A/N: Stay tuned for (semi) cliffhanger!


Laura sighed as the chief left the room. "Joe's not seventeen - he's thirteen," she said.

"You and I know that. I think Richard is high right now, honestly," the chief said, "So I'll be doing some tests. In the meantime, how would you feel about witness protection for you and the boys?"

"Is it necessary? They're in school... I mean, Richard is locked up..."

"We could post a guard, I just don't like taking chances."

Laura sighed. "Let me call my mother and talk with her and I'll call you back later." She checked her watch, "Shoot, I've gotta go pick up the boys from school and talk with \ my boss. I'll see you soon. Thanks, Chief."


Joe was pacing outside the school as Frank came out, looking upset. "What's wrong?" he asked, recognizing the storm cloud pending.

"Just overthinking," Frank admitted, biting on his lip. "Where's Laura?"

"Should be here soon," Joe responded, sighing as he checked his watch. Frank was right; she was running late. He was about to reach for his cell when someone approached them who he didn't recognize. Joe would have disregarded him except for the man's flashy dress suit seemed out of place.

"Joseph and Franklin?" someone asked, tucking his glasses in his pocket. "Your mother has asked me to pick you up."

Joe backed away, "Yeah, right - Mom doesn't call me Joseph. So what's the code word?"

"Excuse me?" the man repeated, as if he hadn't heard what Joe had said.

"The code word - Mom said anyone she would send to pick up had a code word." Joe smiled brilliantly at him even as he backed slightly away. "So, what was the code word?"

"Fenton Hardy," the man responded simply. "Now get in the car."

Joe frowned. The code word had actually been their last name - Hardy - this guy wasn't anyone his mother had sent. Now he needed to figure out how he could get away without anyone else getting hurt. Including himself and Frank. "Um-"

The man grabbed at Joe's arm tightly, raising his voice to a loud pitch. "I SAID GET IN THE CAR!"

"I heard you the first time - you shouldn't yell and waste your energy," Joe said. His heart started pounding more, where were all the teachers? Why weren't they seeing this?

"But-" Frank said, speaking up, looking about as confused as he was.

"Run, Frank!" Joe said, wondering where the heck everyone had gone. This was a school yard, for pete's sake, where was everyone gossiping about who was sleeping with who and… never mind. The man lunged for Joe, who sidestepped him. Unfortunately, before he or Frank could do anything, they were both knocked unconscious.

When Joe woke up, Frank was gone and he was left alone. Joe bit his lip, wondering what had happened to his brother, but decided he had a more urgent issue: getting out of there. He noticed he wasn't tied up but he felt like he was moving somewhere - maybe he was in a moving car. He couldn't see at all but he didn't feel a blindfold around his eyes, which meant that he was just in pitch darkness.

He wanted to call out for his brother but didn't dare let anyone else know he was awake. He took a deep breath and tried to remember anything he'd ever heard about being kidnapped, and anything he'd ever heard about the trunks of cars.

Ah yes - tailgates, wasn't there some thing that said you could punch out or kick out a tailgate? Maybe a Facebook meme? Joe couldn't remember but didn't care. He carefully adjusted his foot to aim at the tailgate. Time to play myth busters, he thought grimly.


Frank awoke to the beep, beep, beep machine of the hospital. "Laura?" he questioned. "Where's Joe?" The memories flooded back instantly. "What happened? There was this guy at school - and - he knocked me out - and -"

"It's not your fault, Frank," Laura said reassuringly. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Joe asking the man for your code word - he said Fenton Hardy - and then I got knocked out." Frank swallowed, "I couldn't protect him."

"You were knocked out with a tranquilizer, Frank," another voice spoke up. Frank recognized his caseworker instantly and paled - was he getting removed? "You're not being removed. I'm just here to talk strategically about where you and Laura are going to stay since you're both at risk."

"If they wanted me why not just take me then?" Frank questioned.

"We don't know but we are not taking chances," Laura said with a sigh.

Frank looked up at her. "Wait. Didn't Richard say something, something, about taking Joe because he was against Dad, and he wanted revenge against Dad? What if Richard was lying and what if he actually just wanted us to think he was stupid? What if he really wanted revenge against you?"

Laura frowned, "I'm not saying that's not possible… but it seems extreme for only dating me for three months."

"Can I ask where you met?" Frank asked.

"At the bar," Laura said, offering a sheepish smile. "My coworkers dragged me out and he was really nice and asked me out on a date. You know," she said thoughtfully, "he actually recognized me, which was really weird."

"You said you'd taken kids out of their homes, right?" Frank asked. "Or had helped with that right? What if those were kids they were selling as part of the cover-up?"

Laura frowned, "Cover up?"

Frank groaned, "I think we need to call Nancy and the chief. She understands this more than me."

"I agree." Laura sighed, "I'm routing all my calls from the home phone to the cell and they're tracing them if they call. Will you call Nancy Drew, please? So I can keep my phone line open?"

"Of course," the caseworker said as he stood up and went outside.

"I'm sorry, Laura - I couldn't stop them and -"

"Frank," Laura said, "You were knocked unconscious with a tranquilizer gun. I do not blame you in any way, you understand?" She asked. "The fault of this lies with the men who were responsible for Joe's kidnapping. Or women."

Despite himself, Frank smiled sadly. "I really hope he's okay," he admitted.

"You and me both," Laura said with a sigh, nervously biting her lip. She knew the statistics about kidnappings and especially the ones about stranger kidnappings.

Joe, you better be okay, she thought, because I don't know what I'd do if you weren't.


Joe must have faded out into unconsciousness at some point, because the next time he awoke, he was in handcuffs. They were not comfortable at all. He didn't open his eyes as he heard voices nearby. The cold hard concrete wasn't comfortable at all.

"She removed our children from us," he overheard a voice saying, "Let's see how she likes having her children removed from her."

"Why didn't you kidnap the brunette too like I told you too?" another voice complained. Joe quickly dubbed him Obnoxious, his voice was squeaky, like the cartoon mice. "Then we'd have both of her children."

"Because," the first man said, "I realized that threatening to go after the one kid she had left right now would be a better bargaining chip." Joe would have to give him a name too, but nothing stood out. Maybe Mr. Nobody would make a great name?

"No, you idiot! God damn it." Obnoxious exhaled, and his voice sounded even more squeaky than it did the first time. "Fine. Just - put him in solitary confinement, and don't do anything to him before Boss talks to him. Have J guard him."

Joe nervously bit his lip, really not liking the information he was getting. Either he was going to be used for leverage against his mother or he was going to be sold… neither option was good. He had to figure out how to get out of there. Another man grabbed him, seemingly not caring whether he was awake or not, and dragged his body down the hallway. Joe somehow managed to avoid groaning despite being shoved into another wall. The man grabbed the handcuffs that were wrapped around Joe's wrist, and snapped them off before Joe heard the door bang shut.

Joe opened his eyes, taking in the room and allowing himself to breath a sigh of relief. He was alone, if only for a few minutes if the 'guard coming' was anything to go by. He rubbed his hands, the red chaffing marks annoying the hell out of him.

"So you're Joseph Hardy," a voice said, coming up to the cage. Joe frowned, staring up at him. Why did the man look so familiar? He couldn't place him, but his voice somehow sounded familiar. But that didn't make sense, since Joe knew that there was no way he was associated in any way, shape or form with these guys. Right... Right?

The cage opened and the man looked around for a minute before opening a phone and doing something Joe couldn't see. Was he checking for bugs? No. That wouldn't make sense; the man worked for them, so - why would he be checking for bugs? Then again, who said anything that these guys did made sense? They did kidnap him, after all.

"So," the man said, putting his phone way, "You're Joseph."

"Yes," Joe said, wondering if the man was on drugs or something. He'd already established that fact.

The man squatted down so he was eye level with Joe. "Very nice to meet you, Joe. I'm Fenton Hardy."

Joe's jaw dropped and he started at the man in shock. Well shit.


Here's your two fun guesses for the day:

A) What's Fenton going to do about this? B) What's going through Joe's head right now?

Thanks for your reviews - Liz