A/N: Just a quick little (ten page) N/J one-shot that's been floating around in my head for the past few weeks. I was thinking about the N/F scenario in the Last Resort and wondered what would happen if Nancy and Joe were in sort of the same boat (haha). Not meant to be a literary work of art, just a fix for all my Nancy/ Joe homies out there, lol. Hope it entertains you.
A/N: Thanks to my friend Danie for the sociological opinions / advice / sick and twisted delusions she gave me on this one. Without her, this story might have been a little more survival story-ish than it really needed to be. In a grotesque way, I might add. Also, it is not based on her in any way. ; D
Disclaimer: Not mine.
"Ugh." Joe Hardy groaned, stirring wearily on the cold wooden floor. His head was pounding, and he brought a hand to the lump on his crown and slowly opened his eyes to see a cloudy gray sky above him. "What hit me?" He closed his eyes again as the floor rocked gently beneath him.
Rocking...
Joe suddenly bolted upright, causing his head to spin and his vision to blur. Once the dizziness had passed, however, he was able to look around, and he didn't like what he saw.
He was in a boat. A small boat. An inflatable rubber boat with a wooden interior, such as were used for lifeboats on some ships. Even worse, he thought, looking all around him: he was on the open ocean, with no land in sight!
A slight movement from the other side of the boat caught his attention, and he was startled to see an unconscious Nancy Drew lying a few feet away. "Nan!" he cried, scooting towards her. He took her wrist and felt for a pulse. It was there, beating strong. Joe looked her over carefully, seeing a few bruises and rope burns but nothing serious. Her face was smudged with dirt, and a few long strands of reddish-blonde hair had escaped her braid. Her clothes were a little ragged, as they were the same ones she'd been wearing when she was kidnapped five days ago.
"Nancy, wake up!" Joe said urgently. He pulled her head into his lap gently and started patting her face. "Nancy!" There was movement behind her eyelids, but her eyes did not open. Sighing, Joe reached over the edge of the boat and trailed his fingers in the frigid north-Atlantic ocean, then flicked the drops of cold water onto her face, shaking her gently. "Nancy."
It worked. Nancy's warm blue eyes flickered open and met Joe's. "Ow." she breathed. "Joe? What are you doing here? What happened?" Before Joe could answer, she sat up gingerly and surveyed their surroundings. "Oh, god."
"Yeah." Joe agreed. He pulled himself onto one of the two benches and she did the same, sitting opposite him with her head in her hands. "I don't know where we are, Nan."
Nancy tried to quell the panic she felt rising within her. "What are we going to do?" she asked loudly. The sea wind swirled around her, blowing her loose hair across her face and penetrating her light sweater and jeans. "We could easily freeze to death out here before we get found! No one will know where to look!"
"I don't know." Joe replied weakly. It seemed like a hopeless situation: they were two tiny specks in a minuscule rowboat somewhere amidst miles and miles of freezing ocean. He suddenly felt panicked as well. To stop himself, he tried to think, what would Frank do? His older brother, Frank Hardy, was the logical, level-headed one of the pair. First he would see what kind of resources we have. Joe had an idea. "Aren't there usually some kind of reserve supplies in lifeboats?" he asked hopefully.
Nancy frowned and nodded. "You're right." She wondered why she hadn't thought of that. It had been a long week.
The two teenagers looked around for the extra supplies and finally found them in a compartment under Joe's seat. It contained a pair of lifejackets, a small woolen blanket, a roll of crackers, and less than half of an already-opened gallon jug of water. Joe and Nancy looked at each other in alarm as the same thought hit them at the same time: forget freezing to death- it would take less time to die of thirst! Joe silently put the supplies back in the compartment and closed it up.
"What can we do?" Nancy asked around a lump in her throat.
"Nothing." Joe answered grimly. "We don't know where we are. We have no way to contact anyone." he gestured to the empty rings on the sides of the boat where the oars should be. "Even if we had oars, we wouldn't know which way to row. Let's face it: we're helpless."
Nancy briefly wondered if Joe was channeling Frank's spirit. Joe hated to admit he was helpless. "I guess the best thing we can do is try to conserve water... Luckily sweating won't be a problem." she murmured, rubbing her hands together for the warmth of the friction.
"Yeah..." Joe stood again and took the scratchy woolen blanket from beneath his seat and handed it to Nancy. At least he was dressed for the chilly autumn weather in a jacket.
She gratefully draped it around herself. "Thanks. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm warm enough." Joe replied. Though she hid it well, Joe could see that Nancy was distressed. He tried to distract her. "I'm glad to see you. After five days, we were beginning to get worried."
"I was a little worried myself." Nancy said. "So what happened? How did you find me?"
"Well, you'll have to fill in the details about your own kidnapping." Joe replied. "But after Frank and I realized you'd been kidnapped we had no idea who'd done it, but we figured it was related to our case." Nancy nodded and Joe continued. "So we took our suspects and checked them out one by one. We couldn't find any clues to where you were, though, until Frank spotted your button in the boathouse."
Nancy smiled, looking down at her light turquoise sweater. It was missing a button. "I hoped you would find it."
Joe grinned. "Have we ever let you down?" He meant it to sound joking, but Nancy evidently took it seriously.
"No..." she answered softly. "You haven't."
Something in her words made Joe's heart beat a little faster. He continued quickly. "So we checked out the boats on the arena, thinking you must be on one of them. We decided to cross check the arrival/ departure schedules to see which boats had been docked there when you'd been kidnapped, and saw The Sea Lion, which, incidentally, belonged to Scott Marston."
"One of our original suspects." Nancy remembered.
"Right." Joe said. "So we knew it had to be him. Anyway, we sneaked onto the ship last night to rescue you and to find enough evidence to put Scott away. Frank and I decided to split up."
"Ohh." Nancy interjected understandingly.
"I don't really remember much of what happened after that." Joe mused. "I guess I was knocked out. Next thing I knew, I was here with you... I only wish I knew where Frank is now..."
Nancy's lips tightened and she took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm sure he's fine. Probably he already got Scott arrested and is looking for us..."
Joe cracked a weak smile. "Probably." So much for keeping her mind off the situation; he had just managed to get himself worked up!
There was an almost tangible silence, broken only by the occasional splash of the waves. Finally Joe said, "Nice guy. Putting us in a boat and floating us out to sea..."
"Maybe he knew he was about to be discovered and wanted to get rid of the evidence: us." Nancy speculated.
"Nah, I bet this boat has The Sea Lion painted on the side. It'd be easy to trace it to him. I bet he just panicked." Joe said.
Or maybe he just wanted us to die. Neither one said it, but both were thinking it.
Joe suddenly realized that Nancy was still clutching his hand, and he gently pulled it away. Nancy was surprised at how cold she felt when their fingers lost contact.
"It's getting dark." Joe said a few minutes later. Both teens had been lost in their own separate thoughts and Joe had finally broken the silence.
Nancy was shaken out of her reverie. She glanced around and noticed for the first time that the gray daylight had almost completely faded. "Yes." she said simply. She clutched the blanket more tightly around her, knowing it was about to get even colder.
Despite Joe's jacket, he was feeling the cold as well. "Is it just me, or is the wind picking up?" he asked.
"It's not just you." Nancy said. The wind was blowing waves into the still ocean. Nancy leaned down to trail a finger in the water. "The ocean is starting to feel warm."
"Wonderful." Joe sighed. "Well, we might as well try to get some sleep. No use sitting here thinking about how cold, thirsty, and doomed we are."
Nancy frowned. "Don't say that."
Joe ignored her as he tried to get comfortable on the hard wooden bench, drawing his jacket closer to him.
"I have a better idea." Nancy said after a moment of watching his struggle. She slid off her bench and onto the floor gingerly, being careful not to upset the boat. Leaning her back against the boat's inflatable rubber side, she motioned for Joe to sit next to her. Then she spread the blanket over them both.
"This is better." Joe acknowledged, feeling the cold dissipate from his limbs. He hated to admit it, but the heat from her body made a big difference.
Nancy smiled for the first time in hours, casually leaning her head against Joe's shoulder. Joe's eyes, startled, snapped to hers. "What's wrong?" Nancy asked. "Besides the obvious." she amended.
Joe shrugged, and Nancy thought she detected the faintest trace of a blush, although by now it was dark. "Just thinking. About Frank." he answered honestly.
"Mmm?" Nancy murmured. "What about Frank?"
"He has no backup." Joe replied simply.
Nancy's heart twisted at the implied feeling behind his statement. She didn't like to think of Frank having to work alone either. In the detective business, that was a deadly risk. "I'm worried too." she said finally. But she knew her feelings had nothing on Joe's. She sometimes forgot that not only were Frank and Joe brothers, they were best friends. And, being polar opposites, they made one hell of a team- a team that didn't like to be separated.
Joe turned his head to look at her, her face illuminated only by the small patch of moonlight uncovered by the thick dark clouds. He had stumbled upon the opportunity to ask the question he'd been wondering about for a while now. Oh, well, I'll be dead soon anyway. What's the worst she can do to me? "Do you have a thing for Frank?"
Nancy drew in a short breath, then let it out again. "I figured you of all people would know that I don't." she said stiffly.
"What?" Joe said. "Why?"
"Because you know Frank." Nancy answered. "And you know me... You know how similar we are, in terms of the way we think and act, and our interests, and everything. And it's refreshing, to be able to work with someone who knows me so well."
Joe raised his eyebrows, a little concerned. It seemed like Nancy had something she wanted to get off of her chest.
"But people are constantly pushing us together because we're so alike." Nancy continued. "I think we even did it to ourselves for a while, before we discovered that while we have chemistry, it's not the romantic kind. We're just really good friends. Like we're constantly telling everyone."
Joe could tell she was being completely honest with him, and he had the feeling he'd accidentally struck a nerve. "I'm sorry." he said earnestly. Then his voice turned to teasing and he quipped. "But can you blame us? I mean, you know what they say about birds of a feather..."
Nancy snorted. "'Opposites attract.'" she countered.
"Touché..."
She laughed, and the sound seemed to shatter the lonely stillness of the dark ocean. Joe couldn't figure out how she was doing it; laughing when they were only hours away from death somewhere in the salty, freezing waters of the Atlantic, but somehow it made him want to laugh too. His lips curled upward in a good-humored smirk, but the smile fell off his face when Nancy lifted her head from his shoulder to look straight into his eyes. "So, that." she said, a twinkle in her eye, "Is why Frank and I are not in love."
Her face was very close to Joe's and it was making him nervous. He swore he could feel his heartbeat speed up, wondered if she could feel it. "Do you really believe that?" he finally asked in a husky whisper. "That opposites attract?"
Nancy would have cocked an eyebrow and made a joke, but she was too confused by the look on Joe's face to do anything but answer, "Yes." Their lips were so close now that it would take very little effort for her to close the gap between them. The thought surprised her; shocked her. She had never really thought of Joe in that way before. She wondered if he'd ever thought of her that way, if he was tempted to kiss her right now... She turned her head suddenly, to hide the blush she knew was creeping across her cheeks.
Joe turned his head away as well, sensing that she was sending him a clear signal. Embarrassed for thinking about his friend that way. His good mood suddenly gone, he leaned his head against his bench and closed his eyes. "Good night, Nan."
"Well, I don't know if I'd say that." Nancy joked, but Joe didn't respond. In just a few minutes, his breathing had slowed and Nancy knew he was sleeping, albeit uncomfortably. What had just happened? She wanted to analyze the situation, but felt too tired to sort out romantic endeavors in her mind. And she was so cold... Trying to maneuver so that the blanket was covering both of them, Nancy attempted to sleep. She knew she would need it.
Joe awoke the next morning feeling cold and stiff. Painfully, he untangled himself from Nancy, who seemed to have wrapped herself around him during the night. It was only about 7 am, as he guessed from the angle of the sun, and the morning chill cut right through his clothes, which were damp with dew. He gave a sudden start before he realized that even between his and Nancy's clothes and the blanket, they'd never be able to collect even a drop of dew to drink.
He almost groaned aloud: the thought made him even thirstier than he was already- his mouth and throat were uncomfortably dry and his lips were cracked and stinging from the salt air. He thought of the half-gallon of fresh water under the seat. That was barely anything, especially split between him and Nancy. The sloshing sound of the ocean was annoying him beyond belief: it was the sound of millions and millions of gallons of undrinkable water. Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink. Joe sighed. He hated irony.
Nancy stirred on the floor at his feet and her stomach growled loudly. Joe frowned- he had forgotten to ask her when she'd last eaten. Oh, well, her kidnappers must have fed her something, or she'd be a whole lot weaker than she was now, Joe reminded himself.
He lay back down on the floor miserably. What else could he do? Any activity would just expend the energy he had and cause him to die even quicker. The feeling of hopelessness was starting to sink in now... Yesterday home hadn't seemed so far away; they'd been in worse situations than this before, certainly. But waking up freezing in the middle of nowhere with barely any food and even less fresh water really made you appreciate land.
Nancy rolled over and opened her eyes. Joe could see they were bloodshot... from crying or a symptom of dehydration?
"Good morning." she rasped. God, her head ached.
"I don't know if I'd say that." Joe replied, getting a half-smile from her.
Nancy rolled onto her back and her stomach growled again. "We're in big trouble aren't we." she said, making a statement rather than asking a question.
"Don't bother getting up." Joe murmured. "There's nothing to see, and it's colder up there where the wind can get to you."
Nancy was feeling achy and sluggish anyway- she had no problem staying in "bed". Besides, where would she go? Ignoring the chill, Nancy just reached down and found the blanket, pulling it back over herself and Joe. Then she closed her eyes... drifting...
When Nancy woke again the clouds were covering the sun, but she could tell it had already passed overhead. She felt rather than heard Joe rustle beside her. "How long have you been awake?" Her throat was bone-dry, and the question came out as a hoarse whisper.
"I don't know." Joe answered, his voice only a little less pained than hers. "A while. It must be after three o'clock."
"What!" Nancy croaked. "How could we have slept that long?"
Joe shrugged. "Cold. No food. No water. No energy."
Nancy stretched her limbs, feeling the ache all over. Her head was throbbing, whether from the knockout blow yesterday morning or the extreme thirst she didn't know. She hadn't eaten in over a day now, and her stomach was killing her. Even her skin hurt. It felt dusty and painfully dry, and for a second Nancy had a crazy fantasy of taking a dip in the ocean, just to get the dry out. But she knew that the salty water would just make her skin burn more. And while the sides of the boat succeeded on keeping out much of the wind, it couldn't keep out the cold air, which just made the dry feeling worse. "Joe..."
Joe propped his head up on his hand. "Nancy, I think we should take a drink. Especially you. You sound terrible."
Nancy silently cursed whoever had opened the jug of water. A sudden thought came to her. "What if he poisoned it?" she asked. "You know, before setting us adrift?"
Joe shook his head slowly. "Why would he do that?" He sat up. "Besides, at this point I don't really care. As long as it's wet poison, I'll take it." He fished the jug out of the compartment and set it carefully on the ground between himself and Nancy. "You go first." he told her.
"How much should we save?" Nancy asked weakly, staring at the fresh water sloshing around in the container, mesmerized.
"I don't know." Joe said. "Some." He was beginning to wonder if it was worth the drawn-out agony, if they shouldn't just give up now and drown themselves. At least that would be over in three minutes- it takes dehydration three days to kill you.
Nancy opened the jug carefully and took a mouthful of water, being careful not to spill any. She closed her eyes and swallowed it slowly, then handed the jug to Joe, who did the same. He passed it back to her and she gave him a questioning look.
"You can live three days without water, right?" Joe said. "Well, we're halfway there. You might as well drink a little more."
They both had a bit more water and though they couldn't feel a big difference in their bodies, it had a positive effect on their moods. They, reluctantly, decided not to eat the crackers, since it would take water to digest them. But by the time the sun set that day, both teens were fast asleep, in a near-unconscious state from the toll that had been taken on their bodies.
The next day Nancy woke up early, shivering at the intensity of the wind. Day was dawning, but there was no sunrise to distract her. The sky was the same ominous gray it had been yesterday. Not wanting to wake Joe and too cold and hungry to go back to sleep, she simply cuddled close to his sleeping form and thought about the other night for the first time. Did she harbor romantic feelings for Frank Hardy's little brother? She almost laughed as she traced a single near-numb finger down the outline of his jaw: he was hardly "little" by her standards!
She supposed it made sense, in a way. After all, if Joe and Frank were opposites, didn't that also make her and Joe opposites? If Joe and Frank made a good team, wouldn't she and Joe make a good team as well? Don't opposites attract?
Oh, she found Joe Hardy attractive, there was no doubt about that. Her and half the girls he'd ever met. There was something about him- a vivacity, an excitement- which, combined with his charm and blond good looks, was enough to make any girl fall for him. But there was something else, too, pride, and sensitivity, and respect. But Nancy had never expected to be one of Joe Hardy's drooling fangirls, and still, she guessed she wasn't. She knew Joe respected her as a friend and as a detective, and Joe's admiration had to be earned, she was sure of that!
But her and Joe-? Nancy's mind wandered and she smiled at the thought of what certain people would think of her being with the "wrong" Hardy!
Splat.
Nancy looked up, startled by the noise. What-?
Plop.
A large raindrop fell on the wooden plank in front of her and shattered into tiny droplets. Nancy looked up at the sky, hardly able to believe her eyes. It was raining!
And raining hard, she amended as a sudden torrent of water cascaded from the clouds. No lightning, no thunder, just a freak rainstorm just when she needed it the most...
"Joe!" she shrieked, leaping up and turning her face towards the sky to let the cold rain soothe her irritated skin.
Joe raised his head only to get slapped in the face by the heavy rainfall, and he too jumped up, suddenly revitalized with energy. "Nancy!"
Nancy was collecting the water in her hands and drinking as much as she could catch. Eventually, she had to remind herself that drinking too much too fast could make her just as sick as she'd felt before she drank anything, but at the moment she didn't care.
Joe, thinking again of what Frank would do, pulled the water jug from its spot and opened it up, letting the rainwater fall into the near-empty container. Searching for something else to collect water in, he shrugged and stepped out of his sneakers. "Hey, Nan!" he called over the sound of the rain. "Take off your shoes!"
Nancy was puzzled for a moment but realized that when the rain stopped, she and Joe would be glad of fresh water anywhere they could get it: including from their shoes! Kicking off the indicated footwear, Nancy cried, "Isn't it a miracle!" She was laughing with relief.
Joe whooped loudly. "Yeah it is!" He smiled broadly at the girl standing before him in all her drowned rat-esque glory, knowing that he must look just as bad.
Before Nancy knew what had hit her Joe had grabbed her around the waist and pulled her body to his, planting a deep kiss on her lips. Reacting quickly, she brought one hand to cup his face and the other she buried in his dripping blond hair, pulling him closer. They kissed until they were breathless, gasping and lightheaded. "Nancy..." Joe breathed.
The tone of his voice just made her want to kiss him again, but she restrained herself somewhat, instead just wrapping an arm around his waist and leaning into his chest. Without warning, a gust of frigid wind blew through the sopping-wet pair. Suddenly the near-perfect moment was over, replaced by a familiar sinking feeling in her already-distressed stomach and she groaned. "We're going to freeze to death." In her excitement over the rain and Joe, she had forgotten the cold.
Joe sank down to the floor, pulling Nancy into his lap. Cradling her in his arms, he kissed her again, harder, with more gravity. Then he pulled back and shot her a wink. "How can you be cold?" he joked. But the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. He knew as well as she did that the cold, wet clothing could induce hypothermia in no time. "We're not going to die. Not now." he said determinedly.
"What can we do?" Nancy murmured into his neck, the rain still pouring down around them.
Joe furrowed his brow and frowned grimly, suggesting, "Get out of this wet clothing?" He wasn't joking.
"I don't th-" Nancy gasped. "I don't think that will be necessary..."
Joe turned around to witness the most beautiful sight he had ever seen: a boat was on the horizon, coming toward them! He and Nancy leaped up, waving their arms and shouting wildly. Could the boat see them from there?
It took a long few minutes of frantic tension before the boat changed course: ever-so-slightly towards the little lifeboat. It could definitely see them, Nancy decided, beaming happily as the small boat continued to bear down on them.
An hour later the pair were standing on the bridge of the small boat, wearing oversized, but dry, clothes and jackets. They were listening to the boat's red-haired female skipper talk into the radio.
"This is the Christie Lee to Coast Guard." she said firmly. "We've picked up a pair of teenagers in a lifeboat just off East Avalon Rise-" Nancy and Joe listened tensely as she recited their coordinates. "Two, a male and a female, names of Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew, both in good condition." The captain repeated the message over again until the radio crackled to life. "Oh, yes! Now we're in business." she said triumphantly, grinning at her two passengers, who smiled back weakly. "It's so hard to get a signal in this kind of weather."
The intense rainstorm had turned into a full-blown thunderstorm. Staring out the window, Nancy gave a silent prayer of thanks that she and Joe weren't out there now. Now all she could hope was that they could return home to find Scott Marston in jail and Frank safe... sneaking a glance at Joe's tense expression, she could tell he was thinking about Frank too.
She snapped back to reality as a Coast Guard member answered the captain's call. "Coast Guard 11 to the Christie Lee... Is the situation under control?"
The captain assured him that it was, and that she could have them back in Bayport in as early as six hours, less if the rain let up.
"Good work." the crackly voice congratulated her. "There's been quite a search going on for those two... You can tell them that a young man named Frank Hardy seems pretty eager to see them."
Joe hooted, lifting Nancy into the air and swinging her around. She grinned broadly. "I told you he'd be okay."
"And she's right again." Joe conceded.
In the background, the Coast Guard signed off and the young redheaded captain meandered over to them, eying them closely. "Okay, you guys... So what were you doing out there all alone in the first place?" she gave them a sly grin that told them exactly what she thought they'd been doing.
Joe just shot her a wink and slipped his arm around Nancy. Nancy rolled her eyes at the both of them. "You wouldn't believe us if we told you." she assured her. I barely believe it... She cast a glance at Joe, wondering for the first time if it was all a fluke, if once they were back in Bayport it would be like everything... the kiss... never even happened.
Joe sensed her eyes on him and, looking down at her, gave her hip a reassuring squeeze that sent a tingle up her spine and relieved her of that worry. Just then her stomach growled painfully and she grinned guiltily. "Who's up for some crackers?" she asked, only half-joking, taking a step towards the door.
"You know it." Joe agreed, following her out. "As long as they're not saltines..."
The red-haired captain smirked after them and resumed her place at the helm. It's weird, she thought offhandedly as she ran her hand over the smooth wood of the wheel, if I'd met them under any other circumstances I'd have thought they had nothing in common!
She sighed. Shame, too. That Joe Hardy is so cute...
A/N: Please review and tell me what you think! (Try not to flame, though. I just get annoyed.)