"Joe!" shouted Frank, rushing over to catch him as he fell. Frank eased him down to the floor.

"What’s wrong with him?" Pierce demanded, his eyes filled with concern.

"He’s sick," snarled Frank, glaring at Pierce with renewed hatred. How had he brainwashed Joe into liking him after what he had done to him? Had he also brainwashed him into hating them?

Pierce got to his feet. Fenton trained the gun on him once again but Rambo began growling at him so he lowered it.

"Take the gun to the car," Laura ordered Fenton.

"No. He’s an escaped convict," Fenton declared, scowling at Pierce.

"And a friend of Joe’s whether we like it or not," Laura reminded him. "Now, do as Joe told you."

"No," Fenton argued. "Not while he is here."

"If you ever want your son to trust you again you will do as he requested," Laura told him, her voice stern.

Fenton gave her a petulant look but snatched a coat from the rack by the kitchen door and headed outside, leaving Frank to keep an eye on Pierce.

"He needs to be in bed," Pierce declared, looking at Joe tenderly. A look which no one noticed because they were all looking at Joe.

Frank felt the urge to knock Pierce into next week but refused to give in to it. His mother was right. He had to acquiesce to Joe’s wishes. Instead, he gritted his teeth and started to pull Joe into a fireman’s carry but Pierce rushed forward and slid one arm under Joe’s knees and another behind his back, and scooped him up into his arms, letting Joe’s head rest on his broad chest.

"Where is his room?" Pierce demanded.

"I’ll take him," Frank said, reaching for Joe. Pierce may be stronger but Joe was his brother.

"I think not," Pierce stated calmly, his voice deadly quiet as he looked into Frank’s determined eyes.

"I am not going to let you hurt him ever again," Frank snarled. "I may not have been able to stop you while he was in prison but there’s nothing stopping me from killing you if you try now," he threatened.

"Me hurt him?" Pierce demanded with a derisive snort. "Whose fault was it he was sent to prison in the first place, huh? Whose fault was it he pled guilty to a crime no one but his own family and so-called friends believed he was guilty of?"

When Pierce finished, he strode out of the room with Joe in his arms to look for Joe’s room on his own. Frank’s feet remained rooted to the ground. Pierce had been right. Everything that had happened to Joe, including what Pierce had done to him was his fault. If only I had believed in him, Frank thought for the billionth plus time since that fateful day.

Laura left the room to follow Pierce. She wasn’t sure which room was Joe’s but she knew it was upstairs. Pierce allowed her to lead the way, carrying Joe carefully so as not to bump his feet into the wall on the way up the steps.

Laura saw three open doors and guessed the solitary one on the left belonged to Joe and Roxy. She sighed when she found out she was right. "I’ll get a wet cloth," Laura said as he gently lay Joe on the bed.

"Better make it two," Pierce told her, seeing the flushed blond lying in the bed.

***

"Frank, let’s go check on the kids," Callie said after they had left. Frank remained still, too lost in self-pity to move.

"Damn it! Snap out of it!" Callie ordered, deciding it was time for some tough love. "Stop feeling so guilty and do something about it. This is your chance, probably your only chance, to prove to Joe how sorry you are. If you’re going to stand there and do nothing then maybe you don’t deserve to get Joe back!