A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you to Shenice, supernaturalsam, Caranath, SinfulAshe, Really Cinderella, and I'mapersonandyoucan'tstopme, and to my anonymous guest, for your reviews. It really keeps me going, so please keep it up! I hope you like this chapter... it was kind of rough writing. Poor Jill.

Stunned, Frank finished listening to the voicemail before dialing Carson's number. Carson answered on the first ring.

"Hello Frank."

"Hi Mr. Drew. I just got your message. You said Jill was at your house? Is she okay? What's going on?" Frank realized that he was asking too many questions and paused to give Carson time to answer.

"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me." Carson sighed heavily. His tone was grave. "Yes, a girl named Jill came to my door about half an hour ago. However, we're not at my house at the moment, we're in the emergency room."

"What? What happened? Is she okay?"

"I don't know yet. She's still being checked out. I was worried that she might be bleeding internally." Carson answered. "She was in very bad shape when she arrived, covered in bruises and scrapes. There was blood all over her clothes, and she looked like she was in a state of shock. Hannah brought her inside and tried to get her to calm down and drink some water, and then called me out of my study. The girl seemed very confused and panicked. All we were able to get from her was that her name was Jill and she was a friend of Nancy's, although she referred to her as Rebecca once or twice. She refused to say anything else."

"Rebecca is the alias that Nancy was going by when she befriended Jill." Frank explained. At least there was one question that was easily answered, though they both knew that the more troubling ones were still a mystery.

"I assumed as much." Carson said. "What I'd like to know is how and why she came to me, and how is Nancy involved? And more importantly, who did this to her. She looks like she just went twelve rounds with a brick wall. I've seen the kind of man who would do this to a woman, and I don't want him anywhere near my daughter."

"Neither do I." Frank said. "Nancy's safe, Mr. Drew, I just saw her an hour ago. But I think I know who hurt Jill. Her boyfriend, Tom Dawley, abuses her. Nancy was trying to help her." he cleared his throat. "Incidentally, Dawley's a very dangerous man. He's a high-ranking member of the gang that killed Ned."

There was a long pause before Carson replied. "I see."

"Mr. Drew, I don't know why Jill came to you, but if Dawley's coming after her, or Nancy, you and Hannah could be in danger." Frank said.

"I understand." Carson said. "We'll be sure to take precautions. And of course, as soon as Jill is checked out we'll be reporting this to the police."

"Sir..." Frank made a snap decision. "I know it's late, but would it be all right if I came down to River Heights tonight? I'd really like to talk to Jill as soon as possible. She and I met briefly. I might have more luck getting her to talk to me."

"You and your family are always welcome here, Frank, especially after what you've done for Nancy, and for me." Carson answered. "Let me know if you need a ride from the airport."

"Thank you, sir." Frank said. He said goodbye and hung up, already shoving a change of clothes into a carry-on. "Joe! Joe, wake-" He nearly collided with Joe walking out of his bedroom.

"I'm awake!" Joe protested. "What's going on?"

"Jill's in River Heights." Frank quickly explained the story while gathering his wallet, keys, and laptop. "I've gotta go down and talk to her, find out what happened with Tommy. Maybe she knows where he is."

"Do you want me to come?"

Frank shook his head. "If you could just-"

"Already on it." Joe said, opening his own laptop. "One ticket on the first available flight to Chicago. And a rental car."

"Thanks." Frank said. He stopped at the door for a moment to make sure he had everything he needed.

"One more thing." Joe said. "Aren't you going to tell Nancy that you found Jill?"

"Not yet." Frank looked slightly guilty. "Something's not right about this, Joe. The girl we've been looking for just shows up at Nancy's home? When is it ever that easy?"

"It doesn't sound like it was that easy for Jill." Joe pointed out seriously.

"I know, but-"

"You think it's a trap." Joe guessed.

"I don't know." Frank said honestly. "Maybe. But if it is, I don't want Nancy falling into it."

"Meanwhile, you're running straight into it." Joe said. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

"I'd rather have you here, in case Nancy needs you." Frank told him.

"In case Nancy needs me?" Joe smirked. "Don't let her hear you say that. And just be careful, okay?"

"I will. You too."

Through a most unusual series of lucky breaks, Frank managed to be on a plane bound for Chicago twenty minutes after arriving at the airport. The flight was just under two hours, and after picking up his rental car, he made it to the Drews' house in River Heights in record time. The house looked the same as he remembered, from the neatly-trimmed bushes along the front path to the blue mustang convertible in the driveway. Just looking at the car evoked memories of sitting in the front seat hanging on for dear life as Nancy evaded an unwanted tail. Shaking away the memory, Frank rang the doorbell.

Footsteps sounded inside and paused for a moment before the lock clicked open. When the door opened it was not Carson Drew or Hannah Gruen, but Bess Marvin who was on the other side. "Frank!" she exclaimed, throwing herself into his arms for a hug.

Frank held her for a moment and then let go. "Bess! It's been a while."

"Too long." Bess admonished gently, stepping back to let him inside. "No Joe?" she asked in a disappointed tone, looking around behind him.

"Not tonight, sorry." Frank answered, coming in and closing the door behind him. "What are you doing here? It's after two am."

Bess looked behind her, lowering her voice. "While Mr. Drew and Jill were at the hospital, Hannah called me to ask me to help her move Jill's car. I guess they think someone might be following her or something, and they don't want the car to give away that she's staying here." she smiled. "We parked it behind the police station. It ought to be safe there!"

"Jill is staying here?" Frank asked, frowning.

Bess nodded. "Then when Mr. Drew brought her home he asked me to stay and help her get showered and dressed." She bit her lip. "She looked awful, Frank. She was completely covered in blood, and her face is all bruised..."

Frank nodded sympathetically. "And what did the police say about it?"

"She refuses to talk to them."

The voice came from behind them, and Frank turned to see Carson Drew coming down the staircase. "Hi, Mr. Drew."

"It's good to see you, Frank." Carson said, hugging him as well. "I have to admit, a tiny part of me was hoping that Nancy would be with you."

"Sorry, sir. But she is safe, I promise. Doing better than she has been for a while, I think." Frank said awkwardly. "She'll come back when she's ready."

"And we have you to thank for that, I'm sure." Carson said, while Bess looked on, beaming.

"She would have done as much for Joe or me." Frank said, shaking off the praise. "Bess said that Jill is staying here. How is she?"

"No internal bleeding or organ damage, thankfully." Carson said. "It would have been hard for the doctors to operate on her when she won't give them her real name for the medical records. She was badly bruised and had a broken wrist and a minor concussion. They said she could leave the hospital as long as she stayed with someone who could wake her up every few hours and check on her. Of course, we told her she could stay here."

"But if the person who hurt her were to come looking for her-"

"Hannah and I are aware of the risks." Carson said, with a small smile. "After living with Nancy all these years, we're used to them. And we're certainly not going to let them scare us away from helping that poor girl. She's someone's daughter too."

Frank nodded. His family would have done the same. "Why won't she talk to the police?"

Carson folded his arms. "I don't know. She seems very afraid, Frank."

"But if she's afraid, wouldn't she want to go to the police? They'd be able to protect her better than anyone else."

"It seems more like it's the police she's afraid of."

"What?" Frank was puzzled. It wasn't the police who had beat her up, it was Tommy. So why would she want to protect him?

"We don't know." Carson sighed. "We thought Jill might be more comfortable with a girl her own age, but she won't talk to Bess either. Hannah's upstairs with her now, if you want to see her."

"I do." Frank followed Carson up the steps, realizing that he was being led to Nancy's old bedroom. It felt strange to be here, amongst her family and friends and belongings, without Nancy.

Jill was lying stiffly against a pile of pillows, her thin form barely making an indent on the bed. Her face seemed to be one mottled bruise, purple with shades of brown and yellow, and one of her eyes was swollen nearly shut. Her lips were red and puffy, her open mouth revealing two chipped upper teeth. A cut above one of her eyebrows had been covered with a butterfly closure. One forearm was encased in a cast.

Frank grimaced. If he hadn't already wanted to make Tom Dawley pay through the nose for what he'd done to Nancy and Ned, the sight of Jill's broken face would have done it. "Hello, Jill." he said softly, not wanting to scare her. "Do you remember me?"

"I..." Jill sat up a little more, wincing as she did so. She was wearing a large, old t-shirt of Nancy's that Frank recognized from their vacation trip to Padre Island—it was sunny yellow and read Who's your Padre? "Maybe." she said. She was studying him intently.

"My name is Frank Hardy. We met briefly in Nancy's hotel room, in New York." Frank reminded her.

"You were with... another man. Blond hair." Jill remembered.

"Yes, my brother Joe." Frank confirmed.

Hannah stood up as he eased his way farther into the room and gave him a quick hug and kiss of greeting. "Frank is a good friend of Nancy's." she explained to Jill. "He's not going to hurt you. And I'll be right back in a few minutes, okay?" When the girl gave the affirmative, she slipped out, leaving Frank alone in the room with Jill.

Frank sat down in the chair Hannah had vacated. "Can you tell me what happened, Jill?"

She didn't seem to be eager to talk about what had happened to her. Instead, she said, "Have you seen Nancy? Is she still in New York? Is she all right? The last time I saw her she was... Tommy had..." Her voice quavered slightly.

Frank guessed that she was already saying more to him than she had to Carson or Hannah—if she'd mentioned to them that Nancy had been shot they would have been frantic. "She's all right." he assured her. "It was just a minor wound. She's been worried about you, though."

"I wanted to see her, that's why I came here." Jill said softly. "And I didn't know where else to go."

"You came here because you were looking for her?" Frank probed gently. Though the questions about Nancy's whereabouts were natural, they also made him very wary. If Jill didn't want to report Tommy to the police, who knew what else she was doing for him... It was hard to imagine that a girl who had taken this kind of beating would want to collect information for her abuser, but Frank knew that domestic violence situations could be very complicated. Could Jill still be loyal enough to Tommy to spy for him?

"I wanted to see her." Jill repeated in a watery voice. "She's the only real friend I have, and... and she was right about everything! About Tommy, and about how I should have left him months ago..."

A few tears slipped out of her blackened eyes, and Frank quickly handed her a tissue from the box on the desk. He didn't want to believe that Jill would try to hurt Nancy; she truly seemed like a nice girl in a bad situation, who was in dire need of a friend. "Well, she's safe, and you're safe now too, okay, Jill?" he said soothingly. "Tommy's not going to be able to hurt you anymore."

At this, Jill started sobbing even harder.

"Please, tell me what happened." Frank pleaded. "I don't understand. Isn't Tommy the one who did this to you?"

Jill nodded, using her good hand to wipe at her streaming eyes. "He-he did it because he caught me trying to find Rebecca—I mean, Nancy. I-I just wanted to make sure she was okay, after he sh-shot her. After that, we left New York City... he took me to Chi-Chicago, he said he had business to take care of. He hadn't... I don't think he'd realized, before N-Nancy confronted him, that she was responsible for getting so many of his guys arrested, and once he figured it out, he was r-really angry. She... she told me once that she used to live near Chicago, and I was worried that Tommy came here to try to find her again, and hurt her. This morning, when he was asleep, I went into his briefcase to see what he had on Nancy. I found her home address in one of his files."

It took a long time for Jill to get her sentences out; talking obviously caused her pain. But Frank sat forward, waiting patiently for her to continue.

"Then he woke up." She shivered. "He-he started yelling at me, and then he saw what I was doing, and he hit me."

Frank clamped his teeth together, but kept his voice calm and quiet. "He did more than hit you, Jill."

"Well, first he just hit me." Jill said. "But then he figured out about Reb—Nancy, he remembered that I was friends with her. He figured out that I told her where to find him, and he said I was t-trying to get him k-k-killed. That's when he..." She blinked back a few more tears and gestured to the cast on her wrist. "Well... you know."

Frank nodded, allowing her to gloss over the more painful parts of the story. "Somehow you escaped, and you remembered Nancy's address, so you drove here?"

Jill nodded. "It was relatively close by, and I thought, maybe, after what happened in New York, Nancy might have come back home. And even if she hadn't, I thought her family might help me. She-she didn't seem like someone who'd come from a bad home."

"No, she doesn't." Frank said.

"Mr. Drew and Hannah were very nice to me." Jill said musingly. "If I lived here, I don't think I'd ever want to leave."

"They're good people." Frank agreed. He leaned forward on his elbows. "And if Tommy is trying to get to you or Nancy, they could be in danger. Why won't you talk to the police, Jill?"

"No." Jill's eyes dropped to her lap, suddenly filled with tears once more. "I can't."

"Why not?" Frank pressed. "If you just tell them what happened, they can protect you. Aren't you afraid Tommy will come after you?"

"No." Jill said dully. "He won't... Because I killed him."