Thanks to everyone who read and to Ghostwriter and Callisto's Moon for reviewing.

Alex refrained from sighing by only the barest of margins. Six hours in and he could already see that it was going to be a long three weeks. Not that he had any intention of backing down, Jamie was more than old enough to understand why his behavior had been unacceptable, but there were limits to the amount of moody teenager he could take. The only upside was that Jamie had calmed down enough to eat his breakfast and a couple sandwiches for lunch as well.

Another entirely melodramatic sigh from the teenager currently sprawled out on the living room floor with the book he was reading for English class, and Alex was debating banishing him to his room when the bell rang. He pushed himself to his feet, glad of the distraction. "That'll be Sonja."

Jamie's head jerked up. "What? No!" He pushed himself up, or he started to although he must have put some weight on his injured wrist because he immediately pulled it back it his chest. "You said!"

"Jamie?"

"You said!" he repeated. This time Jamie did make it to his feet, making a beeline for his room, and his door slammed a moment later.

"Jamie, what—?" Alex took an automatic step to follow Jamie, but he couldn't just leave Sonja standing on the porch. He'd figure out what that was about later.

"Hi," she greeted as he opened the door.

"Hello," he returned stepping back and gesturing her in. "Please."

"Thanks. How are you? From your call it sounded like you and Jamie had an interesting night."

"That's one word for it. Thanks for stopping by. Cora—one of the nurses working last night—gave me copies of the paperwork she thought you'd need, but I'm afraid this is a first for me." He'd gotten a copy of the regulations about reporting injuries, but he hadn't really expected to need them.

"It's no problem, I was out this way anyway for a late lunch with my sister. I'll just get those copies from you for Jamie's file, have a quick word with him, and then be out of your hair. I assume he's around?"

"He just stomped off to his room. He's not real happy about being grounded."

She smiled sympathetically. "The joys of teenagers."

Alex shook his head, picking up the stack of papers from the side table and handing them over. "Here you go, and if you give me a minute I'll get him back out here to talk to you."

"Thanks."

There was the distinct sound of rustling coming from behind Jamie's closed door when Alex approached, and Alex knocked lightly. "Jamie, come on."

"I'll be done in a minute."

His voice didn't sound right, and Alex frowned. "Done with what? May I come in?"

"Whatever."

Alex opened the door but hesitated when he found Jamie with his back to him, arms grabbing clothes spread across the bed with jerky movements. Jamie hadn't done laundry today as far as he knew, and if he didn't generally keep his room as neat as Alex might prefer, he did do Alex the courtesy of putting his clothes away in his dresser most of the time rather than leaving them strewn everywhere. The room definitely hadn't looked like this this morning.

When Alex stepped up beside him he realized that the clothes were going into Jamie's duffel, and he reached out a hand automatically. "Jaim? What are you doing?"

Jamie stepped sideways. "Leave me alone. I'm almost done."

"Done with—Jamie, stop. Why are you packing your duffel?"

"Just tell her I'll be ready in a minute."

"Ready?" Alex frowned and then reached out and closed his hand over the bag. "Hey. I said stop. Now, tell me what's going on."

Jamie's eyes flicked over to meet his and then away again, and Alex didn't miss that they were suspiciously red-rimmed. "I know what it means when Sonja shows up the day after I get in trouble."

"You—" Shit, shit, shit. He'd called Sonja while he was making breakfast to let her know what had happened, and it hadn't even occurred to him to tell Jamie that she'd be stopping by to get the copies of the emergency room records. It should have, though, especially given Jamie's history. "Kiddo, she's just here to talk to you. That's all. You're not going anywhere."

"Yeah, right."

He reached for his bag again, and Alex pulled it further from him. "You aren't going anywhere, Jaim. But we were at the hospital last night, remember? That's the kind of thing she needs to know about. And she needs to talk to you about."

"Yeah, right. I've had a—" Jamie broke off with a a quick shake of his head. "Whatever. I've been to the emergency room before for more than just a stupid twisted wrist and no one called anyone then."

Alex wasn't sure what he'd been about to say, but he was very sure that he wouldn't have liked it. Unfortunately with Sonja waiting in the living room now wasn't a great time to start asking questions, and he settled for shaking his head. "Well, they should have. But right now she just needs to make sure you're okay. Nothing else."

Jamie shook his head, and the fact that he swiped quickly at his eyes didn't exactly make Alex feel better.

"She's not going to take you anywhere, kiddo, I promise. But I don't want to waste her time since she's off work today and did us a favor dropping by to pick up the paperwork. Do you think you could come out and talk to her for just a few minutes? You aren't going anywhere so you and I can talk afterwards if you want. Or you can come back and hang out—" not to say hide— "in here if you'd rather do that."

Jamie shrugged.

"Come on, kiddo. I'm going to want another look at that wrist anyway, and I think maybe some more time with an ice pack wouldn't be a bad idea." Leaving aside the push from the floor that had left him wincing when Sonja had run the doorbell, it was pretty obvious that he hadn't been paying much attention to the brace when he was packing either. "Could you come out for just a few minutes?"

Another shrug, but this time there was a sigh and a marginal nod at the end. "I guess."

"Thank you. Why don't you go splash some water on your face, and I'll tell her you'll be out in a minute?"

Another nod.

Sonja looked up from the papers as Alex rejoined her, and his expression must not have been as calm as he'd have preferred because her forehead creased. "Is everything all right? Where's Jamie?"

"He'll be out in a minute. I'm afraid he was...a little confused about why you were here."

Her eyes widened, and Alex shook his head.

"My fault. I didn't even think to give him a heads up that you'd be stopping by since he was still in bed when I talked to you earlier. I think we're okay now," or at least Jamie had stopped packing his bag which was probably the best that Alex could hope for with a conversation only a couple minutes long, "but he was pretty shook up." He nodded to the papers. "Is that everything you need?"

"Yeah, this is perfect, thank you. And you're sure his wrist will heal with no problems?"

"Yeah. I was worried about a fracture given how he fell which is why we went to the emergency room, but the x-rays looked clean so we'll keep it braced for a little bit, and he'll be fine by the end of the month. "

Jamie emerged from the bathroom a moment later. "Hey."

"Hey. It sounds like you had an eventful night," Sonja said, tactfully ignoring still somewhat reddened eyes.

"I'll be be in the kitchen while you two talk," Alex said. He was pretty sure that he'd put the ice pack back after he and Jamie had gotten home, but if not, they definitely had another couple bags of peas.

He stayed in the kitchen until Jamie poked his head around the wall. "Sonja left. She said thanks again."

Alex nodded and gestured towards the table. "All right. Why don't you sit down so I can have a look at your wrist?"

Jamie kept his eyes down as they took seats at the table, but he didn't object when Alex held out a hand. His wrist was a little warmer than it should be, even through the bandage, but Jamie had been jerking it around pretty hard earlier. Since there was no sign he'd done further damage Alex handed over the ice pack after a few moments of probing. "Twenty minutes, all right?"

A shrug.

"Kiddo? Hey." He hesitated and then since Jamie's eyes were still firmly fixed on the floor reached out cautiously and brushed dark hair back. Which got a quick intake of breath and a wide-eyed stare, but for once Jamie didn't actually flinch away. "You're not going anywhere, okay? I'm sorry that I didn't tell you that Sonja was going to stop by to talk to you, but I didn't even think about it."

Jamie's eyes dropped back to his feet. "It's fine."

"No, it's not. I didn't mean to upset you like that. This is your home. Nobody gets to just take you away. Or send you away."

He scoffed. "I'm in foster care. People can do whatever they want."

Given Jamie's history of foster families, Alex couldn't argue against that being an accurate description of his experiences. Damn it. "Well, I'm not planning on getting rid of you," he said after a minute. "After all it'd be a little pointless to ground you and then send you away, right?"

Another scoff. "Like pointless ever stopped anyone."

Another probably unfortunate truth. "I am not planning on getting rid of you," Alex repeated. "I said I'd foster you, and I meant it."

Jamie shrugged.

Not exactly resounding agreement, and Alex bit back a sigh. "Why don't you take that ice pack and go lie down on the couch for a little bit? Give that wrist a break."

Another shrug, but this time Jamie did push himself to his feet, cradling the ice pack on his wrist and heading for the couch, so Alex counted it as a win. Not much of one, but right this second he'd take what he could get.