A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who's given me feedback on the previous chapters. I don't want to drive everyone crazy by sending constant replies filled with incessant gratitude, so I'll just say this: every single piece of feedback that I've gotten means a lot to me. It definitely helps to hear the encouragement, and I hope only to become a better writer for it.

Disclaimer: Frank, Joe, and Nancy aren't mine. Trust me, I would know it if they were.

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"Get down!" Joe yelled as he dove to the ground. Frank turned and caught Nancy around the waist as she tried to run towards her father. He tackled her to the ground and covered her body with his, trying to shield her from the falling debris as much as possible. She struggled against him.

"Let me up, Frank! Our fathers were right by the bomb -- they need our help!" Nancy shouted.

Frank caught her wrists in his hands, trying to still her frantic movements. He pressed closer to her, speaking in her ear to be heard over the noise around them. "They're fine, Nan! I saw the kidnappers get them out through a trap door right before the bomb went off."

Nancy met his unwavering gaze. She nodded silently and stopped trying to fight him. Just then, something large and heavy hit Frank squarely in the back. He winced in pain, and Nancy, feeling the force of the hit through Frank's body, freed her wrists from his hands and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him even closer. She covered his head with her hands, trying to protect him as much as possible.

It seemed that the destruction went on forever, even though it really was only mere minutes. Finally, everything quieted, and the debris slowly stopped raining down on them. Frank turned his head to look over at his brother, who was still face-down on the ground with his hands over his head.

"Joe? Are you okay?"

Joe lifted his hands from his head and moved his legs slowly.

"Everything still seems to be attached, although I'm sure in a few hours I'm going to wish it wasn't. How about you guys?"

Frank looked down at Nancy, who had her eyes closed. He gently brushed a strand of hair away from her forehead and tucked it behind her ear, then stroked her cheek.

"Nan, are you okay?"

She opened her eyes slowly, their deep blue a stark contrast to her pale face. She nodded, "Thanks to you. I would have run straight towards the bomb if you hadn't stopped me."

Frank looked at her closely for a moment, as if to reassure himself that she really was okay, and then grinned at her and rolled off and up to his feet. "All part of being your backup, Drew." He helped her up, and the three walked over to where the bomb had once been. Now, all that was left was a crater in the floor and chunks of concrete missing from the wall. The force of the explosion had been strong enough to reach the roof, which accounted for the shower of debris that they had endured.

Joe walked over to the spot where Carson and Fenton had been held. He pointed to a small black button on the wall.

"This must be what they used to open the trap door. I saw the second kidnapper touch something on the wall, and then a panel in the floor opened up."

He pushed the button, but nothing happened. Frank crouched down and pushed chunks of concrete aside. As Joe pushed the button again, Frank heard a whirring noise in the ground, but the door still didn't move.

"It must have gotten damaged in the explosion." Frank pounded his fist against his thigh in frustration. "We can't even try to follow them!"

"Hey guys, check this out," Nancy pointed at the opposite wall, by the hallway where they had originally entered from. Both men turned to look in her direction. Frank rose slowly from the floor, and Joe let out a low whistle.

"Guess they left us our clue after all."

Nancy read the large words painted in a deep blood red aloud.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I rue the day that I ever gave birth

To the infamous Nancy Drew

Nancy's voice trailed off as she finished reading the irreverent poem. For a moment, she just stood there, the meaning of the words slowly sinking in. Finally, she whispered, "He's talking about my mother."

Frank and Joe moved up to stand next to her, flanking either side of her in silent support. Frank laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We're going to catch these bastards, Nancy. I promise you that."

Nancy took a deep breath. "I guess we're going to River Heights next. That's where her…that's where she was buried." She turned to give Frank a weak smile. "Well, at least we know one thing about these guys."

"What's that, Nan?" Joe queried.

"They may be decent criminals, but their poetry skills are sorely lacking," Nancy deadpanned.

Frank chuckled and Joe groaned. Just then, the sound of sirens arose in the distance. Frank looked at his brother and Nancy. "I don't know about you guys, but I really don't want to stick around and try to explain all of this to the police. And I definitely don't want to risk angering the kidnappers by getting the cops involved."

Nancy nodded. "I agree. I'm all about co-operating with law enforcement, but in this case, I think it'll only complicate things."

"Besides, we are law enforcement. Just a different kind, that's all," Joe chimed in.

Frank smiled at them. "Agreed, then. We're going to get our fathers back, and we're going to do it on our own. Now let's get out of here before we get busted!"

Frank and Joe ran back to the spot where they had dropped their guns and quickly retrieved their weapons from under the rubble. Nancy grabbed her backpack from the wall by the corridor entrance, where she had left it upon entering the room. The three then took off down the hallway and through the back door that they had originally entered from. As the police pulled up to the other side of the building, they slipped quietly into the night and melted into the shadows.

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They ran through a series of alleys, winding through other warehouses that also appeared to be abandoned. Frank took the lead, and although the path they took seemed aimless, Nancy could tell that he knew exactly where he was going. She was proven correct when, minutes later, they ended up in front of a black sedan that was obviously a rental. Frank got into the driver's seat while Joe hopped in on the passenger's side, and Nancy slid into the back. She barely had her door closed when Frank pulled away from the curb.

They rode in silence while Frank manoeuvred the car through the alleyways, deliberately avoiding the warehouse they had come from and the cops now surrounding it. Remembering her promise to Janna, Nancy pulled out her cell phone to call her roommate. She assured her that everything was fine, and that she was okay. When Janna asked if she had found her father, Nancy hesitated briefly.

"We found him, Janna, but it's complicated. I'm probably going to be gone for a little while. Until then, can you continue to stay with your friend?"

Janna agreed, and after a few more moments of conversation, they hung up. Joe turned in his seat to give Nancy a curious look, and Frank glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

"You know, Nan, you never did tell us who Janna is," Joe remarked.

"She's my roommate at college. Before leaving, I gave her the address of the warehouse and Frank's contact information. I told her that if I didn't check in with her this evening, she should call the police and Frank and let them know what was going on. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that I would run into both of you tonight."

"So you didn't just run into a dangerous situation without any thought of backup," Joe said, with a pointed look at his brother, reminding him of his earlier argument with Nancy. Frank remained silent, sparing a second to glare at his younger brother. Nancy, not wanting to revisit the argument, quickly changed the subject.

"So what's our next move?"

"I think we should find a place where we can talk and gather our thoughts. Some place quiet and off the beaten path, preferably," Frank replied.

"I agree. There are a lot of things about tonight that don't add up. And I keep feeling like I'm missing something, like there's a memory that I just can't quite put my finger on," Nancy mused.

"I know what you mean. I've been getting that same feeling ever since we saw those two goons," Frank said.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving. Could this place off the beaten path possibly happen to serve some nice juicy hamburgers?"

Nancy and Frank both laughed.

"Still can't think on an empty stomach, huh, Joe?" Nancy teased.

"No, no, Nancy, you've got it all wrong. I can think just fine on an empty stomach. I just happen to believe in the fine concept of multi-tasking."

Frank chuckled. "If you had it your way, Joe, you'd find a way to combine eating with all of your normal daily activities, and somehow manage to pass it off as multi-tasking. Too bad the assistant director has you banned from eating at your desk in the bullpen ever again."

"Spill some spaghetti on a man's casefiles once and you're blacklisted for life," Joe grumbled good-naturedly.

Frank and Nancy just laughed.

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They found a small diner that was in a relatively quiet part of Manhattan, with parking available nearby, which was a rarity. There were only a handful of patrons in the restaurant, and the three detectives chose a booth in the far back, away from the other diners. Frank slid into the booth next to Nancy, while Joe sprawled in the bench across from them. When the waitress came to take their orders, she gave a small start at their appearance. Nancy knew they had to look pretty bad -- Frank and Joe were both covered in dust from head to toe, and she could see the bruises that were already starting to form on her arms from the impact of the debris in the explosion. Fortunately, the waitress left with their orders without asking any questions, and the three detectives breathed collective sighs of relief.

"Where should we begin?" Joe queried.

"How about this morning?" Nancy suggested. "I'll go first. Here's what we know: all three of us got phone calls approximately between ten and ten-thirty Central time this morning, telling us that our fathers had been kidnapped and directing us to a specific location in Manhattan. We know that they had both gone in to work in the morning, based on the calls that we made to their offices."

Frank and Joe nodded in agreement with this assessment, and Nancy continued.

"That means that they had to have been taken between the time that they got to work and 10 a.m., or 11:00 in your father's case. When I spoke with my father's secretary, she said that he had gotten a call an hour earlier that had caused him to leave his office in a hurry. At this point, I've got to assume that the phone call had come from one of the kidnappers to lure him into a trap."

"Dad's secretary gave us pretty much the same information. She said that he had gotten a phone call that had caused him to rush out of the office, without saying anything to anyone about where he was going," Joe added.

"Which means that both of the men in the warehouse had to have kidnapped our fathers almost simultaneously for the timeframe to work," Frank said, picking up Nancy's train of thought.

"Exactly," she agreed. "And the one who grabbed my father had to make it from River Heights to New York within a matter of hours. Which means that he couldn't have travelled by car -- it's about a twelve hour drive."

"Travelling by train would be equally slow, which means he had to travel by air. There's no way he could have gotten your father on a commercial airliner without being noticed by security, which means…"

"That he must have chartered a private jet!" Nancy finished Frank's sentence excitedly.

Joe stared at both of them. "You know, it's really creepy when you two do that. It's almost like you share the same brain or something." He shook his head in mock disgust, then grinned. "But, it is a brilliant thought. We can take a look at the records for all chartered flights that took off from any airports near River Heights, and see if any names stand out to us, or if anyone remembers seeing someone matching Mr. Drew's description."

Just then, the waitress arrived with their food. Joe looked at the hamburger that had been placed in front of him almost reverently, before digging in with a gusto that made Nancy and Frank laugh.

"You know, Joe, what's really creepy is the look of lust that enters your eyes at the mere sight of a burger and fries," Nancy teased.

Joe glared at her without bothering with a response, which would have been difficult considering that his mouth was full at the moment. Frank just shook his head at his brother before he continued.

"I have a friend in the forensics department at the FBI who does some hacking in his spare time. I'll give him a call after we leave and ask him to look up the flight records. It may take him some time, but he's really good. If anybody can get to them, he can."

Nancy glanced at him. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Bureau frown upon unauthorized computer hacking? Are you sure your friend would be willing to get this information, especially considering the heightened security around anything concerning airports and flights these days?"

"He's pretty much up for anything. His philosophy is, the harder to hack into, the better. And he's a good friend. Once I explain the situation to him, I'm sure he'll be willing to help. Besides, he owes us one. When Joe and I first started with the Bureau, he ran into some trouble with the law, and was basically accused of doing something that he didn't do. He had heard about our reputation as amateur detectives, and he asked us to help clear his name. He had been suspended from active duty at the time, and we were in direct violation of Bureau policy for helping him. But we did, under our director's radar, and we managed to clear his name. So no, I don't think he'll have an issue with doing something without the Bureau's knowledge."

Nancy laughed. "What is that saying about the old rule book?"

Joe gave her a deliberately blank look. "Rules? What rules?"

That made Nancy snicker, and Frank just shook his head resignedly. "Let's just hope that you don't say that to the director when your annual review rolls around, Joe."

Joe began to retort, but Nancy cut him off.

"I definitely want to catch up on all of your escapades at the Bureau, but right now, I think we need to finish going back over everything that happened tonight and plan our next move. We know that we need to look at the chartered flight records, which Frank is going to take care of. That leaves us with the events after we all arrived at the warehouse, and what we saw there. One thing that I noticed right before the kidnappers turned the lights on was that everywhere that I shone my flashlight appeared to be unnaturally clean. There was no dust on any of the surfaces, and the floor appeared to have been swept."

Frank nodded. "I noticed that too. It definitely looked like it had been occupied recently."

"The kidnappers must have been using it for a while. That trapdoor that they escaped through was mechanical -- they had to have invested some time and money in installing it," Joe added.

"Which means that this is something that the kidnappers have been planning for a while," Nancy concluded. "But who would hate us, or our fathers, enough to go through all this trouble?" She tried to hide it, but there was a hint of desperation in her voice.

Frank covered the hand that she had balled into a fist on the table with his own. "I don't know, Nan. Between the three of us, and our fathers, I'm sure we've made plenty of enemies over the years. And all it takes is one, or in this case two, crazy people to do something like this."

Nancy's fist tightened even more, and he squeezed it gently. "But they underestimate us. They think that they're just going to lead us on a wild-goose chase with their clues, but we're going to do everything we can to get one step ahead of them, starting with the leads that we have about the flights, and now about the ownership of the warehouse."

Joe gave Nancy a reassuring smile. "Frank's right, Nancy. They think they know all about the Hardy brothers and the 'infamous' Nancy Drew, but once we're done, they'll have no idea what hit them. And we'll get our fathers back, safe and sound."

Nancy returned Joe's smile and covered Frank's hand with her other one. She turned to Frank as she spoke. "If there's one positive thing about all of this, it's that I get to work with the two of you again. I've missed that, more than I realized until this moment."

The look in Frank's eyes was intense, and for a moment, Joe, the diner, everything faded away. Just as he was about to respond, however, the waitress arrived at their table with the check. Joe cleared his throat, and Frank moved his hand away from Nancy's to reach for his wallet. "I'll get this one," he said gruffly.

Joe looked from his brother to Nancy, taken aback by the undercurrent of emotion that had sprung up between them. He had always sensed the chemistry they had together, but just now, there had been something…more. He considered saying something to lighten the mood, but decided against it. It didn't seem like something that he should joke about. Finally, Nancy spoke.

"Should we try to find a hotel? It's too late for us to try to make it on a flight to Chicago tonight."

Frank glanced at her, and then his brother. "Actually, I was thinking that we could drive up to Bayport tonight. Mom's probably out of her mind with worry about Dad right now, and I think having us there would reassure her more. It's only a three hour drive, and Joe and I have a friend who owns a charter plane who can fly us out to River Heights from the local airport first thing in the morning."

Nancy and Joe nodded their agreement, and the three detectives got up and walked out of the diner into the brisk night air.

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A/N: No cliffhanger this time! Please let me know what you thought of this chapter -- I had a bad case of writer's block and struggled with it quite a bit. I'm still not entirely sure I like it, but I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks. Thanks for reading!