Nothing Like This

Chapter 1

C & S Funeral Home.

The sign stared back at her almost like a plague, causing a sigh to escape her lips. She hadn't been back here in three long years, ever since her father fell ill to liver cancer. He lasted longer than she would've expected and died before she could make it back home from Los Angeles. His last words, according to his wife, Priscilla, were he wished his only daughter had been there to watch him go and he loved her.

She didn't really believe that considering her father barely spoke a word to her throughout her childhood, not to mention nearly forcing her to go to a college of his choosing. Madisyn was headstrong though, refusing point blank to do what her old man wanted. It was her life, her decision and nothing was going to change that. Stepping out in just a pair of skinny blue jeans with a black tank top, Madisyn headed inside, her honey blonde hair bouncing behind her with each step she took.

Working at a funeral home was not a gig Randy Orton had ever planned on performing, but he needed money. He'd gone into the military briefly, ended up doing eight months in a military prison and decided that career option wasn't for him. Randy had answered an advertisement requesting an assistant and found himself basically being a bitch for Mark Calaway, the resident undertaker, who also answered to the nickname Taker some of the locals had bestowed on him. He was a real peach to work for, Randy snorted at the thought just as the phone rang.

"C & S Funeral Home," He answered when the phone rang, hating that he had been regulated to front desk duty, while he was also supposed to clean the lobby and do windows BEFORE helping down in the basement. "You stab 'em, we slab 'em." He hated his job, but harassing the customers was a perk.

Madisyn slowly pulled the shades from her eyes, arching a slow eyebrow, and looked around the funeral home. It looked as dark and dreary as she remembered, the walls painted a cream color with black edging. Though right now, her focus was on the man behind the desk, which should've been a woman, slowly walking up to him.

"Excuse me; I'm looking for a Mark Calaway. Is he here?" She asked sweetly, a smile lighting the entire room up it seemed as she stared back at him through her black rimmed glasses.

Randy held up a finger, mouthing 'hold on' as he finished listening to the rant he was receiving. "Will there be anything else?" He asked sweetly, knowing damn well he had just irritated the hell out of whoever this old broad was. When she hung up on him, he shrugged and hung up as well, giving the woman with the mega-watt smile his full attention. "Yes ma'am, he is." He said politely, he could be sweet and charming when the mood took him, like now. "But he's downstairs. Can I take a message or shall I ring him up for you?" Mark spent a lot of time downstairs or out in the cemetery. Randy had a sneaking suspicion the man was into necrophilia, but hadn't voiced it due to the fact Mark was a bit...intimidating.

That smile never left Madisyn's face as she slowly passed the desk, the handsome man with the deep blue eyes eying her. "That won't be necessary, honey. I think I'll just go downstairs and find him myself."

She winked and kept moving, leaving the male receptionist -Madisyn snorted under her breath- to gape after her in shock. Unlike most people, Mark didn't intimidate Madisyn and for good reason. She began descending the stairs, the door closing behind her setting her heart to racing, though Madisyn refused to be afraid. This was after all her stomping grounds so to speak.

Randy chased after her. "Miss, he doesn't like it when people go down there." He insisted, gently catching her by the arm in order to stop her progress. She seemed to know her way around pretty good, which made Randy pause and then let her go. "You a friend of Taker's?" He asked curiously. She looked way too cheerful and friendly to even know Calaway; she had a pulse so that wasn't in her favor either.

"Of course not, though we do know each other." Her voice remained calm and sweet as honey, her deep blue eyes shining even through the darkness of the staircase. "He'll know who I am, trust me."

She gently but firmly pulled her arm out of his grasp, wondering what a man of his size was doing working as a receptionist in a funeral home. She continued heading down the stairs and finally landed on cold concrete, stopping. There he was standing over an embalming table with what looked like a fresh body lying on top of it, a single light shining down on it.

"Orton, unless the windows are sparkling, there had better be a very good reason for the interruption." Mark said coldly, not looking up from what he was doing. "Because if there isn't, I will embalm you next." When he didn't get a response, he looked up, his green eyes narrowed and slightly venomous. Recognition flickered through them a second later. "Madisyn." He said quietly, glancing down at the body and then back at her. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hello again, Mark." She softly greeted, walking toward him without any fear, no hesitation in her footing, knowing he wouldn't hurt her. "I'm back in town and figured I'd pop in to see how the business is doing." Madisyn said nonchalantly, the dead body not fazing her in the slightest, that smile still on her face and it was surprisingly genuine. "Being half owner of this company allows me to do that, am I right?" Her voice was soft, no malice or cruelty in it and chuckled when the man behind them dropped his jaw. "You can leave us alone now."

Mark's stare turned cold once more as he looked past her to his current on-the-clock lackey. "Don't you have windows to get too?"

"Sure, boss." Randy replied, giving the other man a calculating look before smiling at Madisyn. He winked at her before heading back upstairs. Fuck the damn windows.

If it weren't for the fact that Randy was strong as an ox and able to do a lot of heavy lifting with minimal complaint, Mark would have probably embalmed him by now. "Business is always doing, people are always dying." He said as if Orton had never happened.

"Of course, of course." Madisyn sighed gently, the smile finally disappearing from her face, lowering her eyes to the floor. "You already know what's happened, so I need to make arrangements." She was a headstrong, classy woman, but right now Madisyn felt vulnerable because her father's impending death had definitely taken a toll on her.

Jack had requested Madisyn to take him to Los Angeles for treatment, leaving Priscilla back in Houston with the house and whatnot. Madisyn had called Priscilla to let her know that Jack wasn't doing very well during the day and Madisyn had ignored it because of her job. She was a photographer on top of being half owner of a funeral home, having taken most of the pictures that adorned the walls of this place.

Jack had died before she made it back to their three bedroom suite and his body had been flown back from Los Angeles to Houston, wanting to be buried in the family cemetery. The Simons had indeed been of huge value to Houston, Jack had been the most profound undertaker and actually trained Mark before handing the business over to his daughter after he fell ill, making her promise to allow Mark to own half of C & S. She couldn't refuse and didn't fight it, knowing how hard Mark had worked with her father and how close they were; even though she knew Mark would never admit that.

Mark was fully aware of the reason as to why she was there, he just had a sick sense of humor and found tormenting people -even her- a tad funny. "Randy will walk you through the trimmings." He said flatly, knowing Madisyn was fully capable of picking a coffin, the interior, a tombstone and all that without help from the moron. He was the one who had the task of handling the body, knowing that it was in the process of being transported there to the funeral home.

"I don't need to be walked through anything, I know this business and I was just informing you, being as we're partners, but I can see that was a mistake." Madisyn had always been up front with Mark about how she felt, though never once had she yelled or lost her temper. Her voice remained soft and calm, the smile returning to her face. "I think we should find a new receptionist so I'll put an ad in the paper because that guy upstairs, he doesn't know how to treat customers." She turned and began walking up the stairs away from him.

Apparently she had overheard Randy's favorite greeting of 'you stab them, we slab them', which Mark found a bit amusing if not completely unprofessional. He glanced back at the body he had been finishing and then towards Madisyn's retreating form. Her father had just died and he did not know what to say. Comforting people wasn't his strong point; he usually didn't care enough. Sighing, he got back to finishing his task, knowing he couldn't just let it wait.

Randy was not running the front anymore; he was at the back door, carefully carrying in a new display. The display was actually a coffin, and it was heavier than hell. He had removed his shirt, knowing he was sweating like crazy.

Madisyn blinked when she didn't see anyone at the receptionist desk, the phone ringing off the hook. Sighing, she sat down at the chair and immediately answered the phone, taking down orders for new caskets, flowers and whatnot. Her father had shown her everything there was to know about the business, including embalming, though Madisyn couldn't stomach it yet. She would find a way though, knowing this was her future. She hung up just as the man Mark called Orton walked in, sweating from head to toe, and immediately stood up.

"Excuse me, but may I ask why you're not answering the phones?" She asked in a polite but firm tone of voice.

"Because a coffin Taker ordered was delivered and I had to sign and then carry it in since the morons in the truck refused to cart it in; and Taker finds it amusing to torment me by keeping our own cart locked downstairs?" Randy replied somewhat uncouthly, pulling a towel out from underneath the counter and began wiping the sweat off his body. Honestly, it was not his fault the stiff downstairs had never bothered hiring anyone else and he had to run around trying to do everything, whether he was able to or not.
"Excuse me." He sidestepped her in order to get his shirt and carefully put it back on. HIs best dress shirt -he was supposed to look 'nice' when running the desk-, he wasn't ruining it because his boss was an ass.

"I'm really sorry about that, but don't worry, things are going to change around here now that I'm back." Madisyn assured him, frowning, wondering what the hell had gotten into Mark. He used to love the funeral home and now suddenly he wasn't hiring the proper help and people to make the place run. Sighing, Madisyn knew she would have a lot of work cut out for her and immediately jotted down a few notes. "Mr. Orton, why don't you take the rest of the day off? We're closing soon." She watched as his big blue eyes widened to the size of saucers, touching his chest very gently. "I promise things will get better around here and you will no longer be working the reception area. I'll come up with other tasks for you to do, but I'll be hiring a new receptionist in a few days. I'll take over until then, alright?" Her father's funeral was on Saturday, which actually worked out because the funeral home usually wasn't open on weekends.

Apparently God had been looking into utilizing the funeral home's services, seen the suffering and sent this angel because Randy knew there was no way in Hell that Taker had just invited her to waltz in and start changing the place around. "Oh bless you." He murmured, scooping her up in a quick bone crunching hug before setting her down.

When Orton turned around, he plowed right into Mark's fist, which had just been hovering. "Careful where you're going." He said in an even tone, his eyes flashing with satisfaction briefly.

Randy was holding his nose, making mental plans for burning this place to the ground.

"Mark!" Madisyn groaned, not believing he just did that to their employee, immediately rushing over to the man with the bleeding nose, holding a towel. "I'm really sorry about that, I have no idea what's gotten into him. Please, you can have a raise if that's what it'll take for you not to sue us." Her blue eyes pleaded with him, shooting a glare over her shoulder at Mark, before turning her full attention back at their employee. "Why don't you take the rest of the week off? You'll be paid for it, I promise." She smiled, hoping that settled the score, knowing she would most definitely have to have a talk with her partner.

Sue? Randy wondered what the workplace laws were and cast a dark look at Taker, not surprised when he just got a raised eyebrow. He'd still prefer to burn the place down. "I wouldn't sue." He said, wincing when he sneezed into the towel, gently nudging her away so he didn't get her with flecks of blood.

Randy wouldn't sue because then Mark would have to hunt him down and rip the annoying bastard's spleen out.

"May I ask what the hell has gotten into you, Mark? Hitting an employee is UNCALLED for! You do realize that this is a business and he could sue us for every dime we're worth right?" She sighed heavily, looking pained because so much change had happened in the span of a day. "Randy, take a week vacation, paid, and when you return, there will be more help here, including a new receptionist if I can find out. Just go home and get that treated, if you need to go to the hospital, C & S will pay for it, I assure you." She watched as he simply held the towel to his nose, shaking her head in disbelief at her partner.