"Sorry, Babe. I was hoping you were someone who could authorize me to get out of this place." He replied dejectedly.

"Well, I have good news then. I stopped at the nurse’s station on my way in and they expect the doctor to be here in about fifteen minutes. Think you can hang on that long?" She joked

"I suppose." Joe sighed.

"Hey, what’s wrong?" Vanessa asked, concerned. "You passed up a perfectly good opportunity for a wisecrack. That’s not like you."

"I can’t just go home and leave things like this with Frank." Joe replied, his tone a mixture of anger and pain. "I know you said he came to see me a few times but I was always asleep. I haven’t seen him since that night…" Joe stopped suddenly, still having a hard time believing it had actually happened. Shaking his head slightly to throw off the painful memories, he looked at Vanessa. "I know you told me once already but I was still pretty out of it at the time. Can you tell me again, about what went on with you and Frank? What you told him? What he said? How he reacted?"

"Are you sure you want to do this now?" Vanessa asked dubiously. Getting Joe all worked up right before he was discharged didn’t seem like a good idea to her. "We could wait until you got home, got settled in and…"

"I want to stop and see him on the way home." Joe announced.

"What?" Vanessa said, not liking that idea at all.

"I want to go see him before I go home. I need to talk to him. I need him to explain why he doubted me. Why he believed I would do something like that. I need a reason I can understand, Van. And if he can’t give me one…" Joe looked away, blinking rapidly. If Frank couldn’t give him one, it would mean their relationship had been damaged beyond repair - and the bond that he had thought could never be broken would be permanently severed.

"Honey, I know you need to do this, but are you sure you’re up for it today?" Vanessa asked him gently. Joe was still very pale and a little wobbly on his feet. The nurses had been adamant that she drive home and not let him behind the wheel as his vision was still blurred. He had been instructed to go home and get several more days of complete rest. More stress was the last thing he needed.

"I have to, Van. The longer I wait the harder it will be. And when I think about the last time I saw my brother, I don’t want it to be the night he accused me of sleeping with his fiancée." Joe replied.

The pain in his voice was reflected in his eyes and Vanessa knew she had to do whatever she could to help erase it. "Okay." She replied simply. Joe scooted over a little, allowing Vanessa to sit on the bed next to him.

"He was already here at the hospital when you got here?" Joe asked, unable to remember when Vanessa said he had arrived. First and foremost, he needed to know if his brother even cared that he had been hurt – or if that only started once Frank realized he’d been wrong about everything.

"He came in the ambulance with you, Joe." Vanessa smiled at him. "He called your parents and I as soon as you got here. He was devastated."

"Even though he still thought Callie and I had slept together?"

"Yes. That was before he and I…talked." Vanessa confirmed.

"What did he say? How did he explain what happened?" Joe hesitated a moment. "Did he tell Mom and Dad the truth?"

Vanessa nodded as she spoke. "He said the two of you had argued and you fell. He didn’t say what you had argued about – not right then - but he told us he said some awful things to you. You were trying to leave and he grabbed your arm. He said you pulled away just as he let go and fell, hitting your head. The doctor came out right then to talk to us and your parents went to sit with you until they moved you to a room."

"And after they left? That’s when you and Frank talked?"

"That’s when I slapped some sense into him." Vanessa replied with a secretive smile.

"Literally?" Joe asked, jokingly.

"What do you think?" Vanessa winked.

Joe looked at Vanessa through narrowed eyes, contemplating her remark. He’d seen his girlfriends temper in action and quickly came to the conclusion it was quite possible she had slapped some sense into Frank literally and figuratively.

"I think it’s best if I don’t know." He replied, shaking his head at her. "So he still thought Callie and I had cheated on him. How long did it take you to convince him otherwise?" Joe asked, turning serious once again.

Vanessa looked at him pensively before answering. She didn’t think there was any need for Joe to hear Frank’s accusations word for word, yet again. Taking Joe’s hand in her’s she decided a simple narrative from her perspective, rather than an interrogation on Joe’s part would give him all the information he needed, without causing him any more pain.

"He told me what he thought had been going on. After I got over the initial shock, I told him he needed to check himself into the psychiatric floor. When I realized he really believed what he was saying, I asked him what kind of proof he had."

"Proof?" Joe repeated, with a chuckle.

"Hey, I figured I’d go with something familiar to him. Plus I knew when he started laying out his proof and his facts it wouldn’t take long for him to see there was nothing there at all." Vanessa stopped and shook her head sadly, recalling the look in Frank’s eyes as he slowly realized he had been wrong the whole time. "At first I was just livid with him, but as I shot holes in all his theories and his proof, as he started to realize what a huge mistake he had made…well, I almost started to feel sorry for him. I guess after a while, it got easy for him to convince himself he was right. And whenever he saw something as innocent as you giving Callie a hug, well, it was just one more piece of ‘proof’ to confirm his suspicions."

"I still don’t understand why he didn’t just come right out and ask me. I probably would have decked him for even thinking such a thing, but it would have been a lot better than this." Joe said.

"Actually, although he didn’t come right out and ask you point blank, he said he DID ask you enough questions that you should have known what he was getting at. Which brings up another point." Vanessa commented, her eyes boring into Joe’s. "How long did you intend to keep the fact that you never remembered anything hidden from all of us?"

"Oh, uh…I…I’m…" Joe stammered, before giving up with a heavy sigh. "I don’t know. The doctors said I would remember everything eventually. I didn’t want to worry anyone. I just figured it was taking me a little longer than they thought it would."

"Joe, didn’t it occur to you the fact that you couldn’t remember at all could be a sign that something serious was going on?" Vanessa cried out.

Joe winced slightly as Vanessa’s voice rose. "Oww. Could you keep it down, hon? I still have a killer headache."

"I’m sorry. Do you want something for it?" She asked.

"Nah. It’ll be okay. Now can we get back to Frank, please?" Joe begged.

"Don’t think we’re done with this, Joseph Hardy. You’ve still got some explaining to do yourself." Vanessa reprimanded him. "And there’s not much else to tell. Right about then is when the nurse came in looking for him. Callie had just been brought in and she recognized his name on the emergency information in her purse."

"Wow, me and Callie both in the same night." Joe shook his head, unable to comprehend how Frank must have felt.

"Yeah, wow. It pushed him right over the edge." Scooting a little closer to Joe, Vanessa held both of his hands tightly. "Please don’t take this the wrong way… I mean he was way out of line and had no right to say or do a lot of the things he did. You know I will always be on your side, but… Joe, he is completely destroyed right now. I know you need to see him, to find some answers for yourself. And I hope they’ll be the ones you need to hear. But when you’re done talking to him, clearing the air, if there’s any possible way you can do it… he needs a friend right now."

"When he explained everything to you, I mean about how he came to such a ridiculous conclusion did it…make sense? Could you really see it from his perspective and understand how he got there?" Joe asked hopefully. "I need some reason for all this, Van. Something I can understand. If he can’t give me that…" Joe closed his eyes for a moment, appearing to try and stay in control of his emotions. "I just want my brother back." He whispered.