Chapter 3: Emptiness

What do most people think of when they hear the word empty? The Webster's Dictionary defines the word as an adjective meaning to contain nothing, having nothing in it. It also means having no worth or purpose; useless or unsatisfying; without meaning or force; insincere. When I was younger, I always thought of the good old standby of the empty glass that once held something good like chocolate milk or my favorite juice drink. I never thought of a heart.

"Well, we made it here just as the sun was going down," Daisy said leaning on Mason's shoulder as they walked down the small hall between the different flats in Rube's building, "And no sign of any hell raisers."

"Thanks for jinxing us," George grumbled.

"Isn't something off about this place to you guys?" Quinn asked as she looked at the dark entrances to the different flats. Some doors were left open and others were shut closed and locked. And those that were left open were empty and quiet.

Can someone say Twilight Zone rerun?

"Yeah, no one's here," George looked over her shoulder at the different doors and hoped not to see any Gravelings. She caught Rube's eyes, "Everybody on a permanent vacation in this building?"

Definitely Twilight Zone material.

"Probably why I like this place so much," Rube said, also taking his time looking over the hallways. Even in his own building he was a little unsure of the safety. Each one of the reapers had come to Rube's flat at one time or another to talk or make an excuse for a specific fuck up. But now, it was creepy. They were noticing more now than they had before. More specifically: vacant apartments and the possibility to gravelings lurking in the dark.

"Do you think that any of them left behind any valuables?" Mason asked looking over Daisy's head at an open doorway.

"Don't even think about it. People haven't been on this level for years," Rube took out his keys and unlocked his door at the end of the hall. Quinn and George followed quickly, not wanting to be left behind in the middle of the hallway with dark doorways. Daisy, on the other hand, almost had to literally drag Mason with her after the others and away from the possibility of some looting.

"Welcome home," Rube called into the old flat.

"Okay, so you're the only one on this floor?" Quinn said slowly and began to run her hands over the seats to collect any dust left behind. She looked at her fingers, but found none, as if it had been cleaned that morning, "Who do you go to for a cup of sugar?"

"Quinn, now's not the time for joking," Daisy said from the doorway.

"Do you think that they would look for us here? Being this your flat and everything," George watched as Daisy finally dragged Mason in with her and stood next to him just inside the doorway, "I mean, if they were here earlier and they think we're not getting their message, could they still be here?"

"Them who?" Quinn asked and looked at Mason and Daisy who also had questions printed on their faces, "What are you guys talking about?"

"The little cock suckers that threw us downtown," Rube sneered and sat on his bed, "I don't know, Peanut. I don't know if they are still here or still on the other side of town. But either way you don't have to worry about it."

"Yeah, right," she chuckled sarcastically and sat down behind him further toward the head of the bed. Quinn sat on one of the overly stuffed chairs at the side of the room near his desk, "Okay, so what are we going to do?"

"You're asking me?" Rube asked looking up a George, "I didn't think that you were happy with me."

"I'm not always going be happy with you, Rube. What can I say? I'm a 'constipator'," she sighed and gained a smile from him, "I guess I just get upset with you as much as you get upset with me. Nothing we can't fix, right?"

"Well, now that I have your blessing," he rolled his eyes and looked at the whole group, "What I think we should do is try sleeping for the night and then continue what we usually do in the morning. I'm not going to let the little cock suckers scare me out of here."

"And then get teleported even further away from home? Or even worse?" Daisy asked, "Shouldn't we ask the higher management on this one, Rube?"

"The higher management already knows they just haven't contacted me yet. I don't think anyone saw this coming. Not even the powers that may or may not be."

"So what do we do until tomorrow? Not to sound inconsiderate or anything, but I don't think there is enough room in here for all of us," Quinn sighed and looked around the small flat which only had a separate bathroom. Not even a kitchen or a living room, "You have anything to eat in here, Rube?"

"That's a good idea, hon," Daisy smiled, grabbed Mason's hand and winked at George, "I think that we all could use something to eat after a trip like the one we just took. We can go get something."

"I want no funny business from you two!" Rube shouted at Daisy and Mason as they walked to the door, "And you three watch yourselves for Gravelings! I don't want any incidences with these ass wipes."

"You got it, boss," Quinn hopped off her chair and gave him a play salute before heading out the door.

And alone with Rube again. My luck, isn't it?

Rube looked back at George and folded his hands in front of him, "Settle back, Peanut. Let's set things right."

"Okay. Explain it to me," she said as she laid back into the pillows.

"Explain what?"

"You said that I didn't understand," she noticed him look at the door that Mason, Daisy and Quinn used, "Rube, don't worry about them. Fuck them, okay? This is just between you and me. Now, tell me. What don't I understand?"

"Why is that so important to you?" he paused and looked at her face, "To understand. Why do you want to understand me among all people? I'm not the happiest person in the world to be around."

"Believe me; I've noticed that a long time ago. Maybe it's because I'm such a fuck-up and I don't want to be one anymore," she said in her trademark sarcastic tone. She took a breath when she knew he didn't appreciate the crack and tried to understand why herself, "Because I do want to understand you. I care about you."

Where did that come from? Why was my heart beating so fast? Why didn't those biological needs die with my first body? And why were they acting up now around Rube?

He closed his eyes for a minute and held her hands between his, "You may not like what you hear, Peanut."

"I'm a reaper, I live with the unpleasant," she smirked and brushed her thumb over the side of his hand, "I just want you to talk with me. To know that Roxy was not the only one that you could talk to in the group."

"I know that," he nodded and looked in her eyes, "You ready?"

"Throw it at me, boss-man," she locked with his eyes.

"Where to start?" he chuckled sadly.

"So, what are they saying?" Quinn came up behind Daisy and Mason who were both plastered against the thin wall between an open flat that they broke into and Rube's flat on the other side. They both jumped and grabbed their chests, "Sorry."

"How the bloody hell you get in here?" Mason asked and sat on the floor.

"I followed you once I found out that you two really weren't going to get some food," she walked to the wall next to Daisy and slowly pushed her ear to it, "Now again I ask, what are they saying?"

"Don't know what Georgia said, but Rube is just pouring everything out," she pushed against the wall harder grabbing whatever of the conversation she could, "I think he was talking about Roxy for a bit."

"My reaper?"

"Yeah," she nodded and heard his muffled voice change tone, "It has now moved on to his family. He never talks about his family, not even to Roxy…"

"When did he die?" Quinn asked as she heard a little of George's voice ask another question.

"1927," Daisy said off hand, "And his daughter just died over a year ago. He was there when she was reaped."

"That must have been hard. If he never talks about his family, how did you know about the reap?"

"Another reaper told me," she nodded her head at Mason who was moving among the furniture and trinkets left behind from the former tenets, "We have connections with other departments."

"Hey, I found some scotch!" Mason smiled and hugged the small bottle he grabbed off the shelves.

"Shh!" both Daisy and Quinn frowned at him. The walls were thin enough to hear George and Rube's conversation. More than likely they were thin enough to hear Mason's yells too.

"What do you think the deal is between the two of them?" Quinn wondered, "It's quite confusing to me."

"They're close," Mason said as he tried to unscrew the scotch top, "Closer than I ever was with him."

"I would say even closer than what Rube was with Roxy," Daisy looked back at him

"Really? I just thought that she was the fledgling under his wing," he mused.

"She hasn't been a fledgling for quite a while now."

"Do you think there are feelings there?" Quinn asked with a small frown on her brow.

"It depends on what kind of feelings we are talking about," Daisy stood back from the wall a little and looked at the youngest reaper, "Why? What have you heard?"

"Oh great, you got her started on her gossip," Mason sighed and put the scotch off to the side since he couldn't open it up at the moment.

"Oh sush! It's not everyday that you can get something this good. Besides, I've been wondering about those two ever since I became part of this little group," she took Quinn's arm and brought her over to one of the left over chairs to sit down, "Now tell me what you know."

"I had joked with George about the possible 'romantics' between her and Rube, but she just brushed it off, pretty quickly too. Almost like denial. Rube, on the other hand, had some questions of his own."

"Like…"

"I don't know, Daisy. Maybe I shouldn't…" Quinn began to have second thoughts on releasing the information.

"Oh no, you started it, you finish it!" Mason slid over and sat next to the new girl. He was just as interested as Daisy in this area.

Quinn sighed, "I told Rube about how I was wondering about him and George, right? Well, at first he was as annoyed by it as George. But after a while, he started asking questions about how George reacted and what she thought. He was really interested about it and I could have sworn there was hope in there somewhere. I know I don't have much experience in it, but I can read people. He does care. In that way? I don't know. But I'm kind of hoping. It reminds me…"

"Of what?"

"Nothing," Quinn shook her head, "It almost seems like they need each other."

"Yeah," Daisy nodded and sighed looking at the thin wall, "Why don't we actually give them their privacy and get some food?"

"You mean actually do what Rube told us to?" Mason took a dramatic deep breath, "I'm shocked."

As Mason walked out the door and to the next room Daisy leaned toward Quinn, "What was the question that stood out the most to you? Just for curiosity's sake."

"He asked me, 'Do you really think that she would care like that?'" Quinn smiled and chuckled a little, "I know he meant it to sound sarcastic, like I was annoying him or something, but there was a real question behind it. And you know, I really think she does. She's just scared. She must have lost a lot when she died, didn't she?"

"A mom, dad and little sister," Daisy nodded, "But lost even more after she died. She made a few stupid mistakes and lost something pretty big. She also lost some friends. She doesn't want to loose more. You're right, she's scared and confused about her emotions. But so is he. It's been quite a while for him."

"I found wine! I love this building!" Mason shouted from another room down the hallway.

"So you went to take care of your family after you died too, huh?" George asked and settled back into the over stuffed pillows, "And here you were giving me all that grief when I first started."

"I didn't want you to make the same mistake," he put an arm behind him and looked out the small window over his desk, "I lost a lot of memories trying to go back. The last time I tried, I sent them money. Money that never made it. And yet, she still loved me. All those years."

"You're wife?"

"My daughter," he thought back to the day she died, sitting on that bench with her, singing to her, "She knew me. That long waiting and she still knew me. And even smiled."

George frowned a little, not really knowing how to handle this. His eyes were focused on something else, somewhere else far away. She got up from the bed and walked to stand in front of him, blocking his view of the window. He looked at her with a question on his face. She stood next to him and gave him a look that told him something she just couldn't voice at the moment. Something she didn't even know. He nodded and patted the space next to him for her to sit. She sat and leaned on his shoulder.

"You are a good man, Rube," she whispered, "I mean, yeah, you could be a hard ass and moody, but you're the best guy I know. Might not count for much coming from me, but just thought you'd want to know. I would've smiled too."

"That counts to me more than you know," he put his arm around her shoulder and looked up to find the rest of the reaper group coming in with a couple of small bags of food. Quinn put one bag down in the chair she was sitting in earlier and another at the side of the bed. Rube looked at some of the contents, "What are you guys hoping to cook that on?"

"You have to have something here, right? I mean with a bachelor pad like this, you have to have something to cook on," Quinn said. She looked out the window to find that it was getting just a bit too dark for her liking. She walked to the front of the room and turned on a set of lights and a thought hit her, "Rube, if Gravelings are after us, shouldn't we keep the lights off? There are no other lights in the whole building or at least this floor. The light may attract them."

"Believe me, there is no 'may' about it, kid. If they are still here, we've all ready attracted them. But just to be safe… close the blinds," Rube nodded to her and leaned over to close the blinds next to the bed.

"What did you guys get?" Rube asked while absentmindedly rubbing George's shoulder and arm to his side. She didn't mind, but kind of wondered if he even knew he was doing it.

"Some hamburger, pasta, sauces," Daisy looked through the box, "Even some waffle mix."

"What about the kitchen utensils?" George looked at Quinn who was also digging through one of her bags she brought in.

"All the essentials. Forks, spoons and knives. Plastic, of course," she counted off her fingers, "And some fresh produce. Anybody cook well?"

"Rube does," Mason said as he took a swig of the wine he found in the other flat earlier.

"True?" Quinn smiled at Rube, "You just keep surprising me, boss."

Rube sighed, gave George a small squeeze to his side and then got up to get his small stove out from under his bed. George reluctantly got up and out of his way.

"You want to help me in the kitchen?" he asked her.

"What about me, Rube?" Mason walked forward a little with the small bottle of wine in his hand.

"I don't trust you around anything with heat or fire," Rube reached out to George and walked her over to the side to help him set up his small portable stove.

"And I don't think that they were done talking," Quinn said and took the biggest bag over to set at their feet, "Here you go, Rube. This is all the hamburger and pasta that we bought. Plus some fruit if you wanted to make anything on the side. Call if you need anything else."

"I'm guessing that you guys want some kind of pasta?" Rube started the stove top and pulled on one of the aprons that he had hanging from his time cooking at Der Waffle Haus, "Can't start cooking without knowing what you guys want."

"I'll go check," she smiled and walked over where Daisy and Mason were sitting close together in one of the bigger chairs, "What do you guys want to eat?"

"Anything that is food," Mason looked up at the ceiling, "Just anything."

"I'll have just a fruit salad, please," she smiled, "And you know that they could probably hear us from here."

Quinn nodded, but gave Rube the orders anyway. Afterward, Quinn and the other two went to look at the other empty flats around Rube's as they left him to his cooking. Rube started to cook and asked George to get specific items and ingredients as he went. They had finished the three 'orders' from the reapers and George leaned against the table on the side of the bed closest to the small stove top. She watched as he cleaned up what was left of the ingredients he used and then wiped off the stove top. She couldn't help but notice the muscles under his shirt flow with every wipe of the rag. For how old he was supposed to be, he looked really good. His hands were big, but the way he handled the cooking looked like they were very gentle if they needed be. The way he touched her hands only proved that.

"What are you hungry for, Peanut?" he rubbed his hands on a small towel and looked at her.

You don't wanna know.

"Um, nothing really. I'm okay," she nodded and popped a few more strawberries left over from Daisy's fruit salad in her mouth.

"You sure?" he cracked a few eggs in a frying pan for himself and began to use those muscles again, "I'm sure I can whip up something in no time."

I'm sure you coul- George! It's Rube! Focus!

"Did you cook for your family back in the day?" she asked without thinking. He placed a couple of pieces of bacon in the same pan as if he didn't hear her.

"My wife did most of the cooking back then," he scrambled the eggs, "She never liked me by the stove."

"Didn't know the cook she was missing," George smiled half heartedly.

Rube looked at the sizzling bacon, "Lucy didn't really like me around at all."

"What are you talking about?"

"I know you guys have this idea that I led a perfect life before I died. Great family and all, but it wasn't the perfect picture everyone paints. I did some things in my past that eventually caught up with me in the end that she never forgave me for. Or forgave herself for," he tossed the eggs on the plate to his right and turned toward her a little, "I guess one of them was marrying me. The only thing that she said she loved out of our union was Rosie. In the end, she had her all to herself."

"You loved her," she watched him concentrate back on his cooking, "Didn't you?"

"In the end, I didn't know anymore," he stood still for a moment and then shook his head, "I think the only thing I ever loved was Rosie. And she was the only thing that loved me back."

"Why did you two get married then?"

God George, shut up!

"A mistake on both our parts," he nodded, "but back then, we didn't make mistakes. Especially with the boss's daughter."

He took a breath to measure her reaction, but she just sat and listened like she had earlier when the others were out. Their talk wasn't over and she would listen until he didn't want to talk anymore. She did want to understand, and he appreciated the ear. Not even Roxy stayed around long enough for him to tell her about his past. She always unloaded her past on him, not the other way around. True, she did hear him out the day his daughter died, but he always wondered if that was from pity or if she actually did want to hear about his life. He always guessed that she thought he had a pretty good life when he was alive. George was different and he was glad. She never assumed.

"I guess we could have been in love at one point, but that faded much too fast. Money was tight like it was with everybody back then. And I never made enough," he tossed his bacon on the plate after it splattered some oil on his arm. He didn't even register it as his eyes became dark again, "Until I died that is, and that didn't even get to them."

"I'm sorry, Rube," she said softly and put a small, damp cloth over the place where the oil hit his skin, "No wonder you don't talk about it all that much. I'm sorry I brought it up. I-"

He put a hand on hers that was holding the cloth to his arm and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead, "Thank you. I needed the ear. You're not as much of a 'constipator' as you think."

"Your welcome," she smiled and thought to step back, but couldn't bring herself to. She softly returned the kiss on his cheek before her brain could catch up with her body.

"What was that for?"

"For saving me, I guess," she grabbed her small bowl of fruit and turned toward the doorway where she could hear the other three were talking and laughing in another flat, "I should go get them to come and eat. We also need to figure out who is sleeping where."

"Yeah," he nodded and watched her leave out the door. He absentmindedly rubbed the cheek she kissed and began to slowly eat his eggs and bacon.

It must have been close to two or three in the morning. Quinn had tried to stay up for first watch, but she fell asleep fast in a soft chair in the room across the hall from Rube's flat that Mason was so kind to pick the lock to. Mason and Daisy shared a room toward the middle of the hallway and George was asleep in one of the plush chairs in Rube's room. She was still talking with him about different topics. It had quickly turned to the subject of her family after his. If she was going to put so much energy into learning and understanding him, he wanted to return the favor. He had always listened when she talked about her past anyway. Soon enough, she had fallen asleep and settled down into the chair.

He looked over in her direction every once in a while just to check that she was okay. His talk with Quinn a couple of days ago didn't help the confusion he had about the whole concept of George and feelings. Then this happened… he could lose her so easily to gravelings if he wasn't careful. And he was going to do everything in his power for that not to happen.

"Can't sleep either, huh?" he turned his head away from the window to find George wrapped in one of the old sheets he drug out from his small closet, "Want some company?"

"Does it have to be yours?" he joked and motioned to the empty seat next to him on the bed, "I can't sleep with all the company, I guess. I'm too used to being alone."

"And I bet Quinn isn't helping that any, huh?" she looked over at the seventeen year old dead girl across the hall with an apparent snoring problem and then back and Rube who was staring out the blinds thinking again, "What's on your mind?"

"What they have planned," he sighed and looked at her, "Did they decide to do this over night or have they planned this for years? How did they just start talking and why?"

"Good questions," George took her turn to look out the window and saw the reflection of their building in the windows of another, "The moon is bright tonight."

"Yes it is."

"We don't get it like this very often in the city."

"No, we certainly don't."

"Is that really all that's on your mind?"

He paused, noticing the stop of light conversation, "Should there be something else?"

"You tell me," she leaned her head on the top of the headboard and just silently stared at him.

"I'm not sure what it is that's going on in here," he knocked on his head and stared back at her and gently swiped the piece of hair from her face with his other hand, "It is something that I just need to figure out on my own. I can't talk about it yet."

"Is it about me?" she asked making his hand pause before he could retract it.

He squinted his eyes at her and frowned at the snoring girl across the hall, "What did she say?"

"Nothing, actually. Just wanted to eat her pasta and then go to sleep after she saw me come out of the 'kitchen'," George knew Quinn did have something on him; she just wasn't pulling that card yet.

He shook his head as if to shoo it from her mind, "Get some sleep. You're going to need it tomorrow."

"So will you."

"In just a little bit," he reassured her, "Don't worry about it. Go to sleep."

She laid down along the bed and put her head on his thigh, "Goodnight, Rube."

"Night Peanut," he stroked her hair a little and began to lightly sing a song as she drifted to sleep.

It was the safest place to be, laying there in an old flat with Rube above me. I was the one with the talent to kill Gravelings and possibly save hundreds, but he was the one that would protect me. My glass of life wasn't empty that night. It didn't hold disappointments and it actually started to feel like it had a purpose again. It had something in it. It was full to the brim. Even if I was undead.