Disclaimer: I don't own Dead Like Me or Tru Calling or anything related to either of 'em.
A/N: Ahoy yonder land lubbers! This is my first Fan Fic so please R&R! Free virtual hugs to first three reviews! I don't expect many more then that so…
And this is mostly making fun of Tru Calling so if you REALLY like the show it's better if you don't read. Or do. Tis up to you.
8 Sunday Mornings a Week
26 June 07:35
Der Waffle House was more busy then usual for breakfast. People wanted pancakes, eggs and, of course, waffles.
In one little cubicle near the kitchen there was a group of patrons who weren't very pleased with the mass of people.
"Why are there so many people?" George Lass asked as she glared at everyone who walked by.
"I've not a notion, Georgie." Mason answered while he batted away a four year old who wanted his pancakes. "Bugger off." he said to the child. The thing's mother came over and lifted it up. As she walked away the mother scowled at Mason.
"Why wouldn't they come?" came a low voice from the corner of the booth. "The waffles are great and the eggs, now that they got a new cook, are perfect."
"They had to get a new cook." Roxy reminded him "The other one died."
"Good man, bad chief." Rube took a sip of his coffee.
"But why today?" George whined.
Rube looked at her.
"Why not today." and so he continued with his breakfast.
"Where's Daisy?" Mason asked.
"Don't know, she said she'd be late today." George said.
"Well let's just start without her, shall we?" Rube took out his leather date book and retrieved three yellow Post-Its from it, which he then smacked down in front of each of them one by one.
George picked her's up. It read,
"S. Lavine
184 Klepp's Blv.
E.T.D 08:34"
"Where is this?" she showed the address to Roxy.
"It's near the university." She answered taking a bite of her hash browns. "Next to the park."
Mason snatched the paper out of George's hand.
"It's a book store," he said. "I got a book of sonnet-" he stopped himself there. "Never mind."
08:25
George arrived at the book shop with nine minutes to find S. Levine.
The store was a tall building with about three stories to it. The inside was all pine or oak or something like that. Point is there was a lot of wood. The shelves were very high and some required a ladder to reach.
The contents of the shop ranged from dusty old volumes to brand new editions.
Falling off the ladder at a huge height? Too normal.
Being crushed by a hundred falling books? More like it.
Being eaten alive by a crazed, raging monster being held under the floor boards by the owner as a simple way of getting rid of shop lifters? Probably.
However it happened, someone was dying today in that shop and George had to reap their soul before it happened.
She walked up to the cash desk and asked if their was anyone with the name Lavine working in the shop.
"Sorry dude. Nobody by that name works here anymore." the heavy set worker told her.
"Anymore?"
"Yeah, there was a guy who worked here, Sid, but the boss fired him two days ago.
"Why?" George didn't really care but she had to stay here for another five minutes anyway so she might as well have got an interesting story out of it.
"Why do you care?" he asked.
George rapped her fingers on the counter and thought quick.
"My sister is dating him and I knew they met here. I was gonna see if he worked here and see what he was like."
Okay, that sucked.
"I thought Sid was gay." the worker said.
Shit.
"Well my sister wasn't always a sister."
The guy let out a low whistle and leaned in closer to George. Not knowing really what to do she leaned in too. The guy gave a quick glance to both sides of the counter. When he knew that the line was secure he began to speak.
"Well, he kept coming in late and going for three hour lunch breaks. Then Mr. Hennessey found him selling drugs to some guy out of the back door. When the boss found them the guy he was selling it to ran off. Mr. Hennessey fired Sid and called the cops."
Three minutes. And the bell above the door started to ring.
A guy that looked around twenty nine or thirty walked into the shop. He had messy brown hair, an angry face and a look in his eye that made George think he was her guy.
"Oh boy." the guy behind the counter sighed. "Speak of the devil."
Sid Lavine waked over to the counter and slammed his hand on the wood top.
"Hey, Tubs." He addressed the worker. "Where is he?"
"The name is Walter and he isn't in yet. And the cops said you can't be here."
"Screw the cops." Sid yelled and produced a baseball bat from behind his back. He swung it in the direction of the book stand a few feet away from George. And he missed.
It then occurred to George that this guy was drunk out of his head.
"Come on dude." Walter said coming out from behind the counter. "Just leave. You'll make it worse for yourself like this."
"Fuck off!" he took another swing, this time at the worker. Needless to say he missed.
"Okay how about you just give me the bat?" Walter inched closer and stretched out his arms. "And you can sit down."
"Like that's going to work." George thought to herself. She checked her watch. One minute. George decided to do her thing and head to work. She was already going to be late but at least if she was less then an hour late Deloris would only give her the "priorities" talk instead of the "I was worried, Millie, I really was." Talk.
So she inched closer to Sid and stretched out her hand.
26 June 11:23
The morgue was silent except for the echoing tapping of Tru Davies' fingers on a wooden table. She was stuck with nothing to do. The young woman had been in work for two hours and there had not been one body brought in. At least that meant that she mightn't have to partake in her other job today.
As she ran her fingers through her dark hair and thought of getting lunch early, her mobile phone rang. She reached across the desk and retrieved it. She pressed a button.
"Hello?"
"Hey there, how's life with the stiffs?" came the voice of her beloved brother Harrison.
"Harry…" she began to scold.
"Any of 'em gotten chatty yet?" he joked.
"Is there a reason your calling?"
"Why should a brother need a reason to call his sister?"
"Well, money is a reason. Or you're in trouble with the cops. Or the mob."
"Now why would they be interested in me?"
Tru heard the double doors to the morgue swung open. She leaned over and looked through the open office door. Davis was pushing a stretcher on top of which lay a dead body.
"Well Harrison, I hope it can wait cause duty calls." Tru said as she hung up.
"Wait, Tru! I need-"
Click.
Tru walked from the office onto the floor. Davis put the brakes on the stretcher and nodded when he saw her.
"Hi Tru." He said as walked to the side. He pulled over a metal tray on wheels, on top of which lay plastic bags.
"Who do we have today?" she asked as she smiled at her boss.
Tru looked down at the man on the cart. He had dark brown hair, almost black. It was very messy.
"Sid Lavine." Davis read from the chart. He reached for one of the plastic bags and took Sid's wallet. Then he placed it carefully in the bag and closed it over. "Twenty six years old. Died at eight thirty five. Or there abouts. Died in some bookstore on Klepp's Boulevard. He had been fired from it recently. He went back there today and…"
Whatever Davis was saying then it was lost on Tru. Because Sid took this opportunity to open his eyes and say to her,
"Hey, bitch! Get off your ass and help me!"
It was then that everything around Tru began to twist and contort. It all froze and then began to move very quickly. She felt her world push past her and her day rewound to when she had awoken.
It was also then, as she emerged from her desk at Happy Time to go to the bathroom, that George's day began to do the same.
June 26 06:56
George sat up in her bed with a jolt. Her eyes darted around the room and she couldn't help but call out,
"What the fuck?"
This caused Daisy to open the door to her bedroom and peek in.
"Well good morning, sun shine. Bad dream?"
George just ran her hand over her the top of her head and stared at the covers. She was in Happy Time. She needed to pee. Didn't she?
That is a weird question.
"Georgia?" She sighed and then smiled "I'm going to be late for breakfast this morning." Daisy said turning her back to George and leaving her bedroom door open. "Tell him that, okay?"
Even though she was trying to understand what had happened to her George couldn't help but wonder with a smile weather Daisy meant Rube or Mason. Then she remembered that she had already thought that when Daisy told her the same thing yesterday. Then she frowned for three minutes before getting dressed.
07: 30
George looked around the packed Waffle House and glared at everyone who walked
by. But not because that's what she normally did when it was packed.
Because they were all the same people from the day before. Ordering the same things. And doing, well, the same things.
She looked down at her plate and then at everyone else's at the table, though she already knew what they were having. Mason was having pancakes, Rube was having bacon, eggs and toast and Roxy was having her free coffee with some hash browns. This was weird.
But what George thought was really weird was the fact that nobody else at the table had brought up the fact that they had already done this. And that everything was all…the same.
Rube looked up from his meal for a split second and noticed George's baffled face.
"Oatmeal not good today, peanut?"
"What?" she snapped out of her trance. "Oh, um, no. I'm just not hungry."
"Well I'll take some." Mason said, swinging her bowl over to his side of the table. "Thanks Georgie."
"Can I have my Post-it?" George said quietly. She had been frowning for the whole meal.
Rube looked up at her. He looked at her straight in the eye and didn't say anything for a
moment. Then he smiled slightly and said,
"Sure."
He peeled one of the little yellow notes from his date book and slapped it down in front of her.
"Thanks." She mumbled and then stood up to leave.
As she left, after paying for her oatmeal, she couldn't help but glance at the Post-it and pray it didn't say what it did.
"S. Lavine
184 Klepp's Blv.
E.T.D 08:34"
"Crap."
07:49
Tru sat up in her bed. She was breathing heavily. But there was no time for breathing heavily.
Sid Lavine. A bookshop on Klepp's Boulevard. Less then an hour to go. She threw the covers off, grabbed her phone and ran to her wardrobe. Then she stopped half way towards her shoes.
He had called her a bitch. 'Sid' had said for her to "Get off her ass."
She thought for a second about taking her time.
No. That would be wrong. This was a human life, a human being. No matter how much of a prick he was.
And so ten minutes later she was off and running.
08:20
George had decided to go for a drive before she reaped Sid. She stopped near the park and bought a pretzel. Not the ideal breakfast but she had no room for oatmeal. She was driving around and thinking about calling in sick today. She decided that she needed the time off.
As she dialed Happy Time's number into her phone with one hand and steered with the other, a girl with dark hair ran in front of her car, yelling into her own phone.
"Shit!" George swerved to miss the girl, who still ran across the road with out stopping.
George could just make out the girl saying,
"Davis, a bookshop on Klepp's Boulevard. Any…" Before she was off around the corner.
George was too busy thinking why she was too sick for work to bother caring about the coincidence. The phone on the other end began to ring.
Five minutes later and George was very happy that Deloris was fine about 'Millie' having the day off.
"Well of course you can have the day off, Millie." She had said. " Dave syndrome is very serious."
"Yeah well I guess someone must have turned the thermostat to 88 because she is going crazy. I'm just staying with her until she cools down."
Shortly after this George was stepping out of her car and into the bookshop. She had decided to take her time and maybe buy a book now that she didn't have to find S. Lavine. When she was inside she saw Walter behind the counter. He was doing a cross word and drinking from a Starbucks cup. While she looked at the spines of the various volumes the bell above the door jingled. She glanced up. It was Sid.
Outside, Tru came running up the street. She dodged everyone who got in her way and pushed through a group of people, one of which fell with a thud on the concrete.
"Hey!" The guy yelled from the ground up at Tru. She looked back but didn't stop. She had to save Sid. Then she ran into something hard and stumbled back a few paces. She looked up at the man before her.
"That wasn't a very nice thing to do." He said to her with a smile and nodded behind her at the guy on the ground.
"Yeah, I know. Look I don't have time for this." She started to walk around him.
He stepped to the side and blocked her way.
"You should still make sure he's okay." He continued to smile at her. "Or don't you care?"
"Hey, I care but I have to help someone else right now." She tried to swerve around him.
"But first," the guy said stepping in front of her once again. " you should go apologise to him. See if he's okay."
The smile had disappeared.
Before Tru could shift the guy she heard a huge din coming from inside the bookshop. There were wails and screams coming from within. She could here numerous crashes and then a loud shriek. Then, as soon as it started the commotion stopped.
Then a single girl stepped out of the shop.
George was talking with the hazy figure of Sid Lavine. Of course, no one else could see him. And they were more sort of arguing then talking.
"I can't be dead!" he was yelling.
"Well you are." Was George's answer. She wasn't looking at him. She only glanced around the street and slipped on her sunglasses.
"No!" he stopped walking and pointed his finger at George. "You did this to me yesterday and I fixed it!"
George's eyes widened behind her lenses. She swung her head towards him.
"What do you mean you 'fixed it'?" Now she was looking at him. She was glaring at him.
He shifted his eyes to the side and then spun around. He pointed to a girl who was running into the shop.
"HER!" he yelled and ran after her.
George went after Sid but pulled him back before he entered the shop.
"You made the day go back." George said as she grabbed his arm and spun him around. "You made today yesterday! Or yesterday and today the same day." she thought for a second. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, spaz." Sid shouted. Then he pointed at the girl in the shop, who was standing over his body. George recognized her as the girl who had ran in front of her car. "She made it go back."
Then, when George looked pass the girl at Sid's body, he smiled.
"I can do it again!" he laughed in realization.
"Wait what?"
Then George jumped when she saw Sid's (his body) eyes shoot open and shout at the girl in the shop,
"Come on, Tru! Help me!"
Then both the girl's days contorted and twisted again. But George had just enough time to think,
"Tru? Seriously? Geez…"
26 June 06:56
"God damit!" George yelled when she woke. She tossed the covers off and stormed out of her room. Daisy was walking by in her silk pyjamas and robe. She had her blonde locks swept back into a neat ponytail. A beautiful smile flashed across her face when she saw George.
"Good morning, Georgia." She said brightly.
George just kept walking towards the phone. She picked it up and dialled Rube's number.
When there was no answer she slammed it down again.
"Why?" she whined at the phone.
"Georgia?" Daisy asked, walking up and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
George glared at the floor and then looked up at Daisy. She said, in monotone,
"I'm going to go out now." And walked back into her room.
As she closed the door she heard Daisy call,
"Well, I'm gonna be late for breakfast this morning. Could you tell him that?"
George felt like kicking something.
07:18
Rube was already in his corner when George arrived. Mason and Roxy were nowhere to be seen. She slid into the chair opposite him and folded her arms across the table.
"Morning, Peanut." He said without looking up from his date book.
When she tried to look at what he was writing he closed it over and looked up at her.
"Something the matter?"
This was the desired effect.
"Well," George wasn't sure how to put it. It was kind of a strange thing to ask. She finally decided to just come out and say it. "actually there is." She paused again. "I keep…replaying…my, um, reap. Today, anyway. Or for the past few days, I'm not really sure."
Coming out and saying it was harder then she thought it would be.
Rube began to play with his pen between his fingers. His expression hadn't changed since she had sat down. He was straight faced but had a slight smile peeking its way out.
"You see," George played with her index finger. " I got this Post-it and it was for an 'S. Lavine'. So I went and I reaped him. Then a few hours later I was in Happy Time and then I was in my bed. It was the same day and a few hours earlier, the time I had woken up at. So I came here and it was exactly the same as it was before. And none of you seemed to notice. It was annoying."
Rube continued to play with the pen.
"So I went to reap him again." She continued. It was hard. She didn't even now what she was trying to say. "And there was this girl there. Her name was 'Tru'." At this George wrinkled her nose slightly. "And the guy I had reaped said that she made the day go back. Then his corpse asked her for help and the day went back again."
It has to be said that George felt a little better after telling Rube. But also a whole lot worse because now she was fairly sure that she was crazy. Just a little anyway.
Rube leaned forward and rested his hands on his date book. His smile never faded. He exhaled and looked George in the eye.
"I hate it when that happens." He said.
George was not expecting that.
07:49
Tru sat up once again. She threw off the covers, grabbed her phone and ran to the wardrobe. At least she knew where the shop was now. And to avoid that weird guy.
Within ten minutes she was off running again.
08:05
George drove down the road and thought about what Rube had told her. It freaked her out to say the least. She had stuck around to eat her oatmeal today. Somehow talking to Rube settled her stomach. Although it did make her feel a bit sick. It was kind of funny that way.
She turned down the street and stepped hard on the brakes.
'Tru' ran across the road in front of George's car.
"No fucking way." George watched the woman run down the street and disappear behind the corner.
George turned around the corner and drove after the girl. It took her a while to catch up with the running woman. How the hell could she run faster then George's car?
After five minutes George pulled over and jumped out of the car. She had managed to get ahead of the woman and waited for Tru to run into her. At that moment she ran down the street and right into George.
"Sorry." Tru mumbled and tried to keep going. But George had grabbed her arm.
"Jesus, don't you ever need to breathe?" George looked the woman up and down.
"Excuse me?" For once Tru was immobile.
"I know what you did." George said. "You made today go back. Twice. You keep making me repeat this day!"
Tru's eyes widened.
"What did you say?"
"This is the THIRD time I've had to wake up to this damn day! And it's all because of you!"
"How do you know? Did you go back?" Tru pulled her arm free of George's grip.
"That's what I'm telling you!" George yelled. "God, not the best listener are ya Tru?"
"How do you know my name?"
"Yesterday Sid Lavine asked for your help about something. He called you Tru." George wrinkled her nose again.
"What?" Tru asked of the nose wrinkle.
"Just, what kind of name is 'Tru'?"
Tru frowned at George.
"Oh yeah, well what's your name?"
"Oh fuck off." George grabbed her by the arm again and started dragging her to her car.
"What the hell are you doing?" Tru yelled and tried to get away.
"Come on!" George said. "You're comin' with me."
"Wait! Who are you?"
"I'm a grim reaper." She said without hesitation. George couldn't care less about Tru knowing her secret.
"You're the grim reaper?" Tru called out in disbelief. She stopped struggling.
"Not THE, a. As in one of many." She led Tru to the car.
Tru stopped and placed a hand on the door.
"What's going on? Am I going to die?"
"Not unless you have a Post-it. And if you do, not until at least noon. But I'm not the one to do it anyway." George stood on the other side of the car. "Get in."
Tru had no idea what was going on. She had twenty minutes to save Sid Lavine. That much she knew and that was why she ran.
"For fuck's sake." George got in the car and chased Tru down the street.
She drove beside her and screamed at her.
"Tru, get in the damn car! You're not gonna die!"
"I have to save him!" she yelled back as she ran. There was barely anyone on the street to see the spectacle.
"I'm going to the bookshop too, I'll take you." George had to try something to get her in her car.
"No, you'll kill him!"
"I don't kill anyone."
Tru stopped. She stared at George.
"How do you think it's ok for you to take people's lives like you do? To choose who lives and who dies?"
"I don't!" She yelled. George was getting tired of Tru. "I don't decide! Some all-knowing, all-seeing, cosmic jackass picks who dies, how, where and when and then WE get it on a Post-it! They die whether we're there or not but as long as there's a grim reaper there to take their soul, they move on! I don't kill anybody!"
Tru thought for a moment.
"How do you think it's ok to stop them?" George asked.
Tru blinked.
"What?"
"Why do you think that you get to choose?"
"Well people-"
"You know this guy Sid? He is an asshole. He's rude and a drug dealer! You want to save him?"
Tru thought for a moment.
"It's still a human life."
For God's sake.
"Get in the damn car, Tru."
"No."
George threw an empty coffee cup at Tru.
"What the hell!"
"Get in the car!" George threw a squashed up wrapper at the girl's head.
"No! What are you-hey!" she deflected the wrapper and began running again when George began producing more fast food garbage to throw at her.
"Come back!" George yelled. She began to drive.
The ridiculous chase continued for just a minute when George ran out of junk to throw at Tru's head.
"Crap!"
What was she going to do? Run her over? She revved up. No! Reapers shouldn't kill people. Look what happened with Mason and Ray. Forget running her over. Too hard. Probably some yells from Rube and then Roxy would have to save her from being jailed. Screw that idea. She continued to drive.
That's when George decided to just do what she had to do.
She would reap Sid and deal with Tru later.
She went up a gear and drove to the store. She ran in without locking the car. It was already 08:32.
George just about caught Sid coming into the shop and brushed her hand down his arm.
Part one completed.
George leaned against her car and waited for Tru.
A moment later the brunette do-gooder came running down the street towards the shop.
George tackled her.
"Oww! You bitch, get off!" Tru tried to get out from under George.
"Not until he dies!"
Tru looked into the shop. She saw Sid die and waited for him to ask her.
George noticed this and wrapped her hands around Tru's eyes.
"Oh no you don't!"
"Get off!"
Amazingly nobody seemed to notice the two wrestling on the ground. They were all to enthralled with Sid's death scene.
Suddenly the two girls heard Sid's voice.
"Come on! Tru save me, you lazy bitch."
"Shit!" George screamed as the day contorted once more.
"Ha!" Tru yelled loudly.
George had just an instant enough to head butt Tru before the two were back to the hours before.
June 26 06:56
"God damn that stupid bitch to hell!"
George threw off the covers and went to get dressed.
Daisy walked in and smiled.
"Good morning Georgia. How are-"
"Not now Daisy!"
"Georgia…"
"I'll tell him you'll be late, ok?"
Daisy blinked.
"Alright…"
She left and George cursed Tru over and over again.
She thought back on what Rube had said the last day.
"I hate when that happens."
George had been surprised.
"What?"
"They annoy me." He had told her. "Think that they know better then we do, act like they have a say in the natural order of things. You and I both know, Peanut, that if you have a Post-it, you're gone. But those people…" He shook his head at this and took a bite of his eggs. He smiled happily. "Perfect."
George had stared at the napkin dispenser for a good two minutes before Rube spoke again.
"How many days has it been?"
"Third time I got up to today."
"You know what happens if they save them, Peanut?"
George had shaken her head at this.
"The same thing that happens when they die without a Post-it." He moved his bacon around with his fork. "They have to die, everyone does, so when it eventually happens they don't have a Post-it, it's already been written. No reapers there to reap, they become Gravlings."
This had made George's skin crawl. Every Graveling she had seen had been a person. A person who had asked to be saved. They had asked for it.
George had thought about this for a moment before she asked:
"Why do I go back as well?"
"Because it's your reap, you have to reap them no matter what."
"What can you do?"
Rube had smiled at this.
"Stop her, Peanut."
07: 49
Tru woke up and frowned angrily.
Whoever that girl was Tru needed to beat her to the bookshop.
She got changed and ran out the door.
She ran back for her phone and ran out again.
08:05
George rested her head on her hand and stared out the window of her car. Stupid red light.
Mason sat next to her, looking impatient and bored.
"Georgie, what are we doing?"
"I've got to reap this guy today and I need your help with it."
"And why is that?"
"There she is!" George suddenly yelled. She drove through the red light and turned the corner. "Bitch!"
This took Mason off guard somewhat.
"George! What the fuck are you doing!"
"You see that girl running down that street?" she asked him, nodding towards Tru.
"Yeah, so?"
"I need you to do something for me."
Tru ran down the street and thanked God the weird girl hadn't shown up yet.
That was when a classic red convertible came screeching up beside her and a messy looking guy in his twenties jumped out and tackled her.
"What the hell are you-" Tru started but she was silenced when George appeared in the corner of her eye. "You!"
George just looked up and down the street and made sure no one saw them. Just as the day before the street was empty.
Then she grabbed Tru's feet and, as Mason held on to her waist, stood the confused girl up and the two chucked her into the back seat of her car.
"Hey! What are you doing? Who are you?" She tried to get up but Mason lay a hand on her shoulder and pushed her down.
"George? Why are we doing this?" He asked, getting into the front seat.
"Long story. Abridged version? She's a bitch." George slid into her front seat and started the engine.
"George?" Tru asked from the back seat. "That's your name? And you made fun of mine?"
"What?" George looked into the back.
"What kind of name is that for a girl?" She laughed slightly.
"It's short for Georgia. What's yours short for?" She began to drive down the street.
"Trudence?"
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Hope you liked part one of two! All reviews welcome. Don't forget your hugs!