Joe woke up and found himself in a damp and dark place.    He looked around and found Jay lying on the ground beside her.  She was perfectly still.  Panic was beginning to rise inside the younger Hardy when he heard a low moan escape from here lips.

“Jay, are you okay?” he asked her, looking concerned.  The girl made a movement as if she was trying to sit up. Joe reached out to help her but his hand was slapped away abruptly. “I’m alright,” she snapped at him.

‘What is it with this girl and her aversion to physical contact?’ Joe wondered, not for the first time. Whatever it was he was determined to get to the bottom of it ¼soon, before she got them both into any more trouble.

“Where are we?” asked Jay, sitting upright and leaning heavily against a stone wall.

Joe stretched his arms over his head, wincing as his muscles ached in protest at the movement,  “Well, at a guess I’d say it’s a cave?.”

Jay looked at him deprecatingly, “You don’t say”. She signed then and looked around her. “Very cozy.” Heavy sarcasm was evident in the girls voice.

“It looks like a hole in the ground with only one way out,” she added as she pointed up.

There was silence for several minutes as both of them looked around. Joe tried on several occasions to make small talk with Jay, but she being her usual silent self, giving only short, snappy answers.

‘Enough is enough,’ Joe thought to himself, ‘Your gonna talk to me whether you want to or not’.  Aloud he asked  “Jay, what’s your last name?”

“Smith, Jones, Wilson, pick one,” said Jay. 

“What?”

“I don’t have one.  I don’t even have a first name.  It’s not J-a-y, but just the letter J.  I don’t know if that was supposed to be my first or last name.  Joe when this is all over.  You will go back to your life and I will go back to mine.  Why do you have to know?  It does not matter.”

Joe stood up and walked over to the girl. He didn’t know whether to shout at her or to hug her, there was something so vulnerable about Jay, even with her tough exterior.

“Look” he began. “Whether you or I like it or not, I am in your life know and you are in mine.  Since we are going to be here for awhile, why don’t you tell me about it?”

“Why do you have to know?” Jay tried to sound angry but Joe could tell that her defenses were starting to break down ever so slightly.  Jay was exhausted with dodging Joe’s questions.  He was a very stubborn individual.

“Because I want to be your friend.” Joe sat down beside her, not touching the girl, but just sitting close to her.

When Jay didn’t answer, Joe didn’t know what else to say or do.  He knew he couldn’t give up.  He decided he was going to have to give a part of himself for her to trust him.

“I would like to know how you got those scars on your back.  I know a lot about scars.  I have my own.  They are mostly healed, but the scars on the inside are harder to heal.  Not to long ago I was chained to a fence, burned, knifed, beaten, and had scorpion bites all over me.” 

Joe paused.  He hoped that by sharing what Rashman had done to him would help her to open up and trust him, but even as he spoke he felt the familiar chills coursing through his body. 

His throat tightened, but he had to get through to her. 

He swallowed and then he continued with his story, telling her everything about what Rashman had done to him and about the subsequent trial, most of all he talked about Frank and how he would never have gotten through the ordeal without him.

“There was so many times, I just wanted to get it over with.  I just wanted to die.  I wanted the pain to stop,” said Joe quietly when he had finished the rest of his story.

“Joe, what kept you from giving up?” asked Jay.

“I thought about my family.  My Mom, Dad, Callie, Frank and Vanessa were the only ones that kept me alive.  I kept thinking about how much I loved them and they loved me.  I kept thinking Frank was coming to rescue me.  Hope and love kept me going.  I did give up at the end, but Frank and Dad showed up.  I just gave in to my fears too quickly.  You have to keep believing in those that love you.”

Jay was quiet for a long time.  Joe didn’t know whether to say something or not.  He didn’t realize how much he needed to just talk about what happen with Rashman.  He felt very strange.  He felt as if a burden had been lifted.  He didn’t know why he had picked Jay to share it with, but he knew she needed to hear it.

Finally Jay spoke, he voice was quiet, wavering, as if there was a lot of emotion just waiting to break though.

“The only thing I remember about my Dad is that he would come home, pick me up and swing me around calling me his little angel and hugging me.  But one day he didn’t come home anymore.  Mom said it was my fault and that she hated me.  She would call me all kinds of things and throw stuff at me.  I would hide wherever I could.  I didn’t know what I had did wrong, but I kept telling her I was sorry.”

Jay paused.  She thought about her Mom.  Joe wondered if he should say something, but decided to remain quiet, and let her continue.

“Then one day, she came looking for me.  She called me honey and sweetie.  I thought that maybe she wasn’t mad at me anymore. 

She took me for a long ride and at one point we stopped at this house and there was a man was standing outside.  Mom told me, that he was my uncle.  He grabbed my arm and held me when Mom drove off and left me.  I got away from him and ran after her, but she didn’t stop.”

Jay stopped.  Her voice was becoming quieter and quieter.  Joe remained silent, but moved slightly closer to the girl, hoping that his presence would be comfort enough. He knew that the worst part of the story was yet to come.

“She just left me there with him, for years.  At first, he tried to be nice.  But he would start drinking, then taking pills or drugs, and finally he would start hitting me.  If he couldn’t hit me, he would throw things at me.  He would hit me with whatever was in easy reach for him.  That is how I got the scars.”

Jay’s eyes were beginning to swell with tears but she quickly brushed them away. “One day, when I was old enough, I just packed my bag and left.

Anger at what had happened to this innocent girl swelled up in Joe Hardy, he wanted to find that man who had done it, but he also wanted to let Jay finish her story.

“Do you still see him?”

“Sometimes.  I only see him every once in awhile.  Usually when he is broke and he wants something from me.”

“What did you mean about not knowing your name?”

“I guess I forgot it, when my Mom and uncle would call me their names for me.  They were not very nice names.  One day when my uncle was not home, I went looking for my stuff that I had brought with me.  I found a doll with a necklace around it.  It had the letter J on the back of the locket, but nothing on the inside or on the front.  I asked my uncle about my name. 

He would just laugh and call me a curse word.  I don’t even know my birthday.  I can’t get a social security number or a driver’s license without a birth certificate.  I cannot get a birth certificate.  I tried, but the paperwork is so extensive and asks all these questions I can’t answer.  So I do odd jobs where people just pay me cash.  I would like to enter college and actually take classes, but I can’t without a social security number and a birth certificate.  I thought about getting a fake ID, but that costs lots of money, which I don’t have.” 

Then, all of a sudden the story stopped. Joe figured that Jay she had never talked so much in all of her life. 

He was glad she had finally opened up, and wanted to help her, but how could he.  He would have to talk to Frank and his Dad.  ‘if they ever find us’ he thought to himself.

Not wanting Jay to clam up again he decided to continue the conversation. “What kind of jobs have you had?”

“Different ones.  I work at the docks unloading cargo.  I work with a cleaning service.  I do whatever.”

“Where do you stay at?”

“Everywhere.  Nowhere.  Just some place I can close my eyes and rest.  Could we please talk about something else?”

“Okay,” said Joe, shifting slightly so that his back was against the wall.  “How about super heroes?”

“Super heroes?  What I want to know is when are these guys going to feed us?”

“They usually do, especially since they need us.”

“Usually?  Exactly how many times have you been kidnapped.”

“A few.”

“Two? Three?”

“More.  Probably on an average of at least twice a year.”

“You’re kidding.  Aren’t you?”

“Yeah.  I am kidding about the average of at least twice a year.”

“Maybe you should make a form letter, so this wouldn’t take so long.”

“Form letter?” asked Joe very puzzled.

“Yes.  It should say, I comma and then a blank so they could fill in their name or an alias then another comma have kidnaped your son Joe period.  You will another blank and under that blank we should say reason for kidnaping then at end of blank a period.  If you do what I say then your son will be returned to you at then there is another blank so they could fill in the date and time.  How’s that?”

“What about Frank?  He gets kidnaped too.”

“We will just have to make him out one also.  What is with your family and kidnappers?  Occupational hazard?”

That did it for Joe.  He could just see him handing a form letter to a kidnapper to fill out.  He couldn’t help it.  He started laughing.  Then Jay started laughing.  They were both laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes.

“I can see it now, I turn to my kidnapper and hand him the letter and tell him to fill this form out.”

After several more minutes of laughing, Joe realized he was getting sleepy.  He saw a cot in the corner.  He figured Jay must be sleepy too. 

“Jay, why don’t you take the cot and get some sleep?”

Before Joe could make it over to the cot, someone came down the stairs.  He looked up to find Mr. Smith with two other goons. 

“Joseph, we need you to make a phone call,” said Mr. Smith.

“Do I have a choice?” asked Joe, although he knew the answer. As he was climbing up the ladder, he told Jay not to worry that he would be back. 

In another, higher part of the cave he was handed a phone.

“Dad?” asked Joe, he could hear his father’s voice at the other end of the line.

“Joe, are you okay?  What about Jay is she okay?  asked Fenton.

“We’re okay.  There is someone here who would like to talk to you.”

Joe handed the phone to his captor.  “Mr. Hardy, you are not to do anything to search for my men or myself.  We will tell you when we are leaving this area.  And then I will return your son and the young lady.  Do you understand the consequences, if you don’t follow my orders?” said Mr. Smith.