"Noooooooooo!!" The words were barely audible from Joe Hardy’s mouth. He thrashed around trying frantically to loosen the ropes on his wrists, staring in horror at Vanessa.

Vanessa was thrashing her legs about, trying frantically to grab onto something. The rope was digging tighter and tighter into her neck. She was choking!

At the exact same time Fenton Hardy, Biff Hooper and Chet Morton crashed into the clearing.

Biff and Chet, working as a perfect team crashed into the two goons that had been holding Frank. Years of high school and college football meant that anyone who came in direct contact with either Biff Hooper or Chet Morton tended to stay down. The two burly men soon lay unconscious at the boy’s feet.

Whilst this was happening Fenton Hardy rushed over to Vanessa, grabbing her by the waist so that the rope around her neck went slack, before carefully removing it and laying her gently on the ground. Frank soon joined him, removing the noose from Joe’s neck and untying his wrists.

Frank was trying to calm a frantic Joe who was trying to get over to Vanessa, desperate to make sure that she was alright. His own wounds were bleeding and he was a deathly shade of white.

"Joe, stop, please, Dad knows what he’s doing, and we have to leave him alone. Please Joe, you’re only making your own injuries worse.

Fenton immediately began CPR on Vanessa, and Frank soon took over the chest compressions. Joe could only lie there and watch. ‘Please Dad, please, please don’t let her die, please’ Joe prayed silently to himself all the while staring at his girlfriend.

Fenton and Frank worked for almost three minutes before Fenton leaned back and gave a sigh of relief. "She’s breathing"

Joe was so pale that he was almost transparent. Frank took off his jacket and laid it on top of his brother, whilst using his body to shield Joe from the worst of the rain. The cuts and bruises looked open and sore and Joe’s lips were almost blue from the cold. His eyes were glassy and clouded and he didn’t even seem to notice Frank’s concerned face staring down at him.

Struggling to sit up, Joe ignored his brother and crawled over to Vanessa, he took Franks jacket from around him and put it over his girlfriend. With the sleeve of the jacket, Joe wiped away the rain from Vanessa’s face, all the while talking softly to her.

"Its ok Ness, its ok. I’m here now. I’m sorry baby, I tried to get them to listen, I’m so sorry, its gonna be ok, I promise, I’ll make it ok." But Vanessa’s eyes were closed and her skin a deathly shade of white.

The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance and Joe heard his father’s voice telling him that Vanessa would be ok. The ambulance soon arrived and began to work on Vanessa. Joe sat back on the ground, oblivious to any movement around him.

Frank came over and knelt beside him. "Come on little brother, you need to go to the hospital too, take my hand and I’ll help you up" Frank stretched out his hand for his brother to grasp.

He wasn’t prepared for the next words his brother spoke to him. Joe looked up at Frank, the rain mixing with the tears pouring down his face.

"What have you done Frank?" Joe shouted at his brother.

"Why couldn’t you listen to me? WHY? I told you to pick me, I told you. I TOLD YOU."

Frank was too stunned for a moment to day anything. Finally he found his voice.

"What do you mean Joe, I had to decide, they would have killed both of you, and you looked so weak, I thought..,I mean I thought Vanessa was stronger. "I knew that Dad was coming Joe, I could see him, I just did what I thought was best." Franks voice trailed off at the end as he looked pleadingly into Joe’s eyes.

Joe’s voice was no more that a hoarse whisper but the savage ferocity with which he spoke the words was obvious.

"No, Frank. You ignored me. You didn’t listen to me. That day on the beach Frank, you swore you would listen to me, that you would trust me. And you didn’t"

"I don’t understand" was all Frank could manage to say, as tears filled his eyes. At that moment a paramedic came and wrapped a large blanket around Joe, saying that he needed to come with them. Joe ignored his brother’s outstretched hand and instead took that of the paramedic.

As Joe mounted the steps of the ambulance he turned back to look at his brother.

"That’s just the problem Frank, you never took the time to understand, and you never listened; now it might be too late."

Frank felt ill, the rain was coming down worse than ever, and the ground had turned to mud, mud splattered onto his face as he fell on his knees, looking at the retreating ambulance, his hand still outstretched and tears running down his face.

Why had Joe reacted like that? Didn’t he realize that there was no time? He, Frank had to choose; otherwise they would both have been killed.

His father walked over and wrapped his arms around his sons shoulder, but nothing could console Frank Hardy

"Why Dad, Vanessa’s going to be ok, isn’t she, I mean she was breathing, she didn’t die. Why did Joe react like that, I don’t understand."

"He’s in shock son, that’s all, I’m sure he didn’t mean it" "Come on, we need to get to the hospital son" Fenton Hardy guided his son to the car. He too was confused at the exchange that had taken place.

Biff and Chet followed, having failed to find Frazer, and puzzled looks were exchanged between them, what had happened in their absence??

At the hospital they were told that Joe was in with a doctor having his wounds treated, He had been given a lot of blood to replace what he lost and was also on an IV and a drip to replace fluids. However none of his injuries were life-threatening. The doctor, however, was reluctant to tell them anything about Vanessa, merely stating that she was in shock, but ‘comfortable’

They were told that they could visit Joe in a couple of hours. Biff, Chet and Fenton sat in the waiting room, Biff’s head was in his hands and Chet was cracking his knuckles over and over, a nervous habit he had developed as a child.

Frank, however, was too wound up to sit. What had Joe meant? And why had he looked at him so angry? As brothers, Joe and Frank rarely fought, and even then the rows were few and far between, and generally soon forgotten.

Something was different this time though, the look in Joes eyes…Frank shuddered thinking about it.

Soon, a nurse came and told them they could see Joe two at a time. Frank and Fenton followed her down the corridor and into a small room. Joe lay on the bed, his body a mass of bandages, his eyes obviously red from crying and his face a ghostly white.

Joe looked at his brother with pain filled eyes.

"Vanessa was pregnant, Frank. She told me after they captured her" He turned his head away, tears filling his eyes.

"She lost the baby, our baby. They just told me."

Frank felt the room begin to spin, visions of the past couple of hours swam into his head, Joe pleading with him not to pick Vanessa, telling him that he didn’t understand, the look of terror in Vanessa’s eyes, suddenly it all made sense.

"I….i didn’t, I mean I couldn’t, i…did she lose it because of what...i mean because of my….." Frank couldn’t say the words in case it was true. He couldn’t say ‘Did Vanessa lose the baby because of my decision?’

For a moment, no-one spoke. Fenton Hardy went to his son’s bedside to embrace him. Frank stood as if rooted to the spot. All he could see was his hand, outstretched to his brothers back in the clearing, and the look in Joe’s eyes as he ignored it.

***

Almost two weeks later, Frank came back to the apartment to see Joe packing some clothes into a duffel bag. His injuries were healing well and he had been out of the hospital and in the apartment for almost a week now. Vanessa had gone home with her mother for a while to recover from her ordeal.

The tension between the brothers was almost unbearable; Joe would hardly look at Frank, never mind speak to him.

"Joe, what’s happening, where are you going?"

Joe kept packing as he spoke. "Back to Bayport with Vanessa. She wants to be nearer to her Mom and I, well I…." here Joe faltered.

"You don’t want to be around me anymore, do you" Even as the words left Franks mouth, he could feel the pain starting to build deep inside him like his heart was breaking in two"

Joe stopped packing and looked straight into Frank’s eyes.

"What’s that old line Frank, if you love me let me go? I have nothing left to give you. I’m tired. Every time I look at you I can hear those words, I can see her face as you said them and I can hear her cries. I think they will haunt me forever."