Author's Note: So I finally got round to watching the last season of the bestest show EVA :p I think I put it off for so long because I could not cope with it being over. But hey, there are still so many stories left to tell. And until the comic comes out I want to help tell them :)

Hope you enjoy! Please do read and review...

Disclaimer: Pushing Daisies belongs to the awesomeness that is Bryan Fuller and co.

The Facts Are These

Chapter 1: A Moment of Your Time

At this very moment, Vivian Charles had been unconscious for exactly 13 seconds. Her sister Lillian, usually charged with catching her when she fell (in the physical as well as emotional sense), did nothing to help. Instead she stood staring at the girl on her porch, a girl whose trembling hands clutched daisies, whose big brown Bambi eyes held tears, and whose face bore a striking resemblance to another girl...a girl named Chuck.

"Wha...?" Lillian exhaled, feeling faint. "What is this?"

"Aunt Lily," the girl said, inhaling shakily. "It's me."

"...no," she muttered, dizziness disorienting her as she turned on the Pie Maker. "Ned? What the hell is this? Is this some kind of joke?"

"Huh?" the boy uttered, as if surprised that she could see him. "No. It's- Lily, it's true. It's Chuck. She's alive. She's...been alive."

Lily rocked on her heels, wondering vaguely where the floor went. "I am so sorry, Mum..." was the last thing she heard before the world tipped over and she stumbled into space...

XXX

At this very moment, Olive Snook was exactly where she wanted to be. Digby the dog lay at her feet, Randy the taxidermist sat at her side, and pumpkin the pie crumbled beneath her fork. For the first time in a long time she felt certain, still, safe in the knowledge that she had found her place...

But the warm fuzzy feeling faded fast as the Pie Hole doors swung open, ushering in a chill. Ned stood staring at her and Olive began to feel as if her bare naked toes were sticking out of the contentment comforter.

"What's the word, hummingbird?" she chirped, falsely cheery.

"Could I...?" he started, approaching their booth. "Could we talk for a minute?"

"Sure. Give us the dish, tuna fish."

His eyebrows knit as he slid into the opposite seat. "Alone? Sorry, Randy. Official detective business."

"Oh," the well-meaning Mr Mann uttered uncertainly. "I- I could help with that."

"This is a pretty personal case," said Ned, wincing apologetically. "Could you just...we really need to talk."

His eyes flickered to Olive and the urgency in them prompted her to act. "Randy, be a dear and pop another pie in the oven," she said, bedazzling him with a megawatt smile. A smile that could, as Buster once told her, fill in for the Hollywood sign on weekends. "Customers will probably want a refill on that sweet potato."

Randy nodded, a vaguely dazed expression hovering over his face, and got up. As soon as he was gone Ned leaned forward. "The cat has flown the coop."

"...say what?"

The Pie Maker blinked. "Did I get that wrong? Is it- what is it when the truth gets told? The chicken is out of the bag? Or the pigeon-? Oh, god!" he groaned, covering his face. "My brain is short-circuiting."

"Hey, hey, hey," she said quickly. "Breathe. Refocus. Stop speaking in idioms."

Obediently, Ned exhaled, closed his eyes and started over at a slow steady pace. "They know. Lily and Vivian know Chuck is alive."

Olive gasped and gaped. "Whaaaat? How?"

"We went to the house. With flowers and champagne. In hindsight it might have been a better idea to call, as opposed to turning up unannounced with her dead daughter."

"Well, duh doi!" Olive squeaked indignantly. "How did they take it?"

"First they passed out. And then they freaked out. There was crying and yelling and hugging and all these questions..."

"Pfft! Can you blame 'em? The whole faking your death thing is highly questionable. I still have a query or three of my own..."

"It was too intense," he carried on, as if she did not speak. "I had to leave. And Chuck let me...but now I feel like a bad boyfriend." The Pie Maker planted his mournful face on the table and it was all Olive could do to keep from reaching across and running her fingers through his hair. Bad habits died hard...

"So...why now? What changed?"

"Her mind. She wants...she needs her family. And I couldn't deny her that. Even though...even though it means I have to share her now." He looked up, dark eyes watching Olive worriedly. "Is that selfish? I tried to put her happiness first but...am I selfish for wanting to keep her to myself?"

Olive Snook sighed, wishing that she could redirect her wayward heart; turn it towards Randy Mann and away from Ned, so that all this talk of Chuck would not hurt so profoundly. But love and lust were badly behaved beings, ricocheting through her without rhyme or reason. And no contentment comforter could cover up her desire to be more than his friend...

"You're not selfish. You're human. People always want what they can't have."

The weight of the words pressed down on them both as their eyes met once more and-

"Guys!" Randy whisper-screamed over the counter. "I think your oven is on fire!"

XXX

At this very moment, Emerson Cod felt restless. With yet another case closed, his co-workers otherwise occupied and his lady love away, the PI was left to dwell on thoughts of the little girl that had been stolen from him. Seeing his daughter, alive and well, had been like a dab of ointment on an inflamed itch. But the relief was only temporary and Emerson now needed something, anything else to immerse himself in...

Three portions of chicken chow mein later, Cod sat waiting to slip into a gastronomically induced coma. As his leaded eyelids drooped down, a slight skittering caught his ear. Emerson grunted, eyes creaking open, and peered over his desk. On the floor, from under the door, lay a brown envelope.

The PI stood slowly, eyeing the door for any signs of life behind it as he approached.

Upon investigating the contents of the delivery, Cod found neither money nor a note. Instead there was a picture of three men, staring out from a desert landscape. Two of them were vaguely familiar, their features sparking something in his subconscious. But the third he knew...he indubitably knew to be none other than...

Dwight Dixon.

A/N: Dun dun duuun! I dunno if this is canon, but in one of the first pages of the comic previewed online, Emerson, Ned and Chuck were going to the cemetery with a picture of Dwight, Papa Pie Maker and Charles Charles. So this is where I speculate on what really went down with the Blue Berets. Any ideas and suggestions from you would be appreciated mucho!

Another one of the many plot threads left hanging was Nolive. Bryan Fuller seemed to be playing with the idea of them ("I wouldn't say never" and Ned's "jealousy") but they had to drop it due to the cancellation. This is a wrong that I must right! Ned and Chuck are amazeballs, no doubt, but when he confessed to being concerned about losing her to Lily and Vivian, she did not reassure him. Not sure if that was foreshadowing, but I like to think so...

So yeah. This is either going to be epic, or an epic fail. Either way I am enjoying it. Hope you are, too!