Jace knew James was good friends with both Charlie and Ashley, though it was clear he was getting tired of how Ashley was behaving towards Charlie. Which was strange, considering James probably knew she had every right to treat him as she did after what he'd done. Not that either Ashley or Jace held it against him for not liking Ashley as she'd liked him, (and still did in Jace's opinion, but that was another matter) but for never replying or bothering to respond to her letter spelling out her feelings for him. That, in Jace's opinion, wasn't something he could easily forgive, and definitely something that needed a flawless explanation.
But James seemed to be just as infuriated with Charlie as he was with Ashley when he walked in dripping blood from his ears in the middle of their shift.
Jace allowed James to care for him, admitting him to a bed for a few hours for observation before he pulled him a chair next to his own, giving him a questioning look.
James sighed as he sat next to Jace. "You're friends with Ash, right? Like pretty close?"
Jace nodded.
"Is she completely oblivious or a masochist?"
Blinking, he tripped over his words for a few seconds. "Um, I-, what, just- I- No? What?"
James stared before realising that Jace had no idea what he was talking about. "I'm talking in regards to Charlie? Does she enjoy hurting herself emotionally over it all? Is that why she won't let him talk to her about what happened?"
"She doesn't want it to hurt even more if she does talk to him about it. In fairness, he was sort of a dick."
"If you're talking about the letter, then yeah, ok, but now Ashley's the one behaving like a dick."
Jace gave him a strange look, "how? Charlie keeps trying to bring it up and hurt her all over again and that's not fair."
"So-" looking taken aback, he fell silent for a few seconds. "So Ashley really has no idea? Wow. Charlie's not trying to hurt her, he's trying - admittedly very badly - to tell her he loves her."
It took a few moments for him to understand what James had just said, but when it registered everything fell into place. "Oh- oh. Well, Holy Moses- this is a bit of a mess." He sighed, "and considering she won't admit she still loves him, that just makes it worse."
"Won't admit or doesn't know?"
"Both."
They both sighed.
"I'm going out with her, to the town, after our shift, maybe I can talk to her about it." Jace shrugged. "But it's Ashley-Rae, so no promises on what happens."
James grimaced, waving goodbye to Charlie as he walked out, having completed his hours in observation. "There's more." He nodded to where Abi had already cornered Charlie as he was trying to escape the hospital, "Abi also likes Charlie."
Jace watched, rolling his eyes at Abi. He had a few shifts with her, and had come to the conclusion that she definitely sometimes needed a reality check, especially when it came to her own sense of self. "What does Charlie think about that?"
"He has no idea. You really think he'd notice?"
"If anyone acted like that around me, I'd have my suspicions."
James rolled his eyes, bumping his shoulder into Jace's. "Yeah, but with Charlie so entirely in love with Ash, it won't take anything less than Abi declaring her undying love for him for him to notice."
Jace chuckled, imagining the scene she'd make. "I would absolutely not recommend she do that, but I would like to see how it plays out. But, let me guess, she knows he wants Ashley, she thinks he's too good for Ashley, and that she herself would be a better fit. How close am I?"
"Like... dead on, I'd say."
They laughed, causing Abi to look over with a questioning look.
"We'll hand over once Dominic gets here, Abi's always early. I have a sneaky suspicion she's early in case Charlie's in the hospital."
"By the way she reacted when she did see him, I would fully agree with you."
-
Ashley hadn't planned on taking Jace to the shop with the strange owner, but once she'd mentioned it, there was no stopping him.
"Jace, no, seriously, she might not even work there anymore!" She protested, trying to reason with him. Or, at least, give him reasons not to go.
"No harm in checking. Besides, that red jumper you bought from her is really nice and I want one."
Ashley raised an eyebrow, "you want to wear the same things as me?"
Jace laughed, "no, I just want a nice jumper like that. Isn't it, like, charmed to keep you warm or something?"
Nodding, she sighed in defeat. "Yeah, most things in her shop are somewhat charmed."
He grinned, turning to her and saying, "I promise to be good," before opening the door to the shop and leading her in.
It was nearly exactly the same as Ashley remembered it, though the jewellery stand had moved near a wall, and the stock had obviously changed. At the ring of the bell, the same woman appeared out of the backroom, though she stopped dead as soon as she saw Ashley again. Ashley pretended not to notice, though Jace raised an eyebrow before turning away, checking out everything on the rails.
"Are you ok? Can I help you with anything?" She asked, and though her accent differed from what Ashley remembered, it was still noticeably English, rather than Romanian.
Jace shook his head, "no thanks, just having a look."
The two wandered around, and Jace found a few things he liked. There was something definitely strange about how the woman had reacted upon seeing Ashley-Rae, there was no denying it, though he'd promised her he'd be good so he didn't ask her what it was about. He had a few theories, but pushed them to the back of his mind until he could address them with her later. There was no point saying them in from of the very woman he was going to be talking about.
He quickly paid, and they left, heading for the small coffee shop across the street, taking a table and ordering each a coffee and cake.
"I told you she acted weird around me." Ashley sighed, leaning back in the booth. "I swear to you, I've never seen her before, either!"
Jace laughed quietly, thanking the barista as she brought over their order. "It was rather strange. Though, I think she might know you. Or, maybe your parents?"
Ashley gave him a warning look. "I don't look like my father."
"I didn't mean him."
Silence.
"I don't know. I don't remember much of my mother, you know that."
Jace shrugged, before giving her an evil grin, "maybe she is your mother."
That made Ashley laugh. "I think I'd recognise my own mother."
Jace looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup as he took a sip. "How old were you even, when she left?"
She didn't answer for a while, and anyone else would have been worried about overstepping, but Jace knew better, knew she was trying to remember. "Eight, I think. Or nine." She smiled softly, "before Hogwarts. She might have liked to stay, had she known I was in her house."
He didn't respond.
"But, whatever," she shook her head, regaining her composure, "I'm sure I'd recognise her, even after fourteen years."
Jace didn't look convinced. "Hmm. Regardless, she definitely recognises you from somewhere, or you remind her of someone. Both are high probabilities."
Ashley rolled her eyes.
"Onto Charlie."
"No."
Jace gave her a hard look. "Yes. I'm curious! You know Abi likes him, right?"
Ashley grinned, "how could anyone miss it? All she does is fawn over him, talk about him, honestly, it makes me want to gouge my eyes out."
He laughed, but agreed with her statement, shuddering as he thought about the scene he'd been witness to earlier that afternoon. "Would it bother you if they dated?"
Ashley paused, before shaking her head. "No. I mean, I'd be annoyed that Abigale would be even more distracted, but why else would it bother me?"
Rolling his eyes, he finished off his cake to give himself a little more time to think. "Because of everything that's happened. And the fact that he's not let it go."
"Do you think you could get him to drop it? Like seriously?"
"Probably not, James has already tried." He lied easily, though he didn't feel great about it. Lying to Ashley wasn't something he wanted to do, but he didn't really have much choice.
Ashley didn't seem impressed but didn't try and force it. "Does James even know what's going on?"
"James knew more than I did."
"What does that mean?"
Jace paused, trying to figure out how to get himself out of the hole he'd just dug himself into. "I didn't realise exactly what was going on, like Abi liking him, that was something I learned today."
"You mean you didn't know from your shifts together?" Ashley laughed as she finished her coffee. "Does she not talk about him constantly with you?"
He grimaced. "I won't lie, I spend most of my shifts wither avoiding her. She's sort of full of herself, in a weird way. Like, she doesn't think she's better than everyone, just better than... some people."
Ashley rolled her eyes, "you mean me." She took his silence as a 'yes'. "I know where a lot of that comes from, probably because she thinks Charlie, James, and Pete all thought too much of me. Which I don't disagree with, but also, I'm damn good at what I do, and I'm better than she is. I can at least stay focused on my patients rather than hanging onto some guy's every word."
"Some guy?" Jace hid a grin as she glared at him. "He wasn't always just 'some guy' to you."
Ashley raised an eyebrow, hiding her own smile, "and now he is. After completely ignoring me for nine months, he should be happy he doesn't get something a lot worse than 'some guy'."