"Frank!" Nancy found herself running like a little girl across the parking lot, grinning idiotically from ear to ear. Frank turned around and appeared pleased that he had this effect, opening his arms and letting her come to him. He let out an "ooof" as he absorbed her momentum, and she squeezed tightly, giggling, holding on a moment longer than necessary.

"Come on," she said abruptly, pulling him into their diner. "I can't wait to tell you all about my latest case!" she said breathlessly as the waitress showed them their booth. "And then we have to think of a name for it."

Frank was staring distractedly at her face, and a flicker of a more intense emotion passed across his features. "I'd love to hear all about it, Nancy," he replied. "But I don't plan on staying here as long as I usually do."

Nancy's disappointment was obvious, and she said wistfully, "Oh…I'll have to give the abridged version, then." But she clapped her hands excitedly, a girlish gesture that Frank always waited for fondly. "Well, it all started when I visited a friend of mine in Pennsylvania. She moved out there a couple of years ago with her folks and I never really heard too much from her until suddenly she wanted me to come for a week."

"That was just like my and Joe's recent case—she was the daughter of a scientist, but she turned out to be evil, and Joe's heart was broken. What happened when you got out there?" Frank asked.

"She thought the place was haunted," Nancy revealed. "They were terrified, but knew that the police wouldn't believe them. Clara apologized so much when I got out there, but I told her I knew exactly what to do," Nancy said smugly.

"Held a séance?" Frank asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"No—the first night I was there, I knew that I had to find a way to draw out the ghosts. So I put on a sheet and waved two flashlights, and walked around their mansion making low moaning noises, to dare my ghost counterpart to reveal himself."

Frank felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. "Anyone would have done as much," he said.

"No—it was my idea!" Nancy shot daggers at him. She grabbed a cheese fry as the waitress set their usual order in front of them. "Anyway, hours went by and I have to admit that I started to feel a little foolish. But then suddenly my flashlight landed on an old painting on the wall with the corner dog-eared and I thought, how could Clara's family ruin such an expensive masterpiece? But just as I leaned in for a closer look, I was grabbed from behind with a gun at my back!"

Frank's mouth hardened into a straight line.

"I knew that if I could get this person talking, I could stall for time," Nancy said. "So I started asking who they were and why they were doing this. They started to give me some basic explanations, but unfortunately stopped short of giving me their name. They were disguising their voice with an old scarf but fortunately the scarf got a hole in it so I could recognize the voice of the maid. I threatened to tell her employers about this incident and she bopped me out cold! I woke up the next morning bound and gagged in the basement."

Frank arched an eyebrow. "And called the police?"

Nancy dismissed that comment with a wave of her hand. "Clara had a pet mouse in the basement, so I crawled over to the cage and put my ropes in the feed dish and confused the mouse into gnawing off my ropes. I raced upstairs to see the painting but it was gone, and the maid had resigned and left along with all her possessions!"

Frank nodded as if he had expected this. He reached across the table and gripped her hand in reassurance.

Nancy sighed. "Clara's family was happy to be rid of their "ghost," and said that the painting was a small price to pay, but I wanted justice, and questions answered. Why wouldn't the maid have just stolen that painting a long time ago?

"But there was nothing more to be done so we all went to the carnival. While Clara and I were on the ferris wheel I looked out over the fairgrounds and saw the maid! She had the painting and she was doing some kind of deal with someone in a tent. We were stuck at the top and her parents couldn't hear us, so I climbed out and had to grab the different spokes on the way down. The ferris wheel started moving again, which made it especially difficult, but I was determined."

"Were you in heels?" Frank asked knowingly.

"I can't remember what happened to my flats," Nancy said thoughtfully. "Fortunately I realized that one of the banners was right next to the ferris wheel, so I took off my outer sweater and could just barely make the jump. I ziplined from the banner right next to the tent, and tackled the maid from above and arrested her on the spot."

Frank shook his head in amazement. "She explained everything to you before the police got there?"

"Of course. The tent was the meetup spot for smugglers in the black market, who had known that a valuable article had mistakenly been sold to Clara's family. That's why one of the smugglers got a job as their maid, and terrorized them with "hauntings" in the hopes that they would leave the house for a while and leave the maid an opportunity to look through their things. They didn't know where the article was in the house, but they figured it out when I shined my flashlight on the dog-eared painting. She peeled the painting back when the police got there. The painting was actually worthless, but behind it was an original dinner menu from the night the Titanic sank!" Nancy leaned back in satisfaction.

"Wow," Frank said admiringly. "Did anyone pay you anything?"

"Frank, you know I don't charge anything for sleuthing," she chided. "Clara's family offered me the menu as a reward, but I made sure that it took its rightful place in a museum."

"That's my girl!" Frank smiled radiantly, giving Nancy's hand a squeeze. Nancy flushed with pleasure at the compliment, especially from another detective and a good friend. But she couldn't help but notice that his hand hadn't budged from his place on hers, and seemed to have no intention to.

A moment of silence passed. Usually, Frank processed each case in detail with her after her recap, praising various clues she had picked up on and actions she had taken, but now he was simply looking at her. Nancy's blush deepened and her eye contact faltered, but his remained steady and consistent.

"Nancy…Nancy, look at me." She forced herself to meet his piercing gaze. "You and Ned need to have a talk, sweetheart," he said with infinite gentleness.

Nancy's features went slack with shock, and she heard blood rush past her ears. The room spun a little bit, like it did when a moment seemed impossibly surreal. "What?" she sputtered, and resented him for speaking like this.

"Yes, we are going to talk about it out loud this time," Frank said, reading her mind. She shook her head in embarrassment.

"Frank, you…you're one of my best friends," she said numbly.

Frank stiffened. "How long, Nancy," he replied flatly. "How much longer do you want to just be friends?"

"I'm with Ned!" Tears filled Nancy's eyes and she gazed out the window, into the pouring sleet of rain that matched her new mood. "He would be so hurt, so upset…"

"And you hurt him more with every day that he gets more attached to you." Frank saw her flinch, and pressed on despite her pain. "He's an impartial observer, someone you call during a case to clear your head. You don't call me because you know I'll give you a hint when you'd rather figure it out for yourself, or, even more likely, because I'll know exactly how much danger you're in and I might come get you."

Nancy stifled a grin. She hadn't even acknowledged her reasons to herself, but he was right.

"But after each case, Nan…" Frank tipped her chin back to face him. "Here you are with me."

She frowned at him, thoughtful, subdued. She'd been hoping that things would stay the same forever, with a long-distance boyfriend to prevent her from more serious commitments, and Frank's willingness to remain available whenever she needed him. She had never allowed even her thoughts to turn astray from Ned, putting an act on for herself as well as everyone else. She envisioned faithful Ned, always busy with school but making himself free when she called, asking amateur questions in an innocent attempt to help with her work.

Then Nancy turned to Frank, puzzled. "I'm exhausted," she said in surprise.

Frank laughed merrily. "From the case, your plane ride home yesterday, or this conversation?" he teased.

Nancy sighed. "You know which," she said with a trace of a pout.

Frank pushed her hand sideways on the diner table and ran his hand lengthwise around hers, finally gripping her lightly around her thumb. "Nancy," he said softly, "You have no trouble interfering in other people's lives. You have an exact sense of justice, you can't leave questions unanswered, you'll advocate night and day for the wrongly accused. It's time to force yourself to face some facts and clues in your own life, and advocate for yourself this time, and for the innocent man that could be meeting someone else at his school." Frank stood up and took the check.

"Frank—" Nancy gripped his arm frantically. She knew that if he left, then she would have to take some kind of action, not discuss things theoretically.

He came around to her side and put a hand on her shoulder, reassuring and firm at the same time. "You need to drive over and talk to him tonight, dear. I will be with you to pick up the pieces afterward, and so will Bess and George."

"Tonight? He's—he's got finals in three weeks, I can't upset him now." She shivered.

Frank met her gaze solemnly. "It has to be tonight, love." He kissed her forehead and shrugged into his jacket. "Give Nickerson some credit—he's tougher than you think."

Nancy sat still. She knew that he was serious. Frank Hardy was gentle, but there was nothing weak about him. The night of their first relationship conversation would also be the night of her last chance. But she did her best thinking when backed into a corner. She felt her shoulders tighten, and she sat up a little straighter. A hard knot of nervous resolution began to form in the pit of her stomach. "I love you, Frank," she said suddenly.

Frank whirled around, stunned. "Okay," she said to him. "I'll do it."