Fenton closed his eyes in frustration.  He knew his mad dash was risky but he had just been praying for some leeway. 

Turning to Laura, Fenton didn’t know what to say.  They were going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

Stokes came up behind Hanes and grunted, “Kill them.”  Although killing Fenton Hardy was something he wanted to do personally, now he was too pissed off to care.  They had almost escaped…and with his money.

Hanes smiled, “With pleasure.” He lined up his sights on the couple who had now moved together, with Fenton protectively holding his wife.  If they were going to die, they were going to die together. 

We’re coming boys, the great detective said to himself as he squeezed his wife tighter and closed his eyes, we’re coming.

And then he heard the shots.  Two of them.

* * *

“Fenton!  Oh my God, are you all right!”

Confused, the man opened his eyes and stared down into the equally confused blue ones of his wife.  They weren’t dead?

Then it dawned on him…they weren’t dead!

Standing in the doorway of the cabin cruiser with a smoking gun was none other than Police Chief Ezra Collig.  Behind him a nervous rookie was calling out to somebody unseen, “It’s okay!”

James Stokes and Chris Hanes were dead. 

* * *

Collig had gotten to the boat just as Hanes was preparing to fire.  Having no choice, he shot him, and then Stokes when the other man turned on him, drawing his own gun as he did.

They had been preparing to gun down Fenton and Laura in cold blood, and he had no choice.  And luckily enough for them, no hesitation when he fired.

Now that the excitement was over the police chief felt himself starting to tremble a bit. It had been a long time since he shot anyone, and he was just glad that his aim had been true.

Guess all that time spent at the practice range was more then therapeutic, he mused as he moved towards his friend and his wife. “Are you okay?”

Laura, in shock, just shook her head as Fenton said, “There’s another one in the cabin about a quarter mile inland.”

Collig nodded his head, “Got him already.  You still didn’t answer my question.  Are you guys okay?”

Laura looked at her husband and Fenton shook his head. The detective’s voice shook when he finally spoke. “N-no.  The boys.  Th-they’re…Ezra, they’re dead.”

The older man looked kindly at his friend but before he could say anything a small boy with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders pushed his way past Officer Riley and the two coast guard sailors standing next to him.

“DADDY!  MOMMY!”

It was the most wonderful sound that either of his parents had ever heard.

* * *

Frank didn’t care if he sounded like a baby anymore.  He just wanted to see his parents.

Pushing his usual reserve away, the young boy threw himself into the waiting arms of his mother as she grabbed him, hugging him and squeezing him unable to believe what her eyes were seeing.  “Frankie…oh baby…” she kept repeating over and over again.

Shocked, Fenton could only stare, and then he broke through his reverie and grabbed both his wife and son as he finally let out the emotions he had been holding in.  Great sobs racked his body.

His son was alive. Frank was alive.

Somehow…someway…his oldest son was alive.

“I wanted to take this little ruffian to the hospital but he insisted on coming out here to rescue you,” Collig informed them as his own eyes teared, watching the reunion. He knew he should have probably given them some privacy, but he couldn’t.  It warmed him to see them like this.

Fenton raised his head from where it was resting on top of his young son’s head, and he smiled through blurry eyes.

“Thank you,” he said.  His dark eyes quickly glanced around for another child.  A blond head.  An excited screech.  Another “DADDY…MOMMY! 

But he knew he was asking too much.

Frank was alive. That was a miracle.  The wish that Joe was also alive was hoping too much.  The boy wasn’t a strong swimmer…he had no life jacket on…the water was too cold…

And then he saw a movement.  Straightening up, he wasn’t sure of what he was seeing. 

Laura felt her husband stiffen and looked to see what he was looking at, while Frank just grinned broadly at his father.

Coming towards them, with one hand looped through the collar of the mammoth dog walking beside him, was a small blond haired boy. Behind him, Officer Con Riley was following closely in case he wavered.  But he didn’t.

It was Joe.

* * *

Fenton rushed the last few feet and swept the little boy up in his arms as he laughed and cried at the same time.  It couldn’t be…he was dead….

But it was.  Joe was alive and he was here.

“Sorry Fenton,” Collig said as he watched the child with a concerned look on his face, “but he’s a stubborn lad.”  In truth Ezra didn’t have the heart to say no when the sick child begged to be there.  He wanted his Mommy and Daddy.

Fenton hardly heard him as he and Laura engulfed the child and then his brother, as Hero pranced around them, caught up in the excitement.

The coast guard sailors couldn’t help but grin.  It warmed all hearts to see the display.  At first they hadn’t been too pleased about the idea of having the two children and dog with them for the rescue, especially as one of the kids was pretty sick, but now they wouldn’t have changed anything for the world.

* * *

It was only after they got over the relief of seeing their sons alive that they realized just how sick Joe was, and Fenton realized what Ezra had been apologizing about.  But he couldn’t fault him, too great was his relief at seeing the children that he had thought were lost.

“Well come on, let’s say we get home,” Fenton said as put one arm around Laura who was carrying Joe, and the other around Frank, who was walking on his other side.  With Hero at their heels, the Hardys followed Ezra Collig to the coast guard cutter that would take them home.  Much faster than the cabin cruiser, it would only take them little more then an hour to get back to Bayport.

Once they were docked, a police car rushed them to the hospital where everyone could get checked out. Other than exhaustion, Fenton and Laura were fine.

Frank was given some decongestant and a prescription for lots of chicken noodle soup and bed rest.  Just as he suspected, he’d gotten a cold!!

And Joe…in true Joe Hardy fashion…had to go the one step further.  He was diagnosed with pneumonia and would have to stay in the hospital as his body fought the infection.

* * *

It was early the next morning before Fenton and Frank finally got home. 

Laura was going to stay at the hospital with Joe, but insisted they go home and get some rest.  Fenton didn’t protest although he wanted to stay himself. But Frank was ready to pass out and they needed to go and check on the dog anyway.

Ezra had Officer Riley drop Hero off when they got back to Bayport and by now he probably needed to relieve himself.

Frank went right upstairs while Fenton let the dog out.  When Hero came back in, the exhausted father followed in his son’s footsteps.  His bed was calling him.

Pausing, he opened the door to the room that the boys shared and was surprised to see Frank sitting on Joe’s bed. 

Joe actually had his own room, separated from Frank’s by the bathroom, but after the little boy’s abduction from the carnival last year, Joe hated to be alone and Frank had asked to have his brother’s bed moved into his own room for a while. 

Their parents had been surprised…and warmed by Frank’s consideration for his brother. So they did, and although Joe kept his clothes and stuff in his own room, he always slept in Frank’s room.  At least until Joe told him he was no longer afraid.

And that hadn’t happened yet.

“Are you okay son?”  Fenton asked as he saw the miserable look on Frank’s face.

Frank sighed and fiddled with the blanket a bit more but didn’t say anything.

“Frankie…what’s wrong?”  Fenton was starting to get worried that the doctor had missed something and then the boy spoke.

“I miss Joe.”

The three words cut right into his heart as it refreshed Fenton’s earlier pain when he thought he had lost both his sons.

“Oh Frankie,” Fenton said as he sat down on the bed and pulled his son into a tight hug, “I miss him too…but you know in all this I don’t think I got a chance to thank you.”

“Thank me?”  Frank said his eyes large as he looked at his father.  His hero.  What could he have ever done for his father to thank him?

“Yes…thank you,” Fenton repeated chuckling at the disbelief he saw on his son’s face.  “You did what no one else could do.  You saved your little brother’s life.”

Frank thought about that.  He hadn’t even considered that.  But the more he thought about it, the more he realized his father was right. He had done what his dad couldn’t – he had saved Joe.

Fenton continued, “You’re my hero.  You didn’t even hesitate. You just saw your brother needed you and then jumped right in.”

“Aw Dad,” Frank said, feeling embarrassed yet pleased at his father’s compliment, “I didn’t have a choice.  Joey’s my little brother. And that’s what we big brothers do.”  And then Frank couldn’t help but add, “Even if he is an embarrassment sometimes.”  He was thinking of the barking, and Fenton must have been thinking the same thing because he started to laugh.

“Well son, that’s why it’s called ‘unconditional’ love.  But either way, you, Francis Fenton Hardy, are a true hero.”

At the sound of his name, the black shaggy mass barked and Frank scolded him, “Not you silly!  Me!”

Thinking back to how tired he had been on the cliff, Frank grumbled, “Being a hero is tiring work.”

Fenton smiled at the wisdom in his young son’s comment. “Yes, Frank, being a hero is very tiring work.”

Leaning back against the wall, Fenton continued to hold his son as Frank snuggled against his chest and fell asleep.  Hero watched them through doleful brown eyes that seemed to ask him why they were lying on his boy’s bed…and where his boy was.

Fenton smiled at the dog fondly.  Was it really only a year ago since Joe had saved that bedraggled little puppy?  The tiny creature that Fenton himself had to breathe life into?

“You know Hero, we are very lucky you and I,” His gaze lingered affectionately on his son’s sleeping face, “to be surrounded by little heroes.”

The dog whined and came to place his head on the bed.  Fenton reached over and scratched the top before tilting his head back, closing his eyes and finally giving himself into sleep.

The dog watched the sleeping man and boy for a long time.  The words didn’t mean much to him but the sentiment did.

Finally with a heavy sigh, he lay down on the floor between the two beds and waited for his boy to come home.