Author's Note: First off let me start with the disclaimer since I forgot it in the first chapter–I own nothing, wish that I did. Okay, on with the real order of business. I thought about everyone's suggestions and I have decided that Nancy should go by Nancy Drew Hardy; that way she can keep her name but she is still a Hardy at the same time. And I also noticed that I have everyone speculating about pregnancy. All I can say is keep reading because it may happen, and it may not. I still haven't fully decided yet.

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Nancy was totally caught off-guard by the man's gruff voice. He had a muscular frame, dark hair, and a scowl on his face. She quickly slipped the cufflink into her pocket.

"I asked what you were doing in here," the man said again.

"I was told to come and clean this room." Nancy said when she finally found her voice.

"Who told you that?" he asked.

"I-I'm not sure," Nancy said. "I just started here a couple of days ago."

"Where's your badge?" he asked.

"My badge?" Nancy asked.

"Yes. You're supposed to wear your badge at all times." The man said.

"Oh, I must have left it in my car." Nancy said. She put on a panicked face. "Please, you can't report me. I really need this job. If you tell my supervisor that I wasn't wearing it, she'll let me go for sure." Nancy let a couple of tears fall down her cheek.

"All right, miss. Just calm down." The man said, holding up his hands. He seemed to lose some of his composure once he saw the tears. "How about if you go get your badge out of your car and we'll forget any of this happened."

"Thank you so much." Nancy said, wiping the tears away. "You don't know what this means to me."

"And stay out of this room. It's off limits." The man gave her one last look and left the room.

Nancy practically fell against the wall when he left. She thought for sure that she was going to be in trouble. It was amazing to her the power of a woman and tears.

"Frank!" she whispered loudly.

Frank opened the door of the bathroom slowly. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Nancy nodded. "Yeah. I thought we were caught for sure, though."

"You handled it well." Frank said admiringly.

"Believe me, I was making it up as I went along." Nancy said. "But let's get out of here before he decides to come back."

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Joe watched, frustrated, as Frank and Nancy left to take a look at his old hotel room. He wanted to be there to help them, but he knew that wasn't possible. He hated feeling this helpless and he hated to do research. He was a hands-on kind of guy; always has been.

He wasn't quite ready to get in research mode, so he walked over to the sofa in the room and sprawled out on it. He still had a lot of thinking to do and he needed to do it soon. He was hurting too many people and it wasn't getting any better. Especially now that Mr. Drew was talking to his father.

Fenton Hardy was always one to give his sons the benefit of the doubt. But Joe highly doubted that would happen this time. Sure his father would be there for him every step of the way, but he wouldn't blame him if he was a little leery. He had screwed up this time and he knew it–at least he was adult enough to admit that to himself.

Joe sat up on the sofa and flipped on the TV with the remote control. He flipped through the channels but didn't find anything that held his interest. He left the channel on the local news if only to put noise in the quiet hotel room. He watched the sports segment to see who was in the lead of the baseball playoffs. But then he heard something that he had been dreading.

"The man who was arrested for the murder of a woman in his hotel room early this morning has been released on bail. Police say that twenty-one year old Joseph Hardy is the only suspect in the slaying of twenty-four year old Abby Collins. Ms Collins was found in Joseph Hardy's hotel room stabbed to death. Police say they are still investigating the homicide and hope to have more evidence against him soon. We will keep you updated on this story as it is made available to us.

"In other news–"

Joe shut the TV off in disgust. At least he knew the police wouldn't stop until he was put away. But now he knew the woman's name and that gave him a little burst of hope. He had somewhere to start. He got up to get Frank's laptop out of his case when he saw the phone on the table behind the sofa. He really needed to call Vanessa. She would freak if she heard what had happened on the news instead of from him.

He picked up the phone and punched in the number that he could dial in his sleep. It rang twice before it was picked up.

"Hello?" A soft voice said.

Joe froze. God, that voice was so beautiful. I don't want to hurt her.

"Hello?" Vanessa asked again.

Joe tried to find his voice to tell her everything. But it was as though someone had ripped out his vocal cords. Her next words completely caught him off guard.

"Joe...is that you? Please, just talk to me."

Joe finally found the voice he was looking for, but it didn't say the words that he wanted. "I'm sorry, Van."

He heard her gasp as he hung up the phone.

Why did I have to do that to her? Why am I always hurting her? Why can't I just be honest with her and stop being so scared?

Joe angrily swatted at the vase of flowers that was sitting by the phone. He watched as the water trailed down the wall and looked at the trail of flowers that was a few feet in front of him. He then went over to Frank's bed and pulled out the laptop from it's travel case.

He would just stop thinking about it. He had things he needed to do. He needed to clear his name if he ever wanted to have a life with Vanessa. And when this was over, maybe he would seriously think about marrying Vanessa.

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When Frank and Nancy returned to their hotel room a little bit later, Joe was sleeping beside the open laptop.

"Well, from the looks of things, you would think he had a rougher night than we did." Frank said.

Nancy smiled. "Technically he has. It can't be too comfortable to sleep on a jail cot."

"Do you think he lucked out and found anything?" Frank asked.

"Let's not ask him tonight. He needs to sleep." Nancy said. Then she spotted the flowers on the floor. "Maybe he didn't find anything."

"Why do you say that?" Frank asked.

"Well, it was either that or the flowers made him really mad." Nancy said.

"I'm going to call down and get an extra blanket and pillows for him." Frank said. "We can ask him about everything and show him what we found tomorrow."

Nancy nodded. "I'm going to hit the shower."

"Are you still not feeling well?" Frank asked, worried.

"It's not as bad as it was earlier." Nancy assured him. She walked into her room and grabbed her pajamas out of her travel bag. She walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on as hot as she could stand it.

Nancy jumped in and quickly showered, enjoying the hot stream of water as it hit her body. She got off and was drying herself when her cell phone started to ring. She quickly slipped on the complimentary bath robe that was left for them and ran out to her phone. She was surprised by the voice on the other end.

"Hello?" Nancy said, breathlessly.

"Nancy, is that you?" Vanessa asked.

"Yeah, it's me." Nancy said.

"Did I catch you at a bad time?" Vanessa asked.

"No, I just jumped out of the shower." Nancy answered.

"Where are you? I tried calling you at home and all I got was the answering machine." Vanessa said.

Nancy smiled at Vanessa's worried voice. They had become fast friends ever since Nancy and Frank had started dating. But it was kind of odd for Vanessa to be calling her at eleven o'clock at night.

"Hey, Van. Is everything okay?" Nancy asked, concerned.

"I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me." Vanessa said.

"What do you mean?" Nancy asked.

"Tell me what's going on with Joe." Vanessa said.

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Author's Note: Yes, I know...another one. I had to put this one in to let you know that it is possible there will not be another update until I get back from Texas. Now, it may also be possible that I can update while I am there. It just depends on what kind of Internet company my sister goes through. But if I'm not able to, I just want you all to know that I am not abandoning this story. I will continue to work on it while I'm gone. (By the way, I'll be gone for seven weeks...yikes!) I will miss everyone and hope you have a safe and happy summer!