#poor amanda

Oh yes! Never give Annabelle a gun is my favourite movie. I watch it at least once a month.

Don’t I know it! A few years back Amanda and I went as Butch and Annabelle for Halloween.

Part 1

A|N : So this is my first time writing an AU here, so feedback is appreciated!

Nancy Drew was a disaster when it came to family. She never let anyone in but when she did, she was always faced with some problem or another.

That's precisely why she felt a pit in her stomach as she reached the end of Myrtle Hudson's letter to her. Carson and Ryan were engrossed in getting the dish-soap lather right among bickering while she sat alone on the couch with a feeling she couldn't shake. Suddenly she didn't feel like she was comfortable at home.

The lights flickered on and off in her house. Nancy did not like it at all. The Wraith was out of her, the town was quiet for once in a long time and Nancy wished it would stay that way.

Caron's baseball tapes played on the TV, throwing ribbons of light across Nancy's eyes but it was all a blur. Her thoughts kept going back to Myrtle. Although she was a gruff lady with a hell of a scowl, she did give in at the end. No one would be that nice to their newly found extended family, would they?

Nancy almost snorted at herself: she freaked out for days when she was told that there was an inkling of Hudson blood in her - that she was Ryan Hudson's teenage mistake of a daughter.

God knew Nancy wasn't the right person to answer the questions she herself had.

"Hey Nancy, would you look at this mess!" Carson chuckled from the kitchen.

Ryan Hudson — millionaire with puppy eyes — her biological father who had just given up his right to parent Nancy for her safety, was arms were elbow deep in clean dishwater with a goofy smile on his face.

She couldn't help but crack a smile herself at the scene. It was refreshing to see that at least someone, if not herself, was finding the normal in their messed up lives.

"I wish I could be that happy to do some dishes," she chuckled.

Her fathers — oh god that would need practice to get used to — hooted in mockery while she pushed herself up on the far dry counter. It was a domestic gesture, making her feel strong enough to ignore the goosebumps all over her arms.

"Speaking of happy," Carson hummed, "What happened when you went to Ace's? I mean, we love cookies as much as the next guy but..."

"But nothing." Nancy shrugged. Her cheeks flamed up like a rally torch, and she tried to ignore the knowing look that Carson and Ryan exchanged.

Nancy was never one for the heart. She thought with her mind, worked with her mind and felt with her mind. But the one time she actually decided to listen to her heart, was the most humiliating moment in her teen life.

"Ace wasn't there to get the work done." she smoothly lied, or at least she thought so. As far as they knew, Nancy was visiting Ace for some mystery work. "Rebecca said he went on a trip with Amanda Bobbsey and won't know when he'll-"

Knocks broke the rest of her words.

There was something in the sudden sound that startled Nancy. The front door of her house shook under someone thumping it from the outside. The knocks seemed weak, panicked and urgent.

Carson rushed to peep through the hole, all the while the knocks grew louder. Nancy struggle to get a view, but Carson froze beside her.

He threw the door open. Nancy frowned when she saw the last person she expected on her doorstep.

A gasping Ace Hardy stood at her threshold, bruised and bloody.

He leaned against the wooden door, his eyes drooping. His usually pale cheeks were caked with mud, his stance wobbling. He was cradling his right arm in left. Before Nancy could say anything else, he fainted right into her arms.

And Nancy fell with him.