Note: Thank you to DusktoDawn21, hbndgirl, max2013, Erin Jordan, and BMSH for your reviews on the last chapter. I appreciated them all!

Fly Away

Chapter 4

December 23

"Frank!" Callie screamed. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. For what seemed like an eternity, the lights remained off in her house. In reality, though, she knew that it couldn't have been for more than a few minutes.

Finally, the lights snapped back on. It took Callie only seconds to see Frank, who was kneeling on the floor with his mouth open. Out of the corner of her eye, Callie saw that her dining room window was wide open. At the moment, though, she didn't care. She reached Frank just as he was slowly standing up. Throwing her arms around him, she buried her face in his shoulder and clung to him tightly.

"Are you okay?!" she managed to sputter. "Wh.. what happened?"

Frank held her for a moment, and then quickly pulled back from her.

"Cal—I have to go outside and check this out—now!" He made a forward movement towards the door.

"No!" Callie pleaded, grabbing his hand. "Please, Frank. Whoever—whatever—that was, please don't go looking for it! You're lucky to be okay."

Frank, who was about to go outside, finally acquiesced when he saw how distraught Callie was. With a sigh, he squeezed her hand. "I'm fine," he assured her. "But you're not. Hon, really- I have to go and check it out. Stay right here- take the cordless phone. If I'm not back in five minutes, do NOT come after me- just call Joe, okay?" Seeing how terrified Callie looked, his voice softened. "Callie, really- whoever was here is obviously gone. I want to see if he left footprints or anything, or if anyone saw anything. I'll be right back."

"Okay," Callie whispered, and watched Frank disappear out the front door. She took a shaky breath and blinked back tears. Why would someone want to hurt her? Or Frank?! What did all of the messages mean?! This holiday, which had already started out so badly for her, was just getting worse and worse. Clinging tightly to the phone, she just closed her eyes and prayed intently for Frank to return safely to her. She HATED how he had to investigate everything, even if he was trying to protect her. Why couldn't he be… less of a GUY or something?!

Still, true to his word, Frank returned a few minutes later with a disappointed look on his face.

"Nothing?" Callie asked, relieved that he was okay.

"Nothing," he said with a sigh.

Then, out of the corner of his eyes, Callie saw it—another envelope! Whoever had opened her window had apparently left another message for her. "Frank!" she gasped, and pointed to the floor. Meeting her eyes, Frank shook his head and carefully lifted the envelope, pausing only a moment to shut the window which was now letting in gusts of frosty air.

Indicating that she should sit next to him, Frank held out the dining room chair for Callie and allowed her to sit down before taking a seat, himself.

"Well, let's take a look," he said to her and gently squeezed her hand.

"B…but wouldn't the person leave fingerprints?" Callie stuttered, trying to focus. She was surprised Frank wouldn't have thought of that.

"Not necessarily," Frank replied. "To tell you the truth, Cal, if we're dealing with someone who likes to leave codes and things like that, then we're dealing with someone professional. He or she wouldn't leave fingerprints. It'd be highly unlikely."

"So—do you think I'm in real danger?" Callie asked fearfully.

Frank tried to reassure her, but he realized his attempts were in vain. "Well, I don't know," he said, thoughtfully. "Someone didn't exactly break into your house. He or she opened a window from the outside. Are you sure you locked it?"

Nodding, Callie waited for Frank to continue.

"And the circuit breaker… that could be jimmied ahead of time, right?"

"That means someone WAS in my house!" Callie exclaimed nervously.

"No, no…" Frank said. "It doesn't have to be. They can be… um… electronically set from the outside, I think."

"Really?" Callie asked. "I never heard of that."

"Yeah," Frank said quickly. "It's not common, but it CAN be done."

Shrugging her shoulders, Callie said, "At least you're okay—and so am I –that's the most important thing."

"You're right about that," Frank replied. Then, glancing at the paper in front of him, he looked at Callie. Opening it slowly as to not disturb evidence, he read the lines, along with Callie.

"Okay- here's that bell again with the word "Ring." Again, we have the bird! We'll have to look at that really closely. Obviously, since it's repeated, that's the main crux of the message. Plus, there's a lot of people in the attached picture- wait! What does that say?" he squinted his eyes at the small letters in bold right above the picture.

Leaning down, Callie read the message and looked up at Frank, perplexed. "Over Years"?! WHAT on earth does that mean?!"

With a sigh, Frank leaned back and rubbed his eyes. Finally, he turned to Callie. "I don't know. But I told you- we'll figure it out." Grabbing all of the notes in his hand, he reached into his jacket pocket and put them in there. "We'll talk about it with Joe later."

As soon as he said the name, Frank and Callie turned to one another and groaned. "Joe!"

"We were supposed to meet him at 8:00. With everything going on, I guess we forgot," Frank added. "What time IS it anyway?"

Together, Frank and Callie turned to the clock on the wall. "Midnight," Callie muttered.

"Well, there's one thing I DO know," Frank said, and turned to his girlfriend. "You're not staying here alone until this case is solved. Come—stay at my house. We have plenty of room."

Hesitating, Callie bit her lip.

"What?" Frank sighed, looking at her in shock. "You can't be serious that you want to stay here alone, can you?!"

Feeling her eyes well up with tears, Callie turned away for a moment to compose herself.

"Callie, what's wrong?" Frank asked. Wow—she had gotten that question a lot lately. Turning to him, Callie was about to make up a lame excuse for her behavior when she looked into Frank's eyes; however, she realized she couldn't do it anymore. Like it or hate it, she would tell Frank the truth.

"I…I have something to tell you," she said, softly, and told him to sit down again. Frank hesitated, concerned, but did as he was told. Taking his hand, Callie found herself talking to Frank for the next twenty minutes, almost nonstop. She told him all about her financial situation at college and why she had to work so much. She told him about her fears of letting down her parents, and her promise to them to keep the house in good condition and to stay on top of the bills until they returned on New Year's Day. She also told him about how scared she was about the threats against her on top of everything else and, finally, she told him the hardest thing of all—how she couldn't afford not only to go out on New Years, but also that their trip—the one they'd planned so long for—was an impossibility. The one thing she didn't tell him was about his watch or her bracelet…some things were too hard to explain.

When she was done speaking, Callie found that she couldn't look Frank in the eye. She felt incredibly embarrassed and sad yet, at the same time, relieved. She'd never kept any secrets from him. There really was no reason for her to start doing so now.

Frank didn't speak for a few minutes, and then reached out for her, hugging her tightly. "It'll be okay," he said, simply. "I promise." He meant it, too.

"You know I have three little words to say to you, right? I mean, it kind of sums up this whole predicament." He kissed the top of her head.

"Thanks," she said softly. "I know."

"You know what?" he asked.

"I love you, too."

"Oh," Frank said, and his pause was so long that finally Callie looked up.

"What?" she had to ask.

Finally, Frank couldn't stop his playful smile. "I was gonna say, "You big dork," but if you love me, I can't help it!"

Despite herself, Callie started laughing before swatting Frank on the shoulder. "YOU'RE the dork," she replied. Then, hugging Frank around his shoulders, she kissed his cheek. "But I still love you anyway."

"Go pack."

"What?" Callie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You're seriously coming back to my house until the case is over. I know your parents…they would want it that way, and I'm not taking no for an answer."

His words were kind and generous as always, but they brought Callie back to the reality of the situation once more. She stood up and nodded slowly at Frank before heading upstairs. After she had finished packing several days worth of clothing for work, everyday, and night-time, as well as makeup and hair accessories, another forty minutes had passed.

"I'd hate to see you on a long trip!" Frank quipped, but then stopped as he realized what he'd said. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Callie said with a small, sad smile.

Together they headed back to the Hardys' home. Outside, a gentle snow had begun to fall. Frank was struck by the beauty of the moment as he led Callie to his car. Callie, thinking of the case, her financial problems, and the difficulty of the holiday season, was grateful, again, for having Frank. She tried to ignore the chills running through her as she glanced up and noticed a lone icicle forming on one of the nearby branches. Wishing upon it for some peace, she watched as it slowly dropped to the ground and shattered, and hoped it wasn't an omen for things to come.