It was selfish, she’d known that the minute she made her choice, but she just couldn’t fathom living in a world that denied her so much. It had just seemed too hard, felt too impossible to give up the one person who could mean more to her than an entire town. If she’d acted decisively she could have stopped Temperance before any harm had come to the town at all. Nancy had seen the future and had every opportunity to stop this before it had ever happened. Nancy and Ryan had portioned off a small part of the Hudson family assets already being divided to Everett’s victims to contribute to Nick’s Horseshoe Bay Development Fund, but Nancy knew in her heart there would never be enough restitution she could provide. He had also quietly and anonymously setup a fund to provide economic assistance to those in need. Opening his doors to any and all facing hardship, the youth center had all at once become a shelter, a resource exchange, and a de facto town hall (until Town Hall itself could be rebuilt). Nick had been a driving force behind Horseshoe Bay’s restoration. In some ways it even added a new layer of charm to Horseshoe Bay- the only place where you could now (temporarily) buy bagels and flowers from the same shop. Sharing resources and even shop space so the displaced merchants could carry on while their own storefronts were rebuilt and replenished. It was heartwarming to see how everyone had come together to help their neighbors. But as they got closer to Spring little by little the town had started to blossom. It was a slow process to rebuild the water-logged hamlet, especially during the frigid winter months. The good thing about secret investigations was that they gave her a very flexible schedule.Īs Nancy drove across town she took in Main Street’s varying stages of reconstruction. It would give her one more chance to see him before diving back into Icarus Hall. She decided she’d run the badge over to him, picking up some bagels along the way. Nancy picked up the ID badge, tenderly rubbing a thumb over the picture of her fair-haired hacker-turned-coroner. ‘He must have overslept and rushed out to work.’ she surmised. Her eyes fell to his desk where his county morgue ID badge lay forgotten. Everything was as they’d left it yesterday, the only things missing being Ace himself and his laptop. The apartment felt empty and was confirmed to be when she did a quick check of the bedroom. “Ace?” she called out, though she didn’t expect to hear a response. Nancy checked her phone- 9:18am, 34% battery, no messages. It wasn’t the first time Nancy had fallen asleep on Ace’s worn leather couch, but it was the first morning she had woken up there. ‘We must have both passed out hard last night.’ Nancy thought to herself. Aside from that the apartment was quiet and still. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows and the remnants of dinner were still scattered around the coffee table. The arm of the couch had not offered her much in the way of support and the awkward angle of her neck was a direct cause of the headache she now battled to ignore. Blinking slowly, she wiped a modest amount of drool from her cheek as she sat up groaning and rubbing her neck. Nancy woke up to a dull headache thumping through her foggy brain.
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