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He's never had to be so distracted before.
Ace was the most focused driver in his family. His father, even before the accident, was a easygoing driver. His mother was rarely not seen fumbling with the radio when driving. Ace was the only one out of them three whose attention never wavered from the road.
But that night seemed to be one of the many exceptions of his times after he met Nancy Drew.
A small stone caused Florence to jump a little on the road, and with the little bump so did Nancy move. She was fast asleep, her seatbelt pulling her back from falling on the dash and drooling in her sleep. Ace did notice that - Nancy drooled whenever she was peacefully asleep, not that he saw her be peaceful in a long while...
Somewhere along making sure she didn't wake up and assuring himself the ride won't be for long, Ace soon realized that his eyes strayed often from the road, to creep down his hands and finally settle on Nancy's inches away from his. There was something so poised and dangerous about her hands - they looked so soft, almost like petals even, but whenever they held onto something, they were the strongest and roughest hands that could get the truth out of the cruelest of circumstances. Not long ago, they had been on and around him as she helped save lives, hanging onto him as she got him out of harm's way more than once.
He was afraid they would use their powers to break the last strand of his resolve. Resolve to keep his secret.
It was a very guarded truth that Nancy had never been just a friend to him, she was more than that. Even though Ace saw realization shining in George's eyes when Nancy hovered over his shoulder, or the amusement in Bess's harrumph when he dropped all work for her - he was still dying to keep it from the girl who came into his dreams these days - the very girl who didn't leave a mystery unsolved.
Florence passed a streetlight, yellow and gleaning like shards of diamonds on Nancy's skin through the stained window. Her lips looked like cherries in the dark, shimmering with droplets of beauty and innocence.
Ace shook his head. He practically tore his head away from Nancy to place his looks towards the lone road in front of him. It stretched endlessly, like a certain strawberry blonde's legs-
He felt like slapping himself. Stop it Ace. This is Nancy you're talking about. Just stop. Think of other things, think of anything else that can get her back home safely.
His thoughts obliged, but they took him to the one dark corner that he associated with night rides in Florence... The overnight drive to New York.
Like a traitor, his orbs took him back to look at her. She was letting out adorable little snores, barely heard as Florence rumbled down the loopy roads of Maine hills.
He half-expected her to be the same as that night, a month ago. It was a tense memory, every moment had tightened a noose around his heart; every time her breath had hitched, he'd almost crashed the car in fear that he had lost her forever because of the Wraith. He hadn't trusted Nancy with anyone that day, getting into his biggest argument with Nick when the others wanted to put Nancy in the backseat of the truck. No, in a twisted way, Ace wanted her to be with him, comfortable and alone in peace with Florence cushioning her. She had been in pain, wilting under her knees as he'd picked her up against everyone's protests and put her in the passenger seat of Florence like she was a tender baby.
And now every time Nancy sat in Florence, he felt that old noose loosen bit by bit. See baby? he'd whispered to Florence one such day alone in his garage, she's alrighty now. Florence had had a rough time recovering from the absence of Nancy while on his road trip with Amanda. But the moment she was back in Horseshoe Bay, she was as lively as he became.
Another streetlight shone, moving past them like a ribbon of golden orange light. This time Nancy looked like a ray of the sun personified into a heavenly being, a fallen angel with the grace of the moon and the fire of a thousand burning stars. And when the ribbon of light fell behind them, he was back to being the young man who dreamed of getting the tender girl.
There was a sense of knowing failure when he could want her like he wanted the sun - he could handle burning his wings. But when his heart nagged at him to pine over a girl that was more than the sun... he could not handle the cold of her grasp, the crinkle on her forehead when she hid a smile at his jokes, the kindness that resembled a canopy, giving him no clue the secrets and floods of grief she bore underneath.
He either got his wings burned, or Nancy Drew would carve a pair for him from the earth's moss. On one side of his feelings was the pain of rejection and on the other was the comfort of having her forever. And both these sides parted a middle path like the Red Sea parting for Moses - the moments he had with her every second of the day until he was tortured by the fact that she probably didn't love him like he did her. Maybe they'd have this push and pull forever. But forever really a part of their lives? What if he lost her again?
Nancy Drew was a supernatural magnet and Ace had never held it against her until he realized he would take a piece of his heart with him if one hair on her body was hurt.
Before they knew it, they had driven into Horseshoe Bay with the same passing , passing by the dock where he saw her after her first shift at the Claw, passing by the library, passing through the woods where he almost lost her many a times. By memory, he had pulled up in Florence on Nancy's driveway. The sun was just rising on the horizon, shining a baby sun's glow into the pools of his eyes.
Had he really started crying? He had wiped away the weeping of his feelings right when Nancy woke up.
She felt her way around at first, her eyes still screwed shut with her lashes framing her furrow. Fumbling around for something, her hand held Ace's.
It was a casual mistake, a brush of skin here and there, but like every time Nancy did it, the stupid teenager foiling his confused old soul caught his vestige in flames that could neither be seen nor be put out.
"Oh," Nancy gave a short sigh, throwing her eyes open and immediately withdrawing her hand from his. She gave him a smile - the same smile she gave him when she first told him about tanking her grades, when she saw him back at the Claw after his accident, when Ace had made a private server for just the two of them.
She looked out of the window, finding the dimly lit porches of her side of the town. Who was he kidding? Horseshoe Bay was Nancy Drew. She was everywhere and claimed every piece of broken history, all the grief and all the vengeance like a sponge.
"We're here."
He took a breath, restraining his lips from pulling up at her. What was there to smile at? If he smiled at such simple words, she'd think he was a fool.
"...Yeah. Back in one piece sans ghost."
There was a pause, just the slightest breaths of fresh air, letting the morning breeze of the bay flutter through Florence's open windows as they sat with no words. They had a lot of thoughts, and if they told them all right then, a penny for a thought would make them billionaires.
"You look pretty beat down, should've let me drive..."
Nancy did insist on being the one to drive, but how could he let her? He was afraid of not being in control in his only arena. It's not that he didn't trust Nancy, he pretty much almost drank poison for her and would really drink a real vial of one if it was to prove his trust. But with his heart spiraling out of his control and his body all but hitched by a ghostly imprint all day, Ace needed to feel the thrum of his baby's engine in his hands and the scrunch of the wheels beneath him. And he had to get Nancy back home safely.
It was funny, how he who would trust even his life with her, refused to trust her with her own breath.
He shrugged, "You seemed pretty beat down too. Couldn't risk exhausting the hero of Horseshoe Bay."
She tilted her head, her hand freezing on the handle. She looked back at him, tilting her head knowingly. Though she hadn't vocally conveyed that she wasn't the only hero of Horseshoe Bay, she always wanted to make it clear to Ace with her looks. Every time she did the head tilt, Ace knew what she was thinking - "You know I am the hero of Horseshoe Bay because you help me be that right? Without you half of the monsters of the underbelly of our town would be unscathed." But she wouldn't say it out loud because Nancy Drew was the proudest most stubborn girl he had ever met and it was part of the reason why his heart tore in directions when her eyes spoke more to him than her lips ever did.
"Whatever you say Acie boy," she offered a smile, slipping out before he could stop her.
She ran up to her porch, with Ace shouting behind from inside Florence, "You've been spending too much time with my mother."
And without turning back, she waved to him, "Just covering all my bases is all. See you soon!"