Author's Note: I apologize for all of the previous confusion concerning this one-shot! It seems that it was not a Casefiles book in which Fenton and Iola died. I don't remember which book it was, but I can assure you that I did read a book in which those two characters died.
Hardy Boys - "Lonely Lullabies" by Owl City
For seventeen-year-old Joe Hardy, everything had gone wrong.
First, it was the maddening mission. If that mission hadn't been issued to Joe and his brother, Frank, none of this would've happened. Fenton Hardy wouldn't be dead if Joe had simply not gone on the mission. Iola Morton, his beloved and beautiful girlfriend, wouldn't have been killed by a bomb if Joe had just bloody stood up and said no.
Joe looked up at the moon, tears blurring his vision. In his right hand, he clenched the melted set of keys that he kept on him at all times as a memory of Iola. He couldn't help it; no matter how hard he tried to put her memory to rest, to let her go, he just couldn't. Iola's smile was too firmly embedded into his memory for him to just forget her.
And wouldn't forgetting her dishonour her memory?
Joe was lost. There was no one in the world who truly understood him anymore; no one but his older brother, and at that moment, Frank hardy just didn't seem like enough.
Joe knew that he would have to move on. He knew that he'd have to pick himself up for the sake of others in his life and in his ATAC missions. But for now, he'd embrace his sorrow and revel in his sadness.
After all, lonely lullabies like this didn't come by that often.