I am so glad I volunteered for jobs sometimes. Yeah, there are sometimes when Joe Hardy wishes that he had held his tongue or didn't raise his hand. Like the time that the teacher needed someone to play the part of the tree in a school play and on the way there a dog thought I was real. Or that time when I told the villain that I was the first one he would hurt. Or that time when I jokingly catcalled my brother's girlfriend and she punched me. Maybe that wasn't volunteering, but I still regret it. My biggest regret would be when I volunteered to that Dad's mystery case and I was sent undercover to the landfill and absolutely nothing happened except for trash coming in.
But this time was a good time to volunteer. I can not wait to see Nancy. I hadn't seen her since the ball and she was hanging precariously from a chandelier. Nancy is such a good person and she is so kind and...adorable. When I met Nancy Drew she was on the least favorite people list. I had learned on that case to never judge a person by their case file, much less their cover. Once I met her, I knew that she was amazing. Spending time with Nancy was better than playing any video game or eating any pizza. If you passed her on the street, you wouldn't think anything of her. She was an average Jane, an everyday American teenager. She wasn't especially tall, she wasn't short. She wasn't big, but she definitely wasn't small. She was normal. Except she was super smart, strong and was the best female detective in the world. She wasn't a magazine model, but she was far from ugly. She had acne, she slouched and she wasn't afraid to roll around and get dirty. She was as calm as a cucumber. She was a social bug who needed her me-time. She was the whole package. And even though I tried to hide, I fell for it. She didn't or hasn't fallen for me, but I know that we are passed friends. We had known that when we first met, that is just how it is for detectives. Once a sleuth, you are part of the family. I know, I know, we haven't known each other long, but when your job almost kills you on a regular basis, you get close to the people you work with.
To say that I was eager to see Nancy was an understatement.
When I snuck in the room, Nancy was out on a cold wooden cot. I unlocked the door and picked Nancy's limp body up. I didn't expect her to be awake after Frank's visit, though I had hoped she was. I brought her out of the cell and didn't even bother closing the door. I put her down on the chair and replaced the keys on their hook before picking her back up. This would be so much easier to do without holding a hundred and thirty-pound dead weight. Not that I was complaining. If Nancy had been awake she never would have let me carry her. I opened the door, slipped out and closed it again. Looking first, I carefully crept to the door on the left. I had more chances of not being detected if I cut off that hallway. No one seemed to be I the room, which is a very good thing because I couldn't fight off someone and keep Nancy safe. I set Nancy down and ran up the few steps to open the door. I pick her up and hook my foot on the door to close it.
Carrying a dead weight was not part of A.T.A.C yearly training and I'll have to admit, at this point, my muscles burned and ached. I guess I haven't walked carrying this much weight often enough. Let's just say that I rarely carry anything while I am walking. Awkwardly I put Nancy down and stretched my muscles. I could have rested there for hours except I knew I had to get above ground. I hit Nancy's head as I moved through the stairway Elizabeth and I had taken earlier. She moaned and opened her eyes.
"Should I ask why we are here?" She smiles wearily, almost as if she has been drugged.
"You could, but you wouldn't get the whole, storybook answer."
She giggles and hiccups, solidifying my thought that Doright might have her on some medication.
"You seem awfully awake," I comment.
"Maybe I am," she grins but it never reaches her eyes.
"You want to talk walking?" I ask.
She hums softly. "Not really. I'm fine up here."
"What if my arms hurt?" I complain.
"Ok, fine." She sighs as I set her down. She wobbles a little, almost like she is wearing drunk goggles. She grips my shoulder and I can feel her nails. When she lets go, she is wobbling like she is dizzy and bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"You're a little hyper," I state as a grab her waist to stabilize her.
"When I finally got dinner, I was so hungry I gobbled it up. I guess there was something in it." She shrugs in a very unlike Nancy Drew manner as if she doesn't care. She almost falls down the steps. I put her back on her feet.
"I am not so sure you are awake enough for this." I worry as she walks up to another step.
"Well, if you want to carry me again..." she gives me a lucid grin.
"Second thought, you can walk fine," I push her up the next step.
She moans playfully but marches upward. When we reach the top she wasn't so...jumpy. She had settled down a little. She was still overly excitable. It was kind of funny watching Nancy Drew so free and loud and cute.
When I open the door, she looks kind of disappointed.
"What's up?" I quiz.
"Nothing. I just thought it would be more mysterious, exotic, adventurous."
I roll my eyes. Now she's talking like me.
"Well, now all we do is get you to the ca and power us home." I decide it is best not to tell her she was going to the hospital to get checked out. In typically Nancy Drew fashion she would have balked.
"Woo-pee." She shouts. "let's go." She grabs my arm and drags me. But I keep my feet planted.
"Look, Nancy. You have to be quiet." I feel like I am scolding a child, not escaping a criminal with a fellow detective. "I know you think you have a lot of energy but you don't. You need to save it. Calm down or someone will hear us," I whisper.
"Mr. Hardy is right, Nancy," a voice calls. John Doright stood in the doorway and smiled wickedly at us. "You just calm down and listen to him, my girl."
"Don't you touch her, "I growl.
"I won't and you won't touch me. Or I will burn this place down with you inside." Doright pulls a lighter out of his pocket and lights a spark. He walks toward his desk where papers sit high, ready to burn. He leans against it and looks very satisfied as I back Nancy behind me.
"Touch me, even the slightest bit and I drop it, starting a fire on this very desk. This desk conceals the evidence that Stella was here, that she worked for me, and that I kept her here for almost sixteen years. Not that I care, I don't need those records, but you might. You want to start thinking." He raises an eyebrow at me and nonchalantly lowers his hand to the desk. "It really is your choice. Well, yours and Miss Drew's"
He stands up and paces towards us. I don't move, frozen like my life depends on it. Because it does. He reaches out and touches a lock of Nancy's hair.
"It is a shame. We were just getting started. Too bad, for your sake, that your mother doesn't love you." Doright sneers and drops her hair.
"My mom loves me," Nancy snaps timidly.
"Well, believe what you like. You'll never get to ask her about it." With that, Doright steps around me and punches Nancy in the stomach. Nancy doubles over and loses her balance, tumbling down the staircase.
"Nancy!" I scream.
She lay sprawled on the stairs in an unconscious heap. At least I hope she is unconscious. If he killed her...
I turn and punch the wicked sneer right off Doright's face. His nose caves in and the sting on my hand feels good. How could he be so cruel and selfish? How could he not care at all about any life but his daughter's? I snap my knuckles and reel back for another hit.
Doright recovers pretty quickly. I glare at him. He raises his eyebrows and smirks. A good, evil villain smirk like he is from a Disney movie. He stands there, smirking while his nose swells up and bleeds. I look down and see that his hand is empty. Papers crackle on his desk and turn to ask. Doright pulls back his fist and connects it to my stomach. He lifts his foot and connects it to my face and I reel through the air and down the stairs. Not as far as Nancy, but far enough that I am positive I have cracked a rib and the bruises were going to last a while. Doright laughs as I stand.
"Sleep tight," he cackles. "And eternally. I have business to attend to."
I run up the steps and wince as my rib cries out. Doright closes the door and I am too late. He locks it and quickly wedges it closed with a bookcase. I ram my shoulder on the door, rattle to knob but it is useless. I give up and clutch my side in the dark.
Wait! The other door! I feel my way down the staircase. I curse myself for giving Elizabeth my flashlight. When I reach the door, I jiggle the doorknob. locked, locked, locked! Why did I lock it behind me? If I wasn't so fatigued I could possibly knock down the door. Even if I could what good would it do? We would still be trapped in an underground lair.
Nancy! I grope through the darkness and find her still body on the stairs. I could see her outline but other than that I could see nothing. I shake her shoulder.
"Mmmm," she mumbles, rolling over on the stairs and falling one. She makes a noise almost like a cat. At least she is okay.
"Nancy," I whisper.
She rolls her shoulder. I move my hand and fell her sit next to me in the dark.
"Hey," she whispers.
"Hey," I breath.
She gives me a small smile and I see her teeth glow in the dark.
"Do you feel okay?" I ask.
I feel her sit up next to me. "Do you have any way of getting out of here?" She sounded more like Nancy Drew now. She completely ignored my sympathy and focused on the situation.
"Do you?" I chuckle. "No, I think we're stuck for a while. I don't have enough energy to kick down the door and I don't think it would get us any further than a little bit further away from the fire."
"Too bad. If that fire spreads anymore we are not going to have much of a choice. It's alright trying to sneak under the door."
We sit in silence for a few moments. I lay back on the steps and try to pretend I can't smell the incoming smoke.
"What do you want to do before you might burn to death or blackout?" I question.
"Truth or Dare?" Nancy replies after a long hesitation.
"Is that the game where you take turns telling truths or completing dare...in a stairwell?"
"Pretty much," Nancy giggled. "Sorry, it's the only one we can play in a dark, smoke infested stairwell."
"That is alright." I shrug. I had never actually played the game but it sounded like a good sleepover game.
"Joe Hardy, Truth or Dare?" she asks, her silly side coming back and reminding me that I am the responsible one in this situation.
"I think I will take a Truth." The fire creeps closer but I try to ignore it and live in this moment.
"Okay. Who was your first crush?" she asks.
I had to think back on that. Joe Hardy has liked a lot of girls in his time.
"There was Savannah in fifth grade. I think she was officially the first. Top f the class, total nerd, a gorgeous brunette who never once gave me a second glance." I grin. "Alright, Nancy Drew, Truth or Dare?"
"Truth."
"Hmmm," I hum. "What is the most embarrassing thing you have done?"
"So, in middle school, I had a huge crush on this popular boy," Nancy starts after thinking. The fire had spread four steps down. We both speechlessly move two more steps down. "I was spitting my gum out in the trash when he walked by. I totally missed the trash and spit the gum in his hair. He had to go to the nurse's office and get his hair cut and for the rest of the year, he had a buzz cut. I got sent to the principal's office, the only time in my middle school career. I was mortified and couldn't speak to him again."
I had to laugh at that one. "Wait, the only time in your time at middle school? So you did go other times."
She laughs but then coughs because of the smoke. "In high school, I was in the principal's office constantly because of cases. I was either solving a case instead of doing schoolwork, missing school to solve a case, going on vacation with Dad when he was on a case. They were constantly calling me in because of missed classes or assignments. It really is a miracle I graduated with such high grades. There was a lot of sleepless nights." She asked me Truth or Dare once again and I again answered the truth. The fire continued to spread down further and we were breathing in too much smoke every breath. I coughed and Nancy sounded terrible as she spoke.
When you were really little, what did you think you would be when you grew up?"
"When I was little I wanted to be a postman more than anything."
Nancy giggles like she is drugged on the smoke. I turn my back on the fire and try to not constantly check on it. I face Nancy and thanks to the blaze I can see her face glowing. I put on my most serious face which makes Nancy laugh more.
"Miss, would you like a Truth or a Dare?" I raise an eyebrow and stare down at her.
Her eyes twinkle merrily, ignoring the hazards of death all around us. The beautiful sleuth smiles and I can see nothing else. "Dare." Her eyes challenge me with their daredevil charisma. I slide a little closer to Nancy as she backs against the door at the base of the stairs. I have to look down to see her. What did I want to dare Nancy to do the most? If I dared to ask would she actually follow through or laugh at me?
With the glow of the lurid flames enveloping the narrow space we had left I told Nancy, "Kiss me."
Her eyes grow larger and she bites her bottom lip. She reaches up, wraps an arm around my neck to lower me and kiss me full on the lips. Supergirl detectives are great kissers I must say. Not that I ever was kissed by one before, but I dreamed I would be. One kiss was enough, right? It was enough to muddle my thoughts, turn my body to mush and never want to let her go.
She pulls away too soon, leans against the door and crosses her arms. "No more for you," she teases. "You have your one and now you will forever want more."
"Okay," I say but I ease closer and she doesn't push away. My hand drifts to her waist but then I catch myself. I shake my head. Nancy and I would never work out romantically and we both knew that. This was the one and only time I would kiss Nancy Drew. I taste the tang of her in my mouth and I already regret taking advantage of her. I could never forget this and the memory would stay with me and torment me forever. But Nancy Drew was not for me.
"How do you suppose we're going to live through this?" Nancy raises an eyebrow making her look adorable. My heart gives a pang.
"I don't think we are," I reply. The Hardy Boys had almost died in all sorts of cases. Nancy Drew could solve any puzzle. But Nancy Drew and a Hardy Boy couldn't even get out of this.
The door behind Nancy rattled, startling us both. Before Nancy could get up the door opened behind us and she went flying backward. Caught off balance, I fell on top of her. I rolled over as I heard someone swear.
I look up to see a young man with nice, fat biceps standing over us, glancing from us to the fire. From what I've heard, I am about to have my first experience with Morgan Doright.