Disclaimer: See chapter three, which will tell you to see chapter two, which will tell you to see chapter one. *whew*

A/N: My last chapter for this story.  I hope you enjoy!  Oh, and thanks for reviewing!

Chapter Four

"Joey, Joey . . . can you hear me?"  Danny Tanner was holding onto his friend, in order to keep Joey's head above the water.

"Danny, what happened?" asked Jesse, who had come over to his brother-in-law's side.

"I don't know," admitted Danny, beginning to panic; he didn't think that Joey was breathing, and he had no idea as to what had happened.  He looked down to see a small dolphin swim past his leg.  'Joey seemed that he was doing okay . . . what happened?' he thought, anxiously.

Suddenly, two lifeguards appeared in front of Danny and Jesse: a man and a woman.  "What happened?" the female lifeguard asked, looking at Joey. 

Danny shook his head.  He didn't know what had happened to his best friend, but all he wanted was for someone to help him, which no one seemed to be doing.  All anyone was doing was asking him what had happened.

"Here, give him to me," the male lifeguard commanded.  Danny let the lifeguard take Joey from him and watched as the lifeguards quickly took him to the shore, where a small crowd was already forming.

Danny and Jesse exchanged concerned looks, and then followed the lifeguards up to the beach.  They pushed through the crowd, which was slowly growing larger, to find that Joey had been laid on the ground.  The male lifeguard was a few feet away from the swarm of people, and was dialing nine-one-one on a cell phone.

The female lifeguard was checking to see if Joey was breathing.  "He's not breathing," she stated, alarm showing clearly in her voice.

As she began to administer CPR, Becky, Stephanie, D.J., and Michelle had come up and stood alongside Jesse and Danny.  "Is he going to be okay?" asked Becky, her voice shaky.

Danny shrugged, and Jesse said, sadly, "We don't know." 

The three girls stood watching.  D.J. and Stephanie were in shock.  They stood with their mouths agape, fear showing in their eyes.

Michelle did not completely understand what was going on.  "Joey?" she whimpered.  "Daddy," she began, tapping Danny on the side, "is Joey okay?"

Danny sighed deeply and picked her up.  "We don't know, honey," he whispered.  He rested his head against his daughter's, inhaling deeply.  Michelle could feel her father's heart beating against her shoulder.

Finally, after nearly one minute of CPR, Joey began to cough, water spilling out of his mouth onto the sand.  He coughed for a few seconds before laying his head down on the ground and passing out again, but breathing regularly.

By that time, an ambulance had arrived.  Two people came up to Joey and loaded him onto a gurney.  As they began to wheel him towards the ambulance, Danny, Jesse, Becky, and the girls all ran to catch up.  "Excuse me, sir, but could one of us come with him?" Danny asked.

"Are you family?" the man asked, while loading the gurney into the ambulance.

"Yes," replied Danny, without hesitation.

"Then, yes, one of you may ride along."

Danny looked back at his family, a pleading look in his eye.  "You go, Danny," said Becky.  "We'll follow you in the van."  Danny looked at Jesse, who nodded.

Danny climbed into the ambulance and sat down beside the gurney and looked down at Joey's form, which was completely still, except for the continuous rise and fall of his chest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Joey awoke to the sound of a constant beeping sound.  He felt a pillow under his head and a thin blanket over him.  Even though he had not yet opened his eyes, he knew that he was in a hospital.

He refused to open his eyes, for he knew that him family was there in his room.  He heard a door open, and then the click as the door shut.  "Dr. Cooper," Joey immediately recognized Jesse's voice, "is he going to be okay?"

Joey heard a fluttering of papers before the doctor responded.  "Mr. Gladstone will be just fine," Dr. Cooper replied in a deep raspy voice.  "He nearly drowned, though.  There was a lot of salt water in his lungs.  How did you say this happened?"

There was a brief pause before someone responded.  "We're not exactly sure," Danny said.  "He was coming towards us when all of a sudden, he froze.  Then he collapsed and fell to the bottom of the water.  I came towards him as fast as I could, but you know how hard it is to run in the water."

"Hmm."  Joey heard Dr. Cooper scribble something down.  "So you do not know exactly how this happened?"

"Right."

Another pause.  "Well, we'll keep Mr. Gladstone here overnight for observation, but he can go home first thing tomorrow morning."  Silence . . . Joey guessed that they were all nodding their heads for response.

"When do you think that he'll wake up?" asked Becky.  Joey could hear the concern in her voice.

"Oh, anytime now," replied Dr. Cooper.  "You're welcome to stay until visiting hours are over, which will be in about an hour and a half."

"Okay, thank you."  Joey heard the door open and close once again.  He could hear footsteps approaching his bed and stop.  Joey knew that they were all standing around him, but he could not bear to open his eyes just yet.

"He looks so peaceful," said Becky, quietly.  'Peaceful?' Joey repeated, in his mind.  'I am so embarrassed, and mad at myself for doing this to them.  I am quite the opposite of peaceful.'

"I know," whispered Danny. 

Silence . . .

Joey sighed deeply and rolled his head so that he was facing up.  "Joe, are you waking up?" asked Jesse, hopefully.

"Yeah," Joey grunted, opening his eyes.  As his vision cleared, he saw six pairs of worried eyes looking at him: what he had feared would happen.

"Joey, how are you feeling?" asked Danny.

"I feel . . . pretty good."  Joey pushed him self into a sitting position.

"Whoa, hold it," said Jesse, pushing Joey back down to the bed.  "Stay there.  You need to rest."

Joey rolled his eyes, but stayed put.  "So, Joey, can you tell us what happened?"

"Was it a shark?" asked Michelle, her eyes growing wide.

Joey looked at her in shock.  "You told them?" he asked, looking at Danny and Jesse.

"We had to," replied Danny, cocking an eyebrow at him.

Joey nodded, understanding.  "I'm . . . not really sure what happened."  He knew immediately that what he had said was a lie.  "I mean . . ." He sighed.  "You know when I was walking back to you guys, and I just froze?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I felt something touch my leg.  Then I saw a fin . . . and something touched my leg again.  I got so scared that I just . . ." He stopped, knowing that they knew what he meant.

"Oh, well, Joey, when I came to get you, I saw something with a fin near you," said Danny.

"You did?  What was it?"

Danny let out a nervous chuckle.  "Joe, I think that it was just a dolphin."

Joey blushed to a deep shade of red.  "Oh, my God," he groaned.  "This is so embarrassing.  I can't believe that I did what I did."  He covered his face with his hands.

"Well, Joey, we can't blame you.  You were just scared.  Had it been any of us, we probably would've done the exact same thing."

"You would've passed out and nearly drowned?" asked Joey.

"Well, maybe not the exact same thing, but we weren't in your place.  None of us had experienced what you had to experience all those years ago." 

"I guess . . ." 

"Joey, why did you go into the water anyway?" asked Stephanie.

"I just saw all of you having such a great time, and I wanted to be a part of it.  I was feeling a little left out."

"Adults feel left out, too?  Great, I thought it went away after school ended," mumbled Stephanie.

They all talked for an hour and a half, when Dr. Cooper poked his head into the doorway.  "Sorry, but visiting hours are over."

Jesse, Danny, Becky, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle all stood up.  "We'll be back for you tomorrow morning, Joey, first thing," promised Jesse.

"Okay, thanks guys."  Joey smiled at them as they left his room.  His smile faded as he realized that he would be alone until about eight in the morning the next day.  He saw a remote sitting on the stand next to his bed.  He picked it up and turned on the television.

The first thing that Joey saw was the news.  "This is Cheryl Ropman, reporting from the beach, where the shark that has been threatening our residents' summers has been caught and put in the San Francisco Zoo, where it had been, until the zoo owners decided to release it back into the ocean.  Upon learning that the shark had been coming close to beach-goers, they have decided to keep it in the zoo-"

Joey quickly changed the channel.  'So, the shark's been caught.  I guess if they ever wanted to go back to the beach, it'd be okay . . ." Just thinking about the beach and the water gave Joey that nervous feeling in his stomach again.  You nearly died.  You can't go back in that water.  What if it happens again?

'But the shark was caught.  It won't happen again because I'll know that the shark isn't there.'

That shark isn't there, but what if there's another one?  'But I can't live my life off of a "what if."'  It's always been okay before . . . you've been safe.

'But what about today?  I was so scared that something was going to happen that it nearly killed me . . . literally.  No, if they want to go back, I'll be up for it.  And I won't stay on the beach.'

Silence.  The voice of voice of fear that had been plaguing him ever since he knew about the shark was gone.  He breathed a sigh of relief and began flipping the channels. 

As he landed on a cartoon, he felt that everything was beginning to come together.  He smiled.  The girls would be home for the rest of the summer, but maybe next time they could all just go to a movie . . .

*Finis*

A/N:  Well, Joey had a 'Gollum from Lord of the Rings' moment there.  Well, I've finished another story.  YEA!!!!  Please review!