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Let the Sun Rise

Summary:

Ace and Nancy Drew have been a long time coming.

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Autor’s note: So, due to that season finale, I have now decided to write my own Nace AU. It is what it is. We were denied. Bye, Amanda.

What was in a name? What made up a name? Nancy Drew – Hudson – didn’t seem to know. She had always thought she understood what went on in the small town of Horseshoe Bay. Had always thought she understood what hid behind every corner she turned down. Then, when Kate Drew died, her world came to a standstill before she was violently catapulted into the unknown abyss of darkness that threatened to swallow her whole.

Ace.

Ace knew what was in a name. Her name specifically.

Trauma and anxiety and depression – these were vulnerabilities that the time wraith fed off of – threatening to take the person he cherished most away from him. He’d either not allow that to happen or he’d die trying. For Nancy, he’d always die trying.

The night had been a long one; filled with multiple emotions that the usually laidback man didn’t ever feel. Stress, a chaotic energy thrumming through not only Ace’s veins, but the veins of the rest of their makeshift family as they raced against the clock to free Nancy of the passenger that had dared to latch onto her as if it had earned that right.

Then, there was the most curious one – anger.

Not the typical anger he had been feeling for the past few days as they scrambled around trying to get answers but anger at the audacity of one Gil Bobbsey. The audacity that he had the nerve to stand there and blatantly accuse Nancy that her friends – her family – didn’t have her wellbeing at heart and he did. Ace would have laughed at the absurdity behind that statement if he weren’t choking on visceral white-hot anger. When Gil went to grab Nancy tightly around the arm to drag her off to God knows where, Ace would have stepped forward, privacy be damned. He had already snuck away from the group – though the calculating look of understanding in Nick’s eyes told him the other man was aware of his intentions – to make sure Nancy didn’t need backup. He wasn’t about to let Gil drag her away from them; from him. They had already been torn apart by the parasite hellbent on killing her body. Nothing else could be added into the mix. Not even his girlfriend’s twin brother who had a chip on his shoulder.

His heart, he remembered looking back now that the storm had passed momentarily, had beat with pride and warmth as he caught a glimpse of his friend for the first time in too long – a glimpse of Nancy fighting her captor as she shoved Gil away from her, threatening him to stay the hell away. He ignored the way his heart beat hopefully in a way that it did not for Amanda. He had to prioritize if he wanted to get Nancy through the night long enough to see the next morning.

Then, there was the phone call with Amanda – the way she accused Nancy of really hurting her brother even though she herself knew what he was capable of. Again, laughable, the audacity behind her accusations. Nancy wouldn’t hurt anybody intentionally and if she had to, it was out of self-preservation or to save her friends and family. Ace didn’t want to admit that Ryan Hudson was anything other than Everett and Cecilia Hudson’s son but lately, he felt that maybe he was holding onto old judgment. Mr. D had accepted him into the fold and fabrics that was Carson and Nancy Drew (he still refused to call her a Hudson on principal alone), and Ryan had proved to Ace himself that he was a scared man wanting his daughter to live. The way his hands shook and the water in the glass trembled from the effect of it; the way he refused to go lay his mother to rest just to be with his daughter – Ace understood the fear. And, for the first time, Ace respected the fact that the fear was coming from Ryan. He saw, in Ryan’s eyes, a pain that mirrored Carson’s and understood, briefly, that the man – the man who had turned away from being an alcoholic, who had apologized with genuine remorse for his actions with an underage girl – was a scared father. A scared father who wanted nothing more than to protect his only kid.

So yeah, Ace could give him a little grace here. They were all the same that night with the one main common factor – Nancy needs to live. Nancy has to live.

And, live she did. It was a sight to behold as Ace held Nancy in his arms, eyes scanning her own fluttering rapidly behind her eyelids, waiting for her to wake-up and come back to him. He remembered feeling Bess’s curious and a little too knowing look of sympathetic eyes on him as one hand rested on his forearm and her other curled around Nancy’s hand tightly, whispering words of encouragement to her, him, them.

Bess was always the best plantanchor he could have asked for after all. And, she knew it.

His heart stopped as Nancy’s eyes opened, locking with his immediately, and for once, he didn’t squash down the hope that she purposefully sought him out as her comfort first; didn’t squash down the guilty feelings he felt about having that type of thought in the first place when he and Amanda were engaged in…whatever it was they were doing. Girlfriend and boyfriend didn’t seem like the appropriate title when he knew he at least owed it to both himself and Nancy to explore the thoughts he had. He knew she had them too; he wasn’t dense. The lingering feel of her eyes on his back as he walked away from his smoke break and back into The Claw; the way he could see herself as she forced back the vile poison she wanted to expel from her system over the course of the past few months. Everything. He saw it all. And, he knew she saw it too.

So yeah, they had owed it to themselves to have a summer free of the claustrophobic walls that had settled in around them.

It was why he cancelled the road trip with Amanda with a heartfelt apology that she seemed to understand.

“I hope Nancy treats you the way you need for her to.”

“I just hope she knows she’s worthy of being treated like that, too.”

It was a simple goodbye – no Gil insight which, thank fuck, really, because Ace may have punched him and that kind’ve killed his chilled-out vibe he relied on in every situation.

As these thoughts wandered through his mind, he heard a knock on his front door, and knowing The Captain was outback with his mom, he went to answer it himself, unsurprised to find Nancy standing there, a look of cautiously hopefulness peeking through her eyes. He returned it with a smile.

“Hey, you,” Ace said simply, before shutting the door and following her to her car, feeling something shift that felt right for the first time.

Author’s note: More to come. Would love, love thoughts. Ryan and Carson will both be in this. I love Ryan as a dad, and I love the character development and arc he has. I also love Carson because I think, despite the faults he had, he loves Nancy. So, I’ll be exploring them both as her fathers. Because they are. Enjoy this ride with me please, lovelies! Xxx