White lines, running through my mind....OH Sorry...This would be the Disclaimer (damn catchy soundtrack): No I do not own Shaun and Company. Nor do I have Simon Pegg (apparently some lucky chick in England has that pleasure...WAH!!!!!SOB!!!CRY!!!) I'm better now...really. This one is dedicated to my fellow PeggLeggs who share the love for Simon along with those who also love Nick and Edgar. Only another Fangirl can know how it is gals :-) (hugs to all)

Emily walked up the stairs caught between feeling wonderful and the knowing that her life was going to change in a big way, one way or the other. There was a certainty to it that she could feel hovering above her like some specter.

What Shaun had said brought it all home. It was a turning point in her life she was going to be up against. Emily hated big decisions...hated having to deal with the crap that David had made her have to go though, what he'd done to her. It all was connected back to him. But the thing was, if none of that had happened, she wouldn't be here and she wouldn't have met Shaun.

With a heavy sigh she unlocked the door and entered the apartment. She'd deal with this stuff tomorrow. Tonight she'd sleep on it.

"Deb!" She called out, placing the key on the coffee table. "Deb I'm back."

"In here..." came a voice from the bedroom.

Em tossed her bag down on the couch and headed into her friends room. She found Deb pouring what looked like antiseptic or something on a nasty wound on her leg.

"Christ...what happened to you?" Emily said, walking over to where Deb was sitting on the bed.

"You wouldn't fucking believe me." She replied, and winced as the burning got worse. "Let's just say I quit my job today, and tomorrow I'm looking for a lawyer."

"What the hell happened?" Emily went into the bathroom and started looking for bandages.

Deb decided she'd napalmed her leg enough and tossed the tissue she'd been using to dab the medicine on it into the wastebasket. She sat back on the bed and grabbed a smoke from her pack on the nightstand. "So I get there, and Lon is looking like he's got some fucking Ebola or some shit." She lit the fag and took a deep inhale.

Em came out of the bathroom holding bandages and motioned for her to put her leg up.

"Thanks love. Anyway...so he's real cranky and being more of a prick than usual. Tells me to go get these pictures he took for the story. So I go and get them. Those were a trip by themselves mind you." She took another drag from her smoke.

"What were they of? You said you didn't know what the story was about." She started wrapping the nasty looking bite, which looked nearly black around the edges, carefully.

"Fucking zombies...that's what they were. The re-animates like they have at the club every so often. You saw them the other night...or maybe you were too enthralled by Shaun's manly physique." She laughed and then coughed lightly.

"Hey, don't talk about Shaun. He's a good guy...he's a real good guy." Em gave her a glare and Deb decided to hold off since she was doing first aide on her and all.

"Anyway...they were pictures of these things in cells. They were loads of them. I don't know how many. They were like packed in and being kept like animals or something. Real heavy shit man, stuff I don't think the public has any idea about. I doubt these things relatives would appreciate them being kept like this." She took another puff as Emily finished up her bandage.

"So what happened to your leg then?" She asked her taking the stuff back into the bathroom.

"Well I go back to give him his damn pictures and I find him hiding behind the desk. Looks like he's had some sort of attack or something, so I go over and check on him. He's playing possum apparently...because while I'm calling the ambulance he raises up and bites my fucking leg."

"He what??!!" Emily stood in the doorway of the bathroom.

"He bites my fucking leg." Deb said again, crushing her cigarette out.

"What did you do?" She moved back to the bed and sat down, her eyes wide.

"I kicked him as hard as I could in the head, threw his damn pictures at him and told him I quit and that his perv ass could expect to hear from my lawyer, that's what I did." Deb grabbed another smoke.

"Holy shit...shouldn't you file a thing with the cops?" Emily had never heard of something so freaking bizarre.

"I want to talk to the lawyer before I do anything. I want to make sure I get that bastard good and proper." She lit another smoke. "So...I saw you and Shaun have become right close."

Emily actually blushed, not able to help it. "How would you know?" She asked cocking a brow.

"The whole street knows dear." Deb laughed and took another lungful of smoke.

"Ah, spying, now who's the perv?" Emily replied, smiling.

"I never said I wasn't pervy. I just was looking out the window and saw you two on top of one another." She pointed a red tipped nail at her. "I'm telling you now though, the guy has issues. I told you before about what happened and..."

Emily cut her off. "Deb, I told you not to say anything about him and I mean it." She gave her another hard stare.

Deb raised her eyebrows. Obviously she was into the nimnod, more so than Deb had thought at first. "Alright...alright...I'm just trying to look out for you."

"I appreciate the concern, but I think I'll be fine." Her voice still harsh on the edges, Emily took a calming breath and then gave her friend a smile. "Do you want anything to eat or something, since I doubt you want to walk around on that leg?"

Deb nodded. "Yeah actually...I am a might peckish."

Emily called for take-out and brought it in to Deb as soon as it arrived. "Here ya go, beef and broccoli and noodles." She handed it over to her, noticing that in the hour or so she had been away, Deb looked more peaked and her brow was sweaty. "You sure you're alright?"

Deb looked up from her white box of noodles and said around a mouthful. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks love."

Em brought her a beer and told her that she should probably call it a day and go to bed early, she looked like she was coming down with something. Deb didn't argue as she felt feverish. She hoped that little bastard hadn't given her some kind of flu with his grimy fucking teeth. Visions of the settlement she'd get out of that rag of a paper were dancing in her head as she dug into the Chinese food.

Emily shut the door to Deb's room and flopped down on the couch after popping in a DVD of Doctor Who, one of the Tom Baker ones and started in on her sweet and sour chicken. As The Doctor battled the Daleks and Davros she let her mind go blank and just enjoyed the wonder that was old school BBC Sci-Fi. As she figured would happen her thoughts turned to Shaun. She couldn't help but think how much fun it would be to have him next to her on the couch, just vegging out. And then what else they could be doing on the couch.

She shook her head and smiled at that. My word, she'd turned into a little lust bucket thanks to him. By the time she was halfway through the DVD she'd fallen asleep to the sounds of "Exterminate...exterminate!"

It was mid morning when she woke up to the sounds of people driving about outside to and from wherever they were going. Emily stretched out, her neck and shoulders popped loudly. She turned off the TV and cleaned up the mess of cartons on the table. She noticed that Deb's door was still shut.

After going to the bathroom and taking a quick shower, she dressed in her comfy jeans and her Bat symbol t-shirt and decided to go check on her.

As quietly as she could she opened the door and peered in. "Deb, hey are you awake?"

She saw her lying on the bed, not really moving. The cartons of food left on her nightstand. "Hey Deb?" She asked a little louder.

"Em...hey..." Her voice sounded like rusty chains. When Emily got closer she saw she was waxy pale and covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

"God, you look awful..." She couldn't help the exclamation.

Deb flipped her off in return. At least she could hear.

"Thanks and...a hardy fuck you too." Deb coughed, her body shaking hard.

"Hey, we need to get you to a doctor." Emily pulled the covers up around her.

"Uh...I'm going to kill that little cocksucker. He did this to me...gave me the freaking flu." Deb shivered and she pulled the blankets around her tighter.

"I'll get you a glass of water." Em left and came back quickly, handing her the glass. "Drink that."

She did as told, a bit dribbling down her chin. With a shaky hand, Deb put the glass on the table. "Thanks. I don't need a doctor, money for nothing. It's the flu is all." She coughed again, and let out a groan. "I'll rest and then I'm calling the lawyer." She closed her eyes and Emily shook her head.

"Stubborn broad." She muttered, and decided she couldn't leave her alone while she was like this. She'd have to call Shaun and tell him what was going on and that she wouldn't be able to go out, at least not today.

She closed the door and walked back into the living room. She found the phone and then pulled Shaun's number from her bag. He picked up on the second ring.

"Hey Shaun, its Emily." She said, a smile coming to her lips at the sound of his voice.

Shaun perked up immediately. He was on his way out of the flat when the phone had rang, getting ready to go to a lunch meeting with a contact from one of the local clubs. Money from the comic and the game was running out, and he'd decided to see if he still had what it took to jockey a turntable. He'd missed it a lot, but he didn't know if he would be able to impress the guy, who was seven years younger than he was.

So he'd been dreading the thing, and now it was even worse. Emily's call was a very welcome distraction.

"Hey love, how's it going?" He searched around for his jacket, juggling the phone.

"Not so great for Deb Shaun, I don't think I'll be able to go out to dinner tonight." Her voice sounded worried, causing him to pause a moment.

"What's the matter?"

Emily ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "Something happened to her at the office, you won't believe it."

"Give me a try," he replied, eyes finding his jacket sticking up behind the couch.

"Well...it sounds like her boss kinda went loony tunes. When she was bringing him these really gross pictures for this big story, he...well I guess he attacked her and bit a hunk out of her leg."

Shaun was shrugging into his jacket when she said it. And when his brain realized exactly what she'd said the world seemed to funnel in around him. "He...he what?" His voice had gone up an octave and he couldn't breathe.

"He bit her, like some kind of lunatic pervert. You ought to see this thing too. It was like he was trying to eat her or something." She sat down on the couch. "So now she's running a fever and looks like hell. She said the guy was sick when she came in, so now he's probably gave her some kind of freaky flu bug. I don't even think she could get out of bed if she wanted to."

God almighty...he forced himself to breathe. "In and out Shaun, in and out" he told himself. "Maybe the guy was a pervert, maybe it is nothing. No need to freak the fuck out...right?" Wait a minute...

"You said gross pictures? What were they of?" Please let me be wrong, please let me be wrong. He was leaning against the wall now; afraid if he didn't he'd collapse.

"Oh..." her voice got strangely quiet.

"Emily, what were the pictures of?" He asked again, as calmly as he could.

"Shaun I don't know if...well, they were of some of the...zombies. She said they were in cells or something, really gruesome, close up pictures." She didn't think he'd want to hear that, but he'd asked and she didn't want to lie to him.

"Oh god..." he said softly. The walls nearly spun and all he could think was she was there, alone, with Deb. The images from his dream came barreling back and he felt his blood go cold.

"Shaun, are you still there?"

Her voice jerked him back to reality. He had to get her out of there, now. "Emily, I want you to listen very carefully..."

"Okay," she said wondering what was going on.

"I want you to get out of the apartment right now. I want you to get yourself downstairs and wait for me alright?" He headed towards the hall closet, trying to remain as calm as he could so she didn't freak out...much in the same way he was.

"Shaun, I told you I can't leave her. She's sick as a dog. Why do you sound so funny?" Her brows knitted together, confused.

He found what he was looking for. He pulled out the pump action shotgun he'd bought a few days after Z-day. Yeah it wasn't too terribly legal, but he knew someone who knew someone. He grabbed the box of shells from the top shelf and shoved them in the pocket of his jacket. "There's nothing funny about it Em. Has she... (please God say no) has she bitten you?"

"What? Jesus Shaun no! Now tell me what's going on?" This was starting to freak her out. She stood up from the couch and started pacing.

He closed his eyes and mouthed "thank you" to whoever granted that one. "Listen to me Emily. Get downstairs and out of the apartment right now!" He tucked the gun underneath his jacket just in case any of the cops might be out today and ran down the sidewalk towards the apartment, the phone up to his ear.

"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on Shaun. This is nuts."

Shaun let out a growl; he knew he looked like a lunatic running down the street. He knew he was probably showing off the shotgun as his jacket billowed around him. He nearly ran into half a dozen people as he did so.

Breathing hard he listened to his worse fear occur over the cell phone.

"What the hell was that?" Emily's voice suddenly sounded scared.

"What...what's going on?" Shaun panted into the phone.

"Something just fell over in Deb's room. She may have fallen out of the bed; I need to go check..."

He cut her off. "Like hell you do! Stay out of there and get downstairs." His legs were aching at this point.

"Shaun....Jesus just tell me what's..." And then he heard it...the same time she did.

It was a moan, a low, mournful, lengthy sound. It seeped through the crack under the door and nearly echoed around the apartment. It caused the hair to stand up on Emily's neck and a chill to go down her spine.

"God...Shaun did you hear that...what was that?" She breathed into the phone, her voice barely a whisper.

"Emily get the hell out of there now!" He could see the front of the building in the distance, his lungs burning. People were staring at him like he was crazy. He was used to that at this point and really didn't give a shit anymore.

"Fine..." She said, and grabbed her bag. She hung up the phone as the thumping started on the bedroom door. The moaning came again, mixed with a sort of snarling. Her blue eyes widened and she quickly grabbed the keys and shut the front door of the apartment with a slam and locked it.

Emily nearly tripped going down the stairs, but she made it out the entrance and then succeeded in nearly slamming into Shaun. Both of them yelped and then Shaun grabbed her in a fierce one armed hug. "Bloody hell, listen to me when I tell you to do something." He managed to say between gulps of air.

She pulled away from him. "Shaun, what the hell is going on?? What's...what is up with Deb?" Her eyes were wide and searching, and Shaun didn't want to tell her what he knew would be the truth. If there was any doubt before that damned moan had destroyed it.

"I have to go up to the apartment Em, did you lock it?" He asked her.

"Yeah, yeah, but what is going on...just tell me." She grabbed him by the arm and held on.

Shaun took another breath and readied himself for both explaining what he'd have to do, and then actually doing it. He didn't really trust the cops...not after what had happened with Ed...Not with the things he'd heard were possibly going on.

That's when the scream erupted from the top of the building, out of one of the neighbor's windows on the same floor as Deb's apartment.

"Holy shit..." Emily jumped and so did Shaun at the sound.

"I have to go in there, stay down here. If I'm not back in five minutes use this to call emergency, okay?" He handed her his cell phone and then pulled the shotgun out from beneath his jacket. He started loading the shells in and she just gaped at him. "And for Christ sake, do NOT come in after me, understood?"

She avoided answering him, "What are you going to do with that?" She asked and then the realization hit her like a ton of rocks. "Fuck me...she's a zom..."

"That's right." He said turning towards her, his voice low. His eyes were suddenly much darker, and his face set like stone. He looked just like he had when he'd decked the creep at the club, only more so. This was that same change she'd seen happen to him that night. Any other time it would be a total turn on, but right now it scared her. Because Shaun knew what was in that building, he'd lived through it before. And she could still see fear in his eyes next to that cold determination.