A/N: Hello everyone, here it is…part four of my little series. For those of you who haven't read the first three stories, don't worry you should be able to follow along just fine. All you need to know is that Vanessa and Joe are engaged and Nancy and Frank are living together. There will be a few references to my last story, The Three Minute Deal, but they won't be confusing…hopefully. : )

Also, because I meant to post this story DAYS ago but I was unsure where to start…I'm going to post two chapters to make up for it. :)

Okay, on with the story!

Four Times Too Many

Chapter 1

"Have a good day at work," Frank leaned down and gave Nancy a goodbye kiss as he got ready to leave.

"You too," Nancy replied and kissed Frank back.

"Remember dinner tonight at my parent's," Frank reminded her as he grabbed a light jacket.

"I remember," Nancy smiled and looked around the empty living room, "it will be nice to get everything moved in tomorrow."

"Yeah," Frank agreed, "I can't believe it's taken us this long to move our stuff."

"We have good excuses," Nancy replied and grabbed her purse. They walked out the front door of their home together and headed toward their separate cars. Frank blew Nancy a kiss before he jumped in his car and pulled out of the driveway.

Nancy was smiling as she got into her own car and headed down the street in the opposite direction.

On her way into work Nancy reflected over everything that had happened in the last month. Frank had surprised her by buying a house for them to live in together and they had slept on a blow up air mattress in the master bedroom for two weeks before finally moving his bed into the room. Because of their work it had taken an extra long time to paint the inside of the house and they had only just finished painting the last room.

Nancy had also quit her job with the FBI and had been hired by Chief Collig to be the newest member of the Bayport Police Department. She had been working there two weeks and already it felt like the right place for her to be.

She pulled into the parking lot of the station and parked her car. "Good morning Maureen," Nancy greeted the cadet at the front counter.

"Good morning officer," the girl replied.

Nancy smiled; she liked the sound of "officer" a lot more than she had liked the sound of "agent". For some reason, it seemed to fit her a lot better. She walked to her desk in the middle of the precinct house and sat down opposite her partner.

"Good morning partner," she said with a smile and looked down at the full coffee cup in front of her, "did you get this for me?"

"That's what partners are for," Con Riley responded with a smile.

"Aw Con, you're such a softy, thanks!" Nancy took a sip of her coffee and smiled. She had been paired with officer Con Riley right from the beginning and she was extremely thankful for that. He was the most experienced police officer on the force and she had worked with him before through her work with the Hardy's. All three of the Hardy men had nothing but good things to say about the straight forward officer and Nancy had been excited when she had been assigned to be his partner.

"We've got paperwork to do this morning," Con grumbled. No officer enjoyed paperwork but it was an integral part of their job description. Nancy sighed and grabbed the folder out of her inbox.

"I guess we better get this finished before we head out and keep the good citizens of Bayport, New York safe," Nancy and Con settled into the pages and pages of paperwork that waited for them and they finished up right before lunch.

Walking side by side Nancy and Con walked out of the precinct and headed for their car. They climbed into the car and Con turned to Nancy, "where to for lunch?"

"Wherever," Nancy said and pulled her seatbelt across her chest, "just no more Mexican food. We've had it every day for the last week."

Con grinned, "I can't help it if I'm having a craving."

"Yeah, the mother of all cravings," Nancy teased, "I'm a woman, I know what cravings are like and I can tell you, none of mine have ever lasted a week."

Con laughed, "Okay, I see your point. What about burgers?"

"Perfect," Nancy agreed and they pulled out of the parking lot and headed for their favorite burger joint. A call came over the radio just as they were turning onto the main street of Bayport.

"Domestic disturbance," Con muttered darkly as they listened to the call.

"That's right around the corner from here," Nancy said and radioed dispatch. After identifying herself she informed the dispatcher that she and Con would answer the call.

"Neighbors heard shouting and loud noises coming from the house," Con muttered under his breath, repeating the information they had heard. "This address is for that house that was taking forever to sell on Jefferson. I think they turned it into a rental."

They turned the corner and headed toward the house in question, pulling to a stop in front of it a few moments later. They stepped out of the cruiser and Con led the way up the short walkway. It was eerily silent inside the house and Con shot Nancy a quick look before he knocked on the door.

They were greeted by only more silence and Con knocked again, "police, open up!" he said loudly and pounded his fist on the door.

Finally, the sound of heavy footsteps came from inside and Con stepped back to wait for the door to open. It took a few moments as the person behind the door fiddled with what sounded like an unnecessary amount of chains and locks. The door opened slowly and a huge bear of a man looked down on them with a scowl.

"What?" he demanded. He chewed something in his mouth before tucking it back in his cheek; Nancy quickly realized it was chewing tobacco.

"Sir, we received a call about a noise complaint at this address," Con said formally. The man grunted and leaned outside to spit in the bushes by the front door. Aside from being amazingly tall and broad shouldered the man didn't fit the normal description of his type. The white shirt he wore under his button up shirt was perfectly white and the shirt over it was well pressed and cared for. Even his jeans looked like they had been pressed. His black steel toed work boots were well polished and scuff free. His midnight black hair was severely parted on one side and slicked down.

"Wasn't this address," the man replied gruffly.

"Your neighbors say that they heard shouting and loud noises," Con contradicted him.

"Wasn't this house," the man said again and refused to budge from the doorway. Nancy tried to get a look around the huge man but only saw glimpses of an extremely tidy house with few nick knacks. From what Nancy saw of the house she could tell that the man clearly matched his surroundings. His hair was perfectly, rigidly in place and his furniture was perfectly, rigidly in place.

"What's your name sir?" Con asked.

The man's eyes narrowed but he answered anyway, "John."

"John…?" Con continued.

"Hendrickson," the man answered.

Just then Nancy caught some movement from behind John in the house. For the first time she spoke up, "is that your wife, Mr. Hendrickson?" she asked.

John shot her a dirty look, "the woman speaks?"

Con's eyes flashed, "That woman is an officer and you will speak to her with respect."

John shrugged and looked over his shoulder into the house, "yeah, that's my wife."

"Do you mind if we ask your wife a few questions?" Nancy asked.

John didn't answer Nancy; instead he looked at Con, "I'm telling you, there wasn't a disturbance here. You've got the wrong house."

"Then you won't mind if my partner and I come in for a moment, welcome you to the neighborhood, do you?" Con said and before John could blink Con had quickly pushed the door to the house open the rest of the way and Nancy quickly followed.

Looking around the living room Nancy could see that her assessment had been correct. The cleanliness of this house put hers to shame and she didn't have a stick of furniture in hers. Nancy could imagine that if she were to wipe her finger across any of the surfaces she wouldn't pick up any dirt; in fact…she'd probably leave dirt.

"So, how long have you been here?" Con asked conversationally.

"Three days," John replied gruffly. It was obvious that he didn't quite understand how the two cops had found themselves in his living room.

"Three days, you move quickly," Con looked around at the fully furnished house. "My partner here has had her house for a month and the only furniture she's been able to move in is a bed."

"Yeah," was all he said and he smirked. Nancy wondered fleetingly what the man was thinking, "well, you've done your civic duty…you can leave now."

"I'd like to meet your wife," Nancy said but again John pretended to not have heard her.

"Maggie isn't feeling well," John said looking only at Con and pulled the front door open again, "it's been a long three days of moving." The living room led into the kitchen area and just as John was pulling open the door a woman entered the kitchen from a side door. The woman paused when she saw her husband and their visitors, her eyes going wide. She clutched a broom in one hand a dust pan in the other. She didn't say anything just started to slowly retreat into the other room.

Nancy stepped forward quickly, "you must be Maggie," she said with a smile and the woman stopped. Nancy couldn't help but see how beautiful the woman was, even under her haggard appearance. She couldn't have been much older than Nancy in reality but she looked far older than she actually was. The woman did in fact look sick, she had dark circles under her eyes and her face was thin and hollow looking. Even with her appearance Nancy knew that the woman had once been a stunner.

"Yes," the woman replied quietly.

"Hi, I'm Nancy," Nancy walked forward holding out her hand to shake. When she entered the kitchen she stopped short. The kitchen floor was covered in broken dishes, glass was flung everywhere. The wall hid the mess from view while standing in the living room.

"I'm very clumsy," Maggie muttered and rushed forward to begin sweeping up the mess.

A horrible feeling lodged itself in Nancy's gut as she took in the mess, "let me help you," Nancy said without thinking and rushed forward to help.

Several things happened at once. Nancy reached forward to grab the broom from Maggie and she instinctively shied away from Nancy's reach. When she did so the sleeve on her shirt rode up just enough so that Nancy could see the edges of a very nasty bruise high on her arm. Just as Nancy opened her mouth to speak John let out an enraged yell and rushed at Nancy from behind.

John clearly hadn't factored in Con, who had watched the entire exchange with an experienced eye. Con shouted a warning to Nancy who moved out of the way just in time to see John go crashing into the kitchen island. "You-!" he yelled angrily looking at Nancy.

Con came up behind the huge man and yanked his arms behind his back, "that was the wrong thing to do." He muttered as John struggled.

"What are you doing?" John growled and struggled against Con's practiced grip.

"You attempted to assault my partner," Con replied stiffly, "so you'll be spending the night in jail."

"What?" John growled and yanked viciously on Con's grip but he already had the handcuffs in place. Nancy quickly called for backup as Con led the man outside.

When the house was quiet Nancy moved slowly toward to the woman cowering in front of the refrigerator, "here, let me help." This time though, Nancy stood where she was and waited for Maggie to make the moves. The woman silently reached into one of the well ordered cupboards and pulled out a brown paper bag.

She opened it and began to sweep up the shards of glass. Nancy crouched down and began picking up the larger chunks of glass and tossed them in the bag. The two women worked in silence for a moment before Nancy took a deep breath, "Maggie…" she began.

"No," the woman replied stiffly, "I don't need any help. I don't want any help. John is a good man."

Nancy knew that the help she was referring to wasn't help cleaning up the mess in her kitchen. She bit her lip before continuing, "Maggie…" she tried again but this time the woman cut her off by lifting a trembling hand.

"Please, don't…" she said.

Con walked in then and Nancy looked at him, they had a silent conversation before Con stepped forward, "Johnson is taking him in," he explained to Nancy and turned back to Maggie who was emptying the last of the glass shards into the bag. "Ma'am, your husband is going to spend the night in jail. If you'd like…"

Again Maggie cut off the sentence, "no. I'm fine," she said quietly.

Con paused, "I'll take this out to the trash for you," he reached down for the bag and Maggie moved as if to stop him before thinking better of it and standing still. Con left the kitchen and Nancy straightened to look at Maggie intently.

"Maggie, I saw that bruise," Maggie winced but didn't look at Nancy, "You can press charges. You can send him to jail and…"

Maggie began shaking her head, "no, no I can't do that."

"Yes, you can," Nancy said vehemently, "you can get help…"

Maggie squared her jaw and straightened up against the kitchen counter, "No thank you Officer…"

"Drew," Nancy replied, "but you can call me Nancy."

"No thank you Officer Drew," Maggie said ignoring Nancy's request, "I don't want to press charges because my husband has done nothing wrong."

Nancy gritted her teeth. This was the one part of law enforcement that never came easily. Her hands were tied until the victim chose to act. "Alright, here's my card," Nancy pulled it out of her pocket, "please call me if you need anything."

"There will be no reason to call you," Maggie said defiantly.

"All the same please keep it," Nancy said. "Will you be alright here tonight?"

"I'll be fine," Maggie said and her voice shook, betraying her brave words.

Ten minutes later and Nancy and Con were pulling slowly away from the little rental house. "I hate this," Nancy muttered, her hands clenched into fists on her legs.

"Me too," Con's eyes flashed angrily.

"She didn't want help!" Nancy said in exasperation, "I hate that we can't do anything."

"If she's unwilling to press charges than there's no reason to hold on to him," Con said regretfully. "At least he'll spend the night in jail."

"Yeah, but how angry is he going to be when he gets home tomorrow and who's going to be there when he does? She'll be there, a ready punching bag," Nancy growled.

"I know," Con replied bleakly, "but our hands are tied. There aren't any children involved and she's an adult."

Nancy stared out the window, her brow furrowed angrily. She and Con spent the rest of the day with routine police work. They broke up an argument over a parking space at the grocery store, they helped a woman get her cat out of a tree and they lectured a young boy for not wearing his helmet. All day however it was clear where both of their minds were: with the scared woman on Jefferson Street.

"I'll see you on Monday partner, have a good weekend," Con said as he walked to his car that night.

"You too," Nancy replied and paused with her hand on her car door handle. She watched as Con climbed in his car and drove away. She had the sudden urge to go back into the precinct and have a chat with John Hendrickson. She checked the urge however when she realized that it would do more harm than good.

Nancy climbed into her car and drove home. She pulled into her driveway behind Frank's parked car and walked wearily up her front walkway. It wasn't often that her work weighed so heavily on her because more often than not, even in a horrible circumstance she could see justice being done.

Today however her hands had been tied and justice was nowhere to be seen. "Frank!" she called out as she set her keys on the table in the entryway.

"Upstairs!" he replied and Nancy headed toward the master bedroom. "Hey!" Frank said with a smile as he walked out of the bathroom, "how was work?"

"I've had better days," Nancy said and leaned up for his welcoming kiss.

Frank frowned, "do you want to talk about it?" he asked just as his phone began to ring. Nancy smiled slightly and headed for the closet to change. She listened as Frank answered her phone and she pulled out jeans and a t-shirt.

"Hey mom," Frank said, "sure, no problem." Pause, "why doesn't Joe go get it?" Frank laughed, "Sure," another pause, "okay, we're just getting ready to leave. We'll be there soon." Frank appeared in the doorway of the closet as Nancy pulled her shirt down over her head, "Mom needs us to pick up some wine. She forgot, apparently."

"Okay," Nancy said and slipped on her shoes, "are you ready?"

"Yeah," Frank replied and concern creased his brow. Nancy was smiling and obviously trying very hard to shake the workday off, but he could see in her eyes that something was upsetting her. As much as they both tried to not take their work home with them, it was an inevitable part of what they did.

Nancy noticed Frank's look and quickly smiled, not wanting to talk about her day, "okay then, let's get going before Joe eats all the food." She kissed him quickly and walked past him.

Frank's concern grew as Nancy stayed relatively quiet on the ride to the store. "Do you want to wait here?" he asked.

"No, I'll come in," she replied and they walked into the store together hand in hand. While Frank was deliberating over a choice of wine, Nancy smiled at the concentration he devoted to the task. Only Frank would consider the choice of the perfect wine to go with dinner a serious endeavor.

Nancy wandered away from Frank who was conversing with the Wine Steward and began looking at the house wares section. She was debating over whether or not she really needed the beautiful blue pitcher when a woman with a cart came around the corner. Nancy noticed in shock that it was Maggie Hendrickson.

"Hello Maggie," she said finally.

The woman's eyes grew huge as she recognized Nancy, "hello officer," she said and began to push the cart past her.

Frank came up just then and stood next to Nancy, stopping Maggie's escape. "Hello," he said smiling at the woman. Nancy couldn't help but notice that the woman had changed into a long sleeve shirt.

"Hello," Maggie answered not meeting Frank's friendly gaze.

"Frank, this is Maggie," Nancy introduced, "Maggie, this is my boyfriend Frank Hardy."

"Nice to meet you Maggie," Frank said politely. Something about the scared way the woman held herself had Frank's sense whirling.

"I have to go," Maggie muttered and quickly pushed the cart the rest of the way down the aisle. Nancy eyed the items in her cart as she pushed it quickly past and she frowned. There were two boxes of brand new dishes and a large box of beer.

When Maggie was out of earshot Frank turned to Nancy, "who's that?"

"I met her today, at work," Nancy said and her eyes were devastated. "She and her husband just moved into that house they made into a rental on Jefferson Street."

"Really?" Frank looked toward the end of the aisle where the woman had disappeared. "Biff was talking about her husband, John right? He just started at the construction company, he's a big guy."

"Yeah, he is," Nancy agreed, remembering the man's hulking frame. "You should have seen their house Frank. They just moved in three days ago and they have everything moved in and in place already."

"Wow," Frank let out a low whistle as they walked toward the checkout counter.

"I know," Nancy nodded her agreement, "that's a lot of work for three days."

Maggie paused in the next aisle and listened hard to what that officer woman and her boyfriend would say about her when she was gone. She was used to people staring, people talking, people pitying.

When they didn't say anything rude or condescending, Maggie frowned. Most people were quick to judge; quick to think they understood the kind of person she was, the kind of person she was for staying with John.

She was surprised when Nancy didn't immediately tell Frank what had happened earlier in the day. Just thinking about it had Maggie's cheeks burning in embarrassment. She quickly wheeled her cart around and headed for the meat department.

Maggie didn't have time to concern herself with what other people thought of her. She needed to get the new dishes home and in place before John got home tomorrow and if she cooked him a nice steak and had his favorite beer on hand maybe he wouldn't be too angry.

She'd take this time tonight to finish unpacking boxes; she'd work through the night if she had to. Then if there was time she'd take a bath, something she hadn't indulged in for years, and maybe the hot water would help relax her aching muscles. Moving furniture the last three days had been hard work, but she knew how important it was to John to get their house established as quickly as possible. It was the same in every town they moved to and in the past three years Maggie had gotten very good at packing up her life and moving.

Okay, so if that's not how it works being a police officer, please don't bash me over the head. Let's just agree that this is fan fiction-land and certain allowances to reality can be made for the sake of the story, alright? Please? Pretty please?