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“She shouldn’t be by herself right now.” Bess frowned, staring at Nancy’s shivering form. She once again cursed the murky weather for preventing them from driving straight to New York. Instead, they were stuck at this sketchy hotel.
Everyone murmured their quiet agreement and Bess was about to offer to stay with her because they had only been able to get a single room with three beds. It was the last one available. So Nick and George would share and Amanda would not like Ace sharing with either Bess or Nancy. (No matter how many times they told her Bess and Ace were platanchors.)
But to her surprise, Ace held up his hand. “I’ll do it.”
“Ace, I’m not sure Amanda would like you doing that. She seemed sensitive to Nancy last time I saw her.” George stated bluntly. Once more saying what everyone was thinking but didn’t want to say.
“Amanda won’t be a problem anymore. We broke up.” Ace told them before he grabbed an extra blanket to wrap around Nancy’s still shivering form. As if her shivering was from the cold and not from an invisible supernatural being wrapped around her like a leech, slowly draining her of, well, everything.
“And you didn’t think to say anything to anybody?” Nick asked, turning with Ace’s movements.
“To me? Ace, we’re platanchors for a reason!” Bess added, probably more shrill than necessary.
The technology savant of their group shrugged as he said quietly. “Didn’t seem important with everything going on. Besides, it's not a big deal. It was mutual.”
From the looks on George and Nick’s faces, they didn’t believe they were getting the whole story either. But everyone was too worried about Nancy and the wraith to press him any further. (No Bess would do that later when, you know, a supernatural entity wasn’t sucking their other friend out of their soul)
“You and Amanda broke up?” Ace glanced down from where he was perched on the bed, at the quiet slurred words to see Nancy peering up at him with barely opened eyes. He frowned, removing his hand from her forehead. She was warm. Warmer than normal. He wanted to get her some ice or something but Ace worried that the wraith might try something more drastic when no one else was looking. And everyone else was asleep.
“It was mutual,” Ace answered as nonchalantly as before. Then tried to distract the red-headed woman who as Amanda put it, “seemed to have parts of him that he wasn’t willing to give to anyone else.”
Or something like that. He had only been half listening to the phone call, as he packed for the trip to New York. (…which probably proved Amanda’s point but he wasn’t willing to think about that right now)
“Why?” Ace met Nancy’s eyes again. Her eyes were still half closed, but at least her voice sounded stronger.
“Why did you and Gil break up?” He shot back the question to her, not expecting an answer. So he was surprised when she sat up.
“Nance, maybe you shouldn’t-” he started, worried about the energy she was exerting when she should be conserving it.
“Is it cold or is it just me?” She asked, wrapping her arms around herself. Ace frowned when she started to shiver. She already had two blankets wrapped around her and a coat on. She shouldn’t be cold.
“You think it’s the wraith don’t you? Do you think I’m getting worse?” She pressed through chattering teeth when he didn’t answer her first question.
Well, she certainly wasn’t getting better. Yet, Ace didn’t want to give a voice to the bleak thought. It felt too much like giving the wraith permission to do something worse. But she still needed to get warm, Ace thought, biting his lip as he weighed his options because there was something he could do.
Nancy continued to shiver uncontrollably. The tech savant knew his decision was made. He couldn’t just let one of his best friends freeze to death. He would do the same for Bess, George and Nick too. His feelings for Nancy didn’t factor into this choice. (But they certainly didn’t hurt making this choice either.
“Scoot over a little,” he said before he slipped off his shoes and slipped under the two blankets, alongside the redhead. Then Ace scooted as close to Nancy as he could, wrapping his arms tightly around her frame.
“Body heat should help a little,” he mumbled the explanation into her hair. Nancy nodded, which he felt more than saw, but didn’t say anything. But eventually, her tremors did slow and waver a little. Not completely gone though, so Ace stayed where he was with his arms wrapped tightly around her frame. Her breathing became even.
The next day they made it to New York and found Temperance Hudson in record time. Thankfully no one said anything about him being found in Nancy’s bed. Probably because he still had all of his clothes on…Or maybe it was because Nancy was paler than yesterday. If that was even possible.
They had more important things to worry about and deal with. Like getting the wraith to let go of Nancy. And that started with convincing the elder Hudson woman of the supernatural and letting them use the machine and her blood to help Nancy get rid of the wraith.
It was a difficult thing to watch. The picture wasn’t exactly gruesome, but it did seem like something out of a horror film Ace thought, but that didn’t stop him from careening forward to grab Nancy’s hand. Even though she told everyone to stay back in case the wraith latched onto someone else.
The whole crew watched their red-headed sleuth with baited breath. She wasn’t moving, and it was almost like watching paint dry with how still she was. Save for how pale she was increasingly becoming. Ace squeezed her hand.
Come on, Nancy.
No sooner than the plea entered his mind, Nancy jerked to life with a gasp as if she had been underwater.
“It’s gone,” she gasped, falling forward. He reached out to catch her. Nancy repeated, “It’s gone.”
Reassuring Temperance that Nancy would be okay was difficult but Ace left that to Bess and George (mainly Bess) as Nick helped him get Nancy out to Florence.
“I can walk,” she protested and though a little color had returned to her since, she was still a little unsteady on her feet.
“We know that, but humor us.” Nick reassured her, before he reached for the backdoor.
“We just enjoy being your personal crutches.” Ace chimed, lowering her to sit inside the car. For his efforts at a joke, he received an exhausted grin.
“I saw you, you know.” Bess finally spoke, after she watched Ace adjust Florence’s heat for the third time in thirty minutes. They were following behind Nick’s truck as they left New York.
Though she didn’t call her platanchor out for that. She knew his nerves were likely just as short as George’s nail beds. After what they just watched Nancy go through…
Bess shook her head and resisted the urge to turn and check on the red-headed mystery solver, who was understandably, sleeping quite soundly in the backseat after fighting off the supernatural’s equivalent of a tick. Instead, Bess looked at the rearview mirror, where she could just make out Nancy’s breathing, steady and even. She sighed a little in relief. Some of the tension coiled in her shoulders loosening.
“Saw what?” Ace questioned bringing Bess’ attention back to him. The British woman forced a light smirk to split her lips, trying for a lithe and teasing tone because her friend was fine. Nancy had defeated the wraith, they needed some normalcy now. Well, as normal as their friend group could get in Horseshoe Bay.
“You with Nancy earlier,” Bess looked over at Ace as she said this. To see if she’d get any reaction from him, but like usual when he was driving Florence, he was calm, cool, and collected.
“I was giving her support,” he answered and it was back to the nonchalant, chill Ace now that one Nancy Drew was out of danger.
“We were all there to support her,” Bess reminded him, thinking of how hard it had been to watch her cut her hand. The only color came from her blood because even Nancy’s fiery red hair was limp and seemed to dull into a coppery color. But the blood coming from the cut on their friend’s hand… was bright with life almost as if it was the wraith’s last chance to mock them. “But when she told us to stay back, you stepped forward and held her hand.”
“I was worried she wouldn’t be able to find her way back,” He said but it had to be more than that. Because Nancy could take care of herself, wraith or no wraith. Ace knew that. It was time to stop beating around the bush. Time for a more direct approach.
“How long have you had more than just friendly feelings for her?” She questioned, finally jumping straight to the point. Then her eyes flicked to her platanchor, to study him. Bess could only see his side profile because Ace was driving, but a muscle moved in his jaw and his hands flexed on Florence’s steering wheel.
“Since her sophomore year of high school. I watched her homemade volcano explode at the science fair and I was a goner.”
Bess felt her mouth open a little at the new information. She thought it was just in the last year her best friend had developed his feelings. Maybe two if she tried to really look for the signs in Ace’s actions. But certainly not in the last five years. “Even when you were with Tiffany’s sister? Is that why you didn’t go with her to Paris?”
“No, I mean I won’t lie and say my feelings for Nancy weren’t a factor there, but that wasn’t the only reason I didn’t go. I couldn’t just leave my family or you either.”
Despite the fact that Ace couldn’t see her because he was driving, Bess smiled warmly at her platanchor. She knew Ace was her best friend, but it was always nice to hear that he considered her his too. And that’s why Bess asked, “Then why haven’t you told her yet?”
“Never the right time. Either she was dating someone else or I was or we were dealing with whatever supernatural force decided to curse or attach itself to us.”
“Well, you’re both single now and we defeated the wraith.” Bess reminded him softly, but Ace still shook his head as they turned left at a traffic light.
“It’s still too soon. I want to let the dust settle before I tell her anything.”
“But you are going to tell her,” Bess prodded a little, “Aren’t you?”
“I think so,”
The British woman barely managed to muffle her squeal so she wouldn’t wake up their red-headed friend sleeping in the backseat.
Nancy flattened her hands against her jeans and rubbed them back and forth against the fabric, trying to get rid of the sweat that just wouldn’t go away. She inhaled a breath and blew it out, her mouth twisting itself into a frown as she grew more frustrated with herself. Because she shouldn’t be nervous. This was Ace. Ace who was extremely laid back, smart, and who wasn’t just Ace anymore but Ace.
Ace who had always been there. Even when the wraith tried to push him away and isolate her from everyone in her life. Ace, who now gave her butterflies when she met his gaze. (And had for longer than she cared to admit to.)
Nancy shook her head at herself again. It had been a week since New York and the wraith and since then she had been recovering and processing and just letting everyone take a breather. But in that week, she had been agonizing over Ace, her more than platonic feelings for him, and what happened in her vision. She needed to talk to him, which meant she had to work up the courage to knock on the door. She had to knock on the door. She had to-the door opened and there stood Ace on the other side with a tupperware of cookies under his arms.
“Hi,” she said, dropping her raised fist. Ace smiled back at her. “Hi, Nance.”