Sighing he parked as far away from the other cars as he could and then turned the engine off. The sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs had a calming effect on his frazzled nerves and he lay his head back against the seat, closed his eyes and let his emotions out as salty tears on his dry cheeks.

How long he sat like that was hard to say but sometime during his respite, he fell asleep and awoke to a gorgeous sunrise of crimson red. A little lyric ran through his mind and he wondered if it was only talking about the weather…

…red sunset at night is a sailor’s delight.

How fitting should it be a red sunrise, he thought as he stretched and sat up straight in the driver’s seat. A few boats were already out on the bay and Frank envied them their bliss. He thought about the small craft that he and his brother shared, THE SLUETH, and almost gave in to a desire to just take her out for a spin. But that was something Joe would do and he was not Joe.

Shaking off that image, he turned the key in the ignition. It was time to go home.

* * *

The house was quiet when Frank pulled up and after he parked the car he sat for a long time staring at it. He marveled at how deceptively placid it looked, charming even. With a shake of his head, he opened the car door, got out and headed up to the back door.

At one time he loved his house…loved coming home. Oh how quickly that was changing.

* * *

Joe hurt. Although he couldn’t see his back, he knew it was bad. William had gotten a bit carried away after Frank left and Joe bore the brunt from his enthusiasm. His throat was raw from the piteous sounds that the older boy had wrung from him and the only reprieve he got was that William let him stay on the bed instead of putting him back in the closet.

His back got a chance to breath but even that was very little relief.

Looking at the time, Joe groaned softy and moved. He needed to get the bindings off to go to Biff’s house. William heard him and opened an eye, "What are you doing?" he asked.

Joe stopped and sighed, "I gotta let Sherlock out."

"Damn dog", William muttered but then got up and untied Joe.

"Thanks", Joe mumbled as he slowly eased himself up. His back was really hurting.

The other boy watched him for a few moments with a growing amused look on his face, "I guess I got a little overzealous last night", and then he smirked, "but you are such a pleasure to beat."

A pleasure to beat…oh wonderful, Joe thought sarcastically as he decided it would be better to wear an undershirt as anything warm would undoubtedly rub as his black sweater had the night before.

Gingerly reaching into the top drawer, he found a white cotton undershirt and carefully slid it on over his head wincing as the material touched his back. But it wasn’t too bad and Joe knew he could tolerate it.

William had returned to his bed and he continued watching with a small smile on his face. He thought about ‘helping’ his brother out but then decided he would save that for later.

Besides, as he heard the front door open, he knew Frank was home now and he didn’t need Joe going downstairs all white-faced and wincing. Not when he had to get Frank to drive him to Iola’s later.

Grabbing a cream colored sweater that his Aunt Gertrude gave him last Christmas, Joe put it on. It was still too big for him but at least it didn’t cling, and right now clinging was bad.

Without looking at William, Joe unlocked the bedroom door and hurried downstairs. Poor Sherlock must have his little doggy legs crossed by now!

Frank was just coming in the kitchen and was just about to demand where he was going when Joe flashed him the Hooper’s keys and supplied, "Sherlock" then he hurried out through the kitchen door, around to the front of the house, across the front lawn and down the block towards Biff’s house.

Shaking his head at Joe’s obvious hurry, Frank wondered why he didn’t just take his bike. Just because it was a cross county model didn’t mean he couldn’t drive it on pavement!

Oh well that only left William to deal with, the older boy thought knowing that Joe would probably spend most of the day with the dog. He usually did.

* * *

When sweat trickled over the burns, a new kind of pain forced Joe to slow his pace to a walk. He was so glad that he had to watch Sherlock this weekend because it gave him a good excuse to be out. But he wished he could do it without it meaning that Biff was out of town. Joe missed having his friend around.

Unlocking the front door, Joe could already hear the excited dog in his kennel and he couldn’t help but grin. At least someone was happy to see him!

And Sherlock truly was. As soon as he heard Joe, his heavy black tail had started and as soon as Joe opened the kennel door, the dog almost bowled him over as he jumped up at him and managed to lick him even as Joe was pushing him away, "Whoa big fella…down!"

Then hooking the bloodhound’s collar, Joe took him outside, locked the door again and then headed towards the park. He figured they’d hang out there for an hour or so before coming back for breakfast.

* * *

16-year old Phil Cohen waited patiently for his best friend to open the front door. Under his arm was an odd assortment of books.

Frank opened the door a bit surprised to see Phil, he forgot they were going to be working on their major history term assignment. It was an odd assignment and they thought if they could pool their resources it would make it easier then working on it alone.

Mr. Gunds, their teacher, had asked them to pick one interesting thing about Bayport and write a term paper on its history. Neither boy had decided on what to write about yet so Phil had gone to the library and picked out an assortment of books on everything from historic houses, to local fauna and flora. They hoped to be able to pick out something interesting to write on.

"Hey Phil, "Frank greeted opening the door all the way to allow his friend in without dropping anything, "Come on in. I figure we can work in the kitchen. The table will give us more room then my desk." He reached out and grabbed a couple of books to alleviate the load and Phil shot him a grateful look.

"Thanks. Gee, I hope no one else is working on their paper yet because I think I got every book that’s ever been written on Bayport!" the sandy haired boy said winking as he did.

Knowing who he was talking about Frank laughed and pushed open the swinging door so they could go into the kitchen, "I wouldn’t worry about that. Chet said he’ll be over later." Chet Morton was also in their history class and had the same assignment.

"Now why ain’t I surprised?" Phil said spreading out the books on the table and nodding ‘yes’ to Frank’s silent question as he held up the coffee pot. Coffee would definitely be required.

* * *

William was just getting ready to go into the kitchen when he heard Frank talking to some one. He couldn’t tell for sure who it was by the voice but that didn’t matter to him anyway as he was only concerned about one thing: Chet was coming to their house this afternoon! This couldn’t have worked out any better if he’d planned it. Now all he had to do was make sure Chet stayed for dinner and get a ride to the farm with him.

This would keep Frank out of it all together and reduce the risk that the older boy was going to decide to hang out at the farm after dropping him off. Now all he had to do was wait and switch places with Joe when he got back from the Hooper’s…

Pushing open the door he heard Phil ask, "So where’s the twins?"

"Hey Phil", William said and both boys turned around to look at him. Phil smiled as Frank just shook his head and then turned back to the books on the table.

"Hi…" Phil paused uncertainly not really knowing which boy he was seeing. It was truly chilling to see how much they were alike.

"Will", Frank supplied coldly, "Joe’s gone to Biff’s. He’s taking care of Sherlock."

"That’s right", Phil said, "I almost forget the Biffster is gone for the weekend," then turning back to Will, "Hi Will. Sorry but you and Joe look so much alike."

"No prob", Will flashed a bright smile inwardly pleased with the inadvertent compliment, "Maybe we should get name tags."

"Maybe", Phil laughed shaking his head thinking that Will even had Joe’s sense of humour.

"What’cha doing?" Will asked coming to peer over Frank’s shoulder enjoying the uncomfortable way Frank shifted away from him. He knew that this was irking Frank to no end and truly savored it.

"Will don’t you have something you need to do?" Frank asked trying to keep the open hostility from his voice, "or somewhere to be?"

"Nope…not a thing", Will said jovially and then plunked himself down in the chair, "I figured I would hang out with my new big brother and his friends. You know, some of that male bonding crap that I hear is so over rated!" Again he flashed a huge smile but it didn’t meet his eyes as he openly challenged Frank to say something.

Phil was watching the two boys. Like Biff, he had been witness to the simmering hostility between the three brothers since Thursday and wondered if Will knew just how far he was pushing Frank. Very few people knew that beneath his controlled, logical exterior, beat a person every bit as volatile as his brother.

Anxious to try and defuse the mounting tension Phil cut in, "I don’t’ know Will, this is pretty dry. It’s not even interesting to us and we gotta do it."

Dark brown eyes locked on the vibrant blue ones that glared so brazenly at him and Frank fought to keep from reaching across the table….he knew what Will was doing…what Will was doing with…to Joe.

The sound of the phone ringing broke the standoff and Phil let out a big sigh of relief when Frank turned away from Will to get it.

"Maybe you’re right", Will said and pushed himself away from the table, "Frank’s not the brother I’m interested in anyway." He said it loud enough for Frank to hear and was rewarded when he saw the older boy’s knuckles tighten on the phone as he tried to keep his voice even.

It was their Dad calling to see how things were going.

Grabbing a cup of coffee and the last slice of banana bread, Will headed back upstairs, a triumphant little smile on his face. He had more then insured that Frank would not come checking up on him later…and now he was dying for a smoke.

* * *

Frank was so livid he was shaking when he finally hung up the phone. Just as he had forewarned them, Fenton was required to stay until at least Monday…possibly even later as he had not even taken the witness stand yet.

The older boy just prayed his sanity hung on ‘til then even as he told his father everything was fine. After promising to call again in the morning, Fenton said goodbye.

"You okay?" Phil asked watching his best friend carefully.

Frank turned to him and shrugged his shoulders before taking a couple deep breaths to calm down before saying flippantly, "Sure am. Not a problem in the world. Now let’s say we try and find something interesting about Bayport to write about."

Realizing his friend didn’t’ want to talk to him about it yet, Phil agreed and passed him a book called "And Bayport Smelt Bad: A history of the Iron Industry in Barmet Bay." Figuring that should definitely get his mind off whatever was going between him and his brothers.

* * *

Just as Frank suspected Joe spent most of the day away. After he took the dog to the park and they played ‘fetch’, they came back to the Hooper’s house to feed Sherlock. He was planning on taking a walk down to the beach knowing that the return trip would burn most of the day but decided against it.

His back felt like it was on fire, and he smiled wryly as he thought of how ironic that was, so he decided that maybe he would just take it easy for a couple of hours. His body was weary and that was saying nothing about his mind.

Biff had told him that he had a couple of new comics up in his room that he thought Joe might want to see. So he decided to take him up on his offer and went to his best friend’s room.

The comics were on his desk and picking them up, Joe lay down on his stomach on Biff’s bed and started looking at them. He paused only long enough to carefully remove the sweater and undershirt, hoping to relieve some of the uncomfortable feeling from his back.

Sherlock, tummy satisfied and tired from the romp in the park, lay down on the floor by the bed and was soon dozing. The sound of his small snores made Joe laugh and pushing the book to the side he lay his head down on the soft bed and closed his eyes for a moment.

That was all it took and the exhausted boy was asleep within seconds. His overwrought senses calmed by the smell of Biff’s cologne and the sound of the snoring dog. His body relaxed recognizing that in this room he was safe…protected.

But even in his sleep hot tears burned his face.