Finding Dad Rewrite 02
By Robin Gurl
Episode: The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula Parts 1 and 2
Notes: I have two versions of this. I will add the first one as a chapter to this story. The first one isn't as good as the second. These may never be updated, readers just asked me to post my HB fics and they are all re-writes off the 70s TV Series. These aren't "original" as in plot unless I say so. (Yes I have been known to go off on a tangent and make an entire fic off a small piece of information :3) Yes, this is just an excuse to "torture" Joe Hardy but it's alright if you read the books they do it as well :) just no one notices it, hehe.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea to re-write! :3
When Joe remerged from the other room both Nancy and Frank exchanged looks of worry. "Joe?" Frank asked curiously moving closer to his brother. Beside him Nancy looked on wide eyed, the youngest Hardy did not look well at all.
"Joe, are you alright?" She asked carefully.
He glanced over at the two of them not even noticing just how close Frank was to him. His mind told him to tell them he was fine that he was just tired. Extremely tired for some reason. The room was spinning as he turned around to face Frank. Frank was looking at him like something was wrong.
Before Frank could speak again Joe's knees buckled and he fell forward into his brother. "Joe?" Carefully and almost frantically, Frank lowered Joe to the ground making sure to support his brother's head. "Joe? Answer me!"
"Frank, he's so pale. Why didn't we see this before?" Nancy exclaimed kneeling down as well. Beside her the monk knelt down as well. He placed a hand on the younger Hardy's forehead then checked for a pulse. "Father, is he ill?"
"He's just exhausted."
Frank looked at the Monk with wide eyes, "Are you sure that's it?"
"He is young. The stress caused by your fathers disappearance and now injury was to much for him. Seeing your father in his current condition spelled disaster, it was only a matter of time."
"Now that I think about it, Joe hasn't eaten hardly anything since we started looking for Dad."
"And how was he sleeping?"
Joe's eyes clenched together and slowly they opened to not quite focus on what he thought was Frank. The other two figures he wasn't sure of. "F…Frank?" He whispered. Why wasn't his voice working?
"Joe!" Frank halfway hugged his brother before helping Joe into a sitting position. "It' alright, just close your eyes." Unconsciously Frank helped Joe put all of his weight on him, now it was just Frank who was holding Joe up.
"Once again, how has he been sleeping?"
"Not well at all," Frank slowly replied making sure Joe's head didn't roll off his shoulder. "He's been to worried about dad."
"I was afraid of that as well. Stay right here." As the monk left, Frank wanted to saying 'where would I be going?' but didn't and instead let Nancy help him get his brother more comfortable.
Nancy reached over and laid her cloak over the youngest hardy. She lingered for a second running a finger down the younger man's cheek, then reached up and pushed some of the blonde hair out of his eyes. "We should have noticed how pale he was getting, Frank." She whispered before pulling away.
"I'm not sure even if we had noticed we could have helped, Joe's to stubborn and would have denied it until something like this happened." Frank replied taking one of Joe's hands into his own. The two of them sat quietly for a couple of minutes listening to the chanting of the monks upstairs before he spoke again. "I'm not leaving Joe tonight, if the monk went to go make a bed for Joe, we're not staying."
"Frank, if Joe will get better faster here I don't see why not.." Nancy started crossing her arms.
"I'm not leaving him." Frank said again his arms tightening around the sleeping form.
"So what? You're going to drag him all over Translvania until he works himself into a fever and is forced to be bedridden? Come on Frank, think. Joe's weak and tired as it is, don't make it worse for him."
"Wrong, it'll be worse if I leave him. If I leave him here and he wakes up alone in a foreign place won't that possibly cause him to work himself into a fever, possibly into a fit where they can't take care of it? No. I'm not going to let that happen."
"That's a lot of possibilties Frank, a lot. Joe's a big boy, he's 17 years old. He can take care of himself."
"Yeh like he did the entire last two weeks that led to this? When he's not worrying over someone he loves then yes he can take care of himself but when he's this upset, you just don't leave him alone."
Before Nancy could reply the monk reappeared with another man. "These are the young people I was telling you about. The two boys are Mr. Fredrick's sons, this is their friend. The young one has exhausted himself into a slight fever, I wanted to make sure that was all."
"Of course," The new comer knelt down placing his black bag beside the two brothers. "I'm Dr. Minkstreet, I've been taking care of your father. And you are?"
"Frank. And this is Joe."
"I see, well lets see what is wrong with Joe." Carefully the doctor felt around different spots of Joe's body, checked his pulse and fever. Then he opened Joe's eye lids and see if they responded to light.
"Just as you said, he's extremely fatigued. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. Any other person would have fainted days ago maybe even a week ago. From his symptoms and the condition his body is in, I'd say he hasn't eaten a full days worth of food in at least a week nor slept for more than five hours total. How old is he?"
"17." Frank robotically replied staring wide eyed.
"Hm, well seeing as his over all physical condition is alright, he'll be fine in a week if he takes care of himself by that I mean eating and sleeping."
Frank nodded. Dr. Minkstreet leaned forward one more time and pressed the back of Joe's head in a certain spot causing the younger hardy to slowly come back to reality. "What did you just do?"
"It's a medical secret." At seeing Frank's glare he sighed, "I learned it from a witch doctor in Africa. There is a certain spot of the brain that when touched can wake a person no matter how deep a sleep they are in. I know it sounds quite ridiculus but it's working."
"F..Frank?" Joe sat up unsteadily holding onto Frank's shoulder not letting go of Frank's hand. "W..We're still here?"
"You collapsed, Joe. We didn't want to move you until we knew it was safe." Frank kept one arm wrapped around Joe's waist in an attempt at keeping his brother up right. "How do you feel?"
"Weird…like…tired…my head hurts…" Then the younger Hardy saw the doctor staring pleased at him.
"Whose this?"
"Welcome back to the living, Mr. Fredricks. I was afraid you would be joining your father tonight." That was the wrong thing to say. Tears gathered in Joe's eyes again and he weakly leaned back in Frank's arms. "None of that, he will be quite alright, he just needs to rest. As do you, here take this, it will give you a temporary energy boost. Long enough for your brother to get you back to where you are staying. Then I want you to sleep."
Joe stared blearily before weakly nodding seeing he wasn't in any position to complain. He took the small pill and let Frank help him drink some water to down it. After it was down, he watched as Frank handed the glass back to the monk then he felt Frank's hands reach under his arms and help him to his feet. At first his knees attempted to buckle and he fell into Frank. Then the pill began to work and his limbs were working again.
"Thank you again, Dr. We'll be in touch." The monk nodded and the Doctor only stood giving a slight smile before nodding as well. Frank then turned his attention back to Joe. The energy pill was doing just enough to keep his little brother on his feet, the doctor was right, just enough of an energy boost to get Joe in bed. "Come on, Joe. Let's go back to the van."
Joe only lay his head on Frank's shoulder and together they slowly stumbled off together. Nancy stood as well going to join them but the doctor caught her arm. "Yes?"
"If he doesn't sleep, have the older one give him this, it's a sleeping aid."
Nancy took the white pill placing it in a white tissue she had with her. "Thank you, for everything. Like Frank said, we'll be in touch."
At the hotel, Joe was helped up the stairs into their bed room and laid down on one of the beds. His eyes were open to slits as he tried to stay awake. Frank covered him up and sat there for a few seconds letting Joe see he was safe. "Don't try to keep yourself awake, Joe. Just sleep. I'm here, I'm not leaving."
Joe tried for maybe another 20 seconds to stay awake before he finally just allowed his eyes to close. His hand was still grasping Frank's in a tight hold. Frank sighed and just sat there knowing if he tried to move anywhere that Joe would awaken in a panic. Behind him Nancy walked in quietly. She placed a hand on his shoulder making him jump slightly. "Oh, Nancy. You scared me!"
"It's alright. I know I should have knocked but I didn't know how much of a deep sleep Joe would be in and didn't wish to wake him. How are you doing?"
"Joe's doing as well as he can be…"
"Frank, I didn't ask how Joe was doing, I asked how you were doing."
Frank averted his eyes partially embarrassed. He instead occupied himself with nestling Joe's covers closer to the small sleeping form. "I..I'm fine." His answer made her sigh exasperated. "What am I supposed to say, Nancy?" Frank twisted slightly still keeping his hand in Joe's grasp. "My little brother is ill and I missed it completely because I was to busy keeping up with you!"
"Keeping up with me? Oh boy, what an excuse. I don't need you taking care of me, Frank Hardy. You can't even take care of your brother how are you going to care for me?" That came out before she could stop herself. As soon as the words hit Frank, Nancy realized what she'd done. "Oh God, Frank…I…I…"
"Just get out. I don't need your help with the self guilt job. I'm doing pretty well on my own." His eyes clouded over and he carefully undid Joe's fingers from his hand and stood. Nancy was sure she saw tears forming as he pushed past her. She heard the sink running in the restroom and then Frank reappeared with a wash cloth in his hands. He stood there in the middle of the room and clenched the white rag in his hands tightly.
"Frank, I didn't mean to say what I did. I'm sorry, I'm just worried about you both. I knew you'd be partially blaming yourself so I came in to see how you were doing." She walked over slowly and got in front of him. "Frank, you found your father one relief should be taken care of, right?"
"Oh yeh, what a relief. He's still out cold and then Joe worked himself into a feverish fit. I promised my mom before she passed that I'd watch out and care for Joe, what a good job I did." The water that was squeezed out of the rag streamed down his hand, a few drops falling on the carpet.
"You said so yourself at the monastery, even if we could have caught it, Joe would have been to stubborn to ask for help."