A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to read and review. I know I'm always going on about how much it means to me, and that's because it means a ton. So thanks.

Sorry it took so long to update. I hate writing endings; I just want to write conflict, none of this resolution stuff lol. I agonized over the last chapter of this story. Wrote three different endings for it, seriously. Hopefully you like the one I picked...

Enjoy, and don't forget to review!

It was good to be home, Frank thought. They'd only kept him in the hospital for two days, but it had felt like a week. A week of intrusive nurses, backless hospital gowns, and generic, flavorless jello.

He leaned heavily on the cane they'd given him as he entered the kitchen; his leg wasn't back up to full strength yet. With some effort, he managed to fill a glass of water and take the antibiotic pills that were supposed to prevent infection in his wounds. As he placed the glass in the sink, a flash of red-gold on the back porch caught his eye. As usual, the sight of her made his heart tighten in his chest.

Nancy.

She hadn't come to see him in the hospital, not while he was awake, anyway. Joe had given him some excuse about her spending too much time at the police station doing the cleanup, what with the bomb threat and the subsequent capture of the escaping Jake, but Frank wasn't sure that was the real reason she'd stayed away. Plus, he couldn't ask about her too often, not with Callie sitting by his side the whole time.

He limped over and slid open the sliding back door. Nancy visibly snapped out of her thoughts at the sound, and for a brief moment, surprise, embarrassment, and anxiety warred in her expression. She stood quickly from her patio chair, ready to help him if he needed it. "Frank, hey."

"Hey." They stood facing each other for a long moment, neither quite sure what to say, the last words they had said to each other hanging heavy between them.

He wasn't sure which one of them cracked a smile first, but all of the sudden his arms were around her and she was returning the embrace carefully. "I guess I owe you my life, again." Frank said into her hair.

She pulled back, shrugging off his thanks. "You would have done the same for me."

"I would have tried."

Nancy laughed softly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "You're the brilliant one. You convinced McGill to let you make a phone call. You came up with the secret message. All I had to do was decode it, with some help from Joe." She shivered a little bit. "I can't believe how close I came to letting you down."

Frank gave her a smile that told her he'd never doubted. "I knew you'd figure it out. That's why I called you."

She was looking at the ground, her hands, the yard—anything but him. "I admit, I was wondering why me. Joe was furious it wasn't him, you know."

"Oh, yeah. He already let me have it for that. But I knew McGill wouldn't have let me call him." Frank explained. "I figured out that McGill used to be married. His wife was dead, but it was still important to him to wear his wedding ring and put flowers on her grave. I got the sense that he loved her a lot, so I played on his sympathies." Suddenly Frank was as unable to look at her as she was to look at him. "I convinced him to give me one last chance to talk to my girl."

"But instead, you called me." Nancy prompted softly. And there was the crux of the matter.

"Yeah. I knew you were my best chance, Nan." he admitted.

She ducked her head. "Right. Of course."

He knew immediately that he'd said the wrong thing. "That's not what I mean. I mean, yes, you're a detective. I knew you'd solve the code. But... you always seem to understand where I'm going. We think alike, you know?"

She laughed a little. "I know."

"I thought if anyone would be able to put those clues together, it would be you. And you did."

"And I did." she repeated. "Well... I understood what you meant by most of it, anyway. I guess I was a little thrown when you... well. You know."

Frank's lips tightened. She thought that his 'I love you' had been part of the code, and she was still trying to figure out what he'd meant by it. "Nan..."

She plowed on ahead, seeming to not want his explanations. "That was some good thinking, referencing the past bomb cases we've worked together to tell me that the cabin was rigged with C-4. And working in the names of the nearby boats, not many people would have been able to pull that off convincingly, without tipping off the kidnapper..."

"Nan-"

"Yes?" But before he could answer, she rushed on again. "Oh, god. Your leg. You shouldn't be standing on it like that. Let me help you." Taking his arm, she eased him down into the patio chair she'd just vacated. Frank wanted to protest, but in truth, his leg had been getting achy from standing. Once he was safely deposited in the chair, though, she turned from him and walked away a few paces, restlessly. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. How are you feeling? I never asked."

"Nan. Nancy." The way she was rambling was kind of endearing, and that was why he needed her to stop. "Wait. Come back."

She paused in her pacing and came back to stand in front of him, looking almost reluctant.

"I'm okay. A little achy, but I'm gonna be fine. Thanks to you."

She swallowed and nodded. "I'm glad. I'm sorry I didn't come to visit you in the hospital. I spent a lot of time at the police station." She favored him with a shaky smile. "I don't think the cops in your town like me very much."

"Join the club." Frank joked. "If Joe and I didn't solve half their cases for them, I'm sure they'd have found a way to put us both in prison by now."

Despite the smile, she was looking a bit miserable. "Actually, the truth is that I... well, I did come, but I saw you with Callie and I couldn't face her. Not... not after what I said to you. I never meant to make things awkward between us, Frank. I'm sorry." She made to turn away again and Frank stopped her by grabbing her hand. She didn't pull away, but she wasn't exactly holding on, either.

"You don't have to be sorry." he said. That ever-present guilt was rearing its ugly head again.

"Yes, I do." Nancy argued. "You've got Callie, and I knew that. I've always known that. But when you said it to me, it didn't even occur to me that you were doing it to keep your cover. I just had this thought that it might be my very last chance to tell you, and I just... stopped fighting my instincts."

"Your instincts?" Frank repeated softly. If there had been any doubt that she'd meant what she said to him over the phone, it was completely gone now.

Her head was bowed to the floor. "I don't know. Maybe part of me wanted it to be true. I've always thought, maybe, you and I..."

God, the way she was blushing had his stomach twisting in knots. "Nan..." He hated to see her beating herself up over this... she wasn't the only one who'd thought about what it might be like, if they were ever to get together.

"Anyway," she continued, "I'm sorry. It was completely inappropriate. Maybe we can just chalk it up to... stress, or a near-death experience, or whatever?"

It wouldn't be the first time they'd chalked up one of their slip-ups to a near-death experience. His mind wandered briefly to a snowbound cabin in Colorado, where he'd kissed her in the heat of a desperate moment. He'd never given her any reason to believe that the feelings she tried to hide from him weren't mutual.

Because they were.

"I should..." Extracting her hand from his, Nancy took a few steps back from him and broke for the door. "I should go in. I told the police I'd call them later with-"

"Nancy!" Ignoring the pain in his leg, Frank pushed himself out of the chair. It was suddenly imperative that he not let her leave. "Just wait, would you? Stop running from me for a second."

Nancy froze in her tracks and turned around slowly. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize." Frank reassured her. "It's just, with the leg, I can't really chase after you right now. No matter how much I want to."

She glanced down at her feet, but there was a smile playing on the corners of her lips. "And why do you want to?"

"Because I think I love you too."

"Frank." she said after a long moment, her blue eyes wide with shock. "...What do you mean?"

"I'm done talking in code, Nan."

She walked back to him helplessly, as if she were being towed by an invisible rope. One of her hands found the unbruised side of his face, cupping it gently. The cane leaned forgotten against the table as his hands moved up to grip her arms.

She let out a little sigh. "Frank. When I said what I did..."

"I've been thinking about it since you said it." Frank admitted. "It's all I can think about."

"...I wasn't asking you for anything." she finished softly. "Callie loves you, and... and I love you. But it's been this way for a long time, since Egypt, probably. We could still just forget about it. Things don't have to change."

"Yes, they do." Frank answered seriously. "Callie was right. She should have been the one I called, the one I wanted to call. But she wasn't. And ignoring it isn't going to do anyone any good."

"A phone call? That's a stupid reason to break up with your girlfriend, Frank Hardy." Nancy admonished with damp eyes.

His grave expression softened. "Not the phone call, Nan. This." He slid his hands down her arms to catch hers and squeezed. "I love you too, Nan. I mean it."

"Yeah, I got it." she said with a watery laugh and squeezed back. "Can I make a confession?"

"Of course."

"I'm glad you didn't want to forget about it." she said guiltily, but her face was flushed and she was beaming. "It would have been really hard."

He couldn't help but smile back. "We've tried that before." he reminded her, "And it didn't work." He shifted his weight, wincing as he became aware of the ache in his leg. He sank back into the chair, waving off her expression of concern. "Actually, Nan, there is one thing you can do for me. Could you grab my cell off the kitchen counter?" He smiled reflectively. "I've got to make a phone call."

She was gone and back in a minute, pressing the phone into his hand. "Anything else?"

"A couple of hours?"

She nodded her understanding. "Of course. You're gonna be okay?"

"Yeah." He gave her hand one last squeeze. She leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his temple before going inside and shutting the door.

Somehow this phone call felt even harder than the last one he'd made.

She picked up immediately. "Frank, hi."

He took a deep breath. "Hey Cal. Do you mind if I come over?"

A/N: Sorry, Callie fans... I don't hate her either, but I'm a Nan girl at heart. I'll write a Frank/Callie someday, I promise!

Anyways, the end. What'd you think?