Author's Note: This chapter starts the mixture of the actual episode with my ideas so I want to credit Christopher Crowe and Michael Sloan for their writing on the episode. I also want to put in some content warnings as I have worked a little less than halfway through this fic so far, there will be some implied/referenced rape and abuse.

Drumboy100 thanks for the reviews, I'm glad you liked the banter. That was what I went back and corrected over and over again.

caseykam I'm going to do my best to give Joe a chance to shine

To anyone who hasn't seen the 70s show, they are all up on YouTube. In my opinion, the best Francy episode is the two-parter Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom.

Hope ya'll enjoy this chapter.

- Kes

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Three men were sitting around the Drew's kitchen table. Carson Drew's face is lined with worry and lack of sleep, which adds a few years to his face. He looks across the table at the agitated young man. "I'm sorry Frank, it's been six months. Nancy is …" Carson looks down at his hands not wanting to say the next words but knowing that they must be said, "dead." He briefly looks up catching Frank's eyes not being able to meet the younger man's stare Carson breaks eye contact. "I know this now I just couldn't admit it to myself before."

Not wanting to think about the possibility that Nancy wasn't out there somewhere, Frank turns the topic to the reason they are in River Heights. "Maybe when the talk show airs, it's syndicated in over 80 markets. When your appeal goes out …"

Carson unconvinced sighs out "Maybe. I can only pray that whoever took her will see the broadcast."

Just then Fenton Hardy comes over to the table. He pats Carson on the shoulder and then sits down across from Joe. "Well, the station is ready to receive any calls, and they have a direct tie-in with the police department. I don't know of anything else I can do," Fenton informs the group.

"It's very nice of you to be here with me. I …. I am very grateful for your company. I wasn't sure how I was going to get through the memorial service."

"Do you think you could tell us what happened again?" Joe asks delicately.

Carson shakes his head, "I don't know what good it will do Joe. The police and the federal authorities have been over everything a hundred times …"

Gently countering Joe says, "They may have missed something."

Carson shakes his head again, "I wish I believed that."

Frank looks Carson over in the following silence, coming to realize that Nancy's father truly thinks she's gone. "Alright," Carson finally decides. "Nancy was working for me. She was ah doing surveillance on a man named Paul Keller, the president of the Della Corporation. There was a client of mine who owned some stock. Nancy had discovered Paul embezzled $50,000 from him and two other clients. The police nailed him, he's behind bars. That's it." Carson looks up at each of the men sharing the table with him and once again shakes his head then he continues. "Nancy had gone L.A. to testify at Keller's trial about what she had uncovered. On her last day in L.A., she went out to eat. After paying for her meal, she was seen getting a paper in front of the restaurant. That was the last anyone knew until the police pulled the surveillance cameras. They showed someone grabbing her at the restaurant… a man … This old Chevy screeching to a halt her being pushed in … then she was gone." There are tears in his eyes by the time he finished.

"Carson," The eldest Hardy reaches out and places a hand on Mr. Drew's arm. "I think we can make one last try to find Nancy. The boys think she might have started to work on another case, based on a letter she wrote to Frank." Fenton motions to Frank who hands Carson the letter. "We could start by reviewing the evidence, that the police found six months ago. What there is of it." Fenton points at his boys, "from a fresh perspective."

Carson unfolds the letter and begins to read it. When he finished the letter, he studied the young man in front of him. The letter Carson had just read was much more intimate than one to a friend, and then there was the tension in Frank's shoulders and the almost desperate look in the young man's eyes. Carson wondered now if he had done the wrong thing in not telling the Hardys when Nancy had first disappeared. But he couldn't change the past.

The grieving father looks at each of the Hardy men and lets out a sigh while nodding. "All right. The L.A. FBI office I believe has her case so they should have all the evidence, including what she had in her hotel room. And I'm going with you. I'm not going to stay in River Heights just to wonder how your investigation is coming along."

Fenton smiles at his friend, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

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Carson Drew's plea to have his daughter returned to him, goes back and forth between showing him in the studio and the memorial. The clash of venues might have felt jarring if it weren't for Carson's heartfelt words. But that wasn't what his audience of one was paying attention to. Were those new wrinkles around his eyes? Did he have new grey hair? He looked just so tired. The girl watching hadn't seen his face in so long, she was drinking in every detail.

"I only ask that whoever you are that if you are watching. If my daughter is still alive, please consider giving her up. If she is dead, let us know where to look for her. Let us have peace of mind. Returning her to us. We love her very much. Please …" Carson's words are left hanging in the room after the TV is turned off.

The remote is being held by a sobbing young woman with ash blonde hair dressed in an old lace gown. She is in a room full of antiques. A room that would be quite pleasant if it wasn't also her prison. Her gilded cage. More than anything she wanted to make her father's wishes come true, but all she had managed to do so far was piss off her captures to the point that they were drugging her up every day to make her easier to handle, it also had the effect of cutting down on the number of escape attempts.

The door to the room opens. A man in his mid-seventies appears. "Don't worry princess," he says as he stands in the entrance. She stops her tears from falling and looks over at him. "It's only me," he continues. Nancy shivers, she hates that voice. It's full of condensation and ownership.

It was another day, another day to be her. Another day to wish for anything but this, this caged living. But she had learned, learned the hard way over the days, the weeks, it was months now according to the special (she was having trouble keeping track of time in this half-awake world) that she couldn't get away with anything under his watchful eyes. So, she did the only thing she could do, she clenched her fists and prepared to get through the day.

She walled off everything but her logic and inquisitive nature. This way she could look for a way to escape again, hopefully without suffering more emotional trauma.