Disclaimer: I do not own, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the characters associated with them, or any pop culture references I may choose to include.
Author's notes: Nothing yet. It's all self explanatory so far.
Prologue
"Nancy, come away from the window." Ned spoke quietly, looking at his longtime girlfriend, Nancy Drew. She had one hand holding back the plain white curtain, moonlight creating a shine on her reddish-blond hair. It came down to her shoulders like it always had; Nancy never changed. "Nancy, I need to talk to you, I'd like you to be facing me when I did it."
Nancy turned around, her hand falling from the curtain. "Ned, this isn't the time."
His face briefly fell. "Nancy, it hasn't been the time since the accident. Why can't it be the time now?"
"Because I want to talk to you, and I think mine's more important." She briefly smiled. "I got my college acceptance letters."
"And somehow you always know what I want to talk about."
"Well, I am the detective in this relationship."
Ned slipped his arms around Nancy while he smiled. "And what did old Emerson have to say about you?"
"I got in." Nancy slipped away from his arms slowly, hoping that he wouldn't notice. "They offered me a full scholarship."
"That's great!" Ned seemed ecstatic. "Now you can come to school with me and we can get an apartment off campus, and finally live together." He stopped his grin when he didn't see Nancy's. "What's wrong?"
"Ned…I'm not going to Emerson."
"What? Why not? Nancy we planned this all out. The only thing we were waiting on was your acceptance letter."
"We planned this out before the accident, Ned. I don't want to become a reporter or anything like that anymore. I need to change things. My life isn't going to last forever, especially if I keep up this lifestyle. I want to settle down; I want to have a life other than mysteries. I don't need everyone in my life worrying about me." Nancy tried explaining.
Ned shook his head. "Emerson has other programs. Nancy, we wanted this. You just need to find something new to study."
"I know." She nodded. "I just can't do it there. I'm sorry Ned." There was a short pause. " I think that we should break up."
"Nancy, what's going on? I don't understand. Why are you doing this? We're doing great." Ned protested despondently.
Nancy turned away. "Long distance relationships don't work." She sighed moving back to the window and pulling back the curtain, looking at the view of her street once more. She could hear Ned quietly objecting in the background. "Ned, I got into Oxford. Full scholarship." She made an even briefer pause than before. "Now you know as well as I do that if I were to go we wouldn't make it. Sometimes we barely do now." Now she turned back. "I'm going to go, Ned. And I think that the only logical thing to do with us is to break up."
For a moment Ned didn't say anything. It felt like his world was being destroyed. Then it occurred to him that there was one other option. "We could get married."
"And what? Just be husband and wife on opposite continents? Ned be reasonable." Nancy's blue eyes were showing sympathy; but it didn't seem to be what he needed.
"I am. I could do my senior year in the Emerson exchange program. It's not too late to register. We could get married and then live together over there and--"
"Ned," Nancy cut him off softly. " This is something that I want to do on my own. I've always had someone holding my hand every step of the way in my life. I need to try something new, without help. I know that this isn't what you want for us, but it makes sense to me. And I just need to do something right now that makes sense. I'm really sorry."
It took Ned a minute to respond; it was only after he realized how serious she was that he spoke. "It's alright. If you want this, then it's OK. Just make sure you write once in a while, OK? I still want to be your friend."
Nancy gave him a bittersweet smile. "I look forward to that."