Author's note: I've fixed the age error in ch1. Frank is 14, Joe is 13. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, your feedback is much appreciated.

It was now 8:00 p.m. that night and Frank was home, in his room. He was sullen, but trying not to show it. Laura's house was luxurious; the social worker had been right. She had two guest bedrooms, one of which she was staying in now, and a bedroom for her and ano Joe. She had a white-picket fence and a pool in the backyard.

He actually had to admit he didn't know a lot about his father's finances - just that his aunt was, well, rather stingy with them. Because of his father's recent undercover work, he hadn't been home in ages, and Frank hadn't gotten any new clothes since the start of school two months ago. That didn't matter much to him, except his favorite shirt was starting to fall apart and he didn't want Laura to see it. He sighed and hung it up in the closet before packing his few items away.

There was a knock on the door and he opened it to see Joe standing there. "Hey. Care if I come in?"

"Sure," Frank responded. He was trying not to be hostile towards Joe even though he was still angry at Laura. It wouldn't be fair to Joe to take it out on him. "So what's she do for a living?"

"You mean Mom?" Joe asked. "She's a lawyer."

"Oh," Frank responded, wondering if that had anything to do with why his parents had gotten divorced, although he doubted it. His father had never told him the full story, simply telling him he'd tell him when he was ready, and it had never happened. "Anyway, did you want me for something?"

"Yeah. The company shipping your clothes just called and said they were accidentally re-routed to another part of the country by mistake, so they'll be a few days. Mom needed to know if you need anything."

"I've got five pairs of clothes - I'll be fine."

"Great. Washer and dryer are in the basement if you're desperate," Joe said. "Just leave the clothes there and Manda'll get them for you."

"Manda?" Frank asked.

"Oh, the maid. Mom hires a maid but that's it, no butler, no chef, unlike half the school. Speaking of school, set your alarm for eight a.m. Mom'll drive us there."

"Yay," Frank muttered sarcastically, thinking inwardly, oh, Gods, this isn't going to be good. A rich kid school. He honestly didn't know how much wealth his father had accumulated, but he knew it was enough to pay Aunt G to live with them full-time as a caretaker for him. He'd have to do some digging on his father, maybe he had like... an online resume or something.

While they hadn't been poor, they hadn't been rich either, at least not like this. Then again, what did he know, really?

Frank sighed before realizing Joe was still standing there. "Anything else?"

"Um, do you need anything for school?"

Frank blinked. "All my school stuff is in the tins… Crap."

"Don't worry. We'll stop at Wal-Mart or whatever before school and grab some notebooks. Just set the alarm before 7:45."

"Thanks," Frank said as Joe shut the door, wondering why he had to come here. He booted up the computer and connected it to the wireless easily, using the password Joe gave him.

Then he typed in the search engine two words he never thought he'd search: Fenton Hardy.

Joe climbed down the stairs and smiled at his mother, who had just hung up the phone with Frank's other social worker. Because Frank had moved over 800 miles, the guardianship of his case had been transferred to another state, another caseworker. "How'd the conversation go?" he asked her.

"I liked his old caseworker better," his mother replied, grabbing the bottle of aspirin by the counter. "She's coming by the house tomorrow."

"How bad?" Joe asked, propping his feet up on the chair.

"Think I might have to get her removed," Laura admitted before sitting on the counter and pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "She called Frank, and I quote, a 'sullen teenager with no respect for anyone.' She hasn't even met him yet or spoken to him yet, and who can hardly blame him for being so sullen when his father just passed?" she asked.

"Mom," Joe said, "You know how you always told me, you'd tell me why you and dad divorced when I was older? I'm older now."

"You're thirteen, Joe-"

"Frank's going to want to know," Joe pointed out carefully, "And he's dead. Fenton, I mean."

Laura sighed. "Alright," she said, closing her eyes. "But wait until I'm finished for interruptions, okay?"

Joe nodded.

"It was at the time that Fenton's business was really picking up and he was making a name for himself. I was fine with that, really I was, and I was even fine with the fact that he was gone a lot. Joe... " Laura paused. "It was just after you were born, and Fenton had been gone nearly five weeks. I kept telling myself that I could handle it, and I could, you and Frank - I was a stay at home mom. It was going fine until Gertrude and I got into a huge fight, and I stormed out of the house and went to the bar. A few shots of tequila later, and you can guess what happened." Laura let out a breath. "I knew what I did was wrong - I could've blamed it on the alcohol, or not thinking clearly, or whatever… but I couldn't stand to tell Fenton. So I went and told him I wanted a divorce."

Joe didn't interrupt, choosing to let his mother continue.

"I went at him full-force," Laura said, "Telling him I couldn't handle his working and whatever… and I shoved divorce papers in his face. We went and met with the attorney and I ended up revealing what happened. He said he still loved me anyway, but I just was done. Part of me wishes I'd tried to work it out with him, but I just felt too ashamed of myself." Laura sighed. "And now you know. I wanted to take both you and Frank but didn't know if I could handle having two kids at once, and Fenton wanted both kids too. I was moving down to where we were now, I had a job offer and my family is down here, so weekends wouldn't have worked out. The lawyer assigned Frank to Fenton and me to you. He picked for us." Laura slid off the counter. "Now you know."

"I don't blame you for the divorce, Mom." Joe hugged her. "It's okay."

"Thanks," she responded with a sigh. "Did Frank need anything for school?"

"Everything is in his bins that got sent somewhere, except for five changes of clothing."

"Alright, we'll stop by Walmart and get him some notebooks and pens."

Frank scampered back to his room in surprise, not having expected that Joe wouldn't know the reason for the divorce either. He sighed as he sat on his bed and grabbed his notebook, writing down what little he knew about the case his dad was working on.

He left three weeks ago.

That was all he knew. He'd browsed over the web. He knew his father was semi-famous, yet there was nothing in the news about him being dead. Why not? That gave him an uneasy feeling. Tomorrow, Frank vowed, he'd go deeper. He'd just have to figure out how.

He closed his eyes and settled off to sleep.

Here's the question of the day: The new caseworker - good, or not so good? Thanks again for the reviews and feedback.