Chapter 25:

"Come on, big brother, wake up," Joe murmured quietly, clasping his brother's hand.

The brothers were at Bayport General Hospital. Frank had just been out of surgery, and had been asleep for the past six hours. His condition was stable, but he had lost a lot of blood, and was rather weak.

"Stupid Callie," Joe scowled, muttering silently to himself. "If only she had called the police..." He shook his head furiously. Now that Steve had been taken into custody, he wondered if Frank would get back with her. Knowing how forgiving Frank could be if he wanted to, there was a possible chance. And knowing how much Frank loved Callie…

If he still loved Callie, Joe amended silently. And if he still hadn't gotten over her yet. He sure didn't feel generous right now, not with his brother unmoving on the bed. He sighed. Oh well, if Frank wanted her…

Exhausted, he folded his arms, resting them on the edge of the mattress and laid his head on them.

He woke up to feel something brush against his hair. He looked up sleepily. "Wha…t?" he mumbled, reaching up. A hand? Frank's hand?

"Frank! When did you wake up?" he asked, straightening up and laying Frank's hand gently back on the bed.

His brother flashed him a weak smile. "Just."

"How are you feeling?" Laura Hardy asked her son. She was sitting on the other side of the bed with the boys' father.

"Thick. Woozy," Frank replied, blinking at the light around him. "What happened?" Laying back, he closed his eyes again, and tried to ignore the pounding in his head.

"So how did you find us, Dad?" Frank asked, when he opened his eyes once more. "And how's Katie?"

Joe laughed and shook his head. "One question at a time, Frank! Geez, whatever did they dose you with?" he joked. "You seem to have gotten a dose of my impatience. Hyper!" He looked at Frank with a straight face, a mischievous gleam in his blue eyes.

"Katie… well,… she's dead…"

"What?" Frank's eyes widened. If it wasn't because he was injured, he would have bolted upright. His shoulder protested as he struggled to sit up, all color draining from his already pale face.

"Joe!" Laura reprimanded her youngest. Her husband gave an involuntary snort.

"Stop feeding your brother nonsense." Fenton placed a hand on Frank's good shoulder to restrain him from getting up. He shot Joe a reproachful glare. "Katie is not dead. She's fine." Frank slumped back onto the bed with a sigh of relief.

Joe grinned back at his father. He gave a brief sketch of what happened after Frank had blacked out, and his brother nodded. "As for how Dad found us, I have no idea," he said ruefully. They had all gotten so worried about Frank, that he had forgotten to ask.

"Well, I didn't," Fenton Hardy replied. "Little Jack did. He was looking into this case too. He obtained a list of everyone in Bayport and came across Miller's name. Obviously, he put two and two together. We were still trying to figure out where Miller took you, when Vanessa rang me on my cell, telling me that you boys might be in trouble. Speaking of that – both Shane and Steve are in police custody now. Con Riley may be along to get your statement later." Joe beamed at the mention of Vanessa's name while Frank merely nodded.

"Like your father said, Katie's fine," their mother interrupted, smiling at Frank. "She's in a room upstairs. They want to keep her here a day or two for psychological observation."

"Is she hurt?"

"She's fine, physically, except for a broken ankle and some bruises. She was still in a shock when they first brought her in, but she's recovering."

"Yeah, what Shane did to her was horrible," Frank shuddered, remembering. "Shane – he…"

"Shane will be tried as an adult, evidently," Mr. Hardy told him. "But Steve has not had his eighteenth birthday, so I suppose he will be tried as a minor."

"Dr. Ryan is allowing that?"

"Yes. Steve had no intention to kill anyone, apparently. It has been Shane's idea from the start. Seems like he has been plotting revenge on the Ryans for quite a while. When he found out that Steve held a grudge against you, he approached Steve and offered to get you out of the way as well. To give you a scare, so to speak. Of course, it was a ploy. Shane needed muscle strength, and he made use of Steve's grudge against you.

"When Steve knew you recognized him, he wanted out, but Shane wouldn't allow him to leave. That explained why he was in the room that Joe found him in. Apparently, he was feeling dizzy – Shane had drugged him with sleeping pills to keep him on the premises."

Frank shuddered. So Shane was more dangerous than he had realized. And to think he had been friends with the guy for the most of high school. Well, at least Steve wasn't as bad as he had thought.

"Shane confessed to all these?"

"Once Steve spilled everything out to the cops, he had no choice but to confess. But of course, the police had to use some force."

Suddenly, Joe stood up and went to the door. He opened it slightly, peeked out, and shut it again. Frank looked at his brother quizzically.

"Uh, Frank, I forgot to tell you. Callie's outside. Do you want to see her?"

The brief mention of Callie's name brought a stab in his heart, and he closed his eyes. "No. I…" Frank trailed off, as he replayed their conversation back at the old Miller mansion. He wasn't sure if he could forgive Callie for that, and he wasn't exactly ready to face the girl. But all the same, he wondered what she wanted. Finally, he took a deep breath, and nodded slowly.

"Okay, let her in."