Chapter Text
They had been working a case in the heart of Manhattan when Frank put his foot squarely in his mouth. It wasn’t exactly shocking to him that he had said something so stupid. Talking to other people had never been his strongest skill. Joe was the one who could sweet talk a suspect when a case called for it. Frank was better at sitting down with a puzzle to solve or a code to crack. Still, detective work called for talking to people regularly, and Frank did his best. His best, however, wasn’t always great. Especially when it came to women. And especially when those women were Nancy.
Frank loved Nancy more than anything. Their relationship was easily the best thing to ever happen to him. Since childhood, Frank had always been the awkward one. He struggled to fit in at school and often found himself with his head in a book to cope with being on the outside. When his teenage years had hit, it only aggravated the situation. Frank wasn’t great at making friends, but he did an even worse job when it came to talking to girls he liked. Because he struggled with social interactions, it was all the more shocking to him that Nancy had feelings for him, let alone that she was now his girlfriend. Sure, he had dated before and even had girlfriends, but this was different. This was Nancy Drew.
Frank couldn’t begin to explain the way he felt about her. From the start, he had always thought she was the most interesting, funny, beautiful, clever girl he had ever met. Because of how much he adored her, Frank sometimes still tripped over his words around Nancy. While he could talk for hours about cases, he often found himself stammering in front of her when it came to certain other subjects…
Nancy was gorgeous. There was no debate. Frank knew it, and he knew that other men knew it too. He often saw heads turn as she made her way through a crowd. He wasn’t the jealous type, though. If anything, the stares just reminded Frank of how unbelievably lucky he was. He loved Nancy for a lot more than her looks, but he certainly did love her looks too. Frank had always assumed Nancy knew all of this. To him, it was common sense that Nancy was stunning, and that he was the luckiest man alive. It was only after a day of investigating in Manhattan that Frank realized Nancy was not always on the same page.
“Whoa…” Joe said in awe as a model walked past them.
They had been hired to investigate a series of sabotages that were happening to a group of models in the weeks leading up to a major fashion show. Today, the trio of detectives were watching a rehearsal to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Their cover was that they were fashion students doing research for a college project. Frank had been hesitant to take on a cover that he knew he would have a hard time maintaining, but Bess had video called them for several hours last night until they knew all the latest news from the world of fashion.
“Joe!” Frank hissed at his brother’s stare. “You have a girlfriend!”
“I was admiring the clean edges and bold structure of her top!” Joe replied defensively. He had obviously taken notes during last night’s crash course.
Frank just rolled his eyes. As he was about to threaten to tattle to Deirdre, Nancy returned to where they were sitting in the empty audience. She had been allowed backstage into the dressing rooms, which was a great opportunity to talk to the women in the show.
“How did it go?” Frank asked quietly.
“Not bad,” Nancy replied in an equally quiet voice. “I found out that there’s been more drama between the girls than the director knows about. This could very easily be a case of jealousy. It’s just hard to see a pattern between what I learned backstage and the incidents. There doesn’t seem to be a clear relationship between who was involved in the issues and who’s been getting hurt.”
Frank and Joe both nodded intently.
“After the rehearsal, let’s go grab lunch somewhere,” Joe suggested. “That way you can tell us everything you learned, and maybe we can help put the pieces together.”
There were still a few minutes before the rehearsal was supposed to start, so the trio stayed sitting among the empty chairs and jotted down some notes for their “college project”. As Frank was going over the list of sabotages to look for links, he heard a bubbly voice speak.
“Well hello there! I don’t recognize you!”
As Frank looked up, he realized that one of the models had come over to talk to them. She was looking directly at Frank as she spoke, so Frank figured he ought to be the one to respond.
“We don’t work here,” he explained with a smile. “We’re students from the fashion program at River Heights College on a research trip.”
“Does that mean you don’t live around here?” the model asked with an exaggerated frown.
“We’re from Illinois,” Frank replied.
“Well, that’s a shame…” she continued. “I saw you while I was on stage practicing my cues and I just couldn’t look away.”
Frank was glad that she had seen the trio and felt the need to come talk to them. It gave them another opportunity to ask questions without raising suspicion.
“I didn’t catch your name,” Frank said as he extended his hand.
“I’m Whitney!” she replied as she shook Frank’s outstretched hand and giggled.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Whitney,” Frank smiled. “I’m Travis.”
They had all been given fake names to use by the show’s director as part of their cover. Under the newly established backstory, Frank began to ask Whitney questions to see what information he could gather. He was somewhat aware that neither Nancy or Joe had joined in on the conversation, but he didn’t give it much thought. Frank figured that maybe this time he was doing a good enough job talking that they didn’t feel the need to help him. After Frank had asked a few more questions, the director called out for the models to take their places and Whitney left with another giggle.
Frank turned back to Nancy and Joe. Joe was staring at him absolutely dumbfounded. Nancy, on the other hand, was not looking at Frank at all. She was staring straight across the room with an icy glare. Frank followed her gaze to see what she was looking at, but he saw nothing across the room except more empty chairs. He was about to ask her if everything was okay when the lights went down.
The three detectives had discussed ahead of time who would watch which areas of the stage. Frank quickly turned to face the left entrance to the stage, and he kept his focus there throughout the rehearsal. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, and neither did Nancy or Joe at their respective watch points. When the rehearsal was done, the trio headed out to have lunch. Joe suggested a nearby sushi restaurant he had read about online, and they set off in that direction.
As they walked down the street, Frank noticed that Nancy was walking several steps ahead of himself and Joe. Frank chuckled. He figured Nancy was probably lost in thought about what she had learned while she had been backstage. He was going to walk a little quicker to catch up to her when Joe spoke.
“Are you stupid?” he hissed.
Frank wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve his brother’s insult. He shot Joe a look of confusion, but Joe only continued to snap.
“You got mad at me for glancing at a model, and then you go and flirt with one in front of your girlfriend ?” he said in disbelief.
“What are you talking about?” Frank asked with confusion. He hadn’t done anything like that. He was a little offended Joe would even suggest that it was something he would do.
“I’m talking about Whitney!” Joe snapped. His disbelief was rapidly turning into anger. “You just sat there while she hit on you, with Nancy sitting two chairs away! What’s wrong with you? I felt guilty when I caught myself noticing that the models were pretty. Who do you think you are to let some girl make a pass at you, let alone to rub your girlfriend’s face in it? Nancy doesn’t deserve any of that!”
As Joe finished his lecture, Frank put the pieces together. Whitney hadn’t said that the trio caught her eye. She had been speaking specifically to Frank. She also put her hand on his arm while they talked, and she even mentioned the specific bar she was going to be at that evening. Frank realized with a sinking feeling that Joe was right. Whitney had been flirting, and Frank hadn’t caught on. He had been too fixated on getting information for the case and as a result, he hadn’t done anything to shut Whitney down. Suddenly, Nancy’s angry stare and quick pace made sense. She was upset. Frank could have kicked himself.
“I didn’t even notice…” Frank groaned miserably. “I thought Whitney was just being friendly because she wanted to help us with our ‘school project’. I figured it was a good opportunity to get some more information for the case.”
Joe burst out laughing.
“You know, if it was anyone else saying that, I wouldn’t buy it for a second,” he replied. “But somehow I’m actually not surprised you’re still that dense when it comes to girls.”
Frank knew he couldn’t argue with Joe. He had been oblivious and even worse than that, his oblivion had hurt Nancy. Frank darted ahead to catch up to where she was walking. He needed to clear this up.
“Nance, hold up!” he called out.
Nancy didn’t turn her head, but she did slow her pace enough that Frank could catch up to her. When he reached her side, she continued to stare straight ahead as they walked.
“Nancy, I’m really sorry,” Frank said immediately. He was begging his words to come out the right way. He needed Nancy to know how sorry he was. “Joe just informed me that I’m the biggest idiot in this city. Probably in the state. Possibly even in the country. It never even occurred to me that girl was trying to hit on me. I would have shut her down in a heartbeat if I had realized. I was caught up in trying to get information for the case.”
Nancy was finally looking at Frank. To Frank’s pleasant surprise, she didn’t have the same icy stare as before. She looked to be on the verge of accepting his apology. Frank figured he better keep going with his explanation. Thankfully, his words had been the right ones so far.
“Joe thinks I’m the only one dumb enough not to notice something like that, and he’s probably right. I’m so sorry. I need you to know that I wasn’t interested in her in the slightest, I swear. She’s not even my type. I’m not interested in looks. That’s why I’m with you.”
Frank knew immediately that those weren’t the right words.
Nancy’s jaw clenched. Her icy stare had returned and her voice was deadly as she spoke.
“You really know how to make a girl feel special, don’t you?”
With that, Nancy turned on her heel and disappeared into the crowd on the street.
Joe, who had been close enough to hear the exchange, was once again dumbfounded.
“I can’t believe you just said that,” he muttered. “How are you this bad at talking? Shouldn’t natural selection have taken you out by now?”
Frank couldn’t believe he had managed to make things worse. At this rate, he was going to need a search and rescue team to help him out of the hole he had dug himself into.
Nancy didn’t respond to any of Frank’s calls or texts that day. She had sent a message to Joe to let him know that she would be investigating a lead on her own for the rest of the day, but besides that, Nancy had been radio silent. Frank understood that she was mad, and he also knew that she had every right to be. As Frank and Joe took a cab back to their neighborhood after their own afternoon of investigating, Joe insisted that Frank practice his apology out loud.
“I need you to say the words you’re going to say when you see her, so that I know that you won’t screw things up even worse,” Joe said.
Joe had a point. Frank knew he hadn’t been doing very well in the talking department today.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Frank groaned. “Of course I think she’s beautiful! We’re talking about Nancy! You’d have to be blind not to know that. I was just trying to tell her I wasn’t interested in that model!”
Frank felt his stomach churn as the cab stopped outside Nancy’s apartment building to drop him off. He was dreading talking about his misstep with Nancy, but he was dreading what would happen if they didn’t have this conversation even more.
As Frank exited the cab, Joe called out after him.
“Remember to take a couple deep breaths. Your words only come out wrong when you’re nervous.”
When Frank reached Nancy’s building, he was worried that she wouldn’t even buzz him up. She had been ignoring him all day, and she might very well not want to see him at all. To his relief, when he rang the buzzer for Nancy’s apartment, the main door unlocked. He took the stairs as quickly as he could, and when he reached her door, it was unlocked. Frank took that as his invitation to come inside. He glanced down the hall as he took off his shoes, but there was no sign of Nancy.
Frank waited for her to appear, but after a few minutes, he realized that wasn’t going to be the case. Frank gathered whatever courage he had and knocked on the closed door of Nancy’s room, where he assumed she must be.
“Come in,” Nancy called out through the door. Her voice sounded hoarse.
As Frank opened the door, he realized why. Nancy was lying curled under her blankets, her eyes were red and puffy, and there was a pile of tissues spilling out of the garbage can beside the bed. Frank immediately realized that he had made her cry. He had never hated himself more than he did at that moment. Nancy was everything to him. He wanted to protect her from ever feeling this way, not be the cause of it. At the sight of Nancy looking so fragile, Frank couldn’t stop himself from rushing over to her. As he climbed onto the bed and pulled her into his arms, her tears started again.
“No, Nance, please don’t cry,” Frank pleaded as she hiccuped into his chest. “I promise that my big mouth isn’t worth being upset over. I am so, so sorry…”
As Frank continued to hold Nancy and whisper that he was sorry as many times as he could, her tears slowed. After another minute, Nancy sat up and pulled herself out of Frank’s arms.
“It’s not fair,” she said angrily. “It’s not fair that all I want right now is to talk to you about what I’m feeling, but I can’t because you’re the one I need to talk about. I can’t call my best friend Frank to talk about my boyfriend Frank.”
“Maybe you can,” Frank replied. Nancy turned her head to look at him in confusion as he continued. “Right now, I’ll be your best friend Frank. Just your friend. I won’t say anything that I’d say as your boyfriend. I’m just here because you asked me to come over so that you could tell me about the stupid thing your boyfriend did today.”
Nancy looked skeptical, but she seemed willing to play along with the idea. She laid back down on the bed and faced the ceiling. Frank followed her lead. He wanted to hold her again, but that wasn’t what friends did.
“Well you see, my boyfriend is a massive jerk,” Nancy began.
Frank swallowed down his anxiety at hearing Nancy’s words and pushed aside the urge to apologize again. He tried to slip into the role of her friend like he had slipped into the cover of a fashion student earlier that day.
“Oh no, what did your boyfriend do?” Frank asked. When Nancy shot him a look of annoyance, he clarified. “You’ll have to tell me about it because I wasn’t there.”
Nancy laughed a little at Frank’s game. Frank was hopeful that was a sign that they could work through this.
“So we’re undercover at a fashion show, right?” Nancy began to explain. She had turned her eyes back to the ceiling. “We’re all working on a case, and right in the middle of everything, this model comes over. She’s stunning. And I can tell as soon as she starts walking over that she’s got her eyes on my boyfriend. And I get it. He’s really good looking.”
Frank was surprised by the compliment and almost started to smile, but then remembered his “cover” as Nancy kept talking.
“So this girl comes over and she’s blatantly hitting on my boyfriend. She’s got her hands on him and she even starts telling him what bar she’s going to that night. And it’s not her fault! It’s not her fault at all because at no point does my boyfriend tell this girl that he’s taken. And I’m sitting there beside them and I just want to cry. I know I can’t compete with her, and my boyfriend must think so too if he’s paying her that much attention.”
Frank bit his tongue to keep from trying to explain what really happened. It was killing him to hear this through Nancy’s eyes as she continued the story.
“After we leave, my boyfriend comes up to me and he tells me that he didn’t realize she was hitting on him. He said he was too focused on gathering information for the case. And I honestly understood! It’s a detective thing to get so caught up that you lose sight of everything else going on around you. Everything is about to be okay again, until he finishes his sentence by telling me that he’s not interested in looks and that’s why he’s with me!”
Frank knew this was his cue.
“Are you serious?” he pretended to gasp. “What an idiot! You were right to call your boyfriend a massive jerk.”
Nancy laughed for a moment, but then she sighed.
“He sent me like fifteen messages this afternoon to apologize,” she said quietly. “He keeps insisting that’s not what he meant and that he’s not good with words. But…”
“But what?” Frank asked.
“But what if that is what he meant?” Nancy whispered. “What if it slipped out because it’s what he really thinks?”
Frank hated that he had caused Nancy this much insecurity, but he tried to remember what he would have said if he wasn’t her boyfriend.
“Why do you care?” he asked. “I’ve never known you to care about some guy’s opinion, especially not about how you look.”
Nancy sighed again.
“That’s the thing,” she said quietly. “I know that anyone else’s opinion of me shouldn’t matter. I do a good job of not caring most of the time, and pretending not to care the rest of the time. I’m so angry that I’ve spent the last hour lying in bed crying, all because I’m not sure if some guy thinks I’m pretty. Except he’s not just some guy. He’s everything to me.”
Frank’s heart hurt. The urge to wrap Nancy in his arms was stronger than ever. Still, he kept up the facade.
“Well, let’s look at this logically,” Frank said. “Your boyfriend has eyes, right? Functional ones?”
“Yes, he has two functional eyes,” Nancy laughed.
“Perfect,” Frank replied. “So that means he finds you attractive.”
Nancy laughed again.
“I’m serious!” Frank insisted. “It’s not a question of whether he thinks you’re pretty. I guarantee he does. It’s just a question of whether he can keep from saying the wrong thing for long enough to tell you.”
Frank hesitated slightly before deciding to drop their game in favor of speaking honestly.
“Nancy, you are my wildest dream come true, and sometimes that means it’s hard for me to keep my head straight around you,” he explained. “I am so sorry that I ever made you think you were anything less than beautiful. Whenever I think about the fact that I’m the one who gets to take you home, it blows my mind. You’re smart and you’re hilarious and you’re kind, and all of those things would make you out of my league on their own. When you add in the fact that you’re gorgeous, I don’t have any idea how I got this lucky. I love everything about you, and that includes how you look. I’m going to do a better job of making that clear.”
“Why don’t you start by making it clear now?” Nancy asked softly.
Frank didn’t hesitate to lean over and kiss her. He silenced the worries in his head and for once, he stayed in the moment without overthinking his every move. Soon enough, they were tossing clothes onto the floor between heavy breaths. Frank didn’t hesitate to tell Nancy what he was thinking as they went and if the noises she was making were anything to go by, she was a fan of this approach. When they finally collapsed into a sweaty mess of tangled limbs, Nancy looked over at Frank.
“We might have a problem,” she said.
Frank tensed at her words. He really thought he’d made up for his earlier mistakes. As he wondered what he had messed up now, he listened intently to Nancy’s next words.
“I don’t know how to tell my boyfriend Frank that I just slept with my best friend Frank,” she smiled.
As they both dissolved into laughter, Frank realized that Joe was probably wondering how things had turned out. He reached for his phone to send a quick update.
Frank Hardy: I’ll be staying at Nancy’s tonight
Joe Hardy: Did you fix things? Or did you somehow end up telling her that she looks like she just crawled out from under a bridge?
Frank Hardy: The first one
Joe Hardy: You mean you didn’t put your foot in your mouth for once?
Joe Hardy: We’ll have to mark it on the calendar
Frank just chuckled as he ran his fingers along Nancy’s arm. She sighed happily into his chest and Frank swore to himself that he would never make Nancy feel like she was anything less than beautiful again.
When Frank got out of the shower the next morning and walked back into the bedroom, he noticed that Nancy’s outfit included a scarf he hadn’t seen her wearing before.
“That’s a pashmina, right?” he asked as he began to get dressed. He figured he would keep practicing his fashion knowledge for another day of being undercover.
“Yeah, it is,” Nancy replied. “Bess gave it to me forever ago, but I’d never worn it before. It’s sure going to come in handy today, though.”
She seemed to have a glint in her eye as if something about the scarf was funny.
At Frank’s look of confusion, Nancy unwrapped the scarf to reveal that her neck was covered in several large hickeys. Frank took in the sight and cringed.
“Nancy, I’m so sorry,” he apologized immediately. “I went overboard and-”
To Frank’s surprise, Nancy cut him off with a kiss.
“I never said I didn’t like it,” she replied as their lips broke apart. “I like it a lot, actually. I just think it would draw too much attention considering that we’re still supposed to be undercover. Although, if that Whitney girl tries to hit on you again, the scarf might just accidentally fall off…”
Nancy winked as she headed down the hall, and Frank just shook his head in disbelief. He would never understand how he had gotten this lucky.