Author's Note: This is overdue, and I'm sorry. I've just been having a very hard time writing of late, and squeezing out a small snippet for Love in Subtle Clues was all I could manage. I want to do more; I'm just struggling badly.

This part is different from most because I have more present than past for a change. I thought about pushing the second scene back but this felt like the way to do it.

Crisis and Confrontation

"You want to tell me what that was all about, Hardy?" Alexander asked, cornering Frank before he could reach his hotel room and shut everyone out. He'd been close, but she'd surprised him by choosing to come after him instead of going with Nancy. Maybe he shouldn't have been shocked—she didn't know Nancy and had no real reason to go to dinner with her. He'd just figured since she'd mentioned food she'd take Nancy up on the offer of dinner and leave him alone for the night.

That would have been easy, and things never were easy with him, were they?

"Nothing."

Alexander snorted. "Don't even try and pull that crap with me. We've worked together too long for you to get away with that. You don't fool me for a second, and all that happens when you try is that you annoy the hell out of me. You know that."

Frank did. She wasn't wrong about any of that. She might not know him as well as Joe or Nancy did, but she did know him. She might not have been his first partner in the agency, but she'd worked with him the longest, and when she got a team of her own, she had insisted he be a part of it. He had agreed, thinking it better than other options, but he might regret it now.

"I guess I was wrong. We can't work together."

Alexander shook her head. "Bull. That wasn't about work. That was personal, and you know it. You were working with her fine until that last house."

"Maybe I hit a saturation point."

"Or maybe you were fine until it started getting personal," Alexander countered. She folded her arms over her chest. "You've been off since our last case. It's not like I didn't notice, but as long as you were doing your job and keeping your little defensive act up only when McKay or Conners was around, I was willing to overlook it. You were handling it, but you're not now. What did you leave out of the official report?"

"What makes you think I left anything out?"

She rolled her eyes, leaning against the wall. "I know you. I might not know all about you, but I know enough. And I know that you wouldn't have told them everything in that mess. No one would."

"You saying you'd lie on an official report?" Frank countered. "Should I report you to someone, then?"

Alexander shook her head. "Changing the subject won't work. That's not even your best deflection tactic. You're reaching, and it's sad. It's also almost obvious—it's the girl, isn't?"

"Shouldn't you be saying something about her not being a girl and—" Frank stopped himself, shaking his head as he turned back to the door. One thing he did not want to do was have this conversation in the hallway. No one else needed to hear it, and he wasn't sure he'd put it past Nancy to have followed Alexander close enough to be listening from a distance. "Never mind. I'm not having this conversation here."

"You better not think you can walk away from it that easily."

He used his key on the door and pushed it open. "I didn't say that. I just don't want to discuss this in the hall. It's gone far enough already."

Alexander followed him into his room, shutting the door behind her. "Is that what this is about? You hate it when people see you in any way as vulnerable, which I get because, hello, woman over here, but then you have always had higher walls than me. Now you've practically doubled them, and I can't let you deal with it on your own anymore. Mostly because you're not dealing with it. You're just shoving it down so no one can see it, but this friend of yours... She's already seen too much and that's why you refused her invitation, why you won't go near anyone else that really knows you. What the hell happened to you?"

Frank bit back what he could have said. It was easier to ask what hadn't happened to him because he'd been through plenty in his life, most of it before he was twelve. He went to his bed and sat down. "I'm sure it's in the file. You can read it if you want."

She leaned against the wall, studying him. "I don't have to have every detail. I am more concerned with what's eating at you now, and despite the fact that your past was drug up in more than one way today, I'm thinking it's still what happened when he kidnapped you that's the main problem."

"I wasn't kidnapped."

Alexander snorted. "Yes, you were. You were taken from one location to another without your consent. Hell, without your knowledge. You were unconscious, right? He beaned you over the head and took you from somewhere you thought was safe—it's the damn federal building. It should have been safe. So that's gone, that cushion and sense of safety, but it's more than that. What did he really do when you were alone with him?"

Frank tried not to shudder, but that didn't work half as well as he'd hoped.

"What is going on with your brother?"

"Nice to hear from you, Joe. It's been a long time since we talked. So good to hear your voice. What are you up to these days? How is working for your father's agency? Any good cases? You still handsome as ever?"

Nancy grimaced. She supposed that she should have been a little more sociable and a little less focused, but Frank's behavior not only confused her, it hurt. She didn't understand what she had done to make him so upset with her, and she didn't see why he'd take it out on the others if he was mad at her. Alexander claimed not to know what was going on with him, so Nancy had gone direct to the next best source, as it were, since if anyone else knew what was up with Frank besides Frank himself, it was Joe.

"I'm sorry," Nancy said, running her fingers through her hair. "I guess pleasantries went right out of my head. I think they would have gone out of your head, too, if Frank had been around you and acted like he did."

Joe was quiet for a moment, and he sounded troubled with just two words. "How bad?"

"You tell me," Nancy said, leaning against her car. "Has something been going on with him for a while or is it just me? And if it is... What did I do? I know I've let some distance come between us over the years, but Frank seemed to want that, and while I didn't—I figured he needed it. He seemed bent on proving he'd gotten past needing me like he used to when we were kids, not that he didn't replace me with you years ago."

Joe snorted. "That's not how it works. We always had different roles with Frank, and you should know that by now. I'm his brother, sure. I'm protective of him, yes, but you were the one who reintroduced him to the world and helped him see that he could trust people. If not for you, he'd still be refusing to see us and acknowledge us as family."

That had Nancy wanting to snort. "Please. Like you would ever have allowed that. I seem to remember our first meeting was rather... dramatic."

He laughed. "True. It was. I'm still proud of that moment myself."

"You would be."

"You know—I've missed this," Joe admitted. Nancy winced, knowing what he was about to say. "Frank's not the only one you've let distance creep in on, you know. I barely talk to you anymore."

"Well, with that whole near miss thing you and Bess had, there was a bit of awkwardness in talking to you for a while. She got really upset every time your name was mentioned," Nancy reminded him. She wasn't sure of all the details, exactly what had passed between Joe and Bess, but while it had looked for a while like their mutual flirting was about to develop into something, it never materialized and the two of them ended up in a rather bad fight for almost two years. Only now was Bess more receptive to talk of Joe.

"It wasn't—well, okay, it was that bad, but it was all a big misunderstanding anyway," Joe said, and she could tell he was uncomfortable with the subject. "We're good now, and that's what matters. Back to the whole Frank issue... Has he said anything about his last case?"

"No. What happened on it?"

"Not sure. He wouldn't talk about it, but he was in the hospital for at least one night afterward," Joe told her. "I pushed for details, got hung up on, and he's avoiding our parents' calls as well. That's not that new with Dad—he tries to convince Frank he should come back and work with him every time he talks to him, and Frank is pretty much dead set on not doing it. I'd make him do it if I could—I'd rather have him for a partner and want him here where I can look out for him, but Frank..."

"Needs to be independent."

Joe scoffed at that. "It's not about independence. He's just... stubborn."

"Those are almost the same thing," Nancy told him, but she got the sense that there was more to all of this than anyone was saying. Frank wasn't admitting to his real reasons for staying away, Joe knew more he wasn't telling her, and given Fenton's fragile relationship with his son, it was strange he'd push when he knew how easily he could lose Frank altogether. As much as Frank had tried, he'd never quite gotten over the monster in his life claiming to be his father, and he'd never gotten as close to Fenton as he had Laura or Joe.

"It's not, but I'm not in the mood to argue about it."

"You haven't cracked any jokes," Nancy agreed. "Is it just what I asked about Frank or is something else wrong?"

Joe hesitated, and the silence stretched on, making Nancy uncomfortable. "Maybe."

Between Thirteen and Fourteen Years Earlier

"You don't need to hurt us," Nancy began, trying to find a way to salvage the situation. She knew she would never forgive herself if anything happened to Frank. She'd sworn that she wouldn't let anyone hurt him again. He had been hurt too much already, and it wasn't like he hadn't warned her over and over again that this was a bad idea. She had been so sure she was right and they wouldn't get caught. She was so wrong. This was all her fault. "It's better if you don't."

"Oh, yeah, girlie? What makes you say that?"

"Well, so far, you're just a thief," Nancy began, and Frank looked at her like she was crazy. She knew that she might sound that way, since he could take that as an insult, but she had a reason for saying it. "You don't have to make yourself a murderer. Even if you get caught now, you're only facing a few years in prison and you could plea down from that, but if you kill a couple of kids..."

The man's finger twitched on the trigger. "You don't know that I'm not a killer, that I haven't gone to prison before."

Frank swallowed. "You hesitate, which makes you seem less of a killer, but you're right. We don't know. You could be anything."

The man's eyes went over Frank, who flinched under his gaze, probably wishing he hadn't said anything to him at all. "What is it you think I am, boy?"

Frank shivered, and Nancy hoped he wasn't about to have a full on panic attack. Not only was that terrible for him, but the man with the gun could get spooked and hurt him for it. "I hope you're a reasonable person who will accept it's not in his best interests to kill us."

"Why shouldn't I?" the man asked, gun jerking back toward Nancy even though Frank was still blocking most of her. "Do the world a favor getting rid of her, and chances are, you two are the only ones who know about this. That means it dies with you, and by the time you're found, I'll be long gone with my money."

Frank shook his head, a quick jerky motion that made Nancy think it wouldn't be long before he broke down. He was trying so hard to be brave, but he knew better than anyone how bad this guy could be, and while he hadn't threatened either of them with Frank's worst fear yet, he still could. "No, because... because I'm a federal witness and they won't stop hunting my killer. And... And my father is a famous detective, and he won't stop looking for you. He'll find you."

The man glared at Frank, going from scary to terrifying in seconds. He reached out and yanked Frank to him, knocking Nancy back as he did. He put the gun to Frank's head, bending it so far to the side his neck seemed close to breaking. "You seem to be a lot more trouble than she is, you know that? And if I wanted to get rid of her for that, why shouldn't I do the same with you?"

"I just told you," Frank whispered, and she could tell he was near to losing control, panic overwhelming him at being in that position again, gun to his head.

"Leave him alone," Nancy said, starting to her feet but stopping when she saw the man's finger on the trigger again. "He's... You don't have to hurt him. You don't have to hurt either of us. You can just let us go. We... we won't tell anyone."

That was a lie she hoped he'd believe because she knew herself better. She'd have to tell. She had to make sure these guys were arrested. Carter might be more harmless than this one, but that didn't mean much when he was willing to kill.

"I think I'll make sure of that. First you, then your boyfriend here," the man said, moving the gun down across Frank's face. Nancy swallowed, cursing herself for her stupidity and for allowing this to happen to Frank.

He pointed the gun at her, and she ducked just as it went off, pinging off the wall. She heard a groan and saw that someone—another boy—had knocked the man to the ground. Frank dragged himself out of the man's hold and over to the side, taking in deep breaths as he tried to calm himself. Nancy dove for the gun, grabbing it from where it had skidded after falling out of the thief's hand. She picked it up and held it in front of her, trained on the man on the ground.

"You okay?"

Nancy nodded to the boy's question before looking at Frank. "You?"

Frank wrapped his arms around himself and managed one nod before burying his face in his knees. He shuddered, and she would have gone to him if she wasn't afraid that the thief would get up if she didn't keep the gun on him.

"Who are you?" Nancy asked, addressing their rescuer. She knew she didn't know him from school, and while he was cute enough to be Bess' type, she hadn't told Nancy about any new boys lately, and it was almost possible that this kid was Carter's accomplice, too. "Why are you here?"

The boy's attention was on Frank even as he answered Nancy with a grand bow. "Joe Hardy, at your service."

Frank's head jerked up. "What?"

"And I think you know why I'm here," Joe added. "He's my brother."