J.M.J.

Author's note: Thank you for reading! Thanks especially to all of you who have left or will leave reviews! The next chapter will be September 13. God bless!

September 9 – Saturday

"If we ever get off this island, I think you'd better stick with detective work, Frank," Joe said teasingly as he watched his brother attempting to work with some of the tapa that Katina had given them. "You'll never make it as a seamstress."

"Very funny," Frank grumbled as the thread snapped yet again. "It's more the thread's fault. It's too old and decayed to be much use apparently."

Joe held up a corner of the shapeless attempt at making a shirt. "Oh, yeah. This is all because of the thread."

Frank batted it out of his grasp. "Okay, so not having a pattern doesn't help matters." He sighed, his annoyance at his brother's teasing passing. "It's probably useless. It would be nice to have a shirt again. And then, too, I hate to waste this tapa after seeing how long it takes to make it."

"I know. That's why you waited so long to even try this," Joe replied. He inspected a large hole in his own t-shirt. "We'll all be in the same boat as you pretty soon."

"That's very comforting," Frank grumbled.

The Hardys were sitting out in front of the cabin, and Chet was the only one of their companions who was nearby. "Did you say something about being in a boat soon?" he asked hopefully.

"Not that kind of boat, Chet," Joe told him.

"Aw." Chet sounded more philosophical than disappointed. "That's what I figured, but you can't blame a guy for hoping."

All three of them were silent for a few minutes, lost in thought. The days on the island were starting to blend together so badly that if it hadn't been for Tony keeping track, they would have been hopelessly lost as to what day it was by now. As it was, knowing the date wasn't particularly comforting. It was nearing the middle of September. Soon it would have been three months that they were stuck on the island.

"Say, Chet," Joe said to break the silence, "what would you be doing right now if we'd never gotten stuck here?"

Chet shrugged. "Probably sitting in some boring college class."

"Not unless you went to a weird college," Frank replied. "It's hard to tell, but I think today is Saturday."

"Oh, well then I'd probably be studying for some boring college class."

"As if," Joe teased him. "When did you ever spend time studying?"

"You're really one to talk," Chet rejoined. "I've never seen you studying too much. Of course, you and Frank never had to. You can just hear or read that stuff once and you have it."

"It's not quite like that," Frank protested.

"Says the guy who happens to have the Declaration of Independence memorized," Chet replied.

"I think we'd better give it up, Frank," Joe said. "I don't really want to argue that we're actually dumber than he thinks we are."

"Fair enough," Frank conceded.

"So what would you guys be doing if we'd never gotten stuck here?" Chet asked.

"If we'd never gotten stuck here?" Frank repeated. "I guess I'd probably be studying or doing something to waste time, if I wasn't working on a case. If I was back home after getting rescued, though, I think it would be different. Things look a lot different after being here."

"I think I know what you mean," Joe agreed.

"You don't suppose that if we ever do get home, we'll be some of those people who never really fit back in?" Chet asked.

"I doubt it," Frank replied. "But I think it will be a lot different from how it was before we left."

HBNDHBNDHB

Nancy was no stranger to travel, but she had to admit that she was getting a little tired of seeing the inside of airports. Carson had already gone inside the terminal, guessing that Nancy might want a chance to talk to Don alone as he dropped them off. She knew that she needed to talk to him, but she also knew that she didn't want to very badly.

"So what's next?" Don asked as he pulled her luggage out of his car. "About the case, I mean."

"I don't know." Nancy smiled ruefully. "I'm getting tired of saying that. It seems like that's all I'm ever able to say about this case. We learned a lot here, but it doesn't solve the case. I already asked Dad about going to Mexico and he said no in very uncertain terms, so I probably won't do that."

"Anyway, I guess you probably won't be coming back to Hawaii again," Don commented, clearly trying not to sound wistful about it.

"The way things have gone, who knows? But probably not," Nancy said. "But I thought you were moving back to River Heights, in a few months or a year."

"Maybe," Don said. "I don't know about that either. Part of me wants to, but…" He didn't finish the sentence, but Nancy didn't need him to finish to guess what he meant.

"Don," Nancy said, looking at the ground of a moment before she gathered the nerve to look up at him. "Before I leave, I want to make sure we're both on the same page about our relationship."

"I thought we were broken up."

"Right, and I wanted to make sure that that was the page we were both on."

"Well, we are, so that's that."

Nancy searched his face. She was tempted to ask him whether that was really all right with him, but she didn't. He was willing to accept her choice, whether he liked that choice or not. The least Nancy could do out of gratitude was not to press this. "Just promise me one thing, okay?"

"That's a dangerous thing to agree to without knowing what it is I'm promising," Don replied, a little of his usual good nature returning to him. "But if it's possible, I'll do it."

"When you're trying to decide whether to go or to stay, don't let me influence your decision either way."

Don nodded slowly. "Well, I said if it was possible, I'd do it." He grinned, but Nancy couldn't tell what the grin meant. "Good-bye, Nancy. I'll probably see you around sometime."

"I'm sure of it," Nancy replied. "And thanks."