"Joe," Laura whispered when the door opened revealing Joe and a large man standing there.
"Mom?" Joe asked, tilting his head fractionally to the side.
Laura nodded. "Can I...Can I hug you?" she asked, not wanting to startle him.
Roger looked at Joe and saw him give a slight nod before moving completely out of the way and allowing the contact. He smiled at the small reunion. He liked the way she had asked him instead of just taking over. "Won't you come in?" Roger invited the three Hardys.
Laura entered first, stopping a few feet inside the house when she came face to face with a woman whose eyes were filled with suspicion. "Hello," Laura greeted her. "I'm Joe's mother."
"We'll see about that," Rachel declared protectively.
"Excuse me?" Laura countered, drawing herself up to her full five-foot two frame.
"Don't get riled," Spirit said to Laura, stepping up beside her mother. "Mom just means that you have to prove you're Joe's mom before you can take him away from us. After Farkas..."
"I understand," Laura said. "Fenton told me about what happened. Thank you so much for taking care of him." She looked into Rachel's eyes. "And I wouldn't want you to let us take Joe unless you were sure that we are his family."
"Let's all go into the living room and sit down," Roger suggested, putting a hand on Joe's shoulder and staring at Frank who appeared more than a little upset at the intimacy and Joe's readily acceptance.
"Jack found where you fell," Fenton told Joe as they moved toward the living room. "You were so very lucky. There were a lot of trees in the area of varying heights and, apparently, the full limbs slowed down your descent."
When they reached the living room they all sat down. Frank sat in the floor next to Joe's left side because Joe had taken a seat at the end of the sofa with Spirit on his right. He took the photo album he held and laid it on Joe's lap. "Start from the back," Frank told Joe. "They are the most recent."
"I fixed it up while I was waiting for Jack to get the plane ready," Laura told Joe. "So all the pictures have you in them. I thought once you got home you could look at all of the others." She paused and laughed lightly. "You actually took most of the ones I didn't bring."
"I did?" asked Joe, opening the back cover of the album.
"You have four cameras with all sorts of attachments and you turned the basement into a darkroom," Frank told him.
"Most of these pictures have you in them too," Joe observed, smiling at one in particular. It was obviously a recent photograph and he and Frank were covered in mud. Both boys were holding handfuls of mud and were aiming at something just out of sight.
"We got Dad good just after mom snatched that picture," Frank informed Joe. "Even mom got muddy before it was over with."
Fenton laughed heartily at the memory. "We were all slinging it until Gert, your aunt, showed up."
"You let her have it on her new dress," Frank recalled, grinning at Joe. "We all thought she was going to blow her top."
"Did she?" asked Joe, wishing he could remember.
"She planted her hands on her hips, scowled, then said the first one inside and clean got an extra slice of pie for dinner," Fenton said.
"A tall lady with an angular nose? Kind of strict looking?" asked Joe, remembering the flash of memory he had had at Farkas's.
"That's her," acknowledged Frank, his brown eyes glinting with excitement. He reached over and turned a few pages in the album until he found one of her and Joe together. He had looked through the album when his mom arrived and knew every picture it contained. "She's dad's maiden big sister," Frank told Joe. "She drops in every six months or so and stays about a month with us. We used to be afraid of her until we realized her gruffness was all an act. We call her Auntie."
"Who is this?" asked Joe, pointing to a petite, raven-haired girl with chocolate eyes.
"That's Iola Morton," Frank informed him. "She's your girlfriend."
"Morton?" Joe repeated the last name.
Frank nodded. "That was her brother, Chet, that you encountered at the sheriff's office today."
Instead of being relieved that his family had found him, Joe was upset and frustrated. "I just can't remember," he said softly, closing his eyes and trying hard not to cry.
"You will," Frank promised, quickly getting to his feet and sitting on the edge of the couch. "And I will be with you until you do. So if you don't remember something, I can tell you. Eventually, it will come back to you."
Even though Joe didn't remember Frank, he still felt comforted by his closeness. Was this all he was ever going to remember? An occasional feeling? A glimpse that wasn't long enough to really register? He took a deep breath and opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't. He felt incredibly uncomfortable to find everyone watching him. "I'm okay," he said. "Just a little tired."
"Would you like to take a nap before dinner?" Rachel asked him.
Joe smiled and shook his head at her. "No, really," he insisted. "I'll be all right."
The next few hours were spent going over every picture in the photo album and reviewing his passport and birth certificate. Dinner was served and Laura helped Rachel with the dishes while Fenton and Roger talked. Frank, Spirit and Joe headed outside.
Joe sat down on the front steps with Frank and Spirit on each side of him. They sat in silence, gazing up at the star-studded sky. After a few minutes Spirit took Joe's hand in her own. "I'm going to miss you," she told him.
"Thanks," Joe replied. "For everything."
"Write me?" she asked. "Let me know how you're doing?"
"Better make him promise to call instead," Frank advised her with a healthy laugh. "Joe's a lousy letter writer."
"Am not!" Joe protested, turning to look at his brother. "I still write Jerry Flum once a month," he reminded his brother, unaware of the shocked expressions on Frank and Spirit's faces. "Remember him? The pen pal I got in the fourth grade?"
Frank stared at Joe in growing relief as Spirit leapt to her feet and ran inside. "What?" Joe demanded, looking at Frank first in confusion and then in growing anger as Frank broke into a huge grin. "What's so funny?"
"What's my girlfriend's last name?" Frank asked, knowing he hadn't mentioned Callie's last name at all that evening.
"What?" Joe asked, thinking Frank had lost his mind.
"What's Callie's last name?" asked Frank again as their parents and the Fairbanks gathered on the porch behind them.
"Duh. Shaw," Joe answered. "What..." he broke off as realization hit. "Callie Shaw," he said again, breaking into the most radiant smile the Fairbanks had ever seen him display. "And you're my brother. And I'm Joe Hardy. And.."
"And your memory has returned," Frank finished for him, grabbing Joe and giving him a big, welcoming, hug.
"It was only a matter of time," Dr. Fairbanks said from behind them, a big grin on his face. "Although, I do feel better about your leaving now that it has returned."
"Amen to that!" Spirit shouted joyously, going back to Joe and wrapping her own arms around him.
End
