Joe sighed when he heard his brother go into his room.  After waiting for a few moments, he got off his bed, crossed to the bathroom, and then pushed open the door and watched Frank for a moment.

His older brother had his back to the door and was already sitting at his computer.  Joe felt a sadness tug at him as he was overcome with a strong sense of loss.  Since Friday, he’d hardly seen his brother and he missed him terribly.

Chewing on his lip for a moment longer, Joe strengthened his resolve and then rapped lightly on the half-open door.  Frank turned in surprise.

“Since when did you knock?” the older boy asked, turning back to his computer.

Joe winced at the cool tone and took a tentative step into the room.

“I-I’m sorry,” the younger teen just blurted out.

Frank gave a heavy sigh and then slowly turned back around to look at his brother, again.

“I was being a jerk,” Joe continued quietly, forcing himself to keep eye contact, even while he felt heat rise in his face, “both at lunch time and on the way home.”

“Yes, you were,” Frank agreed, and he looked at the younger boy for a few moments before he asked, “You gonna tell me why?”

Joe shrugged and then sat down on Frank’s bed, miserably.  “I don’t really know…maybe I’m jealous or something.  Honestly Frank, I don’t want to feel like this but I do!  I…I just miss the way things were.  You know…you and me.  We did everything together and…well, I miss you, big brother.”

Frank sighed, got up from his chair, and sat down on the bed next to him.  “I’m still here—”

Joe cut him off.  “No, see that’s the thing…you’re not, anymore.”

“Joe, it’s only been three days!  I just started seeing Lily,” Frank protested, “and I really enjoy spending time with her.”  The younger boy looked hurt, and he quickly amended, “And I love spending time with you, too, but, Joe, this is all so new to me…and I’m just trying to get to know her.”  He gave his brother a plaintive smile.  “I already know all about you, kid brother.”

Do you? Joe thought even as he said, “Can’t you do that without pushing the rest of us aside?”  His blue eyes searched his brother’s.  “I mean…would it have been so terrible for you guys to have sat with us at lunch?  Frank I’m just afraid…” his voice trailed off as he was reluctant to share his deepest fear about all this.

“You’re afraid of what, Joe?” the older boy pressed, looking at him earnestly, but Joe shook his head.  He was afraid Frank would think it was silly; so rather than risk rejection, he decided not to say anything.

Frank waited, and when it became apparent that Joe wasn’t going to finish that line of thought, he said, “I think the problem is that you’ve decided that you don’t like Lily.  If you got to know her, I think this wouldn’t be so hard on you.”

Joe looked skeptical.  “I don’t want to get to know her, thank you.”

“See, you’re not even giving her a chance!” Frank retorted.  “You’ve already made up your mind and now you’re going to make us both miserable about it!”

The younger teen scowled as his brother continued, “The funny thing is, Lily likes you.  At least she’s being fair!”

“Fair?” Joe retorted, “She likes me?  Well if I’m such a hit in the Getty household, why’d Davis, and his attachment try to run me down today?!”

Frank paled.  “What?!”

“You heard me!” Joe said, standing up. “After you dropped me off, a white Corvette tried to make itself a Hardy hood ornament!”

“You’re sure it was Davis?”  Frank looked up at his brother, too stunned to move for a moment.

“Duh,” Joe said sarcastically.  “Evan’s red hair of fire is hardly something a guy’d miss!”

Standing up, the older teen’s face darkened with anger at Davis.  “Are you okay?”

“I’ll live,” the blond teen assured him.

“Good,” Frank said, and then grabbing his jacket, he said to his brother, “I’ll be right back.”

“Where you going?” Joe demanded, and then his eyes widened as he saw the new leather jacket.  “And where’d you get that coat?”

“A gift,” Frank answered, already heading towards the stairs.  He stopped, turned and looked at his brother.  “Do me a favor, Joe? Just stay here.” And then he was gone out the front door.

Joe followed and then stared, dumbfounded, as he watched Frank climb into the driver’s seat of a yellow BMW and then reverse out of the driveway. He felt a chill go over his body – who was this guy and what had he done with his brother?

Fenton Hardy came out of the kitchen in time to hear the car peel out of the driveway. “Joe?” he said to his frowning younger son, “Was that Frank?”

The blond teen just nodded and his father asked, “Where’d he go?”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Joe looked at his father and shook his head.  “I have no idea Dad…none at all.”

* * *

Frank was absolutely livid.  How dare Davis pull something like this?!

Quickly the teen navigated the familiar streets of Bayport until he screeched to a halt in front of the Getty mansion.  He waited impatiently for the gate to be opened and then roared up to the house.

Surprisingly enough, Lily met him at the door – he had been expecting her to still be lying down.

“How you feeling?” he greeted the beautiful young girl as soon as he saw her.

“A bit better,” she answered, obviously very surprised to see him here right now.  “You should have told me you were coming, I’d have gotten dressed.”  She was wearing a baggy t-shirt and jogging pants but she still looked mighty fine to Frank.

However, right now he was too angry at Davis to give her more than a quick smile.  Normally slow to temper, the rules always changed whenever Joe was involved.

“I need to talk to Davis,” Frank said, glancing past Lily into the house.

“Davis isn’t home,” Lily said, frowning. “Is something wrong?”  She had never seen the usually unflappable Frank Hardy looking so…well, so angry.

“You might say that,” the teen said curtly and then added, “he and Evan tried to run Joe down today.”

Lily raised her eyebrows in surprise.  “Really?”

“No I’m making it up,” Frank said sarcastically, and then took a deep breath and forced himself to settle down.  “I’m sorry Lily.  It’s just that I tend to take it very personally whenever my brother is involved.”

“That’s understandable,” Lily said, accepting his apology; inwardly amused to see Frank rise to the occasion like this. “Is Joe all right?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” Lily nodded and then shrugged, “Sorry though; I really don’t know when he’s going to be back.  He and Evan went out for a bit.”

“Damn,” Frank muttered, and then Lily laid a comforting hand on his arm.

“I’m sure Davis was only playing around with your brother,” she assured him.  “If he wanted to hurt Joe…well, let’s just say Joe would not be all right.”

“Trying to run someone down isn’t some sort of game, Lily.  Joe could have been hurt, or even killed.”  He looked deeply into her blue eyes and saw something he couldn’t place.  “I’m a pretty tolerant guy, but not when it comes to anyone threatening someone I love—”

“Do you love your brother?” Lily asked, cutting him off.

“Of course I do,” Frank said, shocked by her question. “And what kind of question is that, anyway?”

“I’m sorry,” the girl blushed. “I don’t know what made me ask that.”

The dark-haired teen sighed and ran a hand through his hair in agitation.  He had really wanted to talk to Davis right now!

“Frank,” Lily’s voice made him look at her again.  “It might be better if I spoke with Davis about this, okay?  If nothing else, he’ll listen to me.”

He scowled but then admitted that she might have a point.  She did seem to have the ability to exert some margin of control over Davis, as evident during lunch.

“Okay,” Frank finally said. “Just make sure he understands that if he messes around with my brother again, he’ll wish he’d never been born.”

Lily raised her eyebrows briefly but then nodded.  “Wish he’d never been born…got it.”

“Well, I gotta run or my folks’ll worry,” Frank admitted.  Normally he’d be reluctant to leave, but right now, for some reason, he just felt he couldn’t get out of here fast enough.

“Call me later,” Lily called out, after he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and then hurried back towards the car.  He paused when he got to the door.

“Are you sure you don’t mind me driving this?” he called back.

Lily smiled widely.  “I wouldn’t have it any other way!  I hardly use the poor thing as it is.  Keep it for a couple of days.  I’ll get it back later.”

Nodding, the teen blew her one final kiss, got into the driver’s seat and drove home, feeling much better now.  Lily said she would talk to Davis and that was good enough for him.

* * *

Lily waited until Frank was gone, and then stalked to the games room where Davis and Evan were playing a rowdy game of table tennis.

“You stupid ass!” she scowled, walking right up to her brother and slapping him across the face.

“Hey!” he yelled, holding his cheek, “What’s that all about?”

Evan watched through wide eyes. She might not be very big, but man, Lily Getty scared the crap out of him at times.

“What’s that for?  What, did you honestly think you could put a scare in Frank’s brother and it wouldn’t get back to me?!”  She was incensed and her blue eyes burned darkly.

“Oh that,” Davis grinned, still rubbing his cheek, “It was a spur of the moment thing and he didn’t get hurt…well, nothing more damaged than his pride…”

“Stupid!  Both of you!”  She whirled angrily on Evan too.  “Just leave Joe alone, got it!?”

Evan looked at Davis and after a long moment the dark-haired teen nodded slowly.  “Got it.”

“Yeah, got it,” Evan put in quickly.

“Good,” Lily said, satisfied for now. Turning to leave, she stopped and looked back at Davis and just asked, “Do you love me?”

Her brother looked at her like she had three heads and scowled, “What kind of question is that?”

Lily snorted and left the room.

* * *

As Frank drove home he felt conflicted; his conversation with Joe had stirred up some new thoughts about this whole situation, and he decided his brother was partially right.  He shouldn’t just push everyone to the side in favor of Lily. That wasn’t right…and it wasn’t very nice.

So by the time he got home, he had a plan. There was no reason why he couldn’t spend time with them both – have his cake and eat it too! And this would also afford Joe the opportunity to get to know Lily better, and see just what a wonderful girl she really was – no matter who her brother was!

Smiling in satisfaction, Frank was confident that this would work. It had to.

* * *

Biff finished his homework and then lay down on his bed, still thinking over the request Joe had made.  He had agreed to it right away with no reservations.  And he still didn’t have any, now, hours later.  He just hoped this worked out the way Joe wanted it to….

The younger Hardy was positive that the Gettys were up to something and trying to use Frank to cover it up.  So he’d asked Biff to stay in the gang, ‘undercover,’ win over Davis’s trust, and then they would get the goods on him!

Joe was positive that once he could expose Lily and Davis for who they really were, Frank would stop seeing her.

It sounded simple enough.

Of course this would mean that Biff and Joe had to pretend they were still angry at each other…and that part might get a bit dicey; especially if Davis or his buds started talking trash about Joe.  While his best friend could be quite the actor when the occasion called for it, Biff wasn’t so confident in his own abilities.

However, for Joe and Frank, he’d try.  Because, if he was honest with himself, Biff had to agree – there was just something about Lily….

* * *

“Do you still want to give me a hand with this case?” Fenton asked as he stopped by his younger son’s room after supper.

“Sure!” Joe’s eyes lit up and he hopped off his bed.  After quickly finishing his homework and then grilling his brother on his mysterious disappearance - for which Frank just shrugged, winked and said ‘some things are better left unknown’ – he’d just been lazing around flipping through some motorcycle magazines; basically waiting for an acceptable time to go to bed.

Normally he would have hung out in Frank’s room, but not tonight. Frank was on the phone with Lily again, and Joe didn’t have the stomach to hang around for that – not that his brother would have let him anyway!!

“Okay, but don’t get too excited,” Fenton warned, smothering a smile at his son’s enthusiasm.  “We’re just taking some pictures!”

Undaunted, Joe grinned, “If you say so, Dad!” and was down the stairs before his father could even make a remark.

Laura sighed as she watched them leave. “Please be careful,” she whispered.

* * *

“Hey Mom,” Frank said an hour later when he finally got off the phone and came downstairs.  It was a good thing they had call waiting, since his cell phone had never recovered from the impromptu wetting on Sunday, and he and Lily spoke on the house phone.  “Where’s Joe?” After hanging up the phone, the older boy had popped into his brother’s room and been surprised to find it empty.

“Oh, he’s gone with your father, dear,” Laura said, looking up from a book she was reading.  “They’re taking pictures of some houses for your father’s case.”

Frank nodded, a bit disappointed that he hadn’t been asked to go, but then remembered that he had been on the phone since dinnertime…so he shrugged it off; pleased that his father and brother got to spend a bit of time together anyway.  If nothing else, it beat having Joe moping in his room all night.

“Well, I think I’m going to give Chet a call and see what’s up,” Frank commented, and he heard his mother laugh. Turning, he asked her, “What’s so funny?”

“You are, sweetie,” she teased, good naturedly.  “If this keeps up, we’ll have to get you a separate phone line for your room!”

Frank blushed, and chuckled as he headed back upstairs, knowing she was referring to this new phone habit of his.  Although now that he thought about it, his ear was a bit sore, so he decided maybe he’d go online and chat with Phil for a while, instead.

* * *

It was after ten o’clock when Fenton looked down at his watch and smiled at his son.  “I think we’d better call it a night. You have school in the morning and your Mom will kill me if I don’t get you home soon.”

He and Joe had spent the last couple of hours going from robbery location to robbery location, taking their own pictures and scoping out the area, looking for anything that might indicate a pattern.

Joe stifled a yawn. “Sounds good to me,“ he admitted.  “I’m beat.”

They were just crossing the street to Fenton’s car when a shot rang out!

Instinctively, Fenton whirled towards his son, to shield him, as two more shots fired, in rapid succession!!

And then quiet.  Deathly quiet….