Special thanks to Red Hardy and KCS for reviewing the last chapter.
Disclaimer: Don't own anyone except for the horribly insane Thomas and unidentified goons.
This is SO boring, thought Joe.He was sitting on his mattress, the same mattress that he had slept on for the last two nights. He had just made his left and right hands compete against each other in a game of "rock/paper/scissors" and his left hand beat his right hand 20-17. Getting up, he stretched his arms over his head and silently jogged in place.
As far as kidnappings went, this one wasn't horrible. Food and water had been brought to them twice a day. One of the goons had actually gone out of his way to slip Frank an ice pack on the way back from one of his bathroom trips. "I ain't doing this 'cause I care about you or him," he growled when Frank had started to grudgingly thank him. "I just don't want to deal with hospital visits and that kind of crap." But there was still Dad. Dad… Joe turned to look at him.
Fenton had hardly spoken since Thomas had come in the first night. He had just stared listlessly at nothing in particular and only acknowledged either of his sons when they made a concentrated effort to talk to him. He did get up and walk around the room once in a while, but the blank expression never left his face.
Frank and Joe could only talk to each other in hushed whispers so they didn't disturb Fenton. Neither of them had any idea who Thomas was or how their mother could be implicated in any of this. Although both of them could think of ways to try and escape, they were not sure their father was up to it, and leaving him was out of the question. Besides, if they tried by themselves and failed to escape, it would be Fenton who would suffer the consequences before they could return for help. Frank was now sitting with his back against the wall and his elbows on his knees in front of him. The grim set of his jaw and the rigid posture of his back told Joe that Frank was far from resigned and would keep fighting. That's my brother!
Frank watched Joe try to work off some steam. He was surprised that Joe had been able to keep a hold of his temper for this long, even though he knew that it was mostly out of concern for their father that Joe had not tried to punch a hole in the wall. He couldn't blame Joe if he did. For both of them, it was not knowing the why that was the most baffling. Sooner or later, most criminals couldn't help but divulge their reasons and motives. Thomas seemed to know more about their lives than they did, but had not told them. And their Dad was off in his own world and currently inaccessible. If this continued too much longer, Frank would seriously begin to consider putting his own fist through the wall.
The door to their small room opened and Thomas walked in and headed straight for Fenton. His bodyguards moved into the room and glared at Frank and Joe, but did not try to restrain them. The message was clear: Back off!
"They've just finished robbing the bank," said Thomas gloatingly. "I knew it would be easy to get her to cooperate."
"They?!" Joe blurted out.
"Your mother, Miss Shaw and Miss Bender," answered Thomas without looking at him. "I daresay they had some fun."
"Fun!" exclaimed Frank jerking to his feet and taking a step forward, ignoring the muscular guy who put out a hand to stop him, "What did you drag her into this for, you leave her out of this!"
Thomas didn't even bother to respond and addressed himself to Fenton: "Since she actually behaved herself for once, your sons will be released tomorrow. If you give her up right now, you will be released, too."
"You're lying," Fenton finally said. His voice was low and unsteady, but it grew stronger. "You're going to kill me anyway. All of us."
" No, no, you don't understand," Thomas said sounding genuinely frustrated. "I need to do this to be able to move on. Thanks to you and her, my father died while he was still in prison. I didn't even know that he died and could only visit his grave. After that night on the pier, I woke up in a hospital two years after he was arrested. It took another entire year for me to get part of my memory back, after which he was dead. It was only a year ago that I remembered who both of you were. I've seen her face every night before I go to sleep for over 20 years, but she was only a nameless beauty. You were only the mysterious guy who stole her away from me; I could never remember either of your names or your particular face until a year ago. Since then, I've been waiting for this moment." He looked extremely satisfied with himself as in his mind he saw his vision fulfilled and stared at Fenton. "Acknowledge that she's mine. That's all I want. That's all I need to get on with my life. And then, I'll finally be free."
Fenton thought back to a night years earlier. A night when he had lost all hope, but Laura had come through for him. "She will come for me," he said firmly. "I'm never giving her up willingly. She's not mine to give."
Brown eyes met green and the green eyes wavered. The brown eyes held strength that came from such faith and devotion that the envy and anger in the green eyes could not overcome. But Thomas continued on and softly and beseechingly tried to make his point. "I woke up in a sterile white room. It was torture, Fenton. There was nothing to focus on, only the constant buzz of those awful machines. Then I saw a flash of blue. Those understanding blue eyes brought me back. They gave me the strength to get out of that hospital bed and keep living every day. Now, just try to imagine how I felt when I remembered that not only did Laura hate me –"
"If I recall correctly, she tried to kill you," interrupted Fenton angrily. "We both thought she had succeeded. Don't feed me some crap –"
"Not only did she hate ME!" yelled Thomas, "but she married my enemy and had two brats who followed in his footsteps instead of being the rightful heirs to the Camarazzi legacy." Thomas turned around to face Frank and Joe. "Embrace what should have been your birthright," he commanded. "Join me and I'll let your father go."
"Really?" asked Joe sarcastically. "Let me think, join an insane madman and go down with him after Dad catches us? I think I'll pass on that."
"Frankie boy? I've heard you're twice as talented as your mother. I could provide a much more valuable outlet for your skills than the pitiful government jobs you're hoping to get."
"No one calls me Frankie boy. I prefer to work for the good guys anyway, thank you."
Thomas stepped backwards toward the door and surveyed the three united men who were all staring furiously at him. "Have it your way then," he muttered. "I can't wait to see Laura's face when I put three bullets into your heads tomorrow!"
The door slammed, leaving the three Hardys locked in once again.
Fenton Hardy laughed. It was a laugh of relief and exultation. In the darkness he could feel Frank and Joe moving toward him, both of them thinking that he had finally cracked.
"Don't worry," he said in his normal voice. "I'm ok." He could feel Frank and Joe's immense relief and realized how much his behavior had troubled them. "I'm sorry," he added regretfully. As a father, it was his responsibility to protect them and he had failed miserably. "I should have told you two what was going on earlier, maybe both Laura and I should have."
"Forgiven, Dad" said Joe smiling shyly. "So what gives?"
Gritting his teeth Fenton started with a phone call he received shortly after becoming a private investigator that brought him to Philadelphia. He mentioned the meeting with "Joie" at the museum and those hours he spent trying to figure out how the thieves were going to rob the museum, and how all of his leads kept turning into nothing. And how he met this woman who made him feel like a whole person and not only a detective. And –
"Wait," said Frank harshly. "Mom's a thief who worked with a gang?"
"She was," answered Fenton calmly. "But not anymore."
"You know as well as I do that people don't change," his son answered.
"Frank," Joe interjected. "If Callie oh, I don't know, stole something, would you –"
"But she didn't just make a mistake!" Frank replied. "She spent years of her life affiliated with these people."
"You love her and you would immediately assume it was a mistake. Iola was my entire life. If she had murdered someone, I would have still loved her and forgiven her. Why is it so hard to accept that mom made some very bad decisions in her life before we were born? "
"Because all this time, both of you lied to us!" Frank shouted at Fenton. "You raised us to always tell the truth, to know right from wrong, to help other people, and now I find out that the great Fenton Hardy has a wife for a criminal and is a hypocrite to boot!"
"Frank," said Fenton. "If you choose to turn your back on us after you have heard the entire story, I won't stop you. But there are a few things you need to know. Do you remember when you came home your first year in college after having such a hard time with your computer science course?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Be patient! I told you that I would have a professional colleague look at the textbook to see if they could make the instructions easier to understand."
"Uh-huh. Then you mailed me those notes a week later that explained the book clearly. There were about fifty pages of them. That's the only reason I passed the class."
"There was no colleague, Frank. It took your mother six solid days to write up those notes."
"What?!"
"Because of our looks, everyone assumes that you and I have most everything in common. And while we have similarities, I'm a dork with computers. Half of the time, I can barely turn them on! That's why I still rely on my paper files. You and mom are the computer geniuses. And don't for a minute think that she's never secretly helped me on cases every once in a great while."
"If that's true," said Joe. "Why haven't you told us this before now?"
"As for that," said Fenton, "she needs to tell you herself. I wanted to tell you, but it was her decision." His face left no room for argument.
"Looks like she won't get the chance," said Frank gloomily. "Joe and I have been sharpening our forks with a loose pebble and on the edge of the bedposts and planned to overpower them when they took us out to go to the bathroom, but they won't be back before tomorrow."
"She will," Fenton said confidently. "She came for me once, and she'll come for me again." He decided not to press his luck by mentioning that, judging from what Thomas had said, Callie and Vanessa would probably show up as well. He wisely changed the subject and reverted back to his tale.
"Hang on Dad," said Joe an hour later, "She didn't believe you when you tried to warn her, but earlier you said that she tried to kill Thomas?"
Fenton nodded and picked up the story again…
