Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, or the characters associated with them.

Author's notes: Thank you for all of the reviews and your support, I'm really glad that you all like the story so much.

A Vacation is Really Just a Case in an Exotic Location

Nancy set about unpacking her things in the beach bungalow she was staying in on South Andros Island. In the four days since she had shown up on the Hardys doorstep, they had organized a vacation, and done everything they could to make sure that she remained in good spirits. The brothers would be staying in the bungalow next door, and Nancy had promised to meet them on the beach as soon as she was unpacked.

She sighed a little as she began moving the clothes from suitcase to the dresser, feeling a little bit more despondent now that she was alone. It wasn't that she didn't want to be on vacation. She really needed a vacation. It was just that a vacation involved a lot of downtime, something that she didn't really want.

After pulling a sundress out of her bag, Nancy walked over to the closet and opened the door, where a figure darted out and shoved her to the side, into the dresser, before hurrying out the door.

Joe glanced over at his brother as they unpacked. Frank had been quiet and pensive since they had stopped in River Heights to get Nancy's things the day before. He was starting to get curious and annoyed with him. He wanted to know what had brought the mood on, because things had most definitely been interesting and surprising lately. He also wanted the normal Frank back; it was getting difficult to keep everything running smoothly on his own. "So what's on your mind?" He asked quietly, tossing his clothes on the bed, deciding that putting them away wasn't that important. "You've been quiet."

Frank glanced away from his own clothes that he was refolding and placing in the dresser. "Nancy's not really happy." He sighed a little.

"She told you this?" Joe raised an eyebrow. Nancy hadn't been expressing everything as she had on the first night. It wasn't in her nature. The breakdown had been a freak occurrence, so naturally he hadn't been expecting a revelation to Frank, even with their special connection.

"No, but it's kind of obvious." Frank went back to working on his belongings. "Her smiles aren't meeting her eyes, and she's been quiet."

"Well if quiet is a symptom of being unhappy than you're a prime candidate Frank." Joe pointed out, though he found his brother's observations fascinating.

"You know what I mean. She's not the same."

"And you would be?" Joe challenged. Sometimes his brother could be a real moron. "She invested her life in something, and it failed her. It's only been four days."

Frank sighed again, closing his now empty suitcase. He knew that his brother was right, but that didn't make him feel any better about the situation. "I know…"

Joe tossed a t-shirt on top of the rest of his clothing. "I think she'll be better when our surprise shows up in a couple days."

"Yeah. Bess will be good for her." Frank agreed.

"And until then we need to keep up what we've been doing. She just needs some time to get back into her normal life."

Frank was about to respond to this, when there was a knock at the door. Instead of continuing to talk, he went over to the door and opened it.

Nancy was standing in front of him breathing heavily. Her strawberry blond hair was half in a ponytail; the other half was falling out and tiredly hanging in haphazard places. She hadn't changed out of the clothes she had traveled in, though the turquoise polo shirt and jean shorts were now a bit dirtier then he remembered, and there was a matching streak of dirt across her face. One hand was on her hip, and the other, she was holding against the small of her back. "Got any time for an investigation?" She smiled a little wryly and tiredly as she spoke.

"What happened?" Frank ushered her inside the bungalow quickly, and glanced around outside, seeing nothing but tourists. "Are you all right?" He closed the door.

Joe looked over frowning. "What's going on?"

"There was a guy in my room." Nancy began to explain. "He was hiding in the closet. I think I caught him by surprise. He pushed me aside and ran. I tried to catch up with him, but he cut through the gardens by the main building, and I tripped and lost him." It was pretty obvious that Nancy was disappointed by her tone and expression, but at the moment, neither brother was concerned by that.

"Are you OK?" Frank tried asking again, hoping this time she wouldn't ignore the question. The possibility of a case was taking the back burner to Nancy's own health.

Nancy nodded, dropping her hand from her back and looking at the brothers. "Yeah." She paused, her breathing starting to even out a bit more. "I was planning on checking out the room myself, before getting anyone else involved. I thought you two might be interested."

Joe grinned a little, realizing Nancy was fine. "Sounds like fun." He clapped his hands together in excitement. "Should we grab our magnifying glasses or do you want to share yours?"

The room, wasn't much of a mess. There was only the fallen sundress near the closet, and one knocked over vase on top of the dresser. Overall it didn't seem like much had happened in the room. Frank gave the entire area the once over before he spoke, going into case mode. "So do we think this was a theft attempt with bad timing…" He trailed off looking to Nancy and Joe.

Nancy shrugged. "I'm not sure. That's why I wanted to check it out before we bring in the local authorities."

"It doesn't look like he dropped anything.' Joe's eyes swept over the floor, but at the end of the sentence he too looked at Nancy. "You said he was in the closet?" He gestured, but didn't wait for confirmation, just went straight for the door and ducked in."

Frank glanced over at Nancy again when they were left in a silence as Joe examined the closet. He wasn't sure if his was a good situation. First of all, it was unsettling that less than two hours into their official vacation they had found a mystery, and that that mystery was in Nancy's room. And Frank knew that he didn't like the idea of Nancy on a case right now. He would admit that he didn't have as much knowledge in the psychological field as Joe seemed to have, but he had the feeling that adding the stress of a case to her current state wouldn't be good.

Nancy, who was looking down at the floor in avoidance, knew that Frank was watching her. He had been watching her the same way since their almost moment in the kitchen. Frank was watching her, because he was worried she was going to have another meltdown. She had two thoughts on this. One was that she wasn't a child, and that she could handle her emotions perfectly well. The other was that she almost wished she could be watching back.

"There's nothing in here." Joe came back into the room. "You may have surprised him, but he wasn't surprised enough to lose anything that he might have had on him." He paused. "We should probably call the police. We don't know what this guy wanted."

Frank ran a hand through his hair, liking the situation even less. "I don't know. Involving the police will make things a lot more complicated. Especially since we don't have much proof about what happened to begin with."

"Yeah." Joe nodded, following his brother's train of thought.

"It might be better if we wait, and just start our vacation. If anything else happens or we see that guy we can go from there." Frank continued with his thought.

Nancy looked over. "That's probably the better option. I didn't get a good look at him or anything, but he looked pretty young. It was probably just some kid fooling around and I scared him."

The brothers looked at each other in a bit of concern. They had never seen Nancy change her theory so suddenly or drastically. Now they were wondering if it had to do with her previous case.

"Let's just get to our vacation." Nancy spoke again, catching on that the brothers weren't going to. "I'll meet you guys out on the beach, like we planned."

Frank moved his eyes from looking at the blue waters of the ocean, to his brother. They hadn't been on the beach for ten minutes and Joe had already started to teach a few girls how to properly serve in a beach volleyball game, and get a bit of harmless flirting in on the side.

He was still waiting for Nancy to come out from her bungalow, so instead of joining in any of the activities like Joe was, Frank had put a towel down, and taken out the book he had been reading on the airplane. He opened the book up, unfolding the corner of the page that he had folded down, and started to read, until a figure stepped into the sunlight. "So that book must be pretty interesting for you to be reading it so much."

He stuck his thumb in between the pages as he closed the book, and looked up at the figure. "It's just your average mystery novel." He shrugged a little.

Nancy smiled at him, taking the towel out from under her arm, and unfolding it, spreading it across the sand. "I take it that means you've already solved it."

"Pretty much." Frank laughed a little, starting to relax seeing that she had since the chase. He was still concerned, but it was easier to put those thoughts aside out in the sun, where everything seemed less serious.

"So, Joe's already found something to do." Nancy pointed a little to the volleyball game as she started to gingerly sit down.

"Yeah." Frank frowned at her slow movements. "Are you OK?"

Nancy nodded. "I'm just a little sore, where I got thrown into the dresser."

"Where is it?"

"My back."

"Lie down, on your stomach, and stretch it out a bit." Frank suggested, watching as she complied, still slowly. "Do you mind if I take a look?"

"Go ahead."

Frank sat up a bit more, and moved so he was kneeling next to Nancy's towel. With one hand he gently pressed down the small of her back, the area that looked like it was bruising. "Wow, this muscle is really tight." He observed quietly. "That's why its bothering you so much. Let me see if I can loosen it up a little." He started to use both hands, massaging the muscle carefully. "How does that feel? I'm not hurting you am I?"

"Are you kidding? I think I should hire you full time and you can take care of all my case injuries."

"I think Joe would object to my leaving."

"Nobody really cares about Joe."

But Frank didn't hear Nancy's quip. He heard a whistling noise, and felt the sand fly up next to him. He stopped the massage and looked up, spotting a shadow in the palm trees that were lining the back edge of the beach, and sticking out from the shadow the unmistakable shape a gun. There was a second whistling noise, and more sand came up on the other side. That was when Frank dropped down on top of Nancy. Turning his head to one side he shouted. "Everybody get down!"

Thoughts?