This is my first ever fanfic- if you like it please leave a comment.

This story continues with:

Untitled #2: You win some, You lose some

Untitled #3: The saga continues REWORKED- there are two versions of Untitled #3 both still available let me know which you like

-The week started off like any other, well the same as it had for the past three years- obligatory breakfast at the Das Waffle House followed by a rush across town and a race against the clock to my desk at the deceivingly titled 'Happy Time'. No sooner had my ass hit the swivel chair, my ever watchful boss Dolores with her big – and ever observant eyes swooped upon my cubical.

"Millie, Mille, Millie… whatever are we going to do with you," Dolorous paused and looked at her watch with an exaggerated movement, her brow stitched in disappointment "You're late again Millie , you know we can't tolerate that type of tardiness here, especially with the senior staff. You know I hold you in high regards but your slacking off at work is starting be picked up by," Dolores paused and placed her right hand over the side of her mouth as if she were whispering and pointed her left hand to the ceiling, she finished the rest of the sentence in an overly loud whisper "the powers above".

- The powers above? Believe me Dolorie-dear I have worked for the powers above for a long time now and let me tell you- my tardiness is pretty low on their list of things to be concerned about. I realised she was waiting for a valid excuse to my lateness, and the AA one had been done to death.

"I'm sorry Dolorous, really I am it's just that," George paused playing for time, wishing, hoping, praying that something would save her from yet another business ethics speech "that…" she stuttered again, her eyes darting from Dolorous to the desk.

- I was trapped like a mouse against the wall, and Dolorous was the cat, I glanced back at her knowing I was stretching for an excuse, her eyebrow slowly creeping to a peak- was she actually enjoying this?

The phone rang, without thinking Georgia let the relief spread across her face- too soon- dear old Dolorous caught whiff and the disappointment was evident "I can't save you, you know Millie, you're a valued employee but even good eggs can go bad, and I can't keep making allowances for you." She turned her back, shaking her head and walked towards reception.

-Shit, I know I didn't really owe anything to Happy Time or Dolorous for that matter this was after all my second job and my first was absolute priority, but she had struck a chord, I felt horrible.

George let out an audible sigh and slumped into her chair.

-Oh crap the phone.

"Good morning, you've called Happy Time temporary services; this is g-Millie,"

"Georgie girl- oh pardon its 9-5, Millie dear, you nearly slipped on that one lucky it was only me" the British accent crooned over the line, she let out a sigh of relief, not exactly the distraction she was hoping for but not the worst by far

"Mason, what's up?"

"Its Rube, he wants us to meet at the waffle house in halfa….and I need a lift- I'm near your work on a reap, can I meet you there?"

"I can't, I've just been torn a new asshole by Dolorous for being so late and if I skip out now, I'm likely to get fired- is it that important cant it wait for lunch?"

"Sorry Georgie, Rube said it was urgent- major mass reap or something, you gotta be there love"

-I looked at the clock- 10:50 am, Shit I really was late over an hour, that's probably a record, there's no wonder Dolores had her big (brown?) knickers in a twist.

"Okay I'll meet you at my car soon"

"Cheers I'll see you then"

George slowly stuck her head over the cubicle and did a 360 turn of the office; Dolorous was still at reception talking with Crystal. She realised she couldn't sneak out unnoticed. She bent down and retrieved her purse off the floor slowly rising from her seat, and began the journey to the elevators desperately searching for a reason to go home.

Just as she arrived at Dolorous and began to open her mouth for the tried and tested excuse of yet another relapse, the lift opened and Mason strode out of the elevator.

-It was the first I had seen him in over a month- Rube had informed us that he had been temporarily moved to natural disasters division to help with the backlog after a massive hurricane on the south coast. It was also the first time that I had seen him evidently clean, shaven and by the looks of it sober; he scrubbed up quite well.

He greeted George with a smile and flipped her a small red coin.

"One month sober, thanks to you" he proclaimed rather audibly, taking an exaggerated bow, I noticed everyone in the reception area was now focussed on him.

-Dolorous turned her head from me to Mason and back to me again as a smile spread across her face, I could see the gears clicking in her head. Mason had just provided me with a new excuse to get out of work- I was now his apparent sponsor, the only relapses that Dolorous now needed to know about were his.

A small, but very gracious smile tugged at the corners of Georgia's mouth.

"I knew you could do it"

"Well Millie, I'm so proud of you, a sheep is now a Sheppard"

"Dolorous, I know its last minute and I know I was late but our AA group is…"

"Going on a self discovery camp…for the week" Mason chimed in

Dolorous smiled warmly

- I didn't know that this AA lie would come in so handy, I suppose I'm lucky that Dolores's sordid path included a major coke habit in the 80's.

"Well I think you deserve it, you do have a few weeks annual leave that have been sitting waiting to be used."

"Thanks Dolorous" She replied pushing Mason to the open elevator "see you next week"

*****

"I thought I said I'd meet you at the car, and where did you get this chip- Is it real, is it yours?" George enquired turning it between her fingers inspecting the engravings

- It sure as hell looked real

"Well it's nice to see you too, by the looks of it me coming up here has just gotten you out of a week of work- not just the afternoon, and," Mason paused, straightened up his brown tailored leather jacket, fixed his scarf and pulled himself to full height "yes, I'll have you know I have been clean for a whole month- and I've never felt better" he added with a cheeky grin

George cocked her head to the side and looked up at him meeting his gaze, "who is she?" she asked as a half smile crept across her face "please say it isn't Daisy; I thought you were over that"

Mason's grin flickered slightly "There isn't a girl this time, and I'm actually quite hurt" the grin was replaced with a mischievous smile as he clutched his right hand over the left breast pocket of his jacket feigning heartache.

As they descended to the bottom floor the doors slid open and he picked her up in a bear hug embrace and swept her out of the elevator and spun around the lobby in one swift movement.

"Ah Georgie girl, it's good to be back- and you know I actually missed you on my working holiday" he said as he set me down before grabbing the front door and holding it open.

George walked the rest of the block to her car in silence as Mason filled her in on the happenings of south coast and the culture.

*****

They arrived at the waffle house ten minutes later after a good run through traffic and noted that they were the first to arrive, followed closely by Rube and Roxie with Daisy bringing up the rear.

"This had better be important Rube I had a very important lunch date I had to set back" Daisy stated as she pulled out her beloved compact and began to touch up her makeup.

-Oh Daisy her world was one important lunch date after the other, she skipped from wealthy man to wealthy man only stopping long enough to see what they could do for her, ripping out the hearts of those who had little or none to give

"Don't worry Daisy I'm sure he won't mind being blown after lunch instead of before" Mason quickly replied, without taking his eyes off the sobriety badge he was now trying to balance.

Before Daisy had time to respond Rube interjected

"Now we have some major business to deal with, big reap, seminar at the airport hotel- now it's not until Thursday, but I want you four to go, it's on group dynamics and office relationships, I think you lot could learn a thing or two"

"What? You're not coming?" George interrupted with notable annoyance. Rube continued as if she hadn't spoken

"I've reserved a couple of rooms and you must be booked in at the hotel by five tonight, here are your tickets and this is our company information. I'll be taking care of the reaps around here while you're gone; I pulled a few strings and have a few people helping me out, here are your post its and I'll see you all here bright and early Saturday morning"

Kiffany walked up to the table notepad poised in her hand and looked at our group expectantly "What can I get for you this afternoon?"

She took their orders and closed her notepad, then looked at Mason, who was still trying to balance the token on its end

"Bollocks" he muttered as it fell again

"Hey, a sobriety badge, congratulations Mason I thought you looked…" Kiffany paused looking at Mason and smiled "better, good on you" she gave him a small pat on the shoulder and returned to the kitchen

"Sobriety eh?" mused Rube "Taking it seriously this time I hope" he added with a hint of concern dashed with a little scepticism.

"Oh pul-ease" Daisy quipped "Mason has never taken anything seriously, come on come clean; you swiped it from your last reap" she smirked, evidently trying to wind him up from Mason's last attack

"I dunno Daisy, Mason looks…well…clean, shaven- like Kiff said, better" Roxy replied "I don't think he swiped the coin. He has been absent for the month and a change of scenery may have given him a little, perspective"

"Thank you my dear Roxy" Mason nodded toward her "it's nice to know there are people that support you- that's the first step you know"

"I thought the first step was admitting you had a problem" Georgia piped up

"Well there is that one, but supportive people are just as important."

"So why aren't you going on this reap with us. How come you get to stay here? It's not fair"

-I realised that the last part came out more as a whine then I had meant it

Georgia looked at Rube for an answer. He put down the brown leather bound note pad and reclined deeper in his chair, took a deep breath and looked at each of them one by one.

"Why peanut, someone has to stay here and collect the souls that pass on here, and if you didn't notice most of the reaps occur on the last day, beside, spend a week with you four, no thankyou I'm going to enjoy my little holiday" Rube paused and opened his notepad and started to deal out the mass of post its in four piles and slid them respectively in front of them.

"Jesus Christ Rube there's like ten each" Roxy said a little bewildered

"How are we supposed to find them all?" George asked

"Well now it's lucky you have been booked to mingle with these people for a whole week before the reap now isn't it?" Rube replied as Georgia sighed and slumped into her chair

"Actually," Rube raised his voice "Kiff, can I get that to go" he stood and shuffled his way out, Daisy and Georgia standing to let him out "Now I expect good behaviour- don't fuck this up" he added with a slight inclination toward Mason, who was still not paying full attention and had resorted to spinning his coin on its end. Rube smacked down hard on the table catching the token, Mason a little shocked now met Rubes eyes

"Wha?"

"I don't want any fuck ups- this applies to you all," he added and turned to make sure they were all watching "no bickering, do your reaps and try not to draw too much attention to yourselves- Roxy I've already organised time off for you and you too peanut, I want to see you all here next week"

- And that was that, Rube had spoken and was gone.

"Well if Rube gets to go I'm going too, cant kept my date waiting, I'll meet you at the hotel tonight" Daisy smiled, retrieved her post it pile and left adding "Oh, Georgia and Mason, do you mind keeping yourself scarce for the rest of the day? James has a magnificent penthouse but you never know where the day will take you"

-Daisy left before either of us could rebut, that woman had perfected the art of conversation manipulation to get her own way.

"I've gotta go too, my week off doesn't start til the end of my shift, I'll see you at the hotel tonight" Roxy picked up the post it's, put on her hat and left. George sat back into the booth opposite Mason, who had finally put his new token away.

"Well now Georgie girl, the day is still young, we have the afternoon off from all jobs, what do you feel like doing" Mason leaned in and put his chin on the table without breaking eye contact, and smiled.

"We could always go back to your flat and, what's your word for it? Oh yeah- shag for the afternoon"

-I tried to keep a straight face more to see his reaction to my outlandish proposition, I wasn't really serious…

" Oh Georgie-girl, my Georgie girl" Mason smiled, and a mischievous glint shone in the light of his eyes "If your offering" he too was finding it hard to keep a straight face, although George could swear a hint of something could be detected, They stared at each other for a moment before getting the giggles.

"Let's go for a drive, we could book in early and use the full facilities of the hotel? Spa, masseur? Seeing as it's an all expenses paid week"

"Oh Georgie, that first proposition seemed a little more, fun, but I think this will have to do" Mason replied with a smile.

*****

-We were booked in to the hotel thankfully Rube had let me keep my real first name a Ms. Georgia Hagen- the integration of my life and death names, and promptly took to abusing the prepaid amenities.

Full body massages, mani/pedi, spa, sauna, rounding it all off with a group meeting in the hotel lounge to touch base

They walked into the lounge and Georgia immediately realised that we were one extra; Daisy had bought her date.

"Everyone, this is James. James this is Roxy, Georgia and Mason; my business colleagues," she paused and turned to him lightly stroking his arm "Why don't you go ahead I'll be up in a minute." James turned and headed toward the elevator, pausing and turning while he waited and gave a shy, soft wave that was reciprocated by Daisy

"Cute boy but my, dumb as two bags of nails; his father owns one of the biggest theatre companies in New York. With any luck I could be transferred back and hit the big time" Daisy sighed and turned back to face us a look of sternness was stitched across her face

"Have you looked through the post its that were handed out earlier? There was an early reap, for tonight, just a heads up. I gotta go I'll see you bright and early in the conference room"

The three remainders looked at each other, Mason and George hurriedly searched through their respective piles.

"You better hope you haven't missed them" Roxy smiled "You two been too busy with the R and R that you forgot the reaping"

"You don't have one?" Mason quickly glanced up before returning his gaze to his pile

"I had one earlier today. I checked my post it's when I got 'em, it was bull-shit I'm lucky I even noticed it; I would have been it some fucking huge shit if I never saw it"

-Oh fuck, I really wasn't in the mood for a post post-mortem reap- once was enough for me

"Bollocks fucking shit, I got a reap in thirty fucking minutes" Mason stood up and ran for the lift chanting "Room 1966" under his breath

"Alright George, I'm going to get some shut eye. It's been a long fucked up day, you will not interrupt or enter my room and if you see Daisy tell her the same." Roxy rose from her seat and walked out of the room

-Fuck, there were only two rooms and Mason had the key to the other room he better have a quick reap, I certainly wasn't in the mood to wait around the lounge til all hours of the night.

Mason's show had disrupted her thoughts and Georgia had momentarily forgot what she was doing, glancing back at the table she saw her post its strewn over the surface of the mahogany surface. She sighed and picked them up one by one and checked the date of each one- sure enough there was one scheduled for tonight at 7:50pm room 2003 a Mr/Mrs/Ms T. Hesburgh III. She casually looked at her watch and back to the post it 80 minutes

-T Hesburgh? That named sounded familiar, but where?

George looked across the lounge and…

-Oh FUCK, fuck, fuck

A tall slender man in his mid twenties casually strolled in to the lounge and headed for the bar

-Fuck T Hesburgh- Thomas Hesburgh- Trip Hensberg- No fucking way

He turned and immediately recognised her. He began to walk over.

-this wasn't happening no fucking way, oh fuck thankyou Rube

He was at her side a smile crept over his face

"Gloria? Is that really you?"

-What the fuck? Gloria? He took my dignity, my pride- even my fucking virginity and he couldn't even remember my fucking name?

"It is, man that night was crazy yeah? I don't think I can go back to Vegas without remembering that night, and that trick you did with your tongue still hasn't been matched

- You're fucking kidding me he doesn't remember me at all! Well no remorse over this sleaze bag he made my job a whole lot easier

"You want to catch up," he paused raising his eyebrows "you know for old times?"

*****

Mason arrived at the door of room 1966 with nine and a half minutes to spare, which he would have known if he were wearing a watch. He knocked on the door, with no answer. He could hear the dull thud of bass creeping up from the crack under the door. Nervously he scanned the hall- empty.

He knocked again, louder with more force. A muffled voice could be heard

-Oh please not a murder, not tonight

The door swung open, a tall thin young man in his early twenties opened the door.

He had greasy shoulder length black hair, his glazed green, bloodshot eyes sat deep in his dark sunken sockets. Acne, ulcers and open sores adorned his pale face and exposed skin; the odd one highlighted by overzealous scratching or picking.

It was clearly visible this guy was a junkie- Meth head from what Mason could figure

"Hi are you Mr. L. Sheppard?"

"Nah man he's in the can- hey are you Johnny? With the weed"

"I'm, ah Mason I work for Johnny- he's in the lounge wants you to meet him there to get the gear. Yeah?"

"Oh right" he swung around and yelled in the direction of the bathroom "Yo Logan, be back in ten" and proceeded down the hall to the elevator

Mason snuck inside the room and took in his surroundings; as far as hotel rooms go it was pretty good. Although the décor was less than desirable and at the moment it was well and truly fucked; completely trashed, dusty pink feature walls were spattered with what Mason thought and hoped were wine, or coffee stains. The only furniture visible in the room was the coffee table scattered with every type of drug paraphernalia imaginable.

Mason walked over to the bathroom a faint whirring sound could be distinguished between the thump of the music coming from the small stereo sitting in the corner. Mason knocked on the bathroom door, with no reply he slowly turned the handle and pushed opened the door and was just in time to see the body of Mr Logan Sheppard drop to the floor seconds later a power drill bounced across the white marble floor and skidded to a halt at Mason's feet.

Mason stood still, shocked at the scene before him. He gingerly stepped over the steadily growing pool of blood that seeped from L. Sheppard's head and took the guys soul.

Without looking back Mason rushed to the hall and down the elevator into the lobby and to the now filling lounge and ordered himself a double shot of whiskey.

-that reap was too fucking close. That was me. I can't handle this right now fuck where's George