J.M.J.

A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to read this story! Thank you especially to Candylou, BMSH, max2013, Cherylann Rivers, Caranath, RadiantEyes, Highflyer, and EvergreenDreamweaver for your reviews on the last chapter! For those of you who are wondering where Fenton is, he's a big part of this chapter, although he's not going to have a super huge part in the story overall. Realistically, I suppose he would probably be taking a more active part here, but one of the main goals of this story is for Frank, Joe, and Nancy to fully mature, and for that to happen, their parents are going to have to take a little step back.

Chapter XIII

The Phone Call

November 29 – Rome

Frank and Callie had had a long conversation that had lasted until long into the night. It had accomplished very little as far as deciding what they needed to do about their current situation or in the long term. They tried to work toward a solution that would make them both happy, but that was proving harder than they expected. Even so, they had accomplished one very important thing during the conversation: they had both calmed each other's fears and now they both knew without a doubt that somehow they would find a way to make this all work out.

The next morning, Callie emailed her professors to tell them that she wouldn't be in school that day. She and Frank spent the morning at home, not really wanting to go out, even if there hadn't been the possibility of danger. At one point in the morning, Edmund Wight had called Frank to tell him that as far as anyone in his organization knew, no one fitting the description of the man Frank had seen was involved with the kidnappers they were investigating. That comforted them a little, but it was far from conclusive proof that they were safe.

Finally, they had decided to call Fenton and Laura Hardy and tell them the entire situation and get their insight. Fenton, of course, could give them some advice on what to do about the kidnappers, and they could both help Frank and Callie work through their difficulties from their own experience. It wasn't an easy decision to make, since both Frank and Callie tended to be overly private with their problems, but in the end, they realized that they would need help in this.

They put the video call through at seven-thirty in the morning for Bayport, knowing that the Hardys were early risers and also wanting to place the call before Fenton would leave for the office. Fortunately, they caught both Frank's parents awake and at home.

After greeting them and exchanging some small talk, including asking Fenton and Laura if they had heard anything more about Nancy, Frank cleared his throat and prepared to get down to business. "So, we have a specific reason for calling." He put an arm around Callie's shoulders. No sense giving the wrong impression.

"And it is…?" Fenton prompted him when Frank didn't continue.

"Oh. We've got some problems," Frank began again. He glanced at Callie. Although they both had agreed that they needed to explain the situation fully to Fenton and Laura, he didn't want to embarrass her by blurting it out.

"The first thing we have to tell you isn't a problem, though," Callie picked up the conversation. "We had thought about telling you when we came home for Christmas, and it's still very early, but…" She paused and smiled. "We're expecting."

Fenton and Laura's excitement was obvious in their animated congratulations and delighted smiles. Frank squeezed Callie's shoulders a little tighter as they listened, neither of them talking much over the excitement of the grandparents-to-be.

Finally, the excitement calmed down, and Laura remembered that Frank had said that he and Callie had a problem. A little tremor of fear running through her, she asked them about it. Frank and Callie looked at each other, the happiness on their faces fading.

"There's two problems, actually," Frank said. He first explained the kidnapping case and the potential dangers it was posing. He had already told Fenton part of it when he had asked him to look into Edmund Wight, but neither of his parents had heard the most recent developments.

Fenton and Laura's previous excitement turned to expressions of concern, and they considered the problem for a few moments before either of them said anything.

"I've been looking into this Wight," Fenton said. "So far, I haven't found anything to contradict what he told you, Frank, although I haven't been able to find out what this organization he supposedly works for is."

"There's something weird about that," Frank agreed. "The way he talked about it sound like there was something unusual about it. On the other hand, if they're investigating governments, they probably are trying to keep as much attention away from themselves as possible."

Fenton nodded. "That does make sense. It just makes it harder to find out whether they're legitimate."

"Would it be any safer for you in Bayport?" Laura asked, the safety of her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild uppermost in her mind.

"A little, I guess," Frank told her. "I mean, mostly just because we'd be on our own turf and have friends and family around us. I don't like the idea of hiding from this, though, and always having to look over our shoulders."

"True, but you need to be practical about this," Fenton said. "If it's too dangerous, you're not going to be able to do any good there."

"Then, also, there's Giada," Frank went on, not knowing how to respond to his dad's point directly. "I said I'd look for her. Her parents are counting on me. I can't just forget about that case and the danger that little girl is in."

"But if it puts your own wife and child at risk…" Fenton pointed out.

"That's the other problem," Callie spoke up. "I know it's late for me to be saying this, and I wouldn't have before. I didn't… It wasn't… I wasn't as worried before, but everything's different now, and I didn't know that I'd feel this way when it came to it."

Frank squeezed Callie's shoulders again to reassure her. "Callie's worried about the danger this is putting us all in. Not just this case, but my work in general. And if there's one thing that this case is proving, it's that she has a point. I wasn't too understanding when she first brought it up, but I'm starting to see better now. We've been talking about whether a change in career might not be a bad idea, and we were hoping you two could give us some advice about this. After all, you were in the same position as us once."

Fenton and Laura looked at each other, and a small smile of understanding crossed each of their faces.

"Not once," Laura said, turning back to Frank and Callie. "It's something we've had to think about and talk about ever since we decided to get married."

"But you've worked something out," Callie replied. "How do you do it?"

"Just knowing how we've done it isn't going to solve all your problems," Fenton pointed out. "You're different people, and it's a different time than when Laura and I were married. You'll have to find your own solution, but maybe ours can help you find it."

"As you might know," Laura began, "I've always been worried about Fenton's work. And of course, when you and Joe started solving cases, Frank, it only got worse, but those worries are a few years down the road for you two, if it happens at all. I remember being where you're at now, Callie: a newlywed, expecting my first child, and worried about my husband's job."

"So, what did you do?" Callie asked.

"We talked about it a lot." Laura instinctively reached for her husband's hand. "Fenton was worried about it, too. There were a few things that we had to realize. First of all, being a detective was – and is – passionate about. He wouldn't be happy doing any other work. Now, for a little while before we were even engaged, I felt a little under-loved over that. After all, wasn't I enough to make him happy? Then I realized I was thinking of it like Fenton was choosing between his work and me. That wasn't the case at all, unless I would have made it be. It was a choice between doing something important and fulfilling and that Fenton loved or doing something just to get by."

"In other words," Fenton added, "if the choice had been between running off to the mountains or the ocean with Laura and just enjoying life or risking everything as a New York cop, it would have been foolish of me to choose being a cop. But that wasn't the choice we were making."

"And of course, when I looked at it that way," Laura went on, "I realized that I didn't want to make Fenton unhappy. Sentence him to work forty hours a week at a job he didn't care about."

"Then the other thing we considered was that I was good at being a detective," Fenton said. "More than that, if I quit, someone else would take my place. At best, he or she would have been a hardworking, dedicated, honest officer who cared about the job and the people they were serving, but they would either have to choose between not being married or being in the same situation we were. It would be silly to expect all police officers to stay single their entire lives, and so married people have to find a way to deal with it, and if it wasn't us, it would have been someone else. At worst, I would be making room for someone who would abuse their authority and only make things worse for the people they were supposed to be protecting, not to mention make things harder for all the decent cops out there as people like that always do. We didn't want to accept that responsibility. And whoever replaced me, I myself would be sitting back and doing nothing to help anyone, even though I could."

"But you did quit the NYPD," Callie pointed out. "Why?"

"That was one compromise we did make," Fenton said. "Although, it wasn't really a compromise by that point. After what happened to Mitch Johnson, –" His voice faltered slightly – "we took a hard look at what we were doing. Laura was even more worried than ever, and I was having a hard time doing my work. We decided that if I became a private detective and we moved to a small town, I could still be doing the work I cared about but it should be safer. I don't know that the safer part happened, though."

Callie focused on breathing for a few beats. She could see where this was going, and she could feel tears threatening to form in her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of Fenton and Laura. She didn't want to cry at all. She had done enough of that over the last few days, and it hadn't gotten her anywhere other than feeling weak and selfish and even sicker than she was already feeling.

"But, Laura," she managed to say, "how did you do it? Even if you did reason all this out, how could you stand living every day, not knowing if…" Her voice began to break, she felt the tears welling up to the surface, and she couldn't go on.

Laura sighed. "I wish I could say it was easy. It's not. I think about all the things that could happen and have happened, and some days, it seems like we've beaten the odds too many times for it to last much longer. But then there are other days when I can think about all the good that's come out of it. Our lives would be very different if Fenton had done some other kind of work, but I don't think it would be better. We would probably be living in some tiny house in New York. We might not have ever heard of Bayport, and we wouldn't know any of our friends here. We wouldn't even know you, Callie. And Fenton, Frank, and Joe wouldn't be the men they are today and whom I love so much and am so proud of. I know this is all hindsight, Callie, and there's no way of knowing whether yours and Frank's lives will turn out anything the same, but if it makes any difference to you, I'm glad Fenton and I made the decisions we did, even with the risks."

Callie nodded, not able to talk for fear that would open the floodgates.

Frank saw her predicament and spared her having to answer. "Thanks, Mom. Dad. That does help. There's still the problem about this kidnapping case, though. I need to do something about it right away, and I don't know what."

"I can't tell you what to do there, son," Fenton told him. "All I can tell you is that whatever Wight is up to, I hope you take his advice and take every precaution for yours and Callie's safety."

"I will," Frank promised. "That's my first priority."