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Jamie's door was still shut when Alex got up, but that wasn't unusual. Jamie had gone to bed a little earlier than he typically did last night, but not by so much that Alex expected him to suddenly turn into a morning person. Alex put on a pot of coffee and then pulled out milk and eggs and started on French toast. He usually only cooked breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays, but since they were both in for a long shift today with only leftovers to tide them over, he figured they could use it.

A quick check out the window showed some light snowfall, but not much was sticking to the roads, and from the look of the sky it would be passing through pretty quickly. Good. Slick streets would not contribute to a calm shift.

Jamie still hadn't put in an appearance by the time the meal was ready, and Alex checked the time and then went to knock on his door lightly. "Jamie? Come on, breakfast."

No response, and he twisted the knob and stuck his head in. "Jaim, time to get up."

Jamie's bed was as close to made as it ever got with no sign of Jamie anywhere, and Alex stepped back and turned with a frown. "Jamie?"

The bathroom was empty, as was the library, and Alex hadn't somehow missed him sleeping on the couch. There were no notes anywhere either, and when he looked Alex wasn't happy to find an empty space in the garage where a motorcycle should be. Those flakes might not be sticking too badly now, but if he was wrong about the storm system passing through Jamie would be out on the streets on his bike exactly when he shouldn't be. And if he'd gone further than one of his friend's places, like down to Cartersville to visit his grandmother again—a distinct possibility, Alex figured, given how quiet Jamie had been the past few days—the weather had the potential to be a lot uglier.

Alex covered Jamie's plate and put it in the fridge before moving his breakfast to the table and sitting down to eat, but he found himself picking at it more than anything else. Jamie was a tough kid and more streetwise than most, but he was still a kid. Alex didn't even know the name of the facility that Jamie's grandmother was in, and he doubted that it would occur to Jamie to call for a ride no matter what the state the streets were in.

Fortunately he heard the rumble of an engine in the driveway before he could worry much more, and Jamie would have been blind to miss the disapproval on his face when he came inside.

Jamie halted immediately, looking surprised. "What'd I do?"

"Disappeared."

Jamie's forehead wrinkled. "What do you mean? I couldn't sleep so I went for a ride."

"And you didn't think to say anything?"

"No. I figured you were asleep."

Alex felt his jaw tighten. "As last I looked you were completely literate."

"Huh?"

He opened his mouth to snap again, but Jamie looked genuinely confused, and he forced himself to stop. They'd talked about how late Jamie was allowed to stay out, and he was good about cooperating—or at least he knew he'd get called on it if he wasn't—but there had never been a conversation about how early he was allowed to go out in the morning. Or about leaving any kind of note saying where he was going. Alex had never even thought about it, and given what he knew about Jamie's previous foster parents he doubted that it was the kind of thing they'd have cared about. "You need to let me know if you're going to take off like that," he said instead, keeping his voice as even as he could. "I'm not going to tell you not to go—not unless it's snowing and you're planning to leave on a motorcycle, anyway—but up and disappearing without a word is not acceptable."

"I always make it back eventually," Jamie said, his expression shifting into a scowl. "Anyway, it's not like it was snowing when I left. I'm not stupid."

"I know you're not, that's not the point."

"But—"

"Jamie, you're not in trouble, but I do not want you taking off like that again. If I'm not around or not awake or whatever, you can leave a note on the fridge. Is that understood?"

From the expression on Jamie's face he didn't understand, but after a minute he nodded slowly. "Tell you or leave a note." He lifted his head and his scowl returned. "I always go out after school and never say anything then, though."

"Not in trouble is going to turn into not in trouble yet if you don't watch your tone," Alex warned. "And you also know when to be in for the night by, right?" Jamie didn't usually come directly home from school, although he did tend to be back by dinner time if he wasn't working, but when he didn't Alex's usual assumption was that he was out with friends. Now that he thought about it he probably should be paying more attention since he knew of at least one case where Jamie's friend wasn't the savory sort, but…later.

Jamie's scowl remained but he did nod.

"Same idea. Understood?" Alex repeated.

"Fine."

It was agreement so Alex let the grumbling in his tone go. He'd figure out how to deal with the after school stuff later, especially since there was more than a week before Jamie would be going back to school. "Thank you. There's French toast in the fridge for you if you're hungry."

Jamie looked startled. "For real?"

Alex always made enough for both of them and after a month Jamie should know that, but he kept his response to a nod. It only took a few minutes for Jamie to put his coat and helmet away and then he joined Alex at the table with his reheated breakfast.

"This is French toast?" Jamie asked as he reached for the syrup. "It's not…."

"Not what?" Alex prompted.

"It doesn't look like the kind in the box."

"French toast not out of a box is pretty easy to make." He paused. "I'll wake you up the next time I make it if you'd like." Alex was accustomed to cooking for himself, at least when he wasn't being lazy and ordering take out, and had mostly just started doubling his recipes without thinking about it since Jamie had joined him. Jamie hadn't seemed to mind helping out last night, though. Alex wouldn't necessarily trust him in the kitchen alone, not because he was worried about any intentional damage but because Jamie didn't seem familiar with much beyond the microwave and coffeepot, but he wouldn't object to another set of hands if Jamie was interested.

Jamie looked surprised for a minute and then nodded.

Whether it had been sleep or the impromptu motorcycle ride, he definitely looked better this morning, and Alex moved the last piece of French toast from his plate to Jamie's as the rest of Jamie's breakfast disappeared.

"Do you really think today will be quiet at the station?" Jamie asked, devouring it as quickly as his own. "There aren't going to be hundreds of people getting drunk and doing stupid shi—things?"

"Thank you, and that's more a New Year's Eve activity," Alex said. "Which is also coming up fast, but let's worry about one holiday at a time. For Christmas it's more likely that we'll be seeing a few accidents."

"Like car accidents?" He craned his head to look out the window. "It's not snowing that bad."

"No, and I'm hoping that stays true since if it doesn't my prediction could very well change, but I meant accident accidents. Last year a guy put a nail through his hand trying to assemble a dollhouse for his daughter on Christmas Eve, and then some kid took her new skateboard down the front steps the next morning and broke her arm. The year before that deep frying turkeys was popular and there were a couple grease fires and some nasty burns." Fortunately that particular cooking technique had gone out of fashion quickly. "I've done this shift at the station since I've been here and did a few years in the emergency room before that, and it's typically pretty calm. The most common Christmas-related injuries happen when people are decorating—cutting down trees, putting up decorations on roofs, that kind of thing—and that's pretty much all done by this point."

"IV," Alex snapped.

Jamie was up and moving before he finished the second syllable, but Alex doubted that it was going to make much of a difference. From the expression on Ryan's face as he tried to keep pressure on the wound he knew it too, but that wasn't their call to make. Dave was keeping the two kids out of the way, and Alex almost wished he'd given that job to Jamie, but it was too late now. And Jamie was faster than Dave was, as the IV bag was suddenly in Alex's hand.

"Help Dave get the kids buckled into the ambulance," Alex ordered. Taking them along wasn't a great solution, but there was no one here who could keep them and no time to wait for someone to come. The hospital would have someone on hand who could deal with them.

"More bandages, too," Ryan added.

Jamie was smart enough to go for the bandages first, but the man was bleeding out so fast that they were nearly as soaked with blood as the rest by the time Jamie and Dave rejoined them. Alex held the IV steady as the other three transferred the patient to the cart and wheeled him quickly over to the ambulance.

The emergency room staff looked as tired as Alex felt as they took the injured man and his kids off their hands, and he sighed as he climbed back into the ambulance.

"I thought today was supposed to be quiet," Jamie said, following him in and slumping down in the second seat in the back.

"Usually it is. Apparently someone didn't get the message this year." It wasn't just the weather, either, although this was their third and by far the worst accident in rapidly-deepening snow from the storm that had kicked up early this morning. Since they'd come on yesterday afternoon they'd also responded to a tree fire, a choking child, a woman who'd somehow dropped a butcher knife through her bare foot, a heart attack, a family-wide case of food poisoning, and an ugly incident involving a box cutter. They'd all managed to catch a few snatches of sleep here and there, but that was about it.

With the exception of yet another accident that had overlapped with the falling knife this morning none of the call-outs had overlapped so the other teams had mostly been able to remain at home with their families, but the way they'd been bouncing from incident to incident Alex was seriously considering calling the next team in early. As much as he hated doing it, they were all approaching their limits.

"Two more hours," Dave said with a sigh, echoing Alex's thoughts.

Ryan, currently driving, groaned. "No offense, Alex, but if we get one more call I'm coming off the volunteer rotation for next year. This is almost as bad as Halloween was. I hate to think what New Year's is going to look like."

Alex shook his head but couldn't argue the point. "Let's just get back to the station and try to get a little rest."

The radio announcer squawked obnoxious truism number seven about white Christmases as they rounded the corner, and Alex rubbed his forehead. Somehow he doubted that more snow was going to improve the situation.

As soon as they reached the station Jamie made a beeline for the bunk bed, burying himself under the blanket on the top bunk.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked, reaching over to scratch the back of his shoulder lightly.

Jamie rolled away from his hand. "I'm good. Just tired."

"Okay." Alex sat down on the bunk below him. "We'll stop and pick up some Chinese on the way home, all right?" The original plan had been soup and grilled cheese, but right now he wasn't sure he'd even have the energy to open the cans.

"Yeah," Jamie agreed.

The mattress wasn't the greatest, but right now Alex didn't care as he rolled onto his back and stretched out his legs. Unfortunately despite his exhaustion sleep wouldn't come, and after half an hour of staring up at the beams of the bunk above, he pushed himself to his feet and headed for the coffeepot. If he couldn't sleep, at least he could make sure that he was fully awake for the drive home.

"Hey," Ryan greeted as Alex stepped into the main room.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Alex asked.

"Nah." He held up a coffee mug. "What's another two hours? Or even an hour and...fifteen, now."

Alex shook his head and grabbed a mug of his own. To damn long in his opinion, but it was what it was.

"So the kid is really staying with you?" Ryan asked. "Jamie?"

"For a little while, yeah." He knew that Jamie had talked to his squad about it, and at this point it was pretty common knowledge that on the days when they were both at the station Jamie stayed after his shifts until Alex was ready to go or Alex waited until Jamie finished his shift to leave.

"He seems like a good kid. Not really what I expected when they were talking up their community service program."

"Me either," Alex admitted. Not that he still didn't have plenty of reservations about staffing volunteer squads with teenagers working off community service, but they'd gotten lucky with Jamie.

"Having fun going from zero to a hundred percent as a parent of a teenager?" Ryan asked with a grin.

"I am out of my depth," Alex admitted. "Fortunately he's pretty self-sufficient." A little too self-sufficient sometimes, as evidenced by his actions this morning, but far better that than the alternative. "You've got two teenagers now, right?"

"Almost. Becca is fourteen—and it's fourteen going on forty, let me tell you—but Rich won't turn thirteen until this summer. It's an experience." He snorted. "I think my mother manages to work 'I told you so' into about every third conversation that we have."