Summary: Joseph Hardy ran away from home at fifteen when his world became too much for him. He changes his last name gets a job and begins taking night classes. Two years later he is employed by a man who has no idea that Joe is his little brother and Joe intends to keep it that way in order to keep his new life the way it is. But how can he? To make my story work there is a two year age difference in between the boys, but they were still close. Slightly AU I guess.

Chapter One

Joe sighed angrily and kicked a rock as he walked home. His girlfriend, Iola, had just dumped him which seriously sucked. He glanced at his watch just to be sure that he had enough time to walk home slowly before six thirty which was when he had promised to be home. As long as nothing went wrong, which happened pretty often, he should be fine.

Suddenly he was aware of something going on in an alleyway nearby. The forms of two hulking men leaned over a frail old woman who clutched her purse to her chest. Joe began to sprint silently down the alley, pressing a finger to his lips when the elderly woman notices him.

"Hand it over," the first hood growled. "Nobody's around to help you."

Joe chose just then to punch the hood hard in the jaw. Joe was much younger and several inches smaller than the hoods, but he had the element of surprise on his side and he packed a hard punch. Spinning on his heel his punched the other hood in the throat and he feel onto the ground, gasping until he hit his head against the concrete. Another punch to the first hood knocked him out as well and Joe moved to check on the old woman.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" Joe asked. The woman nodded.

"Thank you young man," she said. She then walked away towards her apartment. Not sure what to do, Joe pulled out his cell phone and dialed Con Riley's number. Within ten minutes the officer was there to pick up the two hoods.

"Thanks Joe," he said. "You better get home to your folks now."

Joe nodded and glanced at his watch, it was already past six thirty, but maybe his mother would be out and his father wouldn't be home yet so he could escape unpunished, it wasn't really his fault after all. He took off running.

But when he got home he was facing his angry mother wielding a spatula. "I don't even want to hear it," she growled as Joe opened his mouth to explain the situation to his mother. "Just go to your room and we'll talk when your father is home."

Since his mother wouldn't listen Joe obeyed mentally deciding that he would tell his father what happened once he got home. Hearing his name, Joe paused outside of his brother's door. Realizing that Frank was on the phone he started to go to his room, but heard something that made him freeze in his tracks.

"Listen Phil," Frank said. "You can't tell him because Joe doesn't know. When Joe was two we adopted him, he's not my real brother. His real last name is," Frank paused trying to recall it from the few brief conversations he'd had with his mom and dad years ago, "it was Howlton." Frank was quiet for a moment as Phil spoke. "Yeah, sometimes I wish I was still an only child. Joe's so much trouble."

At that Joe ran to his room and threw himself onto his bed. He was adopted? Frank wanted to be an only child? That was a lot for the fifteen year old to take in at once.

"Hey Joe," Laura called up the stairs after several moments. "Go get the mail for me."

Joe numbly rose and went to grab the mail, glad for an excuse to be out of the house and in the fresh evening air. As he reached the mailbox Fenton car pulled into the driveway and Fenton went into the house. Joe opened the screen door quietly, unnoticed by his parents who continued talking as he listened.

"Sometimes I can't believe we raised that boy," Fenton said. Joe felt his heart pang. Why didn't they trust that he had a good reason for being late? "Why isn't he more like Frank?" The pang in his head increased and Joe could feel his eyes water slightly. "I'm not proud to admit it, but lately I've been wishing we only had one son."

That did it. Joe let the screen door close, dropped the mail onto the porch, turned, and ran as hard and fast as he could.

"I'm heading up to Hamilton County. You need a lift to anywhere on the way to there?" a driver asked the blond teen. Joe nodded.

"A lift to Hamilton County would be great," he said, deciding that there was as good of place as any to run away to and certainly not were his dad and brother would expect him to go. The driver unlocked the doors and let Joe climb in. Emotionally and physically exhausted, Joe quickly fell asleep.

Fenton Hardy might not have heard the screen door close, but he did hear the honk of a car as it swerved to avoid the teenager who was blinded by tears. Fenton went to the doorway and stuck his head out. All he saw was Joe disappearing out of the neighborhood.

"Joe ran off. I think he heard me," he admitted as he reentered the house. Two hours later he was getting nervous. He reached for the phone to tell Con Riley to keep an eye out for the teen when it rang. Fenton looked at it funnily when he saw that it was Riley calling him.

"Hello?" he said into the receiver.

"Hello Fenton," Con said. "I was just calling to thank Joe for helping me out with the muggers today."

"Muggers?" Fenton said, a feeling of dread growing in his stomach. "When was this?"

"Around six, six thirty," Con said. "He took off running for home so I figured I should make sure he wasn't in any trouble."

"Con, I may have done something horrible," Fenton admitted. He then told Con the whole story. Frank came down stairs just as he was finishing up. Frank moaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Dad, some of this is my fault too," Frank said. Without leaving out any details he told the story of himself telling Phil about Joe's being adopted. Laura simply cried into her hands as she remembered the look on Joe's face as he attempted to explain why he was late to his mother who was refusing to listen to her baby as he tried to tell her about fighting off muggers.

Two Years Later

Joseph Hardy was now legally Joseph Jacobs who lived in an apartment in the 'bad part' of town being as it was all he could afford. He still couldn't believe that a year ago he had gotten a job from his older brother who had no clue who he was. Joe's hair had gotten darker so that it looked like it was light brown with blond streaks and his eyes were bluer and he had gotten taller and more muscular doing odd jobs, but he didn't think that it would be enough to keep Frank from recognizing him. But a year apart and thinking he would never see Joe again had done wonders. And Joe's face was covered in some bandages that an old woman had given him when she saw how cut up Joe was. The blond could still vividly remember talking to Frank the day he had gotten his job. Joe had been sleeping in an abandoned factory again and, thinking he was alone, had sung quietly to himself. Frank had heard and admitted came to talk to him

"I think you would be perfect for a… opening my company has," Frank had said. "I run a musical recording studio and we have several songs written, but need an artist to preform them. It would be strictly recording songs for now, nothing else. And of course, sense you're a minor we'd have to get your parents' permission," Frank said. Joe had leapt to his feet then.

"Forget it," he said. Frank looked at him curiously and blocked the exit with his shoulder. "I ran away," Joe admitted. "I can't go back to my parents to get there permission."

"That's okay," Frank said softly. "We can work around it."

"You know this is going to scar, right?" Joe said gesturing to the bandage that went from the bottom of his jaw to just below his eyebrow. Some crazy homeless man had found Joe sleeping in the same abandoned factory as him and had taken a knife and cut his face. Joe woke up immediately, but his face was already messed up and the man started stabbing him.

"It'll be fine," Frank said. "If it makes you feel better it'll give you the bad boy look."

When Joe read over some of the songs and looked up from where he was sitting at Frank. "Who wrote these?" he asked.

Frank hesitated then spoke, "My little brother wrote half of them. He wrote them then mailed them to us after he ran away. The rest I wrote for him." Joe was shocked to hear that, but he was Joe Jacobs now and there was nothing he could do about it.

So Joe had sung the songs that he and Frank had written and he was grinning by the end.

"That was great Joe," Frank had said with a smile. "Why don't we run by your place so we can get this all fixed up?"

"Umm…," Joe said. He really didn't want his new boss to know that he was homeless if he hadn't figured it out from Joe singing in the abandoned factory. "How about we just do it here?"

Frank shrugged. "Most people prefer to sign everything at home, but suit yourself." So Joe had read the contact and signed. He knew that it was possible that his brother would recognize him eventually, but Joe was homeless and every spare dime he had went into paying for night classes. He needed some money for food.

One of Joe's favorite songs to sing was one of the songs he had mailed to his family with no return address on it.

"I wake up every evening

With a big smile on my face

And it never feels out of place.

And you're still probably working

At a 9 to 5 pace

I wonder how bad that tastes

When you see my face

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

When you walk my way

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

Now where's your picket fence love

And where's that shiny car

Did it ever get you far?

You never seem so tense, love

Never seen you fall so hard

Do you know where you are?

Truth be told I miss you

Truth be told I'm lying

When you see my face

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

When you walk my way

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

If you find a girl that's worth the damn and treats you well

Then she's a fool you're just as well hope it gives you hell

Hope it gives you hell

Tomorrow you'll be thinking to yourself

Where did it all go wrong?

But the list goes on and on

Truth be told I miss you

Truth be told I'm lying

When you see my face

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

When you walk my way

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

If you find a girl that's worth the damn and treats you well

Then she's a fool you're just as well hope it gives you hell

Now you'll never see

What you've done to me

You can take back your memories

They're no good to me

And here's all your lies

If you look me in the eyes

With the sad, sad look

That you wear so well."

This was when Joe and the band had started shouting instead of singing. Joe could see Frank with his head tilted back and his eyes closed, but a smile was flickering at the corner of his mouth.

When you see my face

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

When you walk my way

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell

If you find a girl that's worth the damn and treats you well

Then she's a fool you're just as well hope it gives you hell."

Joe went back to singing normally, but the band echoed him in shouts.

When you see my face

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell (hope it gives you hell)

When you walk my way

I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell (hope it gives you hell)

When you hear this song and you sing along well you'll never tell

And you're the fool I've just as well I hope it gives you hell

When you hear this song I hope that it will give you hell

You can sing along I hope that it puts you through hell."

So Joe was a singer. And the surprising thing was how much he enjoyed it. He was almost finished working on the album that they had been working on ever since they started. All that was left to do was a music video that would be downloadable to computers and iPods.

Frank and Joe had agreed on the music video because the song was written by Joe and even though Frank didn't know it Joe Jacobs was Joe Hardy. The music video was about a teen (played by Joe) running away from his family (played by Frank and a female who working in the company and had some experience) after his older brother stabs him (which would supposedly explain how Joe got the scar which had been covered up with makeup during the first part of the song).

And when the album went out it made the top 100 to the bands excitement. The band, the studio, the producers, and Joe split the money. Most of Joe's went into night school and food so he rented a cheap apartment in an area where it would be a bad idea to leave a car unattended. (Luckily Joe didn't have a car)

Joe had a new life as a singer and he was perfectly happy just having his brother as a co-worker. And as the youngest in the band he was automatically the baby and anyone who had a problem with him ended up beat up or cussed out.

It's really too bad everything had to change.