He touched Chuck’s pale hand. She opened her eyes—sea-green, warm, and impossibly alive.
Ned could bring dead things back to life with a single touch.
Ned grew up lonely, hiding in plain sight, working as a pie-maker. His only companions were a blind, agoraphobic former private investigator named Emerson Cod—whom he’d secretly partnered with to solve murders (Ned touches the corpse, asks who killed them, then collects the reward before the minute runs out)—and his beloved, sentient dog, Digby, whom Ned had once resurrected and never touched again. Pushing Daisies - Season 1
He learned this when a neighbor’s goldfish floated belly-up as his mother drew her second breath. Horrified, young Ned did the only thing he could: he kissed his mother’s forehead goodbye, ending the miracle. She fell back, gone for good. The goldfish swam away.
“Who killed you?” Ned whispered, his heart hammering. He touched Chuck’s pale hand
They met in the aunts’ orchard, under a bruised twilight sky. Chuck’s father embraced her. But Dwight Dixon arrived with a gun. In the chaos, Ned touched Chuck’s father—reviving him from a bullet wound—only to realize too late that he was now holding a living person. To save Chuck’s life, he would have to let her father die again.
Outside, the snow began to fall. And somewhere in the distance, a blind auburn-haired woman who saw more than anyone knew smiled to herself. The story wasn’t over. It had only just begun to rise. Ned grew up lonely, hiding in plain sight,
Chuck looked at Ned. Her eyes said: Don’t you dare.