"Dad!" Frank shouted.

"You're just in time, Hardy--just in time to watch your son die!" Lewis sneered. He raised the knife up to Joe's neck and grasped his jaw, lifting it all the way back, exposing his throat, and raised the scapel, preparing to slash it!

A shot rang out! Frank closed his eyes, expecting the glass which seperated the operating room from the viewing studio to shatter, but it never happened.

Frank opened his eyes and saw Lewis clutching his right hand while the scapel, the weapon of torture, lay on the floor. Chief Collig, gun drawn, stood in the doorway and Fenton had already left the upper room at a run.

Lewis saw the men converging but he was determined. "NO!" Lewis screamed. "He's mine!" Lewis grasped Joe's throat with his left hand and began to strangle the helpless youth. Joe's vision began to blur as Fenton raced into the room and launched himself at Lewis. Lewis threw Fenton off and stood up, but Fenton leapt to his feet and delivered a powerhouse blow to Lewis' chin, dropping him to the floor.

Fenton gently touched Joe's face as Chief Collig shouted through the open door for medical attention. As Joe and Lewis were being tended to, Chief Collig called in for two officers to take custody of Lewis after his treatment. He was to go to jail and remain there until two guards from the prison arrived to escort Lewis back.

Fenton set to work on Frank's bonds as Joe was taken from the room. "Are you okay?" Fenton demanded of Frank.

"I'll be fine," Frank assured his father, standing up with help. "I didn't know air could be so painful," he added, before filling his dad in on the events of the past few days, ending with the scene which had just occurred in the operating room.

Frank called Callie while his dad checked on Joe and asked her to pick his mom up and bring her over to the hospital. When Laura and Callie arrived, they found Joe in bed with an IV attached to his arm.

Laura rushed over and kissed Joe's forehead, tears of relief in her eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked. At Joe's nod, she looked over at Frank. "What happened?" she asked.

Frank skimmed over the events, not wanting to alarm his mother any more than nessecary.

"What's the IV for?" Callie asked, looking at the device attached to Joe's arm as she held onto Frank's hand.

"Antibiotics," Joe replied. "The scapel Lewis used on me wasn't sterile."

"What about Lewis?" Laura demanded. "Where is he?"

"In jail," Fenton replied, hugging his wife. "He can't hurt the boys any more."

"That's a relief," Laura said, smiling down at Joe. "When can Joe come home?" she asked, looking back up at Fenton.

"The doctor said he could get off the IV tomorrow afternoon and could go home then," Fenton answered her. "But he will have to be on oral antibiotics for two more weeks."

A nurse poked her head in the door. "Visiting hours are over in five minutes," she warned the group.

"I'm staying," all three Hardys said at once.

"That's not possible," the nurse said with a frown. "Only one person may remain with the patient."

"I'm staying with Joe," Fenton said again. "Frank, you have been through a lot and need some rest, as does your mother."

Frank opened his mouth to argue, but Fenton cut him off. "Joe will be all right," he insisted. "Lewis is back behind bars."

"Then why are you staying?" Callie asked.

"Bcause Joe is my son and shouldn't have to stay here alone," Fenton replied.

Callie drove Frank and Laura home so they could leave the Hardy's car for Fenton to bring Joe home in the next day. Phil had driven the boys van and left it in the drive at the Hardy household and caught a ride home with Chet.

Joe, tired from the events of the past few days, fell asleep almost immediately. Every now and then, he would mumble the words, "no, please," or "help me." Fenton, unable to sleep, watched his youngest son and cried.