29EPILOGUE
FOUR YEARS LATER
October 2025,
Monday
New York City
Beep- beep.
Nancy groaned and shifted to her side.
Beep- beep.
Why the hell was that horrific sound playing in her ears? All she wanted to do was to sleep. She patted the person beside her drowsily. "Frank," she sleepily mumbled. "Switch that damn alarm off."
She heard the ruffling of the bedsheets and his deep sigh as Frank slightly came back to life. A few moments later the alarm stopped beeping and Nancy peacefully went back to her sleep.
Nancy woke again when the sun sliced through the center of her pillow through a gap in the drapes. Her first thought was: The real world can wait.
Lying face-to-face with their pillows touching, she stared at the person she loved the most. Each eyelash curved against his beautiful cheek, glossed and dark. He was hugging her arm like a teddy bear, and she couldn't help the goofy grin that broke on her face. She loved him so much that it'd be a disaster if she didn't. She didn't know what to do with all this love for him filled inside her, except to shower it upon him. She smoothed her fingers over his brow, and he frowned. She kissed the frown away.
She propped onto her elbow and saw the bedside clock that read 1:42 p.m. She blinked several times, just in case, she was seeing things. How did they sleep past noon? Their mutual exhaustion from their last case in the last few days resulted in a pretty remarkable sleep-in.
Their last case had taken Frank, Nancy, and Joe to catch a new serial killer who used well-known criminal profiles and adapted their styles to throw law enforcement off his trail. The case had its own ups and downs and the three of them were awfully glad and relieved when the case ended. In fact, after returning home last night, Nancy and Frank both were out like a light as soon as their heads hit the pillows.
Not wanting to think about mysteries anymore, Nancy shook him gently.
"Frank."
"Mmmm."
"Baby. Wake up."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"It's close to 2," Nancy told him.
"Why are you waking me in the midnight, Nan?" he groaned. "Let me sleep and you should also sleep." Frank snuggled his head back on the pillow and softly snored.
"You are spending way too much time with that brother of yours," she informed him. "Anyways, it's close to 2 in the afternoon."
Frank opened his coffee-brown eyes, and she chuckled at the shock in her favorite pair of eyes. "I haven't slept this late since high school. Oh my god, we're becoming too much like Joe," he muttered. He prodded Nancy with his elbow.
She fell back on the bed, her head falling beside his. Her blue eyes fluttered close when his mouth fell on the corners of her lips softly. He nudged her nose with hers and their mouths fell together, unable to stay another moment apart from each other. Their kiss started unhurried but gently they opened their mouths more to taste each other, over and over again.
It had been a moment or longer, Nancy didn't know. She was too busy loving Frank to notice things like time. After a while, Frank put his lips on her ear and said, "Hi."
"Hi back," she whispered.
He kissed her again, this time slow and sweet. His hand slid up the middle of her back, and her head rolled slowly onto Frank's shoulder. She was so comfortable; she could barely keep herself from going back to sleep again.
Nancy looked at him, fondly. "You are something else, Franklin Charles Hardy." She pushed his ruffled, messy, deep brown hair away from his forehead. She spent the next few minutes grooming him while he gazed at her.
Frank rolled them both over so that Nancy was now laying on his side of the bed and began lazily kissing her throat. His mouth traveled lower, and he kissed the bullet scars on her arm. It was like he was telling her that he loved her with these scars. He loved her scars because they made her more beautiful, his mouth told her.
Four years ago, after taunting and shooting her twice in the right arm, Reston had tried to flee. Thanks to Jess's call on 911, the Wilder Police had caught him not far from the university campus. While he was being locked in the prison once again after identification, he kept shouting, "I will avenge you, Nancy Drew!" Thankfully, this time she had Bess, George, Frank, Joe, and Jess beside her, so she wasn't moved by his threat. And the last time she checked, he was still in the prison, getting the help he required.
Both Frank and Nancy had learned their lesson by then. Frank had asked her out and she had accepted. Bess and George had sent her 'I told you so' looks all the time while she was getting ready for their 'first' date but honestly, she was missing and craving it.
Nancy pulled Frank's head up and let out a sigh of relief, smiling against his lips. Her fingers curled into his dark hair, and she tugged the silky thickness. Frank groaned. Their lips sank luxuriously into kisses. Slip, tug, slide—
They both were interrupted by one of their phones ringing. Both of them grumbled together.
"Who the hell -" Frank picked his phone.
"Hello?"
"Good afternoon Special Agent Hardy, this is A.D. Burr speaking. I assume Special Agent Drew is also along with you." Frank silently put it on speakerphone.
"Yes Sir," Frank responded, his eyes wide. Why was Director Burr calling them? His eyes asked Nancy. She shrugged in answer.
"Special Agents Drew and Hardy, your work at the latest mission has been commendable. Both Mr. Gray and I are impressed at the dedication you both and Agent Hardy's brother have displayed."
"Thank you, sir," Frank and Nancy both replied in unison.
"Mr. Gray and I have decided to grant you a three-week paid off, courtesy FBI/Network. We will be expecting three of you to report at NYC HQ back next month. Till then, I'd suggest you both take a short vacation or something," Director Burr said.
They both met each other's widened gaze. "Thank you, Sir," Nancy managed to choke out.
"Kindly inform Agent Hardy too. Have a wonderful week, Agents."
"You too, Sir," Frank spoke and hung up.
"That was..," Nancy said.
"..Unexpected," Frank finished her sentence and nodded in agreement. They both stared at each other for few moments in amazement and burst out laughing. "We have a week of vacation!" both of them cheered.
"Joe is going to die out of excitement," Frank said. Nancy agreed. Her stomach chose the exact moment to let out a grumble and Frank laughed. "Come on," he spoke. "Let's have some brunch. Heaven knows the last time we ate."
Both of them walked to their living room. Frank went to the kitchen and opened some cabinets. He took a bowl and began fixing some pancake batter while Nancy got some coffee running.
Frank flipped the pancakes and Nancy said, "That is the saddest flapjack I've ever seen."
Frank smirked. "You better get used to it."
Nancy giggled. "At least you can fix us those. I still can't handle pancakes. Soups and salads are much better than pancakes."
"When you have lived with Joe, you get used to making pancakes in the morning."
"That's for sure," Nancy said, pouring coffee into two mugs and setting them onto the counter while Frank put the pancakes on a plate and deposited them along with the bottle of syrup.
They both sat and began having their brunch.
"Anyways, where do we want to spend our vacation?" Nancy asked, her mouthful.
"Tell me, international or somewhere in the States only?"
"Hmmm…I was thinking international. I mean, we have obviously seen most of our country solving cases here and there. Why not go out this time?"
"That's a good point."
"How about Japan?" Nancy questioned.
"Yeah!" Frank exclaimed. "Japan is a wonderful place. My friend, Mark was telling me about it that day. I can ask him the details too."
They both finished their plates and put them in the sink. Nancy and Frank walked to their living room. She went and looked out of their window.
"How about we ask Joe and Vanessa to accompany us? Both of them too, work so much, they too need a vacation. And besides, I wanna spend some time Vanessa," Nancy said.
Frank looked at Nancy affectionately. Callie detested whenever he mentioned Joe. She never liked it whenever he went around with his brother solving cases but looking at Nancy, he was so...grateful to God, for letting him have her. For letting him love her.
"I'll ask them if they're free and would like to come," Frank replied. He followed her and hugged her from behind.
"I am excited to travel without any mysteries!" Nancy squealed in delight. Frank chuckled.
"When has that ever happened, baby? We three are like mystery-attracting magnets. Mysteries seem to follow us everywhere."
He watched as Nancy's new ring winked in the pale sunshine filtering in through the clouds. He curled tried to touch the light with his fingers.
Nancy looked at him, with tenderness in her eyes. She was enveloped by his love forever. She wanted to spin around while it circled her like fireflies. That's how he made her feel, every day of their life. It was wonderful. It was primal. It was nothing short of a miracle. And soon, her name was going to be Nancy Drew Hardy.
"I know I'd go back to you."
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has taken time out to read, review and follow. It has been an amazing milestone as my time as a writer. Thank you, thank you, thank you SO VERY MUCH. I'd be nothing without your support.
For the very last time on this story, I'd like to mention that I don't own Nancy, Frank or everything you guys recognize. I'm just borrowing them.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrate it in advance!
Till then,
Take care
Nan girl