Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

With a sudden burst of pain in his head, Casper woke up with a start. By habit, he quickly looked around for Ava, having faith that she'd know what was going on. However, confusion, disappointment, and a dash of fear fell on him when he saw he wasn’t in the diner anymore. He was in the backseat of his car, the same car he left behind all those years ago when he first got on the diner. “What?”

Ava slowly started to stir awake as she heard footsteps. “Mmm, Casper, stop moving around and go back to bed.” She mumbled, although with no ceasing noise and no remark back, she got up with a groan. Reaching for her glasses, her eyes adjusted to the bright lights of her office at Cornell- “Wait, what the fuck?” Ava's head flicked up from her desk and quickly turned side to side as she took in the cursed surroundings of her old office.

Leif slowly stirred awake, wondering if he had slept in and missed the dinner’s touchdown as he no longer heard the comforting sounds of its travels from the rooftop. A sinking feeling of dread washed over him when he awoke to find himself no longer on the roof of the diner, but what looked to be the restings of a Trusken Ice Hauler with a couple of Trusken's somewhere on the ship singing their tone-deaf sea chanties with only one note…

Gloria was awakened by the sound of her alarm clock going off. With her eyes closed, she hit it off, staying in bed a few more seconds before she registered that she didn’t have an alarm clock anymore. Nor did she have her old blankets. Or bedsheets…

The staff of Midnight Burger were left confused and uneasy as they slowly came to realize they were right back where they were before they got on the Diner. Was it a dream? Have I gone crazy? All sorts of panicked thoughts ran through their heads. Well, except for Ava, one look at her notes, and she knew she was still right about that shifting point of null entropy. What are they going to do now...

Chapter Text

After pinching herself multiple times, Gloria stopped pacing around in her house and opened her fridge. Seeing a carrot and the half-used bottle of Tapatio only confirmed what she didn’t want to hear. She was back at home, the morning before heading to the diner at 6 pm. The Diner! It feels like a lifetime away, but Gloria can still remember seeing that ad on Craigslist. Scrambling around her house to find her phone, she pulled up Craigslist. An hour of searching and nothing…

Nothing on a diner half an hour outside of Phoenix, nothing on a diner seemingly appearing out of nowhere one day, nothing on Midnight Burger other than a video game with the same name. Frustrated, she put her phone down and fell onto her bed. “This better just be a dream, and I’ll wake up back on the Diner in an hour,” she mumbled into her pillow. Gloria tried forcing herself back to sleep, turning and tossing back and forth in bed; hell, she even tried counting sheep. Unfortunately, sheep made her mind wander towards her wolves in the deep freeze of the Diner, so she stopped.

“Hey, Gloria?” A voice came from outside her apartment door after a couple of knocks. “Gloria, it’s me, Caesar. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” Caesar? Caesar Caesar?! Gloria had a quick heart attack at the sound of Caesar’s voice. Of course, she had missed him at times when travelling on the Diner, but seeing him again after all this time felt scary for some reason. She remembers the Diner so vividly, but her surroundings say it was a dream. If only losing her restaurant was the dream…

“Um, y-yeah, Caesar. I’m okay.” Gloria got up from her bed, straightened out her pyjamas, and headed for the door. Looking through the peephole, she saw Caesar backing up from her door wearing a mask. Right, Covid. Gloria sighed heavily as she grabbed a mask before opening the door. She missed Caesar, but could never miss COVID-19.

“Hey, Caesar. What’s up?”

“Sorry for coming so close, but I came to make sure you were okay. You didn’t answer any of my texts.” The concern in Caesar’s voice was obvious.

“Uh, yeah. M-my alarm didn’t go off, slept in.” Gloria ran a hand through her hair to be more convincing. “Had a bit of a weird dream. H-how are you and Inez?”

“As fine as anyone can be during this whole thing,” Caesar weakly chuckled. “Kids are okay too; some don’t seem to mind doing school at home. Anything new with you? What was your dream about?”

Gloria was almost surprised at the short and awkward sentences between them, but then again, those were before the virus. “Just… felt like I lived a lifetime somewhere strange, but familiar, you know?”

“Yeah, one of those mandala effect dreams. Had one where Inez was blonde, and we only had boys. Had me on edge for a while till I hugged each one of my girls, it was like holding them snapped me out of it.”

“If only I could do something like that…” Despite the mask covering it, Caesar could tell Gloria was frowning. Wanting to help, Caesar assumed her dream was about her taqueria and offered some words of comfort.

“Gloria, I know you think it’s over, but I’m sure you’ll get your restaurant back when this is all over. I mean, there had been progress.” Caesar smiled behind his mask. “We’re not stuck in our houses anymore, and they’re not aggressively enforcing the masks. Not to mention the unemployment checks-”

“Caesar, I’ve told you this before.” Gloria sighed heavily. “It’s a little harder to file for unemployment when you owned the damn place…”

Caesar looked confused, tilting his head to the side a little before giving a sad and sorry look. “Sorry, I must have forgotten when you said that.”

“Shit, right… That was later. That means it wasn’t a dream then, right?” Gloria questioned herself in her head, the fear of her family being nothing but a dream still lingering.

“Well, I just came by to make sure you were doing okay. So, call me if you need anything, okay? You know the family and I are always willing to help out.” Caesar turned to leave but hesitated for a moment, looking back at Gloria. “You said you dreamed of another lifetime, right?”

“Uh, y-yeah. Met people I’ve never seen before. Met some really amazing friends…” Gloria’s voice trailed off, smiling softly as she imagined them all in the diner.

“It looks like it made you a bit on edge. I’d recommend looking up some things to stabilize yourself. We can’t make up faces in our dreams. They might have just been someone you saw in passing, but it’s good to confirm it instead of just questioning if you’re losing your mind.” Caesar chuckled. “Well, see ya, Gloria.”

“See ya, Caesar.” Gloria waved him goodbye before stepping back into her house and closing the door. Caesar’s words repeated in her head, “Look up some things” ...

With a determined look on her face, Gloria picked up her phone, opened Google, and searched up; “Dr. Ava Maddox”