A/N: So... I was thinking about what I wanted my next short story to be when I stumbled across an instrumental cover of A Thousand Years by thepianoguys on the youtubers. On its own I never really liked the song. At all, AT. ALL. I know, I know, I'm dead to you... It's a twilight song, and it's supposed to be about marriage and blech, but lets face it, that's boring and dumb. So to heck with that... Their version of it spoke to me of an epic quest to find and fight for a love that spans both life and death and culminates in something so amazing, but ultimately bittersweet... and I got all sorts of emotional and swept up in the amazingness of their version of the song and thought up this story. I only hope I can do it justice.
So, without further ado...
"FUCK THAT AND FUCK. YOU.!"
Juno just stared back at her with something akin to sympathy in her eyes.
"I'm sorry kid, but you wasted your time. It's out of my hands. I really can't help you…"
"Can't or Won't, Juno?" Lydia narrowed her eyes. She wasn't about to take no for an answer. It had taken her seven years to get this far, to find a way to summon the misanthropic old caseworker without actually dying herself. Which is how both she and Juno found themselves standing face to face in a circle of red devil lye in the back room of an especially sketchy New Orleans Hoodoo shop.
Juno eyed the flask of Four Thieves Vinegar & Holy Water Lydia was white knuckling. Her expression was beyond determined, but if Juno was nervous she didn't give any indication. Finally after what Juno would later jot down in the file as the most intense staring contest in her life she sighed.
"Got a cigarette kid? I left mine on my desk for some reason." her tone was a little more than accusatory.
Lydia handed her a pack of Sobranie Mints and Juno's eyes lit up like a grad student who was told to go ahead and skip his thesis. "I haven't had one of these since I was alive…"
"There's a whole carton of them for you if you tell me what I need to know"
Juno took a drag on the long slim cigarette, savoring the taste before she exhaled out of the slit in her neck while she silently considered the waifish young woman. "Why go to all the trouble kid? What do you get out of this?"
"You know why I need to help him."
"Because he saved your life?"
"Because I love him."
Juno narrowed her eyes, bit her bottom lip and caved. "I guess that's something we have in common… Or did anyway. Tibet. You'll find what you're looking for in Tibet. That's all I can tell you, and you didn't hear it from me."
Surprising both herself & Juno, Lydia gathered up the dead bureaucrat into a hug, and in spite of herself, sobbed. "Thank you Juno. I'll never forget this."
"Yeah, yeah. Now let go. You're wrinkling my suit jacket. You got the rest of those cigarettes?" Lydia handed her the carton, and suddenly Juno looked twice her undead age to her.
"Good luck Deetz, you're gonna need it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a plane load of half frozen, half eaten rugby players to deal with. And thanks to you I missed the filing deadline for an interpreter."
Lydia looked at her with sheer and utter disbelief "You don't mean the plane that crashed in the Andes in the 70's? You're just getting to them now?!"
Juno gave her an incredulous look. "I'm a social worker. Of course I'm just getting to them now, no thanks to…"
Lydia cut her off "Hey! He once said your receptionist was from Argentina. I'll bet she can help with the language barrier." Juno was unamused.
"I'll take your suggestion under advisement. Now, unless there is anything else…?" She said gesturing towards the lye circle before ashing her cigarette on the floor.
Lydia looked down at her feet. "No, I guess there isn't, Thanks again Juno" And she wiped away some of the lye circle with the toe of her shoe.
The old case worker started to fade from sight and just before she was gone Lydia heard her whisper
"Tell him I said Hello."