The sound of someone pounding on the front door woke Frank.  After his emotional meltdown, he had fallen asleep on his bed.  His mom had gone to the grocery store earlier, having missed Joe’s dramatic exit, so Frank figured it was probably Joe, locked out of the house.  

He was surprised when he opened the door and saw Officer Con Riley standing on the front step.  

“Con?” he said, still a bit groggy from sleep. He had become good friends with the officer over the past couple of years, cemented by the time he spent at the police station this summer while doing grunt work for his father.  

The officer dispensed with the formalities, “Frank is your brother home?”  

A bit confused by the question, Frank started to say ‘no’ but then realized Joe could have come home while he was asleep.  

“Hold on”, he said instead and quickly went upstairs to check and then said, “No, not yet”, a few minutes later when he didn’t find Joe in his room, “Why?”  

Frank’s hair stood up on the back of his neck when he heard the officer sigh, and then Con pulled out a small evidence bag from his jacket pocket and passed it to the teen, “Do you recognize these?”  

The dark haired youth started to shake his head but then remembered that Joe had started wearing sunglasses to help his eyes adjust to direct sunlight again. And he examined the glasses a bit closer before admitting, “They look like the kind Joe wears. Con, what’s going on?”  

The officer hated what he had to tell Frank and wished Fenton was home instead, “Frank… Mrs. Murphy on Tennyson Road called in a kidnapping… and we think it was Joe.”  

“What?”  Frank suddenly felt his knees grow weak and he would have fallen if Con had not caught him.  He helped the teen to the couch and waited until he was sitting down before he continued, “A blond haired teen, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt was grabbed by two guys and dragged into a dark, possibly black or blue, panel van with tinted windows… on the vacant part of Tennyson Road.”   

Con looked at the white-faced youth, “He managed to yell for help but the van was gone before anyone could do anything.”  

Frank started to hyperventilate – the details were too similar… and the whole experience washed over him again… only this time it was Joe in his place…  

…his little brother…  

…the kid he loved more then his own life…  

But then he thought about how he’d been treating Joe since the coma and, more especially, the last time he had seen him…  

Ohmygod, he thought, I’ve forgotten how much he means to me… and now…and now…  

His dark eyes flashed intensely as he said to Con, his voice strong with conviction, “They can’t have him Con. We have to get him back NOW!”

* * *

Frank’s convertible tore up the Bayport streets. He knew he didn’t have time to waste; he needed to find Joe now before it was too late… if it wasn’t already.  

“Hang on baby brother,” he said through clenched teeth, “I’m coming to find you!”  

He knew the van was probably driving around and was praying for some good old-fashioned dumb luck to find it. He had already gotten Tony, Phil, Chet, and Biff searching in their own vehicles….  

Frank had called Biff first.  

Racing towards the marina, the older Hardy boy knew that this time of year it was a private place to do what they wanted, and then easily dispose of the body.  

They messed up with me, he thought angrily; I doubt they’ll make that mistake with Joe…

* * *

Joe’s head was pounding and he felt sick to his stomach as the chloroform wore off. He moaned inadvertently and heard a man laugh, “Well it seems our little toy is awake. Ready to play, boys?”  

The teen felt someone grab him but then another voice stopped it, “Hold up, this one’s being done a little different. We need to get this van out of sight first. We don’t have the same luxury we did with his brother.”  

Joe shivered, although he had no idea what they were talking about.  

He realized he was lying on the floor of a van and that he wasn’t bound at all.  

A man sat on either side of him on a small ledge, and he felt a growing terror at the way they kept looking at him – especially the one man who was chain-smoking his way through a package of cigarettes.   

A third man was driving.  

Joe stared at the cigarette smoker and recognized him.  

These were the men who had run him down six years ago – he had seen this man for one brief moment before the guy had gotten a mask on and the van had struck him… he glanced away, not wanting the smoker to realize he had recognized him.  

A few minutes later thought, he surprised himself when he heard his own voice asking, “What did you do to my brother?”  

The chain smoker leered, impressed by the kid’s bravado, “Impatient are we? Let’s just say we had a very good time with your brother and in about ten minutes, we are going to have an even better time with you.”  He leaned closer and Joe shrank away instinctively, as the smoker reached out and touched his hair, “I always did prefer blonds.”  

And then the man drew back his fist and struck him hard in the face making the teen see stars as he fought to stay conscious.  

Joe knew one thing – he needed to get out of there… now.

* * *

Frank spotted the van. He knew it in his heart that it was the right one. Quickly he dialed the police station and called it in.  

Too angry to be affected by what had happened to himself, Frank was focused on making sure it didn’t happen to his little brother.  

He thought about blowing his horn to let them know he was behind them, and hopefully distract them from Joe – but then decided against it.  

They would probably just kill Joe outright then. So instead he tailed them until the police could set up the roadblock.  

For the love of god, Frank mouthed silently, hurry…

* * *

Joe had one shot. He knew it and even then, he also knew it would probably just get himself killed. But he to try.  

Death would be infinitely more welcome then whatever these men were planning. He still wasn’t sure what that was, but they told him that even Frank would be envious… and that sent chills down his spine…  

Maybe if he didn’t think Frank hated him, he might have thought differently…  

He just prayed this would work.  

There was a door at the back of the van and Joe just needed to wait for the perfect opportunity, and then he was going to go out it.  

Body, don’t fail me now, he thought, and then hoped that whatever happened this time, he didn’t linger in a coma and destroy what was left of his family.  

Let me live or let me die, the boy thought, I’ll accept nothing in between….

* * *

[We see them] Con said to Frank.  

The dark haired teen knew he shouldn’t be driving and talking on the cell phone at the same time, but this was a matter of life and death – Joe’s.  

At the same moment, the driver of the van saw the roadblock and slammed on his brakes.

* * *

Joe recovered first from the sudden stop as he was already on the floor, and before the other two men realized what he was going to do, he made a dive for the back door, opened it and tumbled out!

* * *

Frank slammed on his brakes as the van stopped, and then before the other vehicle had even finished rocking, the back door swung open…  

“JOE!” he yelled as he saw his brother’s body tumble out the door and hit the pavement, hard!  He was out of the car and running towards him as another man burst out of the back door.  

“NO!” Frank yelled as he launched himself at the chain-smoker as the man pulled a gun and brought it up to fire at his dazed brother.  

The dark haired boy knocked the man back against the van and the shot went wild. And then he paused as he stared into the face of the man who had assaulted him six years ago.  

But instead of fear paralyzing him, anger propelled him and he drove his fist into the chain smoker’s stomach and followed up with a right-left combination.  

Somewhere behind him, the enraged teen could hear shouting, and was aware that the police was manhandling the driver, but he was too intent on this one who had destroyed him that day.  

But then Frank heard a soft gasp and he turned and froze.  

The second man in the back of the van with Joe, had also come out the back door while Frank was busy with the smoker, and he was holding the younger boy by his hair, so that Joe was forced to kneel in front of him, facing Frank.  

He had a gun firmly pressed to the back of Joe’s skull.  

“Your choice”, the man said, “You can have your revenge… or your brother.”  

Joe closed his eyes and let out a shuddering sigh; his face paled and his body trembled. He knew what his brother would chose, and he wanted to let Frank know that he understood and he didn’t hate him for it.  

The younger boy still didn’t know for sure what the men had done to Frank but he now had his suspicions, and he was heartsick that he hadn’t been there for Frank. It wasn’t his choice but it was still what happened.  

He had slept… oblivious to Frank’s anguish.  

What kind of brother am I? He asked himself.  

“It’s o-okay”, Joe gasped trying to keep his voice from breaking even as a tear betrayed his bravado, “I… I sucked as a brother any….anyway…”  

And then giving Frank an understanding smile, Joe closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.  

He wondered if death would be anything like the coma…