Dead Like Me is owned by Bryan Fuller, Showtime, and their affiliates.

Bones is owned by Hart Hanson, Fox and their affiliates.

No money what so ever is or will be made from this fanfiction.

There was an awkward silence in the car. Alana had no idea how to deal with someone so deep in denial about their death that they were convinced the whole thing was a dream. Zach didn't know why the girl in the car would suddenly make an exclamation about feces. If he remembered correctly, the explicative "oh shit" with a particular inflection was not really about feces. It was a figure of speech for disbelief. He never understood metaphors the subtleties of inflection but this one was particularly confusing to him. What did excrement have to do with confusion?

Alana let out a small laugh, mostly to keep from crying. The whole thing was ridiculous. Her first mentoring gig and she not only got a murder victim but one swimming in denial.

"Beautiful. Perfect. Just perfect. Jesus H. Christ, what am I supposed to do?"

That was a very good question. Her goal was to get him to accept that he was dead but how to do that? His explanation to himself was actually fairly rational. She suspected that he was some sort of atheist which explained why he didn't conclude he was a spirit.

"Oh God, Atheists"

It was a bit of an ironic thought but she wasn't concerned about that at the moment. How could she tell Zach, who probably doesn't believe in souls, that in essence that was all he was at the moment?

"Sure Zach, there're clothes where we're going" she finally spoke. She had to be cautious with this as the newly dead could be very fragile. This was a delicate situation that she needed to handle with care.

"Excellent. Where are we going?"

That was another very good question. She was more or less driving aimlessly as she attained her main goals for the night: Gather Zach and get away from the murders. She merged onto the beltway and decided to go to Denise's house…her house now. It was after rush hour, so traffic had calmed down considerably. She had about twenty minutes to come up with a plan.

As they sailed across the concrete sea, Zach filled the silence with all the hopes of a dreamer.

"The prospect of being able to defy science and have an endless possibility of powers is very exciting…"

She drowned out his voice because his innocent excitement was making her job harder.

When they arrived at the Rockville mini-mansion, Alana was filled with familiar warmth. She always loved Denise's house. While it was very large just for one person, Denise had filled it with all the memories and adventures of her very long life. Denise made Alana believe that just because they were dead didn't mean they couldn't have a fulfilling unlife. Denise's zest for life is partly what kept Alana going. She could only hope she could continue Denise's life lessons now that the Reaper was gone.

Alana parked in the driveway and shut off the car. She still had no idea what to do and sat in silence. Zach seemed content to look around from his seat in the car; he had no idea where he was as he rarely ever ventured outside his apartment, the Jeffersonian, or where a crime scene happened to be. The upper-middle class neighborhood was foreign to him but he was aware that he was in an affluent suburb of D.C. He just wasn't quite sure why he was there. Why would his subconscious take him to such a place? It was another thing to talk to Dr. Sweets about tomorrow.

Alana took a deep breath and decided to take the situation as is. Hopefully things would look better in the morning and the time lapse would convince Zach he wasn't dreaming. Otherwise she would be in a world of frustration and trouble the coming days. If he didn't accept he was dead soon then it would impede on his Reaper duties and that would not do. A Post-It will come, regardless if he was ready for it. Alana felt bad for the guy because he seemed nice enough but a more practical part of her knew that everyone had to die sometime. He was just unfortunate enough to have it in the prime of his life. It happened to her and she was ok, so she was hopeful he would be too.

She really didn't know Zach at all.

"OK, we're here. Everyone out."

"Where are we and why are we here? I thought we were going to procure me some clothing, more specifically: a shirt."

"Yeah…there are shirts inside. It's late so all the stores are closing up."

She knew that playing into his denial could make his acceptance a lot harder down the line; she still didn't have any clue as to how to break the news to him yet. If seeing his own murder and walking away from his dead body wasn't enough to convince him, what would?

"And for the where, we're at a friend's…my house. We're at my house." she corrected herself. It was her house now, not Denise's. Denise didn't need it and never would again. It was a depressing thought on top of everything else that weighed in on Alana's mind. She didn't want to deal with anything at the moment and in her current state she wasn't suited to deal with Zach. She'd revisit the whole thing in the morning. She just wanted to get some sleep and attack the issues with a fresh mind.

Zach followed her out of the car, while not even opening the door. He thought it was super cool, if not totally illogical, that he could just walk out of the car without opening the door. He was about to do the same thing with the front door as he did not have the patience to wait for the female to fish for her keys.

It's his dream so why should he have to do anything he didn't want to do?

Alana saw what he was about to do and was not about to put up with that kind of rudeness. She, without any thought, reached out to grab him and he was startled to find that she was able to grasp him.

"Hey, no going in the house without me, ok?" she said patiently and calmly.

Zach's mind reeled at the turn of events. Why was she able to grab him while he was unable to even feel anything around him? He didn't feel the summer heat or a physical door. His hand was suddenly at her face, gently touching her cheek.

Alana let out a small gasp of surprised because she was not expecting such an action from him. She was also stunned at the very intense and focused look he was giving her. She couldn't tear her eyes away from his deep gaze; he looked as if he was studying something new and amazing.

Zach was amazed. This was a whole new facet to lucid dreaming that he had never encountered or even heard of before. He was touching this unknown female and it was more sharp and clear than anything he had ever dreamt of. Her skin was very soft; she looked ethereal in the low light of the full moon and dim lights of the street lamps. His fingers brushed her dark silky hair and he noticed how very pretty she was.

Alana should say something. She knew she should say something but nothing was coming to mind. She could only focus on the feel of his gentle hand on her and his deep brown eyes. She had never seen someone so focused, someone so intent on knowing every detail of her face. She ignored how nice it was that he was so close without it being creepy.

"Alana say something, this is not helping. Alana? Say something, anything!"

Even the easy task of saying anything was proving difficult. Alana made a few sounds and moved her mouth but still nothing was coming out. With her long life and extensive vocabulary she was so entranced by the mystery that was Zach Addy that she was rendered speechless.

"Are you really this lame Baily? Damnit, brain work!"

She really hated her inner monologue sometimes; it was unduly harsh and critical.

The moment was shattered as soon as they heard a voice coming from the neighbors house.

"Hey, Alana. Are you alright?"

She looked past Zach to see Ted Winters. A nice middle aged father of two she sometimes made small talk with while she waited for Denise.

Alana finally found her voice.

"Hey Ted. Nope just having one of those moments, ya know…" motioning her hands to her head it the universal "crazy" motion.

She hoped she didn't sound as pathetic and lame as she thought she did. She let out a nervous laugh and blushed at what she knew she must have looked like: a psycho staring into nothing with a dopey look on her face.

If Ted thought something was amiss, and by the puzzled look on his face he did, then he didn't say anything. He was too polite to point out when someone was being weird.

Zach frowned at the interaction because he did not recognize the male. He didn't know the female either, he did notice her name was Alana, and he was sure that all dreams were manifestations of his subconscious. So if that was true, and he knew it to be because he read it in a reputable scientific journal, then he should know who these two people were. The mind wouldn't make anyone up from nothing; he had to have seen them. Perhaps Alana was a pretty girl he saw in passing at the grocery store. Perhaps Ted was a guy he crossed paths with at the Jeffersonian. He wasn't sure why his subconscious would pick two people he couldn't have seen for more than a second as he didn't recognize them at all. With his vast intellect he should be able to think of where he saw the two. It was troubling to think that he might be losing his photographic memory. He brushed it off to not being fully functional due to dreaming. Another thing that troubled Zach was that Ted seemed to completely disregard him.

"Sir, can you see me?"

Zach concluded that he might as well as straightforward as possible. He didn't see a use in using tact when it was inconsequential.

And inconsequential it was because Ted made no indication that he could indeed see Zach. Zach then proceeded to wave his hands to get his attention. Again, Ted did not acknowledge him at all. Alana saw that the situation could get quickly out of hand and she did not need Zach going into random people's houses seeing what he could get away with. She has had a few Peeping Tom Reaps before and they were quite the hassle.

Before Ted had another chance to make polite conversation she found her keys, quickly opened the door, and grabbed Zach into the house. Alana was sure she looked even crazier for grabbing thin air and somewhat struggling to it inside, but she had to do it. She dreaded the next meeting with Ted now they were neighbors.

"Speaking of neighbors I need to settle out my own apartment and come up with a cover story as to why Denise is gone…"

She kept her mind on anything but what was going on at the moment as she put her stuff away. Her tactic was short lived as the shirtless male was not about to let her think of anything but him.

"Right, you're shirtless…hold on a moment."

She went off to one of the first floor guestrooms because she knew Denise kept some spare clothes there. She knew Zach wouldn't be able to actually put it on but at least it would keep him busy as he tried. Alana thanked whatever God or gods up there that made it so souls no longer needed sleep. She's seen him concentrate on a skull and her face with more focus and diligence that she'd ever seen on anyone. So she was sure that with the lack of need to sleep and his determination, Zach trying to put a shirt on would take up a lot of time. She needed that time to sleep and figure out her next steps.

She grabbed the first plain t-shirt she could find that she thought could fit him. Alana was thankful that Denise had more or less an open door policy to her house for when Reapers needed a place to stay. So the departed Reaper had kept a slew of clothes for them.

She found Zach in the library looking curiously at Denise's ("No my library, it's all mine now") expansive library.

Zach was fairly impressed with the collect of annals as some of them were first additions. He let out a frustrated sigh as his hands passed through the tomes, as they did with everything else, and he couldn't pick them up. He wanted to study everything around him in detail but how was he supposed to do that if he couldn't examine them first hand? The only thing he was able to touch and feel was Alana and he was certain she was not up for being studied in such a way.

Although he did observe she didn't seem too objectionable to his earlier handling. He always made sure to hold objects with a soft yet stable hand. Bones and evidence could be very fragile and easily tarnished if not handled with the utmost care. This practice had bleed over into other aspects of his life so he knew he didn't physically hurt her. This was a time where he wished he was more in tuned with people's emotion to get a reading on whether she was uncomfortable in his presence. Even he knew that invading someone's territorial bubble was not a societal norm and could make someone uncomfortable. Normally he was not so rash but he was just so utterly perplexed and curious as to why she was able to grab onto him while all other evidence pointed to him being completely intangible. He needed to find out if she was tangible to him as he was to her. He was enthralled to find out she was. It was an illogical fallacy that he needed to figure out. Why was she so special that he became solid at her touch? Soft skin and silky hair aside, she was a normal human female from his observations. She didn't have any discerning marks or characteristics that would make her the singular entity that he could come into contact with. The whole thing was very mystifying. He felt as if he was on track for some kind of scientific discovery and he was absolutely riveted. If he could make any kind of sense of the dreamscape then he could find all sorts of breakthroughs in the name of science.

Intellectually he knew such an endeavor was probably futile. Not only did he have the burden of proof that his dream happened as such but he'd also have to recreate the situation; along with showing empirical evidence of the events occurring. There was no technology to see into the minds of people much less dreams. Despite all of that he didn't care at the moment. He was a part of something amazing, he just knew it. Alana had something to do with it too but he wasn't sure what. It was obvious she was special but he didn't know in what capacity. He was eager to find out.

Alana on the other hand knew exactly what was going on but was not confident on how to break the news to Zach.

"It's like freaking reverse Santa. Sorry Zachy, but he's real! And you're going to become one of his happy little helper elves. Only instead of Santa it's Death and instead of elves it's Reapers. Oh yeah and you don't make nice things like toys, you pop souls and get to see the many fucked up ways a person can die. Yay!"

Alana knew that would definitely not go over well with the scientist. She also knew there was no good way to break the news that one was not only dead but now recruited to be Death's lackey. While there was no good way, Alana knew some were better than others. There had to be a better way to tell him than the Santa allegory but she kept it in the back of her mind in case worse came to worse and she had absolutely nothing. Which with the way things were going, nothing was all she had.

She gently placed the shirt on the coffee table and got Zach's attention.

"Here's the shirt you wanted…take as much time as you need to get it on…"

She felt bad because she knew he would never get it on while he was in incorporeal but at least it would distract him.

"If you get tired" again something she knew wouldn't happen "then feel free to take the guest bedroom down the hall."

He nodded his head in acquiescence and preceded his first, and probably many more, attempt at physically grabbing the shirt. His face returned to that deep thought intense mode she saw on the front door. Suddenly she felt a little put off. The intense studying look is apparently universal for everything that didn't make sense to him. She didn't quite feel so special anymore.

"Alana, you're an idiot."

She couldn't help but agree with herself. She slightly shook her head and rolled her eyes at herself. Again, very stupid of her since obviously she couldn't see herself do it as she wasn't in front of a mirror. She was sure she looked as dense as she felt.

Alana made her way upstairs to her personal bedroom Denise had kept for her. Not the master bedroom, she wasn't quite ready for that yet. Everything seemed to still belong to her former partner, not to her. Hopefully in time they will but for now she was content with the smaller room.

She did her normal routine for getting ready for bed. She brushed her teeth, hair, washed her face, and put on her pj's. She was ready for some nocturnal rest to get her ready and rarin' to go the next morning. Tomorrow she'll be able to conquer the Zach Addy issue and nothing could stop her. She told herself this over and over again as she snuggled under her comforter. There was no AM meeting the next day so that meant no Post-Its till the afternoon if at all. Even Reapers had slow days. She looked at the clock and it read 10:23 PM. Plenty of time to get a good eight hours if she fell asleep immediate and got up at 7:30.

She underestimated how much her mind worked when it was stressed. Staring at the clock it went from 10:23 PM to 7:30 AM in no time at all. She had not moved from the spot and she never closed her eyes. Daylight bled into the night till the darkness went away. Birds were chirping and she heard the rumbling of cars passing by. It was daytime and everyone was starting to rise, some even earlier, and go to work.

Alana lay motionless as she had all night, starring into nothing. Worried marred her face as she was in the exact predicament she was in all along with no miraculous new idea of how to tell Zach Addy his life was over…literally.

"I'm doomed."