A/N: Joe is 21 and Nancy is 22.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew.
Thursday, July 15.
7:00pm
Joe Hardy walked slowly up the stairs of his parent's house, up to his brother's, which he hadn't visited for a while, after he moved in to an apartment with his college friends. He paused when he got to the door, his hand resting against the door frame, the other clenched in a fist by his side. Taking a deep breath to suppress the memories, Joe pushed the door open, to see the room almost exactly how he remembered it. But the look of it was the only thing that was the same. The feel of the room was different. It felt lonely, vacant, and had lost all the feel of comfort it used to have. Joe stood there for a couple minutes, just taking the room in, the new feel, and the old memories in, before walking in, his eyes trailing over every piece of the room, taking in every detail. His eyes caught on an old picture, a picture of Joe and Frank, still in high school, Frank laughing while Joe smiled, both of them not looking at the camera. The blonde let out a small smile at the photo, and started to move on, but heard a noise behind him. Turning around quickly, he saw a very familiar redhead standing behind him.
"Nancy!" Joe exclaimed, letting out a small breath of relief, "You scared me!"
A small smirk appeared on Nancy Drew's face, and she took a step forward, saying, "I scared the fearless Joe Hardy? I think I should get a medal."
Joe rolled his eyes, before asking, "What are you doing here?"
Nancy's smug expression fled from her face, replaced with an expression of sadness.
"Same thing you are, I guess. Visiting….Visiting Frank's old room."
Joe nodded, standing there awkwardly, before his manners kicked in, and he gave Nancy a rare smile, hugging his old friend in greeting.
"It's good to see you Nancy."
"Good to see you too, Joe."
Their hug lasted a second more, before they broke apart, and Nancy asked,
"How are you doing?"
Caught off by the question, Joe hesitated, before dropping his head to look at the ground, and replied,
"I'm okay."
Nancy gave him a sympathetic look, before leading him to the bed and sat him down, before sitting down beside him, and looking him in the eyes.
"Joe. You know you don't have to lie to me. I know you are not 'okay'." She paused. "So how are you really?"
Joe bit his lip, before shaking his head lightly and responding,
"Not very good. Pretty bad, actually. It's been four months, and I still can't go a day without thinking of him, without blaming myself every second for what happened."
"Joe…It wasn't…."
Joe glared at her, his anger rising, and his voice getting louder.
"Nancy don't you dare say that it wasn't my fault, because you know damn well that it was."
Nancy took in a deep breath, before saying in a quiet, but powerful voice,
"Yes, but you didn't want him to die Joe. It wasn't like you purposefully killed him."
"I may have not purposefully killed him, but I sure as hell purposefully climbed ahead of him on that mountain, trying to annoy him, when I accidentally cut his rope with my knife, thinking it was my rope, because all the times we ever climbed anything, he was always on the top and his rope was always on the right, but this time, I was on the top and wasn't thinking, and because of my foolishness, I sent my brother to his death."
Joe took a deep breath, standing up, his anger rising even more. His voice had escalated into something that was very close to a yell, and as he continued, Nancy stood up also.
"So don't you dare say that it wasn't my fault, because it was. When I finally got down to the bottom of the mountain, I could barely recognize my own brother because of the awful way his limbs were bent, and because of the blood that was everywhere, and it was because of me!"
Before Joe could say another word, Nancy did the only thing she could think to do in that moment. She hugged him. Nancy hugged her dead boyfriend's brother, pulling him close, and letting him go limp around her, letting him know that she understood, and was also suffering, but she would always be there for him as a friend.
Joe almost collapsed in Nancy's arms as she hugged him, letting his body relax from the tense position he had just been in, all of his anger seeping away, and when all of it was gone, a sob came from Joe's mouth, tears starting to run down his cheeks in rivets as he hugged Nancy back, his body trembling from the from the cries that erupted from his mouth, crying for the first time since his brother's death. They stood for almost an hour, in each other's arms, Joe crying, and Nancy comforting. After both of them had calmed down, Joe asked in a quiet, hoarse voice,
"How do you do it?"
Joe thought Nancy would ask a clarifying question, asking how she does what, but Nancy seemed to know exactly what he was talking about, and she answered him with,
"I have hope. Hope that it will get better one day, hope that one day I will move on with my life, not completely, never forgetting Frank, but just moving on enough that I can go some time without being sad that he is gone constantly, and had some of those sad memories be taken up by sweet, good memories of him. That's how."
Joe gave her a tiny smile, then said,
"Could you lend me some of that hope?"
Nancy smiled, saying nothing, before she kissed Joe lightly on the cheek as a farewell, and said,
"Goodbye Joe. You can come see me whenever."
And with that she walked out the room, closing the door behind her. Joe heard her open and close the front door, then the sound of a car pulling away from the driveway. The blonde sighed, looking around one last time at Frank's room, before walking downstairs, and finally out the door to his motorcycle that was parked in the driveway. Getting on his bike, he looked up once more to his brother's room, peering in through the window, looking at the room with eyes full of love. And even thought it was just a room, and his brother wasn't there, Joe's memories of his brother was, so he felt he should say something.
"I miss you…and…I love you, big brother."
Satisfied that he had done everything he should do, he threw on his helmet, and speed off down the road, never looking back.
Thank you for reading. Review if you would like to, I always like feedback.
-AccidentallySocial