Title: A Reason to Party

Summary: Frank and Joe visit Nancy to ask a favor. Or... the party was always supposed to get out of hand.

Author's Note: I couldn't help thinking of this as soon as I created the case Frank and Joe were working on, that they would like to be at that party. This got long on me, though.

Nancy heard the door and sighed. She didn't want to deal with Corky right now, and while Ned was actually staying in the same house with them, she hadn't gotten a chance to do much talking with him—she certainly hadn't been able to explain about Corky yet. Ned seemed to have the wrong idea about things, and she needed to make that clear. After her discovery of the secret passage in the house that lead to the apartment where Leshing lived, she had wanted to do more sleuthing, but her father was home, so she had to hold off on pursuing the lead for now.

She walked up to the door and frowned when she opened it. She wasn't sure what she expected, but finding the "brothers" standing on her doorstep was definitely not it. "Um... hello."

"Hi," the older one began, not wearing his glasses, though most of his "nerd" look was in place, the sweater over his dress shirt and the dress pants. His brother was wearing designer jeans and a letter jacket, hands in his pocket. "I wanted to tell you that your theory about the—"

"Come in," she said, leaning forward to take hold of the first one's arm and pull him in before he could say anything about her theories or sleuthing in front of her father.

"Nancy?" Her father called, Ned following him into the foyer. He frowned. "Um... hello."

"Dad, these are friends of mine from school," Nancy said. Then she fumbled, since she couldn't remember either boy's name—she hadn't thought they were using their real ones, so she didn't use them, either.

"I'm Frank," the older one said. "This is my brother, Joe."

"Frank's the president of the dork society, and he wanted Nancy to join," Joe said, getting a look from his brother. Ned didn't seem happy, but she would explain—she had so much to explain—later about their covers.

"I'm not the president, but they did ask me to see if she would join a few of the clubs I'm in. Joe's... not as academically minded, but he's actually supposed to see if Nancy's interested in one of the sports clubs."

"All very, very boring discussions," Nancy said, giving her father a bright, if false smile. "Let's discuss it upstairs, guys."

Ned was still frowning, but her father waved them off. Nancy led them up to the attic, knowing it would give them enough space to talk and enough distance from her father to say anything, since she was sure Frank and Joe hadn't come about any kind of club.

"So," Nancy said after they were all inside the attic, "what was that about a theory?"

The brothers exchanged a look, and the older one shrugged. The younger one rolled his eyes. She waited, not sure what they were saying with their silent communication. She saw Ned still eying them suspiciously and grimaced.

"Ned, Frank and Joe are working undercover at my school."

He blinked. "What?"

Frank nodded, though his eyes were on the photographs of Dehlia Draycott that Nancy had shown Corky the other day. He started flipping through them even as his brother shook his head. The younger one turned to her.

"You know, just because Frank's okay with you figuring it out doesn't mean you can blab it around to everyone you know."

"I haven't," Nancy said, defensive. "I only told Ned—and I trust Ned with my life."

"Easy, Joe," Frank said, motioning him over to show him a picture, which had him distracted, and Nancy wondered if he'd already seen what had taken her too long to understand—that Dehlia had been pregnant when she disappeared. "With Nancy likely to return to River Heights and us going to our own home, it's unlikely our paths will cross again, same with anyone she knows. Besides, if we were that worried about being discovered, we wouldn't let them base our cover identities on our real names."

"Point," Joe said, touching the photo. "Man, she was pretty. You figure anything out about her yet?"

"Yes," Nancy said, excitement building again. "I found a note saying Dehlia intended to change her will, and so I've been looking for the new will ever since. I think it's the key to why she was killed, and I also think—"

"She disappeared because she was pregnant," Frank said, and Nancy beamed at him, thrilled by the idea of sharing the investigation with people who were just as interested in it as she was. "That makes sense. Did you locate her baby?"

"I think so. I'm certain Jane is her daughter," Nancy said. Joe looked at her, less skeptical than he had been before. Maybe sharing her case with them made him trust her a little more.

"That's impressive," Frank told her. "I think you've made more progress with your investigation in the short time you've been here than we've made in ours for weeks."

Joe grimaced. "Gee, why not just tell her we're pathetic failures or something? What's wrong with you, anyway?"

Frank rolled his eyes. He moved away from the photographs and focused on Nancy. "That was part of why we were here. We were hoping you might help us."

"Me?"

"Nancy," Ned interrupted. "What about the—"

"The no-sleuthing promise?" Frank asked. He shook his head. "She doesn't actually have to do any. We were just hoping that she might allow us to... manipulate the situation a little. And invite ourselves to her birthday party."

"What?" Ned and Nancy asked at the same time.

Joe smiled, and Nancy had to admit, it was a real charming smile. "Drugs have a tendency to pass around at parties, but if we were to try and throw one, it would be very suspicious. Not only do we not have a reason or a place to have one, but Frank's doing his best to be a social leper, and no one's going to come over to his place. Mine, maybe, and I'm certainly not hurting for friends here, but while I saw plenty of things passing around the parties I've been through, I'm still short a source."

Frank folded his arms over his chest. "Parties aren't the only way drugs pass around, and I'm certain at least one of my computer club friends is hooked on this stuff. I just can't get him to talk to me about anything but World of Warcraft."

"Still," Joe said. "We figure if we can get a party started, we can give our drug dealers and users an opportunity. Especially since no one would see anything weird about you inviting everyone."

"Why not?" Ned asked. "She doesn't know them."

"Yes, but Nancy is... friendlier than most of the population of Los Angeles," Frank said, and Nancy smiled at the compliment, even if she suspected he'd chosen his words very carefully there. "It might not seem big back in River Heights or Bayport, but it certainly makes her stand out here."

Bayport. She knew that name. She looked between the brothers. "You're Fenton Hardy's sons, aren't you?"

Ned seemed to be trying to figure out if he should know the name, but the brothers just smiled.

"Guilty as charged," Joe said. "So... Nancy Drew, can we use your birthday party as a cover and just maybe catch some drug dealers?"

"Are you kidding?" Nancy asked, clapping her hands together and trying to ignore the fact that Ned seemed to think she should be saying that because she wanted to turn them down. "Absolutely."