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: Thank you for your reviews. I'm glad that you all are supportive of this story. I especially appreciate all of the constructive reviews that I have been receiving, they really help motivate and encourage me.

I am so sorry about the delay that I promised wouldn't happen again. To make up for it, I bring you the double update.

For the purposes of this chapter, the people in Nancy's apartment building are very sound sleepers.

Warning: One could say that this chapter delves into content that is a bit more adult. This is situational mostly but may also contain some language.

Italics are thoughts.

Chapter Six

When Nancy regained consciousness, it took her a moment to realize that she had in fact, lost consciousness. All of the signs were there; a throbbing headache and slight nausea were the first things that she noticed. However when she awoke she was lying on her bed with her blankets and sheets tangled at her feet as they were every morning, and she heard a soft music was playing from her clock radio. It took some time for her to register that there was no light coming from the windows, and she was still in her work clothing. It was then that she remembered that she hadn't made the bed that morning, and the events leading to her blackout came rushing back to her. She had been hit over the head.

At that moment Nancy decided to sit up as quickly as possible, which didn't quite work. First of all, the quick movements brought on a wave of dizziness. Second, she was snapped right back down to the bed by a tug at her wrists. "Oh damn." She muttered under her breath.

A low, decidedly male chuckle entered her ears, alerting her to another presence. "Sorry about the cuffs, Nance."

Nancy allowed her head to fall to the side so she was staring at the man sitting next to her bed. "Tom? What are you…" Nancy trailed off as realization dawned on her. Frank was right. Damn.

"Doing?" Tom finished with a slight grin that quickly faded as he continued with his next sentence. "I'm just taking care of business. You know, getting rid of you, but first doing what I will with you…the usual."

"And the handcuffs? Are they part of the usual?" Nancy chose to remain casual if not slightly sardonic, until she could get a better read on the situation.

Tom got out of his chair. "Actually those are special for you. I anticipated quite a bit of work with you and I didn't want to risk any issues. According to my sources, you're a feisty one."

"What exactly do you have planned that requires such…restraints?"

"Well, I'd like to start by getting some information."

"Such as?"

"How long have you been investigating me?"

Nancy swallowed. It was very unfortunate, and extremely bad, that he had already figured that out. She then started her unconvincing argument. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a d--,"

"Detective." Tom cut her off, sitting next to her on the bed. "Yeah. I know about that. I found out last night as a matter of fact. And then I had my sources look you up and we found out that you work for that insipid O'Neil." He paused, but didn't give her time to speak. "You know, Dr. Millet is the one who actually told me that you were a detective. And he found out from your little detective friends that he hired." Tom seemed to take great pleasure in telling her this.

Nancy both inwardly cursed and smiled. Frank had been right; Tom did know that she was a detective. Granted it was entirely his fault that Tom knew, but still…he had been right. On the other hand, Tom was showing much more of his hand than he needed to, giving Nancy a lot more material to stall with. "When did you talk to Dr. Millet?" She asked carefully, hoping it wouldn't completely tip him off.

"I paid him a little visit last night." Tom seemed more eager to tell more on the subject than put off, which convinced Nancy to continue on that line of conversation.

"And you killed him."

"You catch on quick. O'Neil taught you well."

Nancy ignored the comment. "Why?"

"You should know that you were doing a very good job maintaining your cover. I went to his home last night thinking that he was O'Neil's plant. When he told me about you I knew that he wasn't, but I decided to use him as…target practice."

That's one mystery solved. You can thank me later Hardy. Nancy began to frown a bit more as it became more apparent that Tom was quite serious. "And is that what's going to happen to me?"

"No. I have better things planned for you." Tom's little smirk returned. "Besides, target practice would mar that body and face."

"And what do you have planned for me?" Nancy continued to ask questions. It wasn't getting her any closer to escaping, but it seemed to be keeping Tom from doing anything, and he wasn't finding any information that he didn't already know.

Tom moved once again so he was leaning down over her. "Well, I'm curious. O'Neil told you to go out with me, didn't he?"

"Yes." At this point, she knew that she might as well just tell him. He clearly knew and was only looking for clarification.

"He wanted you to get close to me, right? Become one of my closest confidantes?"

"And you were willing to do this?" With each question he got a little closer to Nancy.

Nancy refused to flinch as his hot breath made contact with her skin. She looked him in the eye with her own steely gaze. "I went on the date, didn't I?"

"Yes…yes you did. And you were very friendly with those kisses. Now I'm curious. How far were you going to go?" He again paused without giving her the time to answer. "Were you going to sleep with me? Were you going to do anything that it took if it meant that you were completing your mission?" He watched her reaction carefully. He placed both hands firmly on the bed, at either side of her head, his own head lowered to the point where his lips brushed against her ear as he spoke in a low whisper. " You were going to, weren't you? You know, normally, I'll only sleep with the girls who I know, know nothing. The cheap ones, you know? But since I hate to disappoint any whore…especially one with your face…I think I'll make an exception." At the end of the sentence his lips found her to crush in a bruising kiss.

In a series of movements, Nancy bit down on his tongue that had snaked its way into her mouth and brought her knees up into his chest, forcing him to back away from her.

"You little--," Tom was cut off by a loud crash in the living room. "Wait here." He turned and left the room.

The second he was gone Nancy began to attempt and pull her hands through the handcuffs with little success. As she worked she could hear various crashes and grunts that ensured her that not only was someone fighting with Tom, but they were destroying her apartment in the process. As the fight continued her curiosity got stronger and her progress in freeing herself only seemed to worsen. Finally there was a thud, and then silence.

Nancy stopped her struggles, waiting for the victor of the fight to appear. It only took a moment before he stood in the doorway, sporting a split lip, but otherwise looking no worse for the wear. "Well…can't say that this is what I expected to see when I came in here."

She rolled her eyes at her rescuer's smirk. "You know, I'm going to get enough of that from your brother once he gets wind of this, so if you could just help me out of these cuffs…"

"But of course." Joe Hardy entered the room, looking over the captive doctor. "What happened?"

"My prince of a date knocked me out and chained me to the bed."

"The guy out cold on your living room floor? I knew there was a reason I didn't like him."

"Other than the fact that I was assigned to monitor his illegal activities?"

"Well…there is that." Joe glanced around. "Got anything I can use to get you out of those?"

"There should be some bobby pins on my dresser."

Joe turned and went towards said item of furniture. "So are you OK?" he asked quietly, searching the top of the dresser's cluttered contents.

"I might have a concussion." Nancy reviewed her symptoms mentally. "And my arms are falling asleep."

"I'm working on it." Joe stopped his search as his cell phone rang. "Bet it's Frank." He pulled the phone out of his pocket. "Hello…Hi Frank…" He turned and winked at Nancy before once more returning to his search. "I'm with Nancy…Yeah, she's fine…At her apartment…Well I wasn't exactly invited, I just surprised her…Yes, in the middle of the night…I'm not hiding anything from you…Can you talk to Nancy?..." Joe turned to see Nancy shake her head. "No, you can't talk to Nancy…She's a little tied up right now and I really have to go take care of that." Joe's hand clasped around a hairpin and he turned once more to walk towards Nancy. "Get some rest Frank…Yes, I'll be getting rest too…Goodbye Frank."

"What was that all about?" Nancy asked as Joe started work on one of her wrists.

Joe quickly searched the cuff for the keyhole before starting his work. "I only figured out where you were after Frank fell asleep, and I didn't wake him before I left due to the fact that you two don't know how to get along with each other and I really wanted to mess with him some more."

"Mess with him?"

"Yeah. Somehow he got in his head that you and I are having some sort of torrid love affair. From what I can tell it's pretty easy to get him all riled up."

"How did he get that idea?"

"You're asking me to tell you how my brother's mind works?"

"Well it probably spouted from the fact that I just 'give myself away to no one special'."

Joe frowned. "You didn't actually listen to that crap from my brother did you?"

"Well not exactly…" Tom just fed it to me too.

"You just quoted him."

"It's been playing in my head all day." Nancy sighed in defeat.

"Nancy…" Joe gently chastised, lowering her newly freed hand down to the bed and then going to the other side to work there.

"He's right Joe. I hit him because I was mad that he said it, but it's true." Her head swiveled to follow him. "Before I went to school I had only kissed a handful of people and I had relationships with all of them. Now if it's for a case, I'll flirt with and kiss anyone."

"You didn't have a relationship with my brother."

"What?"

"Well, you've kissed Frank haven't you?"

"We were pretending to be married."

"Not at that ski lodge you weren't."

"How did you--,"

"You expected Bess to keep her mouth shut?"

I knew I shouldn't have told her. "You are not helping."

"Well maybe the reason Frank's going all crazy is because of the fact that he's jealous. He hasn't gotten the relationship with you…"

"You've been talking to Bess haven't you?"

"Well, it's a very plausible theory." Joe paused, sighing. "Nance, I think that you can't take anything that Frank is saying very seriously right now. I'm no doctor but I think that somewhere in the course of seeing you again he's had some sort of psychotic break. He's become very obsessed with hair. Yours in particular."

"Well that's because her hair is very nice." Two heads snapped in the direction of the doorway. They found the source of the voice to be a revived Tom, holding a gun. "I'm very sorry to breakup the Oprah moment but I have to teach Mr. Hardy a few things about subduing an enemy and then you and I have some unfinished work to attend to."

This is ridiculous. Nancy stood from her bed in the Emergency room of the hospital where she normally worked but was currently a patient, and went over to a storage cabinet. She was tired of waiting.

"Nancy, I don't think that you're supposed to be up." Joe reprimanded from his own bed. He was lying there patiently reviewing the night's events. "I believe the doctor's exact words were, 'stay in bed and rest until the test results come back for both of you. That means no working Dr. Drew.'"

"That wasn't a doctor it was a third year medical student." Nancy quickly corrected. And we're waiting for nothing. You have a bruise."

"More than one." Joe winced, thinking back on the fights he had participated in at Nancy's apartment. "And some small cuts."

Nancy rolled her eyes. "In any case they're minor and you don't have to be here." She turned back holding an ace bandage and a box of band aids. She tossed the band aids to him. "Here. I give you full permission to patch yourself up." She then sat and removed an ice pack from her wrist, beginning the process of wrapping it.

Joe watched as she worked. He had to admit it was a little concerning to see her act so naturally after everything that had happened that night; even he had been shaken up by it and planned on spending a good long time with Camilla when she was released later that day. "Nance, don't you think that you should take it easy? Take the day off and recover?" He asked the question carefully, knowing that he was probably treading in dangerous territory, and he definitely didn't want to set her off. During the second round with Tom he had seen what she was capable of and he did not want to be on the receiving end of it.

"Why?"

"Well…it was a long night." And you killed that guy. Let's start with that. "You fought a lot, and got hit over the head…" He treaded lightly avoiding the topic of how she had shot Tom when Tom was in fact about to shoot him. He had never thought of Nancy as someone who could kill, let alone as someone who would own a gun. Joe also knew that Nancy clearly hadn't thought that much about it either; for a few moments directly after the shot was fired he had seen a mixture of horror and other emotions on her face that seemed to turn into a hardened gaze the second O'Neil and his men had burst through the door. It was for that reason that he knew the evening was affecting her more than she was about to admit. "You don't think that you could just take a break for one day? Even O'Neil said you should think about it."

Nancy sighed. "Joe, I don't think that me taking the day off is going to help anyone. Especially my patients." She paused, putting a smile on her face. "Besides, you should be thinking about yourself and your family. Camilla gets released today. Why don't you focus on how you're going to spoil her while she finishes recovering, while I go get some forms to get us out of here?"

She left the room quickly before Joe could say anything. "OK…so I take it that means you don't want to talk about it."

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