J.M.J.

Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing! I am posting double chapters tonight, and that will bring this story to its close. God bless!

Chapter 20

Callie was sitting just far enough to Frank's side to make it uncomfortable for him to look at her, and so they had to talk without making eye contact. At first, Frank wondered if that had been accidental, but as the conversation went on, he realized that she had to have noticed how awkward the positioning was. She clearly didn't want to look him in the eye. Frank tried not to let it bother him, but it would have made him nervous no matter who it was. Since it was Callie, it hurt that there was still such a distance between them.

"I'm glad everything came out all right," Callie was saying. "I know what it's like…" Her voice trailed off. "How soon do you think they'll get here?"

Frank glanced at a clock on the wall. When his dad had called Sam's cell phone, Dr. Rogate had allowed Frank to talk to his family. They had been quite a few hours north of Vancouver, and given the late hour and the need to hand their prisoners over to the authorities as soon as they reached someplace that had a police department, they had been obliged to spend the night in a hotel. It was the next day now, mid-afternoon.

"They should be coming any time," he said.

"Then maybe I should be going," Callie replied. "There's nothing I can do now, and I do need to get back to my job while I still have it."

"You can't go to work still tonight."

"No, but I'll need to get some things in order before going in the morning. I hope you never have to find out what it's like to be a single parent."

Frank sighed, deciding that maybe it was just as well that he couldn't look Callie in the face. "I'd just like to know one thing, Callie. Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"You're all alone out there in Washington. Why do you stay?"

There was a long pause. "I don't think you'd understand."

"To tell the truth, no, I don't understand," Frank admitted.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Callie smile sadly. "I don't think I can explain, then. I'd better go. Good-bye, Frank. We'll talk again sometime."

She stood up and left the room. Frank watched her go, but he didn't say anything more to try to stop her. He sighed and shook his head. If Callie was so determined to do things her own way, there wasn't anything he could do to help her, even though it was clear she was unhappy. The idea that she was happy had been one of the few things that had helped Frank to reconcile everything that had happened in the last ten years. Now it seemed that that illusion would no longer hold.

But Callie apparently didn't want anyone's help, least of all his. He was simply going to have to find some way to make sense of everything that had happened apart from her. It shouldn't be that difficult, he told himself. Everything had turned out all right, against all hope. His family and Nancy's daughters were all safe, and there was nothing wrong with Frank himself that he couldn't recover from. And yet Spencer Hale was still out there somewhere, and the past was still behind him, irrevocable and truly unmendable, and this whole incident was yet another scar. None of this would have happened if he and Joe had just owned up to the past before this. Once again, this was on them.

"Amy?" he called suddenly.

The nurse on duty at the moment in his room was a taciturn woman of around forty-five, but she was prompt to respond if Frank asked her for anything. She was at his side in a moment, asking, "Is there something you need?"

"Could you please see if Sam Radley is back yet?" Frank requested. The police had had a possible lead on the sniper who had taken a shot at Frank, and Sam had gone with them to look for him.

"I'll be right back."

Amy didn't actually leave the room—she and the other nurses who were stationed in Frank's room had been sternly instructed not to do so and they had all obeyed those instructions—but she went to the door and spoke to someone just outside. Frank couldn't quite hear what was being said.

"Mr. Radley isn't back yet," Amy reported, "but your friend Chet is out here."

"Sure, send him in," Frank said with a shrug.

A moment later, Chet came through the door. "Hey, Frank."

"Hi," Frank replied. "Have you heard anything from Sam or the police lately?"

"Actually, yeah. Just a couple minutes ago, Sam called and said that they found that sniper."

Frank could tell that there was something more, and when Chet didn't offer it immediately, he asked, "And?"

Chet stuck his hands in his pockets. "Well, the guy's not alive."

"What happened?"

"They think he must have shot himself, maybe since he failed his mission." Chet shrugged. "From the sort of weapons he had and the way he was dressed and the fact that he didn't have any ID or anything on him and he probably shot himself, they think he's probably one of the terrorists."

"It makes sense," Frank agreed. "I doubt some rancher has a sniper on his payroll. It's too bad they couldn't have gotten him alive."

Chet pulled the chair Callie had been sitting in so that he could look at Frank while they talked. "Yeah. At least we don't have to worry about him running around loose anymore."

There were, no doubt, more where this one had come from, Frank thought, but he didn't see any point in saying anything about it. "How about Joe or my parents? Have you heard from them lately?"

Chet checked the time on his phone. "No, but they should be here…"

"Any minute," Frank finished for him. "Yeah. I guess I've just got to be patient."

"Speaking of patience, how long are they going to keep you stuck in here?"

"Three or four more days. Then if everything looks good, I can go home." Frank closed his eyes as he lay his head back against the pillow. "I can't wait."

"Back to NYC?" Chet asked.

Frank shook his head. "Bayport, if Mom and Dad don't mind me hanging around for a little while."

NDNDNDNDND

Fenton pulled the rented SUV into a parking space of the Vancouver hospital. Nancy and Ned had rented their own vehicle, so it was just Fenton, Laura, and Joe. It had been a quiet ride as they were all still trying to process everything they had just been through. They had already been to a hospital to see to their own injuries. Laura's cut had needed stitches, but she was all right otherwise. Joe had been instructed to wear a knee brace, although he was relieved that at least he didn't have to use crutches.

They had no sooner arrived than a man approached them and showed them a police badge. "My name is Sergeant Griffon," he introduced himself. "You must be the Hardys."

"That's right." Fenton shook the man's offered hand and introduced himself, his wife, and his son.

"I've been handling this case since we found your other son," Griffon explained. "I'm certainly glad that you're all safe now. Follow me. I'll show you where Frank is at."

They had to pass through the waiting room to reach Frank's room, and they found Iola, Chet, and Biff all there. Joe hadn't expected to see all of them here and he was caught off-guard for a moment, but then he realized he was glad to see each insisted on hugging him.

"We were worried we'd never see you again," Iola admitted.

Joe's cheeks colored slightly. A part of him that he had tried hard to suppress was rather pleased that Iola would still consider that a misfortune. "I really appreciate it that all of you came all the way out here."

Biff shrugged. "It's no problem. Not that we did a whole lot."

"Not that Biff ever does a whole lot," Chet teased him.

Before any further teasing could happen, Dr. Rogate came out and introduced himself to the Hardys. Frank was still technically only supposed to have one visitor at a time, but Dr. Rogate was willing to make an exception to let all three Hardys in to see him.

It was an emotional reunion. Frank hadn't known what had happened to his brother and parents, and the others hadn't quite believed that Frank really was all right—comparatively, anyway—until they saw him in person.

They stayed for about half an hour, and then they made a move to leave.

"Joe," Frank said. "I'd like to talk to you alone a minute."

"Sure," Joe agreed, glancing at his parents.

"We'll be outside," Laura told him.

Joe came and sat in the chair next to Frank's bed. "What's up?"

Frank didn't reply right away before he looked up at Joe. "This was our fault, you know." He kept his voice low, not wanting Amy, who was still posted in the room, to overhear

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that." Joe crossed and then uncrossed his legs uncomfortably. "It's too bad Hale wasn't one of the ones we caught."

"Of course he wouldn't be. But if he had been, I'm sure he would have followed through on his threat, just to get even with us. As it is now, he can still use it against us."

"Only if we let him," Joe muttered.

"We're going to have to talk to Dad about it."

Joe looked down at his hands. "I know we are. But I'm not ready for that yet. It's all just such a mess."

"I know, and it's not getting any less messy the longer we wait," Frank said.

"Obviously. I just keep hoping that maybe somehow, it'll turn out that we don't ever have to admit that we were a part of a thing like that." Joe dropped his face into his hands, letting his elbows rest on his knees.

"We didn't know what was going to happen…" Frank reminded him.

"We should have."

"The Network was lying to us."

"We should have known they were capable of that, too," Joe insisted. "Dad had warned us about them. I don't want to have to tell him that we didn't listen and somebody died because of it."

"Right, but if Hale ever does try to frame us for that, Dad's really not going to like only finding out about it then," Frank insisted.

Joe sighed. "Yeah, I know. But can we give it a little time? I don't know that he'd take it well right now."

"Okay. That's fair." Frank frowned thoughtfully. "There is another thing, Joe. I don't think she'll say anything, but I did tell Callie about it."

"What?" Joe burst out, not only breaking out of the muted tones that they had been using, but almost shouting. He glanced quickly toward Amy, but she was at least pretending not to pay any attention. He quickly lowered his voice again. "Why would you tell her, of all people?"

Frank shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. It just happened. But like I said, I don't think she'll tell anyone. I asked her not to."

"And she's always been perfectly considerate of you."

"That was a long time ago," Frank objected. "Just let it go. Besides, no matter how much you yell at me, it's not going to change what happened."

"I guess so." Joe groaned.

There was a pause, and then Frank said, "I doubt Hale is going to try anything right away. We can give it a couple more weeks probably."

"I hope so," Joe muttered.

"I didn't tell Callie all the details, either."

"That makes sense. She would have left sooner if you had."