Chapter 14

The privacy curtain was pulled around the bed, but Frank could hear Joe's agitated cries and Bonnie's rough voice telling him to be quiet.

"It's just a bath, not a firing squad, for god's sake." she could be heard from behind the curtain.

Frank dashed in the room, within two long strides pulled the curtain open some, and saw Bonnie with a sponge, scrubbing Joe's backside with his bottom showing.

"What the hell are you doing?" Frank yelled with anger in his eyes.

"He needs a bath." Bonnie spat at him, her gaze never backing down. "He stinks."

Frank could feel his blood getting hot. He knew he was close to losing his last nerve. As calmly as he could, but punctuating every word through gritted teeth, and with deadly venom he looked her in the eye so there would be no mistaking his intensions.

"Get…out…now."

Bonnie could feel the temperature getting colder at that moment. Being someone who was an in-control-person as she was, she tried to stand her ground. However, the look in Frank's eyes left no room for her to wonder what would happen if she stayed. She knew she was treading on thin ice. Her gaze dropped. Hearing Joe whimpering and feeling Frank's deadly stare; she dropped the sponge and left the room.

In another two strides, Frank made it to Joe's side and covered him up. He gently turned him over, talking to him in soothing tones the whole time.

"Its okay, Joey. She's gone. I'm here. I'm not leaving you again."

Joe's face was red and sweaty and he was chewing on his fists. It took Frank the better part of a half hour to calm Joe down enough to finish his impromptu bed bath.

Joe recognized the voice and started listening to the soft baritone words. The more he calmed down the sleepier he got. By the time Frank was done redressing his brother, Joe was sound asleep.

After throwing out the bath water and cleaning up the room, he called for someone to have Natalie paged to Joe's room.

"What's wrong?" Natalie asked, as she entered. "You look like you're upset."

"Oh, I'm fine now compared to what I was a half hour ago." Frank answered, running a hand through his thick hair and agitatedly pacing the floor.

"What happened?" Natalie asked again, putting a hand on his upper arm to get his attention. Frank stopped and looked at her.

"Bonnie." he hissed. Then he started to pace again. Natalie let him go for a while until he somewhat calmed down. Then he stopped to look at her. "She was giving Joe a bath, and not very nicely."

"What?! Why?"

"I don't know. She knows she's not supposed to be in here."

"I imagine she scared Joe."

Frank was so upset he could not begin to explain what he saw or how he felt. He kept looking at Natalie and opening his mouth to say something but gave up. He stalked over towards the window and looked out.

Natalie had taken the ear thermometer out of the bedside table's drawer. She gently put it in Joe's ear for a few seconds and when it beeped, she read it.

The beeping noise made Frank turn around, curiously looking for the source of the noise. He watched Natalie and when she looked up at him, she saw the quizzical look on his face.

"He's got a slight temp. 99.7"

Frank swore softly under his breath and came over to the bedside. He could tell Joe was still sleeping. 'Exhausted.' Frank thought, sympathetically. Then his sympathy turned to anger when he thought of Bonnie. He started looking around. He knew she had to have been in there for a reason. Something was not right.

"What are you looking for?" asked Natalie.

"I have no idea. But something just doesn't make sense, and I'm getting a bad feeling." Frank answered as he continued to look through drawers and behind the headboard. Natalie followed suit and started to look also even though she had no idea what they were looking for.

Ten minutes later Frank's fingers came across a small metal object on the bottom of the frame of the bed. He bent down, looked at it, and saw that it was a listening device. Mouthing a swear word he quickly got up and waved to Natalie and put his finger to his lips when she was about to speak. She frowned slightly trying to understand.

"Well, I guess there isn't anything here." he said, nonchalantly, all the while beckoning Natalie to follow him outside the room.

"I haven't found anything either." she said and followed him out, still confused.

Once out of earshot he looked around and tried to see if he could find Bonnie but she was not anywhere around.

"Look, Natalie, the room has been bugged and I'm pretty sure that Bonnie's behind it, and I think those two men are too."

"Bugged? Why, would she bug the room?
"I think she's working for my father somehow. I just wish I knew what was going

on. This is a little more complicated than abuse."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm not sure. I usually have Joe to bounce ideas off of, but that's a little impossible right now." Frank ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

"Natalie." a nurse from the station called to her. "Would you please get someone here for the rest of the shift? Bonnie walked out."

"She quit? Just like that?" Natalie asked in surprise.

"That's what she said. I could use someone now though. She left us in quite a bind."

"Sure, I'll get right on it." Natalie assured her. She then turned to Frank. "Well, one problem solved. You wont' have to see her again."

"Yeah," Frank said absently.

After Natalie had left, Frank went back to Joe's room. He took the chair after making sure all the lights were off, so as not to easily be spotted from the outside, and he sat down by the window to keep watch in case Bonnie or the two men came back. He knew it would be awhile before Joe woke up.

By the time Estelle got there for her evening shift, Frank had seen nothing suspicious. It worried him that there were people out there trying to listen in on them. He thought about removing the "bug", but, he did not want them knowing he had caught on to them yet.

"Hello Frank!" Estelle cheerfully greeted. "How was your day?"

"Would you like the condensed version or the longer one?" Frank stated, still steamed at the thought of Joe being scared and who had made him that way.

"Okay, child, come here, and bring your chair." Estelle waved him over and sat down in the overstuffed chair in the corner, her plump frame just fitting in the seat.

Frank brought the chair over and sat it down right next to Estelle. He knew she was just a middle-aged woman and no match for physical enemies that would want to hurt him and his brother. Nevertheless, the strength she drew and the overwhelming confidence she had in God, brought peace and comfort to his soul. The wisdom of things she talked about captured his attention like no other human being. She demanded respect without saying a word. Her abundance of love was just as awe inspiring as her lack of fear. So when she asked him to come sit with her, it was with extreme gratitude that she was willing to listen as he sat and conveyed everything that had happened that morning. He did not give any more information out for those men to hear but relayed just what had happened so not to arouse suspicions to them. He also told Estelle about the "bug" on a piece of paper so she knew what was going on.

The first thing Estelle did after Frank's report was to go over to Joe and feel his forehead. Then she took out the ear thermometer and took his temperature. In a few seconds it beeped and Frank glance over her arm as she showed it to him. 100.3

She frowned and went out to the nurses' station. Frank knew she would be praying the whole time He felt his brother's face. It was getting a little pink. He knew the rising temperature was due to the fact his body was trying to rid itself of an infection. He doubted all of it was caused by the agitation Bonnie had put him through since it came up so suddenly, but he also knew it did not help matters either.

"I'm sorry I didn't stay with you Joey, while that awful person was here. I'm sorry you even had to go thought that." Frank apologized through a quilt-ridden mix of emotions. He ran his fingers over slightly damp blond curls on his brother's forehead.

The same nurse that had Natalie call for a replacement for Bonnie earlier entered the room with Estelle right behind her.

"I hear Joe's got a fever."

"Yes, and he seems to be getting a little worse." Frank answered and saw that her nametag read Cheryl.

"I'll take his temperature once more and the rest of his vital signs. I want to make sure the undue stress didn't cause something else to happen." Cheryl said kindly. "And please accept my apologies for earlier. I had no idea she had even came in here."

Frank nodded solemnly. He knew that a lot of stress caused the body to have all kinds of negative reactions; immune systems would go haywire, or mysterious illnesses, rashes, urinary tract infections, etc…

After Cheryl had gotten his temperature, respirations, pulse and blood pressure, she had announced that he appeared to be in good shape. The events had just left him very tired.

"I'm going to have Estelle monitor him every half hour for the next four hours. If anything is wrong, it will show up between now an then. I will be in every hour to see how he is doing. If for some reason he gets worse, we'll transport him to the hospital."

Again, Frank nodded, watching Joe's chest slowly rise and fall with each breath.

"Thank you ma'am."

Cheryl left and Estelle came up to Frank and put an arm around his shoulders.

"That child will be fine, Frank. I'll be here the whole time. Why don't you go and get some coffee. You look like you could use a break."

"I can't leave him. I left him last time and look what happened." Frank said, shaking his head.

"Bonnie is gone. I'm here now, and if you don't relax some then you'll be in the hospital. You don't need to be so exhausted that you can't be there for Joe when he needs you. Besides, me and the Lord will make a great team looking out for your brother. Trust Him Frank to take care of him. He can do a better job of it than you, no matter how invincible we think we are."

Frank could not help it, but a faint smile came to his lips. He nodded and gave Estelle a hug.

"I'll be back. Thank you."

"Maybe get something to eat, too. I'll bet you haven't' had anything in your stomach all day."

Frank smiled and looked back at her just as he stopped at the door. He paused with his hand on the doorframe. He had peace in his heart for the first time in a long time. Then he inwardly grinned and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling as he stepped through the door. 'Heaven help the poor soul who gets in between her and the people she cares for.' She was the one person he was truly going to miss.