Author's Note: Welcome to chapter ten! Thanks for sticking around so long, I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

Warning: Nancy's POV, Donald, Freddy mischief. Freddy/Nancy if you squint (each chapter has a little bit more hidden tension than the last, until it starts becoming obvious)
Disclaimer: ANOES does not belong to me in anyway shape or form except for me having all the movies on DVD.

Dangerous Kind

There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.

~John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994

Freddy was back.

Nancy sat with her father in Little Nemo's, his favorite bar and grill. Apparently whatever reason Freddy hadn't been around earlier that morning had been remedied after Kristen had fallen asleep on her feet and a prompted an attack, which Nancy supposed might have been the reason the kids had been acting up. Now, Freddy sat in the booth behind her singing '100 bottles of beer'.

Nancy bit her lip, partly because it annoyed her that he was doing it, and partly because she was tempted to join him in the round. She loved her father deep down, but Donald Thompson deserved this for his alcoholism, too bad he couldn't hear Freddy.

"So, Princess…" Donald started, "How's life? Anything I should know about?"

"Seventy-four bottles of beer on the wall, seventy-four bottles of beer, take one down and pass it around, seventy-three bottles of beer on the wall!"

She ignored the Nightmare and started telling her father about what had been going on since the last time they'd talked, "I'm working at Westin Hills, and going to Springwood college part time."

"What classes are you taking?"

"Psychology, Human Anatomy, and Yoga." She answered.

"You having fun?" Donald took a sip of the beer he'd already had when she'd come in.

"Sixty-nine bottles of beer on the wall, sixty-nine bottles of beer, take one down and pass it around, sixty-eight bottles of beer on the wall!"

"It's different from High School, I can say that." Nancy replied with a soft smile, "There's a lot more pressure, and it's a community college, so none of my classmates are the same age."

"And how about work? What are you doin' in that place?" A waitress dropped by with their order, "Thanks." He said.

"Thank you," Nancy added, then turned back to her father as he started his bacon cheeseburger with extra pickles, "I'm on the team working with sleep disorders, more like an assistant right now, until things get a little more settled. The group we've been working with have a shared problem that our lead physiatrist can't seem to understand."

"Well that's typical isn't it? The higher in rank you get the less you care about the actual job." He snorted and reached for the ketchup to squirt on his fries. "What sort of problem to they got?"

"Sixty-three bottles of beer on the wall, sixty-three bottles of beer, take one down and pass it around, sixty-two bottles of beer on the wall!"

Nancy knew exactly how her father was going to respond to her answer, and, taking a few bites of her own cheeseburger, hold the pickles, braced herself, "Freddy Krueger problems Daddy."

"Sixty-two bottles of beer on the wall," Freddy stopped partway through the verse to snicker.

Donald had his beer to his lips again, but as Nancy mentioned the man he'd helped kill all those years ago, he paused and set it back on the table slowly. "Freddy Krueger is dead honey." He stated matter-of-factly.

"I know Daddy, I know, but you have to believe me, he's back." She said and with a tough swallow, "He came back for us."

"Who?"

"Us." She repeated, taking the ketchup and pouring a small pile on her plate to dip her fries in "You guys burned him and now he's getting back at you by killing your children. That's what happened six years ago with Tina, Rod and…Glen…" Nancy's heart slowed sadly at the memory of her friends.

"If that were true, then how come you're still here, baby?" Her father asked. He believed her, Nancy could see that in his eyes, but he didn't want to. He was trying to bury Fred Krueger for good.

Speaking of burying him.

"Daddy." She said with a serious, but not quite desperate tone, "After you burned him, what did you do with his body?"

Freddy slowed in his singing.

Donald stared at his beer. Nancy ate a few fries waiting for his answer. "Have you made any new friends at school honey?" he asked changing the subject, "Meet anyone interesting at work?"

Nancy rolled her eyes and sighed. It was pointless to try and get her father to focus back on the original topic, so she answered, "At school not really, but ah, Neil Gordon at work. He's pretty nice."

Freddy's voice cracked angrily at the mention of Neil, but Nancy too was busy talking to her father to notice, "What's he like?"

Nancy told him about the other doctor, and supposed it was a good idea not to mention that he was helping her with the kids fight against Freddy. He was smart, caring, devote, a little narrow-minded, but she was helping him open up a little bit. "We've been to lunch a few times." She added.

"Sounds like a good guy." Donald mused, "Why hasn't he officially asked you out?"

At this Nancy did notice Freddy's pitch change irritably. "Well," She answered slowly, "Things have been a bit complicated at work, and we agreed that we should keep things work related until it calms down a bit."

"Hmm."

Nancy finished her burger and shoved her fries around on the plate. "There's this dance at school coming up, and I've been thinking…" Freddy stopped singing entirely at this point, Nancy didn't know it but he was listening intently to what she was saying now. "Of asking Neil to go with me."

Freddy made a frustrated noise, but Nancy didn't turn around, she'd been thinking about Neil and the dance for a while, but for some reason she wasn't as enthusiastic about it as she'd thought she'd be. Nancy looked at her father. "Sounds like an idea baby."

She was about to say something, but her pager went off, it was the hospital; lunch break was over, "I gotta go back to work Daddy." She said, "It was nice seeing you." She picked up her stuff and walked passed her dad on the way to the door.

Suddenly he grabbed her hand and held her back. He turned and looked his daughter in the eye. "Listen, about Krueger…" He started.

Nancy's heart began to race. Had he changed his mind? Was he going to tell her what happened to his body?

"As a cop, I was never proud of what we did to him that night." He said, "But as a father, I don't regret it. It was him or you… Fred Krueger is dead baby, try to remember that."

Her heart didn't sink at that. She was disappointed that she still didn't know where Freddy's body was, but she was touched that her father said that. Then it called to mind that Freddy could have kept roaming Springwood after he was released, maybe he would have killed her when she was that age.

"I know." She said softly, "Thank you Daddy." Nancy leaned down and kissed his cheek.

He let her go then. Nancy walked up to the bus stop, and was standing there for several minutes before she noticed that Freddy had disappeared again. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that she felt a lonely emptiness at his absence. Stop it Nancy, she told herself, it's good he's not here, and sooner or later you'll get rid off him for good.

Like the dance with Neil, once again Nancy found herself not as enthusiastic about this idea.

Author's end note: There you go, chapter ten is finished. Since my notes contain twenty chapters, I suppose this means the fic is half way over, but don't let that fool you, the fun is just starting! ^^