DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Nancy Drew series or any of the characters. This is based on the original series written by Carolyn Keene who was smart enough to make the whole thing up.

Chapter 05

George and Bess were watching TV in the den when Nancy got back to her house. They looked as she walked into the room.

"How'd it go?" George asked through a mouthful of popcorn.

Nancy glared at her friends who cringed back from the hateful stare. She stepped forward, towards them, slowly. Bess bit her lip, cracking under the pressure.

"Look," she stammered. "It's not our faults. We're commitment phobic. Keeping a lunch date was… just, uh… hoo God…uh, IT WAS ALL GEORGE'S IDEA!"

"You prick! It was not!" George declared, punching Bess's arm.

"You girls…" Nancy hissed, stopping before them as her knees hit the edge of the couch. Bess and George had pulled their legs to their chests, hugging themselves and grimacing. She lunged forward violently. "…are the best!"

The cowering girls cracked open their eyes and wheezed relieved, confused laughs, returning the bear hug.

"You're welcome?" George responded, still confused.

"I love you both. And George, great idea."

"What?! I'm the one who came up with the commitment phobia," Bess proclaimed.

George sneered at her smugly and Bess punched her cousin's arm.

"So, wait! What happened?" George asked as Nancy began to walk out.

Nancy grinned. "He gave me a ring and I'm going to a dance with him on Thursday."

"WHAT!" the cousins yelled, fighting to get off the couch and scrambling up the stairs to follow Nancy to her room.

Nancy laughed as she flopped on her bed and began to tell her friends about what had happened with Ned. Bess sighed and George smirked knowingly. She showed them both the ring and told them how the inscription was Swedish.

"You still think the diary belongs to that guy?" George asked and Nancy nodded.

"I'm going to see if there's any name with a 'D' in the diary. Maybe we can figure out whose it is. Or at least find someone who knows the person."

"Oh, exciting," Bess said sarcastically as Nancy began looking through the journal.

Bess and George put on a movie in Nancy's room as she kept at her work. She had skimmed through all of the Swedish writing, but hadn't found anything. It was past midnight when she started in on the English section. She squinted and leaned closer to the lamp. The handwriting was starting to give her a headache. It looked like the last inscriptions had been done in a hurry or the writer was angry. She got to the end of the diary without finding anything out. Exhausted, she set the little book down, turned off the lamp and went to sleep.

The next morning Nancy looked up the number to Oscar Peterson's bakery. She shushed Bess and George, who were fighting over the cereal box, as a girl came onto the phone.

"Peterson's Bakery, can I help you?"

"Hi. My name is Nancy Drew, I'm an old friend of Mr. Peterson's. Do you think I could talk to him for a second?" Nancy said.

"Uh…" the girl hesitated for a second. "I'm sorry, he's actually upstairs, sick. He's been in bed all week."

"Christ, is he okay?"

"He should be okay pretty soon. He's been feverish, you know. I think he said he'd be in the shop tomorrow."

"Do you think I could pass by later this afternoon and see how he is or is he feeling too bad?" Nancy asked, worried.

"I think that'd be okay. Sure."

"Okay, thanks."

She sat by the phone for a couple of seconds, thinking and chewing on her lip. After a moments hesitation she picked up the phone again and dialed the operator. A bored woman came onto the line.

"Operator."

"Yeah, can I have the number to a Joe Swenson in Sandy Creek?"

"One moment… thank you."

And automated voice came over then, reciting the number. She hung up and dialed. After a second another automated voice came on to tell her the number had been disconnected.

"Mrs. Swenson's phone was disconnected. I think she wasn't able to pay. She's got to be really bad if she doesn't have a phone," Nancy said, serving herself cereal.

Bess looked down sadly. "Hey, why don't we go see them? We know where they live, right?"

George looked at Nancy and shrugged. Nancy smiled.

"Yeah okay," she said, starting to eat.

The girls got dressed and started towards Mr. Peterson's bakery. Nancy had the diary and the ring in her purse on the off chance that he would feel up to reading some of it today. Nancy's brow furrowed as she pulled into the front of the store. There was an ambulance outside. She parked and they walked forward. There was a teenage girl standing near the back of the ambulance, wrenching at her hands nervously as they loaded Oscar Peterson into the back.

"What happened?" Nancy asked.

The girl turned her head. "I went up to check on him in his room and he was really pale and breathing funny. He started talking really weird and I freaked out and called 911. They said he was delirious and that he'd be okay as soon as they get an IV into him."

"Man, that sucks," George said, looking after the ambulance as it drove away.

"Hi, I'm Nancy, I called early. Were you the girl on the phone?" Nancy asked, shaking her hand.

"Yeah, I'm Karen."

They talked for a little while more and then the three friends got back in their car. Nancy sighed.

"Well, let's go see if we can find Mrs. Swenson. She speaks Swedish," Nancy suggested and they started towards Sandy Creek.

About half an hour later, George cursed.

"What's this?" she asked, leaning forward from the back seat. "Detour?"

"Guess we have to go the long way," Nancy said and Bess sank down in her seat with a groan.

They drove for another half an hour on a narrow, one-way street. Up ahead was a decrepit-looking bridge. Bess glanced back over shoulder, glared at something and sat straight again. After a few seconds she repeated the motion.

"What?" Nancy asked, catching her friend's annoyed scowl and glanced in her rearview mirror.

"That stupid truck is totally tailgating," Bess replied, mad. "Back off, jerk."

Nancy shook her head, just as annoyed now. If it wasn't for the fact that she was afraid to ruin her car again, she would've slammed on the breaks to scare him. George was glowering at the man and he honked at them.

"What an asshole," George snapped.

"We've got a bigger problem," Nancy said. "He'd better not try to go over the bridge at the same time as us. It looks pretty old."

"Doesn't look like the bastard's going to slow down."

The girls prayed as they started over the bridge. The trucker, still honking, rumbled on right behind them.

"Holy crap, we're going to die," Bess groaned and sunk down in her seat.

"We're not going to-" George started and stopped as a loud crack sounded out from under them. "What was that?"

"Hold on," Nancy said, setting her jaw and poured on the speed.

She bolted off the bridge, the truck still on her tail. Bess looked back at the bridge, which was now badly cracked. The trucker passed them on the now two-lane street, giving them the finger. George started yelling something, but Nancy calmed her down.

"We're not exactly in the best spot in the world to get into a fight with an angry trucker," she said with a grimace.

George sunk down in her seat, fuming.

Nancy sighed and shook the event off as she drove into Sandy Creek. She slowed, driving up and down the streets looking for the Swenson cottage.

"It had a name, didn't it?" George asked.

"Yeah, Riverwood," Nancy replied.

"Hey, there's Honey," Bess said, pointing to one of the small yards.

The little girl was outside playing with a large dog. She had a worn, faded tennis ball and was throwing it. The mixed-breed would run off to catch it in the air and come running back for another turn. The girl was a pretty little girl with pale skin and freckles. She had blond hair that was bobbed into perfect ringlets and bright blue eyes. Her clothes were faded and used and her shoes were scuffed. As the car pulled into the shallow driveway, Honey recognized the girls and dropped the stick to come running. She almost tackled Nancy in a hug. Her dog, seeing his owner so excited, barked happily once and jumped up on Bess to lick at her face. She reeled away, pushing him off.

"Ah," George crooned, leaning down to embrace the dog. "Come here, boy. That little prissy priss doesn't like you, huh? Well, you can lick me all you want."

Bess glared down at her cousin. "I'm not a prissy priss."

"There's a spider on your foot."

"WHAT?!"

George smirked up at her. "Prissy priss."

"Nancy," Honey said with a grin. "You're here!"

"I'm here," Nancy repeated. "Is your mother home, sweetie?"

"She went walking to the post office to see if Daddy sent her something," Honey explained.

Bess sent Nancy a look, but Nancy was busy keeping the emotion off her face so that Honey couldn't see. If she looked at anyone else, she'd break down.

"You're dad's not home yet?" Nancy asked in a quiet voice.

Honey shook her head. "Nope. He's been away for a long time. Mama's coming back soon, though, because it's close to dinner and I'm hungry. Mama says she was going to try and get something good to eat. I'm sick of eggs. That's all we eat since Daddy left."

"You don't have anything else in the house?" George asked bluntly, standing from patting the dog.

"A little bit of bread, but its getting hard now. Do you want to see my toys? My dad made them for me," Honey said proudly. "He made Hans some toys too, but Hans broke them all already."

"Sorry, sweetheart. We have to go now," Nancy said suddenly and her friends looked at her, surprised, but they knew better than to say anything when Nancy had an idea. "We'll be back very soon. Don't tell your mom we were here. It'll be like our little secret and if you keep our secret, I'll bring you back a special present, okay?"

Honey's eyes widened anxiously. A grin spread over her face and she nodded emphatically. "Yeah, I promise."

"See you in a little while, Honey," Bess said as she got into the car beside Nancy.

As they were backing out of the driveway, George looked at Nancy. "What the hell was that? Why did we leave?"

"We're going to buy those people food," Nancy said, determined as she raced into town. "We just have to make sure we can pick up Mrs. Swenson on her way home so we have to hurry up."

"Ah," George said. "See Bess, I told you Nancy had a good reason."

"Shut up, you never told me that and I never asked," Bess snapped back.

Nancy sped through the streets and parked in front of the grocery store. She grabbed a cart and began piling it high with food. George and Bess pitched in, running off to grab items they thought should be added to the cart. Nancy paid with her card, but Bess and George insisted on giving her some cash. They came out to the parking lot with their full cart. Nancy stopped short as she neared her car.

"Ned," she exclaimed.

He was leaning against the driver side door, the sun setting the highlights in his hair to shine like a halo. He grinned widely at her reaction.

"I thought there couldn't be two cars of the same electric blue in the world," he said, pushing himself off the door and taking the cart from her.

She popped the trunk open and he began putting the groceries away for her.

"What are you doing in Sandy Creek?" Nancy asked.

"I can ask you the same. River Heights is a lot further away than Mapleton is," Ned replied.

"But far nonetheless," George put in. "You aren't stalking us, are you?"

Nancy shot her a look, but Ned laughed.

"Damn, you caught me," he said. "Truth is that Sandy Creek has the best florist around. I came in to leave an order and I saw Nancy's car. Thought I'd say hello. I was actually on my way to go eat, I'm starving."

"You should come with us," Nancy said. "We're going to have dinner at a friend's house."

"I don't want to just barge in," he said kindly, closing the trunk.

"I don't think she'll mind. And besides, this might be the only chance we girls get to pay you back for that dinner in Mapleton."

"Yeah, you have to come," Bess put in. "And just to make sure you don't run off, I'll go in the car with you. Come on. You can follow Nancy."

She practically shoved Ned to his car. Nancy gaped at her friend, utterly terrified. She knew Bess and how she worked. The things that would be said in that car without her supervision had her heart in her throat.

"George," she ground out, starting the car. "Remind me never to invite Bess anywhere again."

"That a promise?" George asked, grinning as they set off.