Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys . . . :( I make no money from this.

Chapter 3: Digging & Delaying

Nancy woke Tuesday morning when her alarm went off. She hit the button to silence it and shivered in the cold, empty bed.

'Get a grip, Drew. A little time apart won't kill either one of you.'

She sighed. She had gone for years seeing Frank only intermittently. In fact, they had spent nearly two years apart before meeting again in New York barely two months ago. Two months and already her life was totally entangled with his.

She dragged herself into the shower. When she shut off the water she could hear her cell ringing in the bedroom and recognized Frank's ringtone. Dripping, she hastily wrapped a towel around herself and ran to answer it. She cursed when it silenced before she could make it and snatched the phone up to call back.

"Hey, Nan." His deep, sleepy voice made her smile.

"Hey. I'm sorry I missed your call. I was in the shower."

"Hm, I like you in the shower – all wet and naked. The only thing that would make it better is if I was there with you."

"And here I always thought you were a nice young man, Frank Hardy."

"Being nice does not preclude being horny."

The reasonable tone coupled with the odd topic of conversation made Nancy laugh. "No, I suppose not."

nhnhnhnhnhnh

Frank was finally relaxing as the sound of her laughter reached him.

"I miss you, Nan. I've been gone a day and I'm already missing you."

"I promise not to let it go to my head. Besides, it goes both ways."

"So, what are you wearing?"

"A towel. But I need to get dressed and get moving so please don't go there."

"I'm already there, sweetheart."

She chuckled. "I love you, Frank."

"I love you, too." He couldn't stifle the yawn that caused him to slur the heartfelt words.

"Go back to sleep, honey. I'll talk to you later."

"Have a good day, Nan. I'll give you a call when I get to DC."

"Be careful driving."

"I will."

It took a couple more minutes of trivial exchanges before either of them was willing to break the connection. Frank laid the phone on the side table. With the nagging unease of the usual nightmare alleviated by his talk with Nancy, he found himself drifting back to sleep. Closing his eyes he decided he would rest a couple more minutes before he got his shower.

Frank woke with a start and looked at the clock. So much for a few minutes of sleep – he had hung up from his call with Nan almost three hours ago and now he was running late. He hurried to shower and dress. Within half an hour he was jogging down the stairs and straight to the coffee maker.

His mother must have heard him. She came in from the back yard, peeling off her dirty garden gloves and fixing him with a worried frown. He sighed. Apparently she had heard him awaken in the early morning from his nightmare. He sat down at the table in the kitchen and fiddled with a box sitting there. His primary goal was to avoid meeting his mother's periwinkle blue eyes. He really didn't feel inclined to address the questions he knew would greet him there.

His thoughts wandered as he sipped his coffee, another set of blue eyes firmly fixed in his mind. Nancy's eyes were different from his mother's and brother's – more of a sky blue with small flecks of aqua so that they sometimes looked almost blue-green depending on her mood. Her expressive eyes were one of a million things about Nancy that he loved.

His mother had gotten herself a cup of coffee and sat down across from him, making it more challenging to avoid her probing gaze. He flipped open the box in front of him to find wedding invitations and pulled one out – the perfect distraction.

"It's good to see you, Frank. I trust your trip was uneventful."

Frank nodded as he idly fingered the card. "The flight was fine. Joe was late picking me up at the airport, not that that's a surprise."

She chuckled, "Well, you were interrupting his quiet time with Vanessa. Those two have turned into definite home bodies on weekday evenings. I can hardly pry them out of the apartment to stop by for dinner except on the weekends."

Frank chanced a glance up from the invitation at his mother's light tone. "Well, Joe isn't always home in the evenings and he does see Dad quite a bit during the week."

"You have a point," His mother said, catching his gaze purposely. "You slept late this morning . . ."

Frank knew it was more than a simple observation but tried to shrug it off.

"I talked to Nan before she went to work and then fell back to sleep."

If he had thought he could deter his mother with a vague response he was sorely mistaken.

"So it had nothing to do with the nightmare you had early this morning?"

Frank pursed his lips. "I don't want to talk about it, Mom."

She pressed her lips into a thin line. "You'll have to talk about it eventually, Frank."

Frank held out the card in his hand. "I see you got the invitations. They turned out very nice."

His mother heaved a resigned sigh and patted his arm. "Alright, I'll let you get away with that for now because I know you're going to see Dr. Chase. Yes, the invitations turned out quite lovely. I had some reservations when the girls chose a black and white color scheme for the wedding but I'm coming around. I know Nancy and Vanessa were very pleased with the result."

Frank admired the simplicity of it. It was a plain snow-white card with a glossy embossed rose on the front. Black cursive lettering read 'This day I marry my friend . . .' Inside, the standard wedding announcement was printed, but the facing page, instead of being blank, finished the saying begun on the front of the card, 'the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love.'

At the bottom of the same page was something that Frank didn't recall noticing when he looked at the mock-up that Vanessa had scanned and sent to them in Chicago via email. Below the words 'In memory of' were two small red roses. Next to one was the name of Vanessa's deceased father and next to the other was the name of Nancy's deceased mother.

"I saw the card but I don't remember this," Frank said, turning it to his mother and running a thumb over the two roses.

His mother smiled. "Vanessa and Nancy talked a long time about the wording of the invitations. They both felt it would be wrong to ignore their lost parents but weren't too sure how to include them. I suggested the 'In memory of' section. I think it's very nice."

Frank nodded. "It's interesting that Joe is marrying a woman who lost a father and I'm marrying a woman who lost a mother – both from illness, too. I know Van's dad lingered quite awhile with the cancer. Was Nan's mother ill for a long time?"

He thought it was odd that he didn't know. His parents had been friends with the Drews all his life. His curiosity was piqued when he saw the troubled look that crossed his mother's face at his question. He set the invitation down and leveled her with a curious gaze.

"What's wrong, Mom?"

She changed the subject. "When are you planning to leave for DC?"

Frank's eyes narrowed but he did respond. "I'm going to leave shortly. I don't meet with Larry until this afternoon so I have a little bit of time. But I'd like to stop by the apartment and maybe do a final review of my notes beforehand."

"Will you be here for lunch?" She asked as she stood and moved to the kitchen sink.

"No. But I should be back tomorrow by late afternoon or early evening."

"Supper tomorrow, then." His mother said firmly as she rinsed her coffee cup.

"I'll try."

"Good. I'm going back outside to continue weeding. I have the landscapers coming in this weekend so that Andrea, Vanessa, Nancy and I can talk to them about what we need to do before the wedding. I'd like to have the worst of the weeds cleaned out of the beds before then."

Realizing his mother was avoiding the topic he had originally raised, he stood and put a restraining hand on her shoulder. Obviously there was something more to the story of Nan's mother's death.

"Mom, you didn't answer my question."

"What question, dear?"

"Was Nancy's mother ill for long? I barely remember her or what happened."

His mother took a deep breath, an internal debate playing itself out on her expressive face. She finally motioned him back to the table.

"I think you should sit down, Frank. I know it sounds like a simple question but it isn't."

"What are you talking about?" Frank asked as he sank back into the kitchen chair.

His mother delayed answering him again by getting them each a fresh cup of coffee. She resumed her seat at the table and looked at him with troubled eyes.

"Elly was sick but it wasn't like Vanessa's father. She suffered from depression."

Frank's eyebrows knitted. "Depression?"

She took a deep breath before continuing. "It's a long story, Frank. It started after Elly had Nancy. She developed a severe case of post-partum depression, which isn't terribly unusual. She seemed to get better once they got her hormones regulated but then she and Carson decided they wanted to have another child and they had to take her off the medication."

His mother took a sip of her coffee. The sadness in her voice was reflected in her eyes as she continued, "I think Elly would have been ok – she was really doing quite well without the meds. She even dealt with their continuing inability to get pregnant calmly."

"Then Nancy started kindergarten and she began to get rather desperate to have another child. It was only a few months later that Carson's parents were killed very suddenly in a car accident. That devastated both of them. Elly began slipping into a funk again but she refused to go back on her medications because she was still intent on having a baby."

"Why don't I remember this?"

"This all happened when you were quite young, Frank. In fact, do you remember Nancy and her mother coming to visit us for spring break while you were in kindergarten?"

"Vaguely."

"Carson thought that perhaps the trip would help Elly. He had to go to St. Louis for a convention and considered taking them with him. But he was afraid that she would be left alone too much of the time. Sending her to visit us and Eloise in New York was a good compromise. It got her out of town while he was gone but gave her a good support group to keep her occupied."

"Carson flew to New York after the conference, stayed for a few days with Elly and Nancy and then they all flew back to Chicago. Eliza seemed to be improving a great deal. Their visit was really pleasant and Elly was in a very upbeat mood. I really thought she was getting better."

"But she wasn't."

A tear slipped down his mother's cheek. "It was only a few weeks later that Nancy came home from school to find her mother dead of an overdose. And the really sad part was that she took her unborn child with her. She was about six weeks pregnant when it happened."

Frank stared at his mother. "I've read the articles in Nan's scrap book, Mom. They say that her mother died of an illness."

"Depression is an illness, Franklin. In my mind and I'm sure in Carson's that is always how he has viewed Elly's death. It nearly destroyed him."

"That was right before Nan came and stayed with us all summer. I remember that," Frank said.

His mother nodded. "Luckily it all occurred right at the end of the school year. Eloise was able to fly straight out and of course, your father dropped everything too. He brought Nancy home with him about a week after Elly's death and she stayed with us that summer while Eloise and Fenton got Carson through the worst of the grieving process. I think the only thing that kept Carson from totally losing it was knowing that he had his little girl to take care of."

Frank was having a difficult time absorbing what he was hearing. It was a far cry from what he had always believed about Nancy's mother's death.

"Does Nan know all of this?"

"I honestly don't know, Frank. And please be very careful broaching the subject. Carson rarely speaks of Elly to us. I don't know but I imagine the same is true of Nancy. The memories of that time have to be incredibly painful for him. He was absolutely devoted to Eliza and I don't think he's ever truly gotten over the fact that she chose death over staying with him and their daughter. Her suicide affects him to this day."

"I can imagine." The story had caused the nagging unease of the nightmare to resurface. Frank stood abruptly. He needed some space and some air. He should get moving, anyway. "I have to get on the road."

His mother stood, too. "And I should get back out to the weeding. You have a safe trip, dear. I'll be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow for dinner."

He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Mom. Don't work too hard."

She waved a dismissive hand as she grabbed her gloves. "Gardening has never been work to me."

Frank drained his coffee cup and put it in the dishwasher as his mother disappeared out the back door. He then searched the cupboards for a travel mug, which he filled with more coffee. Back in his room he gathered his backpack and garment bag before heading out the door. The drive to DC would give him some quiet time to clear his head and get into the right frame of mind for meeting with his thesis advisor this afternoon.

Unfortunately, there was a lot to clear out of his head.

nhnhnhnhnhnh

Joe strolled into his office, dumping his briefcase on the floor and dropping into the worn chair behind the cluttered desk. He yawned and stretched, and then grimaced when he saw his father step out into the hallway and head in his direction.

"You're late."

"Frank's fault. He stayed and visited way past my bed time last night." Joe said with a shrug. He knew his Dad wouldn't yell at Frank.

He sat forward as his father moved into his office and took a seat in one of the leather visitor's chairs in front of the desk. The troubled expression on his dad's face worried him.

"Your brother woke from a nightmare early this morning. Scared your mother half to death."

"Nan said they've been getting worse, not better. That's why she's been pushing him to see the therapist. I think his appointment is on Thursday."

His father nodded absently, gaze unfocused. "It's not like Frank to let something like this linger. He's been in situations like that before and he's always coped well. I wonder what was different this time."

"It's Frank, Dad. He's not going to talk about it until he's ready. There's no point forcing the issue."

"I suppose. Has Nancy said anything? Has he told her anything?"

"Not that I'm aware of. She only called me to ask for help convincing Frank to talk to the therapist. I told her just what I told you. When Frank's ready, he'll talk. Until then it's like trying to communicate with a brick wall."

His father sighed and stood. "I suppose you're right. I just wish there was something we could do to help. I hate to see him dealing with this while he's trying to get ready for the wedding, finish his thesis and decide what he's going to do with the rest of his life. Like your mother said, it's an awful lot of stress all at once. I wonder if that isn't part of the problem."

"If it's any consolation, Frank seemed fine last night," Joe said. "He was even joking around and giving Van a hard time."

"But he looks so tired."

"I know. Maybe the therapist can help. Frank will figure it out, Dad. He's not one to allow himself to be beaten by the likes of Bucciano. Have a little faith in him."

"You're right, Joseph. You know Frank better than anyone else and if you think he's coping, I'll trust you."

Joe watched his father walk back down the hall to his office and then swiveled to stare out the window. Yes, he knew Frank better than anyone else. But the truth was that he had never seen him quite this brooding. Frank knew how he was supposed to behave. He even put on a pretty good act. But something was eating at him.

Joe just wished he knew what it was.

NH

A/N: Thanks for the reviews: JackieJacks, Severedwasp, LazyPanther, Vee22, Emeralds and Rubies, & Confidential Brunette. Those little notes make my day! Hopefully I didn't miss anyone with a personal thanks – it's been kind of a crazy week.

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