s hand-me-downs, but this was only a slip of paper and nothing else). So she threw it in the trash basket and that’s when she noticed another crumpled piece of paper already in there.
If Chuck’s aunts had been the type to share things with her, she might not have been such a snoop. But they rarely told her about the interesting things going on and Lily seemed especially tight-lipped about so much that Chuck wanted to know.
So Chuck didn’t even think twice about picking the paper out of the trash and smoothing out its wrinkles. Then she gasped - it was a letter from Ned to her. Why had he thrown it away? The only logical answer was that it he didn’t want her to see it and the only way to find out why was to read it anyway.
Her eyes took in Ned’s explanation of what happened the day her life had changed forever. How he had cried that night over losing his mom and killing her dad. But his words didn’t really sink in until she got to, “I was only 9 years old and already a murderer. Dad was right to send me away and never look at me again.”
Charlotte Charles’ heart finally opened to the fact that she wasn’t the only one in pain. She pictured her childhood friend, who suddenly had an inexplicable power that must have seemed too heavy a burden for a 9-year-old. How confused and frightened he must have been. Tension in her shoulders that she didn’t even realize she had began melting away as tears made narrow tracks down her cheeks. She kept reading.
“That’s why I never came back to see you. I thought if I stayed away, you would be safer. At least, safe from me.
“When I touched you in the funeral parlor, I thought that somehow fate had come up with a way for me to make it up to you. But as we spent more time together, I realized you were becoming my reason for getting up in the morning, for living each day-and I couldn’t lie to you anymore. I could only hope you wouldn’t hate me-“
All those years she wondered why he hadn’t come back to see her. It wasn’t that he didn’t care for her - it’s that he cared too much. And still did. In that moment, she knew that she cared too. Deeply. And she missed him, especially how he looked at her longingly, showing how much he loved her with just a glance… her lover in every way except physical.
Suddenly she needed to be near him again, to let him know that her grief was something they shared. Wiping away her tears, she decided to walk into the Pie Hole with a big smile just for him and end the ill-fitting stalemate between them.
Before leaving, she carefully folded his letter and slipped it in the drawer of her nightstand. In a way, it was a little piece of him - a piece that she could touch, again and again.
Pairing: Ned/Chuck
Summary: Chuck reads Ned’s side of the story. Takes place after “Corpsicle.” Sequel to “The Write Words”
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I only own these characters in my thoroughly romantic, yet twisted imagination
It had been two days, 10 hours and 32 minutes since the Piemaker and a girl named Chuck left the cemetery. In that time, they had talked little and made eye contact even less.
If they could have held hands, hugged each other and maybe even made love, they might have been able to slip back into each other’s lives more easily. To gulf the chasm that was her grief. But the healing that often comes from physical contact, what Chuck liked to call an emotional Heimlich, wasn’t even an option for them.
Chuck hadn’t returned to the Pie Hole since the night Ned told her the truth about her father’s death. Being that close to Ned, going back to the routine they’d established since he’d brought her back to life, well, something about it didn’t feel quite right. Yet.
While Ned worked, Chuck wandered around the small apartment they shared, watching old movies on TV, reading books and staring out the window. And with each hour, she felt the shock of Ned’s revelation recede a tiny bit more.
Today she picked an especially juicy book, “Courtship Rituals of Medieval Times,” and lay on the couch with a wooden spoon covered in chocolate chip cookie dough. A piece of unmarked paper fluttered out of the book as she opened it. (She had purchased it at a used bookstore and it’s amazing what you can find in someone’s hand-me-downs, but this was only a slip of paper and nothing else). So she threw it in the trash basket and that’s when she noticed another crumpled piece of paper already in there.
If Chuck’s aunts had been the type to share things with her, she might not have been such a snoop. But they rarely told her about the interesting things going on and Lily seemed especially tight-lipped about so much that Chuck wanted to know.
So Chuck didn’t even think twice about picking the paper out of the trash and smoothing out its wrinkles. Then she gasped - it was a letter from Ned to her. Why had he thrown it away? The only logical answer was that it he didn’t want her to see it and the only way to find out why was to read it anyway.
Her eyes took in Ned’s explanation of what happened the day her life had changed forever. How he had cried that night over losing his mom and killing her dad. But his words didn’t really sink in until she got to, “I was only 9 years old and already a murderer. Dad was right to send me away and never look at me again.”
Charlotte Charles’ heart finally opened to the fact that she wasn’t the only one in pain. She pictured her childhood friend, who suddenly had an inexplicable power that must have seemed too heavy a burden for a 9-year-old. How confused and frightened he must have been. Tension in her shoulders that she didn’t even realize she had began melting away as tears made narrow tracks down her cheeks. She kept reading.
“That’s why I never came back to see you. I thought if I stayed away, you would be safer. At least, safe from me.
“When I touched you in the funeral parlor, I thought that somehow fate had come up with a way for me to make it up to you. But as we spent more time together, I realized you were becoming my reason for getting up in the morning, for living each day-and I couldn’t lie to you anymore. I could only hope you wouldn’t hate me-“
All those years she wondered why he hadn’t come back to see her. It wasn’t that he didn’t care for her - it’s that he cared too much. And still did. In that moment, she knew that she cared too. Deeply. And she missed him, especially how he looked at her longingly, showing how much he loved her with just a glance… her lover in every way except physical.
Suddenly she needed to be near him again, to let him know that her grief was something they shared. Wiping away her tears, she decided to walk into the Pie Hole with a big smile just for him and end the ill-fitting stalemate between them.
Before leaving, she carefully folded his letter and slipped it in the drawer of her nightstand. In a way, it was a little piece of him - a piece that she could touch, again and again.