A/n: I realize that this took a little longer to post. No excuses, just apologies. However I did notice that Cabin had dropped to the very last story on the first page and being vain I didn't want it to end up on pg 2. For those of you waiting for news of Joe.. sorry. you'll have to wait a little longer. I had wanted to go in a different direction, giving each sub plot its' due n this chapter with the next chapter being the reunion, but that never really happened. so you get this instead, with the next chapter being full of hospital waiting room angst.

Chapter Eleven

Sam and Frank had no problem at all following the other two. It was easy when they blundered about making no attempts to hide their retreat. Broken branches and stomped grass were better than neon signs. If it weren't for the fact that it was barely above freezing and it had begin to rain again, and they were chasing a couple of half crazed idiots, Frank thought it might have been a nice walk.

Up ahead, they began to hear the sounds of their quarry as they slowly gained on them. The two men were making no attempt at stealthy retreat. "This is too easy" Sam grinned. Frank merely grunted. In his experience, when things were too easy, people ended up shot. Or worse.

"They're liable to panic and start blindly shooting, Sam" he reminded the older man. Sam's grin disappeared for a second. Then he shrugged and a look of pure unabashed glee took it's place. Frank swore he saw his brother in that look. "Oh geez, don't tell me you are enjoying this?!" he hissed in a low whisper.

"Are you kidding?! Most fun I have had in years!" Sam actually giggled like a little kid.

"That does it. When we get back I am moving your desk away from Joe's. He's a terrible influence." Frank sniffed. Sam pretended to pout for a minute before bringing back the grin. It was almost but not quite maniacal. Frank knew Sam was a professional but it was times like this he wondered just how much. He also made a mental note to ask his father about their younger days. He was reasonably sure he'd find out that Sam and Fenton were an awful lot like Frank and Joe at the same age. The thought was disconcerting. Almost like walking on on your parents when you were 11 and finding them working really hard at providing you with another younger sibling...some things you are better off not knowing. Frank gave a mental shudder and resolutely turned his attention back to the task at hand.

Up ahead, the sounds had mysteriously stopped. Sam and Frank stopped as well, taking shelter behind a copse of small trees. They were debating what to do next when all at once several distinct noises were heard. First there was a gun shot, which had both men ducking instinctively. It was followed almost immediately by an inhuman bellow of rage and pain. After that, things got distinctly.. bedlam-ish. Shouts, more bellows, another gun shot. And the most blood curdling scream either man had ever heard, and in their line of work, that was saying something.

The two were still hunkered down under cover, neither daring to break cover despite having equally burning desires to find out what was going on, when their cover was blown for them. One of the two men they had been relentlessly pursuing over the last couple of hours suddenly came barreling out of the woods as if the Devil himself was after him. He paid no heed to either Frank or Sam as he crashed blindly through the trees until he tripped over a root and smacked his head hard on the ground and lay there, bleeding and out cold.

Sam and Frank gaped in astonishment at the prone figure lying just a few feet from them. Simultaneously, they turned to each other and rose to their feet. They were still staring at the unconscious figure when they were distracted by another one of those inhuman bellows. As they each whipped around to face the origin of the sound they were shocked to see that an enormous black bear was charging them at full speed.

Both men scrambled to an ignominious retreat, nearly tripping over themselves in their haste to avoid Death By Bear. Each aimed their pathetic little pistols at the monster and fired. Neither believed they had any hope in hell of stopping the crazed beast but that didn't stop them from trying.

By some miracle, however, one bullet hit pay dirt in the form of the bear's frontal lobe, dropping it instantly. It fell with a heart stopping thud not 4 feet from Frank, who had fallen in his haste to get away and had been scrambling to avoid being run down. For a long moment nobody dared to even breathe before Sam broke the tension with a strangled laugh as he rushed over to Frank's side. "Frank! You hurt?!" After that experience, Sam Radley was quite content to go back to facing homicidal maniacs. Way safer that way. Still too in shock to speak, Frank just shook his head no. Sam flopped dramatically down on the ground beside the still traumatized younger man.

They were still in the same position when Melody came upon them several minutes later. Ben had begun to show signs of coming to, but neither Frank nor Sam had bothered to check on him. For her part, Melody stopped long enough to check for a pulse and to make sure he was no longer armed before heading over to the others. She stopped short, eyes widening in shock at the sight of the dead bear so close to where they were. "You two all right?" she asked in clipped tones as she walked closer to the carcass. Frank was seemingly in a daze but he nodded once. Sam replied in the affirmative, although he too seemed out of it. She bent down to take a closer look. "Aw hell." she sighed. The dead bear was one of the oldest in the Park, having been acquired years ago when the nearby Catskill Game Farm closed. While many of the animals had been auctioned off to either other sanctuaries or zoos , a few had been purchased by those who specialized in canned hunts. When the National Park Service found out, they attempted to recoup the animals. One of the successes was Shosko, short for Shoskoharo:wane, one of the Bear Clan Tribes of the Mohawk Indians, indigenous to the area. Shosko had been a barely weaned cub when the Park Service saved him from the same fate of his mother and after some rehabilitation, was released into the wild. He'd been a fixture in the Park ever since, siring numerous cubs of his own and establishing himself as the Great Grandaddy of the bear population. "Sorry, Old Man." she whispered. "You deserved way better than this."

Deciding to ignore the men for the time being , she instead chose to follow back along the path that Shosko had made as he chased after Ben. About a hundred yards later, she came upon what was left of Mike. It was obvious what had happened, as Mike was pretty well gutted from head to toe. Melody had seen dead bodies before, at least once a year some hiker or camper gets lost and some don't always survive. But this was too extreme even for her jaded eyes and she immediately threw up violently. It took her several minutes before she was able to straighten back up and return to where the others were.

By now, Ben had regained consciousness although he was babbling incoherently. He was sitting up, back against the tree whose root he had tripped over and he was still terrified he was about to be eaten by a bear. Sam and Frank were not having much success calming the distraught man down at all. In fact, Melody could tell as she approached that patience was wearing very thin. "Can he walk?" she growled, pointedly ignoring the subject of her inquiry. She was pale and still shaking from her earlier bout of nausea, which only fueled her disgust and contempt for the blithering idiot before her. "It'll be dark soon, the rain's picking up and dammit I wanna get out of here."

Frank and Sam heartily agreed with that pronouncement. "We can drag him along if necessary." Frank said as he reached down and none too gently hauled Ben to his feet. "Not that we aren't grateful or anything, seeing as how we actually hadn't thought enough ahead to figure out how we'd get back, but..uhh.. what are you doing here?" He asked, wary of the impact the question may have. He had noticed she was on the touchy side.

Melody bristled, just as Frank had feared, but after a moment, she sighed. "Your brother said the same thing and he made me come after you." It pained her to admit that she needed to be reminded of her duties as a Park Ranger by an obnoxious flirt, let alone one who had been shot and still managed to be more worried about others than he was about himself. "Now can we please go?!"

Sam hesitated. "What about the other one?" he asked. Didn't you find him?"

"I found what was left of him." she replied, looking decidedly queasy. Sam and Frank glanced over Ben's oblivious head at each other and gulped as the implication set in. "Are you coming, or what?!" she snapped.

"Sam, I know you are having fun and all, but I'd kinda like to make sure Joe's okay if you don't mind." Frank's tone was a trifle on the sarcastic side. Sam just grinned, and grasped Ben's other arm and began to follow Melody who had not bothered waiting for an answer to her question before resuming her trek back.

"It's a good thing she came back, Frank." Sam whispered about twenty minute slater. Dusk had given way to sunset and they were now stumbling along in the dark, one feeble beam of light from Melody's flashlight their only source of illumination. "Otherwise we'd be bear food ourselves right about now."

"Let's not dwell. And if we piss her off she may leave us here." he whispered back. If Melody overheard their muted conversation she gave no sign. Ben likewise was oblivious, content to be steered in whatever direction they chose. He never spoke, only shuddered from time to time as if he were reliving a horrific nightmare. Frank almost felt sorry for him. But then he would remember coming upon his brother, lying pale and still in the cabin and any sympathetic tendencies disappeared. He didn't know if this loser was responsible for shooting his brother and quite frankly, didn't care. Far as he was concerned he was culpable even if he wasn't the one that pulled the trigger.

After an eternity, they were back to where they had left Joe and the others. Frank was a little surprised to find that Joe had not insisted on waiting, knowing how stubborn he could be. As if reading his mind, Melody spoke. "Halloran overrode Joe. He wanted to wait til I brought you back but she and Bruce had other ideas. So I said I'd come get you only if he agreed to continue the evacuation." She turned and looked Frank straight in the eye. "I figured you'd prefer that to a welcome back party." She spoke calmly, but there was still an undercurrent of challenge in her words.

He nodded. "Yeah, thanks. Sometimes he thinks he's invincible. Gets him into trouble on occasion."

"Joe Hardy?!" Sam guffawed incredulously. "Get into trouble?! Naahhhhh." He turned at winked at Melody as he continued. "Besides I know some one else who thinks he's invincible."

Frank looked at him. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Oh gee, I dunno, seems to me I recall a certain 14 year old jumping off a roof in his back yard and breaking his arm in an attempt to prove to his little brother he was not afraid of heights."

Frank's cheeks reddened a little although in the dark no one could tell. "Well I wasn't, but Joe didn't believe me."

"So instead of doing the sane thing like climbing a tree to prove the point, you decided to give your Aunt Gertrude a heart attack by falling past her bedroom window?"

"Yeah, well..." Frank muttered but never finished. Melody just shook her head half in disgust and half in amazement and stood up from her rest. She spoke not a word but began to lead the way back to the trail and hopefully, a car.

They were in luck. Although her own truck was of course missing, Bruce's was still there, keys in the driver's seat. Frank's was also still right where he left it. After a short conversation it was decided that Melody would have the honor of transporting the hapless Ben back to town and jail, assuring the other men that she'd "Have a word or three with the Sheriff" about custody and formal charges. She took her cousin's car and the prisoner and gave directions to the airfield to Frank. "You can swing by later and get Joe's car. Since I was rudely awakened far sooner that I had anticipated and I had no sleep last night, you'll forgive me if I don't answer the door this time. I plan on being neck deep in a bubble bath by then."

They parted, with Sam thanking Melody for all her help. Frank didn't echo the sentiment, but he did proffer a hand and never winced when she eventually, grudgingly, accepted it. The directions were fairly straightforward and they soon found themselves at the airfield, only to be told that the helicopter was long gone. The controller offered to find out which hospital they had flown to. Frank accepted gratefully and was a little surprised to find out that Jack had flown directly to Bayport. "Isn't there a closer hospital?" he asked.

"Nahh, not really. Only thing we got around here is a couple of clinics. Closest real hospital is about an hour north. Far as I kin tell, Bayport was only about ten minutes more and since he was stable I guess they just decided to send him straight to his home turf so to speak." Danny Walters spoke affably. "Gotta tell ya, he was looking pretty lousy though. Bruce said sumthin' 'bout pneumonia to the Dad."

Frank groaned at that.. but whether it was because Joe was sicker than he thought, or because of the news that his father had come along, he wasn't sure. Sam gave Frank a quick pat on the shoulders. "C'mon, Frank, let's go get Joe's baby and we can be back before you know it." Thanking the genial old man for the information, Sam and Frank got back into the car and drove to Melody's house. Her truck was there, but there was no sign of Bruce's, so either she wasn't back yet, or the game of Musical Cars had already been completed. As they came around the corner to where Halloran had left the car, both men stopped short, aghast at what they saw.

Joe Hardy's beautiful Sapphire Blue Mustang, his pride and joy, his baby, his one true love( not counting Halloran Jacobs), was lying crushed underneath the splintered remains of an oak tree that had been uprooted by the storm.

A/n: I couldn't help myself, and so many of you were begging for the car to get dented. There really was a Catskill Game Farm and it really did close a little over 30 years ago. I used to go there as a kid and although I don't actually recall ever seeing black bears, they are indigenous to the Catskills so I took a little liberties. and yes when it closed the animals were auctioned off and alas some did end up being purchased for canned hunts. Again, I'm sorry for the delay in updating. Will be feeding poor starving college students( Aka Naval Academy Midshipmen) this weekend so will be busy trying not to be eaten out of house and home. Next update will prolly take at least as long as this last one. You have been warned.