(no subject)

[nitro_is_ace]

She heads towards Eddie and Susannah's room, but she never gets there.

Decides to go visit Tim instead.

After that, she doesn't feel much like company at all. She heads out the lakeside door, in hopes that a long walk will settle her some.

She just keeps walking.

Into the woods.

Out of sight of the bar lights.

Farther.

Deeper.

Doesn't matter, after all. Nothing she can do. She's heartsick, and mentally strained to the point of breaking.


And there is the bar again. Bright, falsely cheery lights gleaming out into the night. Ace stares at it. She can't get away, even for a moment to clear her head. Trapped.

She wanders to the far side of the lake - as far a she can go, in her limited world, and sits, staring out over the water.

And sobs.

Comments

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

A low quick rattling sound is coming towards Ace.

It doesn't really sound like machine-gun fire, although generations of kids have thought so. It's also recognizably not a rattlesnake.

It sounds, in fact, a lot like a bike with playing cards pegged to the spokes.

(Or, you know, a ninja wheelchair ditto.)

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Ace starts, and fleetingly wonders if she has time to run.

Probably not.

So she stays where she is, staring over the water.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

You can run, but you can't hide.

Susannah appears out of the darkness, quite close; a black lady in a midnight blue chair blends.

"Ace? There you are." Her voice is gentle. "We missed you, sugar."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Evidently not.

"M'not very good company." Whether that's supposed to be followed with 'at the moment' or 'at all', she doesn't say.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

Susannah makes a pssh noise of disbelief and rolls a little closer, accompanied by the world's smallest mariachi.

"That damn fool." Her voice is affectionate. There are indeed playing cards clothespinned to her spokes; the Joker and the Queen of Spades.

"You ain't company at all, missy." She pokes one of Ace's shoulders gently. "You're family, and family don't sleep in the backyard, generally speaking. If you want to be alone, come be alone with us. We'll stay out of your way."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"Don't want to be a bother." She's still more than a little dumbfounded at this sudden addition to her small (but growing) family. Hasn't gotten used to the rules yet. Old rules were if you had a problem, you got the hell out of the way, or you'd just be asking for trouble.
"Fought with him." She says, glumly. They've only had a couple real fights, and as per usual, this one's her fault.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"Oh, honey." She lays her hand on Ace's shoulder, rubbing her back a bit with her thumb.

And doesn't say anything further. Eddie's the one who talks. She's just there, warm and gentle; anyone who saw her now would never suspect the warrior that shares her skin.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

She leans against Susannah's chair. Evidently the sight of the bar lights reflecting off the lake has lost it's facination, because now she's staring at her hands.
"Just wanted t'know why. An' how it's not goin' ta happen again. Should've known better."

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't sound unreasonable to me."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"Evidently it is." She got answers, alright. Nothing she'd believe. Honestly. The Death Eaters as a small struggling force against a stronger, brutal foe? She wasn't born yesterday. Besides. She knows that the git Tim gave the info to was in the cells. That means there was an in-bar crime. Wouldn't that be some sort of a clue?

"Sorry I made ya come out here." She honestly hadn't expected to be followed.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes the questions people are don't really want to ask or be asked are the important ones."

Like, where do you go, when you aren't at home for weeks at a time, Miss Holmes?

"We just worried, when you never came along." Susannah continues to rub the girl's shoulder.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"It's... just a habit. My old room, it was too quiet. But in the bar... you have to pretend, almost, that everything's alright. 'Cause if you don't people worry when they could be getting on with their own lives, and I'm bloody sick of people worrying. So I come out here, where there's no one to pretend to."

She shoots Susannah a cautious look.

"I'll leave a note next time?"

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"That would be nice," she says wryly, running a fingertip over Ace's hair. "Or you could just tell us you need a moit of space."

"Eddie and me know a bit about grief, sug. You can cry in our room without worrying about our worrying. But sleeping outside? That'll make folks worry every time."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"Noted." The things she doesn't know...

She eyes the bar warily.

"Susannah? Honestly? Do you think there's any way this can come out well?" She's not looking for false assurances here. She just wants to know. You'd think she'd have knocked that off by now, considering what it got her last time.

[shadowsusannah.livejournal.com]

"I honestly don't know, sug. Things look pretty bad, I guess. I don't know Bernard as well as Eddie does, but I have to expect he's taking it pretty hard. When you trust somebody--" She breaks off.

"But I think there is a chance, a good chance, even, that things'll settle down and you two'll be happy again. Things won't be the way they were--they never are--but they'll get better."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

She's quiet and still for a long while before slowly nodding. There's still a maybe, out there. Somewhere. If wishing could make a thing so...

"Ta, Susannah." A pause, and another look. "So how bad's Eddie gonna kill me?" It might be a slightly impish look. Hard to tell all the way out here.

[no-prisoner.livejournal.com]

"Oh, pretty bad." Eddie strolls out of the woods, with twigs in his hair. "Since I got the wandering around in the woods in the dark detail in Operation Find Ace."

"I'm in a wheelchair, Eddie," Susannah says primly. "You can't expect me to go traipsing through the woods."

"Yeah, not unless you feel like it. I seem to recall--" Eddie breaks off and shoots Ace a quick smile, there and gone in a moment. "Hey, kiddo."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

She might be blushing horrifically. If only it wasn't so dark, and they could see the effect better.
"M'sorry Eddie. Didn't mean to cause so much trouble." Note to self: Gunslingers will hunt you down without too much trouble.

Learn how to hide your trail, dimwit

"Just... had to think, for a bit." And cry like a little girl. But that'd be stating the obvious.

[no-prisoner.livejournal.com]

"It's okay," Eddie says casually. Because saying it any other way would sound like pity. "You ready for bed?"

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"... Yeah." Because, come to think of it, she is really tired. She guesses throwing emotional tantrums tends to take it out of you. Figures. She pushes herself to her feet.

[no-prisoner.livejournal.com]

Eddie slings an arm around her shoulder, and gently steers her towards the backdoor into the Staff Wing.

Behind them, Susannah follows with the mariachi.