"What?!" Joe and Laura exclaimed at the same time. "We can’t take care of our children?" Laura asked incredulously. "That’s preposterous!"

"Really!" Joe agreed. He bit his lip as he realized how bad the situation looked for his parents, though. "Dad?" Joe spoke up tentatively. "Can they really take the twins and Jason away?" Fenton sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Yeah…they can, Son." He replied slowly. Laura gasped, and then burst into tears. Fenton went to comfort her, where as Joe ran upstairs to email the chief and Frank. But then, remembering that he had to leave a bag of clothes out for Frank, he decided to just leave a note in there too. Quickly, he ran to Frank’s room, grabbed some clothes, shoes, and other toiletries, and then wrote him a quick note.

I have so much to tell you!! But, my email is messed up. Email me at Phyllis’s address, ok? You know what it is. I’m too lazy to write more, even to you!! Haha! Email me soon!

He knew the code was stupid but Frank would get it, and anyways, it was just a precaution. He and Frank already had a pre-arrangement with Phil that in case they were on a case, and they needed another address, they could use Phil’s. Next, he went to email the Chief.

When he was done with the email, he sat back for a moment, and sighed. Things were going from bad to worse. He then got up quickly, and went downstairs, and snuck out the back door. He saw the kidnappers van, and was careful to stay out of its view. He quickly put the bag in the bushes and ran back in. All of a sudden, a thought struck him. "Frank can’t come get the bag! They’ll see him! Oh, crap!" He went to the phone, intent on calling the chief, but the phone rang. He snatched it up with a growl.

"Hello?" Joe said.

"Well, hello there Joe!" It was Max.

"Max…what do you want?" Joe grumbled.

"Oh, you know what I want. And I know what you want. Let’s get to the point." Max’s voice changed. "Tonight…you’d better get those plans…or else you know what happens…" Joe gulped.

"Let me talk to Jason!" he demanded. Max agreed and held the phone up to Jason’s mouth. "Talk!" he demanded harshly.

"Hello…" came Jason’s tiny, scared voice.

"Jase…hang in there…you’ll be ok…I promise…ok?" Joe’s voice caught in his throat. Jason didn’t reply, and Max took the phone away. "Tonight Hardy…or else! By the way, it’s too bad about your parents having to go to court" Max laughed, and then hung up. Joe stared at the phone in bewilderment for a moment. How did he know…? Then it dawned on him. "The phone!" He thought. "He tapped the phones!" Then he realized why sometimes the phone kept coming busy. "They must have some kind of interfering device, to where they can stop all incoming calls!" He thought. He groaned and realized they couldn’t use the phone for important calls, but that they would have to continue using the phone as not to let Max know he knew. He groaned again as he thought about how things were going. "I guess I have to rely on email now!" He sighed, and then decided to email Chief Collig again, and have him send Frank a message. He went upstairs to the computer, and saw, to his surprise, Chief Collig was online. He quickly IMed him.

Joe signed off, and went to go call Callie.

"Hello?" Callie answered.

"Hello, Cal? It’s me, Joe. Could you do me a favor?"

"Hey Joe. Sure, what’s up?"

"Mom’s kind of upset…could you come take care of her?"

"Sure! Vanessa’s here too, would you like her to come too?"

"Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks." Joe quickly hung up, knowing that he was kind of being rude, but that this was an emergency, and both ‘Ness and Cal would understand. For a moment, he was struck by how lucky they were to have such great girlfriends…then realized how Frank might be losing Callie. He sighed, and got back to the problem on hand. He quickly snuck back out and ran to the bushes, grabbed the bag, and ran back in. He decided to see if he could sign on to AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and talk to Phil to see if Frank sent an email. Sure enough, Phil was there, and so was an email waiting for Joe. Phil copied and pasted it to Joe. It said:

Joe leaned back and grinned. His brother, the genius, had done it again! He quickly thanked Phil, and was signing off just as the bell rang. It was Callie and Vanessa. He invited them in, and quickly brought them up to date. About half an hour later, they left with the bag. Joe, watching from the front window, saw that the car didn’t follow them. He glanced at the time, and realized it was three thirty. Just then, his Dad told him they were leaving.

"All right, Dad. Good luck…"

*********************

Meanwhile, Frank had called Chief Collig, and arranged to have a squad car pretend to go over to his street. His plan was to save them by knocking on the car door and warning them. His cover would be a thief, about to sneak into the house, when he overheard the owner calling the police to report a suspicious car. He would save the kidnappers just as a squad car would come. By then, hopefully, they would trust him enough to let him in on their plans. When Callie and Vanessa arrived, he gave Callie a quick kiss, but sent but sent them both on their way. As he watched Callie leave, he felt a wave of sadness wash over him, but he brushed it off and quickly changed. "Thank God Joe has some fashion sense!" Joe had sent him some clothes, but the best for now were some black jeans, a black shirt, and a leather jacket. Joe had also sent over boots and that’s what Frank wore. Frank then called Collig to make sure the plans were ready, and then set off on his way. "I hope this works…I really hope it does."