Cold Spell

Chapter 15

Frank woke up with a jolt.

"Wha—?" He hadn't meant to fall asleep!

During his sleep, he'd rolled onto his back, and now quickly flipped to his side, frowning when he noticed that he was covered in his own parka. Looking at his brother, he immediately reached out to check his temperature, when Joe's eyes flew open and he gasped, surprised by the unexpected contact.

Startled, Frank withdrew his hand like he'd been struck!

The younger boy gave a wan smile when he saw the look on Frank's face.

"S-sorry," he said with a little difficulty. His mouth was dry and he found the word stuck in his throat.

"I thought you were sleeping," Frank admitted, sitting up and eyeing him carefully. "How you feeling?"

"Thirsty," Joe admitted. He'd been trying not to think about it, but now that Frank was awake, the need hit him ten-fold.

"Oh," Frank said, and then admitted, "I'm not surprised." The older boy figured his brother was probably mildly dehydrated from his return trip back and then subsequent blood loss. He had already brought in some fresh water and had it near the burrow entrance for Joe when he woke up. "Hold on."

The younger boy closed his eyes, still a bit more weary than he cared to mention, and listened to the sound of slight shuffling as Frank moved from his spot.

A moment later, he felt his brother slide an arm around his back to help him sit up. Opening his eyes he saw Frank holding the 'bowl' of water and looking at him.

He felt a bit dizzy and blinked hard a couple of times to try and clear his head.

"Do you need help?" Frank asked, still keeping an arm around him, and Joe gingerly shook his head as he reached out with his right hand for the water.

Frank let him take it but still kept one hand on it as well, not too sure just how weak his brother was.

"Slow sips," he cautioned the younger teen when Joe started to drink, "You don't want to get sick."

Nodding slightly, Joe agreed 100 on that and only took a couple of careful sips before moving the bowl away from his mouth.

"Thanks," he said, sounding better now that he'd had some water.

Frank winked at him as he took back the 'bowl' and put it down again, this time nearby, where Joe could get it himself, if he needed. Then he grabbed his own cushion and propped it behind his brother's back so Joe could sit up more easily.

"How's the arm?" the older boy asked as he crouched down next to him.

"Not bad," Joe said, and when Frank didn't look convinced, he continued, sounding a bit tired, "honestly, Frank. I've felt worse."

"Hungry?" the dark-haired teen asked after a moment. He knew Joe was in pain but there wasn't a whole lot either of them could do about that, except try to keep his mind off it.

Joe thought about that for a moment; he was still more thirsty than hungry, and he reached for the bowl again, grateful when Frank gave him a hand. Because of the size and shape, it was a bit difficult to maneuver the water bowl with one hand, and being left-handed, his right was just a little bit weaker anyway.

After another couple of sips, he sighed, "Yes and no."

"Yes and no?" Frank repeated, putting the bowl back down. "Care to elaborate?"

Joe started to shrug but thought better of it; his shoulder was doing enough grumbling as it was without him adding to it. "I don't really feel hungry, but I know I should eat something."

"That's true," Frank admitted. Although his own grumbling stomach was letting him know it wasn't a 'yes and no' case for him. It was all YES! And then he grinned, "I caught a fish yesterday!"

Joe's face lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah," the older boy laughed, "but then I got mugged."

"What?" Joe screwed up his face in confusion. "Mugged? By whom?"

"You get one guess," Frank said coyly, "Big, brown, weighing a couple hundred pounds and not wearing a YOGI hat!"

What little color in Joe's face completely drained away as his mouth dropped open and he gasped, "Bear? Frank, you got attacked by a bear!"

Frank held up his hand to calm him down, even as Joe continued, winding up very quickly, "Are you okay? Did it hurt you? What—"

"Whoa!" Gently squeezing his brother's hand, Frank tried to reassure him. "I'm okay! You can see that!"

Joe paused and narrowed his eyes slightly as he gave his brother the once over.

Frank continued, "He didn't even touch me. He did however, steal the only thing worth eating in this darn place!"

The younger boy sighed in relief, afraid that Frank was hiding some grievous injury from him, although he did have to admit, that was usually his job.

"I'm sorry," Frank said after a moment.

"Sorry for what?" Joe asked.

"For mentioning about the bear."

"Oh that," Joe sighed, "it's okay. You can't be expected to keep track of all my neuroses. Besides it's been a long time since I've had that dream."

The brothers were quiet for a few more moments, each lost in reflection until Joe looked down at his arm and shook his head, snorting softly, "Bears…wolves….This place just keeps getting better and better by the day." And then he looked back at his brother, his blue eyes wide and anxious. "Frank, what time is it?"

The older boy glanced down at his watch wondering why Joe just didn't check his own. "Ten o'clock—"

"No, no!" Joe cut him off, almost frantic. "Morning or evening? Tuesday or Wednesday?"

"It's ten a.m., Tuesday morning. Joe, are you all right?" Frank reached across again to check his brother's forehead, worried that he was delirious or something.

Joe swatted his hand away. "I'm fine. It's just…well…" he looked down at his own watch a bit sheepishly, "when I was gone, I lost track of time and it really scared me…that's all. I didn't know if it was morning or night, or even how long I'd been out for—"

"Wait a second, what do you mean 'how long I'd been out for,' don't you mean 'asleep for'?" Frank demanded, picking up on his brother's choice of words.

The younger boy scowled even as he absently reached up to touch the lump on his forehead. Frank had noticed it earlier but thought it was just another one from the crash…now he wasn't so sure.

"Umm…well, I had a little bit of an accident," Joe started, "well, not an accident really. The stupid wind tossed a stupid piece of plane at me and in typical Joe Hardy fashion, I used my head to catch it! Anyway, after I came to, I finished getting everything ready to come back with and then shut my eyes for a moment…one moment, but bam, I was gone."

"I know that feeling," Frank admitted, ruefully, and then was quiet again to let his brother continue.

"Well, it's just that when I did wake up, I wasn't sure if it was morning or night, and then I started to worry that maybe I'd been unconscious instead of sleeping and had no idea how long I'd been out."

"Why didn't you just look at your watch?" Frank pressed, "Or did it get broken in the crash?" Although he was pretty sure it was working afterwards, as he'd seen Joe checking it a couple of times.

"It's fine, mostly," Joe admitted, "But the PM/AM indicator is stuck on PM."

"Ah," Frank said with sudden insight, "That sucks."

"No kidding," Joe said wholeheartedly. "So I started to refer to the time of day as PAM….It was all I could do." The last part came out softly as if he was embarrassed by how important time had become to him. But Frank gave him an understanding smile and squeezed his hand again, reassuringly. These twenty-four hour days were murder!

"Well, like I said it's Tuesday morning, and we've been here three days more than my liking," Frank continued and then added, "Well, why don't you try and get some rest while I go and rustle us up something to eat."

"Please, no berries," Joe said with a grimace, thinking his stomach would probably hire a hit man if he forced it to digest another berry!

Then he looked at his brother with a hint of mischievousness on his face. "Hey Frank, there's an empty packet of coffee in the survival kit."

Frank turned back to him and shot him a look. "Oooh, that's heartless kiddo…real heartless. What'd you do? Pour out the coffee and keep the packet just to torment me?" His tone was teasing and Joe knew it, but pretended to be offended anyway.

"Hey, it wasn't me! You know I wouldn't touch that stuff with a ten foot pole! But that moron who packed the kits…well he's another story!"

They both burst out laughing, before Frank helped Joe ease back down on the pillow and under the blanket. The younger teen was asleep almost before his brother finished tucking him in.

Sitting back on his heels for a moment and watching his brother sleeping, Frank gave a contented sigh. It was just so good to be back together… again.