A/N This is the new modified and hopefully better version of Giving Up, I just didn't like the way the orginal was going and this is the result of heavy planning and revision. So, please review and let me know what you think despite this just being the prologue. I will also be rewriting ROTNM. It is not necessary to read ROTNM before reading this fic, especially since ROTNM is undergoing heavy revision.

Thanks to all those who reviewed the orginal GU and ROTNM.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"To live is not breathing it is action." ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Six months ago, he had been kidnapped. Six months ago, his life had been shattered. Six months ago, he had stopped living.

Everyday, he woke up, he showered, got dressed, and went to school, but it was mechanical to him, as involuntary as the process of breathing.

He only did it because he had to, because it was expected of him, and most of all, he did it because he was terrified that if he didn't, he would never be able to snap out of the depression that threatened to overwhelm him.

More then anything, Frank wished he could go back to the way things were before he had been kidnapped, more then anything, he just wanted everyone to stop looking at him with pity in their eyes, more then anything, he just wanted to be left alone… because it wasn't really any of their damn business.

Frank knew that he had become a shell of his former self. He knew that his family needed him to be okay. He knew they couldn't live if he wasn't. Still, he couldn't just pretend that the kidnapping hadn't happened.

It wasn't as if he could just wake up one morning, and have everything be okay, because this wasn't one of those small "childhood" things that always seemed a thousand times worse then it was. What he had gone through was a thousand times worse then anything else that had happened to him.

For once, things didn't seem better in the morning. To him, morning was worse, because it was turning into what he liked to call the aftermath. In the morning, he woke up and realized that it wasn't a dream and that it all had really happened. He realized he was living in some sort of a limbo. Everything was worse in the morning, and he had come to dread waking up – almost as much as he dreaded going to sleep. Almost, but not quite, because every time he closed his eyes… he was back there.

The only redeemable quality about this morning was that it was Saturday. Saturday was his favorite day of the week. His mother always volunteered, and his father was always busy with a case, no matter what day of the week it was, so he was left alone… well besides Joe.

Despite everything, Frank couldn't help but harbor the slightest bit of anger towards his brother. Anderson had made them distrust each other, and now the pain of thinking his brother had betrayed him was still there.

And yet? Joe was still the person he was closest to, because his brother seemed to be the closest person to understanding him… without really being able to. Because, really, no one could understand, but Joe always seemed to know what Frank needed.

When he wanted nothing more then to be alone; Joe kept his distance, and when he dreaded the very thought of being alone, being by himself, Joe was there. He didn't really think he would've even bothered continuing with his mechanical existence, if not for Joe.

He woke up every morning and continued his "sort-of" living but not really living for his brother, he did it because Joe needed him, and he could never abandon his brother, and in the end, it was probably the only thing that kept him sane.

He was willing to go on like this forever if it meant his brother got to go on, because Frank knew that as Joe kept him sane he was doing the same for his brother.

Vanessa Bender, Joe's girlfriend, was…. pregnant, and Joe knew that his brother was just barley managing to keep it all together. Their entire family was on the edge, and it was like if any one of them took one more step, they'd all fall off into a cliff.

It never ceased to amaze Frank how much their lives had changed. They were a picture perfect family, the American dream, so to speak. A mom, a dad, and two sons who made good grades, played sports and got along.

And then it happened.

Sure, they'd been kidnapped before – but never this bad. Nobody had ever managed to cut to the heart of the family before, but Mark Anderson, he had waltzed into their lives and torn down their entire protection system, leaving them barely standing and completely on the edge.

Oh, yes, life had changed, and Frank wondered if they could ever manage to get back what they had, but deep down he truly doubted that things could ever be the same.

There was no going back from what happened.

A/N Review, please.