Thanks to everyone who read and to Ghostwriter for reviewing.

Jamie's watch beeped, and he muttered a curse, but it showed no signs of changing its mind about the time when he tilted his wrist so he could see the face. As much as that would make his life easier. He wasn't late yet, but if he didn't leave to catch the bus in the next couple minutes he would be.

Unfortunately if he did leave to catch the bus he wouldn't finish the job, and if he didn't finish he'd still have zero gas money. Worse, if he didn't finish the job he might not get a chance at another one for a while. It was pretty rare that Micah's uncle's shop got so much work in the winter that he had anything after-hours for his nephew never mind his nephew's friend, and without gas money he couldn't even get out to Mr. Valda's shop to ask.

He scowled up at the undercarriage of the car. Alex had a late shift tonight so he should be okay if he stayed until the next bus. He might be cutting it close, but close wasn't the same as caught. But 'should' wasn't a guarantee, and Alex's shifts weren't always exactly timed, and...

He shook his head. He'd only gotten ungrounded a couple days ago, and he had no desire to get re-grounded again. He didn't want Alex to get mad like that again either, even if it had mostly just been his own stupid freak out that had blown everything out of proportion.

"Jamie?" Micah asked as Jamie rolled himself out from under the car. "What's up? You can't be done already."

"No, but I've got to go."

"What?" He extracted himself the rest of the way from under the hood of the car in the next bay. "I thought you said you were good for a job? Uncle Mike's going to be pissed if you just take off without finishing. He was already on the warpath about the guy who was supposed to get this stuff done earlier today and decided to no-show."

"Yeah, well, I don't like it much either, but I don't have much of a choice. I can't be late again." A pause. "Not right now, anyway. Maybe after Alex forgets." Which would be about about a million years from now knowing Alex, but even he was smart enough to give it a couple weeks before he pushed again. "Anyway, I just spent the last two hours cleaning that thing up so I doubt it'll take more than twenty minutes to get it put back together. Thirty minutes tops." If it hadn't been in such awful shape he'd have finished the whole job in the two hours he'd had, but...well, so it went when it came to this kind of work.

"He's not going to care, and he's not going to pay you unless you finish the whole job."

Jamie made a face. It wasn't like he didn't know that, this wasn't his first time doing a job here, but that didn't change the clock. "So finish it yourself if you want the money. I'll leave a note at the desk."

He didn't wait for Micah's response, scrubbing at his hands quickly with the towel hanging on the tool bench and then splashing some water on his face—not that any of it did much good; he was going to need a shower when he got home to deal with some of this grime—and then heading for the desk where his backpack and coat waited. Scribbling out a note only took a minute, but he heard the faint rumble of an engine as he was ripping the page off, and he grabbed his backpack and made a dash for the door.

He made it to the street just in time to see the bus disappear around the corner, and he couldn't help swearing at the retreating lights. From the look of things the driver hadn't even bothered to stop at the stop. Sure, at this time of night with no one sitting there he could kind of understand it, but...

With a sigh he headed back inside. So much for trying to follow the rules.

He grabbed the note he'd left on the desk thirty seconds ago, balling it up and tossing it in the garbage before shrugging out of his jacket and backpack. Might as well finish the job now, at least that way he'd have gas money again.

Plus he could figure out how to pay Alex back. He knew Alex said that he wasn't supposed to, the glasses weren't his responsibility, blah, blah, blah, but this wasn't like food where Alex would have bought it anyway and Jamie could pretend that the extra wasn't all for him since unlike some foster parents Alex never said anything about it. The glasses were just for him, and social services would probably never pay Alex back since he hadn't gotten their 'official' approval first.

Of course, he wasn't sure how he'd do that since he still hadn't even convinced Alex to take back the emergency money. Just trying to hand it back had gotten him a look, and putting it somewhere Alex would find it—because putting it somewhere he wouldn't find it kind of defeated the purpose—just meant getting it back the next night. And getting a look then. But whatever, at least he'd have the money to pay him back.

He turned to head back to the car he'd been working on and then hesitated. He might beat Alex home, but he might not, and Alex had said that he could—should—call if he was going to be late. He and Micah weren't supposed to touch anything in the shop except the tools they needed for the cars, but he figured that the phone counted in this instance. Or if it didn't he didn't care.

Alex didn't pick up, a small mercy there, but he did sound annoyed in the recording, and if that wasn't particularly unusual for Alex it also didn't make Jamie feel much better as he left a quick and probably mostly-incomprehensible message about missing the bus and being on the next one. At least if he did get home first he could delete it.

Micah gave him an odd look when he slid back under the car but didn't say anything, and Jamie had predicted right with about twenty minutes to finish the job. And another twenty cleaning up the tools since they were even more of a mess than his hands, but whatever. He still couldn't leave until the next bus came, though, so he spent some time helping Micah finish with his job, and by the time they were done there were only ten minutes until the next bus. The final bus of the night which Jamie was not going to chance missing. With a wave at Micah grabbed his jacket and backpack and headed out into the cold. Micah would give him the money when his uncle paid him so probably at school tomorrow or the day after so that was one thing sorted, at least.

The lights weren't on at Alex's when the bus passed by it on the way to the stop, and Jamie heaved a quick sigh of relief as he jumped down the steps. Two things sorted.

Unfortunately his relief turned out to be premature as a car turned down the street as Jamie crossed behind the bus. Because of course it was Alex's and of course Jamie had no chance of getting inside before Alex saw him. He hated his life sometimes.

He hooked his fingers around the strap of his backpack as he headed up to the front door because so much for deleting the recording and Alex not finding out about him being late. Whatever, though. Alex might yell and ground him and make him write another book report or whatever but it wasn't like any of that was a big deal.

Alex was coming in from the garage at the same time Jamie flipped on the lights in the living room, and as expected he didn't look very happy. "You really thought it was a good idea to be late again?" he asked in lieu of greeting. "Or were you just hoping that I was going to be?"

"I didn't mean to!" Jamie protested immediately. "I had the alarm set on my watch and everything!" He wasn't about to admit that he had kind of been hoping for the latter, even if it was true. "But then I had to leave a note and the bus didn't even stop and..." He trailed off with a shrug.

Alex frowned and then abruptly gestured him closer. "What happened to you?"

Jamie stayed where he was. "What?"

"Did you bump your head on something?"

He gestured at Jamie's forehead, and Jamie reached up and was unsurprised to find the remains of grease spot just below his hairline. "Nah, nothing like that," he said with a quick shake of his head. "It's just a mess from the car I was fixing." He almost wished he'd said something else as Alex's irritated expression abruptly returned, but if it had been a bruise Alex would have wanted to poke at it, and he didn't want that either.

"I take it that was why you were late?" Alex asked.

"I didn't mean to," Jamie repeated. He gestured in the general direction of the phone. "I left a message."

Alex didn't exactly look appeased, but after a moment of staring he did give a slight nod in the direction of Jamie's room. "Go put your things away and get cleaned up and then we'll have a talk."