Only Joe seemed to grasp her need to be in the safety of her own home. She had begged him to take her home yesterday, becoming so distraught at one point she threatened to sign herself out and take a taxi home. Joe had finally gotten her to calm down and agree to stay by promising her he would take her home the following day, no matter what. Convincing Andrea and Dr. Jackson had not been easy, but Joe was relentless and finally wore them down, much to Vanessa's relief.

Now, however, the thought of going home brought on a new wave of anxiety. Her constantly changing emotions had left her feeling as if she were on a roller coaster. She wanted Joe in the same room with her, always within sight, but not too close. When she had first awakened she wanted him to hold her close and never let go. As the day wore on she found she did not want to be touched - by Joe or anyone else. Every time she awoke and felt someone holding her hand she flashed back to the brutal assault and felt as if it were happening all over again.

As much as she wanted to go home, she was also afraid. She and Joe had always been overly affectionate with each other, particularly when they were home alone. She didn't want to hurt him by asking him to keep his distance and not touch her unless she requested it. But she could not continue to relive the rape every time someone got too close to her or she would surely go crazy.

A soft knock on the door caused her to jump.

"You okay, Babe?" Joe asked with concern.

"Yes, fine." She replied trying to keep her voice from shaking. "I'll be right out."

After brushing her hair back into a ponytail and splashing cold water on her face, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. The person looking back at her was a complete stranger. There was nothing but fear and terror in her eyes. Reaching up to brush a lock of hair off her face she stopped and stared at her shaking hand. It suddenly occurred to her that whenever she was awake she could not stop tremblng. She looked around the tiny room frantically, feeling the walls closing in.

'I have to get out of here!' she thought in a panic.

Pulling the door open, she fled the bathroom and ran straight into Joe. Wrapping her arms around him as tightly as possible, she couldn't help but cry.

"I'm so scared, Joe! What if he comes back? What if he…tries to…" she choked out, unable to finish.

Holding her as tightly as possible, Joe reassured her as best he could while trying desperately to control his raging temper.

"It's ok, Baby. I'm right here. I won't let anyone hurt you ever again." He said gently, stroking her hair.

She began to calm down somewhat, finding comfort in his arms holding her so close to him. That comfort, however, didn't last long. Vanessa started to panic, now feeling only someone crushing her, refusing to let her go. In desperation, she tried to push Joe away.

"Let go." She said tearfully. "Please let me go!"

Almost instantly he released her and backed away. Unable to believe how quickly her emotions had changed, she turned her back not wanting Joe to see how utterly distressed she was.

'I don't even feel safe with him anymore. God, I can't live like this. I'll lose my mind!'

Joe, too, was confused by Vanessa's constantly shifting emotions. While she had slept the previous day, he had spoken at length with someone from the Rape Crisis Counseling Center. The counselor had told him to expect these sudden, erratic mood changes. He thought he had prepared himself but now realized he was completely lost. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Vanessa any further, but now he was wondering how they were going to cope once they were home alone.

Frank Hardy unlocked the back door of his house and walked into the kitchen. He smiled at Callie who was holding a cup of coffee and talking on the phone.

"Ok. Yes, I’ll tell him. See you later. Bye."

As soon as she hung up, Frank greeted her with a kiss. "Morning."

"Good morning yourself. How was your run?"

"Great! I’m going to grab a shower and head over to Phil’s, see if he has anything on that card. Sam and I aren’t meeting with the warden at the prison until this afternoon. We could have breakfast before I go. Unless you’ve already eaten."

"No. I haven’t eaten yet." She replied. Frank stopped and looked at her, noting the uneasiness in her voice.

"Who were you talking to?" he asked, assuming the phone call had something to do with it. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat at the table opening up the newspaper.

"Your Mom. Vanessa is being released today."

"What? Isn’t that kind of soon? She had a pretty bad concussion." He said, surprised.

"Well, yes, it is. Apparently it was her idea. The doctor would prefer she stay at least one more night, but Joe said she’s terrified being there. Anyone at all can walk in and out of her room. She just wants to go home. From what I understand, Joe told them he was taking her home today whether they liked it or not so they might as well agree to it."

Frank stared into his coffee mug. Regardless of what had happened the previous morning, he knew his father would expect him to be there for Joe today. While he was running, he had convinced himself yesterday was just a fluke; he was just having a bad day as an older brother. He would have no problem guiding his younger brother through this crisis as he had done so many times before. However he hadn’t expected Vanessa to be released so soon. He thought he would have one more day to work through his feelings. He felt the panic start again, realizing he was unprepared to watch his brother go through anymore emotional torment.

Callie sat across from him taking his hand. "What can I do, Frank?"

"Can you turn back time?" he asked sadly, running a hand through his hair.

Callie squeezed his hand and sat back. After so many years, she knew all his little quirks and what they meant. A hand through the hair was a sure sign he was frustrated and needed someone to listen while he worked through his thoughts and emotions.

"I had myself convinced that yesterday was just a fluke; that I could get Joe through this just like I’ve always done before. But this is so over my head, Cal. And it breaks my heart to see him like this. I can’t tell him to give it time and everything will be fine." Frank thought of his conversation with Sam. "Even if - when - we catch this guy, it won’t change what he did to Vanessa. That’s something they have to live with for the rest of their lives. I don’t know what to do. Part of me wants to be right there next to him for as long as it takes; the other part just wants to run away."

Frank looked down at the table for a few moments. When he looked up again, there was confusion written all over his face. "I can’t stand seeing him like that. After Iola died it took almost four years before he really recovered and was the brother I remembered from before the explosion. What if he can’t recover from this? If Vanessa isn’t able to find some way to come to terms with this, Joe will never get over it. Never."

"Joe has always been able to bounce back from every problem he’s ever faced, no matter how bad. He’ll bounce back from this too, you’ll see. Just do the best you can, honey. That’s all anyone can ask of you. And that’s all you should ask of yourself." Callie told him.

Frank leaned over and kissed her. It still amazed him sometimes that she always knew exactly what to say to calm his fears

Looking at the clock on the wall he said, "I’ll grab a quick shower and then we can get some breakfast before I meet Phil. We can go see Joe and Vanessa afterwards."

"Are you going to tell Joe about everything?"

"The card, yes. The prison, no. I talked to Dad about it last night. If we tell Joe that Sam and I are going to talk to the warden we’ll have to give him some kind of reason. With the way things just keep going from bad to worse I don’t want to say or do anything that might cause him to start remembering. Besides, I think he’s so worried about Vanessa he won’t be leaving her side for several days so I don’t have to come up with any explanations as to where I’m going and why he can’t come."

Climbing the stairs to their apartment, Joe felt some mild relief. The ride home from the hospital was made in silence and seemed to take forever. Vanessa had clung tightly to his hand the second they stepped out of the car. Approaching the door Joe reached to unlock it and froze. He didn’t remember much from the night his father told him Vanessa had been raped. He’d gone into a blind rage and didn’t recall exactly what he had said or done but he did know he had left a path of destruction through the living room.

"Joe, please, open the door." Vanessa’s voice was pleading.

Hoping he’d be struck with an inspired half-truth to explain the mess that would greet them, he slowly opened the door. Vanessa rushed in and quickly walked down the hall to the bedroom. Joe stood in the doorway, stunned. The apartment was spotless. No broken glass or shattered remnants of coffee mugs; no newspapers or magazines littering the room.

Closing the door, he slowly walked through the living room into the kitchen. As he passed by the coffee table he saw the glass top had been replaced and all evidence of his violent outburst had disappeared. Whoever the Good Samaritan was had even done the dishes.

"Joe."

"Yeah, Babe?" he turned and smiled at Vanessa, wincing inwardly when she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

"I want to take a shower." She said, softly. "Would you come sit in the bedroom?"

His heart tightened but he kept the smile on his face. "Sure."

"Thank you." She turned and walked down the hall. Joe followed shaking his head, wondering if their lives would ever be close to normal again.

Frank arrived at Phil’s shortly after having breakfast with Callie. He sat next to Phil as Phil pulled up the program he wanted on the computer.

"It took a while but I wrote a program to search the Mensa chapters and membership files for anything with the letter ‘clay’. I know it’s going to give us a lot of useless information, but since we don’t know exactly what it is we’re looking for, I thought this would be the best first step." Phil explained.

"So we can look over all the information and focus in on something."

"Right. A city or state; a specific chapter of Mensa or even a persons name. We can continue to narrow the searches as we go. Maybe something will pop out at you."

Almost two hours later Frank realized Phil had not been exaggerating about the amount of useless information they had to look at. They had reviewed pages and pages of information, slowly narrowing their search, first in one direction, then another.

Frank had decided to focus on two areas - locations and member names. While Frank methodically read the lists of names looking for anything remotely familiar, Phil worked on locations looking for cities or towns that had chapters somewhat close to Bayport. Frank was beginning to get discouraged, thinking they were looking for a needle in a haystack, when Phil let out a shout.

"Bingo! Frank, look at this!" Phil said excitedly, thrusting a print out under Franks nose.

"Clayton Beach?" Frank read the name Phil was pointing to, looking puzzled.

"That’s it! That has to be it!" Turning back to the computer, Phil quickly pulled up a map of Bayport and it’s surrounding areas for a 150 mile radius.

"Look." He continued, pointing out Bayport on the map. Slowly he moved south on the map, zooming in on specific towns during his computerized journey. "There’s Kirkland. A little further south is Southport. Keep going south and you hit Angel Beach. And south of Angel Beach…" he used the mouse to zoom in one final time, "Clayton Beach!" he said triumphantly.

Studying the computer screen, Frank’s face lit up.

"Uh-oh, I recognize that look." Phil grinned. "So are you going to share your hypothesis or are you going to torture me like you do Joe?"

"For your information, I only do that when Joe doesn’t feel like thinking things through."

"Uh-huh. Or when you just feel like torturing him." Phil laughed as Frank reddened slightly. "So what was it that made you light up like a Christmas tree?"

"Clayton Beach is south of Angel Beach." Frank pointed at the screen. "Exactly how far south?" he asked, already knowing what Phil’s answer would be.

Phil clicked the mouse a few times. "Twenty five miles." He replied.

"Phil, you’re a genius." Looking at his watch he got to his feet and gathered up the papers he needed. "I have to go. I’m meeting Callie at Joe and Vanessa’s."

"Did Vanessa change her mind?" Phil asked hopefully. "About visitors, I mean."

"No. I’m not sure she’ll see us, but Joe is going through hell. We’re going as much to see him as Vanessa."

"Have you talked to Joe since you were here yesterday?"

"No." Frank smiled nervously. "Wish me luck."

When Vanessa wasn’t sleeping, she had spent most of the morning wandering between the bedroom and the living room, where Joe sat watching television. Morning slowly dragged into early afternoon with Joe confused as to what to say or do around Vanessa. The conflicting emotions of wanting to be left alone but needing to know Joe was close by caused Vanessa's already high anxiety level to increase even more. The tension in the air was so thick, Joe was almost afraid to breathe. Vanessa had finally settled on the chair in the living room, attempting to focus on whatever it was Joe was watching, when the sound of the intercom buzzer literally made her jump.

Pretending not to notice, Joe got up and pressed the button on the intercom to see who it was.

"Hi," it was Callie’s voice. "It’s just us."

Joe turned to look at Vanessa. He knew she wanted to be left alone but he desperately wanted to see Frank. He needed to apologize and make sure everything was ok between them.

"I really don’t want to see anyone." Vanessa said. "Can you tell them I’m sleeping? I’ll just stay in the bedroom until they leave."

Joe nodded as he pressed the button allowing Frank and Callie to enter the building. He knew they were coming to see the both of them. It broke his heart that his once fun loving, bubbly fiancée was so depressed she couldn’t even look him in the eye and didn’t want to see her best friend. His thoughts once again turned to the man who had caused it all. ‘I will find you. One way or another you will pay for this.’

"Sure, Babe. A nap is probably a good idea anyway. I promised Dr. Jackson and your Mom that I’d take good care of you and make sure you got plenty of rest." He said trying to make her feel better. She felt guilty enough as it was, however unjustified. She didn’t need to add more on top of it by feeling guilty for simply wanting to be left alone.

At the sound of a knock on the door, she turned and quickly headed back down the hall. Opening the door, Joe greeted Frank and Callie.

"Hey," he gave them a tired smile. "Thanks for stopping by."

"How are you doing?" Callie hugged him tightly. Stepping back to look into his eyes, she saw incredible sadness. Nothing like this had ever touched him so personally before and he was having a great deal of trouble adjusting to it.

Joe shrugged. "I’ve had better days." He gestured to the bags Callie held. "Smells good."

"Chinese. Thought you might be hungry." She said as she headed towards the kitchen leaving the brothers alone.

For the first time in his life, Frank wasn’t sure what to say to his younger brother. He could tell Joe was ready to explode from having to hold everything inside. He knew what he should say, but he was afraid Joe would take it as an invitation to begin a detailed account of Vanessa’s statement to the police. He knew Joe needed to talk about it and let out some of the anger that had built up, but Frank loved Vanessa like a sister and he did not want to hear every detail of the assault. Looking at his brother and seeing the torment in his eyes, he was immediately ashamed of himself.

‘No matter how uncomfortable it is for me to see Joe like this, it can’t even come close to what he’s going through.’

"Frank," Joe began. "I’m really sorry about yesterday. I know what you meant. I guess after keeping everything inside all night I needed someone to be angry at. You were an easy target."

"Don’t worry about it, Joe." Frank reassured him. "I know you didn’t mean it. It’s already forgotten."

"Are you sure? You never let me off that easy."

"Don’t push your luck." Frank joked and was relieved to get a little smile from Joe. "How’s Vanessa doing?"

Joe glanced down the hall and quickly looked away brushing at his eyes. "Not too good. You know I thought it would be better once we got home but now I’m not so sure. I don’t know what to say to her. I don’t know how to act around her. I’m scared to get too close to her, let alone touch her but she won't let me out of her sight for more than a minute or two." He stopped a moment, staring at his hands. Looking back at Frank, he was obviously distressed. "Is she going to be like this forever?"

Frank felt a small knot in the pit of his stomach. He barely recognized this person. He didn't know who it was. All he did know is that he wanted his little brother back. The mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes; the smile that was constanly hovering just below the surface; the constant stream of wise cracks, one liners and bad jokes. 'What I wouldn't give for one sarcastic comment about my inability to let go and have fun.'

"I don't know, little brother. I wish I could tell you to give it a little time and everything would be back to normal."

At the look of anguish on Joe's face, Frank cursed himself. 'You idiot! That is not what he needs to hear! You're only making things worse!' Quickly he back pedaled trying to diminsh the sting of what he had just said, however true it might be.

"But, you know Vanessa is tough. And strong. I'm sure things will start to get better soon. Just continue to be there for her like you are now." Frank said quickly, feeling like a hypocrite. 'Brilliant, Hardy. Tell him to watch her go through hell for as long as it takes but you can't do the same for him for even five minutes!'

Frank wanted to reach out to his brother, but he didn't think he could stand seeing him in any more emotional pain than he was right now. He knew if he encouraged Joe to open up and talk to him it would start a downward spiral he didn’t think he was prepared for yet. He breathed a huge sigh of relief when Callie came into the room.

"Lunch is served." She said, much to Franks relief. One thing he did know for sure about his brother, no matter how much Joe needed to talk about everything, he would never do so - at least not in much detail - in front of Callie. Feeling like he got a reprieve, he gently squeezed Joe's shoulder as they walked to the table and sat down to eat.

No one said anything for a few minutes, then Joe remembered he had his own personal mystery to solve.

"So," he said looking at Callie, "should I thank you for cleaning up the wreckage I left behind?"

"No, not me." She said slightly confused as to what he meant. Frank had simply told her Joe hadn't taken the news well and left it at that without giving any details. "Frank?"

"Oh, yeah. It was Biff and Tony." Frank replied looking at Joe. "I called Biff and asked him if he could come over and sort of straighten up. Tony's uncle - you know, the builder? He had a glass top in stock that fit the table perfectly." At Callie's raised eyebrows, Frank knew he was going to be hit with a million questions when they got home.

"Thanks. I'll have to call them." Joe said, then laughed softly. "Man, they must have really been feeling sorry for me. They even washed the dishes!"

For just a second, Frank saw the familiar twinkle in his eyes before it quickly disappeared. He recalled what Joe had said about Vanessa just a few moments earlier and thought sadly 'Will you be like this forever too, little brother?'

"Have you made any progress on the case?" Joe asked, the look in his eyes quickly changing to hatred. Frank got a chill and found he was thankful that Vanessa insisted Joe not leave her side. At least he wouldn’t be out on the street looking for this guy. He knew that scenario would only end in tragedy.

"Yes, and you are not going to believe this! I went to see Phil yesterday…"

"Phil?" Joe said, feeling a little jealous.

"Yes. I wanted to show him that card you found. I thought maybe he could track it down on one of his high tech computers."

"We tried for two days and we couldn’t find anything." Joe said, defensively.

"Believe it or not, he didn’t even need the computer. I showed it to him and he knew what it was right away! A membership card for Mensa!"

"What’s Mensa?" Joe frowned. He suddenly felt like an outsider in his own investigation.

"It’s sort of a social club for people with extremely high I.Q. levels."

"Snobs." Joe snorted.

"That’s exactly what Phil said." Frank laughed. Joe did not join in.

"Ok, so it’s a membership card for Mensa. How does that fit in?"

"Remember the FBI profiler said the rapist is extremely intelligent and probably has a very high I.Q.?"

Joe simply nodded.

"Well this morning when I went back to Phil’s -"

"You asked Phil for help again this morning?"

"Yes. Why?" Frank asked puzzled, not realizing Joe was starting to feel completely left out of the investigation. "He’s helped us out on cases before."

"Yeah, I know." Joe mumbled. ‘He’s helped us out before, but this is the first time I’ve been replaced by him.’ He thought sourly.

"Well, it took him a few hours, but thanks to this program he wrote, we were able to narrow down the possibilities of where the card came from. Remember the word "Clay" was on the back of the card?"

Joe nodded silently again.

"We think it came from someone who is a member of the Clayton Beach chapter of Mensa! And you'll never guess where Clayton Beach is."

"I'm sure you'll tell me." Joe replied, no longer trying to hide how hurt he was.

Frank stopped momentarily, confused at the tone of Joe's voice. "It's twenty five miles south of Angel Beach. Phil and I are going to Clayton Beach tomorrow to see if we can get a look at the membership list for the Mensa chapter there and maybe talk to some of the members. Maybe we can get a lead on who it might be."

"That'll be great. Sounds like you two practically have this case solved." Joe stood up and walked to the sliding glass door, looking out at the kids playing on the basketball court. "I guess it all goes a lot faster when you have a partner who thinks the same way you do."

It had been a very, very long time since Joe had been made to feel he wasn't smart enough to keep up with Frank, but right now that feeling was all consuming. 'Maybe if Phil really was Frank's partner instead of me, they would have found all this out last week. This guy would have been caught before he got anywhere near Bayport. Vanessa wouldn't be going through hell right now.' He knew feeling sorry for himself wasn't going to help the situation, but at the moment he was completely overwhelmed by that emotion.

"I'm sorry, Joe." Frank said, suddenly catching on. "I thought you'd want me to keep working on the investigation. Phil could never replace you; you know that." He got up from the table and walked over to stand behind his brother.

"Maybe he should." Joe whispered, staring at the basketball courts. As he watched, a man came onto the court grabbing a young girl by the arm. He was obviously trying to lead her off the court but, wanting to stay and play with her friends, she dug in her heels and tried to pull away from him.

"Joe, you are my partner. We're a team. Always have been, always will be." Frank waited for some kind of response from his brother, getting nothing but silence.

"Joe?" he asked, moving to stand beside his brother so he could look at him. "Oh, no."

"What's the matter?" Callie asked, getting up from the table to join Frank. She inhaled sharply when she got close enough to see Joe's face. "Is he…"

"Having a flashback." Frank said.

Joe's eyes were huge and filled with panic as he looked at the man and the young girl. Suddenly he turned to Frank. "You're not going to make me watch again, are you? Please don't make me watch!" he pleaded as tears filled his eyes. "I'll behave from now on, I promise."

Frank reached out to take Joe's arm, hoping to lead him away from the sight.

"No!" Joe yelled backing away, in terror. "Please, please don’t make me watch anymore." He sat on the floor in a corner, trembling. "I'll be good. I really will."

Frank took a step forward and reached for Joe again, desperate to get him away from the glass door. Pulling his knees into himself, Joe suddenly began sobbing. Looking at Frank he cowered.

"Ok, I'll watch them. I promise. Just please don't hit me again."

Frank quickly turned towards Callie, almost in tears himself. "I think I'm going to be sick."