"You’re supposed to love me! Not them!" he screamed through the pain.

"We’ll have to call in the paramedics, and some extra patrolmen," Con Riley said. He called out for ambulance and the extra manpower on his communicator.

"You’re supposed to love ME!" Professor Richards screamed again. It was clear that he was in a different mind, and that was in no shape to answer any questions at the time.

"I’ll stay here in case they need me. You guys better go back to Jason. He’s very upset," Cliff said.

"Are there any more of those traps around?" Joe asked before they started back.

"No, I could only find…Joe you’re bleeding!" Cliff shouted coming over to him.

Con flashed his light at Joe. Its beam stopped when it came to Joe’s abdomen. Blood had soaked through the shirt Frank had given him. Frank ran over to him.

"Sit down." He told him. "You must have opened all your stitches."

"I’m fine, I just need a few band-aids," Joe replied, wincing slightly as the wound started to sting.

"Sit still!" Frank insisted.

Cliff came over and handed Frank a bandana. Frank quickly took it, and lifted his brother’s shirt. As he had expected to see, the stitches in the main wound had ripped and were now bleeding. He gently pressed the bandana against the wound, trying not to hurt his brother any more.

"Frank, why do you go the hospital now with Joe? Cliff said he’d stay and help. Besides, I think a second ambulance may scare Jason even if he doesn’t see the blood on Joe’s shirt," Con advised. He looked down at Richards who had gone quiet. He was still very much awake, but was refusing to say anything more.

"Where is he now?" Frank asked.

"I saw him last with your father. He wanted to come out here to be with you, but your father told him it was too dangerous," Cliff replied.

"Is he ok?" Joe asked, looking up.

"He’s fine, if just a little hungry. I didn’t see anything wrong," Cliff replied.

"I just hope the doctor doesn’t take to long. The last thing I need is to spend another night at the hospital," Joe remarked as Frank continued putting pressure on his wound.

Frank knew what he was talking about. The last time Joe was in the hospital had been from the stab wounds that Richards had inflicted on him. He had been afraid he would bleed to death right there. Then those lines Richards had said him when he had picked them up on the road. "He seemed like a nice person. How could someone like him do such terrible things?" Frank wondered. "Then again, how can I not be surprised? A serial killer is never someone you would expect…but Professor Richards? How could he do that? How could he go after my brother?"

Con got a call over his communicator. They listened quietly as another officer told them that the ambulance was there. Since it was too dangerous for the paramedics to come back to where they were, they had to carry Richards out of the forest patch and take him to the ambulance.

To distract Jason from what was going on, Con told Fenton to take Cliff home, and take Jason with him. Jason kept asking to see his brothers, though he wasn’t sure if they were his brothers after what that bad man had told him that. Fenton reassured him that Frank and Joe were OK and had to stay in the forest to help the officers gather clues.

That made him feel a little better but Fenton could still the apprehension in his brown eyes.

"Daddy…that bad man said that Frank and Joe aren’t my brothers…was he lying?" Jason asked.

Fenton sighed. He knew that in reality even though Jason had called Frank and Joe his brothers, they were really cousins. "Tell you what, we’ll let Frank and Joe decide that when they come back. Cliff has finished giving his statement so we can leave. Are you hungry?" Jason nodded. "Okay, let’s take Cliff. We’ll get something to eat, and by then they should be here."

"Why don’t we wait for them?" Jason begged.

"Because they’re going to be a while. They have to find clues, go through the house, lock it up, give their statements…all of that takes time, besides aren’t you hungry?" Fenton said.

Jason slowly nodded and Fenton carried him over to the car, and put him in his booster seat. Cliff came over to say that he was able to leave. They both got in, and drove off.

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

"Matt, what are we going to do? I still can believe someone would contest our plea," Gertrude said. She was sitting in a chair next to Laura’s bed.

Matt gently laid Laura’s wrist back on the bed after checking her pulse. He was relieved that it had calmed down, and she was now resting comfortably. "I don’t know. We may have to consider the fact that it could be another aunt or uncle. We have to consider that we may lose them," Matt sighed, rubbing his temples.

"Matt, no!" Gert strained, trying not to yell in the room. "I love those girls. We have every right to adopt them."

"So does Laura," Matt countered, looking at her.

Gertrude lowered her eyes. She felt very guilty. She had just said the lines that Laura had told her. And she resented that Laura was mad at her. Now it was coming clear.

"Do you still want to try?" Gertrude asking, looking up.

"We’ll just have to wait to see who is contesting the adoption," Matt replied.

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

Fenton drove Cliff to the train station. He thanked Cliff tremendously for helping them out, and only wished he could do something in return.

"If there’s anything you need, just ask," Fenton told him.

"Hey, Frank and Joe already did more than enough for my family. You should see my mom. Now she doesn’t have to worry anymore, and she’s smiling again. I owe all of you a lot," Cliff replied.

It was a few more minutes, before Cliff got on the train for the Bronx and it pulled out of the station.

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

"How are you feeling?" Frank asked, as he carefully drove the van to the hospital.

"I’m fine. I don’t see the reason why I have to go back to the hospital," Joe said, wincing as he held the bandana to the wound.

Frank sighed, "Look, you’ve been sick before and I don’t want to go through that again. We can’t take the chance that wound gets infected."

Joe winced again. "Okay, I see your point. Let’s just hope this doesn’t take too long…" he grinned sheepishly. "I want to see Jason." He grew serious. "I guess I got attached to having a little kid around…"

"We all did," Frank replied grimly. "That’s why it’s so important he doesn’t get taken again,"

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

Jason eagerly sat in his chair as the waitress brought their food over.

"Daddy, you know what?" Jason asked.

Fenton smiled, "What?"

"I think that there are bad people in this world. Why don’t their mommies send them to their room if they’re being bad?" Fenton burst out laughing.

"Good question," he replied. "I don’t know!" Jason laughed at his dad, then said,

"We should bring food back for Frank and Joe," he said. Fenton smiled and nodded, then reached over and cut up Jason’s burger into smaller pieces for his hands. It still amazed Fenton that despite Jason’s small size, he was a clean eater, and he had nice table manners. He also put some French fries on his plate with a little ketchup. He then started in on his own food, trying to hide the concern that he had for his older sons. The bloody shirt had scared him, but he only seen one ambulance as they were driving from the house. He was positive if anything serious had happened, Con would have told him before they left. As they ate, he asked Jason what they should take back. He suggested that they order what he had. Fenton agreed and gave the order to the waitress as she passed by.

Joe winced as the last stitch went into his abdomen. He was glad it was over, and he could go home. He was hungry, and intended on devouring everything in the refrigerator.

"Now try not to do that again. Here’s some antibiotic cream. Put some on it twice a day, and keep it dry. If it starts to hurt again, or it doesn’t feel right, come back in and see us right away," the doctor told him. Joe promised he would as he put back on his shirt.

Frank came in, a relieved look on his face. "So, what did the doctor say?"

"He redid the stitches and gave me some cream. He said I should be fine in about a week," Joe replied.

"That’s good. Why don’t you go sign out? Then we’ll get back to the house. Dad and Jason will probably be there by the time we get back."

"Yeah, the sooner the better, I’m starved," Joe said, getting off the examination bed.

"You’re always hungry," Frank teased as he followed Joe to the nurse’s desk.

"That’s because we did a lot of running today. I’m surprised you’re not," Joe countered as he signed out.

"Well, I am a little hungry," Frank admitted.

They walked to the parking lot, and climbed in the van.

As Frank turned it on Joe teased him. "See? I said it was from the running!"

Fenton and Jason were waiting for Frank and Joe to finish up their work. Jason was eager to give them the food they had ordered. Fenton still had no idea if he was going to tell Jason that Frank and Joe were his cousins and not his brothers. He was relieved that their van came up the driveway. As they got out, Jason ran over and hugged them both.

"Are you all right?" Joe asked.

"I’m fine. That bad man said he wouldn’t hurt me," Jason replied, clinging tightly to Frank.

"Did you have a nice time with Dad?" Joe asked.

Jason nodded, then struggled to be put down. Once on the ground, he looked up at Frank and Joe.

"That bad man said you weren’t my brothers. Is that true?" he asked. Frank and Joe looked at each other. They had no idea how to answer that. They both continued staring at each other. Finally, Frank knelt down to be at Jason’s level.

"Jase, what do you think? Do you think we’re your brothers? Or no?" he asked. Jason bit his lips, and showed his age. Finally, he said softly,

"I think you are. Because, I love you. I don’t even miss my old mommy and daddy anymore…" Tears pooled in his eyes, and slowly fell down his cheeks. Frank bit his lip, and then hugged Jason.

"We love you too, Kiddo," he whispered. Just then, Joe reached over and picked Jason up.

"Tell you what, why don’t we go get something to eat and see what we can do then."

"We brought you food," Jason happily answered.

"You did?" Frank asked.

Jason smiled. "Put me down and I’ll go get it with Dad."

Joe put Jason down, and he and Fenton retrieved the food that they had brought with them. Just then, Con Riley pulled up.

"Hey Jason, there you are! I need you to do me a big favor," Con said, going down on one knee to be at Jason’s level.

"What’s that, Uncle Con?" Jason asked, coming over to the officer.

"I need you to go with Officer Jerret, and look after his K-9," Con replied.

By this time Officer Jerret had come over and took Jason’s hand. "He’s a big dog. I need you to give him water…" Officer Jarret said as he led Jason away from the group and to his car.

"Thank you," Fenton said.

"I need to talk to all of you. You can worry about Jason later. Richards is being taken to the hospital under heavy guard. From there he’ll be taken to prison," Con explained.

"Did you check to make sure that he didn’t have any traps in the woods?" Fenton asked.

"We checked around, and didn’t see any. I don’t think he planned that we would escape from the house," Joe replied.

"You all realize that child welfare authorities are going to find out about this. They’re probably already on their way here," Con said.

Fenton felt himself go cold. He knew Laura was still sick from the stress of losing the twins. He couldn’t imagine how this was going to affect her. My God if they took Jason away it will kill her.

"Dad, you okay?" Joe asked, noticing how pale his father was.

"I’ll be fine. We have to get Jason home as fast as we can. Con, do you need us any more?" Fenton asked.

"I just need your statement. I can wait until later to get Jason’s when he’s better. I’ll do my best to help you with the welfare authorities," Con replied as he walked back to his car to get his notepad.

Fenton handed the food to his sons as Con came back. He gave Con his statement as his sons ate. Despite everything that had gone on, the brothers couldn’t help but devour the food. Joe ate at it, but really had no appetite. He was concerned about both Jason and his mom, who was sick. He hadn’t gone up to check on her, but figured Matt and Gertrude were up there. The last thing he wanted was his mom to worry about him.

"You know, what’s the proof Richards did this?" Joe asked, as they continued eating.

Frank paused for a moment. "Hmm," he said. "Wait! I know! Think about it…Richards had a dog bite…from where Boomer attacked him! And, the different notes? He writes with both hands! Remember, we saw!" Joe’s eyes widened excitedly.

"Yeah! And, remember how he was at all the victims’ house? He’s the connection we were missing! One of the guys said ‘chem.’! He’s a chemistry teacher too, remember?" he asked his brother. "That’s how he knew all the victims! Man, Frank, when you said that Richards cared for all his students, you didn’t realize how much he cared!" Joe said, laughing. Fenton and Con laughed too, along with Frank. Then, Joe got sober.

"Do you think they’ll take Jason away again?" Joe asked, looking down.

"I don’t know. But this time, it wasn’t because of our jobs. They can’t use that against us," Frank replied.

Joe nodded, but still didn’t feel any better. They finished their food, and were drinking bottles of water when Fenton finished his statement. The boys quickly gave their statements, and Con left, bidding them good luck. Officer Jerret came back with Jason, and left with a quick goodbye.

"Did you help with his dog?" Fenton asked with a smile.

"Yeah. He’s a big dog. Just as big as Boomer," Jason replied.

Fenton smiled. "Come on, time for bed. Mommy is sick right now, so she needs you to help take care of her."

"She’s sick? What’s wrong?" Jason asked.

"Well, Mommy is very tired, and needs a lot of rest. But she might have a cold. Do you think you can help us take of her?" Frank asked.

"I will, I’m just a little tired," Jason admitted, laying his head on Fenton’s shoulder.

"Come on," Fenton replied. As he was going upstairs, the front door opened and Matt and Gertrude came in.

"Hey, guys!" Matt came over and slapped them both on the back. "Glad to see you two are okay! Where’s Jason?" he asked.

"Upstairs, Dad’s putting him to bed. Where were you guys?" Joe asked.

"We went out to go get some medicine," Gertrude replied. She had quickly kissed the boys hello, then went and started making some hot chocolate.

"How’s Mom?" Frank asked.

"She’s fine, her nerves are just shot. She’ll be fine, if she has no stress.

"We may have to worry about that soon, if child welfare has been called in about Jason," Fenton said, coming downstairs.

"Do you want me to look him over?" Matt offered.

"He fell straight to sleep, we better wait until he wakes up," Fenton replied.

Matt nodded, and took another sip of his chocolate. He didn’t know how to tell them about the court date that he and Gertrude had to attend to. They were going to need all the support they could get with Jason. Gert was going to have to understand that not everything can be what they want.

"I think you two should go to sleep now," Fenton insisted.

"Dad, we’re fine," Joe tried to reason.