Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or any of the book characters.
Thank you! To Wendylouwho10 as usual for reading for flow and content. Typos are mine and I find them all the time!
Rating/Setting: Rating is T. Started as kinda blue spine with a touch of Casefiles but is now completely AU. Frank is 20 and Joe is 19.
Author's Notes: I'm so glad that everyone enjoyed Joe and Callie's discussion. Like I said, I really liked that chapter and how it tied so many things together. :) Thank you for all the reviews! Keep them coming! I decided to post early as I'm home from work due to the weather. :) Enjoy the early chapter. :) Only 3 left after this one!
Chapter Twenty-Three
Joe was nervously pacing the floor when he heard the door open. He stopped dead and watched Vanessa walk into the room hugging herself tightly. Her eyes were reddened by tears and he hated that he had put them there. The images of what the Assassins had shown him were still in the forefront of his mind even after he had talked to Callie. He wanted to rush to her and wrap her in a warm hug but he felt like his feet were bolted to the floor.
"Can I hug you?" Vanessa asked carefully.
He felt awful that he had caused her to feel this way. Obviously, Dr. Chatterly and Callie had given her and Frank some forewarning about his unstable status. Joe nodded and felt his own tears start to fall as she rushed into his arms but hugged him gently as if he might break. He tightened his embrace and felt her do the same as she began to sob. "I'm sorry, Vanessa. I'm so-"
"Stop it," she whispered loudly in his ear. "Just stop."
"But I-" He felt her hair brush back and forth against his cheek as she nodded negatively. "But-"
This time Vanessa leaned back out of their embrace but her hands gripped his arms tightly. "Don't you dare apologize for anything."
This time he rushed to get the words out before she could stop him. "But I thought you and Frank had an affair!" There the words were out but she remained unfazed as she gazed at him.
"So?"
He tore his gaze from her beautiful eyes to look at the clock on the wall. "I doubted you. I believed them."
"No you didn't."
Her tone was firm and caused him to look back at her incredulously. "I did. That's why I asked Callie to come in here."
Vanessa shook her head no once again. "If you had truly believed it, Joe. Frank would be dead on the beach or in that cave."
"He's my brother. I couldn't shoot him."
"Yes you could have. You probably even wanted to but deep down," she paused as she placed a hand over his racing heart, "you knew in your heart that Frank and I would never do that."
She was right but he wasn't ready to forgive himself yet. "The things I thought about the two of you…." He closed his eyes and then felt her hand on his cheek. Opening them he looked into her eyes and saw no recrimination for the things he may have thought. In fact, all he saw was love.
"I love you, Joe. And anything that you may have thought or said while you were being tortured and drugged doesn't matter to me. In the end, you knew in your heart that Frank and I love you."
He couldn't take it any longer and closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair. "I don't deserve you."
"Yes you do," she whispered back. "I'm so glad you're back."
The two stayed locked in that embrace for several minutes whispering back and forth to each other. Finally they broke apart and moved sit together on the couch where Vanessa rested her head on his shoulder.
"If you want to talk-"
Joe cut her off quickly. "I don't."
She turned her face up to him quizzically.
He sighed, "I mean I don't want to talk in detail about what they showed me."
"But you will talk to Dr. Childers about it?"
"Yes. I'll talk to him about it and I can talk to you in general about it. Right now… it still seems so real even though I know it's not."
"The drugs aren't out of your system and you were there for weeks, Joe. You can't expect it to go away so quickly. We certainly don't." She laid her head back on his shoulder. "Are you going to talk to Frank?"
Joe was quiet. He remembered how he treated his brother along the cliff side and was ashamed.
Sensing his unease, Vanessa said, "He doesn't blame you for anything. Can I send him in?"
Trying to get off the sensitive subject, he said, "Trying to get away so soon?"
"Not funny, Joe. You know I'm not," she said firmly but lovingly. "I just know he's on pins and needles. You know your brother. He has to see for himself that you're okay and nothing short of his own eyes seeing you will do."
The two stood up and moved to the door. Joe was supposed to stay in his room unless accompanied by a staff member. They were still concerned about the drugs in his system and his reaction to things. He stopped at the door and pulled her into another hug. "You'll come back to see me?"
"Yes. One of us will be with you all day for company except for the sessions with Dr. Childers and any other debriefing that ORT still needs to do." She pulled back and looked up at him and closed her eyes.
It was an invitation for him to kiss her but she wasn't pushing it. Not if he wasn't ready. But after talking to Callie and now Vanessa he was seeing things much clearer. He leaned down and kissed her. At first it was tentative as he wasn't sure that she wanted anything more but then the kiss transitioned into something much more intense.
After a few moments, Vanessa pulled back, breathless and smiled. "Welcome home, Joe."
His smile continued after the door closed behind her, but then it faded. He pressed his hand to the door and said, "Home with more demons to haunt me," he whispered.
.**********.
Frank stood nervously outside his brother's room. Callie and Vanessa had both returned to the waiting room with smiles and assurances that Joe was seeing things more clearly. But he was the only one beside their father that had seen and heard the venom that laced Joe's voice when talking to and about his brother. Frank knew it was the drugs and the brainwashing, but could all of that have been erased so quickly? Deciding that staying in the hall wasn't going to accomplish anything; Frank opened the door and stepped inside. He was still struck by his brother's appearance. The man standing before him looked little like the brother he had recently been on a mission with.
"Hi, Frank," Joe said as he stepped away from the window. "About the things I said…."
"Water under the bridge. Don't think about it."
Joe's head shook. "But I do think about it. What I thought about you and Vanessa. It was wrong. I was wrong to lash out at you-"
"Crap," Frank said and crossed his arms drawing a puzzled look from his brother. "That's a load of crap. You were tortured, drugged, and brainwashed." He dropped his hands to his sides and took several steps toward his brother. "And in spite of all that, you managed to take out two Assassin operatives and save my life. So unless you're sorry I'm alive-"
Joe closed the distance in two steps and wrapped his brother in a tight embrace. "Never say that again, Frank. Never."
Frank realized now that his phrasing could have been better considering his brother's impaired mental state. "Hey, man. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." He patted Joe on the back. "Stupid big brother comment."
"Just know, I couldn't go through with what they wanted." Joe let go and backed up. "They tried to convince me but I knew it was lies." He shook his head and looked away. "At least deep down I do. But what I heard and saw…" He moved past Frank to sit in one of the chairs and stare at the floor.
"Are you going to talk to Dr. Childers about it?" Frank asked as he moved to take a seat as well.
"Yes." He stopped and looked at his brother. "He had your birthmark on his arm."
Frank tensed. "The person in the pictures?"
"And the videos and the audio sounded just like you." Joe's gaze pierced right through him.
"But you know it wasn't me and it wasn't Vanessa."
Joe stared at him. "Yeah, I know." Then he shook his head as if clearing the thoughts. "Deep down I know. But right now, everything is so fresh and I can hear the words, 'He'll never know' and it's hard for me to separate what I know to be true to what I heard and saw for weeks." Joe's eyes welled with tears again and he brushed them away angrily. "Can't wait to get off these drugs and get back to feeling normal." After wiping the tears from his face he said, "I know it was a set-up. I know things were photo-shopped. I know that the audio and video I heard and saw were actors. They didn't do that until late in the game when I was sleep deprived, hungry, and doped up for weeks. They knew I'd see through it."
Frank nodded as his brother processed aloud what he had been through.
"I know you said I shouldn't apologize, but I'm going to apologize now for things I haven't done yet." Joe looked at the hands clasped in his lap. "I may pull away at times or make a snappy comment. I just have to get these thoughts out of my mind."
"I can't begin to understand what you went through, Joe. But if you snap at me or even bite my head off. It's okay. I can take it. I'm just thankful you're alive to do it." Frank sat quietly for a moment and then said, "On the beach after you shot Older, I listened for a second shot. You can never know how relieved I was that there wasn't one. I knew then that I had a chance to get you back and nothing was going to stop me."
Joe's eyes met his brother's and he smiled for the first time since Frank had entered the room.
"Cassidy is here and would like to see you. Can I send her in?"
Joe's eyes widened. He had vague recollections about a girl that was with Frank and his father but he had thought it was Callie. "Yes. Definitely. Send her in."
They both stood and moved to the door. "You know she was the one who helped piece things together in the gazebo. She knew Gary Older and that made us look at things completely differently. That wasn't a wild shot that you took. You shot him on purpose."
Joe gave a grim smile. "I was worried that you'd think I had missed."
Frank gave Joe another hug and said in a voice raspy with emotion, "I told the agents you never miss." He closed his eyes a minute and then opened them as he let go of Joe and reached for the door. "Glad you're back. I missed my brother." Frank smiled and left the room. As he walked down the hall he felt that things were going to be all right.