Ihope you like it, It is a bit different from the way i had originally planned it.

Chapter 4

I woke up groggy and with a dull pain in my arm. I stared around at equipment and white washed walls. It took me a moment before I realized where I was and then still another moment why I was in the hospital. The door opened and I looked up to see a pretty young nurse walk in.

"Ah, Miss Drew I see your awake. I'm sure that will be of some comfort to the men waiting outside for you," she said cheerfully. "The doctor will want to have a look at you but other then your arm your all right. The police are also here but Dr. Brain won't allow them to speak until he checks you out." With that she gave me some pills and left.

I settled back down into the pillows contemplative. I absently swallowed my pills rinsing the after taste out with water. My real thoughts were on what had happened. Someone had tried to kill me that I was positive with. Why I didn't know. The other subject was my Father and Ned. What were they doing here? Better yet what was Ned doing with my Father? Hannah never mentioned anything about it to me.

As I was thinking the very two people I was thinking about showed up. Agent Duric and Kenneth were with them as well as Frank. My Father, Ned, and Frank were all reserved as they stood in the background as Duric and Michael Kenneth gushed over me.

Michael Kenneth was an agent in his thirties, over six feet, muscular, with chestnut hair and sea-blue eyes. He was reserved and looked like a regular good ole regular Joe, but behind that demeanor he could be ruthless as the criminals he prosecuted. No one wanted to piss him off. On the reverse side he could be funny, sarcastic, and a sweetheart who on birthdays would do something wacky. Michael was also one of my partners out in the field. He and I also had a relationship that extended outside of work.

After assuring both Michael and Duric that I was all right, they both excused themselves but not before Michael shot me a sympathy look. I then turned to what I had begun to sarcastically call them the three Musketeers. Maybe I wasn't being one hundred percent fair to them, but then neither were they being fair to me either. I knew they all cared about me but they needed to get over this crap of Nancy can't fight criminals, it is to dangerous let men deal with it. For all the garbage that the FBI got about sexism, the people I worked for were more fair then my Father Frank and Ned.

My Father was the first to speak. "I'm glad to se your all right Nancy," he said awkwardly. "Maybe this is a good time to point out the dangers of what you do though." He started.

Before I could cut him off Frank barged in. "Carson with all due respect she did do a pretty good job last night. Yes, this is dangerous but maybe we should give her a chance."

Since when had he and my father been on a first name business? And since when had Frank decided to come to my defense? I didn't even have a chance to cut in when Ned started too.

"Oh please, so we wait until she gets herself killed? For god sakes she was just shot at!" he cried out.

"Umm, excuse me I'm still here you know, in the room." I cut in but they ignored me as they were to busy arguing amongst themselves. Being the invalid that I was I did the only thing I could do. I pressed the call button. At that moment Dr. Brain came in bringing the argument to a swift close and thankfully ushering everyone out.

He then turned to me "I see you have a fan club Miss Drew," he said with a twinkle in his eye. He then proceeded to check me out. "The only thing that is wrong with you is your arm. I would like to keep you here over night to make sure you have no infection. You're lucky the bullet only grazed your arm. It looked worse then it actually was. It also helps you're very resilient," he added before leaving.

After the doctor left Michael returned without the entourage of testosterone.

"How are you?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm good. My arm hurts a little but nothing to big," I said even laughing a little bit. "Did you find anything?"

"Yes, we did find the shell casings of the gun he used."

"He? How do you know it's a he?"

"People saw him. He was tall Caucasian male with blonde hair," Michael recited from memory.

I sat and pondered the description not liking where my thoughts were going. We made some small talk and then he left to get back to the office. I took a short nap and was woken up when the nurse had some pills for me to take. I found out that the Three Musketeers had left leaving me in blissful silence. That is when I realized I had the perfect opportunity to call Hannah. I dialed the number and heard the voice of comfort that had raised me since I was a toddler.

"Oh! Nancy! I'm so glad you're all right! I was so worried!" Hannah exclaimed.

After reassuring her it was nothing just a graze I started asking her questions. "Since when has Ned worked for my father, Hannah?"

" A couple months ago he started. You remember how bright he was and how close Ned and your father are. Why they go out to lunch once a week with Frank." Hannah said.

Yeah I remembered how close they were, I thought. I talked for a few more minutes with Hannah and then hung up. I then called my professors who said they would e-mail me my assignments. After I was done with the phone calls I sat back to think. It had been two years ago since I had been on the best terms with everyone including George and Bess who with a sinking heart I realized hadn't even come to see me. I remember the argument that had started it all.

I had just finished a dangerous case involving a doctor who was taking organs from people and selling them over seas. I had almost become one of those people, Frank and Joe had saved me at the last second almost endangering themselves in the process. Ned Bess and George had also been involved and had come out of the ordeal with a fair amount of scrapes and bruises. That's when my father told me he wanted me to stop my detective work (it hadn't helped that Chief McGinnis had been furious as well). He said it was to dangerous that I belonged going to school, having a respectable career as a lawyer, and being a mother. That something as frivolous as an amateur career in crime was going to and did get people around me hurt. Ned and Frank supported him wholeheartedly. They had all ganged up on me and come within an inch of bashing my career and me. I wasn't going to take it so I moved out.

I listened to two things he had said, the going to school and I was going to get my friends hurt. I never saw George and Bess though they go to the same college I go to. I had erased my whole life for the exception of Hannah no matter what I couldn't let her go. A year and a half ago I met Duric who recruited me for the FBI. After I get my degree I'm going to become a full-fledged agent. I just wish my father would support me or at least begrudge me a little respect.

Deciding I needed a change of subject I thought over what Michael had told me about the shooter. I kept going over and over the description in my mind but it didn't make sense. I supposed nothing did anymore. Why would Joe Hardy shoot at me?

love kat