Hot tears of frustration strung Joe’s face and he quickly rubbed them away. He was angry at his own body for betraying him and as he gasped, trying to regain his breath from the exertion of being sick, he started to cough again.

Frank rubbed his back soothingly trying to help the cough abate even as he pressed gently, "Joe I know something wrong. Please tell me!"

Joe shook his head as he managed to cough out, "W-wa..ter" and Frank immediately filled up a small plastic cup and passed it to him. The coolness helped soothe the cough and within a few minutes Joe had recovered enough to stand shakily on his feet, "I need…I need to go…to my room."

Dizziness mixed with his already fatigued body, and he staggered towards his room door. Frank tried to stop him, determined to get some answers out of his brother as his worry went up a notch as he saw him on the verge of collapse, "Joe…"

Desperation added a sharpness to his voice that Joe hadn’t intended, "Frank. No. Just leave me alone!"

Stung by his brother’s tone, Frank stepped back and held up his hands, "Fine. Have it your way!" And then he turned quickly and went back to his own room. His own worry and frustration was making him angry. Closing the door he lay down on his bed and seethed, leaving Joe in the bathroom.

* * *

On the other side of the door, in Joe’s room, William listened to the exchange with growing interest. Joe was making this easier for him with each word that came out of his mouth.

Amused, the other blond boy lazily climbed into his own bed and covered up. This was getting better by the moment.

* * *

Joe put his hand on the doorknob and turned it, intending to go into his room and face his brother. But when he turned the knob, the door didn’t open. It was locked.

A sense of panic filled the younger boy as he juggled the knob a couple more times and whispered William’s name. As much as he did not relish the idea of going to his room, he was terrified even more of what William would do if he didn’t.

William was pissed at him, that much Joe was sure. His suspicions were confirmed when his twin refused to unlock the door and let him. What would he do now?

Casting a glance back at the closed door leading to Frank’s room, Joe let out an exasperated sigh. He couldn’t go back there either. Frank was looking for answers that Joe couldn’t give him.

Finally for lack of anything better, the distressed teen pulled the thick bath towel from the rung next to the tub and dropped it into the bottom of the tub. Then with a final weary sigh, he slowly eased his body into as much of a comfortable position as he could and settled down for a night in the tub.

His last thought before he fell to sleep was that he was going to have a sore neck in the morning. The irony being that that would be the least of his worries.

* * *

William heard his brother moving around in the bathroom and was curious as to whether or not Joe would go back to Frank’s room in light of what had just happened and was rewarded minutes later when he heard the sound of Joe settling down.

He waited about twenty minutes before he unlocked the door. And then not even bothering to check the bathroom, William finally settled down and went to sleep. The next couple of weeks were going to be fun, he thought, knowing that what he wasn’t going to do…would be worst then what he did.

Let the games begin, he smiled sweetly as he drifted off.

* * *

The sound of an alarm clock woke Joe and he was confused for a few moments as to why he was in the tub. But then remembering last night’s events, he sighed and slowly pulled himself upright. He needed to get up before Frank just walked in on him.

Quickly he tossed the towel on the floor, turned on the shower and undressed. He knew that this would buy him a reasonable explanation although he inwardly chastised himself knowing he should have just went back into Frank’s room after he was sure that Frank was asleep. He could have crept down to the living room from there or slept on the bedroom floor. Either would have been preferable to the tub his stiff neck protested.

Oh well, the thought, no use thinking about that now.

As he showered he discovered, to his own surprise that he was feeling much better this morning. The sleep in Frank’s room combined with what he had been able to get in the tub had helped him considerably. His nose wasn’t plugged, his chest didn’t hurt to badly considering his previous evening’s activities and even his knee seemed a bit better.

With this refreshed feeling, he turned his thoughts to what he was going to do about William.

Telling his friends and family was out of the question. The fear of what would happen hung over him like a death sentence. And not just for him.

Joe figured he could handle whatever William threw at him but the thoughts of what he might do to Frank, his parents, or even their friends kept his silence…and his distance as far as Iola Morton was concerned. The last he wanted was to put her in Williams’ sights…

He thought back to what had happened when he tried to tell both his best friend and his father before William had even come to live with them. Both hadn’t listened and been too busy trying to convince him that what had happened was an accident without really listening to what he was saying.

No he couldn’t tell anyone. They would just think he was being bitter and unreasonable.

Sighing, he toweled his body and hoped that William had the good sense to unlock the door and let him get dressed.

* * *

Frank rolled over as his hand flopped around looking for the button to turn the alarm off. Almost immediately he heard the shower go on and groaned. Joe or William had beaten him and it didn’t bode well. Unless he could get into the shower between the twins, he’d have to start his day off with a cold shower and that thought didn’t sit too well with him.

And now that his mind was waking, he realized a lot of things didn’t sit well with him at all. Hearing the water finally go off Frank resolved that since Joe obviously wasn’t going to volunteer any information to him, he was going to have to ‘stake’ his brother out…as unappealing as that was to him. But he felt he had no other choice.

Again he thought back to Peter’s warning and shivered…he definitely had no choice.

* * *

William was still lying in bed when Joe opened the door and came into the room.

Immediately the younger boy froze expecting some sort of retaliation or at the very least, a snide comment, for his not being there last night. But the older boy didn’t do anything instead he just asked, "How are you feeling today?"

Joe instantly became wary as he answered slowly, "Fine."

"Good", William said and then slowly got up and stretched. He started towards the shower when they heard the door close and knew Frank had gotten in first.

William gave Joe a wan smile, "Guess I’ll be having the cold shower today." And then without saying anything else, he began humming and searching through his drawers for some clean clothes.

Joe just stood there as he felt his heart racing. What was going on? What was William doing?

After a few moments, William looked back at his brother, "Are you alright? Do you need me to get Mom or something?"

The younger boy actually shivered as he asked, "W-what are you doing?"

Will looked down at the clothes in his hands and then back up at Joe, his eyes shining with sincerity, "Picking out my clothes?" he then grinned and Joe wondered if the same grin on his own face was so terrifying, "unless of course you think we should dress alike and milk this whole ‘twin’ thing."

In shock, Joe didn’t say anything and William just shrugged and continued his search for socks.

Finally Joe shook off the shock and started to get dressed but he kept a wary eye on Will, who to his credit, did nothing except find underwear, socks, jeans and a sweater and put it on his bed. Then he sat down and waited for Frank to get out of the shower.

"You know if we stacked the bunks, we’d have a lot more room", he mused and watched with amusement as Joe’s back involuntarily stiffened, continuing before the younger boy could say anything, "of course you could have the top, seeing that you’ve been here longer."

That was it, Joe’s nerves couldn’t take it any longer and he whirled around on his brother and hissed, "What exactly are you doing?!"

William started to deny that he was doing anything but Joe cut him off, "Don’t try and pretend you’re not…what are you trying to do? Give me a nervous break down? It won’t work!"

Closing his eyes briefly, William fought to keep the strong urge to just throttle Joe in check. He needed to be patient. He had a plan but for it to work, he needed time.

Time for Joe to heal.

So instead he allowed one small crack, "Curiosity killed the cat" before letting out a long sigh and standing up as the shower went off, "Maybe I’ve just come to realize that I’ve been an ass to you and you really aren’t to blame for my horrible life."

He heard Frank go into his own room and crossed the room and into the bathroom before Joe even had time to respond.

This was good because quite honestly Joe had nothing to say. He was speechless.

The younger boy did not believe one word of what William said but all he could do was keep his guard up.

Maybe he was planning on killing me with kindness, Joe thought sarcastically as he slipped his own sweater over his head before going downstairs.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

The rest of the day went horribly for Joe. Not that anything bad happened, in fact William was being so nice, courteous and thoughtful to him, that Joe thought he must be dreaming.

William wasn’t like this.

William insisted on carrying Joe’s books for him even though Joe insisted he could do it himself…

William held open doors and even pulled out a chair for Joe at lunchtime…

In fact William was being so sweet that Joe was sure his blood sugar would be through the roof by the end of the day.

And then they went home and things got worst.

William insisted that Joe go straight to their room and rest…hell he even turned down the sheets for him…

William shoed Frank out of their room after supper and actually did help Joe with his homework…Frank wasn’t very impressed…Joe was downright terrified….

And then came bedtime….

William opened the closet door and looked at Joe expectantly. Shaking his head in shock at his own relief to see that this at least hadn’t changed, Joe almost fainted when William grabbed his arm gently and pulled him back as Joe tried to step inside.

"What are you doing?" William asked looking puzzled, "I was going to ask you if you needed anything from the closet before I went to bed. I wouldn’t want you having to get up during the night."

"What are you doing?" Joe repeated as he looked at his brother’s vibrant blue eyes. He was exhausted and mentally fatigued at trying all day to figure out when William was up to.

"I am going to bed. Good night Joe", William turned, leaving Joe standing in front of the closet and went to his own bed, "Turn out the light before you get in bed", was all he said before he turned away from his brother and closed his eyes.

Joe was too stunned to do anything for a few moments but then he recovered, closed the closet door, turned off the light and climbed into his own bed. Within seconds, he gave in and was asleep, his mind already ready to punish his sleep with thoughts of what could happen.

* * *

William heard Joe’s breathing even out and knew he had gone to sleep. Only then did he erase the light, relaxed look from his face. It was a front.

Both he and Joe knew it. And that made it even better.

As hard as this day had been on Joe, it had been infinitely harder on William. The older boy had to deny his every pleasure and keep his place. He fought his muscles as they reflexively wanted to ‘help’ Joe down the stairs…his brother’s weak knee so much a temptation. But he had stopped himself.

He had spent the whole day stopping himself and plastering that horrible "I love my little brother" look on his face. The only thing that helped him keep his game face was the look on Frank’s face as it got darker and darker throughout the day. William was deliberately stepping in and undermining Frank’s gestures as the big brother.

And that look was all it took.

* * *

In the room next to him, ‘that look’ was still plastered on Frank’s face. He was not impressed at all.

His worst nightmares were coming true right in front of his very eyes…

William was replacing him.

As he finally settled into an uneasy sleep he thought about an old saying he had heard too many times to discount…

Letting out a long, painful sigh, Frank Hardy resigned himself to the fact that William was the brother he could never be.

Of course he had no way of knowing just how right he was.