A/N: As Vern would say, I'm sorry for the long wait, sincerely! I've been a busy beaver lately. Hopefully some of my free time will open up in the coming weeks. I hope you guys like this chapter! As always, thanks for reading.

Ace was stepping out of the elevator the second I walked into the lobby of the hospital. He had my pack of smokes in his hand, his eyes were staring down at his feet.

"Ace," I said, trying to get his attention.

He lifted his head and hurriedly shuffled over to me. "Eyeball, where've you been?"

"I got caught up at school." Of course that wasn't true, but I didn't have the energy to go into details. "How's it goin'? She doin' alright?"

"Yeah, she's doin' better today," Ace answered, his eyes darting around the lobby nervously. "Her fever's gone down some and she ate most of her lunch today. She's sleeping now."

I relaxed a little. Better was good. "Any more word on what's wrong with her?"

Ace sighed. "They say it's a just combination of things. Pneumonia, dehydration, early signs of dementia… Her doc thinks she'll pull through."

"Well, that's good news, right?" I asked, jamming my hands in my pockets and rocking back and forth on my feet.

He nodded. "Yeah," he said quickly. "Yeah, it is. I just wish she get better faster, you know?"

"Yeah man, I know," I told him. I let my arms swing down by my sides. "You stayin' here again tonight?"

Ace let out another sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I dunno, man. Hospitals give me the creeps." He pushed me back toward the door I'd just come in. "C'mon, I need a smoke."

We sat down on the bench outside the door and Ace immediately lit up. He offered me one and I took it. I lit up but I didn't take that many drags. Each time I did it made me feel sicker. Eventually I just gave up on it and stomped it out on the ground.

Instead, I looked Ace over. He looked as exhausted as I felt. Dark circles under his eyes, unshaven face, clothes that probably hadn't been properly washed in ages. I was worried about him. I really was.

I cleared my throat gruffly. "So the jam lady stopped by your place today," I told him.

"Oh yeah?"

I nodded. "You never told me how hot she was."

That got a smirk out of Ace. "You never asked." He took a long drag on his cigarette and let it out slowly.

"Well, she cleaned the whole place. Stocked your icebox too."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Ace said. "She's somethin'."

"Somethin'," I agreed.

We were quiet for a long while after that. Our relationship was kind of a strange one, mine and Ace's, because neither one of us talked very much. Not real talk anyway. Like I said, Ace is a closed book and I sure ain't any better. If we sense that the other is upset, we usually go out and blow off steam by egging cars or playing mailbox baseball. Today we were both on edge, but neither one of us had the energy to do any of that. So we talked.

"What'd you do to piss off your old man this time?" Ace asked finally, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

I gave him a confused look. I hadn't said a word about my old man.

"Don't look at me like that," he said tiredly. "I ain't blind. I saw how you could barely walk comin' out here. And you look like hell, too."

"I look like hell?" I asked. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"As a matter of fact I have," Ace said. He stroked his unshaven chin. "I think this scruff is working for me."

I chuckled lightly. "Right." I looked down at my hands. "And to answer your question, I didn't do a damn thing."

Ace stomped his cigarette out on the ground and forcefully pulled out another one from the pack. He shook his head as he lit up. "I don't get you, Chambers. You're stronger than him, aren't ya? Why don't you ever fight back? Give that bastard what he deserves."

He sounded so much like Christopher that I just stared at him. "Because I ain't like him," I answered finally.

"That ain't the point."

"That's exactly the point," I maintained. "Drop it, okay?"

Ace squinted his eyes at me, sizing me up just like Chris had done the previous night. But unlike Christopher, he knew not to press any further. He blew out a big huff of smoke. "Me and my gran's nurse fooled around last night," he told me, as a way to change the subject.

I raised my eyebrows. "Really?"

He nodded. "In the storage closet." He said it with so much certainty that I had no choice but to believe him.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You're fuckin' unbelievable, man."

Ace smiled devilishly and took a long drag on his cigarette. Then he blew the smoke out in my face. "So listen, I think I'll come home tonight," he said. "I'm sick of this place. Besides, Gran's doin' better and there ain't much I can do here anyway."

"And your boss'll probably have you canned if you miss any more work," I joked, although I was also kind of serious. I knew Ace's job had been in threatened more than once.

"Nah, that sonuvabitch won't fire me," Ace said coolly. "He's all talk."

"Maybe so. But you need the money."

Ace let out a deep breath. "Man, you aint kidding," he said dully. He put his cigarette out and stood up. "Let's get out of here, huh?"

I tossed him his keys. "You drive," I told him. And we beat it out of there.

"Ten out of ten, Rich," Denny said as he finished checking my answers to some practice problems he'd given me. It was Friday and I was learning everything there is to know about area, surface area, and volume. "Call me crazy, but I'd be willing to say you're actually not half-bad at this geometry thing."

"You're crazy," I said simply. I motioned to the opened book on the table. "I only got these right because that formula sheet is right in front of me."

"Oh come on, you barely looked at it," Denny told me. He stood up and started cleaning up his books. I was confused. We still had 30 minutes of the session left. "But I have an idea to really put you to the test," he said. "Follow me."

I grabbed my stuff and followed him out to his car. "You realize I've ended up in your car every time you're supposed to teach me geometry?" I asked, on the way to wherever he was taking me.

"So far," Denny said, a smile creeping onto his lips.

He pulled into the parking lot of The Den, one of the local pubs in Castle Rock.
"What the hell are we doing here?" I asked.

"I told you I wanted to shoot some pool with you," Denny answered as we stepped in the door. "C'mon."

Luckily, the pub was deserted. It was one of the shittier pubs in Castle Rock and not many people went there. I was grateful for that. I didn't want anyone to see me with Lachance. It'd be one hell of an image killer.

Denny went straight to a pool table and started pulling the balls out of the pockets. He rolled them over to me. "Rack 'em," he said.

"Nine-Ball or Eight-Ball?" I asked.

"Nine Ball," he answered. "I'll have a better shot at winning that way."

I grabbed the rhombus-shaped rack from the pegs on the wall and filled the balls in appropriately.

"While you're at it, tell me the area of that rhombus," Denny said. "Let's say one diagonal is 5 inches and the other is 8."

I froze. "Um…"

"You can do this, Rich," Denny said, leaning against the wall and folding his arms across his chest. "Think about that problem with the kite from earlier."

I thought a minute. "Is it 20?" I asked, hoping I was right about the formula and not making a complete ass out of myself.

"It is!" Denny said happily. "Tell me how you got there."

"Multiplied the two diagonals and divided by two?" I answered unconvincingly.

"That's exactly right," Denny said, clapping his hands together happily. "I knew you were getting the hang of this."

I thought it was pretty funny that he was so excited about me getting a simple problem correct. "Don't get too jazzed," I said, rolling my eyes. "That was pretty basic."

"Alright then, I'll give you something tougher," Denny said. He rolled the cue ball over to me. "Diameter is 6 centimeters. Tell me its surface area and volume. We can start playing while you work it out."

We went on like this throughout the three games that we played. Denny kept giving me problems and I worked them out while we played. By the time we'd finished, I'd figured out the surface area of the entire pool table, the volume of the pockets, and even the volume of the tiny chalk cube. I was able to get the correct answer for all the questions Denny fired at me, without any of his help.

As for the games, I came out victorious, but Denny really wasn't all that bad at pool. He even won the second game we played. At the end of the third game, he shook my hand and then looked down at his watch. "Oops," he said, grinning. "Kept you overtime."

"Only by like half an hour," I said, shrugging it off. I really didn't mind. I had fun, believe it or not. It was a way to end the shitty week I'd had on a high note. In fact, everything had seemed to come together. I was feeling better, and more importantly, so was Ace's grandmother. And now, I was actually starting to get the hang of geometry. I wasn't feeling as stressed, and let me tell you, that was a huge relief.

I eyed the bar, and the words that came out of my mouth next surprised me just as much as they surprised Lachance. "Want to grab a drink?" I asked him.

Denny raised his eyebrows. "You mean that?" he asked.

"Yeah, I mean it."

Denny laughed in spite of himself. "Well okay, sure, man."

I smiled at his confusion. "Trust me, I'm just as shocked as you are," I told him. I pushed him in the direction of the bar. "C'mon."

And you won't believe it when I tell you, but we stayed in that pub for three more hours, just shootin' the breeze.