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Nancy is trying really, really hard not to freak out.
She’s all bundled up in her winter coat, standing in the hallway outside of Nick’s apartment. Her head is down, brow furrowed as she peers down at the phone in her hand, rereading the message on her tiny phone screen for what must be the fiftieth time since she received it.
I have something important I want to tell you. Can you meet me at the loft at 8? Alone?
Since defeating the wraith months ago, her stomach has been in knots over Ace. Every kind word or smart solution he’s offered up. Every time he’s saved her. Every time he went off to be with Amanda— It was all a slow twisting of the knife inside Nancy’s chest, the one that had been there since that day (night? dream?) at the bluffs.
The thing about developing feelings for one of your best friends, is that it’s both the most incredible and terrifying feeling all mixed together in one single pot of joy and misery. Nancy was lost in the sea of her feelings for Ace, desperately looking for a glimmer of land on the horizon.
This text might be that land.
But she’s been shipwrecked for so long that every single cell in her body screams at the possibility of raising her hopes, even the tiniest amount.
Nancy’s stomach flips in an excitement she is desperately trying to tamp down. It might be nothing. He could be asking for help for his brother, Grant, again. There could be a new case he wants her input on. It might be a lot of things.
But— But. It could be exactly what she hopes it is.
And that possibility has set her skin on fire.
Half an hour before, Nancy had absent-mindedly grabbed a hair brush and change of underwear from her room, called over her shoulder to her dad that she might be staying out at George’s for the night, and driven over to Nick’s building.
And now she was here, waiting for Ace to answer the door and let her inside.
A shape appears in the frosted glass and gets larger. Suddenly Ace-shaped. Nancy smoothes down her hair with one hand. She’s so nervous.
“Hi,” Ace says, swinging the door open.
Nancy drinks him in. He’s in the same sweater he was wearing earlier today, salmon pink and broad shouldered. His hair is a little more rumpled than usual, like he’s been running his hand through it a lot.
“Hey,” Nancy says, smiling.
Ace smiles briefly but his features reset back into something more serious, worried.
It’s probably the Grant thing—
“Come in,” he says, pulling the door fully open to let Nancy inside.
She follows him in, unwinding the scarf from her neck as she does so. It’s much warmer here than it had been outside, although she’s not sure the change in temperature is why she’s feeling so flustered right now.
Nancy walks into Nick’s apartment, stopping in the foyer and turning to face Ace. He hasn’t followed her in and is instead standing with his back to the door, watching her. His face is soft, yet there’s an edge to how he’s holding himself. His jaw set hard, almost in a frown; his shoulders a little too stiff.
“So what’s with—” Nancy starts.
“Thank you for—” Ace says, at the same time.
They laugh. Ace cards a hand through his hair and takes a step towards Nancy.
“Should I take my coat off or is this going to be a flying visit?” Nancy asks, voice deliberately casual. She hugs the strap of her bag to her chest.
“Err—” Ace looks down at Nancy’s coat and over to the back of the couch, taken slightly off guard. He takes another deliberate step closer to her. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether you want to stay after I— After you’ve heard what I have to say.”
Nancy swallows.
“Is everything okay, Ace?” Nancy asks, worry creeping into her voice.
Ace tucks a strand of hair behind his ear and takes a deep breath. His features are schooled tightly, ready to unwind. He nods, more to himself than to Nancy.
He comes closer. Nancy can see the freckles in his eyes.
“Everything’s fine. I just— I needed to talk to you. Here. Alone.”
Nancy briefly looks at the empty room around them.
“Yeah, I got that from your text.”
“Right, yeah,” Ace chuckles. Folding his arms and then unfolding them.
Nancy puts a steadying hand on his arm and Ace goes still.
He lets out a relieved breath. “I’m really glad you’re here, Nance.”
Nancy’s whole being aches, her heart physically straining inside of her chest with everything she’s holding back from Ace.
“Me too,” Nancy says softly. “Now are you going to tell me what’s going on? You’re worrying me.”
Ace looks down at Nancy’s hand on his arm. His gaze travels up, towards her eyes. And then, for half a second, he glances at her lips.
Nancy’s pulse thrums in her veins. This might actually be what she hoped—dreamed—it might be. Her heart stutters a staccato rhythm as she lowers her own gaze to Ace’s mouth and back up again to meet his eyes in question she’d wanted to ask for months.
Ace’s brows knit together, unsure.
“I didn’t mean to worry you, and I’m sorry if I freaked you out with that dramatic text I just—” Ace rushes out. “I have to tell you— you are really important to me and I would never want anything to ruin our friendship, but I— you have to know that I—”
Between one heartbeat and the next, Nancy makes the decision. She leans up and cuts Ace off, capturing his mouth with her own while he is mid-sentence. For a moment Ace is rigid in shock, but then he seems to register what’s happening. And it is happening. She’s kissing Ace. She’s kissing Ace. After months of feeling like her heart was about to fall out of her chest every time he looked at her, it’s finally, actually happening.
And now that it’s a reality, Nancy isn’t sure how she can stop.
After a terrifying moment that stretches on entirely too long, Ace moves. He begins slowly, an experimental slide of his mouth against hers. As he does, Nancy lets out a soft, contented sigh in the back of her throat and she wraps her arms around Ace’s neck.
Then, one of Ace’s hands is on her lower back, the other moving up to her hair. Nancy starts to walk them backwards towards the couch in the den until Ace hits the edge of it with the back of his legs.
“I was going to tell you,” says Ace, in between kisses. “That I like you.”
“Oh,” pants Nancy, hands grabbing at the hem of Ace’s shirt and screwing it up in her fist. “That’s good.”
“Mhmm,” Ace agrees, mumbling with his mouth on Nancy’s neck, pressing hot, wet kisses into the soft skin there.
After all this time it turns out neither of them really needed to say anything to each other to actually start this. But she’s really, really glad that he sent her that cryptic text.
After several minutes, Nancy pulls back, breathless, and Ace chases her lips before realizing what she’s doing. He frowns. Nancy can’t help the small laugh that bubbles up out of her.
“For the record, I like you too,” says Nancy, eyes roving Ace’s face.
Like doesn’t feel big enough for the electricity Nancy feels under her skin when she looks at Ace. He had snuck up on her, somehow. Her tall, gorgeous, funny friend, who was always there with a joke and a smile to pick her back up. Always on her side. Someone she could count on like nobody else. She likes him so much she feels dizzy with it.
“Yeah?” Ace asks, awed. He’s beaming, like he can’t believe his luck.
“Yeah,” Nancy says, nodding. She places a hand on Ace’s cheek, caressing the soft skin over his cheekbone. “So much.”
Ace pulls her face to his for a quick peck on lips before pulling back again and meeting her eyes, his own filled with warm, bright affection. “Me too, Nancy. I like you so much.”
He kisses her again and they fall backwards onto the couch together.
—
If Nancy hadn’t had prior knowledge that her friends were incredibly smart and resourceful amateur sleuths, she really wouldn’t have guessed it based on their behavior today.
It’s been two hours since she and Ace arrived for their shift at The Claw, together, in the same car. They’d walked into the restaurant wearing last night’s clothes, hair rumpled, guarding small secret smiles — and not a single one of their friends have even batted an eyelid.
Not a single word from Nick.
No pleased, knowing look from Bess.
No affectionate eye roll from George, while she pretended she wasn’t just as happy for them as the others.
No, Nancy and Ace’s friends were too busy running around the seafood restaurant with a checklist for the catering for the Long Night Ball.
One one hand, it’s almost anti-climactic. Nancy wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this. A total obliviousness to something that, to Nancy, had been such a monumental shift in her being that she was sure that the earth had quaked below her feet.
But on the other hand, as Ace had whispered to her in the store room, it was incredibly amusing.
“I’m just saying that we have an opportunity here to do the funniest thing possible,” says Ace, looking Nancy up and down as she leans against the shelving.
“And what is that?” Nancy asks, folding her arms.
“We keep doing this,” Ace gestures between them, “And see how long it takes them to notice.”
Nancy takes a beat. Mulling it over for a moment.
They could just walk into the dining room right now and tell their friends that they were together. But the fact that none of them had even registered their clasped hands and they walked up to the front door of The Claw—Nancy briefly wondered what exactly she and Ace would have to do to get their attention. For this to register for them.
It might be fun, actually. To see how far they can push it. To test their friend’s observational skills. To poke fun at them for being so unobservant.
Nancy nods, taking a few steps towards Ace. He reaches for her, lifting their entwined hands and pressing a kiss on hers. Nancy blushes. It’s been less than a day since they kissed for the first time, and yet something about the way he looks at her feels like forever. The full weight of Ace’s attention is almost too much.
“You’re on, Hardy.”
“You’re going down, Drew.”
Nancy smirks. “Mmm, maybe.”
—
The next day, Nancy grabs Ace’s hand under the table as they eat lunch. She swirls slow, soft patterns on his skin with her index finger.
When Bess asks her what’s got her so smiley, she just laughs.
“Oh, nothing. I’m just having a good day.”
Ace squeezes her hand.
—
It’s a slow Thursday afternoon shift when Nancy is unceremoniously accosted whilst heading to grab more whitefish from the freezer.
Nancy is half way up the steps to the walk-in freezer when the door opens right into her face and a warm, strong hand tugs her in. The air inside is cool, stinging her skin in icy pinpricks. But Ace’s hand is already under her shirt, pulling open the string of her blue pinafore. His hand is warm and firm on the small of her back, while his mouth is pressing hot kisses down her neck. Nancy barely registers the cold.
Nancy isn’t sure if it’s an early relationship thing, a sneaking around thing, or just a general finally-getting-to-be-with-Ace thing, but her entire being aches from holding back all the wanting she’s felt for Ace over the last couple of months. The only balm is Ace’s hands on her skin, his mouth in her hair.
“You know,” Nancy pants in between kisses, “I don’t think George would approve of this.”
Ace pulls back for a second, smirking. “I don’t think George approves of much.”
“True,” says Nancy, stroking her thumb over Ace’s cheek. She’s slightly breathless, his kisses always slightly knocking the wind out of her.
“Have you ever hooked up here before?”
Ace’s cheeks flush.
“That’s a yes.”
“Yes, once. With Laura. Does that bother you?”
Nancy plays with a strand of Ace’s hair. Maybe with another person, she would have been jealous of that. But the way Ace looks at her, the reverent press of his lips against hers when they fall into bed—it tells her all she needs to know. He’s in this as much as she is. Partners ‘til the end.
Nancy shakes her head in answer.
“No, it doesn’t bother me. Things are so different now. It would be like you being weird about, I don’t know, Gil.”
Ace tilts his head to one side. “I mean, I was weird about Gil.”
“That’s true, you were so weird about Gil,” Nancy confirms, a teasing lilt to her voice.
“Sorry I wanted my girlfriend to date me and not some criminal doucheb—”
Nancy’s leaning up to press her mouth to Ace’s again, spinning them so Ace now has his back to the wall and Nancy is pressing him into it. Up to now, they’ve not put a label on what they are to each other. Hearing Ace casually calling her his girlfriend sends an electric thrill up Nancy’s spine. She is his girlfriend. Ace is her boyfriend.
Dimly, Nancy registers George’s dulcet tones somewhere in the restaurant, yelling about ‘terrible service’ in this place. Nancy pulls away and leaves Ace in the freezer slightly flustered with a final peck on his lips before she goes.
Fifteen minutes later, after Ace has reemerged from the back room and smoothed his hair down from Nancy’s ministrations, Nick calls over to Nancy from the cash register.
“Hey Nancy,” he says. “You need to tie your apron, it’s undone at the back.”
Nancy shoots Ace a glare out of the corner of her eye.
—
Bess corners Ace one afternoon at the Historical Society to ask about the new girl he’s been seeing. She’s seen the shampoo in his shower and new mug by the tea kettle and is furious with him keeping it a secret.
Ace flushes, sure they’ve been caught.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine,” says Bess. “As long as you’re happy, I’m happy. But if it gets serious I want to meet her!”
Ace licks his lips, trying desperately hard not to laugh. Nancy will have a field day with this.
“Well, it is serious. I think.”
Bess bats Ace on the arm, excitedly. “I can’t believe you’re off with some new girlfriend and I don’t even know who it is. You’re so mysterious!”
“Well,” says Ace, smiling as Bess clasps her hands together. “Girls do love mystery.”
__ There’s a werewolf in Bayport. Or at least, that’s the way Bess described the message from her contact in the local Historical Society. Townspeople going missing, ominous howling during a full moon—it fits the bill.
What doesn’t quite fit is needing to dig out their fancy clothes to attend a gallery opening to hunt down the suspect. It’s between the curator, the financier, and the assistant. All will be present in their art-galleriest finery this evening.
So, Nancy used her Hudson name to score an invitation with two guests: Ace and Bess.
Nancy is already smiling when she climbs into Ace’s car. Bess was still inside the house and had been declaring “give me two minutes!” for at least the last ten. Nancy gave up and decided to wait in the car.
For the gallery evening, she’d pick out a slinky pink dress that skims her curves and drops off her shoulders, revealing her collarbone. As a finishing touch, she’d dusted her skin with gold shimmer.
“Hi,” Nancy says, shutting the door and putting her purse on her lap.
Ace is silent, staring at her wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
“Wow,” says Ace in greeting.
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah. It’s a big wow from me.”
“Oh a big wow, is it?” Nancy teases. She leans in to kiss Ace hard and deep. She scrapes her nails over Ace’s scalp and he groans into her mouth.
It’s only now Nancy realizes that she’s never seen Ace in formalwear either.
He’s in a dark suit, with a crisp white shirt and bow tie. He’s clearly made an attempt to tame his hair by running a brush through it. It’s a far cry from their greasy uniforms at The Claw.
Things between them are still new, and really they’ve only known each other a little over a year, but Nancy would be lying to herself if she hadn’t thought about the future. Her future, with Ace. In two, ten, or twenty years from now. How many times will she see him scrub up in a black tie? How often will he look at her like she hung the moon, as he had when she’d gotten into his car? Will they go to their friend’s weddings together? How many town balls would they dance at, all smart shirts and flowing dresses?
Seeing Ace like this thrills Nancy, a little pit of excitement opening in her stomach. And she knows he feels it too as he angles her face up to his for a better angle as they kiss. She’s practically climbed into Ace’s lap when she hears the front door to the Drew house slam shut.
Shit.
At the noise, Nancy quickly extricates herself from where she’d almost climbed over to Ace’s side. In turn, Ace straightens his tie and runs a hand through his hair, where Nancy’s hands had been only moments ago.
Bess’ heels clatter on the floor as she walks down the driveway of the Drew residence, carrying a pretty sequined purse in one hand. She waves at Nancy and Ace before heading round the back of the car to sit in the rear.
Before the door opens, Nancy steals a quick kiss from Ace. So quick it’s there and gone before he can even kiss her back.
“What was that for?” Ace asks, keeping his voice low.
Nancy shrugs, innocent. “Nothing, just wanted to tide you over. Until later.”
At her words Ace’s eyes flicker with heat.
“What’s going on later?” Bess asks as her head pokes into the car.
Ace widens his eyes and Nancy stifles a laugh.
“Nothing,” says Nancy, turning to face Bess in the back. “Just looking forward to seeing all the art.”
“Oh yes,” agrees Bess, completely missing the stricken look on Ace’s face. “We should take more cases that require us to go to fancy cocktail parties. I’m tired of cobwebby shacks.”
“Oh but regular shacks you’re just fine with?” Nancy teases.
“I mean it’s an improvement,” laughs Bess, reaching for her seatbelt.
Ace starts the car. Before he rolls out, he reaches over to fiddle with something in the glove compartment on Nancy’s side.
“You’re going to kill me,” he whispers as he moves past.
Nancy smiles, whispering back: “That’s the plan.”
—
After that, it becomes a sort of game between them. Trying to one up one another when around their friends. Nancy snatches a kiss from Ace before Bess opens the door to the Historical Society. Ace rolls his sleeves up while they’re working on a case, and Nancy suddenly loses her train of thought. Ace steals one of Nancy’s neckties and ties it around his wrist, his eyes softening every time they land on the new accessory.
They pair off together on cases, and they are each other’s first call when not together. Always just a text or a phone call away.
At first, Nancy wonders how the hell her friends (and her dads!) haven’t yet noticed the shift in her and Ace’s dynamic. But really, things haven’t shifted all that much, have they? They have always gravitated towards one another, a binary system of planets orbiting one another whether they’re on shift at The Claw, investigating a new case together, or just spending time with their friends.
It’s not new. This is how it’s always been between them.
The only new development is that they kiss now. Which generally only happens when they’re alone, so it’s no wonder nobody else has figured it out yet.
—
One night, Nancy bolts up in bed, sweat streaking over her forehead. She’d been back in Gorham Woods, the wraith sucking away all of her love and joy, leaving her a shell of a person made of nothing but sadness and fear.
She’d stayed at Ace’s new apartment after his house warming, casually sticking behind to ‘help clean up’. She had cleaned up, but she’d also slept over in the host’s bed.
Ace peers up at her from the darkness, awake now too.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just. I was having a bad dream.”
Ace takes Nancy’s hand and pulls her back down, slotting his chin over her shoulder and enveloping her in his arms.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Ace asks.
“No. But this is helping,” Nancy admits, cradling Ace’s hand in her own.
“I’ve got you, Nance.”
And he does. He has her. For as long as he wants, Nancy will be his. And he will be hers. The warm glow in her chest scares away the last stabs of fear in her gut, the nightmare almost forgotten.
“I know, I know you do,” Nancy pauses. She can feel Ace’s chest rising and falling behind her. His hair tickling her skin. She takes a breath and adds: “And I love you.”
And she does love him. Has loved him for so long, and so hard, it’s become a simple fact she can reel off about herself. Nancy Drew is a redhead and she’s also ridiculously, painfully in love with Ace Hardy.
Ace tenses for a moment as Nancy wriggles around to face him. Her eyes are slowly adjusting to the darkness around them so she can just about make out the lines of his face. He looks so serious, so unlike his usual self. He takes a deep breath and wets his lips to speak.
“Well, you know I love you too, right?”
“Yes, I had deduced that,” Nancy answers, tongue in cheek.
“All right, all right. That’s what I get for falling for the Hero of Horseshoe Bay.”
Nancy laughs and shoves a pillow in Ace’s face.
—
It’s unseasonably cold for September and Nancy is wearing one of Ace’s thick tartan button-ups over her own long-sleeved shirt. It’s a green and brown thing, definitely more Ace’s color palette than her own, but it’s warm and soft and smells just like him. So Nancy is more than happy to take it when offered, wrapped up in Ace’s scent.
It’s an inventory day, so, no customers. Which means there is no reason for her to take the shirt off and put it in her locker.
All day, Ace shoots Nancy heated looks from across the restaurant. Ace likes it when Nancy wears his clothes, she knows this from the time she’d emerged from the bathroom in his lucky blue pullover and they’d ended up burning dinner after getting distracted.
Ace had taken every opportunity to touch her in the most casual way—a hand on her back as he walked past; a lingering touch as he passed her a box of condiments; a touch on the shoulder to commiserate the grim state of the grease traps behind the deep fryer.
And still, nothing.
"Have they always been this oblivious?" Ace asks, incredulous.
George, Nick, and Bess are crowded around a booth at the opposite end of the diner, baskets of fried fish and salty fries on the table in front of them. They’re chatting and eating, a ritual they started months ago—end of shift dinner when all five of them are working.
Nancy and Ace’s absence from the table seems to have gone unnoticed.
“You know,” Nancy says, tucking a stray strand of hair away from Ace’s face. "I'm starting to have serious concerns about their sleuthing abilities.”
Ace leans into Nancy’s palm, relishing the touch. He nods his head ever so slightly. “Mmm, yes. I am very concerned for us.”
Nancy swipes an affectionate thumb across his cheek. She’s grinning, so big her face feels like it’s going to split in two. And maybe that’s just what she’ll have to do, to accommodate all the love she has for Ace. It can’t be contained in just her body. It’s bigger than her. It is simply something that the universe wants her to feel. And who is she to deny the universe?
—
As October rolls around, Ace hatches a plan for them to do a couples costume at the annual All Hallow’s Eve bash at the Historical Society. And yet, somehow, when Ace shows up in a skin-tight Spider-Man suit and Nancy simply pins a name badge that says “Mary Jane Watson”, to the outfit she was already wearing, nobody questions it.
“Maybe we should have done the upside-down kiss?” Ace suggests in the car on the way home. He’s a little tipsy after having three beers and a small glass of champagne (courtesy of Bess, of course), while Nancy is stone cold sober.
“I’m sure that would have gone down very well,” Nancy says, laughing as she turns into the street Ace and Nick live on.
“Well I would have enjoyed it,” Ace huffs.
—
One day at The Claw, a customer flirts with Nancy and slips her his phone number. Ace has no reason to be jealous other than the fact that both Nick and Bess encourage Nancy to call him. She protests and feigns slipping the number into her purse. But seeing their friends actively encourage Nancy to date other people… right now their secret doesn’t feel quite so funny and amusing.
—
They’re on a road trip when they have their first fight.
It’s not exactly the first time they’ve disagreed, but this feels bigger, somehow. More important. Scarier than any of the times they bickered when they were just friends.
And the worst part is that Nancy can’t even talk to anyone about it.
There aren’t enough rooms for all five of them, and Bess loses the coin toss and ends up, reluctantly, sleeping on the floor. It’s been a long day and they’re headed back from Portland after a summon spell gone awry. Bess had been hit by the spell and wasn’t feeling too hot, so the sleeping arrangements had just made her miserable.
When the five of them had doled out rooms, Ace had furrowed his brow and looked at Nancy, almost pleadingly. When he turns up at her door an hour later, the storm cloud has settled over his features. He’s upset with her.
“Everything okay?”
Ace walks into her room and turns to face her and then looks at the floor. He purses his lips, screwing his mouth up on one side, deep in thought. He flicks his gaze back to Nancy for a moment and takes a deep breath, ready to speak.
But he doesn’t say anything. He just stands there, staring at her. Nancy can practically hear the cogs turning in his head.
“I just don’t get why you still want this to be a secret” says Ace, folding his arms.
Nancy falters. This was new. They’ve spent almost two months sneaking kisses in the store room (and the locker room, and the walk-in freezer) at work. Showing up together but disentangling their hands before they get spotted. It’s been fun to keep things quiet, safe in a bubble of just each other, nobody else’s opinions to worry about.
Weren’t they in this together? Didn’t Ace find it just as amusing as she did that their friends were so oblivious? Wasn’t he having just as much fun as her?
“Don’t put this on me, Ace. This was your idea to begin with,” Nancy says, frustration rising.
“I know it was my idea, but it stopped being fun a while ago. And now my best friend is battered and bruised and sleeping on the floor because you don’t want to be embarrassed by telling people we’re together and can share a room,” Ace rushes out, words tumbling over each other.
Nancy can barely believe what she’s hearing. Nancy calls him a fool and Ace says she’s scared, which Nancy scoffs at. They’re standing in the same room, but Nancy has never felt so alone.
Despite everything they’ve said to each other over the past two months, Ace still can’t quite believe that Nancy would choose him of all people to be with. And that is what this is about. Not the motel rooms or their stupid prank on their friends. It’s Ace’s self deprecation rearing its head again.
She relents.
“I’m not embarrassed to be with you, Ace. I thought we were keeping this quiet until they figured it out. If you wanted to tell them, all you had to do was check in with me. I’d be happy for them to know, finally,” says Nancy, coming closer to Ace and resting a hand on his arm.
The fight quite literally goes out of Ace. His shoulders dip and the set of his brow crumbles. A single tear runs down his cheek and Nancy reaches up to swipe it away.
He collects himself for a moment before speaking. “I’m sorry, Nancy,” his voice is thick with emotion. “I’m just so scared something is going to go wrong and it felt like you were, I don’t know. Avoiding the truth.”
“Ace, I’ve wanted to shout from the rooftops since I kissed you in Nick’s apartment. I didn’t know you were so upset by this.”
“It’s not that I’m upset about it’s just… Right now I can’t think of a single good reason not to just tell them, you know?”
Nancy did know. As fun as it’s been to pretend, she really wants to be able to hold Ace’s hand in broad daylight with their friends watching and just be with him. Like a normal couple. They’ve both had more than enough abnormality in their life of late—a little normality might just be what they need.
“So, I’ll tell Bess she can have my bed and we’ll do the whole thing when we get back tomorrow?” Nancy asks.
Ace brightens, tugging on the end of Nancy’s braid affectionately. “Sure, that works for me.”
—
The problem is, they don’t quite make it back to Horseshoe Bay in time.
The summoning spell that had roughed up Bess had followed them, and Nancy and her friends had spent the twilight hours taking down a group of resurrected corpses (which George pointedly refuses to call zombies).
When Ace collapses after a nasty swipe at his abdomen, Nancy knows the gig is up.
Ace’s shirt is red with blood. His stomach is a mess, torn skin and ripped clothes hanging off him.
Nancy takes off, running across the empty parking lot to Ace’s limp form. He’s half conscious, barely coherent. She slides to the floor, pulling him into her lap, her arms supporting him on either side.
Hot, terrified tears are flowing down Nancy’s face as her friends catch up to her. The paramedics are already on their way, Nick having called them from the roof of the building he’d climbed up after narrowly escaping a trio of the resurrected corpses. Bess and George had vanquished them using an old spell from the Women in White. They’d just vanished into thin air, leaving behind only an injured Ace and a few smashed up cars.
“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay, I promise,” Nancy murmurs into Ace’s hair. “Stay with me, okay? I can’t lose you too, Ace. You’ve got to stay awake.”
Bess is crying too, sitting at Ace’s feet. Nick is still on the phone with the emergency services, and George is standing keeping watch for the ambulance, sneaking scared looks over at Nancy holding Ace on the floor.
Nancy has known loss this past year. Her mother’s death. Mourning Lucy, the mother she never had the chance to know. Celia was killed by The Road Back because of her actions. Loss and grief has been Nancy’s constant companion over the last twelve months, and yet it doesn’t make the possibility of losing Ace any easier. Ace is her best friend. Her favorite person. The love of her life. He cannot die.
Ace fights to stay conscious, turning his palm up to slot his hand beneath Nancy’s. She takes it, twining their fingers together and she hugs him tighter to her chest.
Ace murmurs something so quiet Nancy can barely hear it. But she doesn’t need to hear the words to know what their meaning is. Nancy buries her face in Ace’s hair, tears falling thick and fast again. “I love you, too. I love you so much. Please don’t leave me.”
__
At the hospital, Nancy falls asleep with her head on Ace’s bed and her hand in his. She wakes to a sharp tap at the door, their friends arriving freshly showered with bagels and coffee in hand, to take over the watch from his parents.
Oddly, Ace is feeling pretty fine. Although that might be because of the slight loopiness he’s feeling from painkillers.
They stand around Ace’s bed chatting, relieved that Ace is going to be okay. Bess resolves not to do any more summoning spells until she can talk to Hannah about them. In a quiet moment, George eyes Nancy’s hand, still entangled with Ace’s own.
“That was a pretty dramatic love confession, dude,” says George, smirking at Ace.
Nancy blushes and catches Ace’s eye. She thinks back to the conversation they’d had in the motel. Their friends may now know there’s something more than platonic going on between them, but they don’t know the full story.
“Yeah, about that,” Nancy says, trailing off. Ace nods at her to keep going. “We’ve sort of been dating. For like, two months.”
Bess shrieks. George’s mouth falls open in shock. Nick tilts his head like he’s trying to figure out a particularly confusing math problem.
Ace is tired so he lets Nancy explain everything. He’s not sure if it’s the drugs or the fact that Nancy hasn’t let go of his hand in almost twelve hours—but despite the stitches in his abdomen, he’s probably never been happier than he is right now.
He’s alive. He’s dating the girl of his dreams. All of their friends know. And things can only get better from here.
—
The next time they’re all together, Nick, George, and Bess grill them on the details of their deception. They’re sitting on the stools at the counter in The Claw as George closes down for the day. Nancy has a new case—one hopefully less dangerous than their last—and she wants to go over the details this evening.
“I thought Ace was moping around because you weren’t interested,” says Bess.
“Oh I was very interested,” says Nancy, winking at Ace.
“Ew, gross. I absolutely do not want to hear about any of that,” says George, grimacing in disgust as she counts up the cash from the register.
And really, she has gotten soft. Being with Ace has made Nancy’s heart glow with a love she hadn’t known existed, hadn’t known if it was something that she would ever be able to feel. She’d felt so broken, so fragile, after her mom died. Ace and her friends at The Claw had helped put her heart back together.
“And I can’t believe you two were sneaking around under our noses for two months!” Bess shrieks, hitting Ace in the chest with the back of her hand. “I asked you about who you were dating and you said nothing!”
“You very specifically said you wanted to meet my new girlfriend if it got serious,” says Ace, making air quotes with his fingers. “And I mean, you already had met her, so—”
Bess lets out an exasperated sigh and places both of her hands over her cheeks. “Oh god, you guys are so cute. I can’t believe we missed it for so long.”
Ace’s cheeks heat ever so slightly, darting a glance at Nancy. “We weren’t really doing a huge amount of sneaking. I mean, we made out in nearly every room in this place,” says Nancy.
“Hey! This is a professional eating establishment!” exclaims Nick.
“It was mostly PG13, Eagle Scout’s honor,” replies Ace.
Nancy takes Ace’s hand in hers, wrapping her fingers around his and squeezing.
“I don’t think it’s fair to blame us for your lack of observation. I expected better from you all. Maybe I need to find a new crew,” teases Nancy.
“Oh shut up, Drew,” says George. “You’d be lost without us.”
Nancy laughs and shrugs her shoulders.
It’s then she remembers the case file in her bag. She pulls out the brown manila folder. There are the makings of a murder board in there.
“So,” Nancy says, gesturing at her friends, folder in hand. “Who’s ready to do a little breaking and entering with me?”
Bess nods. Nick sighs. George rolls her eyes.
But Ace just smiles at her, so fond.
“That’s my girl.”
“Yeah,” says Nancy, beaming. “I am, aren’t I?”