Hardy Boys - More Than Just The Fun Uncle

The Eighth Wonder Of The World

Fenton looked between his two sons with a father's fondness in his eyes. "You boys should catch up." He said, rising from his chair. "I'll go find your mom." Fenton stopped at Frank's side and leaned to whisper into his ear. "He's just starting to come off of the effects of the drugs Bates has been keeping him on. Don't be surprised if he seems a little out of it." He patted his oldest son on the back and, with that, the old detective departed, leaving Frank and Joe alone in the room.

"Hey there, Buddy." Frank said, using the name he always opted toward whenever Joe was sick, injured, or in need of pity. "How are you feeling?" He asked as he took the seat his father had just vacated.

Joe, though weak and sickly looking, managed to wrinkle his nose in distaste. His voice was course as he spoke, but he seemed quite lively. "Too old for 'Buddy' now. You make me feel like a twelve year old again."

Frank smiled. Typical Joe - always maintaining his unique character and charisma in any given situation. Emphasis on any. "You aren't twelve anymore? Man, where have I been the past fourteen years?"

"As I recall, you've been practicing the different forms of being a stick in the mud." Frank's brother teased. "You've done a fine job of it, too. Only failed a few times, but I won't tell if you won't."

"All right, all right." Frank chuckled. "I'm sorry if I've been a bit boring, but one of us had to be levelheaded and it certainly wasn't going to be you."

"Levelheaded my eye." Joe countered. "You're just pretending to be levelheaded to make a good impression."

"Pretending, am I? I've been pretending all of these years?"

Frank's blond brother nodded. "I've got to hand it to you. You're a great actor. Keep trying and you may even be as great as me one day."

The brunette was just barely containing the laughter he felt within himself. "You acted as the stagecoach driver for our school's interpretation of Cinderella in your Junior year."

Joe put on a proud face. "But I was the best stagecoach driver ever to appear in Bayport High School."

"You were the only stagecoach driver ever to appear in Bayport High School. You only had two lines." Frank quipped.

"Ah, yes," Joe reminisced. "'Where to, Malady?' 'As you wish, Malady.'"

"Surprising you still remember what they are considering it took you two days to memorize them."

Joe put on a scowl, but he was incapable of holding it and soon joined Frank in heavy laughter. It wasn't too last, however, because the younger of the two quickly clutched his sides and grimaced in pain.

"Ohh..." Joe groaned.

"Are you okay?" Frank rose from his chair and hovered over his brother, unsure of where or if he should touch him. "What can I do to help?"

Joe seemed to recover and lifted a hand to deter Frank's 'help'. "I'm okay now. Just hurts to laugh."

Frank relaxed a little and eased himself back into the chair. He raked his fingers through his messy brown hair and heaved a sigh. "I'm really sorry, Joe. You shouldn't even be here. You should be at home sleeping in or, perhaps, taking your girls to the park."

The blond lifted a finger to his lips and shook his head. "I don't want to hear any of that nonsense, Frank. We'll just leave it as it is: nonsense."

"But if I hadn't-"

"Shut up, Frank." Though Joe's words seemed harsh, they were said softly and with meaning. "I know what you are thinking. If this is anybody's fault, it's mine. I was stupid to take the girls out without your permission and I shouldn't have let my guard down. I owe you an apology."

Frank shook his head. "You couldn't have known what would happen. I'm not glad about you going behind my back, but I was wrong to punish you the way I did. Maybe if I hadn't-"

"Devin still would have found me." Joe interrupted. "And I would have been dead days ago. As much as I hated having them there, those girls saved my life."

Frank was silent at this. He didn't know the whole story behind the abduction, but he had heard of Devin's plans to kill Joe. Hadn't Andrea said that he tried more than once? "I should have found you sooner."

"And I should have fought harder." Joe countered. "We can keep turning this back on ourselves all day, but the truth is that neither one of us could have predicted what would happen. What we do know is that if it didn't happen the way did, things could have been way worse for us."

Frank nodded slowly, but he wasn't quite sure. "We still don't know if you're going to be all right, though."

"Are you kidding?" Joe grinned, immediately lightening the mood. "It's almost like you haven't known me our whole lives. Joe Hardy always pulls through."

Frank returned the grin with a soft smile. "I don't know whether to call you the unluckiest man alive because you've had so many near deaths, or whether to call you the luckiest man alive because you've managed to survive every time."

"The Eighth Wonder of the world." Joe tried to suppress a yawn, but it could not escape the notice of the protective mother hen that was Frank hardy.

"You should get some rest, Joe. You've been through it."

"No way!" The younger grumbled. "I still have to see Mom and my lovely wife!"

Frank lowered his brother back into a laying position, despite his protests. "You can see them when you wake up. Besides, you're still suffering some of the effects of the doctor's drugs. You could gain something from sleeping off the rest of them."

Joe continued to ramble on about how he wasn't tired and how he could go a few more hours without rest, but as soon as his eyes were closed he was fast asleep. That and the fact that he still looked half dead were the only testaments to the ordeal he had just escaped from. It amazed Frank how Joe could just carry on like that. He could survive a near-death experience and act as though nothing had happened. Just a joke could make his whole world normal again.

Frank knew that it wasn't entirely true. Joe's lightheartedness was how he coped with trauma, stress and anxiety. He seemed cool on the outside, but every joke he cracked was another layer shoveled onto the ever-growing pile of dirt that buried his troubles. Every now and then, Frank had to dig up that pile and help Joe properly dispose of these troubles before they numbered too many to bury - before they started to melt into Joe's character and change who he was.

Such is the problem for so many people who don't have someone to help them past their troubles. Soon, they've buried too much and they run out of dirt to cover it with. It starts to show until it's all that's left to see. It's driven so many people to insanity or worse. But not when you have someone to help you take those things away. Someone like a brother or a best friend.

Frank and Joe did that for each other. They helped each other past these things and many more that could have broken many a man. But it didn't matter quite so much when they had each other. Frank tried to imagine how different things might have been if either he or Joe had never been born, but he couldn't. It was impossible to comprehend. Without Frank there would have been no Joe. Without Joe there would have been no Frank. No wild adventures would have been had. No perilous exploits would have to be experienced. No tragedies would have had to scar their hearts. But neither would this bond they share be treasured quite so dearly as these brothers treasure it.