A few minutes later, Fenton and Laura came into the room and looked over Joe who was sleeping soundly. "Well, he looks a little pale, but it sounds like he'll be okay," Fenton said. Laura was standing next to him dabbing at her eyes.

Turning to Frank, Fenton said, "I just heard from Con. He did a cursory check of the van and the fan belt was missing. It must have snapped. That would have caused the power steering to fail which explains why Joe couldn't keep control."

"I knew I should have canceled my meeting and taken him myself," Laura said, with tears in her eyes. "None of this would have happened."

Frank could tell she had been crying. Seeing them hurt was always tough on her.

Fenton wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "We had no way of knowing what would happen. He would have been fine driving if the fan belt hadn't let go. Come on Laura, calm down for Joe's sake," he said pulling her close and wiping her eyes.

Fenton turned again to Frank and nodded his head towards the hallway. After both of them had exited the room, Fenton asked quietly, "Has Joe been doing all the maintenance on the van?"

"Yeah, he does it all himself…What are you saying? Joe knows what he is doing," Frank said. He wasn't sure he liked where this was going.

"Of course he knows what he is doing," Fenton said soothingly. "But you both have been very busy and under a lot of pressure. When was the last time Joe worked on the van?"

"It was probably about nine months since he gave it a tune up, but he's changed the oil a few times since," Frank said.

"Con said that it's pretty likely that the belt was just worn at a spot and snapped. It probably needed to be replaced," Fenton said. "I'm going to the get the van checked out and have regular maintenance done on it when we get the body work done. Just be careful how you tell Joe when he asks you what happened. I don't want him to think that I don't trust him."

"Could the belt have been tampered with?" Frank asked.

"Con didn't seem to think so. He had someone else check it over at the station, and they didn't see any signs of tampering to the van hood or anything, but it was crushed against the tree which makes it impossible to tell for sure. The belt is completely missing, but that happens when it snaps. It probably got whipped into the underbrush along the road somewhere," Fenton explained. "Is there any reason to think someone might have tampered with the van? Are you on a case?"

"No," Frank said as stared at the floor.

"People make mistakes Frank. Joe is no exception. He probably just missed the wear in the belt. It was just bad timing. He might have been able to control the van had his shoulder been in better shape. Please promise me you'll watch what you say to him. I'm sure he'll be plenty hard on himself for this," Fenton said.

"I know Dad," Frank said.

Fenton and Frank returned to the room, and after watching Joe sleep for a while longer, Fenton convinced Laura to go home, get dinner and try to sleep. She could come back while Frank was at school the next day. Frank insisted that he stay the night with Joe.

Around ten o'clock that evening, Joe blinked his eyes, started to sit up and moaned involuntarily. Frank, who had drifted off while sitting in the uncomfortable chair, woke quickly at the noise.

"Hey baby brother," Frank said quietly. "Take it easy."

"Oh man, I feel like I was run over," Joe said. "Can you help me up? I need to go to the bathroom."

"Let me call the nurse Joe," Frank said not sure if Joe should be up yet.

"Look, I can't wait for them. I'll go without you too if you don't help," Joe said, his normal stubbornness coming out.

"Fine, hold on a minute," Frank said as he lowered the rails and helped Joe to his feet. Joe swayed slightly and leaned heavily on Frank. "How's the hip? You bruised it in the accident," Frank said as he walked slowly with Joe to the bathroom.

"Hurts, but nothing I can't handle," Joe said gritting his teeth against the pain. He was limping some, but each step seemed a little easier.

Once Joe was settled back into bed, he turned to Frank and asked, "So did you check out the van? What happened?"

"I haven't had a chance to look at the van. I've been here with you," Frank said, gazing up at the ceiling.

"You know something though. I can tell. What did you find out?" Joe said with that pleading look in his eyes that always made Frank do things against his better judgment.

"Con checked the van. He told Dad that it looks like the fan belt snapped which made the power steering go out. Since your shoulder was hurt, you wouldn't have been able to control the car," Frank said. He glanced at Joe, who was staring at his hand.

Joe looked up, "Do they know why the fan belt snapped? Was there any sign of tampering?"

"No," Frank said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "The van was checked over at the police station and Con said it was most likely a worn belt. There were no signs of tampering but the hood was…impacted." Frank didn't want to upset Joe anymore than he already was by giving him the full extent of the damage.

"Well, I guess I can't do anything right can I?" Joe muttered to himself.

"Joe, stop it. We missed it okay. Last time I checked, we're not perfect," Frank said.

"No. I missed it. I'm the one who does all of the maintenance on the van. I'm just glad that I was driving and no one else was hurt. I would never forgive myself if you had gotten hurt in the van because of my screw up. I need to check over that whole van as soon as I'm out of here. Don't drive it until I do that, okay?" Joe asked with worry written all over his face.

"Joe accidents happen. Don't worry about it, Dad is going to have the van looked over completely and serviced in addition to having the body work done," Frank said.

Unfortunately this did not have the calming effect that Frank thought it would. "I guess he doesn't trust me anymore does he? That's just great. I wonder what else they'll find wrong with the van that I overlooked," his blue eyes clouded with disgust at himself.

"Joe will you please just calm down. Dad does trust you. In fact, he was worried about you thinking that. He knows we've been under a lot of pressure lately and he felt bad for not helping to take care of things like maintenance on the van when we have been doing so much work for him lately," Frank paused to gauge Joe's reaction. "And you know I trust you with my life."

Joe looked into his dark eyes, "I know," he said simply, knowing that he had to be more careful, for Frank's sake.

"Come on Joe, you need to get some more sleep so they'll let you out of here tomorrow," Frank said as he got as comfortable as possible in the pullout chair the nurse had brought in earlier. A few minutes later, Frank glanced over and Joe was already asleep.