Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, any characters associated with them, or any pop culture references that I may choose to include.

Author's notes: This is an idea that's been with me for a while, inspired partly by an episode of Dharma and Greg. What I've done to make it suit the characters and their lives a bit more, should be relatively obvious.

Age wise for the story, I'm placing the Nancy/Frank aged characters at 24, making the Joe aged characters at 23. And although most people aren't that concerned with their ages the Hardy parents and Carson are in their early fifties, between 52 and 54.

Prologue

Fenton Hardy had very few official household duties. He took the garbage to end of the driveway every week, was responsible for maintaining the state of his office space, and carving the meats for the various holiday meals. Other than that, how he helped around the house was really at his discretion.

Unofficially, Fenton took it upon himself to be the one to answer any midnight phone calls or knocks at the door. It was his experience that phone calls and knocks at the door in the middle of the night rarely brought good news, and if something were to have happened to any members of the Hardy family, Fenton wanted to be the first to know.

This was why he found himself answering the door at two in the morning on a January morning, bracing himself for the worst; Frank and Joe weren't actually on a case, but the recent weather had been such that the roads were icy, and even the best of drivers might get into an accident. In the time that it took him to get from the master bedroom on the second floor to their main entryway, Fenton had rationally determined that this was the most likely scenario, and started to prepare to receive the news.

But what Fenton found when he unlocked and opened the door was not his expected solemn police officer. It was in fact, not a scenario that had ever crossed into his mind as one of the possibilities of a midnight knock at the door. There was not even a person. What Fenton found, was a double bassinette, holding two babies.

He knelt down quickly, frowning. Both of the babies were alive and sleeping contentedly. A glance around to locate the person who had left them revealed nothing but a pair of receding taillights, travelling down the road to leave the neighborhood. With the option of getting information through interrogation unavailable, Fenton resigned himself to the next best course of action. He picked up the bassinette and brought the children into the house and out of the cold.

He set the bassinette down on the kitchen table and looked down at the infants, gathering more information about the pair. Posing his best guess he would say that they were twins, and newborn at that. Both still wore what appeared to be a standard hospital issued onesie, one in pink, and one in blue. A folded piece of paper was sitting on the chest of the boy and, assured that their health was good, Fenton wasted little time in picking it up and unfolding it.

To the Hardy Family,

I am sorry to have to surprise you like this, and to be unable to speak with you in person. The babies that have been left on your doorstep are twins born January 4th, 2009 at 5:15 AM and 5:19 AM at our home, with the help of a midwife from Lenox Hill Hospital . I ask that you please take care of them while I am unable to. I'm sorry that I cannot provide you with more information. Please provide these children with a loving home with a good parent. Allow him to name them, and to one day tell them all that there is to know about survival in all conditions, even avalanches. The dangers in this world are many, and they should have some preparation for all of them. Please do not scare them unnecessarily; if you have a pool, never try and fool them with a dead man's float. I've found it to be traumatizing. Thank you for following my small requests. Hopefully I will someday be found and be able to become a part of their family.

Forever grateful,

S. Lewis

After reading the note, Fenton quickly came to the conclusion that he had two very important phone calls to make. One would be to the police and the other to his youngest son.


Joe didn't like how his father had summoned him to the house without explanation. He didn't like that he had been woken up for such a summons. He didn't like that his father had insisted that there simply wasn't time to get dressed. And he didn't like the slew of police cars in the yard when he arrived after the short drive across town. There wasn't much about the situation that he did like, and as he walked past a group of officers, some of whom he recognized, in his flannel ninja turtle pajama pants, Joe resigned himself to getting to the bottom of things the moment that he came across his parents. By the time he reached his parents' kitchen, he was fully prepared for interrogation.

Then he caught sight of his mother and father standing with Chief Collig and Con Riley, and his jaw dropped. "Well, this isn't what I expected to find here." Both his mother and his father were holding babies, one of which, a girl if Joe was going to go by the color of outfit, was awake and giggling at his father's face. "If I had known we were going to have company I would have changed into nicer pajamas." He commented as he made his way over to wear he could see the infants closer. He started with the girl, who had a small tuft of blond hair atop her head and had sparkling hazel eyes. Joe couldn't stop the grin from crossing his face. "Well, aren't you just the cutest thing I've ever seen. I don't suppose the man holding you has an explanation as to where you came from does he?"

"We were actually hoping that you might be able to fill us in." Laura commented, clearly somewhat amused at her sons interaction with the child, but none-the-less still serious. It was a mother's talent to be able to manage both emotions at the same time. "We had a special delivery about an hour ago. They're twins. Only a few days old."

Joe took this information in. "And…whose are they?"

"Like your mom said, we were hoping that you might be able to fill us in." Con handed Joe a plastic bag, containing a slip of paper.

"I don't like what you're implying." Joe's eyes narrowed a little, although he was mostly teasing. He started to read the paper in the bag, wondering how his parents would excuse themselves of accusing him of fathering illegitimate children.

Fenton shot his son a pointed look. Had he not been holding the baby, he most likely would have crossed his arms over his chest. "We've done a little basic math. Given that the babies are so small, even for newborns, the paramedic that checked them over thinks that they're at least one month premature."

Collig took over. "We're working on getting a subpoena for the medical records to confirm this, but the process is a bit slow, since we're trying to cooperate with the NYPD and we don't have a birth certificate, or even the birth mother's full name."

"What we know for sure is that that note implies a rather personal connection to our family." Fenton paused. "Eight months ago, Frank was an absolute wreck. Sleeping with someone was the farthest thing from his mind."

Joe paused his reading and closed his eyes. He could vividly remember the entire mess. Frank had been absolutely torn apart, and quite frankly, wasn't much better now. He knew exactly what Frank was going through, and wanted nothing more than to make things right for him. He reopened his eyes, the mood most definitely darker. "Eight months ago sleeping with someone was pretty far from my mind too." He defended.

"Joe…"

"All right. Fine. I may have…had sex with someone." Joe confessed. "But these are not my kids."

"Joe…"

"Come on. Do you really think that Bess Marvin would let someone get her pregnant and not hunt the guy down to make him take responsibility?" Joe knew he had won the argument with that; everyone there knew Bess, and knew that she wasn't the type of girl that would just take something like that lying down. And despite the embarrassment of having to admit his one night stand to his parents, it really hadn't taken much to clear his name.

Reading the note, Joe could understand why everyone was thinking that the mother had a personal connection with the family. She had a confidence that they would be able to take care of the children, and give them a proper father figure. Just the same, he didn't think that he could offer much insight. "Sorry, but you called me out here for nothing."

"You don't have any ideas?" Con asked.

Joe shrugged. "Some of it seems really familiar, but…I don't know why."

Chief Collig sighed. "Well, keep thinking on it. We've taken the kids' DNA, so in the meantime we'll just have to hope that one of the parents is in the system. Not that that would be a good thing." He ran a hand over his mostly bald head. "Fenton, Laura, would the two of you mind if we waited here for social services?" When both of the elder Hardys gave their consent, the Chief continued. "I'll go send out everyone else. No need for every man on the force to spend the night here."

Once Chief Collig had exited the house, and Joe had handed the note back over to con, he turned quickly to his parents. "Can I hold one of them? Please?"

Laura wasn't all that surprised at Joe's eagerness to see one of the babies; her youngest son had always had a soft spot for children. "Here. You can take this little one." She said with a soft smile, stepping forward to transfer the little boy into Joe's cradled arms. The baby shifted in sleep slightly at the movement, but didn't wake. "He's been an angel."

"Well that's no surprise, is it?" Joe cooed, looking down at the boys face. He had barely any hair at all, just a few strands that appeared to be blond. "He's such a handsome little guy." He started to slowly pace around the kitchen while Fenton and Con started to talk about the note in greater detail.

"One thing that stands out to me is the way she says good parent. Not parents." Con commented quietly. "It seems like all she wants is the father. Most random drop offs would just want a family for the kids."

Fenton started to transfer the girl into Laura's arms. "A lot of things don't fit. The thing about the avalanches…the dead man's float bit. Why would you want those things specifically?"

"It doesn't make much sense. Even if she knows your family and the…ability to run into dangerous situations, those aren't what jump to mind."

"Dead man's float…" Joe murmured mulling over the conversation. The things his father had mentioned were the same things that seemed familiar to him, but he could not figure out why. It was starting to become bothersome, but Joe quickly figured that it was going to be one of those things that didn't come to you until the most inopportune of moments. Those kinds of things tended to happen with him. As he spoke, the baby in his arms started to stir. "Well hello there. I don't suppose you could tell us what your mother was on it about in that crazy note of hers? No? I guess we'll just have to…" Joe trailed off as the infant's eyes opened, revealing bright blue irises, "figure it out ourselves." He finished quietly as it hit him. "Holy shit."

"Joe!" All of the adults present hissed angrily.

"I mean shoot!" Joe rapidly tried to correct himself and continued to try when that didn't make much sense in his mind. "Hell! Heck! I mean…damn…fuck." He whispered.

"Joseph Hardy!"

Joe quickly moved over to his father, who was currently the empty set of arms. "Take him please, before I corrupt him further. Con," he turned to the officer, "Can I talk to you for a minute?" He nodded his head towards the living room, indicating that this was a conversation that required privacy. He didn't want his parents to know about his realization yet. Not until he was 100 percent confident that he was right.

"Sure." Con nodded, and the two quickly started walking. "What did you think of?"

"I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. I mean it's so obvious."

"What's obvious?"

"Of course it's her. When she found that body she thought it was just Frank doing a dead man's float. And there were at least two avalanches."

Con placed a hand onto Joe's shoulder. "And who is she?"

Joe stopped his pacing and looked at his friend with complete seriousness. "If I gave you a DNA sample, how quickly could you compare it the babies' and know if it's a match?"

"I thought that you said that there was no chance that these kids were yours." Con's eyes narrowed.

Joe shook his head. "There isn't. I'd be giving you someone else's DNA."

"Well, a simple comparison test like that should take our lab about a day. Why? What do you know?"

"I figured out who our note writer was. Well…the names don't match up but…If I'm right, I was just holding my nephew."

"Fuck." Con ran a hand through his hair, knowing full well the impact that this would have on the Hardy family. "Who's the mother?"

Joe hesitated slightly. This was where he would start to sound crazy, and he knew it. "Nancy."

"Nancy." Con repeated. "As in Frank's wife? That Nancy?"

"That's the one."

"Well Joe, I have to say that this is possibly your most harebrained idea yet."

"I know."

"I get that she was an amazing person, but it will have been an amazing feat for the record books if Nancy Drew managed to give birth to twins three months after being declared dead."


I'd say that's a pretty good amount of intrigue packed in there. Answers to come.