Here's the next segment! I hope you enjoy it even though I don't own the Hardys:)

Chapter 12

Time slowed down. The men outside the door held back the private investigators. The officer inside pulled out and fired his weapon. The teens hit the floor. No one breathed out of fear that it was not over. The laughter slowly died.

Frank looked up to see the officer slowly approaching their captor who was on the ground with the gun still in his possession. Joe noticed the officer kick away the weapon and announce for the rest of the team to enter carefully. The teens stiffly moved from their cramped positions on top of one another.

Mr. Hardy rushed in. "Thank goodness you are okay," he said with tears fighting to fall from his misty eyes as he helped his boys up. Sam was right by his side leading the teens out of the cold cell.

"Thanks dad," Frank managed.

"Thank you," Kailey and Joe said in unison.

The office came back out and approached the exhausted group. "You know I'll have to take your statements."

"Yes," the teens replied with tad bit of annoyance slipping through their quick answer.

Mr. Hardy jumped in, "It can wait a few minutes until they are checked out. They will be upstairs."

As there was no argument, Sam preceded the group, looking for more criminals hiding out. Most were in handcuffs being dragged out of the basement. Shouts and profanity was yelled, but rapidly cut off by frustrated officers.

They moved into the kitchen that was well-lit and looked as though it was put into use recently. Luckily there was hot chocolate and pots in the cupboards that Fenton grabbed while the kids took a seat.

The partners really took a good look at the teens while the water boiled. Disheveled only began to describe the weary looks on their faces and the state of their clothes. With a sudden realization, he snatched the phone out of his pocket and ran into the other room.

After three rings, a voice asked, "Fenton, what is it? Did you find them?"

"Yes, yes we did."

"Oh, that's wonderful! Can I talk to them?"

"Laura, right now they are trying to warm up and stay awake. I'm going to bring them home in a little bit. The officers are coming in to question them right now. I'll have to call you back."

"Okay sweetie. Thank you for the call. Tell them I love them."

"I will. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Fenton."

After hanging up he returned to the kitchen at the same time a few officers were trying to enter it. Placing his phone in his pocket and staring them down he asked, "What can I do for you?"

"Well, you could let us in the kitchen so we can get final statements from the children. Then you can leave."

Joe looked at his brother who was also smirking. That attitude wasn't going to get that officer very far with his father. Telling from his stance, the brothers knew their father was ready to pounce at the man with the badge. He had probably been working all through the night to find them and was due to explode at someone.

Mr. Hardy took a deep breath and looked at Sam. "You can come in," he didn't move from his stance in front of the entry way and continued, "But you will wait until they have some food and drink into their system. Then they will recount their story. Got it?"

The second officer readily nodded, completely understanding the underlying venom in the father's voice. Realizing his arrogant partner had not responded, he gave him a nudge. Glancing around the room from the exhausted teens to the aggravated investigators and finally to his partner, the first officer agreed.

After the water was warmed and distributed in mugs for the teens and the investigators, the police officers took to chairs and sat by the table. Silence pursued as the group sipped and slurped their drinks and ate a bag of chips Sam had found that wasn't expired.

"Are you ready to begin?"

The teens glanced at one another, then Frank spoke, "Yes we are."

"Okay so what happened?"

Frank began, "As we were preparing to enter the van outside of the pizza shop, the three of were kidnapped. It was done in a professional manner I had noticed. The men tied our hands and covered our mouths so we wouldn't communicate. After a long drive we were brought to a large barn and locked into a room. The walls were made from those things that form cubicles in large office buildings. Understanding was an odd setup, once the three of us were left alone and undid the ropes, we broke out." He stopped to take a sip of the hot chocolate, and then continued, "Eventually, we got outside and drove one of their vehicles out of there. Joe grabbed a set of keys. Kailey and I were thankful because there was no way we could have possibly made it too far in this weather."

"Yes, of course, what happened next?"

Joe answered the impatient officer, "We arrived at a house approximately ten minutes away and an older woman answered the door. She was quite the gracious host, inviting us in and taking care of us. Frank called the police and our father, while Kailey and I took up refuge in the kitchen. A man came to the door a little while later claiming that he had lost three kids. The sweet old lady told him good luck and of course she would call him if they did happen to cross her path."

Frank interrupted, "Wait what happened to that number?"

"Wasn't it on that sheet by the front table?" Kailey suggested.

"Well, yeah that's what I thought, but I don't exactly remember it as we were running out."

"Yeah, it's not like we were preoccupied or anything."

"Oh be quiet Joe. It has to still be there somewhere. I don't think the old lady threw it away. Dad, did your guys find it when they searched the place?"

"No, I don't think so, but they may have thought it was trivial. I'll ask when we're done here. By the way how did she get my number?"

Frank replied, "I wrote it on the pad on the front table, next to the phone. I figured it would be good to have in case of any emergencies."

"Thank goodness you did."

"Yeah, I figured the barn wasn't that far away, and they were bound to notice us missing soon enough. I believe picking us up and putting us there was a big detriment to their overall plan. Checks on us would be fairly frequent. The three of us managed to escape pretty soon after their first visit, well technically the second one because the first time they just laughed and threw us in the room."

"Yeah, that wasn't exactly pleasant."

"I'm sure we can agree on being kidnapped is an unpleasant experience. What happened next at the woman's house?"

Joe sighed and continued his tale. "Where was I?"

Kailey piped up, "She had just told the man she'll contact him, and basically shoved him out the door."

"Now, the look on his face when she seemed as though the old woman was going to lecture him about taking care of teenagers, oh it was priceless. Anyways, she waited until he pulled away and returned to the kitchen. Desperate to stuff us with as much food as possible and keep herself busy in the kitchen, she persuaded us relax in front of the television in the other room. As there weren't many stations, we finally just stopped and tried to get comfortable. We knew the police and dad were on the way. Those bozos decide to sleep when the old lady asks to grab some more covers from the upstairs closet. I agreed and only turned on the little side lamp next to the closet because the others weren't working. I have the blankets in hand and turn to leave, when a gun is brought to my back and he makes a point to not make noise. Therefore, I follow his orders to go downstairs, to get Kailey and Frank's attention and then we go outside and are put in another SUV and taken to the barn."

"You go back to the barn, same one as before?" the antsy officer asked as the teens sipped their cocoa.

"Yes" was the reply.

"What happened next?"

"Oh, well we were separated and carted off here. The man didn't trust us three in a car together," Kailey responded. "We were brought to the basement of the old mansion and put into the basement. We realized we weren't going to get out of there by ourselves, so we took turns sleeping. at one point Joe and I were talking, I came up with the idea for me to go out there because they wouldn't put as much guarding on me as they would them."

"Neither of you should be making these decisions. You are kids for Christ's sake, just listen to your captors and everything would have gone fine," the extremely agitated officer exclaimed. This outburst got everyone's attention.

"Sir, I don't care who you think you are, but I am going to advise you to leave right now because you aren't helping this situation any. Your partner will do just fine," Mr. Hardy said, standing in front of the bizarre man. "Radley, please take him out of here."

"Sure thing Fenton," said Mr. Hardy's partner, walking around and grabbing the officer's arm and leading him out.

"I am so sorry about my partner. He hasn't been himself lately."

"Lately?" Frank started, but was stopped by his father, mouthing later. So the boy looked at Kailey to continue.

"Joe was totally against it. I agreed it was risky. They didn't know me, and we didn't know them. These criminals didn't seem to favor the boys, so logically I was our best chance at learning something new," she paused, slurping away. "After getting the guards attention, I persuaded them that I had to use the ladies' room. I was to have one man keep guard on me the whole time. I snuck out of the bathroom and called man was sitting on the stairs, not paying attention to me. I heard from the vents in the other room the men discussing taking better care of us. They needed us for their operation."

Fenton jumped in, "What else did they say?"

"Mr. Hardy, I didn't learn that much, oh wait! They said something about you finding some case, but reckoned that you wouldn't figure it out until they had already high-tailed it out of here and we were returned."

"Oh, yeah, I did find that case. I had helped me a little bit."

The officer intervened, determined to stay on track. "Kailey, what else happened? Did you hear anything else?"

"I ran back to the bathroom and Henry knocked on the door soon after. He took me back to the cell, but I asked him a few questions because he seemed like a nice guy. He got extremely defensive when I insinuated that he was a ruthless criminal. I did manage to drop his phone back into his pocket when he was directing to the basement," Kailey finished and munched on some more chips. She looked at Joe, letting him know he could continue the story.

"Okay, anything more you can think of?"

She responded by shaking her head because her mouth was full, but then spit out a "no".

Joe took the reins of the tale, "Well, while she was gallivanting around the mansion. Frank and I were stuck in the cell. He mostly slept because we knew there was no way for us get out safely and we could only wait for Kailey to return. I'm not sure how much time had passed until the door was opened by some armed men. They were deciding what to do with us since they had thought it had been fifteen minutes and she hadn't returned."

The officer stopped Joe, "Can you clarify that for me please?"

"Sir, they had their weapons pointed at me and they remained outside of the cell. One asked the other 'should we shoot'm' and I shook my head no. Then, Kailey and that guy came up right in time and told him his watch was fast. She was shoved back in the cell with us."

Frank chose to chime in, "Yeah, and she was about to tell us what she found, when there was a frantic yell down the hall. I asked her what she did and she replied nothing."

Everyone looked at her, while she just shrugged her shoulders in protest and grinned.

"And?" Fenton urged his elder son.

"We listened to the door to try and understand what all the commotion was about. Then, I think some rounds went off. We're not too sure why, but it either has to do with someone not doing something that guy liked or he found out about Kailey's call."

The officer turned to Kailey, "Young lady, you understand that was very dangerous?"

"Yes, sir," she replied, then continued, "but if I didn't, would you honestly be here right now?"

There was no reply from the young man, a little embarrassed to be put in his place by a young civilian. Mr. Hardy chose to change the subject and turned to his sons, "What happened next?"

"Honestly dad, it was all a blur," Joe said and Frank nodded in agreement.

Frank continued recounting the minutes before the calvary arrived, "Anyways, all we could hear was shouting, nothing too definite because the walls were pretty thick and the voices seemed far away. Eventually the door was swung open with a livid Warren. Two of his henchmen had guns directed at us, so we went up against the back wall, waiting to see what he said."

"Yeah, those were a tense few moments before he said something like 'I don't know how they found you, but they're coming and we're going to be ready', right Frank?" Joe asked his brother.

"Yeah, that sounds like it. I believe that is when he pulled out his own gun and told us he was going to get us soon, so be ready. Then they left. There was another shot not too long after his dramatic statement, then he came rushing in gun in hand. His henchmen locked him in with us. He wanted to be here when you arrived for some reason."

"Did he say anything to you?"

"No, not directly. He mumbled a few things that I didn't ask to clarify," Frank paused, straining to remember those finite details, then reconvened his tale, anticipating the questions from the officer and his dad. "It was about the idiots, presumably his partners in crime trying to make an escape through some tunnel in the basement. He figured he was more likely to not talk about the organization than the hands of the operation. He chose to let them run off while he hand-picked a select few to protect what they had established."

"Anything else?" the officer asked.

"No, sir, only just then did you guys get us out of there."

"Okay, thank you so much. Now Mr. Hardy, do you have anything to add?"

"Not at this moment."

"Well, then you are all free to go and have a nice day," the officer said before leaving the kitchen.

Fenton looked at the teens and told them, "Get up because we're going home. We aren't needed around here anymore."

"Dad," Frank began, causing the father to turn around, "Don't you have to make a statement?"

"Yes, son, I will add some stuff later to my official report I am going to prepare. I believe this will require the FBI, but first we need some definite proof this passes state lines. First and foremost I shall get you three home, then I will sleep. Your mother is worried sick and I can take care of this later."

"Okay dad, let's hit the road!" Joe said jumping up and smacking his father's shoulder, bounding past him into Sam.

The older Hardys just chuckled at the energy radiating off the younger Hardy. At least he'll sleep in the car was the mutual thought.

A/N: The story isn't over yet! Please Review!