Saturday, October 14, 2000 (3:30 PM)

       Frank landed hard on the sidewalk that ran along the parking lot of the mall and heard the car squeal its tires again as it roared away in the other direction.  Frank shook his head rapidly back and forth and then sat up slowly.  He tested both of his arms and while he was sure he had some bruises and at least a few abrasions he thought nothing was broken.  The car had not hit him after all, but instead Samantha had managed to push him back out of the way.

       “Samantha!” he exclaimed suddenly and he threw himself to his feet, feeling around with his cane, afraid that he might come into contact with his girlfriend’s body.  He hadn’t heard the car hit anyone but what if he’d been too stunned to hear it?  “Sam!”

       “I’m all right, Frank,” Sam’s voice came to him a moment later.  She sounded shaky and a little weak but she was alive!  “Just stay where you are.  I’ll be there in a minute.”

       Sam sounded breathless too, as if she’d had the wind knocked out of her.  Frank grimaced when he bent the elbow on his right arm.  That hurt.  He felt with his other hand and found a large scrape there that was still bleeding.  His could tell his jeans were torn as well in the back and he felt with his left hand to see if he was cut there as well.  It wasn’t as bad as his elbow. 

       He felt a hand on arm a moment later and someone was pulling him back away from the parking lot.

       “Sam?” he asked.

       “No, it’s Callie,” Callie told him in a gentle voice.  “Tony and Biff are with Sam.  She’s all right, Frank, she’s just shaken up rather badly.  She had the wind knocked out of her.  What happened?”

       “I don’t know,” Frank said.  “I heard tires squealing and then I was knocked backward.  I landed on my elbow.  What’s wrong with Sam?  Where is she?”

       “On the other side of the road,” Callie told Frank.  I think she pushed you and then jumped the other way.”

       “I called 911,” someone else said then.  “You all right, son?  You better just sit until the ambulance gets here.”

       “I’m not going anywhere,” Frank said honestly. 

       “Here, Sam,” Tony said then and Frank felt something brush against him and then arms wrapped around his waist. 

       “Sam,” Frank said her name like a breath of air.  “Are you all right?  Please tell me you’re all right?”

       “I’m all right,” Sam said softly.  “Just a little shaky.  I almost didn’t see it in time, Frank.  He drove right at us.  He came around from one of the aisles and aimed right at us!  Another second and he would have killed us both.”

       Frank made a face at that.  Why would anyone bother?  He and Joe weren’t on any cases right now and his father was on vacation.  There couldn’t possibly be another person who worked for Doctor Rich that was out to get him.

       “You didn’t see who was driving the car, did you?” Callie asked curiously. 

       “No,” Samantha said.  “I wish I had.  I don’t even remember what the car looked like.  I think… I think it was green?  I just don’t remember.”

       “It’ll come to you,” Frank told her gently as he held her more tightly, not caring that his elbow hurt.  “Don’t worry about it now, just sit and take a few deep breaths.”

       “You’re the one that got hurt,” Samantha protested.  “I’m fine, really.  Your arm is bleeding.”

       “It’s nothing,” Frank said as he rubbed her arm and struggled to keep his own worry out of his voice.  She sounded on the verge of hysteria and he wanted her to just relax.  “Just a scrape.  It’s nothing to worry about, we’re all right.”

       Samantha sniffled and buried her head in Frank’s chest but she didn’t start crying.  He held her with both arms now and rocked her back and forth until her shakes got under control.  By then, they heard the sirens from the ambulance coming closer to the mall and Samantha sat up again.  She held tightly to Frank’s hand as they waited for the ambulance to approach.  Frank was glad she stopped shaking; she didn’t feel as cold as she had a few minutes ago but he would be glad when a paramedic could look her over.

       “Frank?” this voice Frank did know.  It belonged to Detective Con Riley, an old friend of Frank’s who worked on the Bayport Police Force.  “What happened?”

       “A car nearly ran us over!” Samantha exclaimed without giving Frank time to answer.  Frank squeezed her hand to try and calm her again. 

       “It nearly would have too, but Samantha pushed Frank and jumped out of the way herself,” Callie pointed out to Con. 

       Frank shook his head and grinned as he listened to his girlfriend and his former girlfriend explain what happened.  He heard someone chuckle behind him; he suspected it was Tony.  Samantha made a protesting sound but suddenly she started laughing too.  Frank squeezed her hand again and she hugged him tight, the tension leaving her almost instantly.

       “Let me take a look at that arm, son,” someone else said to Frank a moment later and Frank held up his elbow.  He winced when he felt something astringent being brushed across it; it began to sting almost instantly. 

       “It’s just a bad scrape,” the attendant said.  “It’s not at all deep.  Let me finish cleaning and bandaging it.  Do you have any other injuries?”

       “Er, the back,” Frank said, a little embarrassed to have to admit it.  “I, uh, cut my jeans back there.”

       Frank stood so that the paramedic could get a look at the scrape there.  The paramedic cut a hole in his jeans and the same astringent ointment was applied before a bandage was stuck on.  Frank grimaced as he sat back down and wondered if he hadn’t been better off before the ointment was applied. 

       “All fixed up,” the paramedic said to him.  “If you have any other problems later, see your doctor.  You might want him to check you over anyway just in case something’s wrong you’re not aware of.  Now, how about you, little lady?”

       Samantha protested that she was all right, that she hadn’t even landed hard.  She hadn’t hurt anything at all.  The paramedic gave her the once over anyway at Frank’s insistence.  He remembered all too well just how badly she had been shaking before the ambulance arrived.  He was a little afraid she might go into shock at any minute. 

       “Well, little lady,” the paramedic informed Samantha a few minutes later.  “You do seem to be just fine.  I’d take it easy for the rest of the day, both you, if I were you.  Any problems crop up later I want you to see your doctor.  Promise?”

       “We promise,” Samantha said, softly.  “Thank you.”

       “All in a day’s work,” the paramedic quirked.  A short time later he was gone.

       “All right,” Con said.  Frank realized the officer had been waiting until the paramedic was done. “Did anyone see the car?  Or a license plate?”

       “No,” Samantha admitted a little shakily.  “I remember seeing the car and then pushing Frank and jumping but… I don’t remember what it looked like.  I’ve been trying to remember.  I think it was one of those big cars, like a Cadillac but, I really don’t remember.”

       “It’s all right, Sam,” Frank told her softly as he wrapped his arm around her again.  “It’ll come to you later, when you least expect it probably.  Don’t worry about it now.”

       “I want them to catch that creep!” Samantha protested.  “He could have killed both of us!”

       “He didn’t,” Frank continued in a soft voice.  “We’re all right.  Just relax.  When you remember, we’ll call Con and tell him.  Right?”

       “All right,” Sam said reluctantly.  “I really am sorry though.”

       “Don’t worry about it,” Con told her.  “The emotions sometimes make it hard for a person to remember what they’ve seen.  Especially if you’ve been terribly frightened by something.  When it comes to you give me a call.  Are you all right to drive home?”

       “We can get them home if she’s not, Mr. Riley,” Tony said. 

       “All right, then,” Con agreed.  “Call me later, Frank.”

      

       Samantha Ellington sighed as she lay back on her bed in her dorm room and stared up at the speckled ceiling overhead.  After she dropped Frank off at his dorm and got him to his room she had come back to her own dorm to relax a little before going out with Frank tonight.  Her whole body still shook on occasion as she thought about the near miss with the car.  Just another second, she thought, another second and we’d both be dead.  It was that close.  I almost didn’t see it in time!

       She swallowed several deep breaths and forced back a wave of hysteria that threatened to overwhelm her.  Samantha wondered, not for the first time, if Callie was brave or not.  Some of the stuff that Frank, Joe and Mandy got themselves involved in terrified Samantha to no end.  She tried, for Frank’s sake, to be brave.  He was the best boyfriend she had ever had and she loved him so much she wondered what she would do if anything ever happened to him.  Vanessa, and Samantha knew that Vanessa loved Joe as much as Sam loved Frank, seemed more prosaic about the whole thing.  She didn’t lay up nights worrying that she would get a phone call telling her that Joe was dead. 

       Samantha wondered, not for the first time, if she was the best girlfriend for Frank.  He should have someone braver than she, someone who could look death in the face and laugh.  She had been scared witless the day she, Mandy and Vanessa and rescued Joe and Connor from Doctor Rich.  She was lucky that most of the work fell on Mandy that day.  Joe’s twin sister seemed far braver than even her two brothers; maybe Mandy forced herself to be that way because of them, and because she was a girl.

       I’m not letting him go, Samantha vowed again to herself.  I do love him and I want to be with him forever.  I don’t care if he’s blind or if he’s chasing every bad guy on Earth, I want to stay with him.

       Samantha surprised herself with those thoughts.  She wouldn’t leave him, she realized.  Ever since they started dating a year ago she had known. Frank Hardy was the one for her.  No one else made her feel the way he made her feel.  Just one of his smiles, a smile that lit up those gorgeous dark brown eyes of his, made her go weak inside. The first time he asked her out she almost couldn’t believe that she, Samantha Ellington, was being asked out by one of the most popular boys on campus.  And for the first time in her life, Samantha knew that Frank asked her out because she was Samantha Ellington and not because she was Donald Ellington’s daughter. 

       Samantha sighed and rolled over, curling up on her bed as she rested her head on her arm.  Everyone back home knew her but her popularity always rested on the fact that she was an Ellington, that her father was one of the most powerful men in town – or in the state.  Donald Ellington, republican, served as one of the two senators for the commonwealth of Virginia and owned several large businesses under his main enterprise, the Ellington Corporation. 

       Donald Ellington, however, had not at all approved of his daughter’s choice of schools.  He had not cut her off but he had not supported her an ounce since she came to Bayport University.  Samantha paid for school with student loans, scholarships and her work-study program.  In a way, Samantha was very proud of her own accomplishments.  She had made her way here, at Bayport University, by herself.  She had not, as several classmates in school taunted her, had to rely on daddy for all of her support. 

       And she knew, though he would never admit it to her, that her father was very proud of her.  When she went home over the summer break, she could see the pride on his face when he saw her report cards and heard about her many achievements.  He may not approve of her school, but he approved of her. 

       What Samantha knew but Frank didn’t, however, was that her father would not approve of Frank Hardy as an escort for his daughter.  Donald Ellington would take one look at Frank Hardy and assume, no matter that Frank did not come from a poor family himself, that Frank was a social climber and gold digger.  Her father assumed that of every boyfriend that Samantha ever had, if they were not on his list of the up and coming young entrepreneurs or sons of Donald’s rich elitist friends.  Samantha had dated a few of them in high school and hated every single of them.  And whether her father approved or not, whether it meant she would inherit any of his money or not, Samantha Ellington was not letting Frank go.  No amount of money in the world would make her change her mind.

       Samantha stretched and rolled over again.  She looked toward her closet, which was at the end of her bed.  There she saw the dress she had bought earlier that day to wear tonight.  It was the ubiquitous ‘little black dress.’  Samantha saw it in a store three days before and fell in love with it.  It was right within her budget limits and fit very well.  Vanessa had told her she was nuts if she didn’t buy the dress.  With it she had a pair of black pumps. 

       Samantha dressed slowly, a dreamy look on her face, the terrors of the day forgotten.  What mattered was tonight.  The big anniversary dinner with the man she loved.  Samantha smiled as she dressed and twirled around in a circle while looking at herself in the full-length mirror on the back of the door that went into the bathroom.  If her roommate were here, Kaitlyn would laugh at her.  It was a good thing Kaitlyn was out somewhere with Chet, Tony and Biff.  Samantha twirled again after she put the shoes on.  She definitely liked this dress. 

       It really was too bad, she thought with a forlorn sigh, that Frank wouldn’t be able to see me in it.

       Samantha tried very hard to not let Frank’s blindness get to her.  He hadn’t asked to have it happen, none of them had seen it coming and if he was doing his best to not let it get to him, then she wouldn’t let it get to her.  She made sure he knew that nothing changed.  Nothing had changed, either. She still loved him.  That was what mattered to Sam. 

       Samantha grabbed her wrap from the back of her closet and draped it around her shoulders before grabbing her evening bag and the keys to her car.  They were, she knew, going to take Frank’s car tonight.  While her Spyder was almost brand new and sporty, they wanted something a little more upscale, a little more grown-up in a way.  Frank’s Lexus Convertible just screamed ‘uptown’.  Samantha really missed driving around in it with the top down, the wind blowing through their hair while she snuggled up next to him.  She had only driven it twice herself.  She really hated the idea of wrecking that beautiful car!

       Samantha walked out to her car and started it and drove herself over to Tauhausen Hall.  On Bayport U campus it was usually easier to walk somewhere than drive.  There was not a direct route from Eldridge Hall’s parking lot to Tauhausen.  Getting there involved three different streets before you got to the street where Tauhausen stood.  Samantha walked up the flights of stairs to Frank’s room on the second floor and knocked on the door.

       “Just a minute!” Frank’s voice came from inside. 

       Samantha had no idea how he was getting ready.  Connor and Joe, after all, were out of town.  Mandy was with them.  And Sam knew that Frank’s parents were on a cruise.  Sam knew that Frank could get dressed on his own but how would he know what to pick out? 

       When the door opened, Samantha sucked in her breath and stared in stunned amazement.  Her six foot, one inch tall, dark haired, brown-eyed boyfriend was dressed head-to-toe in a tuxedo.  He had his dark hair combed back neatly and tied in the back in a single leather strip.  For the moment he had his sunglasses hidden, probably in the inner front pocket of his tuxedo’s jacket.  He looked blindly past Samantha, but the smile that played on the corner of his lips was perfect, as far as Samantha was concerned.  He was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life and never had she thought so more than now.

       “Is everything all right?” the smile faded into confusion and Frank held out his arm to her.

       “You look wonderful,” Samantha told him truthfully.  “I was, uh, just taking it all in.”

       “It needs one thing,” Frank told her.  “Do you think you can fix the bowtie for me?  I couldn’t figure it out.  And can you make sure the cummerbund is straight?”

       Sam pushed Frank back into his room and raised the tails of his tuxedo jacket so she could get to the hooks on the cummerbund.  She unfastened it, straightened it and refastened it so that it rested properly.  She fixed the tie next, making sure that it was squared the way that it was supposed to be.  Sam looked him over again and then she blushed, but more for his sake than her own.

       “Sweetheart,” she said to him slowly.  “I, uh, think maybe you want to wear matching shoes?”

       “Oh man!” Frank exclaimed.  “Which ones do I have on?”

       “You have one of the black ones on, which is what I assume you wanted.  But you have one of those blue dress shoes you wear with your suit.  The navy ones.”

       Frank shook his head and blushed.  Sam rummaged in his closet until she came up with the other black shoe and set it into his hand.  He tossed the blue one aside and put the black shoe on, then stood again and turned around in a circle.

       “Every girl in Bayport is going to be absolutely jealous,” Sam told him.  “They can eat their hearts out.”

       “You,” Frank said. “Are exaggerating.  Besides, if every girl is going to be jealous of you, every guy is going to be jealous of me.  Tell me what you’re wearing?”

       He closed his eyes and Sam fought back a blush as she realized that he was picturing her again.  He had good visual memory and he seemed to be able to get a good picture of her when she described what she was wearing.

       “I’m wearing a black dress,” she told him.  “One of those little black dresses you hear so much about.  It has spaghetti straps.  It fits pretty snugly in, er, all the right places.  It goes down to mid-thigh.  And I have on two inch black pumps.”

       Frank was motionless a moment and then another quirky smile came onto his face and he almost seemed to stare right at her for a minute.  Sam’s breath caught in her throat before he took her hand and placed it in his elbow.  He took her other hand and in it he deposited two things.  One was a wrist corsage, made of a dark blue orchid and the other were the keys to Frank’s car.

       “Mandy promised me that this was dark blue and that it was an orchid,” Frank told Sam.  “I thought it would go best with whatever you wore, as long as you weren’t wearing orange or something.”

       “It’s beautiful,” Sam promised him as she slid the corsage up over her hand and onto her wrist.  “Thank you.”

       She picked up her bag from his bed again and then walked with him out the door, down the stairs and out to the parking lot.  His car was parked where it had been since he was blinded.  Frank’s mother borrowed it once when her car was being repaired but otherwise no one else drove it except Joe.  Joe drove it twice a week to keep the engine in good repair.  Everyone in the two dorms who shared this parking lot seemed to know, without saying, that nobody should use the spot where the Lexus normally sat.  The Lexus was dark blue and looked black in the darkness.  Frank opened his own door and slid into the seat.  When he could see, he had always opened her door for her and held it until she was seated.  She didn’t mind doing for herself.  She knew he would do it still and probably would do it for her again later, when he was more confident getting around on his own.

       “So where are we going?” Samantha asked him again.

       “Rothburt’s,” Frank told her and Samantha gasped.  Rothburt’s was a very expensive restaurant.  Frank must have made reservations months ago to get into it!  It was owned by a former astronaut and was considered to be very upscale.  Rothburt’s was the kind of restaurant her father regularly frequented. 

       “Are you serious?” Samantha asked him, still somewhat shocked.  “We’re going to Rothburt’s?  When did you make the reservations?”

       “Two months ago,” Frank grinned then settled back in his seat and sobered, the grin vanishing as quickly as it came.  “That was… just before the… the accident.  I knew this day was coming and wanted it to be special.  I wasn’t sure, up until earlier, that we would still come here.  I didn’t know if you’d like it or, well, if you thought we could handle it.”

       Samantha was glad she hadn’t started the car yet.  She turned to Frank and grabbed his hand.  Samantha leaned over to kiss him.

       “We can handle anything,” she promised him.  “Whether it’s nearly getting smashed by a car or going to a fancy upscale restaurant, we can handle it.  I love you, Frank Richard Hardy.  I don’t want you to ever forget that.”

       Frank fidgeted and Samantha knew something else was bothering him.  Sam brushed a hand along one of his cheeks.

       “What is it?” she asked.  “What else is wrong?”

       Frank sighed and ran a hand along the armrest on the door. 

       “I’m just afraid they’re going to stare,” Frank said, finally, uneasily.  “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, Sam.”

       Samantha smiled and pulled his hand up to her mouth so he would be able to feel it and know, for himself, that she was happy. 

       “I don’t care if they stare,” Samantha says.  “If they do stare, they’re going to see an incredibly gorgeous guy who takes my breath away sitting with a passing…”

       “Exceptionally,” Frank interrupted.

       “…Beautiful girl,” Samantha finished.  “Who just happen to be in love and who happen to be celebrating one year together.  That’s all that matters.  I don’t care if they stare.  I don’t want you to worry about that, Frank.  We’re going to have an incredible night and I want you to be comfortable with that and happy too.  All right?”

       Frank smiled again and Samantha relaxed.  “All right.”

       Samantha started the car and wished that the weather were a little warmer out.  She loved riding down the road with the top off, the wind flying through her hair.  Still, the night already promised to be magical.  She drove carefully, following the directions that Frank kept in his head.  She wasn’t surprised at all when they got to the restaurant and she pulled the car up into valet parking area.  An attendant came out and opened her door as Frank opened his own and stepped out.  He held his cane loosely in one hand, his sunglasses now hiding his eyes from the rest of the world.  Frank pulled out his wallet and held out a ten to the valet who took it and thanked him.  Frank hadn’t gotten the money anywhere near the valet’s hand but the valet hadn’t said a word.  They wouldn’t either.  They didn’t think it anything unusual, nor would they think the cane or sunglasses unusual.  Bets were probably already being taken between the attendants as to which celebrity Frank really was.

       Samantha draped her arm around Frank’s elbow and led them up toward the restaurant.  She saw several people, many of them older than she and Frank.  All of them were dressed as fancy as Samantha and Frank were.  The door was opened by a doorman as they went through and Frank, again, handed out a bill of some kind. 

       “Reservation for two for Hardy,” Frank told the maitre d. 

       “Yes, Mr. Hardy,” the Maitre D said to them.  “It will be just ten minutes before your table is ready for you.”

       Standard procedure for a restaurant like this, Samantha thought.  She took Frank to some nearby chairs and they waited to be seated.  A passing wine merchant offered them some wine but they both rejected it.  A few minutes later the Maitre D returned.

       “Yes, Mr. Hardy,” the Maitre D agreed.  “Do come with me, sir, miss.  We have a table all ready for you.”

       Frank smiled again as Samantha took his arm once again.  She fought the urge to let her mouth drop open in amazement.  She had been in fancy restaurants all her life but this place was almost magical.  It was done all in a dark red, almost burgundy, color, with several floor to ceiling fish tanks running all through the restaurant.  There were also mementos of Cecil Rothburt’s trips in the space shuttles and, before that, in the Apollo rockets.  Samantha kept looking around so much, she almost ran Frank into one of the fish tanks.  She apologized to him quietly and kept her attention on their walk, up a short flight of stairs, across another room to a table seated near the junction of two of the fish tanks.  Samantha waved off the maitre’ d as he stopped to seat her and went to help Frank find his seat.  Then, she thanked the maitre’ d as he pushed her seat in behind her.

       “This place is remarkable,” Samantha whispered to Frank.  “I love it!”

       “I thought you’d like it,” Frank grinned at her.  “I’ve been here once before, I came after prom my senior year.”

       “With Callie?” Samantha asked curiously.

       Frank shrugged.  “Yes, with Callie.  She didn’t really like it though.  The fish tanks got to her.  I sort of thought that’s what made the place so special.  I think that’s one reason why I wanted to bring you here.  Besides the fact it’s the most romantic restaurant I can think of in all of Bayport.”

       “I have to agree,” Samantha told him and she squeezed his hand from across the table.  “Do you want me to read you the menu?”

       Frank frowned and then nodded.  Samantha read down the list of entrees for him as their waiter arrived and poured water into the goblets sitting on the table.  It took them a few minutes to decide what they wanted then they sat and enjoyed the most wonderful evening Samantha had ever spent with anyone.  The food was delicious, the service incredible and she kept hearing the sounds of a roving violinist moving through the restaurant.

       “Here,” Frank said while they were waiting for the deserts, a chocolate soufflé, to be served.  He slid a small box across the table toward Samantha and she reached out with a shaking hand to take it.  Frank had never given her any jewelry but his class ring from high school.  They had made a sort of tacit agreement when they first started dating that it would wait until they had gone out for a year. 

       “I’ve been wanting to buy this for you all of the last year,” Frank admitted to her as Samantha popped the jewelry box open and she made an exclamation when she saw what was inside.  Nestled against a white fluffy jewelry pillow was a beautiful, gold, heart-shaped locket with a single diamond gracing a sort of curly-q on the front of the locket.  

       “It’s beautiful, Frank,” Samantha said breathlessly.  She felt a tear falling down her cheeks and she wiped with the corner of her napkin. 

       “Look at the back,” Frank told her.

       Samantha turned the locket over and read, “S, now you hold my heart in your hands.  F.”

       “Oh Frank!” Samantha wiped another tear and she came around the table to hug and kiss her boyfriend.  “It’s beautiful.  Everything has been so wonderful.”

       Samantha opened the locket and saw there a small picture of them together.  It had been taken at the end of the last semester, a small version of a picture they had taken at a dance together.  They had been standing nose-to-nose, a silly look on both their faces.  Samantha shakily fit the locket around her neck, then sat back down and reached into her handbag.  She pulled out her own small jewelry box, slid it across the table to Frank and placed his hand over it.

       Frank looked quizzically at her as he fumbled the box open and felt inside for the gift that Samantha had gotten him.  It had taken her several weeks to come up with a good idea for a gift for him but when she had seen these, she had known this was the gift to get.  Men, at least in her family, did not wear jewelry, beyond a wedding band, a watch or cufflinks.  Frank did not seem much different than the men in her family, though she knew he was not the cufflinks type.  She had gone through several stores until she came up with her idea. 

       Simply, it was an ID bracelet.  This one, however, was made of several small links of gold all bound together by other small links of gold so that they looked more like a Celtic knot work bracelet.  Interlaced along the top were the links where the engraving was inlaid.  The bracelet was understated but, in Samantha’s opinion, manly. 

       “It says,” Samantha told him a she helped him fasten it on his wrist.  “F, my heart and yours are bound together, S.”

       Frank took her hand before she could pull it back and he pulled it to his lips from across the table.  He kissed it and Samantha felt a tear escape down her cheek. 

       “I love you,” Frank said, earnestly when he released her hand. 

       “I love you,” Samantha said in return, because she meant it more than she meant anything in her life.  The deserts came and interrupted their exchange but nothing could diminish the moment.  They ate their deserts with one hand because they could not release the hand they were holding.  The soufflé was delicious, absolutely the best Samantha ever had.  She fingered her necklace every so often and saw Frank finger his bracelet.  She’d done right.  He liked it.

      

       The night went better than Frank imagined it would.  He could tell without having to see Samantha that she was very happy.  He occasionally heard a sniffle from her, a sound of happiness and not sadness.  When he touched her cheek he felt her tears but knew they were also from happiness.  One year together - he wanted it to be a hundred.

       Samantha drove them to the Student Union where they were supposed to meet with Joe and the others.  Frank yawned twice as Samantha led them through the nearly deserted Student Union to the snack bar area.

       “Hello you two!” Frank recognized his roommate, Connor’s voice; it sounded as tired as Frank himself felt. 

       “You look completely amazing,” Mandy, Frank’s younger sister, said and Frank felt her hug him as he slid into a seat.  Samantha slid in beside him and snuggled up close to him.  “I totally love the tuxedo Frank.  I hope you two took pictures!”

       “They took pictures of us at the restaurant,” Frank said.  “We go back in a couple of days to get them.  I didn’t feel like waiting tonight.”

       “Mom would absolutely kill you if you didn’t get pictures,” Mandy said.  “I hope we can make copies!”

       “Don’t ask me,” Frank shrugged.  “I had the pictures done for Sam.  You’ll have to negotiate with her if you want copies.”

       “I’m not the one negotiating,” Mandy retorted.  “I’m the one trying to save my older brother from a fate worse than death.  An upset mother.”

       “Did you see Tony and Biff?” Joe, Frank’s younger brother, asked.  “Are they going to be around tomorrow?”

       “Yeah, we met them,” Frank said.  “And Callie was there too.”

       “Callie’s in town?” Mandy asked.  “Oh, Dana’s wedding!”

       “Yeah,” Frank yawned again.  He apologized.  “And yes, Tony and Biff will be around tomorrow.  They’re going to come by the house tomorrow at six for a barbecue.”

       “Awesome!” Joe exclaimed.  “Do they have really short hair?”

       “Very,” Samantha agreed.  “Of course, I don’t know how long it used to be but they had those nice military butch cuts.”

       Frank grimaced when he rubbed his sore elbow against the seat back.  Ouch, he thought with a frown.

       “What’s wrong?” Mandy asked and Frank felt her touch his arm.

       “That’s the other thing that happened today,” Frank said.  “We nearly got hit by a car at the mall.”

       “What!” Joe exclaimed.  “What happened?”

       “It came out of nowhere,” Samantha explained.  “And nearly flattened us.”

       “Samantha pushed me out of the way and managed to jump out of the way herself.  If she hadn’t we’d both be pancakes right now,” Frank hugged his girlfriend again with his other arm.

       “I can’t believe it!” Joe declared.  “Was it on purpose or an accident?”

       “I don’t think it was an accident,” Sam declared.  “He came around the aisle he was in just as we stepped onto the parking lot.  It’s like he was waiting for us.”

       Joe made more verbal exclamations and Frank had no problem whatever imagining his younger brother raising his hands and gesturing wildly in anger.  His younger brother was very quick to let his temper get ahead of him. 

       “It’s all right,” Frank told him.  “We’re all right.  It may have been one of those random acts of violence. You know, people who wait for just anyone so that you can make your protest by flattening them.  It’s not like they really meant to target us.”

       “But maybe it is!” Joe protested.  “In fact, I bet it is!  I bet they meant to take you out, Frank.  What did the car look like?”

       “Sam doesn’t remember,” Frank said. 

       “It was blue-green,” Samantha said a moment later and Frank felt her sit up straight.  “It was a blue-green car.  I think it was a smaller car.  Like a Dodge Neon.  Or a Chevy Cavalier?  I’m not sure which one though.”

       “I thought you said it was like a Caddy?” Frank reminded her gently as he gently squeezed her shoulders. 

       “Maybe… no… it was smaller,” Sam decided positively.  “It wasn’t quite as big as most Cadillacs are.

       “I told you you’d remember more,” Frank told her as he squeezed her hand.

       “Wait a minute,” Samantha said a moment later.  “I do know what it was.  It was an Audi!  It had those three or four circle things.  I remember turning for just a second and seeing them.  An Audi has those.”

       “All right, now we’re getting somewhere,” Joe exclaimed.  “All right, so we figure out who has a blue-green Audi.  Isn’t that a specialty color?  Most Audi’s come in straight colors.  Silver, white, black, red or blue.  There can’t be that many blue-green Audi’s on the streets.”

       “That’s true,” Frank agreed thoughtfully as he thought it over.  “Keep going, Samantha, do you remember anything else?”

       He spoke in a gentle tone and held her hand.  He did not, for any reason, want her to tense up on him again.  He wanted her to stay comfortable, relaxed, able to tell him what flashed in her memory. 

       “I just don’t remember anything else, Frank,” Samantha apologized unhappily.  “I have tried, but I don’t.”

       “That’s all right,” Joe said from across the table.  “That’s a start.  We can run searches on the Audi, right, Frank?”

       “Right,” Frank agreed.  “I know we’re both pretty tired and you guys must be totally beat.”

       “Just a little,” Connor yawned.

       They walked the girls back to their dorm at Eldridge Hall and kissed them goodnight.  Frank smiled as he kissed Samantha goodnight and squeezed her hand.  He felt something cool press against his own upraised hand.  Her locket brushed against him and he smiled again, confident and loving.

       “Good night,” he spoke softly as he kissed her again.

       “Good night, Frank,” Samantha said as softly.  “I love you.”

       “I love you too,” Frank said.

       Joe put Frank’s hand on his shoulder and led him back to Tauhausen Hall, their own dormitory.

 

       Frank was no sooner in bed when the phone began to ring.  He fumbled for just a second and then found the phone and lifted to his ear.

       “Hello?”

       “Frank, you and Joe have to get over here quick,” Mandy said in a rushed voice.  “Frank, Vanessa got hit by a car!”

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. I've only borrowed them to play with for a while but I promise to return them whenever I've finished with them.  (I make no promises as to condition, that's entirely up to them).  I promise, I'm only writing for fun and I'm not making a single dime off of this (unless you count personal fulfillment).