Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Wow. This was THE HARDEST THING I ever tried to write. Even harder than the time I wrote that oral report on Helen Keller and then lost my notecards the day of the presentation. But you didn't need to know about that. What you might need to know is that what I did here was condense the next five years of Nancy and Joe's lives into one chapter. It's harder than it sounds, trust me, and there's still something not quite right about it, but I think it gets all of the necessary information in, and besides, I want to move on to the good part. So, please read. Hope you like it.
Nancy and Joe were determined to find him. The morning after Frank's kidnapping his picture was in the Chicago Times. The day after that, his picture was on every tv screen in America, asking anyone who saw this young man to share their information with the police. Nancy and Joe were kept informed on the case's discouraging status. There was simply nothing to go on. No tire tracks, no evidence, and no witnesses, save themselves. Several people phoned in Frank sightings, and Joe or Nancy investigated each one personally, but to no avail. Joe logged on to the Network and ran a check on "O'Toole". There was no such person in the Network's database, and Joe and Nancy could only assume it was an alias.
Frank and Joe's Network contact, the Gray Man, held out little hope of finding Frank alive. "You don't know the Assassins like I do." he said sadly. "If revenge is all they're after, they'll have killed him quick and dumped the body. They aren't going to risk the slightest chance of him escaping. They have no reason to keep him. I'm sorry."
Hearing the Gray Man say it made it sink in. Joe had refused to accept that his brother might not come home. Until now. Joe, Nancy, and Frank's work had gotten them all kidnapped at one time or another, but this time was different. This was the Assassins, the most powerful terrorist group in the world, and they were exacting their revenge on the Hardys for the trouble they had caused over the years. The Assassins were not soft. They gave no second chances. No mercy.
Joe's girlfriend, Vanessa Bender, was the first to see him cry. She hugged him tightly and stroked his hair while he sobbed out his feelings of loss and helplessness. He couldn't help but feel guilty. Frank and Joe were more than brothers; they were best friends, confidantes, teammates. They would stand by each other to the end. How could Joe have stood there and let the Assassins take his brother? He should have done something, would gladly have taken a bullet if it meant giving Frank the chance to escape! The guilt made the pain so much more unbearable.
Nancy's rock was her father, Carson Drew, and her househeeper/surrogate mother, Hannah Gruen. Neither was ever too busy to listen as she bounced ideas off them or comfort her when she felt like there was nothing else she could do; nothing else she could give. Frank and Nancy had had a complicated relationship. Almost since they became friends they were more than friends. There was something special in their friendship; a mutual spark of attraction that left them just a step above platonic. At first, they pretended it wasn't there, that they were in love with their longtime sweethearts, but eventually, they broke down and faced up to what was in front of them all along: they were in love. They were alike in so many ways. Each understood how the other felt and thought. They feared for and defended each other with unspoken loyalty. How Nancy wished she had defended him more forcefully that day on the road! Her heart broke every day missing Frank and his clear, cool logic and sweet, dizzying kisses.
Frank's parents, Laura and Fenton Hardy, were devastated by their oldest son's disappearence. Laura always felt that her husband was bitter that despite his wonderful reputation as a private investigator, his government contacts, and his circle of friends and informers, he had been unsuccessful in finding Frank.
It had been a year since Frank was gone and the search continued. Nancy's and Joe's friends were scattered into different colleges all over the country. Joe had chosen (with his parents' reluctant consent) to move to River Heights to stay with the Drews, both to be closer to the investigation and to get away from the house, which he had learned to hate with Frank gone. Nancy and Joe attended local colleges to get their degrees, Joe's in law, Nancy's in criminal psychology.
By the third year anniversary of Frank's kidnapping, most people had given up on finding him at all. The police no longer had the manpower to keep up the search for one missing person. Frank's friends had pretty much come to terms with the idea that Frank was gone. Although Fenton and Laura missed their son terribly, would have been happy to know if he was alive, one way or the other, if only to set their minds at rest.
Joe kept at the investigation doggedly, knowing for sure that Frank would not have given up on him. Nancy was a bit resentful that everyone was moving on without Frank but she still understood that some people needed to let go. Nancy herself would not. She and Joe had more faith than that. They had grown closer, bonding over the loss of someone very important to them, and the investigation to find him. But no matter how much time they spent together, they hid their deepest grief, never quite opening up to each other.
Vanessa and Joe had been drifting apart over Frank's disappearance. For the first year, Joe had needed her shoulder to lean on, to cry on, and that brought them together, but after the initial shock, Joe stood on his own. Determined to find his brother, he and Nancy spent time following all sorts of leads and anonymous tips, traveling, searching, but always coming home empty-handed. The long distance between River Heights and Bayport didn't help either. Joe had no time or energy left for a girlfriend, and they both knew this. They split on good terms and without a fuss, but still leaving Joe distanced from even more of the people he loved.
One night, a few months after that, Nancy was coming back from the bathroom in the middle of the night when she heard noise coming from the living room. She investigated and found Joe asleep on the living room couch, tossing and turning. Nancy figured he was having a nightmare, so she shook him gently. "Joe? Wake up! It's only a dream."
Joe coughed and sat up, looking upset. "It's not only a dream." His eyes were red-rimmed, and Nancy felt bad about waking him up. He had been getting so little sleep already. Joe must have read her mind. "Thanks for waking me. I think about it enough when I'm awake." He buried his head in his hands.
Nancy didn't need to ask what he was talking about. "I dream about him all the time." she admitted.
Joe gritted his teeth in frustration. "I can't help thinking about what they must have done to Frank. Just watching them hurt him..." his voice cracked. "And the worst part is the voice. I hear it over and over." he trailed off, not meeting Nancy's gaze.
Nancy pulled him into a hug. Joe was always so determined, so stoic, it was easy to forget that he was still Frank's younger brother. "He was right." she said softly. "It is torture."
It had started then. Nancy and Joe grew closer. There was something there, not a spark, exactly, but a mutual respect and admiration that crept into their friendship when they weren't looking. They still worked on the case, working closely with the Network and capturing several high-ranking Assassins, but it was no good. The breaks in the case came farther and farther apart. People stopped calling in with sightings. And Nancy and Joe found themselves spending time together because they wanted to, not because they needed to. They talked about everything under the sun, not just Frank and the case. They even had fun together, doing things they had stopped when Frank went missing, like watching movies and ice skating. But when one did need to talk about Frank, the other would listen sympathetically.
Their friendship took a whole new turn one particularly bad day full of cold clues and false alarms. At the end of the day, Nancy slipped away to her bedroom to cry into her pillow. Joe followed her. "Nancy."
Nancy turned to look at him through bloodshot eyes. "I don't know if I can keep this up." she said, her voice thick with tears. "Every time we get a call, I think, this time could be it. This time it's really him. But it never is. It's too hard to hope anymore!" She deliberately avoided looking at Joe's face, fearing he'd be angry that she wanted to give up.
Joe sat next to her on the bed and enfolded her in his arms. He knew how she felt. The frustration of day after day of false hope would have discouraged anybody. "I understand." he murmured.
"I'm sorry." she whispered brokenly.
"I don't blame you for anything." Joe reassured her. "You've been great, Nan. You're one of the strongest people I know."
Surprised, Nancy looked up at Joe, only to see his blue eyes staring back into hers. And somehow, whether by instinct or magic, or something else all together, they drew closer, their lips coming together in a passionate kiss.
"It feels like a betrayal." Nancy confessed to Bess and George. Her two best friends, cousins Bess Marvin and George Fayne, had stood by her the whole time, visiting her frequently although they were in other colleges, Bess studying fashion design, George training to join the Chicago Police Department. "I loved... love... Frank. And Joe is his brother. But..."
Bess, the blonde, curvy romantic of the group, gave Nancy a hug. "Nancy, you know that Frank would have wanted you to be happy, and he would have wanted the same for Joe. If you two make each other happy... Nan, you're perfect for each other."
Nancy's face was a cross between amused and miserable. "There was a time when you said the same thing about Frank and me."
Bess smiled sadly. "That was a long time ago. I know you're feeling guilty, but you don't have to wait forever."
Athletic, dark-haired George nodded supportively. "You don't have to rush into anything." she said quietly. "But at least keep an open mind."
Nancy did keep an open mind, although thoughts of Frank still haunted her. Frank had gone missing, and she, his girlfriend, had fallen for his brother. What kind of person was she? She had to wonder what would happen if Frank did come back, although that chance grew slimmer and slimmer every day. Would Frank still love her? Would she still be in love with him?
Joe's mind was uneasy as well. He wanted to be with Nancy. Kiss her. Make her laugh, and hold her when she cried. But how could he make a move on his own brother's girlfriend? He knew it was more complicated, but that was how it felt. He couldn't shake the thought that if Frank hadn't been kidnapped, Nancy and Frank might have been married by now.
The twinges of guilt they felt didn't stop them from moving slowly forward, from chaste, almost friendly kisses to kisses full of intensity and longing. They had an unspoken agreement to keep their relationship semi-private. After all, if they themselves felt guilty about being together with Frank gone, how would others see it?
One day as they kissed on her back porch Nancy broke the kiss and met Joe's eyes. "We don't have to keep this a secret." she said, a bit breathlessly. "We have nothing to hide. We're not sneaking around behind Frank's back. Frank's not here. We don't have him. All we have is each other." Her voice took on a pleading tone, as though she was trying to convince herself as well as Joe.
"You're right, Nancy." Joe agreed thoughtfully, kissing her on the forehead. "I love you. That's nothing to be ashamed of." Nancy beamed at him, and Joe could almost ignore the guilt that came with that statement.
Several months after their relationship went public, Joe proposed to Nancy and she accepted. The media had a field day. Nancy and the Hardy boys were well known for their detective reputations, and had become local celebrities. So when the Chicago Times printed the wedding announcement, the tabloids came out with the inevitable stories about the alleged "Frank-Nancy-Joe" love triangle and all manner of outrageous stories painting Nancy as a whore and Joe as a blood traitor. The stories would almost be funny, Nancy thought, if only Frank were there to laugh with them. Of course, if Frank were there she might never have agreed to marry Joe in the first place. Now there was a guilty thought, but she found it didn't sting as much as it once had. She knew she would be happy with Joe, and she didn't want her past to change that.
The wedding was a small secluded ceremony in the chapel where Nancy's parents had been married. In attendance were Fenton and Laura Hardy, Carson Drew, Nancy's Aunt Eloise and Joe's Aunt Gertrude, Joe's friends Chet Morton, Phil Cohen, and Tony Prito, George, Bess (with her fiance Steven Wilson), and Vanessa (with her boyfriend, Jason Brown). Nancy wore a simple white dress with no train. Standing at the altar, smiling at each other, Nancy and Joe knew there were no regrets. For one day, they thought of themselves before Frank.
They bought a little house just outside of River Heights and lived in relative peace for the first year of their marriage, still getting the occasional "Frank sighting", but it was mostly quiet on the investigation front. Nancy continued to take psychology courses and everyone, Nancy most of all, was proud when Joe was accepted into a top law firm.
Married life suited them. They were affectionate. Sometimes they fought over silly things, just like they always had. One thing that never failed to astonish Joe was how well he and Nancy complemented each other. One's weaknesses were the other one's strengths. They worked well in tandem, like...well, like he and Frank had.
Neither had thought they could be happy again after Frank's disappearance, but both found that, curled up together in bed, they were happy after all. The biggest smudge on their happiness were the nightmares Nancy and Joe sometimes had. The dreams of Frank's kidnapping were still the one thing that could frustrate them to tears.
Or so they thought until the one person they most wanted to see showed up on their doorstep...
A/N: Whew! Well, that's four hours of my life I'll never get back... Please, you have no idea how much I would appreciate you reviewing this one. Thoughts, comments, questions, criticism, anyone? Thanks so much for reading!