25

NANCY knew that Frank would be angry upon learning of her request before leaving the hospital, but for the man to sway on the spot and lose all the color in his face was not exactly what she had been expecting. She felt Bess and George give a start at the shift in Frank's behavior.

"Absolutely not, Nancy Drew, no way," Frank barked in a hoarse growl as his dark eyes narrowed as he turned to look at her. "Nancy, baby, Devin is the last person you need to see right now, are you positively out of your mind?" he whisper-hissed, unable to hold his wrath.

She swallowed at the familiar dark shadow that flickered its way across her boyfriend's face, her throat hallowing as she recognized Frank was growing angry at her initial request to see Devin before they left the hospital to head back home.

The trial was already set for three weeks out, at least that's what Chief McGinnis and her father had told her when they'd both stopped by earlier to check on her. She would have to testify, in spite of her evaluation from the psychiatrist that Nancy had been secretly hoping would declare her incompetent enough to stand trial, and she wasn't sure she was at all ready for what was to come next.

But she knew if she were going to hold any hope left that things might one day return to normal for her and Frank, then she owed it to herself to confront him. Nancy knew she had to try to make him see that. No matter what it took.

She inhaled a deep, shaking breath and tried again to reach Frank.

"Please, Frank, let me go see him. Trust me. I know what I'm doing," she begged. "I—I have to do this, Frank," she whispered, glancing sideways out of the corner of her eyes at George, Bess, and Joe, all of whom could sense immediate danger in the man.

Nancy silently tried to motion with her eyes, solemn and serious, for their friends to wait outside. Joe took the hint first and put a hand on the small of George and Bess's backs.

"We'll um…wait outside in the parking lot for you guys, Nance. We'll be in the car whenever you're ready. Take as long as you need. Call or text if you need anything."

Nancy nodded, offering a slight incline of her head to show she'd heard Frank's brother's words, but never once did she revert her gaze from her boyfriend. She bit down on her bottom lip, sticking it out in a slight pout, and reached for Frank's hand, giving it what she hoped was light but reassuring squeeze.

"Please, Frank, I have to see him," she whispered, not even aware she was shaking, her hair a wild mess of red and gold.

Frank finally turned his eyes to face her, his face no longer crossed with rage and growing anger at her request, but a horrible, antagonizing hurt and pain.

A deep intense pain, far from that of anything that Devin could have ever done—and did do—to them. Tears spilled from her pale blue eyes, though her eyes were no longer warm as they usually were whenever she looked at her boyfriend, but listless. Emotionless. Flat. Dull.

This was…not what he wanted. Frank was almost certain he'd never seen Nancy shed so many tears throughout their entire life as she had within the last twenty-four hours or so.

Frank allowed his shame to fill him to the brim. He'd never wanted to hurt her, and now he had, but this?

If he allowed her to go through with this, with laying eyes on him one last time prior to the trial, there was a part of him that wondered if Nancy would be able to handle it, if she could cope with it at all. He loathed himself for thinking about his girlfriend in that way, in thinking Nancy to be weak, when he knew she wasn't, but he couldn't help it. What Devin had put them both through, no one should have to endure it.

Nancy never took her eyes off of Frank, not even for a second. She just continued to stand in front of the set of automatic doors by the hospital's exit, occasionally having to sidestep out of the way for people coming and going, but never once did she look away. She just stared up at him, breathing heavily.

She could tell by the look on Frank's face as a muscle in his angular jaw twitched and he tensed that her request to speak to Devin was one that he had most certainly not been expecting, nor one that he was completely willing to yield to her on this, but still, she had to try.

"Frank, please let me go see him." This time, Nancy did shift to look at him, her pale blue eyes solemn and serious as she begged with him.

There was something else behind her glistening irises, but what that thing might be, Frank couldn't begin to guess what it was.

Frank hesitated, glancing down to still find their hands interlocked, reluctant to release Nan from the safety of his arms out of a deep-rooted fear that the amateur sleuth would just somehow magically vanish. That Nancy Drew would cease to exist, and he'd somehow wake up to find that this was all a horrible nightmare, and he was all alone left to figure this out.

There was the other part of his mind that whispered things in the shell of his ear, warning him that if he conceded to her and yielded, and let Nancy go see Devin in his hospital room, that he'd rip the young redhead away from him again and that was not something that he was about to allow. He also felt ashamed to admit that Nancy, even in her present weakened physical state, made him feel quite safe.

Her close presence whenever she was around him seemed to exude a sort of unseen protection and as long as he didn't stray too far from her, he had nothing to fear, and he knew she felt the same of him.

"I…Nancy, baby, I don't. Nan, that's…" Frank trailed off, sparing a quick uneasy glance down the hall where they knew Devin remained in stable condition, his door heavily monitored by the cops.

He was the last person that Frank wanted Nancy even remotely close to right now, after the crap he'd put them both through, making her miscarry their baby, of which the two of them needed to still have a serious discussion, but not until much, much later, when things were a little bit less tense, and Nancy was calmer.

She clearly didn't seem to be in a sound mental state and not making the right judgment calls. Otherwise, why would she want to go and see him? Frank parted his lips slightly to voice his concern. Yet when he turned his gaze back towards his girlfriend, her face was set in a hard sort of determination, yet her icy-blue eyes were glistening with unshed moisture as she silently pleaded her case to relent.

Frank hesitated, feeling his heart tighten and constrict for several minutes that felt like an eternity, unwilling to give in out of fear that he'd hurt her again.

His mind could not help but flit through at least a dozen, possibly more, scenarios that he could happen to Nan if he relinquished his ironclad grip on her bandaged hand and let her walk into the man's room, the sick perverted psychopath that Devin was, he'd hurt her again.

Yet, Frank knew, and so did Nancy, that he'd never been able to deny her what was within his ability to give, and this request was one of those things.

"Fine, but only for five minutes, Nancy, that's it, and that's if we can manage to get in past those guards at the door," he growled begrudgingly, looking away for a moment, reluctance thick in his hoarse voice, which was so quiet, that only Nancy could hear him.

Frank sighed heavily and looked down his nose at Nancy. He would grant her this, but then it was her turn to give something back.

"But after this, love, I think you and I need to talk when we get back home. Somewhere private, Nancy," he emphasized through clenched teeth, lowering his voice at the exact moment a nurse shuffled by and shot them a look.

Nancy nodded and shot her boyfriend a relieved and grateful smile.

She gingerly shrugged out of his grasp and made to step forward, though Frank could tell his girlfriend's equilibrium hadn't fully come back to her yet. This was proven when she took a cautious half-step forward, wavered on the spot for a moment, and then pitched to the side. Frank's arms shot out so fast that he caught Nancy before she even halfway fell.

No longer trusting his girlfriend to walk on her own, stubborn though she was, he was much more headstrong in this regard, he put one hand on her waist, the other around her shoulder, and gently started to steer Nancy towards Devin's hospital room.

Frank pointedly ignored Nancy's quiet protests that she could walk on her own without assistance and helped her.

Clearly, she couldn't, and he wasn't about to let her get hurt worse than she already was.

He stiffened the closer they got to Devin's hospital room, terror caving in his chest, his breaths catching in his throat.

Nancy's lower lip trembled slightly, and he couldn't be sure, but he swore he thought he could hear her heartbeats increase as tears pricked the edges of her lids. When she'd first woken up in the hospital this morning, she had been confused and disoriented and had at least three people shouting questions at her. The doctor, the nurse, and the sheriff. She hardly had the mental clarity to tell them what had happened to her and Frank in excruciating detail like they were hoping to build a case against him, not that they needed much on him in that regard.

The questions had lasted an hour or so longer before another doctor had come into the room, taken one look at the tears in Nancy's eyes, how stressed she was, and ordered them all out of her room so she could rest again, and then picked up every hour so.

Nancy knew that Devin had guards outside his door and that the man had been heavily sedated. Even six bullet wounds had trouble slowing him down, which made her skin crawl and the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up just to think of it.

Calm down, Nance, he's not Michael Myers, she told herself as her and Frank's pace slowed down.

Though there was a part of her that wondered if Devin's brain could even recognize pain stimuli.

Bullets would kill him just like they'd kill any man, but even when that shopkeeper had peppered him with those six bullets, he hadn't immediately dropped, at least not from the pain, but blood loss.

So now, two policemen stood outside the man's hospital room door until his court date, and he'd recovered more fully from the six bullet wounds. Nancy paused in the hallway, a few paces away from the man's door.

She'd had a concussion from her fall and a stress fracture in her right ankle.

Not to mention, her entire body still felt taxed and weak, from both her stab wound in her right thigh, and her insides felt bruised and sore where he'd hit her.

Where I…where I miscarried, she thought angrily, a single tear escaping down her lid that she angrily reached up to brush it away, only to let out a hiss when she realized the hand that she was using to wipe at her tears was her injured one.

She quickly lowered the appendage and hoped Frank hadn't noticed her discomfort.

The look he shot her told her he had.

Though she'd been feeling some pain in her ankle ever since her and Frank's botched escape attempt that first time into the woods behind Devin's house, but she was surprised to learn too that she had a stress fracture in her bone, of all things.

The running from Devin's house most likely was what had pushed her strained leg over the edge, the doctor had said when he'd shown Nancy and Frank her X-rays.

She'd been given an ugly black boot to wear for a couple of weeks until the bone healed. She was also slightly undernourished and rather badly dehydrated.

As the pair of them stood in close proximity to Devin's hospital room entrance, Nancy was not fully prepared for how much it was going to hurt. Nor for the little nagging sensation she felt welling inside her.

Nancy was forced to lean heavily on Frank for support and use the crutch they had given her to help keep stress from her ankle in addition to wearing this ugly clunky boot that Bess had already made several comments on about how it went with only a few of Nancy's outfits back home in her closet, to which the amateur detective had pointedly ignored.

Fashion was one of the last things she could think about right now. She knew Bess had only meant it as a joke to try to lighten the seriousness of the situation, but sadly, it hadn't worked, though Nancy didn't blame Bess.

Her cheeks burned and flushed with color as she caught the judgmental stare of a few of the nurses, a few of whom she recognized.

They were not especially pleased to see her up and walking around so soon after everything that had happened. The policeman on the other side of the hall glanced at her, and she saw them stiffen, but Nancy and Frank cautiously approached the nurses' station in the hopes of talking to Jill. Jill had taken a liking to Nancy, and not much could ruffle the thirty-three-year-old. Jill kept her blonde hair short. Easier to keep out of the way and maintain it, she claimed, and Jill had taken to bringing Nancy ice chips and heated blankets, even when Nancy hadn't asked.

They liked her, she knew this. She was respectful, and even when she already could guess what they were about to tell her, she listened patiently and with respect and didn't ever interrupt.

Jill and another nurse, a younger one, Sara, had been the ones to tell her that Devin had been taken in and shot when she'd first regained consciousness and that he was only just down the hall from her in his own guard, albeit heavily guarded at all possible times.

"Hi, Jill," Nancy forced a somewhat strained smile as she leaned heavily over the counter, letting Frank keep one hand firmly on her waist in case she fell. "Hey, Sara," she murmured in what she hoped was a kind enough voice and tried to think how best she wanted to phrase her request to the two nurses.

"Nancy, it's good to see you, dear," both nurses greeted her warmly but with disappointing shakes of their heads, as Jill was the first one to tell her she shouldn't be up and walking around so soon, both of them shot disapproving, reproachful looks towards Frank for allowing her to be walking. Frank shot the pair of nurses withering glowers.

Nancy shrugged and tried to offer up a sheepish grin. "I—I was wondering if I could ask you, ladies, for a huge favor," she told them, biting down on her lip.

Jill and Sara exchanged a quizzical glance with one another before leaning in, eager to hear what one of their best and politest patients had to ask.

She swallowed, her tongue suddenly feeling like heavy clay in her mouth, and her mouth had gone all the way dry. Here it goes...

"I—I want to get into Devin's room, Jill."

The nurses both looked at Nancy as though she had lost her mind, and perhaps she did, but she knew she needed this more than she needed air to breathe right now. The two women did not refuse her request outright, and she allowed herself to hold onto an inkling of hope. She glanced back towards the cops and took note of their young age, and their general shiftiness.

Nancy looked back towards the nurses and thought out her words carefully, knowing that they would be risking their jobs and integrity if they did this for her. Nancy did not want to pressure either one of them into it.

But she also knew she wanted to phrase it in such a way that Jill and Sara would be inclined to make their own decision to help her. She looked down at the counter and awkwardly rested her bandaged hands on the surface as she collected her thoughts.

"I just really need to talk to him, just to see him for a moment. It will make me feel better," she swallowed hard, feeling moisture glistening in her eyes, but Nancy forced herself to fight against the salty liquid. "All I need you to do is to get those cops away, just for a minute. I'll go in, just me and Frank," she whispered, lowering her voice as she looked towards her boyfriend for confirmation.

Frank nodded, though she cringed as she realized he wasn't happy with her.

She reverted her gaze back to Jill and continued, fixing the green-eyed older blonde nurse with a pleading look.

"They won't know that you two had anything to do with this. If anyone gets into trouble it will be me and those two cops. Not you guys, I'll make sure of that. Please help me, Jill."

Jill pursed her lips into a thin line, reaching up a hand to tuck a stray wisp of short blonde hair back behind her ear.

The nurse looked towards Sara and sighed in exasperation. "Go wait in the lobby just over there," she jerked her thumb towards a waiting lobby, small and nestled in the corner, "and Sara and I will keep these two knuckleheads off your case," Jill told her in a disapproving but understanding tone.

Nancy thanked them earnestly and hobbled towards the waiting area, Frank right behind her on her heels. She waited with bated breath. Nancy almost wished she could be a fly on the wall for this as she watched the younger one, Sara, stroll up to the cops. Nancy had no idea what the nurse said to the police, but once the policemen hurried away with her at once, running down the hallway with panicked looks on their faces, Nancy and Frank seized the opportunity and moved towards the room the two rookie cops had been stationed in front of.

Leaning heavily against Frank and using her crutch, she felt her heart pounding in her chest, utterly terrified, as they moved down the hall. Nancy knew she didn't want to face Devin. Not really.

She knew he was more than pissed at her, and likely not to forget her or Frank's faces anytime soon, but she also wondered if she would see any remorse or feeling at all if he was awake enough to open them now.

Nancy didn't think they'd keep Devin too severely drugged the entire time. She wanted the chance to talk to him, and that what was happening to him was his fault, his. Not hers. Not Frank's. His. He had done this to himself.

Going to jail, facing justice for his crimes was absolutely the right choice for a man like him, it was where he belonged.

Nancy gingerly pushed open the door slowly to find his hospital room was very nearly pitch black. The curtains were pulled, and the lights were off, leaving Devin in the darkness.

She reached out nervously to flick on the light, her eyes searching for his broad, tall form on the hospital bed. Nancy saw him under the blankets, propped up on his back into a sitting position against a mountain of pillows, staring vacantly up at the ceiling.

Both of his wrists had been handcuffed to the bed with two sets of cuffs, and there was an IV in his arm, not his hand. Harder for him to try to yank it out that way. Frank and Nancy walked over quietly, but he did not stir.

She peeked at the med chart and saw Thorazine scribbled down and awkwardly lowered the clipboard and put it back.

"Devin?" she whispered breathlessly, her tongue feeling like heavy clay in her mouth as she choked and almost vomited on saying his name as bile rose up in the back of her throat, coating it with its disgusting bitterness.

His head jerked up violently, but the man didn't speak. Nancy felt a shift within herself, becoming angry as frustration bubbled within her chest as their kidnapper continued to stare up at the ceiling and refused to look at her.

Frank was eyeing their abductor as though the bound man were little more than dirt stuck at the bottom of his shoe, wrath and contempt burning in his dark brown eyes.

She felt a muscle in her jaw twitch as she loomed over Devin.

"Why did you do it?" she asked him in a hushed voice, swallowing a lump in her throat as tears pricked her eyelids.

An inexplicable wave of sadness and guilt-wracked over her body. The emotional pain she felt was no doubt real.

"Who are you, Devin, really?" she finally asked, her voice soft and barely audible. "Is this the kind of man your parents intended you to be growing up?" she asked, a flicker of something dark underneath festering, flitting across her face.

Whatever Frank had been expecting, and Devin too, this clearly was not it.

Yet, Devin's expression remained neutral, almost apathetic, and his gaze stayed rooted to the ceiling.

Though Frank swore he thought he saw the man's thick dark eyebrows twitch in puzzlement, but still, their kidnapper staunchly refused to grace them with a verbal answer to the question that Nancy had just posed to him.

Frank, however, could have sworn that something flashed in the man's eyes. It was brief, for, in the next moment, there was no trace of whatever foreign emotion had lingered in the troubled banker's dark brown eyes. Devin still did not answer Nancy.

"I don't think they would have wanted this for you," Nancy continued, visions of the man's frail old mother, Betty, flitting through her mind.

She had been a bit crass and rude, sure, but even she didn't think the older woman knew what monstrosities her son had been capable of. At least, she thought not.

Her voice remained soft and quiet, her blue eyes reflecting a trace of sadness that came when looking at something that no longer had any hope left for itself.

"Yet you made your own path, you chose this. I can't help you, though there's a part of me that doesn't want to, not after what you did," she whisper hissed through gritted teeth.

Frank watched as Nancy drew in a rather shaky breath and ducked her head low to hide whatever emotion was seeping its way to the surface, despite her best attempts to stay calm and collected.

Though he could see her: broken and taped together at the seams, the cracks coloring, screaming. Frank did what he could for her, gently kneading the knots and tension out of her shoulders, trying to relay some form of comfort to Nancy, however small.

She wasn't alone. He wanted to pull her out of here, to march her out of this hospital that smelled of starch and bleach and linens and away from Devin. She did not have to put herself through this. She did not have to confront their kidnapper like this.

And yet, it seemed to Frank that Nancy, in her own way, was looking for a kind of closure.

A potential end to a nightmare, one they both thought they might not get out of. His girlfriend finally raised her head and looked the man bravely in his eyes, a new kind of strength in her blue irises.

"I know you do," she said faintly. "But…whatever help I could try to give you wouldn't be enough, and I don't think it could ever be enough for you." Another beat, another pause. "I—I don't forgive you," she snapped, swallowing hard. "Maybe one day, I might be able to. But now, I…" Nancy faltered, and Frank could feel her shoulders start to shake. "Now I just want this to end. And you. What do you want?"

Again, Devin did not answer her, nor did he look at the girl with whom he had become so obsessed and fixated. He looked towards the wall at a spot behind Nancy's shoulder, and yet, Frank swore that something flickered in the man's lifeless eyes. Something that had nothing whatsoever to do with the cold, unfeeling steel within that was usually displayed so far that they both had known their abductor.

"There's nothing I can do for you." Now, Nancy's quiet voice was beginning to shake. Frank could tell she was fighting back tears. "If it were in my power to do anything for you, I don't know if I would help you. I don't know."

She lowered her head again, but this time, when she spoke again, her voice was stronger, much harder than it was previously.

"Tell me why," she whispered, her voice cracking slightly.

Nancy Drew's plea was met with nothing but silence. When he did not answer, the hotness and tightness in her chest intensified.

"Answer me, Devin," she told the man angrily, trying to stand over him and make him look at her.

But his dark brown eyes remained void and dull as he continued to stare up at the ceiling. She wondered if he even could see her and Frank. He would blink occasionally, but other than that, she was getting absolutely no response at all.

"Devin, damn it, answer me. Tell me why you hit me. Why you beat me within an inch of my life, why you stabbed me in the leg, and why you caused me to miscarry a baby, my baby?!" Nancy spat the last words as though they were poison that had settled upon her tongue as her tears gushed from her lids at a rapid pace she could no longer control, nor did she try to.

She drew in a shuddering breath and only allowed herself to relax when she felt Frank nudge from behind her. Frank was standing approximately three feet in front of the bound serial killer, and after giving their kidnapper a distrusting look, wound his arm even tighter around Nancy's middle, and kept his other hand firmly on her shoulder, thereby steadying her and preventing her from almost falling again.

Devin still said nothing and did not respond.

"Look at me!" Nancy demanded, her voice furious.

Frank startled, thinking that Nancy's voice was no longer sweet and timid as it had been before, but shaking in rage.

He felt her start to tremble, but not from fear or hurt. No. She was trembling with rage. Pure rage. Unbridled rancor. A rage that Frank secretly welcomed in his girlfriend and thought Devin deserved.

"Devin, damn it, answer me!" she cried. "Tell me why you did it!" she shouted, tears steadily pouring down her face.

Before Frank could stop her, in a surprising show of strength, Nancy barreled forward, not even seeming to notice the pain in her foot or the boot she wore, running purely on adrenaline and rancor coursing through her veins.

Frank was left to watch as his girlfriend drew back her hand and slapped Devin across the face with as much force as Nancy could muster. The force of her blow was so strong, her hand left a red mark in its wake when she withdrew her hand.

The entire room went silent. Deadly silent.

Devin's head jerked up violently, though it looked as though the man felt no pain from Nancy's slap. Frank was stunned into silence.

"Nancy, no, come away, c'mon, we need to get out of here, come away, come away, you don't need to be here right now, we need to leave, sweetheart," he murmured, winding his hands around her waist.

He gritted his teeth, struggling to pull her back, but even in her injured state, Nancy wasn't having any of it.

She dug her feet firmly into the floor and wasn't budging.

When Nancy briefly looked back towards Frank, the softness had disappeared from her face. She glowered bitterly at him. His face too had lost its hopeful anticipation that Nancy would have come out of this encounter with the closure of sorts that he knew they both needed badly.

Though it seemed all it had done for her was make things worse for her, as he watched the hatred and heartbreak paint her features, as her beautiful twisted and contorted in anger. The moment she heard Devin emit a little grunt halfway from the back of his throat, Nancy's features shifted, and a dark shadow flitted across her face.

Frank knew within a second that in the time it took for her to whiplash from despair to destruction, was all that was required as Nancy's anger grew. She whirled back around to face the man sitting upright in the hospital bed, finally looking at her, with a critical interest.

Nancy felt something ugly within her chest snap and break, and the words poured forth from her lips as she allowed her anger and heartbreak to take over, not stopping it.

There was nothing and no one that could stop it from coming. Nothing. Not even Frank, though she felt the man trying hard.

She drew back her hand and slapped him again, much harder a second time, watching as the man's head reeled back and sickeningly hit the wall. Nancy almost wished that the force of the blow would have cracked the man's skull open, or at least given him one hell of a concussion.

Nancy didn't bother to hold back her wrath as something within her shifted and exploded, boiling over to the surface. She didn't fight it.

Her voice as she screamed herself hoarse as she ranted and raved at him no longer sounded like her voice at all, but the voice of someone harder, someone different, who had lost so much, and had no forgiveness left in her heart to give, not after what Devin had done.

"HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO ME! TO US! HOW COULD YOU KIDNAP US, BEAT US WITHIN AN INCH OF OUR LIVES, AND THEN MAKE ME MISCARRY, YOU ARROGANT, SMUG BASTARD?! DAMN YOU! DON'T YOU HAVE ANY SENSE AT ALL, YOU CONNIVING WEASEL! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HOPE YOU ROT AND BURN IN HELL, YOU PIECE OF SHI—"

Though before Frank's girlfriend could finish, the door swung open and a police officer and a doctor rushed into the room, taking Frank and Nancy away from the man who'd ruined her. She burst into tears, a knot churning in her stomach.

She cursed and screamed violent obscenities at Devin one moment, words she never thought she would hear herself say much less think, words that her Dad and Hannah would scold her for saying and stare at her for, and then was asking the doctors not to give him any more pain medication from now on.

Nancy wanted the man sane for his upcoming trial soon. He didn't get to play the insanity card for this. What he took from her, she wanted him to realize that extent. Nancy did not remember the police angrily escorting Nancy and Frank outside to the parking lot to their car, nor did she remember the sedative that Jill herself administered before the cops escorted them out in order to keep her calm.

The only thing she felt as the police escorted her out, Frank right by her side, was a wave of horrible anger and indignation. What Devin had taken from them, she wouldn't get it back. She still wasn't sure what she and Frank would have chosen to do had they found out under normal circumstances if they would have kept the baby or not, but regardless, the man inside that room had taken that choice from them.

By the time the cop escorted them out to the car, where Joe, Bess, and George, were patiently waiting, poor Nancy was violently shaking. From inside Frank's car, their friends gaped at the strange scene unfolding, though the trio didn't dare climb out and start asking questions.

They just stared at Nancy like she was suddenly the most dangerous woman on the planet, especially Bess and George, who looked troubled. Frank finally turned his eyes to Nancy, her face no longer contorted with rage, but with pain.

An aching pain, worse than when he'd felt a few nights ago to have learned the news. Before Frank could react, Nancy threw her arms around his middle and pressed her face into his chest, crying into his shoulder, clinging to Frank Hardy with every fiber of her being, as though terrified if she let go, he would vanish.

"I…I thought…you…we didn't…" But she could say no more as a half-choked sob escaped from her cracked lips.

Frank said nothing as he wrapped his arms around her, crushing Nancy to him, while trying to be careful of her injuries, recognizing that his girlfriend was physically weak.

He'd never wanted her to suffer through pain like this, and yet he'd done it by not being fast enough, or smart enough to recognize that Devin had played him at the reception. He always managed to hurt those around him that he cared about the most, and now, he'd done it to Nancy.

Bess, George, and Joe just stared at the pair of them, though Bess looked like she was close to bursting into tears, both of sadness and joy at seeing Frank and Nancy together. Joe was looking like he wanted to say something, but words were failing him from the backseat of Frank's car. George sat in the front driver's seat, open-mouthed and gaping like a fish.

Frank noticed them staring but couldn't manage to pretend to care what their friends thought right now. The only thing he focused on was the woman in his arms, and how his girlfriend was falling to pieces in front of him, and he'd never felt more powerless to try to help her.

"Baby." The term of endearment escaped him as a whisper. She didn't respond. "Nan? Nancy, listen to me."

He heard Nancy sniffle as she pulled back from the embrace slightly to meet his glistening dark brown eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but Frank didn't give her the chance, immediately cutting her off as he noticed onlookers staring.

"We need to talk. Somewhere private. Back home," he pleaded, peeking over her shoulder and into his own car.

Nancy winced as she slowly turned on her heels to look at their friends, and then turned back to Frank and nodded.

He pulled her close again, closing off the gap of space, and rested his head against the top of her hair, closing his eyes and breathing in the scent of whatever autumnal smelling shampoo she used selfishly, letting the scent of apples and pinewood calm him as it wafted into his nose.

"Trust me, Nance?" he whispered, his voice cracking. "Do you feel ready?" Frank asked, furrowing his brows as he pulled back and peered down to study his girlfriend's face.

She hesitated and looked towards a nearby park off in the distance, but not too far away that it was going to cause her too much pain to attempt to walk. Nancy shifted her purse to her other arm and pointed.

"Tomorrow, could we go to a park?" she whispered faintly, reaching up a hand to brush back a stray tear that had escaped from her lid. "Air sounds nice. I—I won't walk, I just want to sit and be with you," she whispered, biting her lip as she noticed Frank's dark glower at first.

Slowly, she let out a relieved breath as he nodded. He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Sure, Nan. We can go right now if you want," he said, taking her by the hand and led her away from the prying eyes of their friends and towards the deserted wooden park bench underneath the shade of a well-placed tree that would protect them from the worst of the wind and snow.

As Bess, George, and Joe watched the two of them go, Bess stood up to follow and made to get out of the car to call them back, but George's arm shot out, her slender fingers winding out the blonde's shoulder, yanking her back down.

"No, Bess, we need to let them go. They need time to be with one another and talk things out. They're both hurting from this. They'll talk to us eventually, but for now, let them go," George said somberly.

She awkwardly set aside the little white teddy bear that Frank had bought for Nancy in the gift shop, in case Nancy had wanted something to comfort her when she got in the car and they dropped them off at home.

"But George…" Bess bit down on her lip and frowned.

"I know. But this is Frank, Bess. If it were Ned or any other guy, obviously, I'd let you go after Nancy, Bess, but this is Frank. We trust him. She's a Hardy, she has been since the day those two met," George murmured thoughtfully.

Bess sat back down next to Joe and huffed in frustration and folded her arms across her chest, looking put-off now.

"He better not do something stupid, George, like break up with her. I swear to God, George, if that creep inside that hospital manages to hurt Nancy, or if something else happens to either one of them, then I'll…I'll..." her voice trailed off as she watched Nancy and Frank sit.

She made a disparaging little noise. "He better not hurt her or him any further," Bess growled angrily through clenched teeth and began fidgeting with the strap of her little pink purse to quell the violent shaking starting in her hands.

Neither Joe nor George needed to ask who she was referring to.

They knew.

Glad Francy is (sort of) on the way to making amends, but they're not out of the woods yet.

Lots of drama/comfort to come ahead, and most of it courtroom scenes, so that's coming up to look forward to, but hopefully the Judge will nail this bastard and give Devin what he deserves.

I've been re-watching some of my favorite crime shows to hopefully give Devin's trial a realistic approach, as much as possible anyways, and I've never put Francy through something quite like the legal system before, so could be fun!

I really wanted to have Carson represent his daughter and have a couple of badass lawyer moments in court, Atticus Finch style lol, but I don't think that would be allowed as it could be seen as a conflict of interest, so sadly, I think Daddy Drew is off this case, and I'll have to make up a friend of Carson's to coach Nancy and co. or something, but I'm sure I can give Devin a fitting end, as I do have a few surprises in store for this creep (insert evil laughter here? :D XD)

Plenty more Francy coming up, and even more in the upcoming sequel! :)