As always, thank you so much for the reviews. Hope you continue to enjoy the story. Only three chapters left after this one.

Triple Jeopardy

Chapter 26

Pulling into a space in the hospital parking lot Frank felt a rush of relief at the prospect of simply being reunited with his family. Feeling completely isolated the past few days, he now knew what it felt like to be alone – and very lonely.

Rushing through the doors of the emergency entrance, he headed straight for the waiting room. Walking through the doorway he was mildly surprised to see only his family there, reminding him how isolated they'd been at the safe house. The small town hospital closest to where the house was located never saw the kind of continuous twenty-four hour emergencies a city hospital dealt with regularly.

Seeing Frank enter, Callie immediately got up and crossed the short distance between them. Wrapping their arms around each other, Frank held her tightly surprised at the intense emotions he felt. They'd only been separated a few days yet it felt like years. He almost didn't want to let her go but he was anxious to get an update on Joe. "How's Joe?" he asked apprehensively as they stepped apart.

"Not too good," Callie replied honestly. "He has a concussion – a pretty serious one apparently. One of his ribs is cracked and three others are badly bruised. But the doctor said those will heal."

"What about the fever? And the infection? The antibiotics we got didn't do any good at all?" Frank asked, scared. He'd been sure they would help, or at the very least keep Joe stable until they could safely get him to a hospital.

"Dr. Andress said they weren't strong enough to stop the infection. All they did was slow it down a little bit and even that was only temporary," Callie answered as gently as she could. Frank would never have knowingly put Joe in danger yet it turned out that's exactly what had happened. "They've got him on high doses of IV antibiotics now. They're hoping that will stop the infection, but they won't know anything for a few more hours."

"Hours?!" Frank repeated, shocked. He took a moment to absorb all the information. "What about the fever? Is it coming down now?"

"No. It's gone up." Callie hated being the one to dump all the bad news on Frank.

"And…" He narrowed his eyes at the vague response. "How much has it gone up?"

"Last time they told us it was 108… Frank!" Callie grabbed Frank's arm to steady him as he turned a ghastly shade of white and looked ready to pass out. Guiding him to a nearby chair, she sat him down and took the one next to him. Hearing someone approach, she looked up and smiled gratefully at Sam Radley, who crouched down directly in front of Frank.

"What else?" Frank asked, hoarsely, looking at Callie who, in turn, looked to Sam for help. "Why is his temperature so high? Why can't they get it down?" Frank looked at Sam and shook his head. "That's way too high."

"It's high because of the infection, Frank. And they're trying to get it down. They're keeping him wrapped in those special cooling blankets and they've got him on a lot of fluids to make sure he doesn't get dehydrated. But the infection is what's causing the fever and it's essentially been spreading, almost unchecked, for close to two days. It's going to take time. There's just no way around that," Sam explained.

"What about complications?" Frank knew that had to at least be a possibility.

"If it doesn't start to come down or continues to climb, there's a chance of seizures, brain damage, coma…death…"

The words had a staggering effect on Frank. Oblivious to his surroundings while the meaning seeped into his consciousness, he hadn't noticed Callie and Sam quietly returning to the other side of the room. As Frank refocused on the face in front of him, he saw his father looking back at him, a mixture of concern and regret in Fenton's deep brown eyes.

"Dad…we did this to him."

"We did what we thought was best at the time," Fenton said. The fact of the matter was he agreed with Frank wholeheartedly. It had never even occurred to either of them to consider not taking Joe to the safe house. But he was not about to let Frank shoulder the blame for this. "If anyone is to blame here it's me. I saw what they did to Joe. I watched him get worse and worse and still never once considered taking him to a hospital. He fought so hard I was sure he could hold on for twenty-four more hours without endangering him like this.

"And he did get a little better, Frank. He was awake, talking to Vanessa, to all of us. He even joked with me. He was eating a little bit…I don't know what went wrong…"

Frank thought his father sounded guilt ridden and defeated. He put a hand on his father's shoulder, knowing exactly how he felt. "How's Mom taking it? And Vanessa?"

Fenton shook his head. "Poor Vanessa. She hasn't said one word and I know she feels responsible."

"Vanessa?" Frank said, bewildered, glancing at her seated next to Callie. "Why would she feel responsible for any of this? She didn't even know Joe had been hurt until after they got to the safe house."

"Once we got there, she didn't leave Joe's side for more than a minute. She took charge of making sure he took the antibiotics every four hours without fail; made sure he was eating and drinking enough. Joe seemed to be getting better. We convinced her to leave the room and come downstairs with us for a while when he was sleeping. She was only going to stay for half an hour or so, but she ended up staying for almost four hours. Until the alarm went off reminding her it was time for Joe to take another dose of antibiotics.

"I knew she'd lost track of time, but she'd been up in that room the whole time, basically just watching Joe sleep. She seemed more relaxed with us. I thought I was doing the right thing by not telling her she'd stayed longer than she had intended." Fenton looked at Frank, filled with remorse. "I guess I made the wrong choice…again. She was so distraught. I know she thinks if she'd just stayed with Joe she could have let us know the second he started to get worse."

"What about Mom? How's she holding up?" Frank looked from Vanessa to his mother. The two were holding each other's hands loosely, staring blankly.

"I…I honestly don't know."

Frank looked at his father sharply, detecting something in his voice Frank had never heard before and couldn't quite place. "What do you mean you don't know? Hasn't she said anything?"

"Not to me." Fenton tried to remain stoic but he'd never been in this position before. The gulf between him and Laura had been growing by the minute and it was getting so big he wasn't sure how they were going to bridge it. If Joe didn't recover, he was certain the void between them would be permanent. His voice started to quiver as he looked at Frank. "She blames me, Frank. She thinks it's my fault for not letting her take Joe to a hospital immediately."

"Dad, that's not true!" Frank cried out. "I know she didn't say that."

"No, not in so many words, but she got the message across loud and clear."

As Frank was about to speak, Dr. Andress reappeared in the waiting room. Immediately, everyone was on their feet in hopeful anticipation. Frank noticed that while Callie quickly came to his side, making sure he had her full support, Laura stood next to Vanessa, her arm wrapped around the younger girl, while Fenton stood between Frank and Sam…as far away from his wife as he could possibly be.

"The infection finally seems to be responding to the antibiotics," he announced, as the small group let out a collective sigh of relief. Their smiles quickly faded when they noticed the expression on the doctor's face had not changed despite the seemingly good news. Quietly subdued, they waited for him to continue.

"However, Joe's temperature was extremely high for much longer than we like to see it. It's no longer climbing but it hasn't come down as much as we had hoped either. It's been hovering at 107 for several hours now. He's had several fever induced seizures and I'm afraid he seems to be slipping into a coma."