Summary: A new arrival to Castle Rock plunges Ace's reputation in turmoil. Will the new girl turn Ace's life around for good or will Ace throw her away and ruin perhaps the best thing that happened to him? Ace/OC Pairing

Disclaimer: The only person I own is Taylor and her family. I do now own the actors who played the characters and I don't own Stephen King. If I owned Kiefer Sutherland I wouldn't be here ;)

Ace Merrill, Castle Rock bad-boy, sat on the bonnet of his car leaning back coolly in the summer heat. His gang, known and feared as the cobras throughout Castle Rock we sat in a circle around it, each drinking from a cool bottle of beer to try and cool-down under the warm summer. Hardly a word had been spoken between the boys for about half an hour when the sun really started beating down on the little town in Oregon.

None of the boys could tell what Ace was thinking, and none of them noticed the expression on his face. He usually wore a coy smile or looked ready to beat the shit into someone. No, all the boys were too dumb to even think about it.

Ace then moved from the bonnet of his car and into the driving seat. Eyeball, more out of habit than naivety, stood up and sat in the passenger seat of his car. He looked confused at himself for a moment, and when he realised the engine hadn't started looked at Ace who was looking at him like he'd just recited the alphabet backwards.

"What makes you think you're comin'?" He stated, reaching over to the passenger door to open it and forced Eyeball out.

"Where are you going, Ace?" Billy asked, bring his hand up to his browline to hide the sun from his eyes.

"Garage. Car needs fixing." He said bluntly, before reversing out of the scrapyard and heading towards town.

Eyeball looked at the other boys with a look of confusion on his face. "Thats the fourth time he's been there this week."

"And it's Wednesday." Vince said. They sat in silence for a few moments, shrugged it off and continued trying to cool down.

Ace parked up just outside the garage, out of sight, and turned the corner. The only other person in the room was someone bent over the open bonnet of a car, peering deeply inside it and unscruing the bolts on the engine. The figure was wearing blue over-alls, but the top half had been removed from the body and tidy around the waist, a dirty white tank-top takings it's place. She was humming to the radio absent-mindedly. Ace's heartrate somehow sped up ridiculously and his knees seemed to turn to jelly but he regained his composture and moved towards her hoping she'd notice him. She glanced at him, gave him a smile and stood up straight. Her hands were covered in oil, and there was a bit of black on her jaw-line.

"Mr. Merrill, how lovely to see you again." She said, wiping her hands on a dirty brown towel that hung out of her pocket. "And what can I do for you today?"

"Well I was just - you know - I wanted to..." He stammered. His hand went up to rub the back of his head nervously. This is it He thought Ask her out, you jerk "Would you like.. Can you.. Do you want to.." Her eyesbrows raised politely, patiently and she waited for him to get out what he said. "Can you take a look at my engine, I heard it rattling." He said. Idiot.

"Mr. Merrill --"

"Please, call me Ace." He said. Formalities - never liked them. She smiled at him.

"Well, Ace-" She emphasised his name playfully, and his heart fluttered as she said it. "- I've already looked under the bonnet. But I guess I don't mind checking it out again. Better safe than sorry." He grinned at her."Just park it up on that ramp while I finish replacing the valves in this engine and I'll take a look at it." She returned back to her work and Ace walked away silently cursing himself for not asking her out.

Sorry this was relatively short, but here is the first chapter. I'm not massively keen on the title, but I was listening to the Cure and I thought it kinda fitted well. You will learn more about Taylor as the story continues. This isn't going to be a teenage-love/heart-break kinda story where someone gets cheated on or dies or anything like that, I'm gonna write this how I want to write it. I'm not fussed about reviews and shit like that but if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anythin' at all. Got it?

Thanks :)