A/N: Thank you Caranath (Well, YOU know it wasn't really Joe, but Vanessa didn't, so I figured it was close enough lol), Shenice, ILoveMom, leyapearl, bhar, Cinderella3x, hlahabibty, Ealasaid Una, Stork Hardy, Red Hardy, and Jabba1 for reviewing!

Here's the deal: this is the last chapter of this story, but Joe and Vanessa will be appearing in the last chapter of Nancy Drew and the Egyptian Deception, so if you want to find out what happens once they meet up with Nan and Frank again, you'll have to go there. (It's not all sunshine and daisies, though, believe you me...) It has come to my attention that some of you hate Nancy (and it perplexes me lol), but you can always just skip to the last chapter (ch 16) and try to ignore that the whole story is from her point of view... Incidentally, that chapter isn't written/posted yet, so you'll just have to keep an eye out!

Writing from Joe's POV for the first time in a long time. Hopefully his recap of what happened will set everyone straight as to the timeline, but basically, this is happening DURING Egyptian Deception—in chapter 10 of that story, Frank II changes his and Nancy's airline reservations, and this story happens later that same day. You may remember that two days later, during the ransom call, the Gray Man tells Frank II that Vanessa is already safe and Joe II is dead.

Enjoy!

The past few days had easily gone down as the worst week of Joe's life, and considering he was Joe Hardy, they'd had some stiff competition. But no matter how many times he'd been kidnapped, conked on the head, shot at, run off the road, or left for dead, this situation left them all behind.

A week ago, he and his brother had been getting ready for their wedding at Frank's apartment. Less than an hour before the ceremony, they'd been surprised by two intruders—replicas of themselves created by the Lazarus group—who'd managed to use their element of surprise to gain the upper hand, beating them badly. Joe had been concussed and knocked out, and when he woke up, he was wearing not his tux, but a flimsy gray sweatsuit, his hands and feet were bound, and he was crammed in the trunk of a car with a severely-injured Frank.

It was over three days before they were rescued, during which time Joe was sure his brother was about to die any second. The Network inserted themselves into the situation, taking them both to a secure location where Frank was operated on immediately before slipping into a day-long coma. It was during this time that their Network contact, the Gray Man, had explained to him what had happened: the entire situation was the result of a Network mission gone bad, a mission that had been secretly undertaken by Nancy and Frank. They had been tasked to pick up a top-secret package while honeymooning in Egypt, and the Assassins were attempting to steal it by replacing Frank and Joe with doubles.

Even as Frank was fighting for his life and Nancy was facing mortal peril of her own on the other side of the globe, Joe couldn't help feeling betrayed that they had accepted a Network mission—even a stupid courier mission—without telling him. But his anger at them had been eclipsed by his fear for Vanessa, who, like Nancy, had married one of the doubles and gone on her honeymoon.

However, unlike Nancy, Vanessa had no idea what she was dealing with.

It sickened Joe to know that Vanessa was on their honeymoon with some fake version of him—a ruthless murderer, one of the men who'd tried to kill him, had very nearly succeeded in killing Frank. The idea of the double touching Vanessa, being intimate with her, and her consenting, happy, oblivious to who he truly was... it literally made Joe ill.

But he was going to have to pull it together. For Vanessa.

Early this morning they'd found out that the fake Frank—the double who'd taken Nancy to Egypt to retrieve the package—had changed his and Nancy's travel plans. Everyone knew that this meant one thing: the double knew he'd been made. They were forced to assume that Nancy was now, in effect, a hostage.

And effectively, so was Vanessa.

It was only a matter of time before the girls were used as leverage to get at the Network's top-secret intel. The Network did not have a strong presence in Egypt, so they were unable to organize a rescue operation to retrieve Nancy. But Joe had convinced the Gray Man—begged him—to put together a strike team to rescue Vanessa, before the Joe-double had time to really prepare for a siege. He loved Nancy, as a friend and as a sister, but his first priority had to be Vanessa.

He'd wanted nothing more than to be part of the team that went in to retrieve her, but when the Gray Man had decided to set up a team over the phone, to go in immediately, Joe couldn't argue with that. He didn't want Vanessa at the mercy of that psychopath for a moment longer than she had to be. Gray had flown down to Aruba immediately via a commercial airline. Unfortunately, since Joe's identity—including his passport—had been stolen by the double, he was forced to wait for the Network to arrange less public transportation for him. The Gray Man had called him just as he'd gotten off the plane, saying that the mission had been successful and that Vanessa was safe, and that he was on his way to meet her and explain to her what was going on.

A car had been waiting for Joe at the airport, and it had dropped him off here, at the American Consulate. The sight of the building did nothing to reassure him. He had to see Vanessa.

He told his name to the man behind the front desk, who nodded and pointed him in the right direction. Joe walked along the dim hallway until he came to the library. Steeling himself, he pushed the door open and walked inside.

The Gray Man was there, talking to Vanessa, but conversation stopped immediately when he entered. Vanessa looked pale and tired. Her face was streaked with the remains of tears, and her gray, red-rimmed eyes stared at him in shock and disbelief. "Joe..." she whispered. She looked as though she'd seen a ghost.

"Van..." he murmured, his voice husky with emotion. "Are you okay, baby?"

She hurled herself into his arms, and he caught her and held her close. She buried her face in his neck and he heard her whisper, "Please be real. Please be real."

"Hey." he said, pulling away just slightly so that he could look at her face. "It's okay. You're safe now, Van. I promise." The blood all over her shorts and shirt sleeves was a little unsettling, and he looked at her as best he could without letting go of her, searching for injuries. "Did he hurt you, Van? Tell me." he asked darkly. If he found out that son-of-a-bitch double had made her bleed...

She didn't answer the question; in fact, he got the distinct impression she didn't even hear it. "I thought you were dead." she said in a watery voice. "I saw you die. There was so much blood... You can't be here."

Suddenly everything made sense—the blood, the shock, the seen-a-ghost expression. He pulled her close once more, stroking her hair gently with one hand. "No, baby, no. I'm fine. That guy wasn't me." He shot a dirty look over her shoulder at the Gray Man. "Nice job explaining everything to her."

"Every time I tried, she'd jump down my throat with another accusation. Reminded me of you a little bit." the Gray Man said, folding his arms. "She thought she'd been kidnapped."

"So your guys just killed the fake me right in front of her, and then brought her here without any explanation?!" Joe surmised, trying to keep the anger out of his voice and not succeeding. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Keeping one hand anchored firmly around Vanessa's waist, he used the other to point at the door. "Get out."

"Wait. Stay."

Both men looked at Vanessa, surprised by the conflicting instructions she gave. The Gray Man nodded in understanding.

Vanessa was looking back and forth between the two, her lips pursed in concentration. "The man who died was a fake? An Assassin? Created by the Lazarus clinic to look like Joe."

"Correct, Ms. Bender." the Gray Man said, nodding his head.

"If that's true..." Vanessa said slowly, "Then how do I know you're the real one?" She directed this at Joe, and he could see the pain of uncertainty that lingered in her eyes. This was why she'd asked Gray to stay. She didn't want to be alone with him until she could verify that he was telling the truth, that all this was real.

Joe didn't know what to say. How did he prove to her that he was him?

This time, he was grateful when the Gray Man took the reins. "Perhaps I can answer that by explaining just what has happened over the past few days." Joe led Vanessa to the couch, where they sat down as Gray told the story of the mission, the package, the doubles, the wedding, and the strike team. Joe noticed that, for all of Van's uncertainty as to his true identity, she never let go of his arm.

At first, she seemed unwilling to believe that there was a way to create exact doubles of people, down to their thoughts and memories. But who wouldn't be? The concept was straight out of science fiction. When he and Frank had first discovered the Lazarus clinic, he hadn't believed it at first either.

Then she wanted to know how the Network could allow the Lazarus group to continue to exist. "We've tried to round them up many times, but, it must be said, they're geniuses at eluding capture." Gray explained sheepishly. "With all the tools available to them, it's easy for them to trick our agents who don't have the security clearance to know what the group does. And obviously we can't let the word about the clinic get out. If the public were to learn that there was an organization that specializes in creating identical copies of people that serve as sleeper agents for terrorists... well, we'd have a mass panic on our hands."

"Plus, we usually just wait until they do something that affects us directly, and then we go kick their asses." Joe added.

"Maybe that's part of the problem, too." the Gray Man agreed ruefully. "You must understand, Ms. Bender, they've never done anything like this before. Not for the simple task of stealing a package."

Vanessa nodded. "And... and Frank and Nancy? Are they okay?"

"Frank is still recovering from his injuries, but he should be fine." the Gray Man told her.

Joe refrained from saying that he suspected that Frank was preparing for a trip to Egypt himself. Although he knew it was a bad idea, given Frank's condition, he also knew there was nothing he could do to stop him. And to be fair, if Vanessa had been in Nancy's place, he knew that he would be preparing to do the same thing, regardless of how many injuries he'd sustained.

"As for Nancy... well. It's a delicate situation. We're still not sure how it will play out." Gray finished uncertainly. "She seems to be a very resilient woman. I wouldn't be surprised if she finds a way to turn the tables on the double."

"She will." Joe said, more for Vanessa's benefit than for anything he really believed. Nancy was incredibly resourceful, and he hated to think that she'd found herself in a situation she might not be able to get out of, but he knew firsthand just how cunning the Frank doppelganger could be. Part of him just felt selfishly, irrationally glad that it was his girl who was safe, even though the nightmare wasn't even close to being over for Nancy and Frank.

Vanessa nodded, frowning. "Okay... Okay." she put a hand to her head, massaging her temples. "This is just... a lot to process."

"I understand." Gray said, nodding sympathetically. "Are there any more questions I can answer for you, Ms. Bender?"

"No." Vanessa answered. She looked down at the ground. "Could Joe and I have some time alone?"

"Of course." The Gray Man stood from his chair and left the room, closing the thick door behind him. This time, there was no sound of a key in the lock.

For the first time, Vanessa pulled away from him, seeming to curl slightly into herself. She kept her gaze squarely on her own feet.

Joe didn't reach for her.

"So..." Vanessa started finally, and her voice was low and pained. "You haven't been... you, since the wedding."

"Since the wedding." Joe agreed quietly.

"So, we're not really married, then?"

Honestly, Joe didn't know the answer to that. "I'm not sure, Van. I mean, legally, yes we are, and since we're never going to be able to tell people what really happened, I guess it's going to stay that way. But I was never at any wedding."

"It would be hard to return from the honeymoon and explain to our families that we're not staying married." Vanessa said softly. "But we could do it."

"What?" Joe looked at her sharply. "Is that what you want?"

"Isn't it what you want?" she asked, looking at him for the first time since they'd been alone together. Her gray eyes were swimming with tears, but she didn't let them fall.

"What?" Joe said again. "Van, no. No!" He started to feel a pressure building in his chest. What was he supposed to say to her? Was he disturbed by what had happened? Yes, of course. But did that mean that he didn't still love her? It only took one look at her tear-streaked face to know that wasn't the case.

"I can see the way you're looking at me, Joe. You're wary of touching me. You can't stop thinking about... about him, and... and me. You didn't even kiss me when you came in." She wiped her eyes on one of her bloodstained sleeves, but they just welled up again as soon as she placed her folded hands back in her lap.

Joe's heart was filled with black rage for the double as he realized what Vanessa was talking about. Instead of scooting closer to take her into his arms, he dropped off the couch and to his knees, kneeling in front of her and covering her hands with his own. "No. No, no, no, no, no. You're so wrong, Van. If I was wary of you at all, it's only because I was worried you'd be afraid of me, that the double injured you in some way, broke your trust, and you wouldn't want to be near me."

She shook her head miserably. "Oh, Joe... I wish he had. I wish he had injured me, tied me up, treated me like a prisoner. It would be so much easier than having to live with the fact that I thought he was you, that I married him and lived with him and-" she cut herself off. "I know I should feel violated, and later, I will, but... right now, all I can think is: thank god you're alive." She let out a single sob. "We'd had this... this perfect week together, and then all of the sudden, you were gone, dead, and when I saw your body, I just... something inside me just... broke."

It was difficult not to let himself dwell on this 'perfect week' that Van had had with his double, but Joe knew there were more pressing issues at the moment. "I'm so sorry about the way they treated you, Van. The Network is... well, in the Network, they don't think like normal people. They didn't realize how this was going to affect you."

In truth, he was sick to death of defending the Network. He and Frank had learned time and time again that their own brains and guts tended to be worth more than any amount of spy technology or black ops ground support. "I knew I should have come for you myself. I wanted to—but I thought it would be better if they got you away from him as soon as possible. I hated the thought of you being in danger."

"You hated the thought of me being in his hands, you mean." Vanessa said quietly, and Joe flinched and looked away. Did she have to use such descriptive expressions? Keeping his hands, Vanessa slowly lowered herself to the floor so that she was kneeling in front of him, mirroring his position. "You know I love you, right?" she said softly. "You know that, for me, he was you. I'm yours. I have been for a long time."

"Babe... Vanessa." Joe shook his head, his own eyes feeling suspiciously wet. How was it possible that after everything that had happened to her—getting married to the wrong man, spending a week being conned by the double, nearly getting killed by Network snipers, being forced to watch the man she loved die, being traumatized by the following rescue attempt—she was kneeling before him, trying to comfort him? "I just hate that this happened."

"But you love me too, right?" she breathed, her voice barely a whisper.

"Yes." Joe didn't have to think about that one. "Of course I do. Come here." She complied, and he wrapped his arms around her again. "I love you, Van. And we're going to do whatever it takes to get past this, okay?"

"So you don't want a divorce?" she mumbled into his neck.

A laugh forced its way out of him. "No, I don't want a divorce. We'll figure it out."

She pulled back a little, a faint smile on her face. When he reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, the smile widened. It had been a long time since Joe had wondered whether Vanessa Bender was the woman for him, but if he had had any doubts, one look at her face just then would have decided him. He leaned in and kissed her gently, tentatively.

She slid her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, pouring love and passion and overwhelming relief into it. It was that kiss, more than anything else, that told him how frightened Vanessa had been when she thought he'd been killed.

"I thought I'd never get to do that again." she said shakily, apologetically, when they separated.

"Whenever you want to do that, I'm fine with it." Joe said, planting another quick kiss on her forehead before standing up. "My knees are killing me." He sat back down on the couch and pulled her into his lap.

"I guess the question is..." Vanessa murmured, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Where do we go from here?"

Joe rested his head on her hair and considered the question. She was right. He loved her and she loved him... that was the part that was never really in doubt. But what he didn't know was how to proceed going forward, how to even begin moving past something like this. There was nothing either of them could do to erase what had happened. Where did they go from here?

"I don't know, babe." he admitted. "I just don't know."