milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Ace is in the bar.

Lying on the couch.

Still working on that Rubik's Cube. It's kept her occupied all day long.

Charlie sits on the floor near the couch. "How's that going?" he asks, nodding to the Rubik's Cube.

"Solved it twice today. I think I'm annoying Bar by asking her to keep re-scrambling it." She looks over and offers Charlie a wan grin. "How goes?"

"The days go by." He shrugs. "Claire has Seth in New Orleans and I find myself at a loss for what to fill the hours. Miss the little guy."

"Can't you follow her there? Or does the door not open for you to New Orleans?" She's only been there once, with the Doctor. No help here.

"Yeah, I've got a token from Richard to get me there--but she's on vacation and I don't want to bug her. We. Um. Had a bit of a falling out a few weeks back and things are still kind of delicate."

Ace winces.
"I'm sorry, Charlie. Haven't seen Claire m'self much lately. You alright?" It doesn't seem anyone has been getting on well lately.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course."

A blatant eye-roll.
"Yeah. Of course. And I've been doing just dandy, while we're on the subject." No, Ace isn't buying it. Say sorry.

"I miss Seth," Charlie admit. "But Claire's fine, I'm sure. Amadeo and Richard take tood care of her. And Bartleby's fine and I'm fine and everything's fine. Or will be.

"Have you gotten Bernard to talk to you yet?"

"Haven't seen him." She shrugs, slightly. "Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Maybe you ought to insist." He noodles on the guitar. "Tonks is expecting, by the way. I don't know if you knew that. I know it doesn't make anything better, but . . . yeah."

Ace pales. Quite a lot, actually.
"Oh... dear God. No wonder he was furious." She loves Tim, and will always support him... but the horror of what his actions could have done blows her away sometimes.

Charlie nods and continues noodling.

Ace stares up into shadows of the rafters.
"I hate this." There's no clear answer, no way this can all magically come out right. Absolutely nothing she can do to fix it.

"He can't really keep Tim locked up forever, can he?"

"Yes. He could." Ace has had quite some time to think about this. "He could also destroy Tim, or take away his magic. He could ban Tim from the bar entirely. There's rather a lot of things Bernard could do to Tim."

And she's doing her damnedest not to think too hard about any of them.

Charlie puts the guitar aside so he can make comforting gestures of a completely non-sexual nature. "If Bernard exiles him, would you be able to go with him? Would you want to?"

She continues to stare up at the ceiling.

"Yeah. I would." And it'd go a long ways towards killing her. Her new family is here. The best group of friends she's ever had is here.

But... how could she ever live without Tim? She's experienced that, and she never wants to again.

Despite her best efforts, tears begin to fall.

"Oh, Ace-girl," Charlie murmurs and hugs her.

"Why did he do it, Charlie? Why?" She sobs into his shoulder as she hugs him back. She's tried being understanding, and fair to both sides, and it is tearing her to little pieces.

He kisses her hair. "I don't know, love. I wish I did."

She tries to settle a bit, knowing Charlie has enough problems without adding an emotional pyro to the mix. She doesn't feel he should have to put up with her whining.

Perhaps irrational. But that's Ace for you. She's going to explode, one of these days.

"It'd all be so much easier if I could understand." She sighs, leaning against him.

He nods and strokes her hair, just listening.

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