Disclaimer: As usual I don't own Dead Like Me.
A/N: Ok.. This is the big chapter. The chapter that all of my awesome reviewers have been waiting for!
George woke up to the sound of her alarm clock beeping loudly in her ear. She groaned and hit the snooze button.
Fifteen minutes later it went off again, this time, George unplugged the little clock and went back to sleep.
An hour later, at 9:00, she woke up and staggered sleepily into the kitchen to get some coffee, but stopped when she saw Mason. He had fallen asleep on the table. Various pill bottles and empty beer bottles surrounded his head in a strange sort of halo.
George walked over to him "Mason get up.We have to leave." No response.
She shook him by the shoulder. "Mason get up!"
He awoke with a snort. He wiped the drool off his chin with his sleeve and yawned.
"I had a dream last night...I was being chased by giant pills..Tic-tacs I think..."
"Those aren't pills, Mason."
"I don't care...bloody vicious they were..."
George rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Let's go."
"Daisy talked to me last night"
George stopped. "And what did she say?"
"Said I can't help her because it happened a long time ago."
"Hmm." George frowned. "We should try to ask Rube again."
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Mason and George sat in the car outside the Waffle House.
"Ok. Remember, if we want this to work we have to be subtle, ask him casually and try to catch him off guard." Said George
Mason nodded.
"Great! Let's go. But remember, be subtle." Said George as she got out of her car.
They went in and joined Rube and Roxy at their usual booth. George picked up the menu and pretended to be interested in it. She whispered to Mason, who was sitting beside her. "O.k Mason, let me do the talking." She then spoke to Rube. "Rube, what are you going to hav-"
"Rube what the fuck is going on with Daisy!" Mason interrupted.
George elbowed him, hard, in the side.
"Ow! No need to be violent Georgie." He rubbed his side.
Rube looked to Mason with concern. "Why do you ask?"
"She talked to me last night, she didn't say much though, something about something happening a while ago... Whatever that means." He stopped deep in thought. And then looked at Rube. "But you'd probably know what it meant . . . what does it mean?"
"It means that you should leave her alone and mind your own fucking business." Said Roxy before Rube got a chance to speak.
"Oh and what? You're sticking up for her now or something? You're probably just as curious as we are!" Said George.
"For your information, I'm not curious about it. She already told me what was going on." Roxy looked pleased with the expressions on both George, and Mason's, faces.
"Why would she tell you?" asked Mason
"Because, maybe I'm not asking her all the time. And maybe because she trusts me a little more than she trusts the two of you." Roxy said "And with good reason." She muttered under her breath.
Rube took out his leather book of post-its. "I've got post-its for everyone." He said, breaking up the heated conversation between the reapers. He handed out the assignments to each of them.
George looked at hers. "This isn't until midnight...lucky me! I have the whole day off!"
"Don't you have a job?" asked Roxy.
"Yep. But I took the week off. I told Delores that my sponsor was taking me on a week long camping trip in Kamloops." George said.
Roxy shot her an annoyed glance. "Telling some bullshit lie, about some bullshit camping trip just to get a fucking week off? If you don't like working there, why don't you just quit?"
"Because I get paid there for doing almost nothing."
Roxy rolled her eyes. "I have to go. My reap is in half an hour." She got up and left the booth.
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Daisy turned over and looked at the clock.10: 00am it blinked. She sighed and got up. She was thankful that she didn't have any nightmares, but, that would be because she didn't really sleep.
She went into the kitchen to make some breakfast for herself. Today, she felt like bacon and eggs. Daisy took the cooking oil out of the fridge and tried to unscrew the cap, but her hands shook so badly now, that it took four attempts to get it open. She poured the oil into the pan, dropping the bottle accidentally, spilling oil over the stove top. She hastily wiped it up with a dishtowel, and placed the bacon into the pan.
She poured herself a cup of coffee, feeling exhausted. All the coffee she had drank the previous night, gave her an unsatisfying and restless, sleep.
She sat down at the table drinking her coffee. She glanced at the wall calender. Today was December 13. This was it. After today, all the stress, and the nightmares would go away. At least she hoped they did.
'Ok Daisy, you've come this far.' she thought to herself. 'Just get through today... then you won't have to deal with it again.'
Daisy turned in her chair to check on the bacon. She let out a yell and jumped up as she looked at the burner. The cooking oil-soaked dishtowel, had been touching the burner, and was on fire!
Daisy stopped in her tracks, rooted to the spot, she couldn't move. She could only stare as the flames slowly spread to a box of crackers on the counter, which was touching the flaming dishtowel.
Daisy knew she had to act, but she could only stare, transfixed by the flames as they rose higher and higher, spreading to the curtains which hung down to the counter. A billow of thick smoke rose from the flames.
The shrill beeping of the smoke detector snapped Daisy out of her daze. She gasped and grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall and quickly extinguished the growing flames.
After the flames had disappeared under a sea of foam, she let the extinguisher drop to the floor. Daisy coughed and waved her hand in front of her face to try and clear the smoke. She turned off the smoke detector and opened the window over the counter to try and get rid of the smoke from the kitchen before Mason and George got home.
She slowly walked over to the table and sat down, feeling shaky, and beyond exhausted. The past few nights of sleeplessness were starting to take their toll on her, but she wouldn't get sick or pass out from the exhaustion, since her reaper body didn't get sick...but sometimes she wished it would, sometimes she just wanted to pass out and never wake up again, or be able to get a true headache, or to bleed openly from a cut. But those days were gone. Gone with the wind, so to speak.
Daisy didn't know how long she just sat at the table, lost in her own thoughts, but after a while, George and Mason were home again.
The first thing George noticed was the smell of smoke.
"Oh shit!" she said as she rushed out to the kitchen, thinking that there was a fire. George saw the mess of the stove and counter, and the burnt curtains.
"Daisy! What happened here?" yelled George.
"Relax Georgia, It was just a little fire, everything's fixed now." Daisy said dismissively.
"FIXED! This is not fixed!" George waved wildly at the mess on the counter and stove.
Hearing the yelling going on in the kitchen, Mason decided to see what was wrong.
"I'll clean it up Georgia, ok? You're making this a lot more difficult than it has to be."Said Daisy, frustrated with the teenager.
"I'm making it more difficult? I'm not the one who practically burnt the fucking house down!"
"George, calm down." Said Mason
"Shut the fuck up Mason! I'm not talking to you." She said.
"He's right, Georgia, you're overreacting. And to be honest, I do not need it today!"
"Oh right, you're in a mood this week, I forgot." George said sarcastically.
Daisy turned on her heel and slapped George across the face. George looked stunned. Daisy never did anything like this before. Normally Daisy would just storm out of the room, but she never hit anyone...not even Mason.
George opened her mouth to say something, but closed it when she could think of nothing to say. Daisy, on the other hand, had plenty to say.
"Don't you EVER say anything like that to me again!" She yelled. "You have no IDEA what I've been through these past few days!"
"Only because you haven't told me or Mason anything about it!" George yelled back.
"How many times do I have to say it? I CAN'T TELL YOU!"
"You've told Roxy!"
"Georgia, I can't tell you!"
"Why!"
"BECAUSE I'M NOT READY TO TELL YOU ABOUT MY DEATH YET!" Daisy screamed. She put a hand to her mouth. She had not meant to say that much.
George stared. "You already did! You died in a fire on the set of Gone With the Wind!"
"That's not the whole story Georgia." Daisy's voice was almost a whisper. "You wouldn't understand anyway, since your death was virtually instantaneous. You weren't trapped in some godforsaken little room. You didn't have to watch flames and smoke close in on you, smothering you."
She continued "And you didn't have to re-live it over and over again in your dreams like I have been doing, for the past few days.." Daisy's voice broke at the end, and her eyes welled up with tears. She quickly turned and fled the kitchen, leaving Mason and George staring after her.
After a moment Mason went after her. He took a deep breath and put his hand up to knock on the door, but then dropped it to his side.
'Should I go talk to her?' He thought. 'Maybe I shouldn't..or maybe I should, I know I wouldn't want to deal with something like this alone..'
He knocked on the door. No answer. He opened it and peered inside. Daisy was standing by the window with her back to him. Her hands were gripping the edge tightly, head bent down.
"Daisy?" he asked softly. He walked over to her, she avoided his gaze. Mason saw that she was shaking badly.
"Daisy, I'm sorry."
"You didn't do anything wrong Mason.." her voice shook..
Mason took her hand in his and gave it a kiss. "Daisy darling I love you, and know you can talk to me. But you have to trust me."
"I do trust you Mason. I love you too..but some things are..are just too hard..." She choked out, unable to continue.
Mason put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Daisy shut her eyes. The stress and pain of the past few days seemed to crash through her at this moment, and the tears which she had been desperately fighting, were starting to spill down her cheeks. She buried her face into his shoulder and hugged him tighter as she started to cry.
Mason knew that she had been having nightmares, but he never knew the extent of it all, and it broke his heart to see her this upset. But he loved her, and it made him happy to know that she loved him back. He kissed her hair and rubbed her back as her body shook with quiet sobs.
They held each other close, even after her sobs subsided.
"Mason..." her voice was hoarse and dry.
"Shh..it's ok Daisy." he whispered. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah...I will be."she said
He sighed. "Did you really mean it?"
"What?"
"When you said you loved me.."
She smiled and pulled back so she could see his face, she caressed his cheek with her hand and kissed him. "I really did ."
Mason smiled and then turned towards the door "Daisy darling do you want to get a drink?"
"Yea, but I don't really want to face Georgia right now.."
"I'll go and get you one then."
Mason walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him.
A minute later there was a knock at the bedroom door.
"Daisy? It's George. Can we talk?"
"Just a moment." Daisy called out
Daisy went over to the mirror and made sure there was no trace that she had been crying.
"Come in Georgia."
"Daisy..I'm really sorry. You were right, I was overreacting. The curtains can be replaced, it's not a big deal.." George said .
"You can't take all the blame Georgia. The fire was an accident, but it's my fault I didn't put it out asquick as I should have. And I'm sorry I slapped you so hard, but that comment was very hurtful."
George sat down on the bed beside Daisy. "I know..I really didn't mean it. I didn't know what you were dealing with..because it HAS been a long time since you died hasn't it?"
"Yes. I don't know what it is about this year, but it's affecting me like it only just happened."
"Well, you could have told us Daisy. You told Roxy. But you can trust us too...despite what Roxy says" George rolled her eyes.
"I know. I was going to tell you..but it's just one of those things that I don't like to talk about to other people."
"Well you have told us how you died before."
"Yes, but I didn't tell you how much pain it caused me."
Mason walked into the bedroom holding drinks.
"Hey Georgie, you want a drink?"
"No, I'm going to go get some lunch at the Waffle House. You want to come?"
"Sure." said Mason
George looked at Daisy "You coming?"
Daisy shook her head and smiled "No, I'm not feeling very hungry right now."
Mason walked over to Daisy and kissed her on the lips. George raised her eyebrows in surprise, but grinned and walked out of the room to give them some privacy.
"I'll see you later Daisy." he said. He walked after George.
Daisy sighed and got up walking over to the window, she gazed out. It was snowing lightly. She watched George and Mason drive down the street in George's red mustang.
'So is this going to be a recurrence every year Daisy?' she thought to herself 'If it is...at least everyone knows about it...and you wouldn't have to go through this again..but at least now, you can actually start to truly get over this, and go on with your unlife.'
A/N: IT'S FINALLY FINISHED! Wow. This was a lot of fun to write! And I hope you all enjoyed it! PLEASE REVIEW! REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW! Thanks! I really would appreciate your input, becaue that is what makes it all worth it in the end!