A/N Hello, my lovely readers, sorry for the wait. But, I've returned with an update! Which, I guess you already know considering that you clicked the link and are reading this note. Lol.

Thanks to all Reviewers! (Miss Fenway, lucy62, franknjoe, whitetigers- I loved your review, it made me laugh especially your comments on Biff, and finally amblewat.)

Dedication: To The Silent Rumble, for his birthday, which was yesterday, but I wasn't home yesterday, so I didn't have finish the chapter in time to post it. Anyway, Happy Belated Birthday!

It was sort of ironic really, Frank mused to himself. Joe had spent a year believing that Frank was dead, and right when Joe had found out the truth, he ends up dead. Frank wondered morbidly if his brother was still alive or if he had already succumbed to his injuries or dehydration or both. Frank shuddered as an image of his brother lying cold and motionless on the concrete floor of the cell he had been left in. Frank wanted so badly for the events of the past year to be a nightmare but he knew they weren't and once more he wished that Marion would just kill him and get it over with. He knew that he could refuse to do his job which would force Marion to kill him, but he would never do that because Marion had made it clear that he would kill ever member of Frank's family as well as his friends and Callie, and their lives meant so much more to him then his own, so he would continue to live even though every moment was shear agony as he lived with the knowledge that he was responsible for the death of his younger brother.

He had thought that setting off the alarms back at the warehouse would save his brother, but his plan had apparently backfired, because Marion had took Frank's disobedience to mean that he couldn't handle having his brother around and decided to eliminate the 'distraction' Joe posed. Frank felt a deep sensation of guilt gnawing at his insides as he realized that Joe would still be alive and well if not for him, if he had just done his job or if he had kept his head down so Joe wouldn't recognize him back when Joe had been kidnapped or even if he hadn't been so irrational a year ago when Danny had been murdered. If he had listened to his father and Joe and stayed away from those cliffs Joe and his family and friends and Callie never would have thought he was dead and then everyone would be okay right now. As he sat on the cot that had been provided for him at Marion's latest warehouse Frank couldn't help but wish for an end to the agony he felt, or at least for a way to rescue his brother; he didn't really care what kind of torture he went through as long as he knew that Joe would be okay, knowing that Joe was lying somewhere dying was worse then anything that Marion could do to him.

-I am a line-

"Should we call them?" Vanessa asked her face lined with worry. Since arriving at the hospital they had received no word on Joe's condition, and Callie had been sedated by hospital staff when she had continued to insist hysterically that she had seen Frank, they doctors were suggesting that Callie get a psychiatric evaluation but they hadn't forced the issue. Vanessa and the others were currently discussing whether they should call the Hardys as well as Callie's parents, because they weren't sure if they were sufficient to deal with the two of them especially Joe who was not only injured but also insisting that Frank was alive, but for now they were attributing that belief to delirium brought on by his injuries.

"Well, on the one hand, Joe probably doesn't want us to contact his family; I mean he did leave for a reason." Tony offered.

"On the other hand, he's injured and his parents kind of deserve to know where their son is, he is all they have left." Phil countered.

"Maybe we should wait until Joe wakes up and see what he wants to do, maybe he'll let us call his parents, and even if he doesn't its not like we can't decide to call them anyway, but we should at least consider his feelings enough to ask him first." Chet pointed out.

"I think Chet's right," Liz responded. "We should at least check with Joe to see what he wants to do."

"What are we going to do about Callie?" Biff asked.

"I think we're going to have to call her parents," Vanessa answered. "Or at the very least someone should drive her home, I think looking for Joe turned out to be a bit too much for her to handle, she's not anywhere near over Frank's death yet, and finding Joe like that probably brought up thoughts about how she's never going to find Frank, and so she's trying to repress those thoughts and it's manifesting itself in denial." She mused quietly.

"I doubt Callie will just go home quietly, she's going to want to talk to Joe first, and if he's still delirious…" Biff trailed off.

"I know, and it's not like we can force her home." Phil muttered.

"Well, technically, we could just drag her to the car and then start driving, but…" Tony trailed off.

"She would kill us, literally." Chet said finishing Tony's thought.

Spotting a doctor walking toward them, that they recognized as the one who had taken care of Joe when he first arrived from the ambulance, the friends tabled their conversation and looked at him expectantly.

"Are you here for Joseph Hardy?" The doctor, a man who looked to be in his mid-forties with graying brown hair, inquired.

"Yes," Vanessa answered.

"Are you family?" He asked.

"Joe's my brother." Biff interrupted. The doctor eyed them suspiciously but didn't question their story.

"Joe sustained a multitude of injuries which include two broken ribs, three cracked ribs, and severe bruising along his abdomen; he is also suffering from severe blood loss, and a mild concussion." He recited glancing at the chart he held in his hands for confirmation.

"So, he'll be okay?" Vanessa asked anxiously.

"He'll be fine," The doctor confirmed. "It's lucky you found him so fast."

"Is he awake?" Chet asked.

"Yes, he just woke up, and he's asking for someone named Frank, which one of you is that?"

A/N Cruel, I know. Anyway, review, please, because it is my birthday, and that would be the awesome-est present ever. Guess what, this is the 22nd chapter posted on the 22nd of June! Haha.