"I had the strangest dream last night," said Chuck, coming into the kitchen of the Pie Hole.

"Most dreams are strange," said Ned, looking up from the pie he was putting the finishing touches to. "You can never run, you can never call out, you can never escape."

"Oh, but this dream was strange because it was…," Chuck cocked her head to the side and searched for the right word, "well… real."

Ned raised his eyebrows – those adorable eyebrows that always made Chuck grin and get fuzzy feelings all over.

"Oh!" Ned was slightly afraid at the way this was going. "Well, what happened?"

"Well," said Chuck, watching Ned resume his work on the pie, "I dreamt that you came back to Coeur d'Coeur before I died… before I decided to take a fun adventure on the high seas which ultimately resulted in my murder…"

"You're bunny trailing."

"Right. Sorry. Anyway, you came back. You looked for me, because you never forgot that I was your first kiss—"

"My first love."

"Aw. Was I? Thanks." She grinned. "So, we hung out for a while. Dated, kissed, touched… all that. But at the end of it, you left Coeur d'Coeur to return to the Pie Hole, and I went on staying with Aunt Lily and Aunt Vivian."

Ned looked up. "Wow, that sounds like… an alternative reality… A parallel universe that got suppressed and destroyed when you decided to take the travel agent's offer on a once-in-a-lifetime trip."

"I know!" exclaimed Chuck. "But then it got me thinking…"

"Oh dear," muttered Ned, picking up the pie and walking towards the oven.

Chuck continued, either not having heard Ned or having chosen to ignore him: "'What if you and I are only really together because: one, you're subconsciously afraid of letting me go because you'll feel bad? You know… you brought me back and now you abandon me. And two, because I'm subconsciously eternally grateful for you bringing me back – because I am! – and therefore can never leave you.'"

"But I don't feel that way," insisted Ned, putting the pie into the oven. "I mean, I don't particularly enjoy searching the depths of my subconscious because of the sticky, old, painful revelations you might find there, but I do think that I know myself very well. No, Chuck…" He stepped forward towards her. "I—"

Chuck interrupted with a sudden revelation, "Or are you afraid because you equate abandonment or breakups to your father and you don't ever want to be associated with him that way… ever?"

As soon as those words left her mouth, and as soon as she saw the expression on Ned's face, she knew that they had been a mistake.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I ought to put my foot in it sometimes."

There was that tightness in Ned's voice: "No, I don't think of it that way… I tend not to think of my father. In fact, I did not give him one thought until the day Maurice and Ralston were brought back into my life." He looked away. Chuck saw him swallow – hard.

"I have broken up with girls before. It's not something I enjoy doing and it's something I don't ever want to have to go through with you…" He looked back. "Ever," he finished, earnestly.

Chuck felt a warmth spread through her entire soul. Ned felt such relief for speaking the inner contents of his soul to her that he continued:

"From the day my mother died…" He swallowed again. Chuck thought she saw him blink away tears.

"You showed me," Ned said finally, "that not all deaths are a tragedy."

No, thought Chuck. It brought you to me.

That was when Emerson came into the kitchen. By the look on Ned and Chuck's faces, he could tell that he'd walked into a private moment – again.

"Come on, you two," he snapped. They jumped. "We've got work to do."

A/N: Okay, so this grew out of my thoughts on how Pushing Daisies could have ended - properly. I'm secretly trying to catch Bryan Fuller's attention -waves-. Please review... If enough people review, I'll write a second chapter.