When Fenton left his office a few minutes later, there was no sign of anyone except Laura, who was now sitting on the couch, leaning back with her eyes closed.  

“You okay?” he asked gently as he sat down beside her, concerned to see her looking so tired.  

Opening her eyes, she gave him a weak smile.  “The boys are upstairs. Frank has a date with Callie, and he’s going to drop Joe off at the Mortons’ on his way.”  

Fenton nodded his head and then said, “Okay. But that’s not what I asked.”  

Laura sighed.  “I’m fine. It’s just I hate to hear that anyone is giving Joe a hard time. Or Frank. But with Joe it’s different. I feel like Frank can take care of himself but…”  

“Oh honey,” Fenton said, understanding what she was saying.  “Joe can take care of himself too. I know it’s hard, but we need to remember that. The last thing we need is for him to think that we don’t have any confidence in him.”  

“But Will—”  

Fenton cut her off.  “William was different. And what Joe did, he did to protect Frank and us….He let himself be hurt. That’s the difference.”  

Laura looked at him, not quite convinced, but then she gave a resigned sigh. “I just don’t want to see him hurt again.”  

“I know honey…and neither do I, “Fenton agreed, and then, although he hated to say it, “Laura I need to go by the station.”  

Immediately he saw a wariness cross her face. “What’s wrong?”  

Fenton sighed and then decided she needed to know. Putting off telling her wouldn’t help anything. “A cop was killed in the city an hour ago. He was hit by a truck while chasing William.”  

“Oh no!” Laura’s hands flew to her mouth as Fenton continued.   

“Both Sam and I think William is going to come back down here, and I need to talk to Collig about this.”  

“Go then,” Laura said, standing up and pulling Fenton to his feet. “Stop wasting time.”  As Fenton grabbed his car keys she asked him, “Do you think I should ask the boys to stay home tonight?”  

Fenton paused and then shook his head. “No. Let them go out. Even if William got back to Bayport tonight, he’d have to track them down first. So no, let them go out tonight. And when they get back, we’ll sit them down and tell them what’s happened.”  

“Okay,” Laura immediately agreed – that made perfect sense. Although how she was going to keep them from seeing the near-panic that was gripping her, was going to be another story.  

After a quick peck on the cheek, Fenton left, and Laura stood in the living room for a long time with her arms wrapped tightly around her body.  She couldn’t erase the memory of seeing Joe for the first time after William’s attack….  

It was something that would haunt her for a long time.  

“You can’t have him, William,” she whispered to herself, “Do you hear me? You can’t have him.”

* * *

“I’ll pick you after the movie,” Frank said to his brother as they pulled up the long gravel driveway to stop in front of the Mortons’ farmhouse.  “Probably around 11:30-ish.”  

Joe nodded as he opened the door and held up his arsenal. “Chet’s out with Liz, and Iola’s parents are gone to a house party, so I’m armed with Starship Troopers and popcorn – we’re good to go.”  

Frank laughed and shook his head. Anyone else would have probably worried about leaving their sixteen-year-old daughter at home alone with her boyfriend. But when the boyfriend was Joe, they had nothing to be worried about.  

Although Joe and Iola had finally become a couple and officially started dating, they were still very ‘cute’ together, and enjoyed hand-holding and watching movies.  

And the older boy was still shaking his head when he pulled up in front of Callie’s house twenty minutes later.  

Who would have thought that his brash younger brother would be so old-fashioned or shy around anyone?  

But with Iola Morton, he was both.  

And their friends all thought it was very sweet…even if they did tease the couple endlessly about it.

* * *

“What’d you bring?” the pretty brunette asked her boyfriend, when Joe stepped into the kitchen.  

“Popcorn and Starship Troopers,” he said as she smiled at him. She was so beautiful that his breath still caught in his throat whenever she looked at him.  

“Cool,” she said, taking the movie from him and heading towards the living room.  “Do you want the popcorn now, or later?”  

“Later is fine,” Joe said as he followed her, and then settled himself down on the older couch across from the television. After she got the VCR set up, she snuggled down next to him.  

Reaching up, she gently traced the scratches on his face and frowned.  “What happened?”  

“A bush,” Joe said as he removed her hand from his face and gently kissed her fingers, before drawing her body in close to his and wrapping his arms around her petite frame.  “but can we not talk about that right now?”  

“Whatever you want,” the girl murmured as she then leaned her head in against his muscular chest and sighed contentedly.  

Closing her eyes, she inhaled the subtle smell of his aftershave, and knew that tonight she was the luckiest girl in Bayport.  Joe Hardy was with her.  

As Joe gazed down affectionately at the girl nestled against him, he wondered what in the world he had ever done to deserve any of this.  

His family…his friends…Iola….  

Sighing contentedly, he leaned back and closed his eyes too.  

Within moments, they were both asleep….

* * *

When Fenton Hardy stepped into Chief Ezra Collig’s office he was a bit surprised to see Con Riley already sitting there.  

“Riley,” he said tersely, as the younger man just nodded curtly.  

“Hardy.”  There was still a marked tension between the two men that two years hadn’t dissolved.  

“Fenton, I thought Con should be here, as he was involved in the original investigation two years ago,” Ezra said by way of explanation, and Fenton nodded – that made sense.  “Please sit down.”  

Fenton sat down next to Con, across the desk from Collig, who sighed and sat back.  “As you both already know, Officer Brinkman died tonight while in foot pursuit of William Doe. He was struck by a vehicle and passed away at the scene. Given these circumstances, we have strong reason to believe that William will make his way back here, as whoever has been hiding him is not going to want to bring this down on themselves, with the renewed hype to find William.”  

Con and Fenton nodded as the chief continued, “Given William’s previous history, it’s my firm belief that he will target Joe – possibly with the intention of killing him and taking his place as Joe Hardy.  

“Now, I’ve already put extra men at the train station, bus station and airport, but it’s doubtful we’ll catch him there, as he’s probably hitching, or has made some sort of alternate travel plans. But we can keep our fingers crossed. And there is also a good possibility that William won’t come back here, but will move either further north or west. However, I for one, am not willing to take that chance. Not given the previous history of this case.”  

“Does Joe know about any of this yet?” Con asked, looking directly at Fenton.  

The detective felt the muscle in his jaw tighten.  “No. I’m going to be talking to him and Frank when I get home,” Fenton said, forcing himself to relax.  

“Good idea,” Collig said as he ran a hand across his weary face. He had been planning on calling it a night when he found out about Officer Brinkman’s death.  “as that brings us to a couple of options we have about all this.”  

Fenton and Con listened as Ezra listed them off.  “First, we do nothing but maintain status quo, and ask Frank and Joe to keep their guard up; secondly, I can put a guard on Joe and hope to catch William in the act—”  

“No way,” Fenton cut in, “It’s too risky to use Joe as a lure!”  

Con nodded emphatically.  “I agree.”  

“Okay,” Collig said, unfazed by their vehement disapproval of option number two.  “Thirdly, I can put Joe under police protection in a safe house until we either catch William or can make the determination that he’s moved on.”  

Fenton opened his mouth to object, but stopped. Instead he sighed and sat back heavily in the chair. “I still don’t like it, but…”  

“But it’s the only way we can keep Joe safe, and you know that,” Collig picked up gently.  “Fenton, Joe is a material witness in our case against William. You know that, too.  You also know that Joe won’t hesitate to go with William if the right incentive is given…. This is the only way we can insure that not only won’t William get to him, but that we can keep Joe from endangering himself. Fenton, you know all this.”  

Frustrated, Fenton snapped, “Of course I know that… I still don’t have to like it! I want him home where he belongs, not in some safe house for who knows how long! It’s not fair. Once again, William is making Joe a victim – just by the mere fact that he might be on his way here!”  

Con looked at Fenton - a bit surprised by his tirade - but inwardly pleased to hear the detective taking up Joe’s case. It was a refreshing change from the last time he worked on this investigation.  

And then the distraught father slumped back in his seat and sighed, “Okay then. So we’re going with option #3. Police protection. Anyone have any bright ideas on how I can sell this idea to my son?”  

Then he amended, “Make that to both my sons?” He was already envisioning Frank’s protests joining Joe’s – and in cases involving Joe, Frank was actually the harder one to get around….  

From the sympathetic looks that Collig and Con shot him, the investigator knew they didn’t.  That left him with unenviable task of doing the convincing himself.  

Oh yeah, telling Joe he was being sent to a safe house, indefinitely, was going to go over real well…real well indeed.