A/N: So, the italics are The Narrator talking. I think that's all we need to know for now....
It had been one day, six hours, forty-two minutes and thirty-four seconds since the Piemaker had spied Olive Snook and Randy Mann holding hands and looking deep into each other's eyes. Although he had turned away from the cozy couple in their little booth, Ned had not been fast enough to evade the sinking feeling in his chest, a feeling that he had correctly identified as jealousy. He found this odd, for he was not a jealous person.
"I'm not a jealous person," Ned said, his arms crossed on the table in front of him defensively.
"Sounds like you are." Emerson took a heaping forkful of pie and jabbed it towards Ned to emphasize his point. "Is this fruit alive for real, or are you back to zombie-pies?"
"It's alive again."
He hmmmed noncommittally as he took another bite.
Ned propped his head up on one fist. "That's really not the issue here. What am I supposed to do? I mean, should I act on these feelings? Or were my feelings just a good-friend-caring-about-the-well-being-of-another-good-friend sort of thing? Nothing romantic at all?"
Pushing his slice of rhubarb crunch to the side, Emerson leaned back. "You know what you could do about this?"
"What?"
"You can act like the adult you are and just ask Olive what was going on yesterday."
Ned sat up abruptly. "I can't do that! Not after our cliff-hanging incident!"
"Jeez, so much is off-limits with you," Emerson grumbled. "Hey, Olive!" he yelled towards the kitchen, her casual showtune cutting short. "Can you come here for a second?"
"Are you trying to make my life complicated?" Ned demanded.
Olive twirled out of the kitchen, her bright pink apron covered in flour. "What's up, guys? Ooh!" She flounced down next to Ned, bouncing in excitement. "Is there another mystery I can help you guys investigate? I still have all of our matching raincoats!" she trilled. "I even had one made for Chuck. It has bees on it!"
"There's no investigation right now, Itty Bitty, sorry," Emerson said, then gave Ned a very pointed look. "But, Ned, wasn't there something you wanted to mention to Olive?"
Although the piemaker wanted very much to resolve his jealousy, the sinking feeling in his chest was quickly becoming replaced with anxiety. Part of it was anxiety over hurting Charlotte Charles, but another part of it was about Olive's answer. And Ned was not ready to face that.
"It's nothing, Olive," Ned said, smiling faintly.
Olive sighed, but tried to smile back. "Oh, okay."
A shrill timer alerted her to her work in the kitchen. "My pies are done!" she chirped, and bounced up off the seat just as quickly as she had appeared.
Emerson pulled his pie back in front of him. "Chicken," he teased.
Ned glared at him, and then stood up from the booth. "Enjoy your pie," he said, reaching over to lightly retouch the slice of rhubarb crunch. With a light spark, the rhubarb darkened and wilted, back to dead once more.
"That was so uncalled for!" Emerson yelled as Ned walked back into the kitchen.
A/N: Whoo first fanfic! I might continue this after the next episode airs, but it'll most likely be a one-shot. Like, 90% chance of being a one-shot.
