“What?” the man said incredulously, “You can’t be serious!”  

“I’ve never been more serious of anything in my life”, admitted the second man, as he chain-smoked his way through a package of Camels, “the kid’s out of the coma.”  

“Does he remember anything?” the first man asked.  

“Don’t know”, the smoker admitted, “he’s probably brain damaged but I don’t think we can risk it. I know for a fact he saw my face just before we hit him. I just don’t know if he will remember it or not.”   

The chain smoker added, “I do remember thinking ‘man that kid’s eyes are awfully wide’.”  

“Hmmm”, said the first man, “it might have only been a fleeting glimpse before you got your mask on… and he might be brain damaged… but damn it, he’s Hardy’s kid so we gotta make sure he don’t remember anything permanently!”  

“Call Gareth, we gotta set something up… again, “the first said after another moment.  

The smoker smiled, “Do I get to play with him too?”  

The first man got a sick look on his face as he rolled his eyes, “We’ll see. Let’s talk to Gareth first.”

* * *

Joe Hardy picked up his favorite Spiderman comic book, flipped through it for a moment before tossing it back down on his bed. What do 17 year olds do? He wondered, I’m sure they don’t read baby comic books!  

He wanted to ask his brother but he was sure Frank wouldn’t tell him… if he even spoke to him at all!  

The past 24 hours had been hell. Frank came home after school and had barely said two words to Joe.  

It was now Saturday afternoon and the younger boy was bored out of his mind.  

His dad had got called out of town during the night and their mom was downstairs doing stuff.  Joe had come back upstairs and hung out in his room since breakfast. It was now only 10 AM and he was definitely bored out of his mind.  

Joe could hear Frank in his room and went to stand in the doorway of their shared bathroom and watched him quietly for a while.  

He wanted to run, jump on Frank’s bed like he used to, and ask what was up. But he knew he couldn’t do that anymore… Frank was a stranger to him now and Joe was so confused, it hurt.  

Joe’s memories - although six years old now - were only six weeks old for him….  

It was only weeks ago that he and Frank had played Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn down by the little creek… it was only a month and a half ago since they had camped out in the backyard and Joe had gotten so scared by one of Frank’s ghost stories that their father had ended up having to stay out there with them…it was only two months ago that Frank had rescued Joe from two bigger kids who thought it would be funny to toss the younger boy into a garbage bin…  

But it was six years ago… to everyone else.  

Joe wanted to ask Frank why he hated him but he was afraid to. He was terrified of what Frank’s answer would be.  

If the older boy knew his brother was watching him, he gave no indication and after a while the gloomy teen went back to his own room. He couldn’t sit still anymore though and started rummaging through his closet for something warm to wear.   

Everyday for the past six weeks, Joe had been physically active and his body was demanding something more from him right now – he had a lot of energy to burn.  

His mother had bought him a whole new wardrobe and Joe grabbed the first warm hooded sweatshirt he saw. It was black with a “01” on the front. Pulling it on over his head, the boy grabbed a pair of new white sneakers and slipped them over his socks.  

Sighing he remembered to put sunscreen on his face, grabbed his sunglasses and then left the room.  

He needed to get out.

* * *

Laura Hardy was alarmed when she saw her despondent son. Her heart ached for the pain she saw so clearly etched on his youthful face, “Joey… I mean Joe. What are you doing?”  

Joe smiled at her. It was still a battle for his mom to drop the babyish ‘y’ from his name, but right now his soul craved it – he needed to be babied so he smiled shyly at the petit blond and said, “S’okay Mom. You can call me Joey again… In fact I think I like it.”  

He saw her smile and her lip quivered suspiciously.  

Oh man, he thought, I hate it when Mom cries.  

Needing even worse to get out for a while now, he said, “I’m going for a walk. I need to keep up my exercise, “he added seeing she was about to protest. And as he suspected, she stopped whatever she was about to say, and said instead, “I’ll ask Frank-“  

Joe cut her off, “Don’t bother Mom, he’s too busy for me. I’ll be okay. The neighborhood hasn’t changed that much.”  

Laura couldn’t see the pain in his eyes but she sure heard it in his voice and her heart twisted for him. Both she and Fenton had spoken to Frank over his seeming indifference to his brother, and while they understood why he was acting like this, they both felt it wasn’t right.  

Joe reminded him to much of the pain he’d worked so hard to get past. But the way he was acting was still wrong.  

While he hadn’t been assaulted, Joe had something else taken from him that day. And he had an equally uphill battle ahead of him.  

Laura even saw what his own behavior was doing to Frank, and wished he’d realize that no matter how hard he tried to deny it, he couldn’t change the fundamental truth – he needed Joe and until he realized this, he would never truly heal.  

He’d just become a bitter shell.

* * *

Joe walked for a couple of blocks until he came to a small two story duplex and he stood on the sidewalk and stared at it.  The house hadn’t really changed and that was deceptive, because he knew the people inside it had.  

He wondered briefly why Biff hadn’t come to see him and then he sighed.  Maybe he, like Frank, was angry at him too.  

Joe turned to leave when he heard a tentative voice, “Joe?”  

Turning back he saw a tall, extremely muscular youth with close cropped blond hair and a hard edged jaw.  But then he looked into the pale blue eyes and saw past the physical changes and recognized the boy inside the young man, “Biff?”  

And then he was momentarily startled and stiffened briefly as Biff quickly crossed the distance between them and grabbed him in a tight hug.  The great frame shook as the muscular youth said, “Oh Joe! Man, I’ve missed you!”  

Joe let himself be hugged and returned it. Inside it helped fill some small part of his need to be comforted. Joe felt guilty, though, because all the time he was wishing it was Frank being this enthusiastic…  

After a bit, the friends separated and Joe took off his glasses and smiled at his best friend, “Wow Biffster, you’re huge!”  

Biff burst out laughing as he sucked in the sight of his friend, “You look great Joe!”  

Joe blushed, inwardly very pleased by the compliment as he was working so hard, “Thanks.”  

“What are you doing here?” the bigger boy asked as he led Joe into his house knowing how happy his parents were going to be to see their impromptu visitor, “Not that I’m complaining mind you? Man kid, I’ve missed you!”  

“Me too”, Joe sighed and then went on to explain what’d been going on since he woke up. It was almost an hour later before he stopped talking and he blushed again, “Sorry Biff. I didn’t mean to keep going on like that.”  He sipped some of the hot chocolate that Mrs. Hooper had made him once she had finally let him out of her ecstatic embrace.  

Biff smiled gently, “Joe I’m glad you did! You can’t keep that kind of stuff bottled up. Hell I think if Frank did that once and while, he wouldn’t be so uptight.”  

Frank. At the mention of his brother’s name, Joe asked the burning question no one wanted him too. He’d asked both his parents but they had just brushed him off, saying it was just an adjustment for everyone. But heck, it’d been six weeks now – Frank should have adjusted!  

“Biff, what’s up with Frank?  Sometimes I think he hates me. Did I do something wrong?”  

Biff’s face grew pale. Like their other friends, while he didn’t know 100% what had happened, he had his suspicions. And between snippets of conversation, innuendo and then a maturing mind, he’d pretty much figured it out. But it wasn’t his place to tell, especially not to the little kid who was trying to fit into his new big kid body.  

“Joe, what do you remember about that day? The day of the accident?”  

Joe shook his head miserably, “You know Dad asked me the same question the day after I was taken to the hospital…” he paused and sighed, “but that’s it… I don’t remember much at all. The last thing I do remember was riding home with Frank and thinking how much I hated riding on the road.  Nothing else after that.  Dad told me I was hit and run by a van. But I don’t remember it at all!”  

The younger boy scratched his head, “Maybe that’s a good thing…”  

“Maybe”, mused Biff but then Joe continued, “Although Dad didn’t seem to think so.”  

“What do you mean?” Biff asked wishing he had paid more attention back then to the other stuff going on so he could provide Joe with more further insight.  

“Well he kept asking me if I was sure I didn’t recall anything else and when I said ‘no’, he got a sad look on his face… disappointed more then sad actually. And he said ‘that’s too bad’ but then he changed the subject and I figured he didn’t want to talk about it.”  

Biff saw the confusion so clearly in the vivid blue eyes and was treated to a small glimpse of the hell Joe must be going through.  And then to feel like his brother hated him and his father was disappointed in him… Biff couldn’t let his friend anguish like that.