He'd heard the sounds of the fight down in his office but by the time he made it upstairs to their quarters the only combatant he found was Casino. He was already nursing a cheekbone with the cold towel Goniff had run in from the bathroom for him.

The group's explosives expert looked up when Garrison hit the doorway. "Damn that kid's touchy," he jabbed a finger in their leader's direction. "You gotta do something about him Warden!"

"Yeah?" Garrison stepped over and peeled the towel back to inspect the damage. "I don't suppose you did anything to deserve this?"

"Me?!" Casino snorted his indignation. "No! I was just tryin' to help him out with those schematics and he blew his top."

There was a snort from Goniff and, over in the corner, Actor just shook his head over his book.

Garrison had told them, early on, that he wanted each man to teach the others about his particular specialties so they could back each other up. Chief was interested in how things worked, so alarm systems and how to disable them seemed a natural fit. After some grumbling, Casino had started with the basics, simple wiring diagrams, and they were making their way up through more, and more complex systems. They were into some pretty sophisticated stuff now. The younger man didn't seem to have any trouble learning, he just had trouble with the caustic nature and acid tongue of his teacher.

"What'd you call him this time?" Garrison asked. He knew the answer, and he knew Casino probably didn't mean anything by it when he used the term, but he needed the safecracker to realize how much it bothered their scout.

"I didn't call him any…"

"…the usual." Actor supplied.

"But, Jeeze," he turned on the big Italian. "That doesn't mean…"

"It does to him, mate." Goniff said with a sympathetic smile.

Casino leaned back and the towel dropped into his lap. "Brother," he said with disgust.

Garrison turn to his second. "Where'd he go?"

Actor indicated the window with his pipestem. "Down the trellis."

The Lieutenant turned back on the instigator. "You'd better go find him and straighten this out."

"Are you nuts? He's got that knife on him!"

"And he's never used it on you, so get going."

"Now?"

"Now."

g

Most of the time when the kid was pissed off about something he headed off into the parkland that ran along behind the mansion. He seemed to have a favorite spot out near the stream that ran through the place, at least that's where they'd found him…when he wanted to be found.

When he'd started off Casino had a full head of steam. He charged along the path grumbling to himself about how it wasn't his fault the guy was so touchy. It wasn't his problem the Indian had a thin skin. He wasn't the one with the problem and he shouldn't be the one who had to fix things… But then he got to thinking about how his youngest brother got called names in school when he was little… His paced slowed as he remembered what he'd done about that, and how he'd helped Stefan deal with it. By the time he'd reached the stream's bank he was in a pretty reflective mood.

Casino stood at the edge of the flowing water for a little while. He found a few stones at his feet that he picked up and chucked into the stream one by one. And he studied the way the ripples intersected and interlocked as they drifted along on the current. Then he climbed up the bank and settled down with his back resting against a tree. It was actually pretty nice out here, he thought, and he might as well make himself comfortable while he waited. He knew Chief was around somewhere, and he'd come out when he was ready.

After about twenty minutes there was a rustle overhead. Casino looked up and shook his head. The kid had been about six feet away from him the whole time.

"You gotta teach me that some time," he called up into the leaves.

"Well," a quiet voice drifted down to him. "You gotta learn to keep your mouth shut first. Not sure you'r up to it."

'Hey now!" Casino twisted so he could look up at the man perched overhead. "I'm tryin' to be nice here."

"Yeah." Chief dropped down out of the branches and leaned against the tree next to his teammate. He'd had a little time to cool off too. "I know."

"Look," he started off. "I don't mean anything by it when I call you a…"

"Then why do you?" Chief cut him off so he wouldn't have to hear it again.

"B'cause you'r just a kid!" And he turned to face him when Chief went from standing next to the tree to squatting down next to him. "I'm older than you. I'm always gonna know more than you 'cause a that." He searched around for something to say that would really get his point across. "You'r a dummy, just like my kid brother is, but that doesn't mean I think you'r stupid, or anything."

Chief pulled a long stem of grass up and twirled it between his fingers. Transferring it to his mouth he chewed on the sweet end as he tried to order his thoughts. The Warden had been talking to him about how he lost his temper some times. Havin' triggers he called it, and told him if he could figure out what they were maybe it would help.

"Never really heard that word 'til they took me away to school." He shifted so he was sitting on the ground leaned back against the tree. His shoulder just brushed Casino's. "Dumb. Stupid. Useless. Heard all a that there."

Casino looked at the young man sitting next to him, but Chief didn't meet his eye. If he wasn't gazing off at the sky or watching the stream he was concentrating on the chewed end of his little blade of grass. "Yeah. I heard that at school too." But he'd been able to go home where his folks thought, and taught him, different. Chief had been stuck livin' at the school,… that must a been miserable. But he knew if he said anything like that Chief wouldn't thank him for it. "Bet you did the same thing to them as you do to me."

Chief dropped the spent blade of grass and smiled as he searched out another one. "Once I got old enough."

"Oh come on!" Casino turned on his hip, planted a fist on the ground and got up. He stuck a hand out to hoist his younger teammate to his feet. "I know you never let being scrawny stop you!"

Chief eyed his hand a moment before he took it. When he was back up where they were eye to eye Casino asked, "We good?"

For a moment Chief searched the face in front of him. "Yeah. We're good."

They turned and started walking back to the house together. Casino was relieved they'd smoothed things over, but he knew himself too well to think it couldn't happen again so he thought he ought to lay a little groundwork. "Junior, just so you know; I'm probably still gonna call you that sometimes."

"Sure Pappy, I know… Long as you don't mind getting' a black eye over it sometimes."

Casino grabbed his shoulder and pulled him around to face him. He was ready, knees bent, fist cocked back. "You wanna give that a try?" he growled.

Chief's fist darted out and just grazed the side of the older man's head as he ducked. They both laughed.

"Jeeze," Casino turned Chief back towards the house with a hand on his shoulder. "Let's get goin'."