Joe sat in the chair next to Frank’s bed for the third time that day, staring at his older brother.  He, Callie and his parents had been taking turns sitting with Frank all afternoon and evening.  The doctor had been very insistent that only immediate family be allowed to visit with Frank, relenting to let Callie see him when Joe had blurted out that she and Frank were engaged.  He knew it might be painful for Callie to hear that, but he also knew the doctor wouldn’t let her in to see Frank any other way.  And it was so obvious she wanted to see him…needed to see him. 

While Vanessa had not been allowed to visit with Frank, she had steadfastly refused to leave the hospital, knowing how much Joe needed her right now.  Joe smiled for the first time in days, thinking of his girlfriend and her unwavering support.  The summer had been rough on her, watching Joe’s slow and painful struggle to recover from his injuries.  Yet she never let her fears or anxiety show, always having a smile, a kiss and an encouraging word for him.  As he had done a lot lately, Joe wondered if maybe it was time for them to take the next step in their relationship.

As Joe sat listening to the soft beeping, humming and swishing of the various machines that were assisting and monitoring Frank, the past four months quickly started to catch up with him.  There had been too many ups and downs, too many emotions, too many harsh words said in anger.  Joe winced as the accusations Frank had hurled at him only a few nights earlier, echoed in his mind.  He’d already forgiven his brother, but forgetting what had been said was proving much harder than Joe had anticipated.  Sometimes words hurt more than weapons ever could and Joe was still deeply affected by Frank’s words, and he could tell, at times, Frank sensed that.  Joe sighed and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the rail of the bed. 

“I do forgive you, Frank, but I need time to get past everything you said.  You have to give me that time.  You can’t die now.  You can’t leave it like this.  There have already been too many tragedies – we can’t be the next one.”

Watching the comforting rise and fall of Frank’s chest and hearing the reassuring steady beep of the heart monitor, Joe’s tired mind was lulled into restless wandering.  The “what if” scenario that had popped into his head a few hours earlier still lingered there and now more than ever, he wished they could go back in time and relive the last four months.

“What if you had picked Callie instead of me?”  Joe asked the question that had been haunting him.  “How differently would things have turned out?  Nash just wanted to play mind games with you…and Callie.  He still would have let us all go that night…maybe.  And maybe there wouldn’t have been any misunderstandings at all. And none of this would have happened.”  Joe closed his eyes, resting his forehead on his arms.  “God, I’d give anything to turn back time.”

Tired and exhausted, Joe wondered how much bad luck, how many tragedies his family could survive before they completely fell apart.  Hadn’t it already happened to Frank?  Who would be next?  Joe thought of the unfairness of it all, of how just when he was certain things couldn’t get any worse, fate would deal them another blow, seemingly worse than the last.  When would it end?

Jenkins had been behind bars since last summer, and yet with Nash still loose, the aftershocks had continued, like a runaway train.  Pete Davis had been enlisted, ostensibly to help them find Nash and put him away.  Instead, it seemed increasingly likely that Davis would now be added to their list of suspects.  Which left Nash free to continue his reign of terror.

‘Or not!’  Joe thought.  His head shot up as everything suddenly started to make sense.  With a tight smile, he realized that, with a little luck, things might now start to turn in their favor. 

Joe opened his mouth to speak, and then hesitated, feeling slightly foolish.  He’d always bounced his theories off Frank, no matter how crazy they seemed, and he had automatically started to do so now, even though his brother couldn’t possibly hear him.

‘Oh, what the heck.’  He thought, wryly.  ‘Why not?’

“Okay, listen up, Frank.  When Jenkins was arrested, the Cape May police sent Pete Davis, supposedly their best, brightest and most noble officer to help us round up Nash and the rest of his buddies.”  Joe said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he described Davis’s reputation within Cape May.  “Still, he was always one step ahead of us.  We could never catch him or any of his pals.  It was always like he knew when we got a lead on him or where we were looking for him.  Turns out he probably did. 

“Dad and I think he’s been involved in illegal activities in Cape May– drug smuggling among other things – for years now.  Cape May is a pretty small area.  There can’t be many drug lords here, which means there’s probably one gang that controls this whole region.  If so, it would make sense that Davis and Nash have probably been working together for years.  Viola! Davis is the reason Nash was always one step ahead of us.”   Joe thought bitterly, recalling how Davis was so eager to help once he’d arrived in Bayport.

“But he made one stupid mistake.  That stamp on the boxes of cake Callie got was really an official stamp of the Cape May County police department!  And he was dumb enough to use it, thinking he’d never be caught.  Dad has Sam trying to dig up some dirt on him right now, and once we find it and get him behind bars, Nash will have no one to protect him.  And that’s when he’ll go down.”  Joe smiled grimly, satisfied that he had found the answer to his question.  His family’s nightmare would end when Nash was behind bars.

Sitting back in the chair, Joe frowned.  Con was still out of town, and once Sam found the slightest bit of incriminating evidence against Davis, Joe knew his father would be gone in a heartbeat wanting even more.  Which left no one to go after Nash.

‘No one but me…’  Joe thought as a slight shiver ran down his spine. 

While he still hadn’t remembered exactly what had happened to him at the hands of Nash, Joe could recall all too well the life threatening injuries and excruciating pain that had been the end result.  In the months that followed, there were days he just wanted to give up, wishing the world would go away and let him die – or at least leave him alone with his misery.  Shifting in the seat, a dull ache in his ribs rudely reminded that he still had lingering after effects.

Gazing out the window, Joe recalled the matching looks of horror on the faces of his parents when they had arrived home from Hawaii last summer to find him so battered.  He knew he would never forget the way his mother had sobbed, thankful he was still alive, or the way his father would sit by his bedside every night.  More than once Joe had awakened in the night to find his father in tears, still stunned at how close he had come to losing his youngest son.

Looking back at his brother, he saw the end result of yet another encounter with Nash.  While Frank hadn’t improved much since he’d arrived at the hospital, his condition also hadn’t deteriorated, which seemed to make the doctor’s quite happy.  Yet, his parents were once again forced to wait, hope and pray that they wouldn’t have to bury one of their children.  Joe felt his own eyes start to burn as he remembered the way Laura had finally broken down in Fenton’s arms upon arriving at the hospital and being told of Frank’s condition. 

As badly as he wanted to go after Nash on his own, he knew he couldn’t do it.  He couldn’t put his mother through that kind of hell again.  Memories of Vanessa spending her entire summer helping him recover, floated up from his subconscious.  While she always wore a smile, he could see the pain in her eyes as she watched him fight to do the simplest things.  Looking back, he wondered how she was able to sit and watch him try and fail at simple daily tasks, over and over again, without jumping in to help.  Yes, he had told her he didn’t want any help, he needed to do things for himself no matter how long it took.  Yet he knew if the situations were reversed, there was no way he could sit back and watch her struggle just to make it through the day.  Joe vowed he would never put her in that position again.

Knowing he couldn’t just wait around for someone else to apprehend Nash, Joe found a compromise.  Even if enough evidence was found to arrest Pete Davis, that didn’t bring them any closer to Nash.  They needed more information, more to go on.  And Joe vowed to get that information.  The next day, he would drive out to the cabin where he and Callie had been held hostage.  He hadn’t been back there since the night Frank had found them and rushed him to the hospital.  While it was a long shot, it was still a possibility that there could be something there, some small piece of information, that could help lead them to Nash.  Feeling Nash was smart enough not to return to the scene of the crime, Joe was fairly certain there was no way he would run into the man.  A fact-finding mission, Joe decided.  Surely, no one could object to that.

Glancing at his watch, Joe saw his time with Frank was up.  Laura would be waiting, rather impatiently, for her turn to sit with Frank.  Getting up, Joe took a final look at his older brother.

“We’ll get him, Frank. He won’t get away with this.  I promise.”

Returning to the waiting room, Joe saw his father talking on his cell phone, his brow creased in deep concentration as he scribbled furiously on a small note pad.  As predicted, Laura was pacing back and forth in the hall.  Surprisingly, she didn’t give Joe a quick peck on the cheek and disappear into Frank’s room.  Instead, she stopped in front of her youngest son, hands on her hips and a no-nonsense look on her face that Joe knew all too well.

“I’m going to sit with Frank now and when I come out you better be gone, young man.  You’re exhausted and I want you to go home and get a good night’s sleep.  You’ve barely started to recover yourself.  You will not spend one more night in a hospital, as a patient or a visitor. Vanessa is going to take you home and make sure you are asleep before she leaves the house.  Understood?”

Glancing over his mother’s shoulder, Joe caught Vanessa’s eye.  She shrugged and smiled sheepishly indicating she had been drafted against her will for the assignment of babysitting Joe, and knew turning it down was not an option.  “Can I at least wait until Dad is off the phone so I can get an update on everything?”  Joe asked, doing his best puppy dog impersonation.

Laura eyed him critically, and then sighed.  “I suppose so. But then straight home.” She replied, throwing the last line over her shoulder at Vanessa, who nodded vigorously.  The last thing she wanted to do was incur the wrath of Laura Hardy.  With a hug and a kiss for Joe, Laura walked the short distance to Frank’s room and went inside.

Wearily, Joe walked over to Vanessa and took a seat next to her on the small, hard couch, resting his head on her shoulder.  He smiled when she slipped an arm around him, pulling him closer and gently brushed her lips across his cheek.  Closing his eyes, Joe took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of Vanessa’s hair that he had become so addicted to, and admitted to himself how tired he really was, almost falling asleep before Fenton concluded his phone call.  As he heard his father say goodbye, Joe lifted his head slightly and opened his eyes, looking at his father expectantly.

“It took a while but Sam finally got what we need.”  Fenton began, flipping back the pages of his notebook.  “The story about Davis inheriting a family fortune is a load of bull.  He’s apparently one of those people who could sell water to a drowning man.  No one ever even questioned his story, let alone tried to check it out.”

“So he’s gotta be into something illegal to drive the car he does and live in that mansion.”  Joe theorized.

“Drugs, guns, pornography, prostitution.  You name it, he’s got his hands in it.”  Fenton said with disgust.

“Did he find a connection to Nash?  Or Jenkins?” Joe asked hopefully.

Fenton looked at his notes again as he tried to decide just how best to break the news to Joe.  Realizing there was no easy way, he looked Joe in the eyes.

“Davis and Jenkins are cousins.”