A/N: I can't believe it's almost been a year since I started writing this story. I can't thank everyone enough for sticking with me and this story for so long, and for the wonderful encouragement and support that you've given me. I still remember what it felt like when I first came to this fandom – the excitement that there were actually people out there who enjoyed these characters enough to write their own stories about them. But more importantly, I remember the welcome that I got when I posted the first chapter of my first story – this story – and the awe that I was now, in fact, considered a writer too. So thank you to everyone for welcoming me, supporting me, and encouraging me. As I've always said, your reviews mean a lot to me, whether it's a simple line urging me to update soon, or an entire paragraph about how evil I am with my cliffhangers. I always look forward to feedback, possibly even more than you guys look forward to my updates. So please, keep on reviewing, and I'll keep on writing, and together, we'll make it to the end of this story yet (and hopefully before another year passes, no less!)

Disclaimer: I think we all know the drill by now. Nancy, Frank, Joe – not mine. Justin and Iola – mine. 'Nuff said.

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For not the first time, Frank found himself saying a silent prayer of thanks that they had convinced Chet not to come with them. The sight of Iola, her eyes wide with fear and a bomb the width of her chest strapped to her little body, had tendrils of nausea curling in the pit of Frank's stomach. He couldn't imagine how Chet would handle seeing his daughter like this.

And now, to be told by some faceless technician on the other end of a phone line that there was nothing they could do, nothing the FBI's extensive expertise could do, nothing Frank himself could do to stop this bomb from exploding…it just wasn't acceptable. There had to be a way.

"There's got to be a way," Nancy said, echoing his thoughts. She had a look in her eyes that both Frank and Joe recognized instantly.

"What are you thinking, Nancy?" Joe asked, moving the cell phone away from his mouth slightly. He jumped in surprise as Agent Burr's angry voice came through the earphone.

"Nancy? Who the hell is Nancy?"

"Sir," Joe stammered. "I didn't realize you were still on the line."

"I conferenced the technician in rather than transferring you over. I want full involvement on this case. And that's irrelevant right now, so stop trying to change the subject."

"A.D. Burr," Joe began, but he was cut off.

"Dammit Hardy, are you telling me you got a civilian involved in all of this?"

"She's not exactly a civilian, sir," Joe hedged, glancing over at Nancy.

"There's no time for this, Joe," Frank muttered under his breath, looking nervously at the timer on the bomb, which now read four minutes and forty-four seconds. "Hang it up."

"Sir, I think the connection's breaking up. It's really staticky on my end. I didn't hear what you said. Sir? Sir?" And he disconnected the call.

"Add that to the list of things we're going to get our asses chewed out over," Joe said under his breath. Then he turned to Nancy, who was now running her hands over the wires leading into the bomb thoughtfully.

"What are you thinking, Nan?" Joe repeated.

"I know you guys said that this device is different from the one we found on Bess and George. But I keep thinking about how we found them, how their hands and legs were bound."

"Each one of the four cables was used to either tie their hands or ankles together. They were the same cables that were leading into the b…device," Frank said, catching himself before using the word "bomb" in front of Iola. They had all studiously avoided use of the word in front of her, and he didn't want to risk alarming her now.

Nancy nodded her head thoughtfully. "These cables are leading around Iola's back. I'm wondering…"

"…if they're tied together behind her!" Joe finished excitedly.

"Exactly," Nancy confirmed.

"It's a good thought," Frank mused. "I'm just afraid of moving her and accidentally pulling something loose."

"It's the only chance we have, Frank. We'll just have to be really careful."

Frank nodded reluctantly, looking over the bomb once more to make sure that nothing was loose that could trigger the bomb if they moved the small child. As he did that, Joe lifted his gaze from the bomb to Iola's face, only to see the little girl watching him silently. Once she saw that his attention was finally on her, she spoke.

"Hi, Uncle Joe," she whispered, her voice breaking.

"Hi, sweetie," he whispered back. He had to clear his throat. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay," she replied, her voice slightly stronger. "Can I move now?"

"I'm sorry, Iola, not yet." He gave her slender leg a reassuring squeeze. "But in a minute, your Uncle Frank, Nancy, and I are going to move you really slowly. We need you to be as still as a statue, though, and let us do the moving. Can you be a statue for us?"

Iola nodded, her voice dropping back to a whisper. "Okay."

"Joe, Nancy," Frank said, his voice no louder than Iola's and just as somber. "One of the wires is loose."

Dread was a dead weight in Joe's stomach as he looked at the wire that Frank was pointing to. Sure enough, the red wire that one of the cables split into was pulled slightly out of the bomb, and Joe could see the slack in the wire that was absent from all of the other wires. "Damn," Joe growled in frustration. Iola's eyes widened, and he gave her a sheepish look. "Darn. I meant darn."

"We still have to try," Nancy argued. "There isn't much time left." She gave a quick glance towards the timer, which now read three minutes and fifty-eight seconds.

"She's right," Joe agreed quietly. "We have no choice."

"You guys brace the wires, hold them in place, especially that red one. I'll turn Iola over slowly and take a look at the cables at her back." She looked at Frank, who still hadn't spoken.

"Frank?"

He lifted his eyes from the bomb to hers, and she could see his fear for Iola in them. He had the most extensive experience with bombs out of all of them, and the most first-hand knowledge of how absolutely devastating they could be. But he quickly gave himself a mental shake. Nancy was right, they had to try.

Frank carefully grasped the red wire between his thumb and index finger, using the remaining fingers of his right hand to brace the rest of the cable. He used his left hand to support the cable right below it as well. Following his lead, Joe did the same with the two other cables closest to him. Frank nodded at Nancy, giving her a quick, strained smile. "Let's do this."

Nancy rose to her feet, stepping around Joe and between Iola and the wall that she was against. She knelt again and touched Iola's arm lightly.

"Iola, I'm going to move you now. Be very still, okay?"

Iola jerked her head slightly, taking the instructions to heart and not even wanting to nod. Nancy grasped the girl's right arm with one hand and braced the other against Iola's stomach. Applying slight pressure, she lifted the girl's right side from the floor, enough to follow the line of the cables around to Iola's back. What she saw made her give a little cry of triumph.

"Good news?" Joe asked, hope creeping into his voice.

Nancy looked up at the brothers and nodded, excitement gleaming in her eyes. "These cables are tied together at the back into two separate knots. If I can get them unknotted, then we should be able to remove the entire unit from her."

"Surely it can't be that simple," Frank said doubtfully.

"Why not?" Joe argued. "The whole point of this stupid exercise is to string us along, to torment us while keeping us alive. And with the one at Bess and George's, Krieger told Bess how to defuse the thing. Why wouldn't he make this one equally simple?"

"I'm trying it," Nancy stated firmly. "You guys just keep a firm hold on those wires on your end." When neither argued further, she directed her attention to Iola.

"Iola, I'm going to let go of you. Do you think you can stay exactly like this on your own without moving?"

Iola jerked her head again quickly, and Nancy felt the child's small muscles tighten underneath her hands, supporting her slight weight on her own. Nancy released Iola slowly, then reached for the first of the two knots. As her fingers began working deftly, Frank said her name softly.

"Nancy."

"Yes?" she responded, without looking up from her task.

"Hurry," he whispered.

Her eyes jerked up quickly, saw the urgency in his. She could no longer see the LED display on the bomb, but he could. And she knew time was running out.

Without another second's pause, she returned to the task at hand. The cables were tied tightly, in a complicated twist that spoke of someone who had some level of familiarity with knot-tying. Nancy used her nails, her fingertips to begin pulling at the cables, trying to find some give in the first tangled knot. Finding a curl that was a little bit loose, she tugged at it and felt the cable begin to slip through the loop. Working with the now loose bit, she continued picking at the knot, unraveling it slowly but surely. As the two ends finally came apart, she allowed herself a tiny sigh of relief.

"Got the first one," she told the brothers, already moving on to the second knot.

"Way to go, Nancy," Joe cheered softly.

"How much time?" she asked without looking up, her fingers working nimbly.

"Two minutes and seventeen seconds," Frank responded. "You can do this, Nan."

"I know," she murmured, her teeth biting into her lower lip lightly as she encountered a particularly stubborn tangle. When it refused to yield to her gentle tugging, she applied more pressure. Suddenly, without warning, the end that she was pulling on came loose, and the force that she had applied accidentally caused her to yank on the wire. Hard.

She gasped, freezing as she braced for the wire to come loose from the bomb. An answering resistance caused her tense muscles to release. She lifted her eyes to look at Joe, whose face had gone white. His fingers almost felt numb against the cable that he held between them, in a grip that had gone abruptly tight when he felt Nancy's sudden pull.

"Sorry," Nancy whispered, her breath still caught in her lungs.

Joe attempted a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Nan. Crisis averted. Just keep going."

She nodded, and she began working on the last remnants of the knot. Her fingers, she noticed with some detachment, were no longer steady. They trembled slightly, as did her heartbeat, and she had no way to control either.

Focus, Drew, she chastised herself silently. Nerves or no nerves, Frank and Joe were counting on her. Iola was counting on her. Chet, in his own way, was counting on her. And letting any of them down was not an option.

Her fingers strengthened, became more sure of themselves. As the rubbery feeling left them, she focused on and undid the last snag of the knot. When the two cables finally came apart in her hands, she smiled triumphantly.

"Got it," she declared, her eyes brilliant with joy as she looked at the Hardys.

"Way to go, Nan," Frank murmured, returning her smile with a quick one of his own. As the cables had come loose, he had shifted his grip from the ends that he was holding to the device itself, bracing it so that it didn't simply slip off Iola's body to the ground, possibly detonating it.

"Okay, Joe, Nancy, let go of the cables that you're holding. I'm going to slowly move this away from Iola's body and set it down on the ground. Nobody moves until I give the go-ahead." He gave Iola a brief glance. "You okay, sweetie?" She gave the little head-jerk that they all now knew served as a nod, and Joe gave her a reassuring smile. "You're doing wonderful, Iola," he said, as Frank began gingerly moving the bomb. She gave Joe a trembling smile back, which he took as a good sign. Then he looked at the timer, which was down to one minute and eight seconds.

"Frank, hurry," he whispered urgently.

"I am," Frank muttered between clenched teeth. His heart raced, and tension had his shoulders in a death grip. But his hands were absolutely steady, and his slow movements were carefully controlled. As gently as humanly possible, he slipped the bomb completely away from Iola and laid it slowly, very slowly, on the floor. Only then did he allow himself a deep breath.

"Time to go," he declared, rising to his feet and lifting Iola with him. Joe and Nancy leapt over the teller booths first. Frank handed Iola over to his brother, then leapt over himself. They ran towards the front door, Joe in the lead with Iola in his arms, Frank and Nancy following closely behind. Frank broke stride only when they reached the prone security guard, bending over and lifting the man over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. Nancy came to a halt beside him, helping Frank settle the man more securely. But the seconds that it took that were precious, and in those seconds, the bomb went off.

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"Get down!" Frank yelled, dropping to his knees with the heavy weight of the security guard still over his shoulders. Ahead of him, he saw Joe do the same, bending his upper body over Iola her to shield her. The sound of the explosion was deafening, and Frank braced himself for a large impact. When none came, he darted a glance back and saw Nancy, who was slightly behind him, do the same. With a shock, he realized that the teller booths had actually shielded them from the majority of the horizontal impact of the bomb, though the booths themselves were now in pretty bad shape. The vertical impact had been large, though – there was a huge hole right above where the bomb had been, its edges blackened. Even as Frank watched, the hole widened, the compromised ceiling starting to collapse. Ceramic tiles were already raining down, shattering upon impact with the ground. What had his heart stopping, however, was the movement that he caught out of the corner of his eye.

"Nancy, no!"

Whether she couldn't hear him over the deafening noise of the destruction, or simply chose to ignore him, he didn't know. But she was completely on her feet now, quickly moving towards the teller booths, her gaze fixed on something that he couldn't see. Whatever it was, she bent down to pick it up, a glint of satisfaction lighting her eyes. Despite everything going on around them, Frank was focused on that look, curious to know what she had found. He was so focused that he didn't see the piece of ceiling that was falling, heading straight for Nancy. It was Joe's shout behind him that jerked his attention upward. Frank called out a warning shout of his own, but it was too late. With horror, he watched as the tile struck Nancy squarely on the head. She fell to the ground with the impact, her limbs going limp.

"Nancy!"

Frank didn't think, he just reacted. He rose to his feet, forgetting entirely that the security guard was still slung over his shoulders. He started to put the man down, but then he saw someone moving towards him. Thinking it was Joe, he turned, but was surprised to see that it was Justin instead. Without pause, Frank caught Justin's eye and jerked his head in Nancy's direction.

"It's Nancy!" he shouted. "She needs help!"

Wordlessly, Justin ran towards Nancy. Frank turned back to look at Joe, who looked down at Iola, then towards the front door of the bank. Frank nodded silently, and Joe took off with Iola, still shielding her with his body from the now heavily falling debris. But Frank did not follow – he wouldn't, not until he knew that Justin and Nancy were safe.

Within seconds, Justin was heading back towards him, Nancy held carefully in his arms. Frank could tell that she was still unconscious, but there was nothing he could do. He quickly turned towards the front door and ran, Justin following. Together, they made it out, and turned back in time to see a huge chunk of the ceiling fall, right where they had been standing moments before. But they didn't even risk pausing for a sigh of relief, lest the collapse spread outside of the bank. They ran through the lobby and out the front doors of the building, to where Joe was waiting with Iola. As they caught their breaths, Frank noticed the fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances surrounding the building. Hundreds of people were standing around, wearing expressions of concern, shock, or both. Frank turned around to face Justin.

"Thanks for coming back for us."

Justin grinned. "You didn't really expect me to just run on out here with everyone else now, did you? Especially when I knew ya'll were in trouble?"

His green eyes became shadowed with concern as he glanced down at Nancy, who was still limp in his arms. "We need to get these guys checked out."

Frank and Joe nodded, and Joe looked down at Iola, who was staring desolately up at him. "Sweetie, we're going to go see the doctor now and make sure you're okay."

Still silent, she simply nodded, tears sparkling on her eyelashes. Joe bent his head and kissed her forehead, and together, the group headed towards the waiting paramedics.

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