A/N: It's frustrating to be hit with writers block TWO CHAPTERS into your story! :) I didn't have any problems with the MIDDLE of the chapter but I had no clue how to start it...or end it, or how long and how much of the story I should do. Hopefully I came up with something that makes sense. :)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I love getting all of your reviews and seeing what you guys are thinking about the story. I got so excited about them that after I got home from a girls night out I started writing the third chapter. Well, the next morning I got up, read what I wrote and couldn't believe it…it was awful! So, sorry for the delay but I had to start from scratch here. This chapter is a bit longer, so hopefully that makes up for it. :)

I wish I had time to write individual replies to your reviews, but I'm actually at work right now (eep, irresponsible I know!!). Please read and enjoy!

Second Chances

Chapter Three

Frank sat patiently in the hard plastic chair, reading an article in the newspaper about Blu-Ray technology. Joe sat, not quite as patiently, in the chair beside him reading Car and Driver. The boys were at the airport waiting for Nancy's flight to come in.

Joe closed his magazine for the fifth time and huffed in frustration, "you know, planes are supposed to be so great because they get people to their destinations faster, but it sure feels like all you ever do at the airport is wait."

"Patience, little brother." Frank murmured, half listening.

"Little brother" Joe mumbled under his breath, making Frank smile. The boys fell back into silence for a few moments before Joe said, "You know, Vanessa asked about Nancy."

This got Frank's full attention.

He slowly folded up the paper and turned to look at his brother. In a voice he hoped was nonchalant he asked, "Oh yeah?"

"Brother, if I need to learn patience you need to learn how to keep a better poker face." Joe laughed and stretched out his legs, "Yeah, she asked about Nancy. She was wondering about the tension between you and Callie last night."

"What tension? There was no tension." Frank shook his head and turned to face forward again.

"Uh-huh, yeah...anyway, I told her that you and Nancy had some history together."

Frank immediately thought back to a mission not that long ago, in Egypt. The night they had finally solved the case and he and Nancy had been standing on the balcony…he had kissed her. And the wonderful thing about it was, she had kissed him back.

He shook his head and tried to clear the images from his mind, both he and Nancy had agreed that it had been a mistake. His logical brain absolutely agreed, but there was this small part in the back of his mind that was saying yeah, then why did it feel so right? He chuckled a little to himself at the clichéd thought.

"Frank! Earth to Frank!" Joe snapped his fingers in Frank's face, "Geez, you disappeared there for minute, bro. Where'd you go...Egypt?" Joe's sly smile wasn't missed by Frank and he gave his brother a punch on the arm.

"Knock it off, Joe. Nancy and I are just friends and always will be friends." Franks heart gave a little lurch at the words but he quickly squashed it. "Besides, Nancy is crazy about Ned and nothing has changed that in all the years we've known each other."

Joe frowned slightly, Frank sounded...resigned and a little bitter, something Joe wasn't used to hearing in his brother's voice. He sat back, momentarily at a loss for words, this time it was Frank who interrupted the silence.

"You know, I told Callie about Egypt." Frank murmured the words, like he was in confession.

"What about Egypt?"

"About the kiss." Frank mumbled. "She was pretty devastated."

"No wonder there was tension when Nancy called last night." Joe ran his hands through his hair and let out a low whistle.

"There was no tension!" Frank argued. He was about to add something else when his eyes caught sight of something over Joe's shoulder. "Nancy!" he cried and both of the boys stood up. Nancy walked up dragging her suitcase and gave Joe a big hug.

"Hey Joe!" she said and turned to Frank "and hello Frank." She pushed her hair out of her face and stood there awkwardly for a moment. When they both realized that Joe was staring at them they reached in and gave each other a quick hug.

Joe smiled to himself and watched the comical interaction. After a few moments of awkward silence Joe decided to take pity on the pair, "So, Nancy how was the flight?"

"Oh!" she gave Joe a look of relief as she finally tore her gaze away from Frank. "It was great, actually! I sat beside this old man the entire time and he was filled with a wealth of useless knowledge." Nancy knew she was babbling but she couldn't stop it, "Did you know that Continental airlines eliminated one olive from every first class salad on all of their flights and saved 40,000 dollars a year?" There, the word vomit parade had finally seemed to stop.

"Really? That's very interesting." Frank took one of Nancy's bags from her and the trio headed out of the airport. "Sounds like you had a very educational flight."

"Oh, I did." Nancy pushed her hair out of her face again. She wished she had been able to stop in the restroom before she had met up with the Hardy's. She must have looked like a scary homeless person. She hadn't had much sleep the night before and when she had finally fallen asleep she ended up sleeping way too long. The short of it meant no time for makeup or to even brush her hair, which meant less of a great 'I haven't seen you in a long time, you look GREAT' first impression, which is what she was hoping for.

The Hardy's led her to where they had parked the van and they all hopped in. On the freeway back to Bayport Nancy filled the Hardy's in on everything she knew about her father, which wasn't much. She had told Frank most everything on the phone last night, but for some reason sitting and talking about it seemed to help calm her frazzled nerves.

"So, your father has been working on the Giamatti case?" Frank asked her as he switched lanes.

"Yeah, for about four months I think." Nancy glanced at Frank. "You think this has something to do with that, too?" In the time that it took for Nancy to fly to New York she had thought of little else, it wasn't much of a coincidence that her father was kidnapped right at the crucial part of a major mob boss' trial.

"It's a definite possibility." Frank replied, looking grim.

"Giamatti runs his organization out of Chicago though, right?" Joe piped up from the backseat. "Don't you think it's a little strange he'd have you come all the way to New York when his playground is your backyard?"

"I suppose, but Giamatti has ties all over the world. Maybe New York has some relevance to what he wants me to do for him," Nancy replied.

"Well, hopefully we'll find out more tonight. In the meantime, Mom is really excited to see you again and I was thinking that before we head to New York we can run some things by Dad. We should have enough time to spend an hour or two in Bayport, get a plan together and then head to the city." Frank looked at Nancy, "sound good?"

"Absolutely," Nancy agreed and smiled a little to herself as she saw the first signs of Bayport. She wondered why, when she rarely came to the East Coast let alone Bayport, that the sight of the city should lift her spirits so much.

Four hours later found Nancy and Frank in yet another awkward situation. They were sitting in the van alone, without Joe to distract them.

The boys and Nancy had decided that they would take two cars to New York. Joe was currently parked on the other side of the warehouse while Nancy and Frank were waiting in the front. They figured it would be best if they could have both the front and rear exits of the warehouse covered.

Why do I always seem to end up alone with Frank? Nancy thought to herself as she pulled at a loose string on her jacket. On the ride to New York they had filled the silence talking about the different cases they had solved since the last time they had seen each other. Now that they were here however, they seemed to have run out of things to say.

"I still don't like the idea of you going in alone." Frank turned to look at her intently.

Nancy sighed inwardly; she had heard the argument many times already from both of the brothers. "Frank, we've been over this. The kidnappers called me and specifically warned me not to tell the police. They probably wouldn't like the idea of me pulling in two of the top detectives on the East Coast."

"Still, I don't have to like it." Frank gripped the steering wheel in silence before he turned to smile at Nancy, "and what's this about "two of the top detectives on the East Coast'? I'm pretty sure Joe and I have got that title wrapped up for the entire nation."

"Wow, who knew you had such a big head, Hardy." Nancy laughed "You've got Joe and Joe has you, no wonder you guys solve a lot of mysteries. I typically work solo, with occasional help from George and Bess of course." She proceeded to tell him a story of how Bess had tried to 'help' during one of her last cases and had instead fallen for one of her prime suspects. Soon the pair was laughing and all of the awkwardness of earlier melted away.

Nancy could never really get used to the fact that her and Frank seemed to understand one another so perfectly. With Ned, her work had always been a bit of a sore subject between them. With Frank it was easy and not only when they were talking about chasing criminals. She immediately chastised herself over her thoughts; it wasn't fair to compare Ned and Frank.

It was hard not to though, her break-up with Ned was so fresh in her mind and talking to Frank was so comforting. She knew that Ned had never really understood her passion for solving mysteries and Frank did. She sighed to herself, frustrated. Frank was in love with Callie and she…well she wasn't with Ned anymore.

She found her gaze sliding over to look at Frank's profile, he was such a caring man and she knew he was in love with Callie. She sighed in frustration over her inner turmoil and chided herself for being such a girl. He's probably thinking about the latest sports scores, or better yet…thinking about what we're actually here to do…which is not obsess about our love lives.

Little did she know that Frank's thoughts were running along the same lines as her own.

Nancy checked her watch again, "we have about 15 minutes before I'm supposed to be inside." She looked out the window and scanned the area around the warehouse. There had been no movement during the time they had sat there and Nancy was starting to feel antsy. They passed the last minutes in silence, but this time it wasn't uncomfortable.

"Wish me luck!" Nancy said when it was time to leave. She started to get out of the van when Frank stopped her by laying his hand on hers. She looked down at their hands before looking up at him.

"Nancy, I…" his voice trailed off as he tried to find the words to express what he wanted to say. He didn't know why but he suddenly felt like he should tell her everything he had been thinking since he had seen her again. That he was sorry about a lot of things but also not sorry for the same things. He couldn't find the words and so settled on giving her hand a squeeze, "be careful," he finished.

Nancy turned her hand over and linked hers with his before squeezing back, "I will." With that she hopped out of the van and headed towards the warehouse.

Frank watched Nancy as she headed across the street towards the warehouse; she was briefly illuminated by the dull street lamp making her hair shine like fire. He sighed to himself, what am I thinking? What am I doing? His thoughts were way too dramatic for his taste. Nancy had been in town for a whole 4 hours and 52 minutes and he was already losing his head.

Talking to her is so easy.Frank thought to himself. That's really all there is to it, Nancy understands all parts of me, while it seems Callie just deals with it because she has to.

He watched as Nancy opened the door she was told to enter. She glanced back at Frank and their eyes met before she ducked quickly inside.

Nancy walked down the dark corridor of the warehouse's main floor, not sure which direction she should go in. She looked quickly in each of the rooms she passed but each one turned up empty. She finally came to a closed door. She quickly learned that it lead to the main warehouse. Boxes and boxes lined the sides of the huge room and a large crane was suspended from the ceiling. The dust that lined the floors indicated that the warehouse hadn't been used in awhile.

She let her eyes grow accustomed to the dark lighting and started to slowly circle the room. She was just about to give up on her search when her cell phone started to ring. She reached into her pocket and pulled it out. Flipping it open she said, "Hello?"

"Nancy, my dear girl! I see you have reached the warehouse just fine."

"Where are you?" she couldn't keep the frustration out of her voice.

"Oh, I'm here and there. I was surprised at you Nancy."

"Oh, how so?"

"I thought for sure it would take you a few hours to contact the Hardy brothers but in fact it took about 45 minutes!"

"How do Frank and Joe tie into this?"

"Oh, they don't really…and neither do you. I just thought it a rather funny trick, that the daughter of the chief lawyer on the Giamatti case fancied herself a detective."

"Then what do you want from me?"

"What I want is for you to meet a friend of mine on Pier 91 by 7 o'clock tonight. He will have some information for me. I would like you to retrieve it and wait for me to contact you."

"Why don't you just do all of this yourself? Why involve me or my father, or the Hardy's for that matter, at all?"

"Oh, I do hate to get my hands dirty and it's so much more fun to do it this way, don't you think?" Nancy was about to respond when he cut her off. "Nancy darling, as much as I enjoy speaking with you, I have to say, you had better get going. Your father would appreciate it if you had a timely manner about you, I'm sure. I do get bored easily and he is so much fun to play with."

Nancy's stomach churned at the the man's last words. She didn't like being used as a pawn in some sort of sick game, but what choice did she have when it concerned her father's well being?

I hope this wasn't too confusing, I felt a little confused writing it. :) Please review!