Callie looked at her friend in disbelief.  “Frank did what?”

“He stormed into the lunchroom, walked right up to Davis, and put his lights out with one punch!  BAM!”  Liz’s brown eyes twinkled in excitement as she finally caught up to Callie in between their afternoon classes, and the new girl was shocked.

“Why?” she asked, wondering if it had anything to do with what she had told him during lunch. Was it possible she was wrong? And that he did really care about his brother; and that he’d had no idea what the Gettys were up to? Was it??

“I don’t know for sure,” Liz admitted, sitting down in her seat as Callie took the empty desk next to her, “but the rumor is that Davis did something to Joe, and man, if there’s one thing that will get Mr. Frank Hardy moving, it’s anyone messing with his brother!”

Callie looked at Liz oddly – this was news to her.  “Why? I didn’t think they got along very well…”

“Who? Frank and Joe?” Liz actually laughed, shaking her head in disbelief.  “Girl, I don’t know who you’ve been getting your information from, but trust me, when it comes to siblings who care, the Hardys wrote the book on it.”

“But—” Callie broke off, still confused by what she herself had witnessed, and Liz as if sensing what she was thinking added:

“Now, I do have to admit that since little Ms. Getty came into the picture, there’s a lot more tension between them, but don’t let that fool you.  Frank and Joe are more than brothers; they’re best friends and partners.”

“Partners?” Callie wasn’t sure if she liked the sound of that, but relaxed a moment later when Liz managed to whisper, just as the teacher came into class:

“Yeah, their dad is a private investigator and Frank and Joe help him out, from time to time, on some of his cases.”

“Oh,” Callie said as she forced herself to look at the chalkboard, but for the rest of the class, she mused over this new information.  And by the end of the period, she was sure that it was what she had said to Frank that had sent him after Davis….

* * *

“Well, I think I’d better be going,” Laura said, standing up. She and Joe had been at the Mortons’ for about an hour now, and she felt it was a good time to head back.  She hadn’t actually intended to stay so long, but once Catherine had started talking about what had happened and how she felt about it, Laura was hesitant to rush her.

Joe and Iola had not come back yet.

Chet wandered into the kitchen just as Laura was standing up, and his mother smiled at him.  “Chet, can you go tell Joe that his mom is leaving now?” The stout boy nodded and headed out the door. He knew that the younger teens were in the barn as he’d seen them, from his room window, go there.

A few moments later, he opened the barn door and stepped inside. He listened but didn’t hear anything.  A small smiled crept across his face as he quietly moved through the barn, glancing into the empty stalls, until he found the one he was looking for.  And then the small smile turned soft and he felt a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach; he’d found them…and they were asleep.

Lying in the straw of an empty stall, Iola was nestled against Joe, and the blond boy had one arm wrapped loosely around her slender frame.  They looked so peaceful that Chet was hesitant to wake them, but he had no choice; Joe had to go home.

“Joe! Iola!” Chet whispered loudly, not wanting to startle them.  After the fright his sister had had last night, that was the last thing he wanted to do.

Immediately Iola lifted her head, and then blushed as she realized what her pillow was.  Joe opened his eyes a bit more slowly, and then groaned as the girl’s movements pushed against his sore body.

Crud, he thought as he realized he’d stiffened up again.

“Hey, you okay, Joe?” Chet asked as he watched his friend and noted how pale his face was.  He reached out and helped his sister to her feet, as Iola was encumbered with the sling.

Joe bit his lip and then let out a sigh.  “Actually, no.  Chet, can you give me a hand up too, please?”  Nodding, the stout boy easily pulled his friend to his feet, noting the way Joe protected his mid-section and hissed in pain.

“What’s wrong?” Chet’s face was wrinkled in concern.

The blond teen sighed and then admitted, “I got jumped behind Mr. P’s last night.  I’m a bit bruised up.”

“Ohmygosh!” Iola exclaimed, “Joe, you should have told me!”

“I’m okay, honestly,” he said, trying to get the worried look off her face.  “It’s just a bit difficult when I first try to move – I’m a bit stiff.”

Chet frowned.  “Who jumped you?”

“I’d rather not talk about it actually, Chet, okay?  Hey, is my Mom ready to go yet, do you know?” Joe changed the subject as the three of them slowly started to head back to the house.

The older boy knew better than to press Joe about it.  If he didn’t want to talk about something, there was nothing Chet could do. So he just answered, “Yeah, that’s why I’m here. I’m your alarm clock, apparently.  Good thing too, I’d say.  I can just imagine what would have happened if it was Mom or Dad who caught you guys like that!” He gave them a suggestive look and then chuckled when both Iola and Joe blushed.

“W-we weren’t doing anything!” Joe managed to protest and Chet rolled his eyes, teasingly.

“Suuurrrre.  Not a thing…” and he continued to tease them all the way back to the house.

* * *

“Joe!  Mom!  You guys home?”  Frank called out as soon as he and his father got into the house.  His mother’s car wasn’t home but that didn’t mean anything.  She could have dropped Joe off and gone out somewhere.

There was no answer.

As Fenton checked the messages on the phone, Frank headed into the kitchen to grab a cold compress for his hand. Hitting Davis’s jaw had been like hitting a wall!  A few minutes later, armed with a cold compress and a can of pop, Frank started up the stairs. “I’m going to wait upstairs for Joe,” he told his father, and the detective nodded absently, still writing messages down.

Tossing his backpack on his bed, Frank opened it, pulled out a book and then crossed through the bathroom and into his brother’s room. Sitting down at Joe’s desk, he popped open the can of pop, found the chapter in the book he needed to read for homework and waited for his brother.

This time there would be no way for Joe to avoid him!

After reading the same paragraph four times, Frank closed the book in frustration. He couldn’t concentrate, as he kept jumping back and forth between feeling angry at Davis and feeling guilty over not noticing that his brother was hiding something from him. His own words only days earlier came back to haunt him…. I already know all about you, kid brother…. Frank chewed on the end of his pencil as he thought about that comment, and the conversation that had prompted him to say that…. I miss you, big brother…I’m still here—… No, see that’s the thing, you’re not, anymore….

“Damn it,” he muttered, “Joe is right. I am not here anymore.  If I was, I would have seen that he was hurting; no matter how hard he tried to hide it. That’s what brothers do…are supposed to do. They see through those little facades….”  He sighed as he glanced at the bathroom door.  “Joe locked me out last night…why?” Frank picked up a pencil and absently started to chew on the end; a habit he had, claiming it helped him think things through. “You lock out things you’re afraid of…Joe locked me out….” The teen paled as he put together the ramifications, his voice was a mere whisper: “He was afraid of…me?”

Frank sat back heavily in Joe’s chair and stared at his reflection in the blank computer screen. Unlike his own computer, Joe’s was seldom on. “What’s going on, little brother?” he whispered, but the reflection told him nothing.

* * *

“You’re awfully quiet,” Laura said as she drove home.  Joe was staring out the window, apparently lost in thought, because he started at the sound of her voice.

“Sorry,” he apologized with a sheepish little grin, “I was just thinking of stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” his mother pressed, wondering if a one Ms. Morton was amongst those thoughts.

Joe pursed his lips, undecided as to whether or not he wanted to talk to his mother about this.  And then he looked back out the window and said, “I was thinking about Iola.”

“Ah,” his mother smiled knowingly, as she deftly changed lanes. Her son turned to look at her sharply.

“What does ‘ah’ mean?” Joe demanded, having picked up something in her tone.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Laura said, keeping her voice neutral, and although she wasn’t looking at him, she could feel the intensity of his gaze.  After a moment, Joe shook his head.

“I mighta known.  It’s pretty hard to keep anything from you,” he admitted, halfway miffed and halfway relieved. He hated having to spell things out.

“Well, it was pretty obvious,” his mother admitted.

Joe sighed and leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes. He was still exhausted, having only fallen asleep about ten minutes before Chet showed up.  “And I call myself ‘intuitive’.”

“Oh honey,” his mother consoled, “you are, when it comes to other people, but I think it’s harder when it comes to yourself.”

“Really?” Joe opened his eyes and looked at her, a bit surprised, as he’d been kicking himself since they left the Mortons’ farm for not noticing before how Iola felt towards him, or how he felt towards her.

“Well sure,” his mother insisted, “Joe, you’re always the first one to say something to Frank, or me, or your father when you think something’s up…and I can’t count the number of times you’ve been right…but honey, if you were so good a predicting these things about yourself, then you wouldn’t even know who your family doctor is, let alone having him consider giving you your own parking spot when you get your license!”

Joe chuckled, thinking of the kindly old man.  “And deny Dr. Bates’s children a good education?  Perish the thought!”

Laura laughed and reached across to muss up his hair.  “So you just keep on doing what you’re doing, keeping an eye on us; and we’ll keep on doing what we’re doing…keeping an eye on you, okay?”

“I think so. Thanks, Mom,” Joe said after a moment, and then closed his eyes for the remainder of the drive.

Laura glanced across at him affectionately.  And then a small frown marred her features as she thought of how badly bruised he was, injuries hidden by the shirt he was wearing.  We’re not holding up our end of the deal very well, she thought before she turned her attention back to the road.

* * *

Frank heard his mother’s car in the driveway and waited.  After a few minutes, he heard Joe come upstairs, the door opening…and then the younger teen just about jumped out of his skin when he saw his brother sitting at his desk!

“Geez, Frank!” Joe said, grabbing his chest weakly, “What are you trying to do?  Give me a heart attack??”

“No—” Frank started, but Joe cut him off, looking at his watch.

“And what are you doing home anyway?  School isn’t out for another hour.” Joe tossed his coat on the end of the bed but made no move to sit down.

Frank was watching his brother carefully and he mentally kicked himself.  He could easily see now that Joe was hurting…it was in the guarded way he moved; a very familiar way, unfortunately.

“I got suspended for the afternoon,” the older boy said bluntly, and watched the shock on his brother’s face.  He continued before Joe could recover enough to respond, “For punching out Davis Getty.”

Joe just stared at him and Frank suppressed a chuckle.  He had never actually seen his brother so stunned before, that he was totally speechless.  After another moment, he pressed softly, “Can I see?”

The younger teen’s mind was reeling as he tried to digest what his brother had said even as he numbly responded to Frank’s gentle request, undoing his shirt and letting it fall away from his back.

Frank gasped, and quickly moved to his side.  “Ohmygosh! Joe!” His eyes scanned the bruised torso as he fought to keep his emotions in check.  If he had known just how badly used Joe was…well…he would have been suspended for a very long time…!

“It’s okay,” Joe murmured after a moment as he carefully pulled his shirt back on, but didn’t do it up this time.  He moved towards the bathroom to grab some more painkillers.

“It’s not okay, bro!” Frank followed him.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Joe shook his head as he quickly washed down two pills with a glass of water.

“Davis said it was just a couple of bruises!  What did he hit you with? What did Dr. Bates say?” Concern made Frank rush this conversation as he seethed, thinking about Davis.

The younger boy brushed past him and then sat down gingerly on his bed. “He hit me with his fists…and Evan’s.  And Dr. Bates said what I’ve been saying.  It’s bruising, that’s all.”

“That’s all?” Frank was actually pacing now, his anger needing to be burned off somehow.  “Did he send you for x-rays?”

“Yes, no fractures.”  Joe stretched out carefully and then groaned as he realized he’d forgotten to take his shoes off.  He started to sit up again but Frank, seeing his dilemma, quickly moved and pulled the sneakers off.  “Thanks,” the younger boy said as he closed his eyes and felt his brother sit down on the edge of the bed beside him.

He expected Frank to say something, but after a few moments of silence, Joe forced his eyes open and looked at his brother. The older teen was just staring at him with a guilty, remorseful look on his face.

“I’m sorry,” Frank said when he saw his brother finally look at him.

“For what?” Joe mumbled closing his eyes again.  “You never beat me up.” He really just wanted to take a nap.

“No, but it should have never happened,” Frank admitted. “I shouldn’t have let you take off like that.”

“How’d you know?” Joe asked suddenly, wondering how Frank found out.

The older teen didn’t say anything, and after a moment, Joe sighed, “Callie told.”

“Oh yeah, she did,” Frank said ruefully, “but not before giving me an earful first!”

The younger boy chuckled, thinking of how forward his new friend was.  “Yeah, she doesn’t really beat around the bush about things.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Frank agreed as he continued to watch his brother. Joe turned onto his side, finding that the best position to lie in.

“Davis told me he was teaching you a lesson,” he said quietly after another moment, and Joe snorted:

“He actually told you that?”

“Yeah,” Frank sighed, “that damn case of beer. It’s like a bad dream that you just can’t make go away!”

“The beer?” now Joe was confused, what about the beer?

“He had the gall to say I should be thanking him because he was the one who beat you up, instead of one of the other guys who’s pissed off about you telling Dad who sold Biff that case.”  Frank shook his head, sounding disgusted.

Joe was silent for a few moments but just as he started to say something the phone rang and then their mother called out, “Frank, phone! It’s Lily!”

Shoot, the sixteen-year-old thought, realizing Lily was using her free period to call him; he really didn’t want to talk to her right now, not when he needed so desperately to finish this conversation with his brother!

Frank looked at Joe for a moment, but the younger boy rolled away, mindless of the pain it caused.

“We’re not finished here yet,” Frank told him.  “I’ll be right back.” But after ten minutes, Joe gave up waiting.

Hearing his brother’s voice muffled through the closed door of his bedroom, the younger teen sighed. He no longer felt like lying down; he needed to get out for a while.

So easing his aching body up and out of the bed, he glanced at the time, and then decided to walk over to Biff’s. He wanted to talk to his best friend to find out what had happened at school today, and knew Biff would be just getting home by the time Joe actually walked there.

His mom was downstairs and looked at him in concern when she saw that his coat was back on.

“Joe, honey? Where are you going?”

“Biff’s,” he said, and then gave her a small smile. “I just need to get some fresh air for a bit. Don’t worry, I’ll get him to give me a ride home later, okay?”

“I don’t know…” Laura started. ”We just got home, sweetie—”

“I won’t be gone long,” Joe promised. “Please Mom, I really need to talk to Biff about something,” he added, putting on his famous ‘puppy dog eyes,’ and he saw his mother start to cave.

“Be back in an hour,” his mother told him, “Or I’ll send Frank looking for you!”

“Thanks Mom.”  Joe flashed a relieved smile and left the house.  It was a cold autumn afternoon, and the teen pulled up his collar and hurried as quickly as he could to Biff’s house, relieved that the painkillers were kicking in.

* * *

“Oh come on, Frank,” Lily cajoled, in her most seductive voice, “it’ll be fun.” She had been trying unsuccessfully for about ten minutes now to get Frank to go somewhere with her, but he refused, saying he needed to stay home right home, to finish working out things with his brother.

“Lily, I can’t. Not today and not tonight. Look, I understand that you weren’t responsible for what happened…and I’m not blaming you for what your brother and his friends did; however, I really have to be here for Joe right now. Lily, you haven’t seen what they did to him…he’s hurting and it’s more than just physical pain.  My kid brother needs me and I’m not going anywhere.”

The girl seethed, furious that he would want to stay home rather than to do something with her!

She sighed and then said, “Of course, Frank. How inconsiderate of me…can I call you later?”

“Anytime Lily, you know that,” Frank said, feeling immense relief that she understood, and then after a few more minutes, he hung up the phone and hurried back to Joe’s room, ready to apologize for being on the phone way longer than he had intended. But his brother’s room was empty….

* * *

Lily hung up from Frank and frowned. Then pushing an autodial number on her phone, she waited for Davis to answer and then just said, “Make room for me in Frank’s life.” And then she hung up.

I warned you, she thought, but you never listened did you? You told…well Joey, you have no one to blame for this except yourself.

* * *

Davis smiled and gunned the engine, as he quickly spun the Corvette around and headed across town. Touching his chin briefly, he relished the permission he’d just been given.

Five minutes later when he saw the lone figure walking down the sidewalk a block from his own house, Davis grinned. This was going to be fun….

* * *

“Frank, honey can you get that?” Laura called up from the basement when the phone rang.  Fenton had left for the police station and she knew that Frank was still in the kitchen. Although she had not admitted it to him, Laura was actually very proud of what he did today in school. It might have resulted in a half-day suspension but one thought about the bruises on her younger son’s body, removed any inclination she might have had about punishing him. Fenton felt the same way and so, after a brief discussion about how violence wasn’t a solution, they asked him to stay close to the house for the remainder of the day.

“’kay, Mom!” Frank said, getting up from the table to answer the phone.  After his mother told him that Joe had gone to Biff’s, and his parents had spoken with him about the incident, the older teen had remained in the kitchen; drinking coffee and thinking.  He was very troubled about Joe’s abrupt departure and kept a firm eye on the time, knowing his brother should be home soon, and he was determined that this time they would clear the air between them… once and for all!

“Hardy residence,” he answered, hoping it was Joe calling for a ride.

[Hey Frank] came Biff’s cheerful voice [Can I talk to Joe?].

Frank felt his heart rate pick up as he said cautiously, “Uh Biff…Joe left for your house almost an hour ago….Isn’t he there yet?”

Biff paused and then said [No Frank. He never got here…].

* * *

Joe groaned as he opened his eyes.  Not good, Hardy, he told himself as he quickly registered the ropes around his feet, his hands and his neck…not good at all!

The pain of being trussed shot through his aching body as he turned weary eyes towards the dark-haired teen crouching down watching him. Joe tried to say something, only realizing then that he had also been gagged.

Davis was smiling at him as he saw Joe’s eyes finally focus on him. “Enjoy what little time you have left…” he goaded.  Standing up, he couldn’t resist, and kicked Joe hard in the side, inhaling the sharp gasp of pain he heard. Then he turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder as he did so, “’Cause when Lily of the Valley gets here, she’s going to kill you….”

And then he closed the door, leaving Joe alone in the dark, cold cellar.

The blond teen let out a shuddering breath and then closed his eyes and waited.