Author's Note: Finally, a Pushing Daisies fan fic, expect more. Enjoy.
What Olive Knows
Chuck woke up to find Ned pretending not to have been watching her sleep again. They shared a knowing good morning smile. "Ned."
"Yeah?"
Before speaking she setup and slid her legs over the edge. "First off, I want to thank you so much for letting be alive to Lily and Vivian. So while we're on this secret telling spree, don't you think there's someone else who deserves to be told the truth?"
"Who?"
"Olive."
A pained expression on his face, he replied. "I do trust her, but... It may seem rediculous, especially because it's been disproven, but I still have a fear or torches and pitchforks. At the very thought of telling my secret my safety goes into panic mode, and that nightmare of being slowly picked away comes to mind."
"Now come on, you know that's all groundless. The world in General is much more accepting of oddity than any group of kids. Besides, it's not like Olive's going to tell anyone."
"I still don't think its a good idea." The debate on this point continued throughout their morning preparations.
"We owe this to her. She's been kept out of the loop and remained as loyal as ever, not o mention the fact that she's kept secrets that she didn't even understand." At the back entrance to the Pie Hole argument came to a sudden and unexpected end. "We have to tell her."
"Tell me what?" Olive asked, assuming the identity of 'she', as she began setting up the already made pies.
"Oh. Good morning, Olive." Ned awkwardly tried to deflect.
"Well?" Ned looked anxiously for aid to Chuck, who in response presented him with a 'well, now you have to tell her' look. His shoulders sagged in defeat.
"Ok, Olive, sit down."
"This is going to be good. I can tell!" Olive said to Chuck, who was joining her at the counter seats.
from somewhere in the kitchen ned brought out a bowl of rotten strawberries. "Now watch closely."
"You got my full attention." ned picked up a particularly rotten strawberry and held it up in full view, as it transformed in his grip int the height of ripeness. After watching this, the majority of the blood abandoned Olive's head.
"Olive. Olive, are you ok?" Chuck's voice was the first thing she heard as she return to conscienceness.
"Yeah, yeah. Perfect, absolutely fine." She assured, reseating herself. "Weren't all those moldy a minute ago? Did I really just see what I thought I did?"
"If you saw Ned undeading a strawberry, then yes you did."
"What? How?"
Retouching the bowl of fruit he said, "It's kinda hard to explain." He emptied the bowl of again rotting fruit into the trash. "It's like... like... I have no idea what its like." He gave a desperate glance for help to Chuck, who took over.
"do you remember when you asked me o tell you the truth about my death?" Olive nodded. "And I said. 'I died. And Ned brought me back.' You didn't believe me, but that's exactly what happened."
"I'm still confused."
"I've got it. It's like the story of King Midas. I touch something that's dead and it comes back to life, so long as I don't ouch it again. But like Midas' touch it has a catch, if the dead thing stays alive for more a minute something edge has to die in its place." An informational overload occurred in Olive's brain which resulted in a coma like state. Over time, particularly recently, mysterious information had compiled in Olive's mind like pieces of a puzzle. Her current state, along with this new information, provided everything she needed to put all the pieces together. The puzzle completed she left the depths of her mind. "Olive?"
"Yeah. I got it, I get everything now: Chuck's non-faked death; your not touching thing, which must mean Digby died; the dead fruit in the back; why you don't eat meat, or your pies; your partnership with Emerson, which is really cool by the way..." As Olive continued on the list of things that now made sense to her; the conversation of Ned and Chuck's secret was being overheard by another's ar, thanks to the effective sound conductivity of pipes.