A/N: BIG thanks for all of the awesome reviews! I hate to say it, but I had the bulk of this chapter done before graduation…I just didn't get the chance to finish it. Hope everyone enjoys!

Quintessential Bliss

Chapter Sixteen

"Go," Fred shoved Frank down the stairs behind the pantry and he stumbled forward, falling down the steep steps.

He landed at the bottom; hitting his head on the wall and letting out a loud groan as the pain caused his eyes to blur. He knelt on his hands and knees for a minute, the pain in his head intense.

"Nice," Beatrice said snidely to Fred when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"It's not my fault the boy isn't coordinated," Fred reached down and yanked Frank to his feet. "You're bleeding."

"Wow, surprising," Frank replied sarcastically.

Fred pushed Frank down the hallway, "Just move."

Frank's head was pounding and he could feel the blood dripping down his face. He was feeling lightheaded and the one disparaging thought that kept running through his mind was that the chances of anyone finding the passage in the pantry were slim.

They walked down the corridor for quite awhile before they reached the end and a blank wall of concrete greeted them. "Dead end," Frank shook his head and laughed.

Fred just smiled and moved past Frank. Leaning his shoulder into the wall it quickly slid out of the way, "After you," he said still smiling and pointing down the hidden hallway behind the wall.

"It's like the Fun House at the fair," Frank muttered and continued walking.

"You think this is fun?" Beatrice snorted, "You have obviously never been camping."

"Now Beatrice, don't get the boy too excited," Fred laughed and stopped in front of another staircase, this one leading up. When they emerged from the tunnel Frank looked around and had no idea where he was, trees surrounded them on all sides. Leading them a little way into the forest they soon came upon a pick up truck parked on the side of a service road.

"Get in," Fred ordered.

"No thanks," Frank shrugged. Judging the distance between himself and Fred he figured he'd be able to catch him off guard and hopefully be able to make a run for it.

"Too bad," Fred shrugged and smiled happily. Frank tensed to tackle the man when a blinding pain and a thickening crack sounded at the back of his head.

He dropped like a rock.

"God, does this thing ever end?" Joe asked from behind Nancy as they made their way down the dark hallway. Nancy ignored him, instead concentrating on not noticing how close in the walls were…how claustrophobic she was feeling.

Ever since the tomb in Egypt she had had a phobia about small, enclosed spaces. Getting stuck in the fire escape with Frank hadn't done much to help that phobia either. She just kept telling herself that there was open space in front of and behind her and Frank needed her help. She would not lose it.

"Nan, are you even listening to me?" Joe asked impatiently.

"What?" Nancy asked quickly.

"What's wrong? You're all shaky," Joe asked slowly.

"I'm worried about Frank," Nancy replied quickly. It wasn't a lie, not really. The only two thoughts overwhelming her brain right then were worry for Frank and the overwhelming need to get to the end of the tunnel; the need to get out and into open space again.

Joe narrowed his eyes behind Nancy's back, not fully believing her. When they reached the end of the tunnel and saw that it was just a blank wall they stopped. "Huh," Joe said thoughtfully.
"Well, that's weird." When Nancy didn't say or do anything Joe looked down at her. Her back to him, he could see her shoulders rise and fall from her heavy breathing.

"Nan? What's wrong?" Joe lifted a hand to turn her to face him when she suddenly whirled and ran straight into him.

"Move!" she said loudly and struggled against the arms he brought up to restrain her. "Move, let go of me! Move!" She yelled and slammed her fists into his chest.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Joe said in surprise. "Nancy, what is wrong with you?"

"I can't stay here! I have to get out. I have to get out!" she babbled.

"Shh," Joe pulled her struggling body into his arms and hugged her tight. "You're claustrophobic?"

"No," Nancy replied quickly and shut her eyes tight. Maybe if she couldn't see how close the walls were she wouldn't feel so panicked. "Yes," she said after a few minutes. "Egypt," she explained.

"Egypt?" Joe asked and then realization dawned. "Oh yeah, Egypt."

"I'm okay now I think," Nancy said quietly. "But we have to get out of here now."

"I understand," Joe replied. "It seems weird that the tunnel would end here though. Are you going to be okay while I check this wall here?"

"Yes," Nancy nodded and swallowed before quickly stepping away from Joe's supportive hold.

Joe turned to the wall and began to look at it closer, "Another movable door," Joe murmured, noticing the gaps where the three walls met.

"Really?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah," Joe nodded and gave the wall a push. It slid open easily. "Voila!" Joe smiled.

Nancy grinned, "Joe, you are seriously my hero right now."

Joe laughed, "I'm everyone's hero. After you."

Together they moved down the hallway, hoping that they weren't too late to help Frank.

Frank was…comfortable.

Opening his eyes slowly he blinked a couple of times at the low wooden ceiling and licked his dry lips.

"Morning," someone said from the corner.

Grimacing Frank pushed himself up off the pillows and looked at the person who had spoken. The man sat in the corner at a small wooden table holding a cup of coffee, his blonde hair slightly disheveled. "Good morning," Frank replied.

"You're Frank Hardy," the man smiled.

"And you're Charlie?" Frank asked.

"Nice to meet you," Charlie lifted his mug in a small salute. Suddenly he leaned forward earnestly, "How's Callie? Is she okay? Where is she?"

Frank sat up a little more and quickly reassured Charlie, "She's fine. Last I heard she was on her way to a government safe house."

Charlie breathed a deep sigh of relief, "Good." He shook his head, "I can't believe I got her mixed up in this."

Frank looked around the small room and figured they were probably in a cabin of some sort. It was a small room with two cots, a small kitchen and a couple of chairs placed in front of an empty fireplace. There were two doors, one which Frank assumed led outside and another he guessed must lead to the bathroom.

"Where are we?" Frank asked.

"We're camping," Charlie replied wryly and took another sip of his coffee.

Frank looked down and noticed he was no longer wearing a shirt. "Where's my shirt?" Frank asked.

Charlie shrugged, "No idea. You weren't wearing one when they brought you in here."

Frank was barely listening; he had just noticed that there was a long piece of gauze wrapped around his wrist. "What's this?" he murmured and pulled the bandage off, revealing a two inch long slim cut on his wrist.

"What happened?" Charlie motioned to Frank's wrist and then his head.

"Clobbered me with something," Frank put a hand to his head and winced seeing the blood on his hand when he pulled it away. "And this," he looked back at his wrist, "I have no idea."

"Here," Charlie pulled something out of a duffle bag and tossed it to Frank. "You can wear that."

"Thanks," Frank pulled the shirt over his head and swung his legs over the side of the cot. "So, what have you been up to?"

Charlie laughed, "Worrying mostly. About Callie, how she's doing, what they're doing to her."

"She's fine," Frank replied, "Very worried about you though."

Charlie leaned back in his chair, "I don't even know what happened. One minute we're moving into a great neighborhood with great people and the next they're talking about wanting me to join some brotherhood. When things started to look too intense I told them I wasn't interested. That landed me in the hospital with a couple of broken ribs a black eye and one hell of a concussion."

"The nurses said you walked out of the hospital on your own steam," Frank said.

"Because I did," Charlie nodded. "You've met Fred Zuckerman I'm guessing?"

"Yeah," Frank nodded.

"Well, he and a couple of the other guys paid me a visit. Said if I didn't go with them, hear about their group and their mission that they would hurt Callie. I didn't really have a choice," Charlie shook his head. "I left the hospital; they knocked me out and brought me here. I've been here since."

"Have they said anything about who they are? What they do?" Frank asked.

"No, not really," Charlie shrugged.

"You said that things started to get too intense," Frank prodded. "How so?"

"They started talking about the ultimate goal and necessary means to an end…they never got into specifics with me because I was the new guy, but it started to sound like really serious business. The night they asked me to start getting more involved with the group, help them with moving some valuable items…I knew it was getting too deep. I started making plans for Callie and me to move out of there immediately. I guess they caught on and that's when I was jumped after work."

Frank was quiet for a minute. "Have you tried to get out of here?" Frank asked.

Charlie grinned, "Oh yeah. Even managed it once, I didn't get very far but it sure felt good to give them a run for their money."

"Okay," Frank stood up and ignored the pounding in his head. "Well, now there are two of us. We'll have better odds."

"Callie says you're good at getting out of bad situations," Charlie stood up as well.

"Yeah, well let's hope that holds true," Frank smiled and then turned to inspect their prison.

"Nothing," Nancy growled in frustration. "It's like they just flew off."

"That's impossible," Joe murmured and searched the ground around the exit from the tunnel. "There has to be something, some clue."

Nancy wandered a little ways away and then stopped at the edge of the secluded back road. "Well, that answers that."

"What?" Joe came over to stand beside her. "Oh. Well."

"Exactly," Nancy crouched down and studied the dirt road. "This road isn't used much it looks like, but there are a set of tire tracks here and it looks like a couple of people stood…here." She pointed at the ground, "There was some sort of scuffle…or maybe…no. Someone was on the ground there," she pointed again, "and that person was dragged a little bit before being picked up."

When Joe didn't say anything she looked over her shoulder at him. He stood staring at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "What?" she asked suddenly self conscious.

"Why, hello Aragorn. I never thought I'd meet the hero from Lord of the Rings live and in person," Joe smiled and held out his hand to shake Nancy's. "You were awesome in the battle for Helm's Deep although I think it was a little lazy of you to hide behind the Army of the Dead like that."

Nancy just stared at him, "You just talked about Lord of the Rings like a pro. Isn't that bad for your image?"

"No one is around to hear," Joe shrugged. "Besides, you're the one who got all tracker on me. How the heck do you know how to do that?"

"It's not hard to figure out," Nancy pointed at the tire tracks. "Car tracks, boot prints," she pointed at the marks in the dirt. "Big messy area equals some sort of skirmish, drag marks indicate something large getting dragged and they abruptly disappear, which means the person either got up, which I doubt or they were picked up. It isn't rocket science."

"Whatever you say Strider," Joe shrugged.

"Well, I say we get a car out here and follow this road east," Nancy turned and smiled at Joe. "In other words: follow the road that way," she pointed in the direction the truck had headed.

"Har har," Joe shook his head and turned back to the tunnel. "Does Frank know how mean you are to me?"

"Yes he does, in fact he encourages it," Nancy smiled and tried not to think about how much she did not want to go through the underground tunnel again.

"We obviously know different Frank's," Joe replied and quickly climbed down into the tunnel. He was hoping that if he kept Nancy talking and kept teasing her, enduring the tunnel a second time wouldn't be hard for her.

"Different Frank's?" Nancy laughed. "Doubtful."

"Brown hair, about this tall, thinks he knows everything?" Joe asked.

"That's the one," Nancy smiled.

"Overly protective of his child…I mean, computer?" Joe asked.

"Yep, one and the same," Nancy nodded.

"Do you know he named his first computer in middle school?" Joe said after a moment. They were about halfway down the tunnel and moving fast, wanting to reach the other side and get to a car as quickly as possible.

"He what?" Nancy asked shocked.

Joe had promised Frank never to tell anyone about that but he figured Frank would appreciate him trying to distract his fiancé from one of her greatest phobias. "Sure did, named the computer Clementine."

"You're making that up," Nancy laughed.

"Am not!" Joe said indignantly. "Okay, he didn't name the computer Clementine but he did name it Linus. Something about a play off an operating system called Linux or whatever."

When they emerged into the kitchen Nancy was still laughing, "Thank you Joe, so much, for telling me that."

"Any time," Joe smiled and considered his mission complete. Nancy hadn't looked stressed the entire time they were in the tunnel.

"Guess the Network didn't come looking for us after all," Nancy looked around the empty kitchen before moving out of the room. They found the Network agents standing around in the living room.

"That was a lengthy search," the Gray Man commented snidely, clearly making a play at their searching abilities.

Nancy smiled, "Would you come with me for a second please?"

They walked back into the kitchen and Nancy pointed at the pantry, "Sorry our search was lengthy but we had to walk to the other end of that tunnel. Have fun exploring that, we have somewhere we need to go."

Joe smiled at the dumbfounded looking agent and then turned to follow Nancy out of the room.