A/N: Hey y'all. Sorry it's been so long; I've been wanting to write and I'm just blocked. Thus, I present this (short) story that I've been meaning to write forever, and which (fair warning!) contains spoilers for the Supermystery A Question of Guilt starting... now. I wanted to love that one since it came right after SotN and it takes place like forty minutes from my hometown and the idea of Nan and the Hardys working opposite sides of a case was just so promising, but... Joe can't be kind of one of the culprits. That's not how the Hardy Boys work.
Anyways, this is a tag to AQoG with a twist: what if Joe hadn't gotten to the bad guy in time to stop him from crashing the boat with Nancy on board?
Incidentally, there is a partially-written part II to this story which deals with Frank's reaction to what happened, in case anyone's interested in THAT sort of thing lol. Let me know what you think, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
The first thing Nancy Drew noticed upon waking was pain.
It wasn't just the pounding headache she usually experienced when returning to consciousness after being knocked out for some reason or another, although that was present too; her whole body felt like one huge bruise. There was an electronic beeping sound somewhere in the room, the sheets were coarse and starchy under her... she was in a hospital. Nothing new there.
There was a hand holding hers, one too warm, too strong to be her father's. Frank, she thought, her heart fluttering just the slightest bit at the thought of the older Hardy brother. ...Or maybe Buff.
Buff Bellamy. A rush of memories came back to her suddenly, reminding her of how she had gotten here in the first place. When Buff had been arrested for murder based on evidence uncovered by Frank and Joe Hardy, Carson Drew, Nancy's father and a prominent defense lawyer, had gotten him off on a technicality. With both Drews convinced that Buff was innocent, they reopened the investigation with the help of the Vidocq Society—and the reluctant assistance of the Hardys. By posing as Buff's girlfriend, Nancy had been able to visit the Bellamy estate to investigate. She had accompanied Buff's brother, Cris, on a boat ride in order to get him out of the house so that the Hardys could search it for what they believed was the key to the whole case: a missing will.
But Cris had figured out that she wasn't who she said she was. The last thing Nancy remembered was him confessing to the murder while donning his safety gear, preparing to stage a boat "accident"... one which would be fatal for Nancy.
With that thought, she forced her eyes to open, surprised when the first thing she saw was the wide blue eyes of Joe Hardy. "Joe..." she rasped weakly. It hurt to talk—her throat, even the inside of her lungs felt sore. The vague nausea that typically accompanied a minor concussion seemed to be surfacing as well. "...Why are you holding my hand? It's weird."
He smiled, but it didn't reach all the way to his eyes. He didn't release her hand. "Guess I should have let Frank stay with you then, huh?"
"No comment." Nancy said. Her lips were so cracked and dry that she tasted blood when she smiled, but that didn't matter now. "What happened? Cris? The will?"
"We found the will. Turns out it would have publicly soiled the Bellamy family name and left nearly everything to Laurel Kenway." Joe explained. "Which was why Cris killed her."
Nancy nodded. "He admitted as much to me on the boat. That's about the last thing I remember."
"When we realized what Cris had done we followed you in the seaplane." Joe said. "When we got there it was too late—the bastard had already crashed the boat."
"But you caught him, right?" Nancy pressed. "Tell me you caught him."
"We caught him." Joe scowled. "He was just floating there in his lifejacket, barely a scratch on him. Where was he going to go? He was trying to make it look like an accident."
"He must have known when you came after him that the jig was up, you wouldn't believe it was an accident." Nancy frowned. "He didn't even try to run?"
"He was dazed. In shock. I think the accident was a little worse than he'd anticipated." The words didn't seem to be coming easy for him as he continued, "The boat was... it was a flaming wreck."
Nancy's eyebrows came together in concern and confusion. "But then... how did I survive?"
Finally, Joe let go of her hand. "You were thrown clear by the impact, but knocked unconscious. I jumped into the river and dragged you to shore."
"Oh." Nancy said. Then she frowned. "Wait. When you say you jumped into the river... you mean... out of the plane?"
Joe shrugged. "Frank brought it down as low as he could."
"Are you insane?" Nancy didn't even try to hide her shock. "You could have died!"
"You pretty much did." Joe shot back. "You were half-drowned when I got to you. I did CPR for over a minute before you started breathing again."
"You—what?" Nancy's mouth fell open. "Seriously? Oh my god, Joe... I... Thank you."
"Don't thank me." Joe ran a hand over his blond hair and fixed his gaze squarely on the floor. "You would have done the same for me."
"...I... would have tried." Nancy said. "Honestly, that's amazing. I don't know how you managed—"
"I had to, Nance. I'm not sorry I did it, and I would do it again, and I'll do it anytime you need me to, because that's the kind of thing you do for your friends, but in this case... I really had to."
"Joe? I'm not followi—"
He cut her off again. "It was my fault, Nancy. Didn't you wonder how Cris knew your real identity? Well, it was in the newspapers this morning. The real papers, this time. Brenda Carlton sent the whole story to her father and blew your cover, and it was my fault. I called Brenda in. I'm the leak."
Feeling a little bit blindsided, Nancy bit back her first reaction—a denial—sensing that it would only make Joe feel worse. The media leaks that had been plaguing the entire investigation had been such a nuisance that maybe she should have suspected that Joe Hardy was behind them... but she hadn't. "It's okay." she said finally.
"No, it's not okay!" Joe burst out, making direct eye contact for the first time since he'd explained what happened, and using it to look at her like she had two heads. "I blew your cover! I almost got you killed!"
"You didn't blow my cover." Nancy shrugged it off. "Even if Brenda hadn't, someone else would have. It was a pretty thin disguise anyway. And you didn't know what would happen."
"That's not really an excuse." Joe said miserably. "I screwed up, and you almost died. Actually, it's worse than that, because it wasn't an accidental screw-up; I did it intentionally, to make things harder for you."
"Joe, relax. I—" But he shook his head, and the haunted look in his eyes stopped her mid-word.
"Don't tell me to relax, Nance. When I saw that boat... the fire, the shrapnel..."
He was trying to psych himself up enough to go on, but he didn't need to. Nancy knew that he meant he'd been thinking of the terrorist bomb that had demolished his car over a year ago—and vaporized his then-girlfriend Iola Morton. She reached over and took his hand again. "Joe, stop. Please stop."
Joe sighed. "What happened to her was senseless violence and bad timing. If it had happened to you, because of something I did out of malice—"
He was spiraling into self-loathing, and no matter how annoyed she was about the media leaks, that was the last thing she wanted to see happen. "Malice is a strong word, Joe." Nancy said with a roll of her eyes that said she thought he was being much too overdramatic. "And honestly, I don't think it's in you. You made a mistake and you fixed it. I'm here, aren't I?"
"Says the girl with the black eye, the bleeding lip, and a couple quarts of the Delaware in her lungs." Joe said ruefully.
Grimacing, Nancy reached for a tissue to dab the blood from her mouth. "I've had worse, Joe. And I'm super-impressed by the plane-jumping thing. As far as I'm concerned, we're okay."
"Nance..." he still looked uneasy, torn between wanting to put it behind him and his own guilt.
"If it helps at all, once I stop feeling like I might throw up, I'm planning on being a real jerk about the fact that I told you Buff was innocent from the very beginning." Nancy said lightly.
A tiny smile played on Joe's lips. "That's more than fair."
"...Hey Joe?"
"Yeah?"
"I told you so."
