Frank and Nancy were both quiet as the boat made its way down the river and away from the chaotic scene they had left behind. She hoped that the strike team had nabbed all of them, most especially Giovanni and Carlos. Even after all her experience as a detective and exposure to the ugly side of humanity through her work as an agent, she still found it hard to suppress a shudder at the memory of Carlos and his beady, cruel, empty eyes. Now that the adrenalin surge had worn out she found the events of the day and most of the week catching up to her. With a weary sigh she collapsed gracelessly into one of the padded benches on the boat and looked up at Frank.
Frank glanced at her with a brief smile from his position at the wheel. "I have no doubt that you are hungry, thirsty, tired and most importantly curious, but we have a fair bit of distance to cover yet Nan, and I want to get reasonably far away from that place before we stop for the night. It's a new moon tonight I don't want to flounder about in the darkness and wreck the boat on sandbars or other debris." He eyed the darkening sky and said, "We still have about an hour of travel ahead of us. You must be hungry since I doubt you have eaten anything since breakfast, there is some food in the locker under your seat. Once we stop and set up camp we can compare notes and I'll catch you up on what's been going on."
Gratefully, Nancy took out some sandwiches from the hamper she found and started munching on them. They were a bit stale but her starving stomach offered no complaints. It was positively sumptuous compared to her fare over the last week. She handed one to Frank who ate as he continued steering. Feeling comfortably well-fed and watered, she relaxed, seemingly for the first time in months.
There was something about the hushed stillness of the forest broken only by calls of birds, the distinctive howls of the howler monkeys, and even the occasional coughing roar of the jaguar. Only you, Drew would find it peaceful in the middle of a massive jungle teeming with dangerous animals and in the process of fleeing for your life, she though with an ironic twist of her lips. And your present company has no part in it, does he, a small corner of her brain supplied mockingly. She grimaced slightly at the thought before turning to look at Frank again. With no spectre of Ned in her head to glare disapprovingly at her, she finally opened her brain to the thoughts that she had been so carefully censoring and suppressing till now.
Due to the regularity with which she had stumbled across the Hardy brothers when on cases, she got to know them both very well. Her inclusion in the duo had barely disrupted the well oiled group dynamic already existing between the brothers and she got along famously with both of them, serving as a balance between Joe's impulsive, intuitive energy and Frank's calm application of logic and thoroughly methodical approach. But she had always shared a special connection with Frank.
For all his reserve, Frank had been as deeply passionate about detective work as her. They had always been kindred spirits of a sort and she could remember countless occasions where she had started a thought only to have him finish it. To Nancy it was worth all the teasing from Joe this resulted in, to be able to pick his formidable brain when faced with a particularly challenging twist in the case. Coupled with the quirky sense of humor, the integrity and the caring warmth that was such an essential part of him, Nancy knew she shouldn't have been taken by surprise when professional respect and easy friendship morphed into something more.
And it was infinitely harder to contain her feelings when she noticed a similar glint in his eyes on more than one occasion. For all their efforts and struggles to maintain a purely platonic relationship they had slipped up on more than one occasion, but the brief spark of joy in the involuntary kisses they had shared was usually eclipsed by crushing guilt. At the end of those kinds of cases, Nancy always said goodbye with a disturbing mixture of longing for more, and relief at getting away from temptation.
Of course, in hindsight she realized that she had never been able to entirely escape his presence and Ned had borne the brunt of the subconscious comparisons that inevitably came up. She had known that it was thoroughly unfair to Ned, who was the same sweet, caring, charming guy she had first fallen in love with, but Ned's grudging tolerance of her detective work didn't stand a chance against Frank's wholehearted acceptance of her abilities and love of sleuthing.
The breaking point had come after the intensely personal case in Egypt. After weeks of pretending to be a married couple and with the relieved euphoria at the end of the case, the kiss was inevitable. But unlike their other kisses, this one was different. With all the emotion invested behind it, they both had crossed an invisible line and Nancy could now admit that her resolve then, to stay with Ned was at an all time low. And she also understood, with a touch of self-deprecation, that for all her protestations of love for Ned, she had still felt the sting of rejection and betrayal when Frank took her words at their face value and didn't contact her for the rest of the summer. And when life had intruded in the form of college, she was all too eager to forget her weakness.
It was still lowering to realize that she had accepted Ned's proposal not out of genuine love like she had deluded herself into believing, but out of a mixture of wounded pride, stubbornness and remnants of the loyalty and affection they once shared. It was no wonder that it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. She was only glad that the history between them ensured not only an amicable separation but also that enough fondness remained that they were still friends.
Lost as she was in ruminations, she came to with a start when the sound of the engines changed and she felt the boat slowing down. The river had broadened considerably and they were approaching one of the banks now. Frank took a turn into a largish stream than joined the river and wound his way upstream for a distance before docking on a sandy bank and turning off the engine. She scrambled up to help him secure the boat but nearly stumbled and fell when her legs gave away, before Frank caught her. Great and isn't this just the perfect time to play the damsel in distress, she thought sarcastically.
Frank gave her an exasperated look when he noticed her disgruntled snort. "Nan, honestly, give yourself a break! You spent the last week starved and beaten with no physical activity whatsoever and little if any sleep. Anyone else would have collapsed, mentally and physically, long ago. The universe will not implode if you shelve that stubborn, independent streak of yours and accept a little help once in a blue moon."
Gathering the remains of her dignity around her, she glared back at him and retorted, "Fine, Hardy, you can secure the boat all by yourself. But if you even think about carrying me or suggesting that I cannot walk on my own, I will let you know that I'm not exhausted enough to sock you one where it hurts the most!"
Frank gave a theatrical wince and with a look of mock-disappointment exclaimed, "What, you will deny me this opportunity to help a damsel in distress?" He quickly jumped out of the way of the kick she aimed at him and merely grinned at the thunderclouds gathering on her face. Huffing angrily and muttering under her breath about nice, quiet boys growing up into thoroughly exasperating, unpredictable men, Nancy held got off the boat and walked (or rather staggered) to the nearest tree and flopped down. As she watched him work, her mind drifted off into another train of thought.
She couldn't help but notice the differences in Frank from the last time she had seen him, and not just physically. She supposed that some of it was the inevitable part of growing up, but not all. She guessed that working for who he did must have been responsible for the rest of the transformation. The way he held himself and the hardness that surrounded him like a cloak was certainly a big give away. Nancy could completely relate to why he was the way he was.
While she was exposed to plenty of ugliness even in her teen years as an amateur detective, intelligence work was an entirely different game altogether. It was the kind of work that brought one in contact with the very worst human nature had to offer, in the most primal of situations where sometimes the only law was – survival of the fittest. She hadn't realized exactly how rose-colored her vision before the CIA was until she killed her first man in her first mission. She had had to harden herself in order to protect not only her life but also her sanity. Emotions were a messy distraction that usually got one killed. Developing a healthy dose of cynicism was practically part of the job requirements.
The costs of being a good agent however, included the strained relationships she now had with her family and friends. She knew Bess and George and even her father had a hard time relating to her now, and she no longer felt the same comfort she used to when she was home. It was difficult being home and with her childhood friends and not knowing what to talk about since there was an embargo on almost every topic relating to her life. She wondered if it was better for Frank, with an ex-cop for a father as well as a fellow agent for a brother, if his words about Joe were any indication.
When Frank caught her staring at him and responded with a wink, she contemplated on yet another of his changes. He had never been this suave and smooth before nor had he loaded his statements with quite so much innuendo. At times he was flippant, almost blasé with an apparent lack of concern, as evidenced by the rather destructive methods he used to get them out of the hideout, that was terribly disconcerting. He was also more calculating, made obvious by the fact that the Frank of eight years ago would not have stood by idly while she was getting tortured.
But there was no denying that as different and dangerous as this Frank seemed, when he looked at her with undisguised heat in his eyes she felt the same powerful, answering response deep within her. All his differences seemed to only heighten her awareness of him. Never had the attraction between them been this potent, this unfettered and raw. As he walked back to her with blankets and other odds and ends in his arms, she was filled with a mixture of dread and anticipation that had nothing to do with the case, and wondered just how she was going to survive the next few days.
Author's note :
This is more of a filler chapter really, so that it is clearer where they are coming from and hopefully a good explanation for why Frank (and even Nancy) is so different. In all their detective work, I don't think I've ever come across them directly responsible for taking another life, something I feel is unavoidable in their current line of work. It is inevitable I suppose, that something like that changes them, quite apart from changes due to growing up. I do hope I did justice to the evolution of their characters because both of them, and especially Frank, will be quite different compared to canon.
I should probably also point out that quite a bit of the story (likely, most of it) will be from Nancy's point of view, her thoughts and emotions because that comes the easiest to me. The frivolous part of me insists that it is because I can't exactly wax eloquent about Frank from his POV without making him totally narcissistic! I will make an effort though to give him an opportunity to air out his thoughts and feelings too.
Now I need an opinion from my wonderful reviewers - How much romance do you want in the story? My instincts and general style of writing will probably make me lean quite heavily to that side, but I don't want it to take away from the other equally important elements of this story, so I need your help to balance it out. Let me know what you think, and if I haven't said it enough I will again repeat how grateful I am to all my reviewers! :)
P.S - The reference to Egypt, in case anyone didn't know, is based on the supermystery Secrets of the Nile