Chapter 4

Fenton heard a soft knock at his office door, glanced up and called, "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Frank with a pale worried expression on his face.

His father frowned with concern and asked, "What's the matter Frank?"

Watching Frank as he collapsed in a chair, burying his head in his hands he knew it was not good.

Making his way to his oldest son, he gently asked, "Frank what is it son?"

Frank glanced up at his father the paleness still there as he shakily began to explain softly, "Dad, I – I think Joe is being used by his teacher. He – I got him to explain everything to me. His teacher is physically abusing him dad."

The oldest son watched as his father's face paled a little bit, and his father instantly demanded to know what Joe had told him.

Going on to explain about Joe's situation at school, Fenton frowned not liking one bit of what he was hearing.

When Frank finished, his father let out a sigh, pinching the edge of his nose with his fingers in a stressed motion.

Frank spoke up again, "Dad, what are we going to do? We can't let this bastard anywhere near Joe I won't let him continue to hurt my brother. This has to be stopped. There have to be other students that have faced physical abuse with this guy. Dad, we have to stop him."

After a few moments his father replied with an angry sigh, "We will get him Frank. I promise you. Let me contact Con Riley and see what we can do about this. Mean while where is your brother now?"

Frank answered, "He's upstairs sleeping. He worked himself into exhaustion telling me what happened so I tucked him in, and came down."

His father nodded and replied, "Well good he needs to rest, and not stress about this too much. And I know from experience you won't want to leave your brother alone?"

Joe's brother chuckled grinning a bit replying, "Are we that obvious?" Then Frank sobered a bit and added with a sigh, "Of course not. He's my little brother. I'll be here as long as he needs me. I'm not leaving him by himself for the time being. We'll stay home for a while so he can rest, and I'll be in his room with him. Speaking of which I'd better go check on him."

With that the older boy headed out of his father's office, climbing up the stairs to check in on his younger brother.

Quietly entering the room, Frank approached the side of the bed, carefully observing his brother for any sign of disturbance in the boy's sleeping pattern in case of a nightmare, or any contributing signs.

Thinking everything was fine for a moment suddenly he heard a whimper coming from Joe, and instantly crouched down in front of his little brother. Hushing him softly brushing hair back from his eyes he once again began whispering words of comfort.

Suddenly he heard a quiet murmur of relief from Joe, "Fr-Frank?"

Frank smiled warmly, nodding gently as he saw his brother's eyes crack open slightly, and whispered soothingly, "Ssssshhh little brother I'm right here. You're okay. How you feeling kiddo?"

Joe nodded and replied quietly, "A little better now. Were you here the whole time?"

His brother shook his head and replied, "I stepped out for a few minutes while you were resting to talk to dad. Everything is going to be okay Joe. We'll fix this okay? I'll be with you every step of the way. Dad is contacting Con to inform him of what's going on. Maybe he can give some input as to what we could do. In the meantime you hungry?"

The younger Hardy nodded opening his eyes so he was fully awake, practically leaping out of bed exclaiming, "I thought you'd never ask Frank come on."

Frank laughed following after his little brother down to the kitchen, he reached out to ruffle his hair affectionately. Shaking his head in mock hopelessness he teased, "Joseph what are we going to do with you. I don't even know why I bother asking such a question. Come on let's go get a bite to eat."

Joe grinned happily and replied with a laugh, "And you love me for it. Now let's go! I'm not getting any younger here. And I am starving!"

Under his breath Frank muttered, "What else is new?"

But then he heard Joe reply, "I heard that."

Frank laughed and said, "Well good that was the point little brother. Now sit down what do you want to eat?"

He watched as Joe thought about it for a moment with a smile. Then he heard Joe say, "Just throw me together a sandwich."

The older Hardy just rolled his eyes good naturedly, chuckling, "Don't ever change Joe." Throwing together a sandwich for Joe, he grabbed a plate and handed it to him.

"Thanks Frank." His brotherly warmly smiled at him replying softly, "No problem little brother."

Enjoying a peaceful lunch together, the phone rang and Frank called, "I'll get it." Jumping up from his seat he grabbed the phone.

"Hello?"

"Oh yeah hey Biff."

"Yeah sounds great I'll talk to Joe, and maybe we'll see you down there."

After Frank had hung up he headed back for the kitchen. When he walked in, Joe glanced up at his older brother.

"Who was on the phone?"

Frank smiled and replied, "It was Biff he wanted to know if we wanted to hang out with the guys down at the park today what do you say?"

His younger brother grinned and excitedly answered, "Yeah let's finish up and go. I want to get out of here."

Shaking his head and laughing at his brother's excitement, Frank shook off his earlier concerns putting them behind him for now. Looking at his brother's mischievous twinkling blue eyes replied, "Okay but don't choke on your food. Take your time eating and then we'll go alright kiddo?"

Watching his brother give him a quick nod, the boys polished off their snacks. Joe practically jumped out of his chair ready to go. Frank laughed again and said, "Take it easy Joe. Give me a minute make sure I have the keys and stuff."

Grabbing the keys off the hook, Frank smiled at his younger brother and asked, "Ready to go?" His brother nodded and Frank ruffled his hair as they headed out the door.

As the boys got into the van slamming their doors, buckling their seat belts, neither brother had spoken a word.

Frank placed the key into the ignition as he thought to himself that he would rather Joe have fun today, and get his mind off the situation at hand, and put it into the back of his mind.

Gripping the wheel tightly he continued thinking he will not allow this bastard to take away the last bit of Joe that still existed. No way little brother, no way are you going back down that road again.

Noticing the silence as he drove along, Frank chanced a glance at his younger sibling, and watched for a moment with concern as he stared blankly out the window.

Softly the older boy reached out and placed a comforting hand on Joe's shoulder squeezing gently and asked, "Joe you okay little bro?"

The boy barely even acknowledged the question as he shrugged slightly, and the excitement was no longer there. Frank frowned with heartfelt concern for his brother, but did not want to ruin this day for Joe.

Forcing himself to do something, to say anything to bring his brother out of his frozen emotional state he asked, "How is Van doing? You guys have any plans made for later yet?"

Joe nodded and murmured weakly, "She's good. We planned to go out tonight just to a movie or something at least."

Frank thought to himself 'good that will give me time to talk to dad without Joe becoming suspicious of my behavior.'

Placing this thought in the forefront of his mind Frank nodded with a bright smile. He replied happily for his younger brother, "Good Joe that will give you both time to be alone together for a while. I have some stuff to do tonight at home, maybe I'll call Callie later or something."

His younger brother gave him a skeptical look or something and asked curiously, "homework or something?" Frank just replied as cautiously as possible, not wanting it to distract his brother from relaxing for a while, "Nah just some stuff I need to talk to dad about and such. Don't worry about it. You and Van go and have a good time seriously."

Arriving at the park Frank found a parking spot for the van and pulled in. Together the two siblings stepped out, locked the van and headed for the park.

In Frank's mind the only thing that concerned him now was keeping an eye on Joe, and vowed that tonight he was going to try to take this bastard down. Anyone who harmed his little brother in any way had to answer to him.