Author's Note: Implied nastiness in this chapter.

Chapter Two

A dog turns up, some kind of Alsatian crossbreed mutt. Casey sees it around town, hiding behind buildings, watching them. He's wary, because any dog that's survived this long has to be partly feral, but it doesn't try to come near them so he doesn't try to chase it away.

The kids catch on after a while, throwing it scraps, trying to coax it out. Casey extracts promises from everyone not to go near it, not to try and touch it, not to chase it down. Everyone promises, and as far as he can tell they're obeying.

It takes a while, but they coax the dog into leaving the shelter of the buildings. It's still skittish, and they don't try to approach, but it takes food from them. Casey gives in and brings back a case of dog food and bags of treats the next time he goes out of town.

The kids gradually draw the dog up to Summer Bay House by leaving treats along the road. By the time it's in the garden it's accepting pats and strokes. The day it licks Casey's hand, he gives in and calls a vote to name it.

For whatever reason, the kids settle on Polly. Casey doesn't ask where they got the name from, just praises it and takes the next chance to slip the tag off Polly's collar. He tosses it into the ocean next time he's down there.

It's a new world, after all.


Casey reconsiders on the farms, takes Darcy and Jett to the nearest one. The kids chase chickens around the yard while he investigates the house. The basement and pantry have preserved food, and there's fuel for a generator. He packs the food into boxes and bags, stacks them by the back door, and makes a mental note to check out the generator. He's not much of an electrician, but modern models are pretty much plug and play.

Jett's cornered a couple of piglets in the barn. Darcy's found some chicken seed somewhere and is patiently coaxing the chickens out of hiding. Casey watches for a moment, smiling at her delight.

She looks up and sees him, grinning. "There's ducks, too!" she calls.

"I think we'll have to leave the ducks behind," he says regretfully. "We have enough trouble with water, and they need to swim all the time. But the chickens, and the pigs, we can manage." He's killed chickens before; never a pig, but he'll figure it out. They're doing okay for protein, with the fish, but meat would be nice.

Jett finishes blocking the barn door, shading his eyes to look across the fields. "What about the cows?"

"They'll be out of milk, and I'm not risking a bull right now. We'll come back in spring, maybe we can catch one then."

"There's sheep..."

"Dunno how to raise them, mate. Sheep take a lot of work."

Jett grins suddenly. "Goats! I saw goats in one of the fields!"

Goats could work, Casey admits. Easier to keep than cows, anyway. "We'll look, okay? Help me find the generator now, I want to check it out."

They return to Summer Bay House with seven hens and a rooster, three piglets, two goats and a kid, and the boxes and bags of preserved food. The generator, it turns out, was too well wired into the house; Casey's pretty sure he can't dismantle it without destroying it completely. They'll find another way.

The kids burst into the House, chattering loudly, and immediately fall silent. Casey glances up, alert, and slowly relatches the truck, heading around the outside of the house to come in through the kitchen door. He wonders briefly about finding Polly, but if she's not in the House she's locked into one of the vans, and he doesn't have time to look for her.

Jett's voice rises, sharp and accusing, and Darcy screams. Casey forces himself to count to three - he can't bear to wait any longer - before slipping in, leaning against the wall to study what's going on.

Jett's on the floor, a red mark rising on his cheek and blood on his lip. Darcy's standing behind him, hands pressed tightly over her mouth. April's sitting at the table, hands neatly folded on its' surface; Casey recognizes the signs of an OCD attack, knows she's barely restraining herself from scrubbing at the drops of blood on the floor.

There's a boy standing over her, a boy about her own age, snarling something. Another stands over the kids. Neither is armed, as far as Casey can see, but they're bigger than anyone else in the room and clearly not afraid to hit kids.

Jett sees him. His eyes widen and he looks away hurriedly, trying not to draw attention.

"There's only us!" he says loudly, drawing their gaze. "She's already told you!"

"So you drove that truck, I suppose?" the boy standing over them sneers. Casey recognizes his voice with a shock; the younger brother of one of the River Boys, already a criminal before he'd hit his teens. He'd been sent to juvie some years back, Casey thought, assaulting his girlfriend of the time. Doug, that was his name.

He swallows, hard. April is following Jett's lead, insisting that there's only three of them here. Darcy has retreated back into silence and distance, watching them without reaction.

Doug raises a hand to strike April and Casey bolts out of hiding, tackling him around the waist and driving him to the floor. Jett lunges at the second boy; he can't take him down, but he distracts him until Darcy smacks him on the head with a saucepan. He sinks to the floor, dazed.

Casey has Doug under control, a knee planted firmly in his back and one arm twisted up almost to his shoulder. "I see you haven't changed," he hisses. "Still picking on women and kids. Too chicken to take on someone your own size?"

"Braxton," Doug snarls.

"You're lucky it was me and not one of the others," he says firmly. "They're not as forgiving as I am. Jett, get the duct tape."

With the two secured he leaves Jett to watch them and takes the girls to unload the truck. April's shaking, but she brushes off his concern and there's not much he can do. Darcy's still silent, but she smiles tremulously when he asks if she's okay.

The goats are shoved unceremoniously into a shed, the chickens into a dog run, and the pigs in a fenced off section of yard. Casey piles the extra supplies into an untidy heap in a corner, knowing that won't help April and unable to think of anything else to do. He needs to get those two out of here before any of their friends come looking.

Once the truck is empty he and Jett force Doug and his friend into the back. He leaves Jett behind, over his objections, and drives off, making no effort to soften the trip for his unwilling passengers.

Halfway between Summer Bay and Mangrove River he stops, letting them sit for a while before opening the back. Doug glares at him. The friend, only coming around now, just looks confused.

"My group and I have discussed it," he announced. "We can forget this ever happened, if you stay out of Summer Bay."

"Group," Doug spits at him. "Kids and a girl. We'll be back, Braxton."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Casey says quietly.

And he really is. Because he can't tolerate threats to his group. No matter what it costs him personally.

For weeks he's been wishing for Brax. Taking care of others always seemed to come so naturally to him. He's wished for Natalie, calm and confident; he could have unloaded all his worries on her without fear of judgment. He's spent nights wishing Tamara was with him, for the simple comfort of touching another person. He's even found himself wishing for Kyle; nothing ever rattled him, and he knew a surprising amount.

Right now, though, the brother he needs is Heath.

He abandons the truck when he's finished, walking back to Summer Bay. It takes most of the night; he fugues out at some point, and when he comes back to himself he's on the beach, mostly naked and soaked to the skin. Blood streaks across his skin; it's even dried into his hair, sticky and uncomfortable.

Jett comes down a while after sunrise; he's carrying fishing equipment, but he abandons it, helping Casey to clean up without comment. Casey's knuckles are bruised and swollen, painful to touch, but they do their best to make him semi-presentable again.

Casey hunts crabs while his clothes dry; they're filthy, but the blood's faded enough to not be noticeable, and he needs to wear something when they head back to the house. Jett abruptly starts talking, mostly nonsense, random thoughts about fishing and growing things and raising their animals. Casey listens, but most of it washes over him, simple noise.

Eventually Jett reels his lines in, says something about no bites, suggests heading back to the House. And Casey freezes. His whole body locks; he simply can't make himself move, can't conceive of going back to them now. How can he? He's no better than Doug and his cronies.

Jett seems to understand. He doesn't try and make Casey move, just takes the equipment and heads back up to the House. Casey finds a dune, sits in the lee, and watches the waves. For the first time in a long time, he thinks about going to get his board.

Maybe he could just keep swimming out.

April sits down beside him, watches the waves, says nothing. She has a jacket draped over her arm - Harvey's, from the look of it - but she doesn't try and give it to him, and he doesn't try to take it. They just watch the waves together.

When Casey breaks, curling around the sobs forcing their way out, April tugs him down until his head rests in her lap and lets him cry.