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The orange glow of the fire illuminates the forest. On any other night the flames might have been dancing, but in this moment they are threatening, the metal frame of the bus in danger of collapsing in on itself.
Nancy is still on board. The only one to have not gotten off with the rest of them. The fire had started not long after George stumbled out the door, each of them turning towards the scene in unison. Ace can feel his body go numb in terror. Someone should do something. He should do something.
Without much of a second thought, he’s running back towards the glowing prison.
Bess’s shrieks sound from somewhere behind him, “Ace! What are you doing? You’ll get hurt!”
“Nancy’s still in there!” He shouts back.
The last thing on his mind in this moment is his own life. He’s almost lost someone close to him when his own father was injured on the job and he remembers the feeling. He doesn’t want to relive it. Besides, he had spent the day angry with Nancy. He can’t bear to lose her when some of the last words he said to her were basically accusing her of getting them into this mess and implying that she might be similar to Everett Hudson after all. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
The heat is almost unbearable the closer he gets to the inferno. Flames threaten to engulf the entrance. He takes his chances and jumps through the door before it's completely blocked.
Nancy is laying near a side emergency exit where she’d clearly tried to escape. She’s not conscious, no doubt due to all the smoke inhalation, and to his terror her jacket has caught fire. Ace removes his own coat and quickly throws it over her, trying to recall what he knows from his boy scout days.
Successfully extinguishing Nancy within seconds, he picks her up, head cradled in one arm, legs draped over the other and exits the bus as fast as he possibly can before they’re both trapped inside.
An ambulance is already there; how he doesn’t know, since it’s almost impossible to get a signal out here. Next thing he knows he’s being questioned. They all are. What started the fire? When did it happen, what were they doing?
Explaining the circumstances that lead them to the woods in the first place seems like opening a can of worms none of them feels like doing. We were just looking for a place to camp. We found the abandoned bus and thought it would be fun to explore it. No officer, we don't know what started the fire. It just happened.
Ace is having a hard time breathing, though he's unsure if it's due to his internal panic or the fact that he just spent several moments in a cage of smoke. The paramedics are checking him for any damage, attempting to hold him in place while he cranes to see where Nancy ended up. He spots her form on a stretcher, the dread welling in his chest.
“I need to know if my friend is going to be okay," his voice comes out trembling, fear on full display.
“They’re taking care of her. Now hold still so i can make sure you haven’t inhaled too much smoke."
Bess joins him once he's done being poked and prodded, sitting at the end of an open ambulance, a blanket draped around his shoulders.
“How’re you holding up?” her eyes shine brightly in the moonlight and he suspects she's holding back some emotions.
“I dunno,” he says quietly as she sits down next to him. “I was so angry with her before. I-” his voice falters as Bess lays her hand on his shoulder.
“Ace, don’t be too hard on yourself. We’ve been through a lot lately. Sometimes we say what we don’t mean. It happens.”
“What if she had died? Were we just going to let that happen?”
“Of course not. The important thing is that it didn’t. There’s no sense in entertaining the ‘what if’s’.”
“I just,” he swallows around the lump forming in his throat, “need to know that she’s okay.”
"I know," Bess offers quietly, her head falling to rest on his shoulder, "we'll find out soon."
He looks down to see a single tear drop hit his arm.
George and Nick are talking to an officer a little ways off from them - George's arms folded, a look of concern on her face and Nick looking serious as ever, in crisis mode.
This isn’t the first time any of them have been here, unsure of what lies ahead for a loved one.
It’s certainly not the first time within their tight knit group. For once Ace has found himself a part of something he really cares about, and losing any of them is more than he can bear to think about.
***
It's all kind of a blur on how they get there, but Ace vaguely remembers the four of them piling into Nick's truck, practically sitting on top of each other across the small bench.
Entering the hospital lobby, they can see Mister D talking to the lady at the front desk.
Nick starts to make his way towards him. "They've probably taken her to the burn unit. I'll go find out."
"Well," George declares, looking around the lobby and avoiding eye contact with Ace and Bess, "Might as well make ourselves at home." She flops down on one of the sofas. Worry is written all over her face, even if it is behind that stone wall she tends to hide behind.
"I don't think I can sit right now, I'm- I think I'm gonna go over here," Bess’s voice drops her last couple of words, walking away from the others towards a row of vending machines along the wall.
"I'll go see if she's okay," Ace points over at Bess, but drops his hand when it's clear George isn't really paying attention. He saunters towards her.
"You gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just scary, you know?" She gives with a sniff, glancing over her shoulder at him. "How many times is something like this going to happen? How many times is one of us going to get hurt and we all have to just sit here hoping everything turns out okay? I'm just sick of it, you know?"
There’s a box of tissues on a table nearby; he grabs a few and offers them to Bess. “Here,” he nudges.
She gives a small smile and proceeds to dry her eyes and runny nose.
Once she composes herself, the pair make their way back towards the center of the lobby and take a seat near George, who is currently occupying herself by staring at the floor and picking at stray strands of thread on the sofa.
Nick rejoins them with the news that Nancy will be in surgery for the next couple hours, she’s got third degree burns on most of her left arm and across her upper back and shoulder. After which she will be moved to a hospital room to stay until they feel she’s ready to be released.
Mister D looks around at them, face lined with worry and exhaustion, “I’m gonna stay here and wait, you can all head home if you want, get some rest.”
None of them move, silently making the decision to stay and wait.
They sit there for god knows how long, the seconds crawling by. Mister D is pacing the floor, George has fallen asleep on Nick’s shoulder who looks like he’s about to do the same. Bess is trying to distract herself by scrolling Instagram, though Ace can hear the occasional sniffle and feel her shoulders shake next to him with quiet sobs.
When the clock hits half past four in the morning the doctor finally shows up to tell them she’s out of surgery and will soon be cleared for visitors.
***
"Ace? What are you doing here? Wh-where am I? What happened?"
Nancy struggles to sit up, face wincing in pain. She stops a moment, takes in the bandages covering her left arm and looks over at him. He watches the realization on her face as the memory comes flooding back.
He sits up from the hunched-over position he’s held in the chair next to the bed, having been dozing there for the past half hour or so. Everyone else left to pick up some breakfast to bring back, and Ace had volunteered to stay with Nancy in case she woke up.
“How are you feeling?”
“Okay, I think…”
“They’ve got you on a lot of painkillers. So hopefully the pain shouldn’t be too bad.”
He watches her for a beat and then asks, “Do you remember what happened?”
“Yeah, I was trying to get rid of the wraith. I noticed that it kind of shrank back at sparks that happened when I kicked some metal together? I had a lighter in my bag, so I lit it and threw that towards it.”
“Because it’s afraid of fire,” the dots begin to connect in his mind, just as he’s sure they did for Nancy in that moment, “It feeds on darkness and fear, so you fight it with warmth and light. Of course.”
“Exactly. Fire was the fastest and biggest source of light I could think to use.”
“You could have gotten even more hurt than you did,” he says, feeling a nip of annoyance that he quickly tries to keep in check.
“I know that, but I did what I had to do.”
“Did you even stop to consider how the rest of us feel- how I feel?” he adds, almost as an afterthought.
“Ace..I’m sorry, I didn’t think, I-”
“I know. You just did. That’s how you operate, I know you. It’s just... really hard on this end.”
She’s looking down at her hand, the one that’s not bandaged, and running her nail back and forth along the edge of her thumb.
“I’m not really used to factoring other people in. I’ve always kind of worked on my own. Never really had a group of friends that... were like this.”
Her eyes dart up and catch his - there’s a look there that Ace thinks he understands. The uncertainty of being vulnerable when you’ve never really had anyone close enough to be open with.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I never really had this, either.”
They sit in the silence for a moment, before he says “Hey Nancy? I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. The whole comparing you to the Hudson's thing? I didn’t really mean it, I was just really worried about… everything.”
“You don’t need to apologize Ace. I get it,” she says with a smile, which he returns easily.
“Nancy! You’re awake!” Bess’s voice startles them as she storms through the room and over to hug her.
“Oof, careful. That’s my bad arm,” Nancy lets out as she’s being squeezed.
“Hey, maybe next time you could try not almost dying, yeah?” George is grinning despite her less than sentimental statement.
“Yeah I’ll give that a shot,” Nancy quips.
Nick gives a little laugh, “Glad you’re okay, Nancy.”
“Who wants some breakfast?” Mister D calls to the room and sits the sacks of food he’s been holding on the nearest surface.
As everyone gathers around the food, Ace stays where is for a moment. Seeing everyone laughing and Nancy sitting in her hospital bed alive, it hits him how grateful he is that he’s found this. People he feels so close to that losing one of them would destroy him.
He notices Nancy’s eyes on him, and as he looks over at her he knows that he’s not the only one feeling this way.