She pulls the fur coat tighter around herself as she steps out of the car. The New York City wind is cold in January, and she's just wearing a light dress underneath. She steps inside and scurries as fast as she can with her heels. She doesn't want to miss the main event.
She pauses when she reaches the doorway of a room crammed full of tables and brimming with noise. She breaths a sigh of relief when she realizes that the event hasn't started. She's not even late. She shouldn't have worried she tells herself as she makes her way to the Hardy table in the far left corner. She's Nancy; she's never late.
Approaching the table, she sees it's full of her favorite people—Laura Hardy, Aunt Gertrude, Callie, Fenton, Frank, and Joe. She scans the two open spots and chooses the one next to Joe. Her dad's going to want the one next to Fenton that's for sure. They all greet her warmly, and she feels right at home.
It feels like it's been forever since she's seen them, but that's not the truth. She spent the last almost twenty-four hours with them; it's just that it never feels like enough. They're part of her now—the family that isn't hers by blood but is real family just the same. She smooths her skirt and tightens the twists of hair pulled half up before taking her seat. She sighs in happiness—this is perfect.
Joe leans over to her and says something about her cleaning up well. He smirks, and she knows why—it's like the understatement of century considering what she looked like just five hours before. She feels her cheeks flush and shudders. Where's her confidence? There's nothing to be ashamed of. She takes a sip of her water, and her mind wanders to when it all started a little under twenty-four hours before.
Despite what she had hoped when she met them so many years before, the years hadn't meant many more shared cases for her and Frank and Joe. The hour between them feels like too much to span when they're all busy with their lives as normal high school students. Nancy does speech and debate and tennis, and the boys play all the sports. And they've got top grades too. They take on cases; they wouldn't call it living if they didn't. But the boys' keep them in Bayport, and Nancy's in River Heights.
It's a rare Thursday night when the boys ask her down to Bayport. A stalker is harassing a sweet old lady in town, and Frank's stuck on another case. Joe could handle it all himself except for the no stakeouts alone rule. (Joe isn't much of a rule follower, but he's gotten kidnapped one too many times to get away with breaking that one.) So he calls Nancy down and because she isn't too busy, she finds herself at his parents' house a little after five.
On the way over to the lady's house, Joe gives her a briefing on all the details. They've found cameras inside, and sweet Grandma Layne has seen a man peeping in her windows. She's seen him enough to recognize him, but they still have no clue who he is. Their mission is to get pictures and perhaps to follow him home. Nancy nods her agreement. It sounds like the perfect plan.
They tiptoe out to the corner of the yard and hide behind some shrubs by the fence as they wait for the suspect to make an apprearance. Just when they're wondering why he hasn't come, they hear a noise, and a fight breaks out. They pull every move they have, yet still it's all not enough she realizes just before all fades to black.
When they wake up, they're not sure if it's hours later; all they know is they've been put somewhere dark and cold. Duck tape binds their arms and legs, and if they want to move, they have to roll. The floor beneath their bodies is dirt; rolling to the edge reveals a concrete wall. They're in a crawlspace now, they decide, and Nancy feels better to know the sun's shining just above their heads.
When Joe suggests sleep, she's thinking about it too. They need rest when there's no food to eat to keep them going. Besides, it's freezing cold, and sleeping side by side will keep their bodies warm.
Nancy's been kidnapped many times before, but this time feels different somehow. She's never been kidnapped with Joe or Frank before. It's comforting, she finds, to have someone else there, especially someone who knows what to do. Joe's not afraid or if he is you'd never know. He just scoots closer muttering something about lots of ideas for morning. She agrees; she has them too.
She pulls herself up to him and finds herself feeling a just little weird. He's like her best friend—has been forever, ever since they were little tiny kids. But this is new. They've never had sleepovers if you want to call this that. They haven't drawn strength from each other, felt the other's determination so strongly they didn't need to use words to express it. This is closeness like Nancy has never known with Frank and Joe before. She's drifting off into a dreamless sleep when she hears him whisper how he's glad she's with him. She nods; she's grateful too.
They wake up unsure if it's morning or not because the place is just as dark as before. But the kidnappers are likely gone by now. It's as good as time as any to stage their escape.
She moves, and Joe tugs at her the tape on her arms with his teeth. It feels so much like tickling she has to hold in a laugh. He doesn't complain that his teeth are hurting although she's quite sure they are. All that matters is that she can move her arms when all his work is through.
She returns the favor and unwraps his arms, and they both loosen the bonds at their ankles. Just like that they're free. They search for the door to their prison cell. When they find it, they lift it off together. Joe climbs out, and then Nancy does. They tiptoe and go out the back door. Crossing the yard, they scale the fence and go around that house to the front. They find their way out of the neighborhood, and Joe recognizes where they are as the edge of Bayport. They run until they're several blocks away and finally stop catch their breath.
They may not be far from home, but it's way too far to walk. Their stakeout track phones were stolen, so hitch hiking is the best way to go. Joe signals at the nearest car, and Nancy glances down at herself with shame. Under her gloves, her nails are chipped, and her jeans are coated with dirt. She can't see her face, but if Joe's is any indication, it's inhumanly dirty. No, she's not ashamed of what she does. She's proud to be brave enough to do something daring to make the world a better place. But she doesn't like looking like a wreck doing it. Usually, she's the female version of James Bond with classy clothing and hair perfectly in place. When something goes wrong, she just goes home to shower and change. She doesn't stand on a street corner in plain sight waiting to be picked up.
The third car stops. It's Chet Morton and his sister Iola. Nancy knows she should be thankful for the ride, but instead she wants to disappear under a rug. She knows Joe's girlfriend and her brother, and she doesn't want them to see her like this. Heck, she doesn't want Joe to see her like this. It's too late because they already have. "Where's your courage?" she chides herself fixing her messy ponytail. Soon, she'll be back at the Hardy house, and she can fix all this mess.
She doesn't mind the hands-on cases. She likes action, and something that takes her away from her desk. She can last hours in a dirty basement, and her surroundings are always the last thing on her mind. But this just isn't what she likes, facing people she knows with dirt smeared across her face. She's just not that Nancy Drew.
She's so much more than this. She puts an action to the thought and sits up straighter in her seat. She's Hannah's helper and in her words a lovely young woman. She takes hard classes and still gets good grades. She's a burgeoning little researcher, so good with legal cases that Frank frequently calls her for advice. And she's Ned's favorite girl-the one he trusts with his whole heart and wants to be with every afternoon.
This is just bad luck-Joe's bad luck. He gets kidnapped so much his parents don't even worry that much. Stuck with him, what could she expect? It's not like this with Frank. No, with him she's a freaking queen, one half of a brainiac duo. If she had taken his case, she would be just dealing with tired eyes from looking at too many PDFs.
The program starts breaking her reverie. It's time to put it all behind her. It all over now, and she's at the banquet with the people she loves best. She belongs here and looks the part. It's time to move on because she's not that Nancy Drew.
