170AN: Hey guys! Sorry I'm a couple days late. However, this chapter is EXTRA long (like, three times longer than most of my chapters) so I hope it make up for the wait. Please leave me a review! Oh yeah, and check out my website to see the banner that was made for this story! The link is in my profile.
Nancy's head pounded as she slowly drifted back into consciousness. Not knowing if her attacker remained nearby, she took in as much of her surroundings as she could without opening her eyes.
She could feel cool concrete floor beneath her right cheek, and her hands were tied tightly with something surprisingly smooth behind her back. Her feet were also bound, though not quite as tightly as her hands. She was glad to hear the muffled sounds of a forest surrounding her and loud cheering in the distance, letting her know that she was indeed still inside the shed, and had not been taken somewhere else while she was unconscious.
Steeling herself, she risked opening her eyes quickly. Her observations were confirmed when she did. She was still in the grounds keeping shed, tied up and laying on her right side, facing the wall opposite the door.
"Oh, good Nancy you're OK," Madison's relieved voice came from behind her.
"Yeah, how long was I out?" Nancy asked as she readjusted so that she was sitting up and facing Madison, who remained tied to the chair. The tie no longer hung around her neck, and Nancy realized that the tie must be what was now tied around her own wrists, explaining the smoothness of her restraints.
"Only a few minutes," Madison replied, worry still in her eyes as she glanced around quickly.
"Where did he go?" Nancy asked as she began trying to escape the bonds around her wrists.
"I don't know," Madison said, her eyes glistening with fearful tears. "God, Nancy he was so angry when he saw you. After her knocked you out…" Madison shuddered and allowed a single tear to run down her cheek.
That was when Nancy noticed the bruise that was beginning to form around Madison's left eye, and she truly felt sorry for the girl. If she hadn't gotten caught, Madison may not have gotten hurt. "I'm so sorry," Nancy said, not able to suppress her own shudder as she pictured the graphic scene in her mind. "Are you OK?"
Madison laughed without humor. "I guess I am. I've definitely been better." She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before opening them once again. "Any progress you had made on these knots was lost, though. He tightened them again after knocking you out before leaving."
"That's OK," Nancy said, just as she was able to slip out of her restraints. She quickly undid the rope tied around her feet and crawled over to quickly begin work once again on Madison's bonds. "Do you have any idea yet who it was?"
"No," Madison whispered. "I really don't know. My mind was kind of elsewhere. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry," Nancy said, as she studied the knots tying Madison's hands closely. "I'm sure backup will come soon," she replied. She began to see a pattern in the ropes and made quick work of the knots, freeing Madison's hands after a couple more minutes. "Alright," Nancy whispered, sliding the ropes off of Madison's hands. Just as they were about to go to work on Madison's feet, the door opened behind them and there was a loud click of a gun being loaded.
"Nice try ladies," The man who had attacked Nancy earlier said, his deep voice slightly muffled by the ski mask. A shiny silver pistol was in his left hand, lifted up and pointed at the girls. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," he said slowly, realizing that had he returned any later, both girls would be free. His voice was familiar to Nancy, but she couldn't place where she had heard it before.
He walked towards the girls slowly; silver pistol still trained on them, and quickly retied their bonds. Though she was more than skilled at martial arts, Nancy knew she was in no position to fight back at the moment, with both her and Madison's lives on the line. Their captor was deadly calm as he stood back up and began pacing back and forth slowly in front of them.
"Now, what should I do with you two?" he began speaking slowly but with purpous, and Nancy was yet again struck by the familiarity of his voice. Where had she heard it before? She racked her brain for the answer, but was still unable to place it. "I doubt the others are far behind, now that Nancy here has decided to drop in to save the day," The man clasped his hands behind his back; another gesture that seemed familiar for whatever reason.
Nancy looked at Madison, asking a silent question with her eyes. Who was this?
Madison shrugged, understanding what Nancy was asking, but looking scared and confused at the same time.
Nancy looked back over at the pacing man, continuing to study his body language as he mumbled to himself while she worked once again to free her hands. There was nothing about him that was necessarily significant, but she knew she had seen him before. As he paced, he had his hands behind his back, with his right hand clasped around his left wrist. She didn't know why, but for some reason, she knew this was significant.
She studied his posture closely. Who did she know that held their hands that way? Finally, it clicked. Bess. Bess had held her hands that way out of habit ever since high school when she was forced to stand that way in between cheers at a football game. When she was a cheerleader.
Nancy's jaw dropped as she finally realized just who this man was. She didn't want to believe it, but the more she thought it through, the more it all seemed to fit.
"Why did you do this, Jake?" Nancy asked softly.
The man -Jake—froze, his mumblings falling silent before he turned to face Nancy. "So, you figured it out, huh? You really are as good of a detective as they claim you are." He pulled off the ski mask, no longer having a need for it.
Beside her, Madison gasped as the identity of their captor and attacker was revealed. Tears began to fall silently down her cheeks. "Jake?" She whispered disbelievingly, her blue eyes wide with shock.
"Yes," Jake replied, grinning wickedly.
"But why?" Madison asked desperately, her voice rising. "Nick is your best friend! He has helped you through so much! You've known each other for years! How could you?"
"Ha!" Jake laughed bitterly, slowly walking towards Madison. "No. I may be Nick's best friend, but he is definitely not mine. Helped me, you say? No. Never. All he has ever done is make my life terrible. My parents always loved Nick. He was perfect in their eyes…always wanted me to be more like him. Even after their divorce and everything that happened with my dad, he remained their standard. I was never good enough. I couldn't get straight A's and be a star athlete. I didn't have all of the girls in the student body throwing themselves at me. Nick didn't even have to try."
Nancy was shocked as she listened to Jake, still working to get her hands free. He's done all of this because of jealousy from a high school grudge?
"Then we graduated high school and I thought I was finally free of him. I worked my butt off and managed to get into Stanford, figuring he would never come here. Ha! I should've known. He couldn't just let me go to a better school and allow me to have my time of glory. So he comes here, despite a late application. What school wouldn't want a star athlete with straight A's?" Jake laughed, sending a shiver down Nancy's spine.
"Once we got here and school started, things got a little better. And that's when you came along," Jake spat at Madison, whose eyes widened.
"Me?" She asked, looking desperately confused. "What did I do?"
"You didn't do anything. You were perfect. Beautiful, smart, funny, an athlete, clever, kind, caring…" Jake shook his head and trailed off. Nancy was shocked to see the lust lidding his eyes. This guy was more messed up that she thought.
However, it made sense. His whole life, he had been jealous of Nick –however unjustifiable – and then even the girl he fell for wanted Nick over him. That could definitely put someone who was already unstable over the edge. She finally managed to free her hands, and quickly undid the bonds around her feet - once again - while Madison had Jake's complete attention.
Jake was shouting now, blaming Madison for his problems and telling her that Nick didn't deserve her as he raised his pistol to Madison's forehead—and he was so distracted, he didn't notice Nancy standing up from her place on the floor silently.
"Please! Don't!" Madison screamed, begging as tears ran freely down her already tear stained cheeks from her now black and swollen eye.
"It's too late!" Jake exclaimed. "You had your chances! I can't wait until Nick finds you here. This is exactly what he deserves. He's—"
Nancy sent a powerful roundhouse kick to Jakes outstretched left hand, sending the pistol crashing to the floor and making it go off from the impact. Madison let out a scream as the gun shot her in the leg, but Nancy was just happy she was alive.
"What the hell?" Jake exclaimed. He whirled around to face Nancy, eyes wide and ready to fight. But Nancy still had the element of surprise on her side, and his reflexes weren't quick enough for him to block her second kick, one that went straight to the side of his head.
Nancy sighed in relief as Jake slumped to the hard concrete ground with a thud, knocked out cold. She dropped to her knees in both relief an exhaustion as the adrenaline left her system and the door crashed open behind her.
She turned around to see three police officers plow through the door to the weak shed, guns already drawn and shouting "Freeze!" all together. If she hadn't been so tired, she would've laughed at the picture-perfect way they entered the room, even if it was a bit late for her liking.
"Oh, thank God!" Madison exclaimed from behind her as Frank and Joe also burst into the shack, obviously having broken away from whoever had presumably told them to wait outside.
Nancy couldn't agree more.
….
After an hour of giving statements to the police, talking to reporters, and being checked out by the medical team at the tournament, Nancy, Bess, Frank, Joe, Nick, and Madison sat around the table in the Hardy's room once again—but for the first time without the case hanging over their heads. They had decided it would be better to come back to the room to eat and talk to avoid unwanted attention as soon as Nancy and Madison had been cleared to leave by the medical team.
Madison had been very lucky when the pistol had gone off and only grazed the inside of her calf. Though she had needed stitches, the damage was minimal and after a few weeks all she will have as a reminder of the horrible day was a small scar.
Frank, Joe, Bess, and Nick had explained to Nancy and Madison their findings in Jake's car, which was more than enough evidence against him, along with Nancy and Madison's statements, for the police to take him in.
"I still just can't believe it," Nick said softly after swallowing a bite of his steak.
Madison rubbed his back up and down softly, trying to comfort her fiancé. He had been blaming himself ever since finding out the whole story, despite them telling him it wasn't his fault. "Nick, we've been over this," she said softly. "You could never have known he was so unstable. He hid it really well. And trust me, you never did anything to justify his jealousy."
Nick sighed. "I know. I'm sorry. I just feel so bad that you were put in danger," Nick said, looking up into Madison's eyes.
She smiled warmly at him and leaned her head on his shoulder, readjusting the ice pack she had pressed against her black eye. "And that is exactly why everything Jake said today is not true. Besides," she rolled her eyes, "I guess I just have bad luck with guys named Jake," she laughed.
Bess let out a soft squeal, causing the heartwarming moment to be broken. "I'm sorry," she apologized quickly when everyone turned to her. "You two are just so cute! You deserve to be so happy."
The group laughed at Bess's hopeless romanticism.
"Thanks Bess," Madison grinned. She exchanged a quick look with Nick and her smile broadened. "We expect you all to be at the wedding, you know."
"Really?" Bess asked.
Madison laughed. "Of course! You guys have been awesome and it would mean so much to us if you would come."
After talking for a while longer, Madison and Nick left, after thanking them once again and promising to keep in touch—wanting Nancy and Bess to be bridesmaids and Frank and Joe to be groomsmen in the wedding. After they left, Bess got a phone call from George and began filling her in on the past week while Joe went to watch Sports Center. Nancy was just about to tell Bess they should get going when Frank caught her attention.
"You want to go for a walk?" he asked softly.
Nancy smiled and nodded. "Sure," she said. They stood up and excused themselves from the room walking up to the roof or the hotel where there was a small garden and sitting area. They were silent as they stood, leaning against the ledge as they watched the sun set over the golf course when Frank finally spoke.
"You really scared me today, Nan," He spoke quietly, his voice full of concern. "Especially after the gunshot went off… I thought the worst."
Before Frank had been able to make it to the seventeenth hole, his brother had managed to stop him and convince him they needed to wait for the police, who were only minutes away. Right after the police had arrived, they heard the gunshot and Frank had felt his stomach drop to his feet, instantly fearing, as he had said, the worst. Joe was only able to hold him back for about a minute before they both stormed in after the police—both wanting to know what had happened.
Nancy looked over at him to see that he was looking right at her, his expression nothing but sincere. "I'm sorry," she apologized softly, blushing slightly and looking down at her clasped hands.
"Don't apologize," he said, reaching out hesitantly taking her hand in his, causing her to look up to meet his gaze once again. "Nan, you being a detective is part of what makes me love you so much."
Her eyes widened as she realized what he had just said. "Really?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper as he leaned closer to her.
His lips were only about an inch away from hers as he whispered "Yes," his warm minty breath on her skin, making her shiver slightly. Her eyes fluttered closed and she felt his warm, soft lips press against her own; the only thought running through her head being 'finally.'
Frank deepened the kiss and slid his arms around her slender waist, as she buried her hands into his soft dark brown hair, and suddenly nothing else in the world mattered. Not the many times they had been interrupted or either of their exes or a case that needed to be solved. They were finally able to just be with each other without any form of guilt in the back of their minds.
Nancy had never believed in the clichés of a toe-curling or mind-blowing kiss, but as she responded to Frank eagerly, she knew just how wrong she had been. Fireworks seemed to flash behind her eyes and her mouth tingled where Frank's lips touched her own. She sighed contentedly when he finally pulled away. Frank kept his arms around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder in a tight hug. "I love you, too, Frank," She whispered.
She could feel him grinning, which caused a smile of her own to blossom across her face. "I'm glad, because after a kiss like that…" Frank trailed off dryly and Nancy pulled away, laughing.
"Thanks, Hardy," she rolled her eyes. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"You should," Frank smiled but then became serious once again. "You know, Nan, Joe and I have been talking."
"Yeah?" Nancy asked softly as she leaned into him once again.
"We've been thinking about opening up an agency, but we would really like another partner…" He said softly, sounding nervously.
Nancy pulled away slightly so she could look him in the eye. "Frank Hardy, are you asking me to partner with you guys?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"Well, you don't have to or anything, but we would love it if you did. And if you really didn't want to move to New York, Joe and I could come to Chicago or-," Nancy cut him off with another kiss.
When she pulled away, there was a large smile on her face once again. "Yes! Of course! You shouldn't even have to ask to know my answer!"
"Really?" Frank asked excitedly.
"Of course!" She exclaimed. Her smile faded and she became serious once again. "I really wasn't looking forward to leaving you guys again."
He tucked a stray strand of her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear and kissed her sweetly. "Neither was I."
THE END
AN: Alright, so there it is! Thank you all soooooooooo much for reading this. This has been such an amazing journey, and am so thankful to all of you – especially those who have been with me since the beginning. You guys have truly inspired me and helped to make this story better than I ever thought it could be.
Hopefully, this chapter didn't disappoint! Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought! There probably won't be an epilogue to this one, but if it is begging to be written, I –of course—will write it. :)
Thank you all (for the millionth time)!
Emeralds and Rubies
AN2 (5/24): OK, so I've gotten a couple complaints about the way I wrote this chapter. Look, I'm sorry if you were expecting Frank to come save the day, but that was never my intention-even after last chapter's cliffy. Maybe it was my fault- maybe the end of the last chapter was poorly written-and if that is the case, I apologize. In the end of the last chapter, I just did that to show a little of Frank's reaction and feelings about Nancy being MIA. I DID NOT simply change my mind and 'blow off' the cliffy. I apologize if you don't like the way I wrote this, but do not regret writing it this way. This is the way it needed to be written, and it is my story, and I felt best about writing it this way. As a fan of Nancy's strong character and personality, I just could not let her become the damsel in distress. That is not the way Nancy works. She doesn't wait for someone to come and rescue her-she takes matters into her own hands if need be. I hope I haven't betrayed your trust. ~E and R