Chapter 14

While they didn't expect that Marshall would turn to the police due to the dubious nature of Ace's insanity, none of them were taking unnecessary chances, which meant that he couldn't go home to his apartment, at least for now. Ace had grudgingly accepted this. He could always grab his stuff later, right? And it wasn't like he had things that he loved dearly there. Actually, he'd only recently moved in, so the majority of his things – especially the sentimental things – were safely packed away in storage, so he wasn't risking it getting tossed out when he failed to pay his rent. He was hoping to get everything squared away (even though he wasn't sure just what 'everything' was at that point) before his bills became due, but Ace was not by nature particularly optimistic a man. He left that business to Luffy.

One thing Ace flatly refused to abide by was the abandonment of his beloved car. Marco explained to him that his car had been towed off of the highway after his unsuccessful escape attempt and had been impounded. Upon realising that he was planning a rescue of his vehicle, both Marco and Thatch, with whom Ace grew close quite rapidly, tried to convince him that it was too risky. His car could be pretty easily recognised, and on the off chance that Marshall really did contact law enforcement, putting out a BOLO on his license plates would be the easiest thing in the world. Then Ace brought up the issue of his personal mobility, calling forth images of him running on foot from cop cars, and they accepted his reasoning, with much muttering and sour faces. One of the guys hanging around (Curiel, was it? He wore a slouch hat that made him look a wee bit like a watermelon) happened to have some extra plates lying around from when he changed his own plates, so he offered to illegally let Ace 'borrow' them so as not to be recognised. The matter was settled.

So Marco had given him a lift to the impound lot, and here he was waiting for the high-school drop-out who manned the front counter to bring him his damn keys.

They were just sitting there in silence on that uncomfortable, dingy green monstrosity they called a bench, backs against the white cinder-blocks. Ace had no idea what Marco was thinking, but he had his own thoughts.

Luffy.

Why exactly did Ace want so much for him? Yes, they were friends. Yes, a good life was owed Luffy, and he hadn't had much luck on that particular route. But they hadn't been friends for very long at all. Only a month or two of fond acquaintanceship. If he thought about it, everything that made up Luffy's personality, on anyone else, would annoy the shit out of Ace. So why didn't Luffy annoy him? Why was Luffy so agreeable when others were not?

Already Ace had risked his job, subsequently lost his job, been drugged, beaten up, kidnapped, and more or less imprisoned on account of Luffy. And now, with Hannah's help, he was planning to do even more than that. He was preparing to tackle the entire bloody government, or at least the Cabinet Department of Health and Human Services, which somehow sounded a bit less drastic than it really was. Perhaps he lacked more sanity than he'd originally thought. Perhaps Marshall had been on to something.

He just couldn't help it.

Luffy was worth it.

It was clear he wasn't the only person who felt this way. Marco had somehow made similar attachments to Ace in much the same way as he did with Luffy. Marco had risked pretty much everything to save his ass, and Ace was beyond grateful and awed that someone as difficult-to-impress as Marco would hold him in such high regard. Somehow, that high regard had in turn earned him the high regard of Norm, Norma, and by God, Edward Newgate himself. Ace didn't feel that there was much to him to be impressed by. What on earth could be running through their heads? Maybe it was the same kind of stuff that was running through his whenever he wondered about why he loved Luffy so well.

Wait.

'Loved'?

Not like that, of course. But still, some part of Ace didn't exactly deny the phrasing. It felt comfortable. Natural. Familial, really. That had to be it. He thought of Luffy as family.

He had to admit, it a few small ways, they looked and acted a bit alike. Both had that wild head of black hair and dark eyes. Both had the same sense of humour and appetite. There were parts of Luffy that reminded Ace so much of… well, of what his mother told him his father was like. He'd never actually met the man, but he'd always imagined him to be a bit like Luffy – always laughing and never intimidated by the hell he stared into every day. That was before he learned to hate his father. The thought of hating Luffy was appalling.

They weren't long-lost cousins or brothers or any of that bullshit. This wasn't daytime television, for God's sake. But… maybe they were close. After all, if Hannah was doing this for her brother, why couldn't Ace do it for his?

He smiled to himself at this. If he kept thinking like that, he might accidentally let it slip in conversation. Better nip that nonsense in the bud.

"Sir?"

"Huh?" Ace jerked out of his thoughts.

The teenager behind the counter wiggled the keys to Ace's car at him. "Didja want your car or not?"

"Gimme those," Ace muttered, swiping them out of the boy's greasy fingers. He'd been charged through the nose to get his car back, and he wasn't going to have these idiots mucking it up any further.

"Can we go now?" Marco asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I just need to swing by somewhere on my way back."

"If you want I can come with you. Make sure I don't find you handcuffed somewhere difficult-to-explain again."

Ace chuckled. "You make it sound like I was on drugs and did odd things because of hallucinations."

"Isn't that exactly what happened? Well come on, you git."

"That's 'Blithering Idiot' to you, sir," Ace said, elbowing Marco in the ribs as he passed.

"You do realise that's worse than 'git', right?"

"Naturally. Nothing worse than being insulted by someone who's not even good at it."

"You're a bastard. Just tell me where we're going and get in your stupid car."

Ace told him the address, grinning, and swung himself back into the familiar seat. His cushion that offered extra back support. His collection of mix CDs because of that one time he'd lost his iPod in amongst his piles of shit for a few months. His two graduate tassels hanging from the rear-view, along with a circular charm that had a great horned animal's skull on it. It generally creeped the hell out of people, but he'd made it in eighth grade in art class (he'd been going through one of those rebellious phases, which explained the design), and he loved the thing dearly. Whatever asshole had been in here last, presumably to get his car moved around the lot properly, smelled of cigarettes, and he was distinctly less than pleased about that, but all in all, he was just happy to have his baby back. If the cleanliness of the thing weren't dubious at best, be would have kissed the steering wheel.

"Hey, I just thought of something," Marco said through the rolled-down window.

"What?"

"Do you know if Luffy owns a car? I mean, his mobility problem is the same as yours. If he has or had a car, it might be worth knowing where the thing ended up."

Ace fought back a smile. "Forget the car. He doesn't even have a license."

"What, really? But he's what, eighteen? Nineteen?"

"Eighteen, and he told me it was because he always thought that crashing into things seemed more fun than avoiding them."

Marco looked at him, dumbstruck and yet amused. "You know, if that came out of anybody else-"

"-You'd think he was 'round the bend!"

"Exactly! But out of Luffy… It's practically to be expected."

"I know!" They had one of those helpless giggling (manly giggling, not that high-pitched girly shit) moments.

"Well, let's get going. I'll lead. You don't know your way around this city too well just yet, I think, and believe it or not, there are two separate roads named Greenwich here, and you're looking for the northern one," Marco said.

Ace's eyes got wide. "What, really? Who the hell designs these roads?"

"Haven't the faintest, but I suspect methamphetamines might have been involved."

Hannah was waiting for them when they got there.

"Did you have trouble getting here?" she asked.

"As little trouble as can be expected when you have two roads named Greenwich," Ace grumbled. "Thank God for Marco, or I would have been halfway down the Jersey Turnpike at this point."

"That's what I'm here for. No-one should be forced to enter New Jersey. I'm pretty sure the Geneva Convention forbids shit like that," Marco said.

"Amen," Ace said. "So, since you called, I'm assuming you've got your hands on something of interest?"

She nodded. "I didn't even mean to get it, actually. Marshall has been calling everyone into his office individually for questioning, and when one of the secretaries was in there, the front desk's phone rang…" She shrugged. "I picked it up, and they announced themselves pretty plainly."

"'They'? Could you be more specific?"

"Er, yes. Marshall was going to have Luffy transferred to Fall River Institution for Mental Health. In Massachusetts. Their front desk was calling to ask what happened with Luffy's transfer."

"Well, that was lucky," Marco muttered pensively. "Didn't have to go through any fuss or anything."

"I know. It's a weight off my shoulders, though," Hannah said. "I'd been agonising over how to phrase the question to Manager Marshall without getting him to think I'm prying all day."

Ace was making a little face. "Er… I know this might sound a little… well, sadistic, but you haven't happened to see Marshall's pudgy face recently, have you?"

Hannah looked like she was fighting off a smile. "Don't feel bad. He got what was coming to him. His face is wrapped in bandages, but unfortunately, they don't want his mouth to heal closed or his skin to heal too tight to speak, so they told him to talk as much as possible."

Both men winced. "Oh, God bless your soul, you unfortunate woman," Ace said.

"There is that, yes. I haven't got any more information. I just figured you'd want to know as soon as possible," Hannah said.

"Thank you. I mean it," Ace said.

She smiled. "You're welcome. Just stay safe. Both of you. And Luffy, too."

(A/N): And this is pretty much the last we'll see of Hannah for a long time. She's just a plot point, anyway, bless her heart. I just like her because she's this tiny, wee elfin thing, and I've got such a soft spot in my heart for those types. She's even got a pixie cut. It's the cutest thing in my head. She's got these freckles and the cutest dimples, too. Eyes like a bush baby, I swear.

See that whole 'brother' comparison, including both Luffy and glancingly Marco in the equation? I like to sneak the canon in there when you're not looking.