AN: Hey Everybody! Sorry for the extremely long break. I'm back, and I'll be posting new chapters on this and on All the World: A Stage almost everyday while I'm on vacation. As long as I have internet, that is. So check back everyday, and if you are just joining us, check out Introduction to Disaster and my profile for more on Alicia. Believe me, things will make a lot more sense. Enjoy! And don't forget to review :D
Two days later, Joe still hadn't woken up, and Frank and Alicia had been released from the hospital. For the most part, Alicia spent her time sleeping outside Joe's room in the waiting chairs. Currently, she was falling asleep holding his hand at the end of visiting hours.
"Come on, Alicia, hun," Laura said with a small smile. "You can't live here. Come home, sleep in a real bed, eat a real meal, and we'll come back in the morning." Alicia shook her head stubbornly and kept her hand in Joe's.
"We can't just leave him alone. What if he wakes up?"
Frank put his hands on Alicia's shoulders, turning her around. "Alicia, stop it." Alicia looked up, surprised at the stern tone in his voice. "Stop acting like you are a child. You're the youngest, not a baby. Everyone else is as worried as you are, so stop acting so selfish."
"Frank…" she said, her voice breaking as she tried not to cry.
Frank was going to continue when their mother stopped him with a soft word. "Frank, that's enough. We all are on edge. Come on."
Alicia squeezed Joe's hand, then left the room with her mother. Frank waited a moment, turning to Joe. "Hold on, please." He followed quickly behind the ladies, closing the door without looking back.
Alicia didn't speak until they reached the parking lot. "That's not fair, Frank."
Frank looked up from his shoelaces. "What's not?"
"Your accusation."
"Alicia…" Laura warned, walking a ways into the parking lot as Fenton and Gertrude pulled up in the van, and she got into the passenger seat.
"No, Mom," she said, stopping and turning on Frank. "You have to take the blame for everything! Does that makes you feel better, that everything is your fault? News Flash! It's not your fault! In fact, none of the decisions that lead to this were even yours! They were all mine!"
Laura tried to stop them, but Fenton put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. She nodded and closed the door, watching with worried eyes.
"I should have said no! I knew this was dangerous, and I should have never let you get involved, or we should have come up with another plan!"
"You don't control us, Frank! You can't make every decision for us!"
"I have to protect you and Joe! It's my job to!"
"Why, Frank? Why is it your job?!"
"I'm the eldest! And you're my little sister!"
"And you are going to protect me forever? Even when I'm married, have six kids of my own, or I'm an international spy or working undercover for the CIA on my own?!"
"I'm sure am! I'm not going to let you—"
"You're not going to let me?!" Alicia yelled. Frank was silent for the first time, realizing his mistake. Alicia lowered her voice. "It was my choice to go sleuthing with you two. It was my choice to lead us into that alley without knowing what we were getting into. It was Joe's choice to take that bullet for me. You can't always protect us Frank. You can't protect us from our own decisions. And you can't stop me from doing whatever I want to do with my life." She turned to walk to the van.
"Like hell."
Alicia stopped. "What?"
"Like hell I am. If you think I'm going to watch you throw your life away with reckless, half-formed decisions, you're in for a big wake up call."
Alicia turned back and walked towards him. In a low, chilling voice, she said, "I'd like to see you try." Instead of walking towards the van, she ran in the other direction, towards the pedestrian bridge. Frank sighed and followed her.
"Alicia… Alicia, wait. Where are you going?" He followed her and stopped behind her as she looked over the open highway. "Alicia, what are you doing?"
Alicia was silent for a second, then said softly, "Making a reckless, fully formed decision. If Joe doesn't wake up, and you still blame us for what happened—"
"I don't—" Frank started.
"Yes, you do. You won't say it out loud, but you blame me, don't you? That's why you are trying to blame yourself."
"To protect you from the blame?" Frank asked, skeptically, but knowing that there was truth to her words. He did blame her and Joe for this mess, and it made him feel even guiltier.
"If you still blame us for this, I'm not sure I can live with the guilt. I will catch our brother's killer and I will take him down, even if it costs me my life. I will take him down with me." Alicia was serious, and Frank knew it. He sighed and turned her around, gently.
"Then let's hope he wakes up. I don't want to lose both of you."
Alicia nodded, still solemn. She let him pull her into a hug, and lead her back towards the van, leaning against him.
"I'm sorry, Alicia."
"I'm sorry, too, Frank," she whispered. "I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel so lost."
Frank nodded. "I know. Me too."
As they climbed into the far back seats of the van, Alicia smiled. "What has a light side, a dark side, and holds the world together?"
Fenton smiled, as did Laura. "The Force?" he asked.
"Duct tape?" Gertrude shrugged.
"Joe," Frank said with a half smile.
Alicia smiled and curled into Frank's side, closing her eyes. "You."
Frank looked over at her, smiled the rest of the way, then closed his eyes and fell asleep as well.
Laura sighed and spoke softly. "All the blood relations of the Hardy's. You all have hidden dark sides, and save the world over."
"No kidding," Fenton said with a chuckle. "But not you?"
"Nope," She said with a grin. "I'm your light side. They don't call me the better half for nothing."
Fenton sighed and leaned over to kiss her. "That's too true." Laura smiled and kissed him back, deepening it slightly, Fenton going along, until a cough from the middle stopped them.
"Your children are asleep. I'm very much still here," Gertrude said with a chuckle.
"Sorry, Gert," Fenton said with a smile. "I don't know what came over us." After looking in the backseat as his kids, he put the van in drive and took off down the highway. "I think just knowing these two are going to pull through this just lifted the rest of the tension from this event."
Laura looked over at Fenton with a curious look. "They've never fought this badly before. How did you know to let them fight?"
Gertrude smiled. "When siblings fight, they are usually trying to say something they're not sure how to say. Sometimes, They need to fight just to get the 'I love you' across."
"I love you, Gertrude," Fenton said with a grin.
Gertrude rolled her eyes with a smile. "Shut up, Fenton."
Joe's life was replaying over and over again in his mind. All of the cases, all off the fun their family had on vacations, all of the secrets Alicia, Frank, and he had shared. He had to get back to that. Somehow, he'd wake up.