Frank felt the emotions fighting to take control and tried to push them to the back of his mind, but found it was impossible. In the small, confined space of the car he felt trapped. Trapped by Callie’s unspoken feeling that he had deserted her. Trapped by Vanessa’s unspoken thoughts that she might very well lose Joe before they ever made it to the hospital. Trapped by his own disgust at the choice he had made. He knew he could not leave Joe behind, yet he felt he had betrayed Callie. The woman he had asked to marry him. The woman he wanted to love and protect for the rest of his life. And yet, the first opportunity he had to protect her as they started this new phase of their lives, he had essentially thrown her to the wolves to save his brother.

‘What kind of person am I?’ Frank thought, wondering how he would ever be able to look himself in the eyes again. He was starting to slip into his own world of self-hatred when he heard a low moan from the backseat.

"Frank!" He heard Vanessa’s panicked voice. "Oh, no, Frank! He’s starting to wake up!"

"God, not now. Please not now." Frank whispered. He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Vanessa cradling Joe’s head in her lap. As much as he wanted to hear his brother’s voice, he did not want Joe to wake up. He had seen the injuries up close and knew Joe would be in agony if he were to regain consciousness.

"Sssh." Vanessa said softly to Joe. "It’s ok, Baby." Looking up she met Frank’s eyes in the mirror. "How much longer?"

"About ten minutes, I think." Frank said, frustrated. He was not familiar enough with the Pine Barrens or Cape May area to know exactly how far they were from the nearest hospital. Another moan from Joe caused him to press down a little harder on the gas pedal. Seconds later he heard Joe’s voice.

"Van?" Joe opened his eyes, trying to focus. He took a shallow breath and couldn’t stop himself from crying out in pain.

"Please, Joe. Close your eyes, Baby. Close your eyes. Try and go to sleep." Vanessa said, attempting to maintain her composure. She had never seen Joe like this and she found she was having a hard time keeping the fear from completely engulfing her.

"Callie…" Joe whispered, through gritted teeth. He reached for Vanessa’s hand. She gently took his hand in hers and gasped as he clamped down on it tightly.

As soon as Callie heard Joe say her name, she unbuckled her seat belt and turned around in the seat. Leaning over, she touched his arm gently.

"I’m right here, Joe." Callie said, reassuringly. "It’s all right. We’re safe now. Please do what Vanessa says. Close your eyes and try to sleep, ok?"

"Frank?" He asked, ignoring Callie’s request.

"Right here, little brother." Frank replied. He eased up on the accelerator a bit as tears blurred his vision. "Don’t talk, Joe. Don’t move." He wanted to say more, reassure his brother everything would be fine, but he could no longer trust himself to speak. He had heard the intense pain in Joe’s voice and couldn’t believe how difficult it had been for Joe just to speak their names.

Joe tried to focus on Vanessa once again. He released her hand, letting his arm fall limply, not having the strength or inclination to control it. He felt himself slipping away again.

"Van." He whispered, trying to keep his eyes open. He needed to say this. He needed to tell her right now. Somehow, he knew he might not get another chance.

"What is it, Joe?" She asked, gently stroking his hair, no longer trying to hold back the tears.

"I love you, Baby." He said, managing a weak smile before he closed his eyes for good. Resting her forehead against Joe’s, Vanessa wept.

Looking from Vanessa and Joe in the backseat to Callie seated less than two feet away from him, one thought ran through Frank’s mind.

Seeing the hospital looming just ahead of them, Frank let out a huge sigh of relief. As soon as he came to a stop at the Emergency entrance, Callie leapt from the car and ran inside to get help. Scrambling out of the car, Frank opened the door to the backseat and leaned in.

"How is he?" Frank asked Vanessa, anxiously.

She looked at him with a tear stained face and simply shrugged her shoulders. Kneeling on the ground, Frank reached in and gently took Joe’s hand, surprised at how cold it was.

"We’re here, little brother. They’ll take good care of you." He said quietly, not knowing if Joe could even hear him. "You’ll be just fine. I promise." He felt someone tap him on the shoulder and heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Excuse me, sir. You’ll need to move out of the way."

Frank stood and turned to see a man and a woman dressed in hospital scrubs standing next to a stretcher. He nodded mutely and stepped aside right into Callie’s arms. Turning to look at her, he summed up his biggest fear in one question.

"What if I didn’t get him here in time?"

Callie reached up and brushed a tear from his face. "He didn’t hold on this long to give up now." She tried to reassure him. Quickly but carefully, Joe was removed from the car and placed on the stretcher.

"You and Vanessa go inside." Callie instructed Frank. "I’ll park the car and be right in."

"Thank you." Frank hugged her tightly. Letting go, he put an arm around Vanessa’s shoulders and the two of them followed the stretcher carrying Joe into the emergency room.

Callie quickly found a parking spot and started to get out of the car, then stopped. Pulling down the mirror on the sun visor, she looked at her reflection and saw devastation, betrayal, pain and fear. But most of all guilt. She knew she had to tell Frank about the video. She and Joe had discussed it. That was the reason they had tried to escape in the first place.

Why had she shared that fear with Joe? The fear that Nash and Jenkins might send the video to Frank? If only she had kept her thoughts to herself, Joe wouldn’t have insisted they try and escape immediately. If she had kept her thoughts to herself, maybe Joe would have waited a little longer. By then Frank and Vanessa would have shown up. Nash would have had no reason to beat Joe, to drag him behind the truck. Frank would never have had to make that impossible choice.

But she had shared her fears with Joe. And now he was fighting for his life because of it. She had to tell Frank. She had no idea if or when Nash would send Frank the video. But how could she tell him now when he was so consumed with worry for Joe?

"Why?" Callie asked her reflection in the mirror. "Why did you need those stupid pictures anyway? You just had to get that article published. For what? This was supposed to be a vacation!" Disgusted with herself, she exited the car and slowly made her way back to the hospital.

*****

Frank stared at the clock on the wall of the waiting room and saw it was well after midnight. It had been hours since the doctor had come out and given them a harried explanation of Joe’s condition. Frank had initially prepared himself for a long wait and was taken by surprise when the doctor came out within minutes of beginning Joe’s examination. Try as he might to escape them, the doctor’s words kept echoing in his head.

The doctor had been sympathetic but curt. They were taking Joe to surgery immediately. If they could not find the cause of the internal bleeding, and stop it, Joe’s other injuries wouldn’t matter. He would bleed to death internally.

Frank had asked how long the surgery would take but the doctor’s answer offered him no comfort. Anywhere from an hour to all night. They had no idea what was causing the bleeding and it could take a while to narrow that down. Once they found the cause, they would have to repair it. That was assuming it could even be repaired.

Frank’s muscles were starting to protest being kept in one position for so long but he didn’t dare move. It seemed Vanessa had taken the doctor’s news even worse than Frank had. Both he and Callie had tried to comfort her to no avail and Vanessa had finally cried herself to sleep. She was still clutching Frank’s hand tightly, her head resting in his lap and he didn’t want to wake her.

‘Callie.’ He thought, looking at his fiancée resting her head on his shoulder, eyes closed. ‘I’m so sorry, Cal. I really had no choice.’ It didn’t matter how many times Frank told himself that, all he could see was the look of utter devastation on Callie’s face when he had chosen Joe over her. And now he might lose his brother anyway.

As he stared at her, Callie stirred, almost as if she knew she were being watched. Slowly she opened her eyes, taking a moment to adjust and realize where she was. She lifted her head and looked at Frank.

"Any news?"

"No." Frank said quietly, shaking his head. "I’m scared, Callie. It’s taking too long. What if…"

Callie put a finger to his lips silencing him. "Joe’s a fighter. He’s going to be all right." She said resolutely. Glancing down at Vanessa, she thought ‘He has to be.’

"But I’ve never seen him like this before, Cal. It’s really bad this time." Frank closed his eyes, trying to force out the images of the last time he saw Joe being rushed behind the emergency room doors as he stood and watched helplessly.

‘You have to make it, Joe. You have to.’ Frank couldn’t even begin to imagine life without his brother.

"Mr. Hardy?" a male voice asked.

Frank’s eyes shot open and he saw Dr. Henry Simonds, who had spoken to him so many hours ago, before Joe went into surgery.

"Is Joe out of surgery?" Frank asked, gently shaking Vanessa awake.

"Yes, he is. I wanted to update you on his condition."

"Is he alright?" Vanessa asked worriedly, rubbing her red, puffy eyes as she sat up.

"That’s what I’d like to talk to all of you about." The doctor replied, pulling up a chair and sitting down across from Frank, Vanessa and Callie.

Vanessa felt her eyes tear up, knowing that wasn’t a good answer. She felt Frank put an arm around her shoulder and pull her close to him.

Dr. Simonds looked down at his hands trying to find exactly the right words to convey the seriousness of Joe’s condition but still allow the three young people to have hope.

"We were able to find the cause of the internal bleeding and repair it." Dr. Simonds began. "However, Joe suffered quite a bit of blood loss before we were able to accomplish that; more than we like to see. That made treating his other injuries quite difficult."

"But you were able to treat them, right?" Frank asked hopefully.

"Yes, we were but normally we would have put that off for a few days. To get his blood volume a little higher. Performing surgery on someone with such a low volume of blood is extremely dangerous."

"Why didn’t you wait?" Frank asked, alarmed.

"Because his other injuries were life threatening. They had to be repaired immediately or he would have died. We had no other option." Dr. Simonds said quietly.

Vanessa gasped. "What other injuries?" she finally choked out.

"He has five broken ribs. Three on the right and two on the left. By itself, that is not life threatening. However, one rib sustained an open fracture, puncturing the skin, and also a lung causing it to collapse. Another rib punctured his other lung slightly. We were able to repair both lungs and stabilize the severely broken rib with a pin. There’s not much we can do for the others except tape them to minimize his movements." Dr. Simonds waited while Frank, Callie and Vanessa digested that information. "Right now he is on a respirator, to help him breathe easier, but I’m hoping we can remove it in a day or two."

"Is that all?" Frank asked, unable to dislodge the image of Joe when Callie had lifted his shirt to reveal the injury the doctor was referring to.

"I’m afraid not. Right now he is running a very high fever, indicative of infection. Any open fracture, as opposed to one that does not pierce the skin, runs an extremely high risk of introducing bacteria and foreign material into the body and dramatically increases the chance of infection. I’ve started him on intravenous antibiotics to contain that.

"There appear to be stress fractures on several vertebrae. We tested his legs for paralysis and although he didn’t respond as well as I would have liked, the x-rays showed no complete breaks and there didn’t appear to be any pinching of the nerves."

"Paralysis?" Frank could barely get the word out. 'But Callie said he could move his legs, just not a lot.'

"I believe his lack of response to the paralysis test is due to swelling of the spinal cord, which should go down in a few days. We’ll perform the test again then and I’m sure he’ll pass with flying colors. I think the chance of any kind of paralysis is very slim."

‘But what if he is paralyzed? God, what was I thinking moving him so fast! But I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t leave him there. I had to get him out!’ Frank’s mind was spinning as he second guessed his decision to move Joe so quickly.

Suddenly all the medical information and terminology began swirling around in Frank’s head so fast he almost felt dizzy. This couldn’t be happening to Joe. He heard Dr. Simonds begin speaking again and felt a sudden urge to hit him. He wanted the man to shut up. He didn’t want to hear about any more injuries, no matter how major or minor they were. He just wanted the doctor to tell him his brother would be fine. Knowing that was far from certain, Frank resumed listening to Dr. Simonds explanation of Joe's condition.

"… very severe concussion, which we are watching closely. Those are the most serious of his injuries. He does have a dislocated right shoulder, which has been reduced and immobilized and severe rope burns on both wrists. They were pretty dirty when he came in so we’ll be keeping a close eye on them to ensure they don’t get infected."

Frank stared at Dr. Simonds in shock. He was used to seeing Joe with one, maybe two injuries, but this was almost more than he could comprehend. As he sat trying to process the severity of Joe’s condition, he became aware of Vanessa shaking. Looking at her, he realized she was crying – sobbing – yet not making a sound. Putting both arms around her, he held her close, stroking her hair as he had seen Joe do so many times.

"Sssh. It’s ok, Van. He’ll be ok." Frank said softly. Knowing there was nothing he could do to help Joe directly, he could at least help his brother indirectly by trying to comfort Vanessa. Frank knew Joe would never want Vanessa to be so distraught over him even though she had every reason to be. At least focusing his attention on Vanessa made him feel not quite so useless.

Dr. Simonds sat, waiting patiently while Vanessa composed herself somewhat. Wiping her eyes, Vanessa looked at him.

"He will be ok, though…won’t he? I mean once you get him off the respirator and all? He’ll recover completely?" she asked in a trembling voice. More than anything in the world Vanessa needed something to hold onto right then, anything that would let her believe Joe would come out of this just fine.

Dr. Simonds looked at Vanessa compassionately, then glanced at Callie, who sat with tears silently running down her face. He finally let his gaze settle on Frank.

"I always try to be as honest as possible. I’m not going to lie to you. Joe’s condition is still very, very serious. He’s obviously very strong with a very strong will to live, otherwise he wouldn’t have made it this far.

"Our biggest concerns right now are infection and blood loss. I’m confident the other injuries will heal completely, as long as he can fight off the infection and get his blood volume closer to normal levels."

Taking a deep breath, Dr. Simonds uttered the words he always found so hard to say and was certain were even harder to hear.

"If he makes it through the night- "

"If?!" Vanessa cried out. "You just said he was strong!"

"He is." Dr. Simonds replied softly. "But everyone has their limits. The human body can only take so much. If he makes it through the night, I’ll feel much more comfortable upgrading his condition and prognosis."

"Can we see him?" Frank asked blinking back tears. Vanessa was on the verge of completely falling apart and, if nothing else, he was determined to be strong for her. At least that would give him something to concentrate on…something besides Joe and whether or not he would still be alive in the morning.

"He’s in the Intensive Care Unit. You can see him for five minutes each, one at a time. Then I suggest you go home and get some sleep." Dr. Simonds said standing up.

"We’re here on vacation." Frank said numbly. "We’re staying at a hotel in Cape May."

"I see." Dr. Simonds looked at Frank ominously. "You said you were his older brother?"

"Yes."

"Have you called your parents yet?"

"No." Frank admitted. "I really didn’t want to call them until I had some idea of what to tell them." The truth of the matter was Frank didn’t want to call them at all. He had no idea how he was going to explain this. They had set out for a week at the beach and now Joe was in the hospital barely alive.

"You might want to think about giving them a call when you get back to your hotel."

Frank nodded silently, fully understanding the meaning behind the doctor’s words. ‘Please, Joe, you can’t die. I can’t make that phone call to Mom and Dad. I can’t.’