Finally released limbs slowly twitching stretching moving struggling to sit up had to reach Frank, had to before it was too late not oh it was too late Frank's screams echoed off the walls, a short, clipped sound, but one Joe had never heard for it was not merely a cry of shock or surprise but one of terror and despair (animal at its end) ripping up from his brother's throat Joe's voice finally returning in a weak scream of his own (Frank! Frank!) fighting and fighting and unable to drag himself to the hallway unable to get free (help us God help us) fighting to his knees crawling along the floor had crawled (get to Frank get to your brother) the corridors dark, deserted, his brother's scream cut off long before, struggling with his cell phone (Dad! Dad help us he's hurt Frank by the harbor there's a van hurry!) finally seeing the outstretched hand his brother's name never making it to his lips—

"No," he'd whispered.

The elder Hardy was soaked in blood—it had soiled his white tee shirt and pooled down along his ribs to the floor. Joe had never seen anyone bleed so much. His brother was coughing, choking, hemorrhaging blood, dragging it up from his lacerated torso and stomach, writing in agony from wounds that just wouldn't grant him a quick death, tears he couldn't control cascading over his bloodied face, his handsome face, his young face.

"Frank," Joe whimpered, crawling to his older brother, "Frank, hold on, Dad's coming hang on…" he'd collapsed beside him, the emotion shaking him, working at the straps that held his brother's wrists and ankles together.

"Run…" Frank whimpered, his body able to say the words through his mouth filled with crimson, knowing it was useless because Joe would never leave him.

"Hang on, Frank, please just hang on," Joe murmured, brushing blood and tears from his brother's cheeks, smoothing dark hair back from the sweat-soaked forehead. "You're gonna be okay. You have to be okay. I need—" he'd faltered and clutched the sides of his brother's head, steadying him as he spat up more blood. "I need you, Frank, so much…"

Oh God it's true don't take him please don't you know I'll die too I'll go out of my mind I need him he's my partner and my best friend and my brother.

"Shhhh, shhhh," he murmured, tears stinging his eyes as he helped Frank turn to his side to cough blood on the floor. "I'm not leaving you, brother. I'm staying right here."

"He'll…" more blood, "come…" another cough, darker liquid, "back…"

"I don't care," the younger Hardy whispered.

Joe never considered his own safety. He stayed by his brother, doing his best to keep him calm, although he could do nothing for the pain. But as the moments passed Joe saw Frank growing weaker and weaker until he lay with blood running from his throat over his cheeks and hips, form the corner of his mouth, and felt intense panic seize him as his he accepted the fact that Frank was, indeed, dying.

Dying.

The elder Hardy's lips formed his brother's name, but he could no longer produce sound through the blood. Joe bent and lifted Frank's shoulders and torso and held him against his chest, tenderly wiping blood and tears off his brother's cheeks, unable to stifle his own sobs.

"Don't leave me," he whispered, not caring how pathetic and cliché those three little words were. They remained a desperate, profound prayer.

Frank reached a trembling hand up and brushed a stray tear Joe hadn't realized had escaped from his younger brother's face. He tried to draw a breath hand his chest hitched despite Joe's firm hold, and fresh blood made its way over his face.

"I…" Frank managed, staring into his brother's wide crying eyes, feeling Joe's terror, far greater than his own as Frank left him behind, "love…" (so much power in that word so much strength, a bond that would carry with them despite the painful pull of death that was quickly claiming the elder) "you."

Frank's hand fell.

The officer's report read that they found the boys by following the sounds of Joe's screaming, which is how they found him: howling into his older brother's blood soaked shirt as Frank's eyes stared glazed and gone up at the ceiling.