TAKING A CHANCE
CHAPTER 17

"BOTTOMS UP"

Miriam looked away from Frank, tears streaming down her cheeks. Joe watched her, wondering why he felt any sympathy at all for the woman. She made her own bed, she should have to lie in it, whatever Frank's decision was. Still, Joe knew what it meant to love someone you couldn't have. He carried his love for Iola Morton far past her death, wishing he could hold her in his arms just one more time, to kiss her.

Thank God for Vanessa, Joe smiled slightly as he thought of his ash-blonde girlfriend. Beautiful, funny, talented – and not inclined to put up with any of Joe's shenanigans, she entered his life at the right time – when he was ready to move on again.

"Why don't you have a seat?" Frank said to Joe and Nancy, motioning to the gorgeous living room nearby. "Do you want anything to drink? This might take a while and… I have some thinking to do."

Joe stared at him for a moment. "Are you all right, Frank?" Joe asked him.

Frank considered for a moment, then shrugged. "I'm as all right as I'm going to be, uh, Joe. Just give me some time, would you? I need to talk to Diana and I need… I need to make some decisions."

"We'll be waiting," Joe said. "In fact, we could go to our hotel and come back if that would make it easier on you."

He hated to leave his brother behind. For one, he didn't trust Miriam or her family and for another he was half afraid he would never see Frank again if he left.

"No," Frank shook his head. "I'm going to have more questions and I'm going to need to talk to you too. It'd be easier if you were here so I can do that. The kitchen is through the other door from the living room, there's plenty of water, juice, soda and milk in the fridge. There's teabags in the cabinet above the sink."

Joe nodded. "We'll be fine," he said. "Go on."

Frank put his hand on his wife's back and directed her up the stairs of their home, leaving Joe and Nancy in the living room.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Nancy sat down gingerly on one of the sofas. "Do you think… do you think this is going to work out?"

"I don't know," Joe admitted. He looked back over at the stairs and wondered what Frank and Miriam were talking about. So far, he didn't hear any screaming so either Miriam was cowed or she was saving up for the end of Frank's next speech. "I think… no, let's make that, I want to think he's coming with us. That he wants to get to know his family again. I just don't know if that's what's going to happen or not. He may decide he has to stay here anyway, despite what's happened."

"You don't think he will?" Nancy looked alarmed at the thought.

"I don't know," Joe shrugged. "I'm trying not to think about it. We're strangers to him now and people tend to stick with what they know over what they don't know. I've learned that well enough over the years."

Nancy reluctantly agreed as she settled back into the sofa on which she sat.

They both waited for a long while, talking softly about their hopes – that Frank would come home with them. So far, they heard no shouting from above. Whatever else was going on, the discussion above was quiet enough not to be heard downstairs and Joe, as curious as he was, actively tried not to listen the few times he did hear voices from above.

Nancy got up awhile later and went into the kitchen. She took out a bottle of water from the fridge for herself and brought a can of soda to Joe. They sipped on them, grateful for the distraction as they waited.

Finally, however, Frank came back down the stairs and sat down in a chair in the living room.

"What did you decide?" Joe asked.

"I haven't decided anything yet," Frank rocked back in his chair. "I wanted to get some more answers from her, about what happened, why I'm here and it's easier to deal with her when she doesn't have an audience. She admitted she knew who I really was, that she had always known my name was Frank Hardy. She said her father brought me to St. Louis two years ago and was going to use me to get to our father and then kill me but when I ended up being so out of it, she begged her father to let her have me. She said her father thought about it and decided it would be revenge enough, to have all of you think I'm dead and to make me his son by marriage."

Frank shook his head, looking lost. He stared at Joe for a few moments, studying him.

"We don't look a lot alike do we?" he asked.

"Well, we have the same general lines but otherwise, no. I take more after our mom, Laura and you take after our dad, Fenton."

Frank nodded. "I keep seeing them," he confessed. "I've had dreams about a dark haired man and a blonde woman, for months now. I knew they were my parents but I thought they were dead. I never pursued the dreams, you know. Just let them go when I woke up again."

Frank looked over at Nancy, frowning slightly as he watched her.

"I dreamed about you too," he said. "Were we… a couple?"

Nancy shook her head. "No," she admitted softly. "I think… I think we could have been, but when we knew each other we were both involved with someone else. I had a boyfriend, Ned and you had a girlfriend, Callie."

Frank flushed slightly. "I was kissing you in my dream. We didn't ever kiss?"

Nancy glanced at Joe and flushed as well. "Uhm, twice. But we… we sort of regretted it when it was over."

Frank nodded and Joe wished he could read that expression on Frank's face. Did he want something more with Nancy? Where did that leave Miriam?

"What about… an older lady, gray hair, kind of a stern face?" Frank inquired of Joe.

Joe burst out laughing. "That's our Aunt Gertrude," Joe said. "She lives with us most of the time. She's our dad's older sister. Her bark is much worse than her bite."

Frank grinned. "Sounds like someone I want to get to know again. What do…"

Joe lost his next words when the door burst open, crashing hard into the wall beside it.

Goon 1 and Goon 2 stepped into the room, guns held on Joe, Frank and Nancy.

Marcius Ras-Alman stepped in between the two men, a gun in his hands as well.

"I warned you, Mr. Hardy, what would happen if you interfered with my family," Ras-Alman glared. "James, come here with me right now."

"No thank you," Frank declared. "And the name is Frank Hardy, not James."

"JAMES," Ras-Alman said more sternly. "Come here. NOW."

"NO," Frank said just as forcefully. "I'm staying here, with my brother and my friend. Whatever you have planned for them you have planned for me too."

Ras-Alman looked ready to blow a gasket but he stepped forward a step.

"Fine," he said. "You will all three come with me. Let's go."

"Nope," Joe said. "If you're going to shoot us you may as well do it right here. We're not making this easy on you."

"Who says I'm going to shoot you?" Ras-Alman smiled. "I took James two years ago to use against your father. I think it's time I went through with my plan, don't you? Now, come. NOW."

He held up his gun and pointed it right at Frank. "I don't need to keep both of you alive. One will suffice."

Nancy, Joe and Frank exchanged nervous glances and all three walked slowly forward, hands outstretched.