A/N: Okay... 7th chapter! hope u like it! :D sorry it took me so long but i was kinda out of ideas... :S (then i had myself a wonderful Pushing Daisies marathon and i was able to continue writing! :P) i'll try to update more often from now on :D
***I own nothing!***No copyright infringement intended!***
Fifteen minutes and fifteen seconds later, Ned was looking at Emerson as if he had just been punched in the face and Kimberly "Kim" Novac slash McCain had lost her breath for a moment.
"How did you find all that out?" she asked after taking a deep breath to calm herself down.
"DNA testing." answered Emerson firmly.
"Am- Am I in trouble?" asked the young woman worryingly.
"You still have a chance to clear things up and I can assure you that I'll try to get you out of any potential trouble." replied Emerson with a tender, caring voice causing Ned to forget for a moment what he had just heard and look at him with a very strange look.
The only thing that came to Ned's mind but not out of his mouth was "What on Earth are you saying?". Ned knew that the only thing Emerson Cod cared about -but money of course- was his own self. He had never seen the P.I. being interested in an other human being. That was weird even for him. But then, something interrupted his thoughts. It was Kimberly's voice, narrating what had really happen.
The facts were these: eleven years, one month, twelve weeks, twenty nine days and one minute ago, Kimberly's mother, a woman named Jenifer, decided to adopt a child. As she would very often say, she always wanted more than one children but it wasn't meant to be. When she found a scared teenage girl who was desperate to give her child for adoption, she did not take much time to think about it. The process was quite fast and as soon as the baby girl was born she took her home and loved her like she was her own. Little did she know that one year, seven weeks and two days later she would tragically lose her life in a car accident. After that dreadful moment, Kimberly raised her baby sister like she was hers and never told her the truth. She even convinced Gus McCain to merry her so that baby Ariel would have a normal life in a normal family. And everything was normal. Until the day that someone killed young Ariel and -according to Kimberly- framed Gus.
Ned and the Private Investigator listen carefully as Kimberly "Kim" Novac slash McCain finished her story the same way she did last time. With the phrase "Gus didn't kill Ariel.".
"We don't know who killed or did not kill Ariel. What we know, is that you are not her mother, Gus is not her father and Elliot is." said Emerson.
"Well- Wait. What? Elliot is Ariel's father?" asked Kim visibly surprised.
"You didn't know?"
"No... I only met that girl... That Olive Snook or something... She was about my age. But I had no idea who the father was. And -if you want my opinion- neither did she. I could tell that that girl was a-"
"Ok." interrupted Emerson and turned to Ned. "We need to have a little talk with Olive." Ned was still in such state of shock that the only thing he managed to do was to slowly nod his head.
Meanwhile
As 'Lonely Tourist' Charlotte Charles was still at the 'Pie Hole' eating the last bit of the pie Olive left, the little bell on the door jingled again. Olive Snook had come back. The petite blonde waitress practically run to the kitchen and stopped when she saw that the person she was looking for was still there. A smile of relief was formed on the former jockey's face as she pulled a chair and sat next to Charlotte "Chuck" Charles.
"Hey Olive. Are you ok?" asked Chuck when she saw Olive sitting there looking kinda anxious.
"I'm Ariel's mother." said Olive abruptly making Chuck choke on some pie.
"What?" she asked after she drunk some water and cleared her throat.
"I'm Ariel's mother." said Olive again using the same tone she used the first time.
"Ariel... The little girl who died, Ariel? The one killed by her father? The one on the News, Ariel? That Ariel?" Chuck couldn't believe what had just come out of the petite waitress' mouth.
"Yes, yes, yes and yes." answered Olive who was much more relaxed.
"You have a daughter." Chuck still couldn't believe what she had just heard.
"Um... You know what? I'm just gonna leave you here until you are ready to talk." said Olive who had no idea why Chuck couldn't cope with the fact that she had a daughter. As soon as Olive walked out the kitchen and headed to the door, Emerson and Ned entered the 'Pie Hole'. Emerson looked at Olive and pointed to his usual table. Ned and the P.I. sat down while the blonde waitress -who had no idea what the two men wanted from her- prepared to take their order.
"Stop talking and sit down." interrupted Emerson and Olive sat down mechanically.
"What did I do?" she whispered to Ned who was sitting next to her.
"First of all, let's start with what you didn't do." said Emerson without giving Ned the chance to answer and continued: "You didn't tell us that you had a daughter and you didn't tell us that that daughter was the girl who's all over the News because she was killed! How's that for a start?"
"Okay. First of all, I don't like your tone and second of all, you didn't tell me that you actually talk to dead people!"
"That's not the same!"
"Actually, it's kinda the same..." said Ned.
"Oh, whose side are you on?"
"No one's! I'm just- Pointing out who's right..."
"You need to stop doing that." said Emerson with his usual tone.
Ned didn't respond. He just turned his head away and looked at Olive. The waitress didn't say anything. She just sat there looking at Ned and then Emerson and then again Ned and again Emerson. She did that for six times before she got up and left without letting a word come out of her mouth. Now, it was the P.I. and the Pie Maker who were looking at each other and then at the door which was now closing making the little bell jingle once more.
"What the hell did just happen?" asked Emerson. Ned raised his shoulders showing his ignorance. "I knew I shouldn't have agreed to re-open this case. I've never re-opened a case in my life! And until Little Big Mouth decides to 'open up' and talks to us, we have absolutely no leads to help us proceed." It was then that he realized that two things were missing from the table. The first? A nice big slice of Rhubarb Pie a la mode. And the second? Lonely Tourist Charlotte Charles. "Where's the Dead Girl?" he asked. "It's awfully quiet here."
"I thought you didn't like her." said Ned.
"I want her to bring my pie." answered Emerson and Ned rolled his eyes. "You're never going to change, are you?" he asked smiling.
Thnx 4 reading! Plz review (if u have any suggestions on what should happen next, feel free to share them!)! TBC
