Sorry If this chapter is a bit unpolished but I wanted to get it out there so people didn't think that this was just a one shot. There will be more Fred and Lizzie soon I promise, I've just been muddling about in plot ideas. Also, it will get better, so don't be bored yet.
Lizzie was awoken by a knock on her door. She rubbed the feeling back into her cheek and looking into a mirror, she smoothed her hair and tried to rub out the imprint of the pile on her face.
"Just a minute, I'm coming." She called through the door and put on a dressing gown. Who could be visiting at, … she checked the clock in the hall, oh no, it was 10.45 already. She opened the door to reveal Mickey and standing next to him was his daughter Natalie. She smiled shyly at her
"Hey." Mickey smiled. "Oh, sorry, did we wake you?" He took in the dressing gown.
"Um, no..., Oh this. I spilled something on my dress and was going to change this."
"Oh OK, I'm here to drop off Natalie. You are still free to baby sit?" Natalie frowned at the term, she most likely considered herself far too old for the phrase. Lizzie had completely forgotten that she had offered to babysit the following Monday, the last time she had seen them, the babysitter had walked out and had promptly had been strung up.
"Um, yeah, fine, come in." She tried to disguise any surprise she might have close to revealing. Mickey knelt and straightened Natalie's his daughter's jacket.
"Thanks. So, Natalie remember what I said. This is very good of Elizabeth and you can't act like you usually do with your nannies. Agreed?"
"But she said she believes in him and I can't exactly control him." She blanched under his look.
"Yes, daddy." Mickey left after many hugs and repetitions of his thanks. He walked out of the door and down the hall. Lizzie closed it behind him. She glanced for a moment at the young blonde girl who was nervously slapping at thin air. Lizzie had an idea.
"Ok Natalie, why don't you go and sit on the sofa while I put something else on?" She changed as quickly as she was able, hoping that she wouldn't find any chaos juts yet. There was a crash from the living room. Oh well, it was only karmic retribution after all. Considering all the trouble she must have been. With good reason. She rushed in to see a pile of broken glass.
"I didn't do it, I swear." Lizzie was relieved to find that it was only one of Charles' so called pieces of art. It was an ugly eyesore. Just another of the things she had had to put up with in that marriage. Natalie looked at her with fear in her eyes. Clearly this was when she expected to be sharply told off. Lizzie smiled.
"Oh don't worry about that, it was my husband's but if you are going to let him run rampant please try and avoid anything that isn't tacky artwork."
"What you aren't going to yell at me?"
"Why? I know you didn't do it and besides I hated that thing. Now, this is going to sound odd but could I ask Drop Dead Fred a few questions?"
Natalie liked this new friend of her father's. She did not punish her and force her to eat yucky vegetables the colour of something that came out of your nose. And she believed in HIM. Lizzie had sat her down on the sofa."
"Ugh, talking is boring, it's for grownups, I want to smash something else." Fred was eyeing up the goldfish tank. "What do you think would happen if I put food dye in here? I disappearance and reappeared in the kitchen and started rifling through the drawers. "There has to be some here3."
"Natalie look at me." Lizzie followed her eye line."Fred stop that." He spun around at the sound of his name.
"Oi, tell tale, stop looking at me; you're telling her where I am."
"Listen, this is very important. Can you ask Fred something for me?"
"He can hear you."
"Oh right, well I can't see him so could you tell me what his answers are?"
"Yes." She ignored the signs Fred was making at her. Natalie couldn't imagine what it would be like to not see Fred when he was right there with you...
"Good, this is ridiculous... Fred do you remember me?" She looked around the room. Fred jumped onto the sofa.
"Tell her to stop that, she's not supposed to know I'm here." Natalie bit her lip.
"He says that you're not supposed to know about him." Lizzie sighed and muttered about his stubbornness.
"Yes, I know there are probably some sort of rules against this sort of thing" She gave a sly grin. "but I thought that Fred was above rules."
"Ah, good point." was all Fred could say.
"Fred, do you know who I am " She persisted. Fred was trying not to look at her.
"Yes." He muttered. "I managed to hang on to those memories."
"Yes, he says."
"Good, can he prove it, can he tell you his nickname for me and why he went away from me for so many years?"
"Hey, I really don't think that this is a good idea." Fred looked distinctly uncomfortable. Natalie turned to him.
"But what if she misses you? I would." Fred ran his hands through his hair.
"Just tell her to ask them quickly, they could be listening in."
"He says ask quickly."
"And tell her snotface is an idiot and it was the jack in the box by the megabeast." She shrugged.
"Snotface is an idiot and the jack in the box by the megabeast." Lizzie's face brightened noticeably. Fred reached out as if to touch her face but remembered himself and pulled back.
"That's right This is amazing. Um, concentrate, this is important. I need to know if Fred was really in my dream last night." At the mention of dreams Fred jumped to his feet, nervously fidgeting with the hem of his jacket.
"Dreams, I'm not sure. What dreams? This just doesn't happen. It shouldn't, ask her if she was in her mother's house."
"He's babbling and he wants to know if it was in your mother's house."This woman was smiling so much that she thought her ears might fall off.
"Yes, fine , that's it exactly. I can't believe it."
Fred wasn't sure he liked things like this. It was impossible. Nothing like this had happened before. It was astronomical. He looked over at Lizzie. He had held onto his memories of her when they tried to go fuzzy like all the others. And now it was all crowding around him. It was all way too much. He wanted to touch her, to feel that she was really there and not something he had imagined. If he wasn't careful, she would slip away. It was like holding sand in a sieve. But somehow magically, so far, the sieve still held most of its contents. He was not used to such strong emotions. And to realise that his dream, of her, had been hers as well sent happy shocks all the way through his spine.
Lizzie paced the length of her small apartment. She was alone again and too excited to sleep. She had taken a sleeping pill and was waiting for it to kick in. She sat down on the bed and closed her eyes. Within moments she collapsed on the bed.
"Lizzie what are you doing?" She spun around, this time she?they appeared to be standing on the platform of a train station, it was deserted and for some reason she was sure that there would be a forest if she took the door that lead into the ticket office,
"Why are we here? Hold on, I'm dreaming and I know it, so I should be able able to change things." She closed her eyes and imagined a quiet lounge in the lobby of a high end hotel. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by a slightly skewed version of the same and an increasingly annoyed Fred. What are you planning?"
"Thank you for coming back." She smiled. "I needed to make sure that you were real and that I had not only dreamt about you. I didn't mean to annoy or upset you but I ...I had to know." She gazed at her hands.
"There are rules you know and it seems as if you are intent on breaking all of them."
"Since when does Drop Dead Fred care about rules."
"When 'they' could take me away if I don't follow them. I've never actually heard of them doing it's very clear on punishment."
"They?"
"That doesn't matter, I've already said more than I should."
"Freddie, stop avoiding my questions."
"Was that a pop culture reference?"
"What?"
"You know Friday the Thirteenth, can control people's dreams..." Lizzie poked him, hard.
"I told you to stop avoiding my questions, if you not going to talk to me then you might as well leave." She folded her arms and sat down on the first available surface which turned out to be a coffee table. Fred sighed and joined her. He nudged her shoulder with his own. "Lighten up, snotface, you're digging in a place which isn't safe. Promise me that you'll stop this, its dangerous , for the both of us and I want to be able to see you, which I can do right now"
"I won't promise to stop but I'll lay off the interrogations for now but Fred I don't just want to be able to see you in dreams."
"Oh I don't know, it's quite cosy." Fred caught hold of her hands and stared into her eyes. "Seeing as this is your dream, do you reckon we could go somewhere a bit more lively." She smiled at him and nodded.
"Sure."