Ace decides to return to Sodor to see Thomas - well tbh, Thomas is one of the only friends he’s ever had, and his adventures with him and Nia had made him realise that. He considered the other racers his friends but … well after seeing the way Thomas had gone after her, he kinda realised he couldn’t count on them the way Thomas and Nia had. Uh, excuse him - what he actually means is that he was living free and easy and just HAPPENED to be in Sodor on his journey ofc! Well anyway he doesn’t see why he can’t stay for a while, to look around.
As he’s cruising around the roads one day he happens to spot a little chauffeur standing by an interesting little rail car. Ace is a big fan of cars, so out of pure curiosity he stops and begins to enquire about it - mostly how fast it can go. The other man is a bit surprised by the stranger but he’s going to be waiting for Sir Topham for a while and he was raised to be polite, so he stops for a while to talk about the car and compliment Ace’s. The two exchange names and Ace asks if he’d want to try out a “real” car, offering to show him how fast he could be driving if he wanted to. Winston does have a bit of a him that thinks it would be very exciting but… he’d rather not, he’s not sure he can trust this man he just met after all and Ace seems so … cool, compared to him. Ace doesn’t really think anything of it, and continues his sightseeing journey.
Throughout the week, he spots Winston a few more times, it’s not hard to do when the Fat Controller is all over the island after all, and each time he has a friendly chat and “offers” a ride in his race car, to which Winston politely says he needs to get on with his job. Well a couple of weeks go by and Winston has a free day, and happens to run into Ace at a cafe this time. Not having the excuse of work, Winston “somehow” finds himself in the passenger seat of Ace’s car going for a joy ride on racing tracks. And sure, it’s exciting! Maybe … a bit too exciting - actually he starts to feel really quite ill and once they’re done Ace takes Winston back to his house at his request and whilst his original attitude is “pft spoilsport” he decides to stay with him to um, make sure he’s alright, he did look a bit green after the ride after all and “making sure he’s alright” turned into spending the whole night, and some of the next morning.
Well Winston isn’t entirely clear what happened after that, but they spent Ace’s last few weeks on Sodor together most evenings, once Winston got off his shift. It was … quite nice. Really, Winston had never had anyone pay this much attention to him before, and Ace was so … out there. He’d had so many adventures and seen so many places and done so much stuff Winston could only dream of! And somehow Ace found HIM interesting enough to spend time with.
And then … he was gone. Not even really a goodbye, Winston just heard one day that Ace had gone on to his next adventure. Winston wasn’t surprised by the leaving, he knew Ace was going off soon but … he was hurt that he’d done it so coldly, just when Winston was starting to feel really special, and he kinda felt used :,D Well, sometime later, Winston hears of a race happening on the main land, and finds out from Thomas that Ace is participating. Winston goes, intending to confront him and ends up signing himself into the race, hoping to teach Ace a lesson. Ace is very surprised by that, because he knows Winston doesn’t really like the speed and tries to get him to back out, but now Winston is mad at him for “protecting” him when he was the one that left. So, stupidly, Winston keeps his mouth shut and goes to the start line. The first part wasn’t too bad, he even made it round the first bend ok - and you know what? Winston maybe started to see why Ace enjoyed the speed so much. He was having fun! And that relaxation lost his concentration. He started to veer dangerously to one side, and would have had a prettty serious accident - only, another driver basically sacrificed their car to protect him. One second he’s about to smack into another car, the next, he’s .. he’s ok. Bruised and quite shocked, but fine. The other two cars … not so much. It’s then he realises that Ace had pushed his car out of the way and taken the full damage. Some medical people come and take Ace and the other driver to hospital, and Winston goes there asap where he gets some bad news. The other driver is mostly fine, but Ace has … sustained some more serious injuries.
The doctor explains that it will be a while until he’s fully back to normal, but that a recovery looks promising due to his health. Winston doesn’t even hesitate to offer to let Ace stay with him, if he wants, and the racer does. Wheelchair bound, then crutch bound, then slowly starting to walk again, it’s almost a year before Ace is back on his feet, but as the doctors hoped, he’s doing well and of course with news of his recovery, the other racers want to know if he’ll make an epic come back to racing. Ace is excited by the prospect but … well to be honest, Sodor almost feels like a second home to him now. See, when he left Winston originally it wasn’t out of him being cruel but because a goodbye would have been hard, he realised he genuinely cared, and now - does more than ever. He’d had some flings after Winston but he didn’t know what it was about him that was so special, maybe because he’d never cared about his reputation but was genuinely curious in his hobby and him as a person, something Ace realised not many others were. At the time he felt he couldn’t have both his free and easy life style AND something with Winston so he just … left, to make it easier for himself. He still wants to race, but he’ll be a bit more “easy” than free, after all he doesn’t want to get too hurt again now he’s back to normal. And as for Winston? Well … he doesn’t mind giving Ace a more permanent residence in between his less dangerous adventures, just as long as Ace knows he ought to fly ‘home’ soon.
Winston and Ace (c) TTTE / Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends
