A/N: Okay, this is the last chapter although it doesn't really feel like a decisive ending to me. Probably because I started another mystery before I was finished with this story! I just couldn't wait! BIG THANKS to everyone for reading and for reviewing. Thanks for sticking with it even if my updates started to get pretty spaced apart there at the end.

Enjoy!

Four Times Too Many

Chapter Thirty Five

"So, where should we go from here?" Frank asked his father. He and Nancy were now sitting in his parent's living room, having decided to come over and show Fenton what they had found.

"We'll start at the newspaper, check staff members against people from Joe's past," Fenton said and stared down at the paper in his hand. The words seemed to jump out and mock him. You can't protect your boys anymore Fenton they seemed to say. They're no longer little boys where a smile and a band aid will fix their hurts.

"Dad?" Frank said loudly and Fenton realized he hadn't heard what his son was saying.

"I'm sorry, what?" Fenton asked and set the paper aside.

"I was saying that it's going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack," Frank said again.

"Well, we'll start with Michael Richards, the writer of the story and work out from there. Also, we'll check all of the local paper delivery people, see if something comes up. From there we'll just keep searching. Joe's friend Eric at the paper should be a big help. It wouldn't hurt to go to all of your friend's neighbors, the hospital, Joe's neighbors…see if they saw anything." Fenton ran his fingers through his graying hair.

"We'll have to be extra careful checking out Joe's neighbors," Nancy observed.

Fenton smiled at her, "you know my son well."

"I've known him for a long time," Nancy returned the smile.

"Okay, I'll start making some calls," Fenton stood up but paused when he saw Joe standing in the doorway. "Hello Joe." Fenton sounded completely innocent.

"Joe?" Frank whirled around and faced his brother, "Joe." Frank couldn't quite mask the guilty expression as well as his father could.

"Isn't this cozy?" Joe said with a smile. "What are you guys doing?"

"Just…talking," Frank said slowly.

"The two of you have missed so much time in the office recently that Frank and I were just coming up with a battle plan on how to attack all the paperwork," Fenton lied smoothly.

Joe's eyes narrowed as if he were starting to believe his father but one look at Frank's head bobbing up and down in agreement had that thought fleeing his mind. "Frank, you can lie to the most evil crime lord intent on beating answers out of you but you just can't lie to me." Joe looked from his father, to Nancy and back to Frank. "Someone better start explaining."

Nancy looked at Frank and Fenton and knew that they were loathing telling Joe about the message in the newspapers. She took a deep breath and laid a comforting hand on Frank's arm before beginning. "Joe, your mom was just making some snacks. Why don't we go into the dining room and talk about this?"

As soon as he heard the word 'snack' Joe immediately complied: Nancy did know her future brother-in-law well.

"Fine," he said and pointed his finger at Frank, "but you're telling me as soon as we sit down just why you're having this powwow without me."

"You always were perceptive," Frank mumbled under his breath. When Joe fixed him with a glare Frank relented, "Fine, as soon as we sit down I'll tell you what's going on."

A few minutes later everyone was gathered around the dining room table and Frank looked at his brother across from him. Fenton sat at the head of the table with Laura on his left, their joined hands clasped tightly on the table top. Frank reached for Nancy's hand in her lap and squeezed it quickly.

"So?" Joe asked and bit into a cookie.

Frank explained as quickly as possible about the newspapers and the message he and Nancy had discovered in them. The entire time he was talking he watched his brother closely. As soon as he said the words "I hope it hurt badly when he tortured you" Frank saw a flicker of something in Joe's eyes before they seemed to empty of emotion.

"And…that's it," Frank finished lamely. The silence that hung in the air was deafening and Joe rubbed a hand over his forehead.

"Joe, honey?" Laura said quietly breaking the silence.

"I'm fine mom," Joe said reassuringly. He was busy wishing fervently that Vanessa could be here with him. He just needed her by his side and everything would be all right. He took a deep breath, Vanessa wasn't here and his anxious family was waiting for his reaction. Taking a deep breath, he said what he hoped would make his family feel better. He'd put them through enough the last couple of months, he wanted to try and take away some of the stress.

"Look," he said slowly, "that message is…weird. But as weird as it is, I don't think it's that big of a deal."

"Joe," Frank said incredulously, his free hand fisting on the table, "someone went to the trouble of making sure everyone important in your life got a copy of that newspaper. Then they went to the trouble of sending us a message we may or may not have been able to find. You can't honestly think that it's not a big deal."

Joe could feel the headache pounding in his temples and he resisted the urge to rub them. He worked hard to keep his face composed and purposefully carefree. After all, he was the happy go-lucky Hardy brother. He knew how to play his part. "Frank, I appreciate the brotherly concern but I just don't think it's a problem. Someone decided to play a mean prank," he shrugged nonchalantly and congratulated himself on holding back the wince from his now raging headache. "I don't think we need to worry about anything until something actually happens."

"Something did happen, Joe," Fenton said quietly. He was confused by his son's completely calm façade, something he knew his son was not known for.

Joe laughed and shook his head, "yeah, it happened dad but it wasn't exactly a threat. We've had worse. I really don't think anything else will come of this." He reached forward and took a sip of his pop. When he realized his hand was shaking slightly he quickly set the can back on the table.

'God Vanessa, I need you right now!' Joe prayed silently in his head. Hoping to end the conversation quickly Joe grabbed another cookie off the plate. "Now that I've called of my guard dogs," he grinned at Frank who was still staring at him with a mixture of confusion and anger, "I talked to Tony and it looks like the first snow fell in the mountains. Ready to tear it up brother?"

"You want to go…snowboarding?" Frank said when he had found his voice.

"Of course, first snow of the season. We have to go. Biff will be mad we went without him, but that's what you get when you act all heroic." Joe hoped fervently that the burning behind his eyes didn't mean he was getting a migraine.

"Snowboarding," Frank repeated.

"Yeah," Joe said talking slowly as if to some one very young. "You remember that right? Long thin board, sometimes has a design on it, attaching your feet to it and then hurling yourself down a mountain. This weekend sound good?" Joe asked.

"Um, sure," Frank shook his head.

"How about you Nancy, can you board?" Joe asked and smiled.

"Yeah, I can. I have to see if I can get the time off. I've been sort of MIA around the office lately. I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on too."

"Well, I'm glad you boys are going to have fun this weekend but before you do…paperwork," Fenton said sternly and looked at both of his boys, his eyes lingering on Joe.

Joe squirmed uncomfortably in his seat under his father's meaningful gaze, "I'm not even going to bother asking why you're looking at me like that. I know I'm the problem paperwork child."

"Try taking out the 'paperwork' and just leaving 'problem' and 'child'," Frank said with a smile.

Joe sent his brother a sarcastic smile, "at least I'm not the annoying bratty kid who pretends to know everything."

"Who's pretending?" Frank shot back and earned a grin from Joe.

A few minutes later Joe excused himself, "I better get going, Vanessa will be home soon and we have plans to go to dinner."

Saying goodbye to his family Joe walked out to his car, congratulating on handling the situation with the newspapers exactly how he had intended to. The raging headache and the sick dread in the pit of his stomach was nothing when he thought of the relief he hoped to finally give his family. He drove home in silence, his usually throbbing radio turned off to help his throbbing head.

He got home, unlocked the front door and made a beeline for the bathroom where he downed some extra strength pain reliever. Sighing in relief he stared at himself in the mirror and was amazed at how composed he looked. Nobody looking at him would guess at the inner turmoil running through his body.

'I hope it hurt badly when he tortured you.' The words ran over and over again in his head and mixed with grisly images from the past.

"What do you think?" Frank asked his father as they stood side by side staring after Joe's car as it headed down the street.

"He seemed genuine," Fenton replied.

"Yeah," Frank agreed but couldn't stop thinking about the look that had come into Joe's eyes upon hearing the message found in the newspapers.

"Doesn't mean we can't check into all this discreetly," Fenton said without looking at his son. Frank looked over at his father in surprise and saw his lips curled up in a slight smile.

"What can I do?" Frank asked.

"Go snowboarding with your brother this weekend," Fenton replied.

"Dad…" Frank began but Fenton turned to him and cut him off.

"Go snowboarding with your brother. As fine as he seems, he needs the distraction. I'll take care of any discreet digging that needs to be done. I'll let you know if I find anything but until that time, don't worry about it." Fenton knew that telling his oldest son not to worry about something concerning his youngest was pretty pointless but he had to try anyway.

"Dishes are done," Nancy announced as she and Laura walked into the room from the kitchen. She looped her arm through Frank's and smiled up at him. "Ready to go home?"

"Yeah," Frank replied and hugged his mother and father good bye. Just as he was heading out the front door Fenton called out. Thinking he had something else to say about Joe he turned around quickly, "yeah Dad?"

"Paperwork. Tomorrow morning. Early," Fenton said with a smile.

Frank grimaced and nodded his head, "understood."

"Good night son," Fenton said.

"'Night dad," and even to his own ears Frank sounded like a petulant little kid who had just been put firmly in his place.

"This is great!" Joe yelled enthusiastically and whipped off his goggles. He grinned happily at Frank who had just come up next to him on his snowboard.

"Tell me about it," Frank said with a smile and took a deep breath of the cool mountain air.

"Nothing like flying down a mountain on a board," Joe said and bent down to check his boots. "When's Nancy supposed to get here?"

Frank glanced at his watch, "She said by two at the latest."

Joe waved at Vanessa who was just boarding a lift with Liz. "How mad was Biff?"

"Not too mad," Frank replied with a laugh, "it's hard to be mad when you have hearts in your eyes."

"He and Maggie seem to make a good couple," Joe replied.

"Yeah, they do," Frank agreed and nonchalantly looked to see how Joe was doing. There were no lines of strain around his eyes and he looked genuinely happy and content. Since their arrival yesterday afternoon Joe had been more like his old self than he had in weeks and it was a relief to Frank to see that.

"Frank! Joe!" Chet and Tony called out and made their way toward the brothers from the lodge.

"Hey guys," Joe called.

"Ready to hit the slopes?" Tony asked and then turned to Chet, "I love saying that. It makes me sound so posh."

Everyone laughed and Frank looked at his watch again, "I don't know…Nancy's going to be here soon and…"

"She's not supposed to be here for another hour Frank," Joe rolled his eyes. "That's plenty of time to get in a couple more runs."

"I don't know," Frank continued to hedge and look at the parking lot.

Chet wrapped his arm around Frank's neck playfully, "you're whipped man."

Ducking out of Chet's hold Frank looked at his friend disdainfully, "look who's talking. You practically cried when Bess had to go home the last time."

Chet turned beet read all the way to the roots of his hair, "I did not."

"Yes you did," Joe said happily. He loved to tease his friend about his unconventional relationship with the total city girl Bess. "You finished off an entire pint of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream."

"We're talking about Frank right now, remember?" Chet said quickly.

Tony laughed and took pity on his friend, "Enough talking. Ready to tackle the Big Daddy? You girls warmed up enough yet?" Tony looked at the toughest course on the mountain with a happy smile.

"So ready," Joe agreed gamely.

"Maybe we should go in and yank Phil away from the fire, it might be good for him to have some adventure forced on him," Tony suggested with a laugh.

"No way, I don't want to have to slow down just to make sure he doesn't fall flat on his face while I'm trying to get down Big Daddy in one piece. We'll get him when we go back to the easy runs" Joe said with a laugh. "Last one down buys drinks."

"You're on," Frank said rising to the challenge and followed his brother to the lifts.

Thank you, thank you THANK YOU to everyone for reading this story. I hope everyone enjoyed it. I promise we'll see a wedding soon but not without a few more twists and turns. I hope everyone will join me in my next story, tentatively titled Quintessential Bliss. Once again, thank you so much to everyone for your amazing reviews and support! You are all the best!