Title: A Little Help Between Friends
Summary: Nancy's streamers didn't look that perfect on her own.
Author's Note: I wanted to have a Frank and Nancy conversation before the party in the movie, because Frank and Joe don't interact with her during the party. that gets to be all case fic when I get to it. This little interlude was nice to write, though, since most my ideas want to be angst.
"Frank?"
Nancy'd caught him studying the picture of Dehlia Draycott, and Frank almost flinched when he heard her voice behind him. He knew he had other things to do at the moment—she'd promised him he and Joe could disappear out the secret passage as soon as the party started and arrive like normal guests so no one was suspicious, but only as long as he and his brother helped set up. Joe was still sulking about it as he left for the store and more ice.
"Sorry. She's fascinating," Frank admitted. "I've seen her films, and there was something about her—she was talented but also... there was something underneath it. She was genuine, in spite of being an actress. Or so it always seemed. Then there's the way she disappeared and her murder..."
"Yeah," Nancy agreed. She looked up at the picture. "I almost feel like I know her, watching her movies, but then her life is different."
"Tragic."
"Yeah." Nancy fidgeted and rocked on her heels. "Hey, would you mind helping me with a few streamers? I'm not tall enough to hang them, and I was going to ask Ned, but then I'd upset Corky and—"
"And I'm Switzerland? That's some triangle you've got going on, Drew."
She tried to smile. "Maybe. It's not... I like Corky. He's funny and nice, and he's helped me on the case. Ned and I..."
Frank didn't think he needed that explained. He wasn't blind. He was also supposed to be an investigator and notice things. Sometimes he noticed more than he should. He cleared his throat awkwardly as they walked toward the other room. "I wanted to thank you for this."
She frowned. "For what? I haven't done anything."
"Allowing us to stage the party here. Joe's been getting antsy since we haven't 'solved the case' yet. He's been itching to do something stupid, which if you knew Joe wasn't that unlike him, but this stopped that, so I'm... I'm grateful. Thank you."
She shrugged. "Having a party was something I was doing anyway, and I like having people here who appreciate mysteries as much as I do."
"It's taking a toll on you, isn't it? Hiding your sleuthing from your father."
She winced. "You are, quite possibly, too good at that, Frank Hardy."
"Occupational hazard," he said, smiling at her. He put a hand on her arm, trying not to let the pattern of her dress distract him. "We actually started doing this sort of thing to prove to Dad we could help him with his cases—and eventually he agreed, though he really didn't like the sort of trouble Joe and I got ourselves into when we were younger."
"What changed?"
"A few too many times saving him when he stumbled into trouble of his own," Frank said, smiling at the memories, though not all of them were amusing. Sometimes his father had come far too close to dying before they found him. "I think parents have to see that we're not fragile, that we can handle more than they realize—well, that we've grown up, actually. Your dad's probably the same, though since you're an only child and your mom is gone..."
Nancy didn't ask how he knew that, and he was glad about that. "I think you may be on to something there."
"Joe would say something like, 'of course I am. I'm an expert on this stuff as the son of a famous detective,'" Frank began. She looked at him. He shrugged. "I know I'm not an expert. And Joe got all the Hardy charm."
"Not all of it," she told him. "I haven't forgotten how you smiled at me that first day—you were the only one who made me feel even the slightest bit welcome—well, besides Corky."
"I'm glad it helped," Frank told her. "So... where do you want these streamers?"