Sure, Now We're Safe right (SJ/Ace/open on invite)

[Ace McShane]

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Diplomacy, had never been Aces greatest gift she could defend it but when it came to negotiating for peace Aces tactics were, for lack of a better word, extremely lacking better to send her in with the freedom fighters then talk it out in a room.

However she did know or well know of someone who was very good at it the problem was getting her to help.

Ace’s hopper had finally given up the ghost so she’d had to commandeer another person’s vortex manipulator and quite honestly Ace was missing the simplicity of the hopper just put in the coordinates rev up the bike and go. The manipulator seemed to like to bounce all around before it got to its final destination.

There was a momentary bit of panic while her eyes adjusted to the dark, when Ace’s eye finally did adjust to the light she realized she was in someone else’s house “…shit.”

Ace couldn’t help but think don’t make noise, don’t make noise. She couldn’t use the vortex manipulator were she was well, she probably could it’s just she was used to wide open spaces normally when she used something like this and she didn’t want to “steal” any of this persons things with the takeoff, so she started to slowly tip toe her way to the front door.

Accidentally, Ace’s arm bumped something and it fell, she tried to catch it but ended up getting her feet tangled up in the carpet since she couldn’t see properly causing whatever she’d knocked to the floor to shatter and her to go face planting to the floor.

Ace froze listening, hoping she didn’t wake anyone up.

[Deleted]

Something woke her.  As though rewinding through dream, she remembered.  The shattering.  A familiar shattering.  Her box of tinkly fidgets she kept in that low stool on the other side of the door.  She'd learned to place a simple trap or two, just to help her sleep better.  It had been knocked over and it's clinkity beach glass and stones, coral and the metal wrapped glass itself, shattered.

Someone was in her house.  She slipped from her bed, pale satin nightgown visible even in the near pitch dark.  Heart pounding, she went out her open bedroom door, and took the short stretch of hallway to the main room.    After vague thoughts of baseball bats, she simply flicked on the light.

Linoleum floor.  Art deco chairs of bright yellow.  A white, sharp cornered couch and a coffee table face a small fireplace.  One could see burnt orange cabinets in the kitchen, and the hood of a small stove top.  She did not have a television, but she had three very nice radios, and a turn table.

She also seemed to have gained a person, someone laying on the floor she could see just beyond the couch.  She took another step, floor cold under her bare feet.  Her hands had gone to fists and she wished her hair was less a flight from her quick waking.  Seeing the size of her sudden invader, not to mention the hair and the rest, her voice came out entirely undiminished.

"What are you doing in here?!"  Her tone was quite strident.

[Ace McShane]

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Ace flinched a little when the light came on; "What are you doing in here?!" crap she had woken up the owner of the house. Placing her hands on either side of her Ace slowly raised up and turned to face the woman.

“Oh! Sarah Jane. Finally, I was starting to wonder if this manipulator was seriously faulty” getting to her feet Ace brushed off her hands on her pants leg “Careful, I seemed to of knocked over a…”

Ace stopped for a minute when it hit her how this must look when she saw the look on Sarah Janes face. “You haven’t met this face yet have you.” Holding up her hands a little to show she meant Sarah Jane no harm. “I know this is gonna be hard to believe but you know me, I’m Ace.” well, all of the sudden this little trip seemed to of gotten a little more difficult. “Older yes, but still the same explosive toting delinquent.

[Deleted]

She held her hands over her head in such a precice mannor, Sarah Jane  knew it was not the first time this woman had gotten into trouble.  For someone who moved so weightlessly and was decked out so tough, her face was a bundle of open emotion.   Sarah Jane was busy trying to make her brain be completely awake and make some sense of all this.  The intruder was distracting her, starting to try to explain about the trap, and Sarah Jane shushed her waving a hand at her.

"Explain yourself!"

"You haven't met this face yet have you."

"Clearly not. Who are you?"  She snapped.  'this face' was quite the leading statement, considering.

"I know this is gonna be hard to believe but you know me, I’m Ace."

She took a sudden step nearer, teeth grit. "You sure don't look like my friend Ace." Because this was not her friend Ace.

“Older yes, but still the same explosive toting delinquent."

Sarah Jane furrowed her brow in confusion, then drew her lip with contempt, adding half an eye roll for good measure. "As if the half the Universe doesn't know that about Ace. You could be anyone." She took another step closer.  "What have you done with Ace?"

And it wasn't just her foggy brain, the woman had two different colors of eyes.

[Ace McShane]

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Ace, almost took a step back when Sarah Jane took the sudden step nearer but stopped herself if she showed any hesitation she’d never be able to get Sarah Jane to believe her, no she had to stand her ground and make her believe her. "You sure don't look like my friend Ace." reaching up Ace rubbed the back of her head “Yeah….’bout that.”

"As if the half the Universe doesn't know that about Ace. You could be anyone." When Sarah Jane took another step closer to Ace she straightened to sort of mock at attention stance out of habit, "What have you done with Ace?" Ace wouldn’t say the fact that Sarah Jane didn’t believe her hurt but it definitely stung a tiny bit.

“My name, my real name is Dorothy Gale McShane.” she tried not to cringe as she said that but laying it all out there was probably the only way she could get Sarah Jane to believe her “Also known as Ace, also known as Time’s Vigilante…briefly.” Ace crossed her arms behind her back. “I spent three years in Spacefleet fighting Daleks.” those were just gonna be seen as facts she knew that.

Looking at the ground Ace knocked the top of her shoe on the floor and sighed. “When I was thirteen my best friend Manisha was killed in a firebombing in retaliation I burnt down an abandoned Victorian house. I named my daughter after her, well at least her middle name.”

She held her arms out to her side and bowed a little “What more do you want?”

[Deleted]

The woman was quite compelling, and carried herself well. She was earnest, oh she was earnest, but a a person could be earnest for many reasons. The line of her jaw held a strength that Sarah Jane liked in people. An attitude. But still, she wasn't going to just fall for some silly trap. Ever so laze-a-fair, she leaned against the door sill and cross her arms. For some reason, she seemed to think that this intruder was slightly wary of her. She did her best to look less threatening, a trick she'd learned from the Doctor.

"You don't spend enough time in libraries. I wrote the book on Ace.. Well, research paper, anyway, and I'm not the only one, and none of that is a secret. You have to tell me something that I know Ace never told anyone else. Tell me what happened at Maiden’s Point. Not the Fenric, not your mother. Tell me what the Doctor did to you. I know I'm the only one Ace told about that." There was a certain, angry tightness in her voice to remember it.

There was a small twist in her gut, knowing exactly how old her friend had been that fateful year.

[Ace McShane]

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"You don't spend enough time in libraries. I wrote the book on Ace.. Well, research paper, anyway, and I'm not the only one, and none of that is a secret. Ace tilted her head a little to the side confused slightly as to why Sarah Jane would have written a research paper on her “…why?” and she was right anything Ace had just told her could be found in files on her, as much as she tried to avoid that.

“You have to tell me something that I know Ace never told anyone else. Tell me what happened at Maiden’s Point. Not the Fenric, not your mother. Tell me what the Doctor did to you. I know I'm the only one Ace told about that." Oh, there it was, that reminder that this incarnation had a bit of a temper to go with the charm. If looks could kill Sarah Jane never had asked that question, the start of the tension in Ace’s and The Doctors relationship that still even after all these years still burned new when mentioned “He broke my heart.” she could have, should have left it at that but the snow ball had already started rolling. Ace had always seen The Doctor as a father so when he had called her an emotional cripple she never fully forgave him for it “He has a way of looking right into your soul, seeing your fears and twisting them if he needs too. It was like a father looking at their child and saying you’re worthless.”

[Deleted]

Her heart clutched.   The young woman standing like a surprised burglar in her living room gave her a searing glare.    It was a glare like she'd never seen before, not on Ace, not at her worst.  If this was Ace, and Sarah Jane was nearly certain than it was, then the Ace that she had known, trusted, and truely loved for over a decade was gone. As dead and gone as the beloved form she'd first known the Doctor in.   She'd loved every part of him as he made himself known to her, but he wasn't the same.  Equal, but different.

“He broke my heart.” She hated herself for it, but she tilted her head, eyes caught hard on the woman's bi-colored gaze as if to say easy guess.  She continued“He has a way of looking right into your soul, seeing your fears and twisting them if he needs too. It was like a father looking at their child and saying you’re worthless. ”

By the time Ace was done talking, Sarah Jane had crossed to her, her mouth a portrait of contained grief, her face close so she can study those new, strange, beautiful eyes. "Ace . . you regenerated!" There was no reason to doubt her now.  "My god, Ace."  She knew she should have been more restrained, but could not be as she gripped her friend's shoulders  "Ace . . you must have died!" She proclaimed, her brow entirely knit with horrified concerned. "You died. What happened? Come sit down!" She started pulling her to the couch.

[Ace McShane]

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"Ace . . you regenerated!" Ace smiled the same goofy grin she always had when it came to Sarah Jane “Yes in deedy I did.” she’d learned over the years when it came to talking about that first regeneration it was easier to treat it as a joke. How else to you approach a story about your death then waking up to find you’re a completely different person but exactly the same all at the same time. "You died. What happened? Come sit down!" she let Sarah Jane pull her to the couch.

She sat down on the couch and ran her hands over her face a little for a moment trying to think of where to start before sitting back fully in the couch “The Doctor and I, we were taking The Masters remains back to Gallifrey, something happened with the timing mechanism and we ended up having to land in San Francisco in 1999.” Ace rolled her shoulders a little thinking back “Horrible year, wouldn’t recommend it. Anyway, when we landed and like the idiot I can be I ran out without checking the scanner to see what was going on outside…walked right into a gang firing squad, caught two bullets.” she couldn’t remember the exact number but she thought that was about right.

[Deleted]

For a moment there, she thought perhaps Ace would not tell her.  Sarah Jane had seen that flash of emotion hidden before her hands managed to cover her face.  She found herself actually chewing at her lower lip as her friend came around to the facts.  Facts that left a terrible, bitter taste in her mouth and a twist in her gut.  Each fact torqued more strongly upon her soul.  For starters, the Doctor had taken Ace to Gallifrey.  There was a stand-alone pain there that she couldn't begin to look at.  Second, she hadn't died of old age. She hadn't died in the heart of some star.  Shot. Shot on the streets of San Fransisco on her own home planet.  Third,  where in the hell had the Doctor been when this person, hardly more than a child, had wandered into the street?  And where had Sarah Jane been while her friend had been bleeding out? Her friend who had never failed her. If their positions had been reversed, she dare say that Ace would have found a way to save her.

She burst into tears and flung herself open armed at this stranger who was her one of her best friends.  She wrapped hard around her, knowing Ace may try to escape.  Too bad. Sarah Jane wasn't going anywhere until the imagined image of that beautiful young woman writhing in pain on the ground, only to go still and die, faded from her mind's eye.

She held on to her hard and sobbed shamelessly, her only consolation the living human solid in her arms.

"Oh, god, ACE!"

[Ace McShane]

Ace tensed for a second when Sarah Jane flung herself in a hug onto her and then tightened the hug, oook this is new reaching up she wrapped her arms around Sarah Janes shoulders a little and patted the back of her head when she heard her crying. Ace then started to rock her friend a little when she realized that Sarah Jane wasn’t just crying but sobbing “Hey, hey, it’s ok.”

She decided to hold back the bit about having been terrified of death at that time seeing how Sarah Jane had reacted to the mere fact that she’d died “It’s ok, I wasn’t alone when it happened and everything turned out ok so that’s a plus.” she was trying to show Sarah Jane everything was ok.

Which her not being alone when she died hadn’t been a lie so much, she hadn’t been alone it’s just, it hadn’t been The Doctors mind she found while dying she’d reached out with her own mind to find him but instead had found Susans and even as fractured as her darling Susans mind had been it was still a way for her not to die alone and quiet honestly had had some interesting side effects.

[Deleted]

Her response was so absolutely Ace.  Sarah Jane felt gently jollied along,  comforted as one might a pet, and there was a bit of brusk business to Ace's manor told her Ace was unused to such things.  As a pairing, they'd been in plenty of trouble before, but it was rare indeed that Sarah Jane shamelessly grabbed her and clutched her friend with such undivided focus.  Then again, Ace had never died before.

The funny part was, it was difficult to mourn her friend when she was clearly hanging on to her.  It was unlikely that she was 'exactly' the same, but clearly, she was darn close.  She laughed a little and pulled back,  giving Ace's shoulders one more hard squeeze, and dashing tears from her cheeks with the backs of her hands and looking resolutely cheerful.

She could hear the bravado clear in Ace's voice, and her ramrod posture.  Such sturdiness seemed at odds with the fae of her different colored eyes.  Sarah Jane almost asked, but she knew a better time would come. 

Because if this was a good time to chat . . . .?  She might just be a little annoyed seeings as it was the middle of the night.  If Ace hadn't figured out her Vortex Manipulator even after she'd apparently regenerated.

"Ace . .what are you doing translating with that thing inside a house?" It dawned on her how dangerous that was. "What is going on?"

[Ace McShane]

When Sarah Jane pulled back and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand, Ace started patting her jacket a little looking for a tissue, handkerchief or something. Finally she reached into the inside of her jacket and pulled out a slightly dusty handkerchief and handed it to Sarah Jane “Sorry, been a while since I cleaned out my pockets it may have a bit of dirt on it.” Ace smiled when she saw that her friend looked a bit more cheerful than she had before.

She watched Sarah Jane for a second judging her friends mood before blurting out “Sorry about barging in on you…” she started to explain why she had come "Ace . .what are you doing translating with that thing inside a house?" Ace looked down at the Vortex Manipulator “What this? Oh I…” oh, how to say stolen without using those excite words. “Skillfully acquired it when the hopper died. It’s ok it’s harmless.” or at least she thought it was.

[Deleted]

Here was the best bit about women.  When Ace offered her that bedraggled handkerchief, it was no gesture.  Too pleased by Ace's instinctual generosity,  for apparently this was something she had carried through from the Ace that Sarah Jane had always known, she took that dusty dry creased bit of linen and honked her nose clear in a way she never would have done so in front of a man.

"Thanks." She said on a short, pleased laugh, and folded it into her pocket.

Sarah Jane was quickly distracted when she realized Ace was squirming around the fact she'd stolen the Vortex Manipulator she was wearing.  With a sniffle and laugh that had been muted down to a chuckle, Sarah Jane waved off her friend's dissembling.

"No . no --" She made herself stop laughing, though she had to press her lips into a smile for a moment as she contained herself. Some of her giddiness came from the fact that Ace may have died, but Ace was clearly right here. "I think it's brilliant you have one.  I mean - don't you know you should plan to arrive in a vastly open area if you can . .not in a house . .so  . .where's the fire?"

[Ace McShane]

"Thanks." Ace bowed her head a little in a you’re welcome gesture.

"No . no -- I think it's brilliant you have one. I mean - don't you know you should plan to arrive in a vastly open area if you can . .not in a house .” Ace stretched her arms and legs out a little and flopped back into the couch “Pfft, I did plan for a vastly open area it’s just...” Ace held her hands out in front of her a little “It’s got a little more finesse needed than what I’m used to.”

“.so . .where's the fire?" Ace clicked her tongue a little “There’s this planet, it’s having problems…they’re in the middle of negotiations for peace but, it’s just not going anywhere, they need help from a third party and we all know peace is not my strong suit.” she laughed a little “And then I thought, who do I know who’s great at pushing for peace.”