"Frank can’t die, Mom. He can’t…he just can’t!" All of a sudden, Joe was in flashback, back to their last case, when Frank had pretended to die, in order to infiltrate a gang that their father was after. Joe was very much affected by it, and still occasionally had nightmares of losing his precious older brother. During that time, Joe had realized just how much his older brother meant to him, and how he couldn’t be the same person without him.

"That was all fake…but this? This is real. Frank may not make it…" Laura, sensing what her son was going through, hugged Joe tighter. Fenton watched this all with pained eyes, also remembering those times in the past, when a tiny whisper brought him back to the present.

What’s wrong?" Jason asked him, confusion evident on his small face. Fenton shook his head slowly, as he hugged Jason tightly again.

"Nothing, kiddo, nothing," he whispered. Just then, Collig walked into the waiting room. Fenton turned to talk to him, and tried to put Jason down, but Jason clung tightly to him. "Well?" Fenton asked. "Did you get Max?" He waited with bated breath. Collig nodded.

"Yup, sure did. Got him and Steve, his partner in crime. They both denied everything, but when I threatened to charge Steve with two charges of attempted murder, and two counts of kidnapping, he started singing like a canary…last I heard, he hadn’t stopped!" The Chief grinned at Fenton, and then saw Laura, Joe, Matt, and Gertrude in tears. He turned back to Fenton, and realized that in his excitement, that he hadn’t seen the tears in Fenton’s eyes.

"What’s wrong?" he said softly, already knowing the answer, yet dreading to hear it at the same time. Fenton sighed softly, and said,

"Well, maybe instead of two counts of attempted murder, you can change it to one count of attempted murder…and one count of murder," Fenton closed his eyes as he uttered the words. Suddenly, a small voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Daddy? What’s mur-murder?" Jason asked his Dad, stumbling on the word. Fenton’s eyes flew open, and the sad brown ones met Collig’s green ones for a long minute. Then Fenton looked at his four year old son. All of a sudden, he was struck at how small and innocent Jason was. He realized, in the time that had gone by since his older kids had grown up, he had forgotten how much a young child depended on their parents, how much they needed their parents…and Jason and the twins didn’t even have their own parents. All they had were the Hardys…and that’s when Fenton vowed that he wasn’t going to let anybody else adopt the twins and Jason.

"No one else…" he whispered to himself. He then thought of Jason’s question, and was trying to think of an answer when someone walked into the waiting room.

"Excuse me? Are you the Hardys?" the lady asked politely. Fenton regarded her warily as did Collig.

"Yes, I’m Fenton Hardy. Can I help you?" he asked the lady.

"Yes, I’m Linda Baker, with Social Services. We heard on the news today that Jason had been rescued…and you haven’t contacted us." She said, staring at the kid in Fenton’s arms. "That must be Jason. I’ve been told to take him on contact," she held out her arms for the little boy. But, instead of handing Jason over, Fenton hugged him tighter. Then, he happened to glance over at Collig and saw the stricken look on his face. He nudged him, and cocked his head questioningly. Collig motioned for Fenton to follow him to the hallway. Realizing something was up, Fenton turned to Laura, Joe, Matt, and Gertrude who were watching the scene avidly. The look in his eyes said,

"Watch her," Out loud, he said, "Excuse us for a moment, and followed Collig outside, clutching Jason tightly still. Once outside, Collig turned to him with a mixture of emotions on his face.

"Fenton, the press doesn’t know anything about this! I haven’t alerted any of the press!" he said.