Thank you so much to those couple of people who gave me feedback for the last chapter. Would really appreciate some from the others who are reading if you feel able. Always good for the soul. I'd love to hear what you think. :-)

Dawn x

Chapter 2

Landing with a slap of his bare feet on the inner deck, Joe stripped his ruined t-shirt off and threw it into an unruly mound on the floor. "Oh, hi Frank. Look at the state of me – look at my hair dude, and my wallet!" He held it up in disgust and threw it towards his brother to examine before inspecting his chafed and cut wrist, flexing his fingers. "Won't be long, going to take a shower, make yourself a coffee or something. Do me one, would ya? I've had one hell of a day!"

After snatching the wallet out of the air, Frank amused eyes followed Joe as he stomped into the bathroom, his other fingers tickling Rufus-the-Cat under the chin who was haunched on his knee.

Joe was standing at the basin, studying his slightly inflamed ear and burned hair before his eyes opened wide agog at the implication of who was sitting in one of his La-Z-Boy chairs with Rufus on his lap. "Nah, I'm seeing things…wishful thinking!" he told himself with a headshake. Then he heard a sneeze and knew that it could not have been entirely a mirage. He knew of only one person who was allergic to cat fur, and that was Frank Hardy, his bro!

Flinging the door wide, Joe stood framed to find his brother had hit the switch on the kettle and was now mooching through his plastic first-aid box, the door to the cupboard still open.

Frank turned to Joe with that same amused expression. "Yo!" he said, using one of Joe's own favourite terms and tapped the cupboard shut.

Joe's mouth went into a series of contortions, trying to form some sort of witty retort but failing, the only thing coming out being a strangled gasp of naked astonishment.

Frank offered nothing, simply waited with his eyebrows expectantly raised.

Instead of wasting time trying to verbalise how he was feeling, Joe decided that physical assault was the way to go. He covered the short distance between them at a rush and collided urgently with his brother, squashing Frank into the counter with the force of his embrace.

Frank was made to support himself against the hardwood work surface before he could catch his balance enough as to be able to wrap his arms about Joe in return.

Joe bashed his brother enthusiastically on the back. "Man I missed ya! When did you get back?" he asked, pulling back with an uncontrollably wide grin.

"About two hours ago. Went to my apartment to drop off my gear and then came straight over here."

They were both beaming at one another, eyes roving each other's faces.

"Do Mom and Dad know yet? Is Nancy with you? What happened with your knee? How come the scars on your face aren't so noticeable, what did you do? Are you here for keeps?" Joe blurted out in a torrent of words.

Frank burst out laughing. "One at a time, bro! Go and get yourself cleaned up first and I'll tell you what I've been up to. Your jeans are starting to soak me – what have you been doing?"

"Sorry," Joe stepped back. "Been on a solo project, got conked, handcuffed, held prisoner, nearly engulfed in flames and blown up, drowned…you know the drill…doesn't matter, who gives a crap?" He stopped to catch his breath and slow himself down before moving forward to give another briefer hug, forgetting about his wet jeans again. "So if I hit the shower, you'll still be here when I come out?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Joe shrugged, went to sort himself out a change of clothes in the bedroom and then returned for his shower, his eyes barely leaving his brother who was still busying himself about the kitchenette by laying absorbent paper towels out having had the same thoughts about the sodden dollar notes. Joe could still barely believe he was here!

"Quit staring at me," Frank said eventually. "I can feel your eyes boring a hole into my back. I told you, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not an apparition"

Joe laughed and entered the bathroom again. Shortly, he returned refreshed but still prodding at his hair.

Frank had finished laying all the cash out on the counter top. "I couldn't save the top couple of bills, but the rest are salvageable."

"Thanks."

"Come here," Frank commanded and turned to the first aid kit.

Joe approached, not quite sure what Frank was proposing, but second-guessing his intention once his saw the bottle of hydrogen peroxide in his hand. Frank unscrewed the lid and tipped some out into a cotton pad and lifted up Joe's hand to start dabbing at the abrasions left by the handcuff.

Joe grimaced as it stung. "Always the big brother, always looking after me," he remarked wryly.

"That's my job," Frank agreed. "Always will be, apparently! Too ingrained for me to do anything about it, even if I wanted to, which I don't. Suits me just fine."

"That makes both of us, then."

Staring at his brother again Joe had to admit that the first impression he was getting was that all seemed calm. The storm that had been raging behind his brother's eyes three months ago appeared to have been extinguished or had blown itself out. Either way, it was a very familiar Frank Hardy in his kitchen.

Frank finished what he was doing and set the bottle down. "Here—" he said next and unhooked a St Christopher from his neck. It was the necklace that Joe had loaned Frank before he had left for Seattle. The pendant that Joe's first love, Iola, had given to him. "You can have this back now, I don't need it anymore."

"No, Dude, you don't need to—" Joe started to object.

"—Yes, I do. It worked, I don't need it now." Sincerely holding Joe's gaze, Frank dropped the pendant into his brother's palm, closed the fingers around it and pushed it firmly away. "Seriously. Look after it though, that thing is powerful."

And then Joe knew for sure that the supposed calm behind those intense, dark eyes was not an illusion. His brother really was, for want of a better word…cured. So he accepted the pendant back with a quiet nod and went to put it back in its rightful home in the wooden box atop his bedside cabinet, his heart hammering so hard it was in danger of breaking free of its boned cage.

Frank was waiting with coffees when Joe returned, handing across one of the steaming cups and then leading him back to the La-Z-Boy chairs. Frank settled down in the one that did not have Rufus curled up on it. He was not limping any longer.

"I've just gotta make a call," Joe said, lifting up his cordless phone and speed dialled Anderson's number. While he was waiting for James to answer, he shooed Rufus from the chair so he could sit down. He couldn't see Frank's walking stick.

"The blond one?" James asked.

"Yeah, it's me. Look, something's come up, I'm going to have to postpone until tomorrow."

"That's not exactly convenient, Joe. The Chief is going nuts, he's got the press crawling all over his ass, the warehouse owners are screaming blue murder and we can only hold this guy for questioning for so long. Collig's likely to make me and Bach come out there and pull you in for withholding evidence—"

"I know, I know! I'm sorry, dude. Can't be helped. Cover for me, will you? This is important."

"How am I supposed to do that when I'm not even at my desk?"

"I dunno! Tell Collig I'm sick from the water I swallowed – you'll think of something – improvise. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"But—"

"—See you tomorrow."

"Joe, are you in trouble, is someone there?"

"Everything's great, I'm just a little tied up at the moment," Joe said firmly and cut the call. Frank was looking at him curiously. "Just business that can wait," He returned the phone to its cradle. "So, what's up? Have you seen Mom and Dad yet?"

"No, I wanted to come see you first, since you were the person who forced me to evaluate what was happening. To thank you, so…thanks."

Joe grinned and waved it away. "What about Nancy?"

"I just spent some time with her in River Heights and now she's agreed to stay away for a while so I can spend some time with you guys alone, since I wasn't allowed to have any sort of contact with you while I was in Seattle. She's on a case anyway."

"But you did keep in contact. You sent me e-mails."

"Yeah, but I wasn't supposed to which is why I kept 'em short." Frank said, tapping the side of his nose. "I sneaked around breaking the rules. I'm bad!"

"And?"

"And…you were right, I needed to sort myself out, talk stuff through."

"Have you?"

Frank tipped his head to one side. "Yeah," he said simply.

Joe leaned forward and swiped a high-five. "What about your knee? I don't see your stick."

"That's because I don't have it anymore. Didn't need further surgery in the end. A lot of the problems were caused because I wasn't walking right."

"What do you mean?"

"I was walking at an angle with my foot rolling. It was putting additional pressure on my kneecap. So my doctor helped to correct the foot problem, and then she gave me all these exercises I could do to strengthen up the muscles around my kneecap to compensate for the weakness. I'm back to jogging again and the Doc said I can start back with the martial arts next month."

"That's awesome!"

"Tell me about it. I was seriously starting to stress about my leg. No matter how much head therapy I got, I'd never have been able to come back to sleuthing if my knee was screwed!"

"So you're definitely comin' back to work then?"

"Try and keep me away!"

"YES!" Joe shouted and jostled Frank's chair, jerking him about and making him laugh. Rufus ran under the sofa at the hullabaloo and glared out at them, floating green orbs flashing and blinking angrily. "The Frankster is back…long live the Frankster!"

"Oh, and by the way – the Pandora Posse? They won't be back."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I took care of the problem. Trust me and don't ask any questions, okay?"

Joe went to protest, but was zapped with such a dark look that he knew his brother was telling the truth. "I believe you."

Frank's lips lifted into a half, lopsided smile and he leaned forward to try and coax Rufus out from under his hiding place. He sat back up after failing to tempt the ginger cat out to find Joe's finger pointing at his cheek.

"That's amazing. How did you manage to get the scars to fade so quickly?"

Frank froze and went red, silently contemplating. Eventually after running his fingers through his hair, he said: "Promise you won't rib me about it?"

"Frank! You can't make me promise that, I'll never be able to hold it in!"

"This is personal, bro."

"Okay, I'll try not to, but seriously…spill, dude!"

"I…I had a chemical peel to speed things up." Frank flinched.

Joe did not laugh, and Frank's face showed all the signs of disbelief at his brother's control.

"I don't think that's something I want to laugh about. Whatever it took is good enough for me. Doesn't matter how you went about it." Joe leaned closer. "They did a good job, you'd never know the scars were even there now."

"The nerve damage is probably irreparable though. Doc said it might recover a little as time goes on, but I don't think it will. But I'm told the smile thing is endearing, sexy even."

"Who told you that?"

Frank grinned wolfishly at Joe down his nose. "Girls, brother, girls! And plenty of them. You got yourself some stiff competition."

"What did her guide dog say?" Joe shot back.

"Doggy said to say hi to you and started drooling. I'm in your league now."

Joe started jostling Frank's seat again, rough-housing him. "In your dreams, Pal. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times, no woman can resist Joe Hardy's special smile and smooth caresses!"

"Well I got news for you, brother, I've got my own special smile now and it's a winning one…and I've never had any complaints about my technique!"

"You wish! I've never seen someone so disappointed as Nancy."

Frank reached and yanked Joe closer by the shirt so they were nose to nose. "Cheap shot. Feeling threatened, Joe? You should. Have you seen your hair lately, scrubbing-brush-boy? Tall, dark and brooding is in this season, not stumpy—"

The front door suddenly burst open, making the brothers jump apart and laughter to cease. Joe jerked back up straight in his seat and twisted to look towards the noise, Frank half stood.

The brothers found themselves facing the barrel of a gun that was being aimed straight at them.