A/N I have returned! I had a debate tournament today and I got a 6/6 on one of my speeches! Also, I got nominated for best speaker! I am mundo happy, so I shall update...well I was going to update anyway...but still.

Thanks for all the reviews! I LOVE reviews!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Joe estimated that they had been driving for approximately sixty-four minutes or so, but it was just an estimate. The sounds of civilization were starting to fade away, and the silence in the SUV was overwhelming. When they had first started their journey Joe had noticed that they stopped much more, presumably due to traffic, and he had also heard the sounds of horns honking and the occasional sound of someone talking loudly from a car next to them. But for the last fifteen minutes or so things had gotten steadily quieter and Joe had a hunch that wherever they were headed their chances of finding help weren't going to be great.

Not that it really mattered where they were going. Because Joe had already decided that this whole thing was a hallucination. He had tripped, probably over that chunk of pavement he'd been kicking, and hit his head! Yes! That was definitely it. Because there was no way his brother was alive. No chance at all. Life just didn't work that way for him. Joe Hardy had the worst luck when it came to friends, family, and girlfriends, if people were associated with him they died. End of story. So, there was absolutely no point in allowing himself to hope that this was real.

Now it may seem strange to some people to hope that you were kidnapped, but at this point Joe couldn't think of a better occurrence in the last year. Unless of course this was all a dream and Joe really hoped it wasn't, because he could not take the disappointment of waking up and remembering his brother was dead one more time. He'd been living with those dreams for a year now and they had just been starting to subside, so if this were all a hallucination Joe didn't know what the hell he would do. What Joe really wanted to do was pinch himself so he could determine whether this was real but the handcuffs on his wrists made it impossible to do so.

According to his mental estimation it had now been practically an hour and a half since they had been thrown into the back of the SUV. Just as this thought crossed his mind the SUV pulled to a halt and Joe briefly wondered whether they were at another red light or they had finally reached their destination. His unasked question was answered when he heard the driver's door open and slam shut followed shortly by the passenger's door.

He mentally counted to ten and waited for his door to be opened. He was rewarded by his door being opened at the exact moment he finished his counting. It looked like he still remembered typical kidnap procedure, although with the amount of times he'd been kidnapped in his life it was doubtful he would ever forget. Joe was roughly grabbed just above the elbow and pulled out of the car, he stumbled as he was half-dragged away from the SUV and toward what he assumed would be a building of some sort. He heard a swear word come from one of the men followed by a loud smacking noise which caused a jolt of fear to go through him. Joe was fairly certain that some altercation had taken place between his brother and one of the men. He was uncertain as to its nature however as he could not in fact see anything.

Joe was dimly aware of a door being opened and felt himself being shoved through a doorway, he tripped over the threshold. They walked straight for a minute or so, before turning right and walking straight again until they made a second right turn and then going straight and making a left turn and finally coming to a halt. Right. Right. Left. Joe kept the directions engrained in his memory so that when the opportunity arose he and Frank could escape. If this weren't some elaborate hallucination anyway, he still hadn't ruled that out.

Joe was shoved into a chair, hard, probably wooden and ordered to stay there. He heard the man who had led him inside slam the door shut and go into the hallway where he held a brief, seemingly tense conversation with another man. A moment later the door opened again and he heard two people enter one of them seemed to be dragging his feet. Joe was fairly certain that this was his brother and his captor. Score two for him!

He heard the captor shove Frank in a chair and reprimand him for something, Joe couldn't quite make out what, because the man was whispering in Frank's ear, at least that's what it seemed like. A moment later the door to the room opened again and someone walked over to him and untied his blindfold, Joe blinked slowly his eyes adjusting to the now bright light of his surroundings. He spotted Frank a few feet away on the other end of the room; he was sporting a bruised cheek where he had presumably been slapped. "Haven't we taught you by now that escape is futile, Mr. Hardy? I would think that you would've learned your lesson at this point. We do not tolerate disobedience."

Joe dimly recognized the man as the person who'd been driving the car, at least he thought that he was the same guy, he'd only seen the driver for a moment before he was blindfolded. "Bruno, teach Frank some manners. He's obviously forgotten his…again." And with that the tall man, Joe pegged him to be around 6'2 maybe 6'3 turned and left the room closing the door with an audible click. The other man in the room, the one who'd dragged Joe here, Bruno, the other man had called him, crossed the room in three strides and grabbed Frank by his collar pulling him to his feet.

"You…" Smack. "Will…" Uppercut to Frank's jaw. Joe winced. "Show." Punch. Frank clutched his stomach in pain and Joe found himself unable to tear his eyes away from his brother's face. "Some." Slap. "Damn." Punch. "Respect." Smack. Joe winced again. The man let go of Frank who sunk to the ground with clutching his stomach as best he could with his hands handcuffed and gasping for breath. Joe was positive that this was definitely no hallucination.

Frank was alive and right in front of him. And hurt. Get moving, Hardy. Joe launched himself out of the hard chair at his brother. The handcuffs impeded his movement somewhat but he rubbed slow circles on his brother's back in an attempt to ease his harsh breathing. Joe wasn't quite sure how long they sat like that as Frank regained control of his breathing, it was probably less then ten minutes but it felt like hours to both brothers, the only noise breaking the impermeable silence was the harsh sound of Frank's breathing. Finally when Frank was able to breathe normally Joe looked at his brother with pain-filled sapphire eyes and asked the question he desperately needed to ask. "Is it really you, Frank?" Joe asked his voice laced with disbelief.

"Yes, Joe, it really is." Frank replied and this seemed to be enough for his younger brother who pulled Frank into a hug and began to sob.

"I thought you died." Joe said softly. It was these four words that would haunt Frank for months to come. "I thought you died." Joe repeated and Frank whispered soothingly to his brother.

"We're going to be okay, Joe, everything will be okay." Frank wasn't really sure he believed the words himself but he said them anyway. He knew his captors, and the likelihood of things ever being okay again was slim. But he told Joe that everything would be fine anyway because he was a big brother and that was his job, it had always been his job, and he never regretted it.

A/N So, what'd you think? Reviews are as always appreciated. (and desired...hint, hint...)