FIC: Contest (Ned/Chuck)

[shiiki]

Title: Contest
Author: shiiki
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Ned the Piemaker/Charlotte Charles (Chuck), Emerson Cod
Fandom: Pushing Daisies
Word Count: 601

Summary: With Olive gone, Chuck thinks Ned should get a new assistant. Ned disagrees. Written for sevenblades's prompt: Ned/Chuck, 'contest'.

Notes: Happy birthday, sevenblades!



'We should have a special event,' said Chuck, leaning against the counter and smiling brightly at Ned.

'A special event?'

'Yeah. Something like ... make-your-own-pie day! Think about it -- we get people to come in and try their hand at making pies. Just imagine all the new recipes they might come up with!'

'Why-' began Ned, but Chuck pressed on.

'We could make it a contest. Winner gets a month of pies on the house. Doesn't that sound appealing?'

Emerson looked at them over the top of the newspaper he was currently perusing. 'Why would anyone want free pies from the pie-hole if they could make pies on their own?'

'Wait, wait, wait!' Ned said. 'Why do we need to have people coming in and making pies with new recipes? What's wrong with the old ones?'

'It's always nice to have a change,' said Chuck. 'Besides, maybe somewhere in the crowd of pie-maker wannabes, we'll find your new pie-making assistant.'

Ned was rapidly becoming distressed by the way this conversation was heading. 'I don't need a new pie-making assistant. I'm still perfectly capable of making pies, and in fact I have a very capable pie-making assistant who is you and I'm not a big fan of change.'

'Well, we spend so much time helping Emerson and with Olive gone, we keep having to close the Pie-Hole. If you had another assistant, we wouldn't have to keep closing.'

'You could always stay with the Pie-Hole and leave the detective work to Emerson and me, since the touching dead people part isn't really something that you need to be there for, and I always feel better about you being safely here instead of out there with us.'

'I second that,' said Emerson. 'Well, except for that soppy bit at the end.' The idea of three-way splits still irked Emerson now and then.

'That's very sweet, Ned, but I think the real question is what do you have against a new assistant?'

'Nothing,' Ned said quickly. 'Nothing. I don't have a problem with new staff ... a new person we don't know, who won't know us, who might want to change the way we work. Why would I have a problem with that?'

'You sure sound like you do,' remarked Emerson.

'I have ... reasons for not wanting a new person in here. They probably wouldn't adjust.'

'But maybe they would. You don't know that. You can't judge people before you've even met them. And Olive leaving feels like my fault and I don't want it to be my fault too if the Pie-Hole goes out of business because it's always closed.'

'It's not your fault,' Ned said automatically.

'I know, but I still feel bad about it, in the sense that she lost because I won and that's why she's gone now.'

'You make it sound like a contest.'

'Isn't it?'

Ned sighed. 'We can have your pie-making-contest-event-thing.'

Chuck beamed.

'No promises about the assistant, though.'

'I know,' she said. 'I wish Olive would come back instead and I wouldn't have to lie to someone more than I lie to her. It would make me so happy to see her come through the door right now.'

Emerson laid his newspaper on the counter. 'Right now I'd be happy to see the daily rhubarb special on a plate right here. Never mind who brings it out.' He gave Chuck a pointed look. Once she was out of earshot, he raised an eyebrow at Ned.

Ned shrugged. 'It makes her happy.'

'You,' Emerson shook his head and folded up his head, 'are completely whipped.'