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Love Sick Fred	By : zombierose3 Category: 1 through F > Drop Dead Fred Views: 1293 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Drop Dead Fred and am making no profit/money off of this.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
** Disclaimer: I still don't own Fred. I just play with him. :D

Chapter Four
Fred did what he did best when he didn't know what to do; he put it out of his mind until later. He'd done that with Snotface and he'd do it with this. He may have lost the ability to teleport, but his link to Natalie was still intact. Her need for him pulled at him like someone drowning and as long as he remained her imaginary friend that was something he couldn't ever ignore. He had to find another way out of this attic.
"Time to find the magic rabbit hole…" he muttered, before springing into a mad search, flinging boxes and kicking old furniture if they dared stand in his way.
"Where is it? It has to be here somewhere!" He turned every which way, panic building, until he spotted it: the hatchway out of the attic. He was cleverly standing on it.
Fred rolled his eyes, then dropped into a crouched position, pushing his hands against the hatchway to open it. In some twisted hilarity though, it proved to be as stuck as he was.
"Shit bastard!" he cried, grabbing the latch and shaking it violently. It wouldn't budge, prompting Fred to shove even harder.
Still nothing.
Desperate, Fred stood up and slammed down elbow first against it like some pro wrestler. It defied him yet again and Fred was accosted by a sudden influx of memories from the time he'd gotten trapped in that vomit-worthy Jack-in-the-box. All the guilt and worry of not being there for Lizzie cut his very soul. This wasn't happening twice!
He pointed at the hatchway. "It's you or me, bastard, and I'm far more annoying than you!"
With all his might, Fred started jumping like a child having the most enormous fit. He tucked his knees to his chest before each drop. He was gonna kill this door!
"Nothing stops Drop Dead Fred!" he huffed, shouting each word between leaps. "Come on! Open up, ya giant bastard!"
As if the hatchway really did have a sense of humor, and a vindictive one at that, the door dropped open with Fred still midair. His eyes bulged.
"Shit!"
Like a stone, he fell straight through, landing in a crumpled heap in the upstairs hall.
Fred groaned, his face scrunched into an unpleasant sight against the carpeting before he pushed himself to his feet. Heading for the stairs, he made sure to raise two very explicit fingers back at the attic for his troubles, before swinging his leg over the banister and sliding down to the living room.
When he finally arrived, he saw both Natalie and her father leaning over the sofa. Nat Brat's face glistened with fresh tears and though he sensed she knew he was there, her gaze never wavered from the couch. Fred suddenly didn't feel so good about this anymore. Neither of them would be this upset over that stupid, ninny babysitter.
"What is it?" he asked.
Natalie's face quivered and she pointed to the sofa. "She won't wake up."
"Yes, I know, Sweetie," Mickey answered. "She's gonna be alright, I promise, but please stay back."
Fred felt his stomach tighten, feeling time itself stop as he stepped closer, a feeling hard to achieve when time meant nothing to you.
Please don't let it be her, he begged, but that's when he saw her, lying unconscious upon the sofa.
"Snotface?" he whispered, his voice breaking with unexpected emotion. His body shook with the overwhelming feeling something bigger than that fire truck had just slammed into him. He leaned over the back of the sofa, his face inches from Lizzie's.
"Snotface, wake up. Wake up, please," he whispered, worried eyes searching her face, forgetting she was no longer able to hear him. His worry turned to impatience when she didn't respond and he screamed at her, "Wake up, dammit or I'll cut off your head!"
Lizzie stirred and Fred flinched at the reaction. She'd heard him? He immediately rushed to sit beside her, but Fartpants cut him off, nabbing the seat beside Lizzie and taking her hand in his.
Fred didn't know what he was feeling, but he didn't like what he saw and he most certainly wasn't going to let this fanny steal his moment.
Fred plopped himself down on the coffee table, and snatched Lizzie's other hand, squeezing it tight as he glared at Mickey. That's when Natalie caught Fred's attention from the corner of his eye.
He cleared his throat. "What happened?" he asked.
Natalie dropped her gaze from Fred when he decided to notice her again and proceeded to stare silently at her feet. She just shrugged.
Fred had only one conclusion to make from that odd response.
"What did you do to her!?" he yelled into Mickey's deaf ear, accompanied by a hard smack upside the head. "I bet you did this! She saw your ugly face and couldn't take it!"
Strangely in time with Fred's voice, Lizzie's eyes began to flutter open and she cleared her throat. Fred's attention snapped back to her like a wide-eyed and eager child. He expectantly leaned over her, his nose almost brushing hers as he was flooded with enormous relief.
"Snotface! You're awake! What happened? It's Fred. Are you alright? Did Fartpants do this with his ugly face?" He wasn't sure if she would still hear him, but was deliriously hopeful.
Lizzie's face scrunched into a look of confusion and she removed her hand from Fred's as though she hadn't seen or felt him. Fred didn't notice and kept waiting for her answer. She blinked a few times, as though everything were hazy, but then appeared to focus solely on him.
"Fred?" she whispered, hoarsely.
"Yes!" he cried, jumping around to the other side of the couch. She could see him! He didn't know how, but he didn't care!
"I knew you weren't blind and deaf!" he exclaimed. "Still ugly, though." Fred grinned.
Mickey shook his head. "No, Lizzie, it's me. There is no Fred," he replied, stroking her hand. He paused and looked about nervously. "Or, is there? Do you see him again?"
"Yes!" Fred answered, snottily. "Are you even paying attention?"
Lizzie groaned, trying to discern what had happened to her. Her head pounded and her eyes were having trouble focusing. Touching her forehead, she blinked and looked around the room.
When Lizzie's eyes gazed in Fred's direction, however, he noticed a change to them. She wasn't looking at him this time, but rather through him, just like when he'd seen her earlier in the front yard. It caused a sudden and strange aching in his chest.
"I'm sorry," Lizzie murmured, "I must have been dreaming."
"What!?" But she'd seen and heard him! He knew she had! Fred was so frustrated he reached up and pulled his hair.
Lizzie nervously looked back at Mickey. "What happened?"
Fred scoffed and removed himself to stand behind Natalie, giving her shoulders a squeeze so he had a good grip for giving her a playful shake. He didn't stop until he saw her gap toothed grin. He hoped that cheered her up a bit and hid the fact he'd acted like a big girl. After this, he knew he was gonna have to explain some things to her.
"You don't remember?" Mickey asked.
"No. What, did I fly or something?" Lizzie tried to joke, hoping to make everyone smile.
"Umm…" Mickey gazed hesitantly at his daughter. "Natalie, Lizzie appears to be alright now. Why don't you go play in your room and I'll come talk to you about this in a little bit, 'kay?"
"You just want me out of the room because you're gonna talk about stuff you don't want me to know," she said, defiantly.
"No, that's not the case. This is grown up chat. I'll explain things to you later."
"Fred says that's a lie," she insisted.
"Natalie, now is not the time to talk about Fred. I think I know more than an imaginary friend."
"He's not imaginary!" Natalie shrieked at the top of her lungs. "And you're a liar!"
"Go to your room!" Mickey shouted, pointing to the stairs.
Natalie's lower lip quivered with anger. "Fine! I have Drop Dead Fred anyway and he says you just wanna peck Lizzie!"
Both Lizzie and Mickey's eyes widened, but for far different reasons. Mickey was just confused, while Lizzie knew exactly what pecking meant. Her face warmed with embarrassment. Fred was so lucky she couldn't see him.
Natalie stomped to the foot of the stairs, but stopped, and Lizzie noticed she was glancing back expectantly to the empty space beside the sofa. The space right beside her.
"I'm gonna stay back here," Fred said to Natalie. "To spy," he quickly added and forced a cheeky grin. "I'll fill you all in on the juicy grown up details later."
Natalie glared at him, not fully believing his story. Something was wrong with Fred and she felt he was keeping something huge from her. Something with him and Lizzie.
"FINE!" she yelled, shocking Fred as she stormed up the stairs, and stomped like a tiny elephant across the upstairs hallway before slamming her bedroom door with a bang.
Lizzie's eyes awkwardly wandered to her side, wondering after Natalie's final outburst if Fred had remained behind…
Mickey cleared his throat. "Really sorry about that. She's really a very sweet girl."
"I'm sure she is," Lizzie answered, too distracted with the wonder of where Fred could be to say much else. It felt so strange not being able to see him anymore; lonely and empty, yet nerve-racking. Honestly it was more nerve-racking than when she had been able to see him.
Mickey's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"About what happened to you… I… This… this is a bit unusual– impossible. You're gonna think that I'm crazy."
Lizzie tilted her head. "Mickey, I'm the last person who'd find you crazy." She gave him a knowing look.
"Right," he said. "Well, it's the strangest thing. We were, well, walking inside and you just popped away. …Into a tree."
Lizzie flinched. "Come again?"
Fred's gaze narrowed. "Yes, come again!"
"Well, we were walking up the porch and you suddenly got all…see through. Lizzie, my hands went right through you and then the next thing I know you're dangling up in the tree and you just collapsed!"
Lizzie's heart was beating so fast she could hear it pulsating in her ears. "What? Are you saying I teleported into a tree?"
"Sounds crazy, doesn't it?" Mickey asked.
Lizzie exhaled hard, eyes wide. "Not for some…" she admitted, knowing Fred had possessed such a talent, "but for me it is!"
"Oh, that trick is turning out to be a cruel mistress, Snotface," Fred muttered. He needed to sit down and blindly reached behind him for the armchair. Once he'd practically fallen backwards into his seat, he looked again at Lizzie and eyed her very carefully.
So, he couldn't teleport, but now she could. This wasn't good. She was only human; her body wasn't meant to handle such power, and what if it kept happening? This time had rendered her unconscious, any more and she could very well never wake up again. How had this happened? It was like she'd somehow taken his ability and—
Fred's thoughts jumped to their kiss and suddenly couldn't help but feel this was all his fault.
His face fell into his hands, muffling a swear. Perhaps Fartpants should be smacking him instead.
"Please tell me it was some sort of elaborate magic trick," Mickey begged with a nervous laugh.
Lizzie shook her head, trying to understand what was happening here, but she couldn't. She was scared and she wanted to talk to Fred and she wanted to talk to him now. "No, I mean, Mickey, I can't do magic! I can't even do card tricks!"
Fred fully recognized that look in Lizzie's eyes and it agonized him that he couldn't at least lie to her that he knew exactly what was going on and that he was going to fix it immediately.
Mickey gazed at Lizzie in horror and for the good course of a minute appeared to have slipped into a paralysis. The silence made Lizzie realize that if she didn't want another person readying her for a rubber room, she needed to play this off. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She just started laughing.
Mickey's eyebrow twitched in response, bewilderment contorting his face.
Fred meanwhile straightened in his seat, wondering if Snotface had cracked.
"I really had you going!" she exclaimed. "Of course it was a magic trick!" Lizzie playfully shoved at Mickey and Fred quirked a curious eyebrow. He knew a lie when he saw one.
"Oh thank God! I thought, well I didn't know what to think, you know," Mickey exclaimed, visibly relaxing now.
"You're buying that?" Fred snorted and rolled his eyes. "What a ponce!"
Lizzie forced another grin. "Oh, well you know me. I'm crazy!" She waved her hands for emphasis.
"And a thief," Fred muttered, but really his comments were an attempt to mask his fears.
"So, how'd you do it?" Mickey asked, leaning closer to Lizzie with eagerness in his eyes. The sight made Fred want to puke, or hit him again. He voted for both.
"I really can't tell you."
"Oh, some magician's secret type of thing?"
That was the conclusion Lizzie had hoped Mickey would draw from her equivocal answer. "Yes, exactly that type of thing." She smiled.
"Well, I guess I can't argue with that. I'm just glad to see you're okay." Mickey returned the smile and reached up to touch her arm, but Lizzie cleverly deflected it by pushing herself to sit up. She smiled regrettably.
"Listen, Mickey, I think I've overdone it and I'm actually quite exhausted from the, uh, the rigging of all that magic equipment, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a rain check on the dinner." Lizzie quickly squirmed out of his reach and stood to leave.
"Oh, yeah, of course," he answered, obviously a little thrown. "Another time, then. How 'bout Saturday?"
"I'm sure I'm free, but I'll get back to you," she said. "I promise." She smiled again at him and hurried to the door, making sure to close it before Mickey even had a chance to suggest another day or try for a kiss.
Once safely alone on the porch, Lizzie released a loud and shaky sigh. With every pound of her heart it felt like her body was in danger of being knocked over. She was so exhausted and felt the sting of tears welling in her eyes. She knew she needed to go home and sleep, but couldn't make herself move, not yet.
Shutting her eyes, Lizzie took a chance that Fred was still beside her and whispered, "Fred, I don't know if you're still listening, but if you are, I'm scared and I need your help. I need you to tell me what's going on. You're the only one who can. Please find a way. I need you." She stood there a moment, holding her breath and afraid to open her eyes.
To see that empty space where Fred should be… it was just too much for her to bear, but maybe in light of circumstances he would be there, staring at her with his big, excited eyes, wearing that awful suit with his insane hair and he'd tell her it was going to be alright and that she was being the biggest, stupidest girl he'd ever seen.
She opened her eyes, and her heart broke with disappointment.
Empty space.
Blinking away tears, Lizzie hurried down the steps and headed for her car, unaware of the teary eyes that watched her.
"I'll do what I can, Snotface," Fred whispered from the porch. "I promise."
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Love Sick Fred