A/N: Well, look at that! It's been more than two months since I last updated! But seriously, I truly apologize that it's been so, so long!
I would like to give a grateful shout-out to my reviewers: Kirsty, Caranath, max2013, Foxy121, bhar, barb, GJFH, The Vulture, j, Guest, guest, Nancy Austin, julia, Arabellan Lynx Malfoy, Platero, beachgirlsrule, Guest (who I am pretty sure was my sister), Guest, myscout14, Abigail Wilson, hollyboo2001, and awesomsauce.
Also a shout-out to those who read but don't review for any reason(s) you may have. Y'all rock! Thank you for reading!
I tried to think up a short, witty disclaimer that didn't sound kinda stupid. Yeah, you're now left with this: I do not own Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys.
Rebecca slowly stood, her arms forlornly dropping to her sides. She stared out at the space once occupied by the hospital. A mixture of anger and panic rose up within her, followed closely by the realization that three people had been inside.
She had always been the leader; she'd known what to do and when to do it. But for once in her life, she felt completely helpless. Defeat pressed down, along with sheer confusion. She didn't know if she should fight, cry, or scream. What could she do?
And the virus…
What just happened?
"No!" Nancy's agonized scream rang through the dusty air. Rebecca heard the young woman's feet pounding against the asphalt. Nancy was running towards the site of the hospital. Just as she reached Rebecca though, the brunette reached out and caught her.
"Nancy, stop!" the Network director firmly put her hands on the redhead's shoulders. You're a leader, so lead. "Panicking isn't going to do any good right now!"
"He was in there!" Nancy cried desperately, "Frank was in there! He was in the hospital!"
"Did he make it out?"
"I don't think so," the desperate girl detective forced out. "I don't… I mean… I think he was inside!"
"Hey!" Rebecca held the shaking young woman in front of her, away from the rubble. Nancy tried to push past her but was promptly restrained. "Nancy! Look, the building's already down. And the virus…" she struggled to find the words while fighting off tears herself. "Even if he survived the blast…"
On the verge of a panic attack, Nancy breathed raggedly as she gasped, "But-"
She stopped when a male voice called her name. Surprised and perplexed, her eyes drifted away from Rebecca and landed on the man, who was collapsed at the edge of the road.
"Is that…" Rebecca left the question unfinished.
Nancy stood back for what felt like hours. Dust still swirled in the air around her, making it difficult to see the figure a hundred feet away from her.
Slowly, she stepped forwards and got a clear glimpse of him. She cried out his name, seeing his bruised and bleeding body resting on the asphalt. It was all of two seconds before the redhead had reached him, help coming from not far behind her.
His name escaped her lips again. She begged over and over again for him to answer her, to hold on just a little longer, to not leave her. Crimson-red blood smudged over her hands as she tried to stop the flow of blood she saw coming from his shoulder.
Out of nowhere, she felt a gentle squeeze on her forearm and saw his hand weakly grasping it. Tears were now streaming freely down her cheeks, only to fall onto his shirt.
He was in pain. She knew it, and it scared her. But in spite of the fear that clenched her stomach, she told him it would be okay, and finally had the faith to believe it.
"Frank," Nancy's voice took on a flat, unamused tone as it echoed through the back of the ambulance. "You really should listen to the medics and let them take you to the hospital – one that isn't a pile of rubble, that is."
"Nancy," his tone of voice mocked hers, "I'm not leaving."
"You sustained a concussion, sprained your ankle, got grazed by a bullet, and then came very close to being blown up."
"I've survived worse."
Nancy snorted. "Seriously? You're still not backing down on this?" When Frank shook his head, she looked towards Brian, the paramedic who had been seeing to Frank's injuries.
"Believe me, I tried too." The sinewy, thirty-something medic shrugged. "But he's a legal adult; he's conscious and alert. I can't force him to go to a hospital."
The red-haired detective watched as Brian moved around the small area, opening compartments and removing various items. Her eyes flicked back towards Frank. He had a splint over his injured ankle, but that was as far as Brian had gotten before the eldest Hardy brother had stopped him.
Nancy's feelings fought inside her. After knowing Frank nearly her whole life, she understood that Frank could handle this. But she couldn't help an unfamiliar feeling of deep, almost paranoid, concern for his safety. Maybe the case is starting to get to me.
"Nancy!" Frank's voice registered in her brain, and while aiming her attention onto his face, she realized that he had already called her name a few times.
"What?"
He didn't respond immediately, but rather watched her for a long moment. "Are you okay?" he asked with a quiet concern that made her heart ache.
"I'm not the one sitting on a gurney," she muttered. Her eyes were fixed to the floor, refusing to let him see the worry that showed through them. Somehow, though, she knew that Frank could see her trying so hard to remain strong.
A long silence stretched out between them.
Unexpectedly, Brian was the one who broke it.
"Hey man," he said to Frank, "You sure you don't want me to at least stitch up that shoulder?"
Frank opened his mouth to protest the idea, but Nancy was faster.
"Yeah, that'd be good," she said.
In response, Frank closed his mouth and glared at Nancy, but nonetheless nodded that it was okay. Nancy grinned for the first time in what felt like forever.
The smile vanished from her face, however, when Rebecca burst through the open ambulance doors. She was breathing heavily after running all the way from the site of the hospital.
"Whoa," Nancy put a hand on the woman's arm. "You okay?"
"Frank," the brunette director ignored Nancy's question. "You got out of the building just before it exploded, right?"
He nodded.
"And you were injured too severely to just walk out by yourself?"
"Yeah."
"So how did you get out?"
Frank frowned, his expression saying the he was deep in thought. "I'm not sure about all of it. I was laying at the bottom of a staircase, barely conscious, and then I… I think I saw Joe."
"So he carried you out?"
"That's the weird part. He looked like he was going to, and then stopped before reaching me. After that, he left for a few seconds and came back with some old rubber gloves and a blanket. That's what he used to drag me out. But he seemed really careful about touching me. I remember him using the gloves the whole time."
"I think I know why," Nancy said reluctantly, pressing her lips into a tight line. She only dared to quickly glance at Frank, and regretted it when she saw the heart-wrenching concern that was set into his face.
"Nan? What's going on?"
She couldn't force herself to tell him. Rebecca laid a hand on the young woman's shoulder before telling Frank, "We think Joe and Bess were both infected with the virus."
Frank felt as though the world had dropped out from beneath him. His mind swirled through a number of scenarios, making nausea threaten to rise up within him.
"And it gets worse," Rebecca told him slowly. "A bystander was standing at the police tape we put up about a block away. She said that she saw a man of Joe's description run outside and down a side street less than a minute before the blast."
"Is that it?"
"Uh… No. Actually, it gets a lot worse than that."
"What is it?"
For a moment, Rebecca was silent. When she finally opened her mouth, words started spilling out. "Brooke and Charlie are still missing and it looks like we're all going to die."
"Surprise!" Brian piped up. The other three people in the vehicle all turned to look at him, a slight glare aimed in his direction. "Oh." He became serious. "You were kidding, right?"
Shaking her head, Rebecca told him, "I wish I was. If a container of the Cosmopolitan Virus was in any way breached because of the explosion, we could be looking at virus rain. There'd be a pandemic. The whole planet could become infected."
Brian was dumbstruck, maybe even a little scared.
"If we're going to stop this before it goes any further, then we're going to need a vaccine," Nancy said, "Fast."
Frank countered, "But how are we going to get one?"
"He's right. With Brooke still missing and Logan-" Rebecca stopped herself in her tracks before resuming again. "It's going to be hard to get one. Actually, it's going to be nearly impossible to produce a vaccine within the short timeframe we have."
Frank looked over at Nancy and could tell that she was about to the end of her sanity. He caught her eye and tried to comfort her, to tell her through his gaze that they'd be okay. She looked as though she understood, but wasn't reassured.
"The sun's going down," Rebecca went on, completely oblivious to the silent conversation between Frank and Nancy. "We can't stop for the night. I just contacted-" she once again cut short, and Frank figured that she was about to say something about the Network. Brian, though, wasn't authorized to know about the Network, just that a classified law enforcement operation was taking place.
Rebecca cleared her throat. "You-know-who."
"Gray?" Frank mouthed to her, making sure that his back was to Brian. She nodded. The Gray Man, a.k.a. now the head of the Network and Rebecca's boss.
"Bottom line, the current situation has taken top priority. Even the U.N. is talking about the possibility of a worldwide pandemic."
Frank blew a long breath out his mouth. "It's going to be a long night."
A/N: Hey, for once a chapter didn't leave off at a major cliffhanger!
Okay, it was a mild or maybe medium cliffhanger. Like someone's about to fall ten or twelve feet and they might not get hurt too bad, but they also might die. Okay, that took a weird turn. :P
Baltimore out.