Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, or the characters associated with these series. I also am not affiliated with any of the shows, celebrities, or other pop culture entities mentioned in this story.
Author's Notes: I have been super busy lately (school is absolutely kicking my butt) but this story idea has been bugging me to be written, so I am making my return to the fandom. Updates will most likely not be frequent, unless I'm on vacation, but I can assure that they will come.
Full Summary: Nancy Drew may be famous now, thanks to a case gone awry, but that doesn't mean mysteries are going to stop finding her. She's managed to stay away from them for a few years, but now they're back and with a vengeance. As she prepares to film the third season of her TV show, a stalker begins to rear his head, and while she's busy working, it's up to some old friends to protect her and catch him. Nancy finds that she's stuck behind boundaries of being unable to work on a case, while the brothers have to deal with the limelight radiating off of Nancy. Can the trio handle the changes and solve the case? Eventual Nancy/Frank pairing.
This story will mention several real celebrities, in relation to the characters knowing them and interacting with them, however I will not be attempting to write any of these characters into the story. The only people that the characters will be interacting with that you really see will be fictional.
The dates at the top of the excerpts at the beginning should be used as a timeline for the story.
Chapter One-This Is Your Life
Excerpt from Nancy Drew's blog:
May 15, 2008
A lot of you have been asking me how I got to where I am today. I never asked to be famous. If you'd asked me a year ago what my plans for the future were, I would have told you about my plans to become an FBI agent. I was a private detective before I did any of the things you see me in now. Ironically enough, it was a case that I worked for the FBI, because they didn't have a fully trained agent who could go undercover, that forced me to change my plans.
When I agreed to go on America's Next Top Model to help protect the aspiring models from someone who was trying to threaten the lives of everyone on the show, I was very careful. I dyed my hair brown, wore green contact lenses, and used the name Natalie. I wanted to be able to go back to my normal life after the case was over. Those of you who know that I was on the show know that I came in third overall. The producers had agreed that despite whatever aptitude I had shown for modeling, they would cut me as soon as the situation with the threats was under control.
However, I didn't get them agree to keep my identity a secret. The story that a private detective had gone undercover on the show broke a day before the show's premiere and not long after, my identity was out. People found out that I could model, and they wanted to know more about me; agencies wanted to sign me. I ignored it all, and tried to live my life normally. I went back to planning my wedding and solving mysteries, just trying to keep a low profile. Of course, my normal life didn't really allow for a low profile. My fiancé and I were in New York, taking a walk through Central Park. I noticed that something was off. There was a college-aged girl, jogging alone, and she didn't notice a man that was following her. I kept an eye on her and I tackled the man as he pulled a knife and went to attack her. He ended up being a man that had raped and murdered three other girls.
The story made the morning news, and I did interviews for the three major morning news shows. After that, I couldn't really ignore the publicity that was coming my way. The Today Show gave me a weekly spot to provide safety and self defense tips for the viewers. I had writers and producers who wanted to develop television shows and movies based on my cases, designers and products who wanted me to model for them. It was a little overwhelming.
I was starting to make decisions about it all when I got a phone call from the producers of Dancing with the Stars. One of their female celebrities had torn her Achilles tendon about two days into rehearsals, and they needed a replacement, fast. Apparently I was famous enough. I decided to do the show, if only to give my dad something to actually be proud about after all the…less-than-little-girl photo shoots I had done when I was undercover.
And this is where the story gets familiar for most of you. I started working on my TV show, Sub Rosa, while I was on Dancing with the Stars. I won the show, and Sub Rosa was a successful mid-season replacement. That is the story of how I got to where I am now. I hope this satisfies some of your curiosity.
Nancy Drew
Safety Tip of the Week: When walking alone, carry either your house key or your car key firmly in your hand with the tip pointing outwards. It's a quick weapon that will surprise an attacker.
Nancy Drew hung up her cell phone, ending the call with her best friend and personal assistant, Bess Marvin, as she stepped out of her Los Angeles apartment complex. She greeted some of the waiting paparazzi with a smile and a wave before adjusting the sunglasses she wore. The 24-year-old made her way to the car that was waiting to take her to the airport. Coincidentally Bess was waiting in the car and had called her from it. Most of her family and friends were still back in the Midwest, living the lives that they had either already had, or at least already had planned. The only uprooted one was Bess, who wasn't feeling all that uprooted considering it had been a long time dream of hers to live in LA and mingle with the rich and famous.
The second season of Nancy's television show had finished filming two days ago. She would have a week and a half of vacation, to be spent back home in River Heights, before she had two weeks of rehearsals and then a month and a half of touring on the Dancing With the Stars tour before it was back to filming the third season of Sub Rosa. It wasn't much of a break, but Nancy didn't mind too much. She had never led a calm life when she wasn't famous, and she didn't intend to slow down now that she was.
"Hey, Bess." Nancy greeted as she got into the car. She closed the door after one last wave, removed her sunglasses and buckled her seatbelt. "Are you ready to get back home?"
Bess rolled her eyes as the car started to drive. "Are you kidding? My parents would go completely mental if I wasn't. My mom said that if she doesn't get to meet Brian soon she was going to fly out here and follow me until I go to see him. Honestly, a girl gets engaged and the fiancé is all her mother can think about." Brian Jenson was one of the writers on Sub Rosa; he and Bess had hit it off quickly once they had met and the relationship was soon to follow.
"Well, you met him out here, you dated him out here, you got engaged to him out here and you never brought him back home to meet them. The wedding is in three months." Nancy pointed out. "I take it he's still meeting us at the Chicago airport then."
"Yeah he's gonna be coming in from New York, and he'll ride with us until we drop you off at your dad's. He's pretty nervous though. He's all worried about my parents approving of a 'Hollywood man'. That's what he called himself. Can you believe that?"
Nancy laughed. "Did you tell him that it's not your parents he has to worry about? George will completely beat him into the ground if he hurts you."
"I didn't have to tell him that." Bess shook her head. "You did. Multiple times. He really doesn't want to meet her. Thanks. I don't know why you felt the need to do that. We both know perfectly well that Brian is not going to hurt me."
"Bess. I'm your family when we're out here. It's my job to scare your boyfriends when your real family can't."
"How kind of you."
"Besides, it was fun. I needed to goad him into getting rid of that pathetic romance between Avery and Lionel. I gave him survival tips for the Marvin and Fayne clans, Lionel and Avery break up due to…we'll call it artistic differences, everyone's happy."
Bess pulled out her compact and flipped it open in order to adjust her makeup. "That is all so…delightfully like me. I'm telling you Nancy, LA has worked wonders for you. You get to have so much more fun than you did back in River Heights." Her pink lip gloss came out of her purse. "All this fame stuff has turned you into a normal twenty something girl."
"I was normal." Nancy said, only slightly offended by the implication.
"If a little work oriented. Now you're working and having fun. It's a win-win. Now if we could only find you a man you could have the trifecta for a perfect life."
"That's not exactly a priority Bess."
"And what exactly is a priority? You can't go about saving the world anymore. You have a TV show to film."
"And a dance tour to work on, and film scripts to read, and spokesperson contracts to look over. I don't have time to breathe let alone foster a relationship with some guy that I don't know." Nancy sighed.
"Then foster one with some guy you do know."
"Bess. We're going back home for the first time since Christmas. Don't you think we can leave my love life to the paparazzi for a few days and just…be happy to be seeing everyone?"
Bess closed her compact with a sigh. "I guess that's fair. We'll be back to work soon enough and then I can fix you up all I want."
Nancy was opening the door to her old home in River Heights while Bess and Brian pulled out of the driveway in their rental car. She was glad to be back home. As she had told Bess in the car on the way to the airport, she barely had time to breathe. River Heights was the perfect place to get back into the swing of that particular action. It was not an easily excitable town. Her home in particular, very rarely changed. For this, Nancy was exceedingly grateful. There was nothing like being able to go back to a completely normal life after months of being in the spotlight; she had just never realized it until she was actually thrown into the spotlight.
"Dad! Hannah! I'm home!" She called out, placing her bags on the floor of the entryway.
"Nancy!" She was barely alone for two seconds before her father was in the entryway too, pulling her into a tight hug. Nancy got the feeling that he might have been watching the driveway, but didn't want to appear too eager. "I've missed you so much. How was your flight?"
"As much fun as non-stop transcontinental flight can get." Nancy had her mouth open to say more, but Hannah also entered, wiping her hands on her apron.
She practically pulled Nancy out of Carson's arms for an embrace of her own. "Nancy, you're back. I was just getting to work on making your favorite dinner. At least I hope you still love shrimp scampi and strawberry cheesecake."
"Don't worry, I haven't gone completely champagne and caviar on you yet, Hannah. And trust me. Anything homemade sounds good."
Hannah pulled back and gave her surrogate daughter the once over. "Well you don't look any worse for the wear. You really should do something with your hair though. It's getting too long and scraggly."
"Talk to Bess' fiancé. I can't do anything with it until I find out where the show is going. How are you guys?"
"We're doing all right." Carson answered, smiling broadly. "We've missed you, but we get to talk to you every night, and we see you at least once a week on prime time television."
"So you're still watching the show?"
"We never miss an episode." Hannah's eyes twinkled. "We'll be having a viewing tonight."
Nancy rolled her eyes. "You know, since I'm here, you don't have to use the show as a method of contact."
"If we don't watch it, we won't be able to follow your storyline. Besides, it's nearly the season finale." Hannah shook her head. "I read in this week's TV Guide that Avery is starting a case that will change her life forever."
"That may be. It doesn't mean that I'm going to tell you about it or give you secrets when you watch it."
"Oh you." Hannah tutted and waved her hand. "Don't think that you're going to get away with that mouth while you're home. Now, why don't you and your father go out on the deck in the back yard and catch up while I finish dinner? There's some lemonade, and it's absolutely beautiful out there."
"Are you sure, Hannah? I'm sure Dad and I could help you out in the kitchen."
"Don't be silly. You've been working for the last five months with nary a break. You and your father can both go and relax."
"I don't want you to be lonely in here…" Nancy trailed off. She didn't feel quite right coming home to do absolutely nothing, and she wasn't sure why Hannah was encouraging it. No one in her family had ever encouraged laziness, except in extreme circumstances; Nancy doubted that her return to River Heights counted as an extreme circumstance.
Hannah shook her head, yet again, this time with a twinkle in her eye. "I don't think that I'll be very lonely in here."
"What do you mean you--,"
"Just go out on to the deck." Hannah cut Nancy off and began to guide both Nancy and Carson towards the door to the backyard. "I can assure you that I will have plenty of company in here."
Nancy still didn't really know what was going on until she was standing outside on the deck. There was a long table set up that held various plates of fruits, crackers, and cheeses, with a cooler of drinks next to it. The grill was on, and the entire deck and backyard was packed to the brim with people.
"Welcome home Nancy!"
Nancy smiled broadly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. She knew that she probably should have suspected a surprise party, but she just…hadn't. Her skills as a detective were lacking slightly in light of the focus of her career. "You guys got me."
"Believe me, we're definitely proud of it."
Nancy had spent quite a bit of time mingling with anyone and everyone who had shown up to the welcome home barbecue that her father and Hannah had organized. Various friends and family members of course, along with Bess, George and their families were all there. Making the rounds had taken quite a bit of time and she had yet to have a chance to eat. After her flight across country, where she had opted not to eat the cuisine offered by the airline, this left her starving. So while most of the crowd had either left the party or crammed themselves into the Drew household living room to watch the new episode of Sub Rosa, Nancy had opted to sit outside by the fire pit with a couple of the burgers that had been made.
"So are you too good to watch your own TV show now, or are you just too good to be around the lowly plebeians inside?"
Nancy turned around and smiled at the joking remark. "Neither. I'm starved." She held up the plate with burgers as evidence, and then put the plate down in order to stand and hug her caller. "Frank, I'm so glad you and Joe could make it. I'm sorry I couldn't get around to you guys earlier."
"So are we." Frank Hardy smiled broadly. "I don't think we've seen you since your show first started. We've all been so busy…" He trailed off as they pulled apart, both taking seats by the fire.
"Yeah. I've heard business is really booming for you guys."
"We've had a few cases." Frank nodded. "And we've been having a lot of fun. Van has been working with Joe a lot. She's thinking about going for her license."
"That's great. Joe must be thrilled."
"He is. Unless the case gets dangerous. Then he freaks."
"Sounds like Joe." Nancy shook her head. "So the cases have been interesting, then?"
"Some of them. We had this black market organ trafficking case a few weeks ago. It all started when we were on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, and I stumbled across this body that didn't have a whole lot left to it." Frank began to describe the case piece by piece. He went on for a few minutes before he noticed the look on Nancy's face. "You miss it, don't you?"
Nancy started out of her daze. "Miss what?"
"Solving mysteries."
"Of course I do. It was my life for how many years?"
"I'm sorry." Frank apologized quietly.
"For what?"
"I'm going on about the stuff that I've done. The stuff that you always wanted to do. The stuff that you can't do now. I'm being completely insensitive and--,"
"Frank," Nancy placed a gentle hand on his forearm to stop him from continuing. "I asked you to tell me about the case."
"But--,"
"If nothing else I get to live vicariously through you. I'm too far in the public eye to do most of that stuff now. Even if I could, my manager would flip." She rolled her eyes. "She freaks because I do my own stunts, I doubt she'd like it if I went chasing after men who kill people for their organs."
"But you're happy right? Living out there, with Sub Rosa and all that other stuff makes you happy?"
Nancy briefly debated giving him an answer the likes of which she would give to the press. She was getting bad about doing that with her friends and family instead of telling them the truth about what was going on in her life. It was a habit that she knew she should break, but didn't exactly want to. "Not as happy as solving mysteries made me." She decided on the truth, despite her better judgment.
Frank seemed surprised. "Then why do it?"
She shrugged. "I don't exactly have a choice now. Contracts and fans and all that."
"I know you made sure you had loopholes. If it makes you so miserable, why not stop?"
"Because it's not completely miserable. I'm just not as happy as I could be."
"Do you ever regret it? Taking the model case?"
"What are you? Some sort of reporter? Tell me the truth Hardy, is Entertainment Tonight paying you for the inside scoop?" Nancy teased.
Frank started to blush lightly. "I'm sorry. I'm prying. It's just that I haven't had a chance to really talk to you in such a long time, and I'm curious about--,"
"Frank, relax, I was joking. I'm not used to talking about this stuff, but if you want to know about it I can. What's with you tonight?"
"What do you mean?"
"Just because I'm not solving mysteries anymore doesn't mean I'm completely oblivious. You're acting different than you used to. Quite frankly, you're acting like you're nervous. Do I make you nervous Frank?"
"You…don't make me nervous per se…it's just that…"
"You know, it's kind of cute." Nancy winked. "But I guess I can take pity on you. You were doing better when you were talking about the case. Finish telling me about those organ smugglers."
Frank obliged and continued the story where he had left off. He then proceeded on to the story of when Joe was nearly roped into a Vegas wedding to a less than artful con, which led to Nancy telling a story from her first time on the Dancing with the Stars Tour.
"So this guy decided that during my waltz would be the best time to propose to his girlfriend. Maks and I don't look at the floor when we dance and I was going backwards at the time. He knelt down and I tripped over his foot. Maks almost caught me, but he didn't quite get a good hold on me. I managed to hurt my wrist pretty badly on the lights near the floor," She held out her left wrist and pushed the sleeve of her shirt up to her elbow. "On the brighter side, the girl did say yes to him."
Frank took her wrist in one hand and gently thumbed at the scars. "Well, I'm glad all of the trouble was worth it. It looks like it hurt."
Nancy shivered lightly at his touch. "It looks worse than it was."
"You always were the tough one."
"There you guys are."
Nancy pulled her wrist out of Frank's loose grip as they both turned to see Joe standing on the deck. "Hey Joe, how was the show?"
"Every minute was action packed. And quite the cliffhanger with you lying at the bottom of that ravine."
"Well, I don't know anything about what's going to happen next so don't expect any spoilers from me." Nancy shook her head with a bright smile. "As far as I know, Avery stays at the bottom of that ravine from here to eternity."
Joe rolled his eyes. "That's not why I came out here. Everyone was wondering where you two were. They were all speculating that you were hooking up in the car or something." Both Nancy and Frank groaned. "Of course, I may have started that rumor."
"Don't worry; I'll remind you never to put him in charge of your publicity campaign."
"Oh Frank you're so hilarious. I can barely contain my amusement." Joe deadpanned. "Actually I came to find you guys because I think it might be a good idea for Nancy to go in and see her dad."
Nancy frowned. "Is something wrong?"
"Your acting job was just a little too realistic and I think it was a little hard for him to see you in some of situations you were in this episode."
Nancy briefly closed her eyes. "I forgot about the attack." She stood. "Frank, I should go talk to him. We'll finish talking later, OK?"
"Sounds good."
Nancy quickly hurried into the house past Joe. Once the door was closed the blond man raised an eyebrow at his brother. "What exactly were you two up to?"
"Just…catching up." Frank shrugged, walking up onto the deck. "We hadn't had a chance to talk yet."
"Catching up? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"
"Joe…"
Joe threw up his hands in joking exasperation. His brother never let him have any fun. "I'm just saying the two of you were sitting awfully close to just be catching up. You were holding Little Miss TV Star's hand."
"I wasn't holding her hand."
"Yeah you were. I saw her pull away as soon as I came out."
"OK, maybe I was." Frank crossed his arms over his chest in the hopes that it might convince Joe that the conversation was not meant to continue. "But not like that. I was looking at a scar she has on her wrist."
"Oh. Right then. I guess nothing romantic could ever stem from something as intimate as fingering someone else's scars." Joe rolled his eyes. "Are you naturally this romantically clueless, or are you trying at it to annoy me?"
The door to the house opened and Nancy ducked her head out. "Hey, Bess, Brian, George, and a few of the others are getting ready to leave and then we're going to start a game of Trivial Pursuit if you guys are interested."
"We'll be right in." Joe nodded, and she turned to leave. He then shot a look at his brother. "This conversation isn't over."
Thoughts?