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

Alex shut the door to his office firmly and turned to face Jamie. "Now, do you want to tell me what on Earth were you thinking?" He'd known that this whole Community Night thing that Jennifer had been pushing was going to end badly—because Family Nights weren't bad enough, for this month's insanity she'd conspired with the mayor to invite complete strangers to wander around the station while his teams were trying to work—but he hadn't been expecting this. Jamie was the only member of the high school squad who'd been on duty tonight, Alex had agreed to let him swap a couple nights of admin work for a specific weekend shift that Jamie wanted free next month, but right now he was very much regretting that.

Jamie scowled, crossing his arms over his chest tightly. "You told me to keep the kids occupied and not making a mess of things."

"And by that you thought I meant take them up on the roof and show them how to drop IV bags on people? We have a basketball net, we have a television, we have stacks of magazines that—"

"Well, we weren't trying to drop them on people," Jamie interrupted. "We just wanted to watch them splatter." His scowl returned. "Besides, how was I supposed to know anyone was going to be coming out that door? I mean, what kind of weirdo do you have to be to want to go check out the trash cans as part of your tour?"

The last was not an entirely unreasonable point. Alex might have told Jamie to keep the kids out of the way, but there had been plenty of random adults putting their noses in places where they had no business being tonight too. Unfortunately for Jamie, he had no intention of getting sidetracked. "That's not an excuse. If you wanted to play...I don't know, water balloons or whatever with them, that's one thing. I wouldn't have thought of it, and I would have stopped it as soon as I saw it given the way the temperature is dropping and the possibility of innocent bystanders getting caught in the crossfire, but that at least I can understand. But how could you think that taking a dozen kids up onto the roof was a good idea? There's not even a railing up there!"

"There's kind of a ledge," Jamie protested. "And I was being careful, I told them not to climb on it or lean over it too much."

There might be a ledge, Alex wasn't actually sure since like most reasonable people he didn't spend a lot of time on roofs, but all it would have taken was one of those kids getting a little too eager and a ledge wouldn't have meant a damn thing. And as much as it would probably have put an end to this whole Community Night nonsense, he had no interest in the members of the local community who'd dropped in getting a firsthand demonstration of one of his team's skills in their own station. "One of those boys couldn't have been more than five, Jamie, and five year olds are not well known for their self-control!"

"I told him to hold onto his sister's hand."

"And how old is his sister?"

Jamie looked away again rather than answering, which was intelligent of him since the girl who'd still been holding his hand when their parents had finished their tour and collected them couldn't have been more than seven or eight herself. And she hadn't been the only one in that age bracket either.

"How did you even get up there, anyway?" he demanded. "As far as I know the only key is in my desk." And the only reason he knew where it was was because they'd had to have the air conditioner serviced the summer before last and he'd practically had to tear his office apart to find it. Whatever else had happened tonight, he didn't believe for a second that Jamie had gone through his things.

Jamie flushed a little, focusing a bit more intently on the floor. "It's not really a very good lock."

Of course, he hadn't expected that, either. "Great, so not only have the children learned from their visit to the local EMT station tonight that IV bags are for throwing at others—and those better have been expired IV bags or you're going to be in even more trouble than you were a minute ago—they've also gotten a demonstration of breaking and entering."

"You said I could only take the expired ones so that's all I did." Jamie looked up, his a hint of his earlier scowl returning. "And I told you, we didn't mean to hit anyone. They were just there all of a sudden."

"And it shouldn't have mattered because you shouldn't have been on the roof above them!"

"But—"

"No, Jamie. Not acceptable. You will write a letter of apology to the people who got hit, however unintentionally, and you'll be on mop duty until that's done, do I make myself clear?" Not that he had a clue who those people had actually been beyond random community members, but in between tours Jennifer had been managing a sign-in sheet and should have their contact information. "And you're on kitchen duty for a month for taking those kids up on the roof in the first place."

Jamie's eyes widened. "But Alex—"

"No. You're smarter than that. And you can expect to be grounded and have a book report to do when we get home, too."

"Hey, that's not fair! You can't punish me here and there."

"I can't? You think you wouldn't get punished for breaking and entering if I found out about you doing it somewhere else? Because I promise you I would. Anywhere else and that behavior would be breaking the law, and you'd better believe that that's unacceptable."

"But I didn't break in anywhere, I just picked a stupid lock!"

Alex sighed. "Jaim, that's pretty much the definition of breaking and entering. The lock means 'do not enter,' and you had no business opening it. You can count yourself lucky that I'm not even going to ask how many times you've done it before because I suspect that would mean grounding you for a whole lot longer."

Jamie stomped but didn't seem to have another response, and Alex glanced through the blinds. It looked like Jennifer still seeing the last of their unwelcome guests—unwelcome in his opinion, anyway—out, and he gestured to his desk. "I suggest you sit down and get started on those letters of apology. I'll go ask Jennifer who they should be addressed to." It was one thing for him to yell at Jamie for doing something so thoughtless, but he had no intention of allowing anyone else to do so which meant that Jamie was staying in this office until the last of them were gone.

He grimaced. And hopefully the letters of apology would head off any irate phone calls from the mayor. Well, if they didn't he'd deal with that later. Or maybe she'd take it as a hint to keep 'the community' out of his station, although he had faint hope of that now that Jennifer had gotten her way once.

"But—"

"Jamie, do you really think it's a good idea to argue with me any more right now?"

"It's not fair, they shouldn't be putting numbers in the problem if I'm not supposed to use them in the equation," Jamie complained.

"That's part of what you're supposed to learn: how to decide what the relevant information is."

Jamie scowled. "Math is—"

The ringing of the phone on the wall interrupted him before he could finish the sentence, and Alex smiled as he pushed himself to his feet, tapping Jamie's book lightly. "Math is not stupid. Try again."

Jamie muttered something that probably wasn't very polite, but the phone rang again before Alex could call him on it so he settled for a warning look. Jamie wasn't handling being grounded this time nearly as well as last, and Alex had a feeling that he was going to be grateful for the suggestions from the Croms before it was over, but at least he wasn't actively rebelling. Yet.

The name on the caller ID was familiar enough, and Alex winced as he realized that he probably should have called a few weeks ago. He'd remembered to send a card and a plastic thing to Cathy's youngest a couple months back and then called Pete on his birthday, but his parents were a little more particular about regular contact than his siblings. He picked up the receiver. "Hey, Mom."

Jamie looked up from the table, eyes wide, and Alex pointed at his math book.

"Alex, I'm so glad I reached you," she greeted. "I was afraid you'd be at work."

"No, no, we're at home tonight. Is something wrong?"

"Now does something need to be wrong for me to call my favorite middle child?"

He sighed. "Of course not, I just wasn't expecting to hear from you. How have you been? And Dad? Anything new going on on the farm?"

"Oh, you know how your father is. His knees are bothering him, but he's never going to admit that to anyone, especially with three does about to kid."

Alex heard his father's voice in the background, clearly an objection even if the words weren't clear, and he was opening his mouth to remind her—and him—that doctors existed for a reason and that either of his siblings would be happy to help with the goats when she spoke again.

"But who's 'we'?"

"Jamie." He frowned. "Didn't I tell you the last time we talked that one of the boys from the squad was staying with me?" He thought he had, but now that he said it out loud he wasn't entirely sure.

"You'd mentioned something temporary, I think."

"Ah. Well, it's not so temporary anymore. I'm registered as a foster parent now."

"And you didn't think to call us when you did this? What's his name? How old is he? What happened to his family? You can't just tell me that I've got a new grandson—foster grandson, whatever—and not give me any details! Where are the pictures? Put him on the phone, let me talk to him."

Alex was not subjecting Jamie to his mother without asking for his permission first, nor was he inclined to share any private details with her, but he also knew that she wasn't going to let him go without something. He really should have thought this through before bringing Jamie up at all. "His name is Jamie, he's sixteen, and he's doing his homework right now," he said after a moment. Although he suspected that there was less homework and more listening to Alex's side of the conversation going on at the moment.

"You always worried so much about school."

Something he still thought that it was very bizarre to hear a parent complain about, and he didn't even want to hear what she'd say if she found out he'd grounded Jamie. Free will, free spirits...it was amazing that he and his siblings had all survived their childhoods. "Jaim, say hello, please," he said, letting the whole thing go and holding out the phone.

"Hello," Jamie said cautiously.

"He sounds so nice. What does he like to do? When can you bring him out to visit?"

"She says hello," Alex said to Jamie. "And also to do your homework."

"Oh, I did not say that. Really, Alex, there are more important things in life."

"So what's new with Pete and Cathy?" Alex asked. "I know I just talked to Pete a couple weeks ago." She always asked when he was next coming out to visit, especially since Dad could rarely be convinced to leave the farm long enought to come out and visit him, and his answer rarely satisfied her even when it was just him. Jamie's presence was not going to make things easier.

Fortunately his question was enough to get her started on the doings of his siblings and nieces and nephews, and he moved to look over Jamie's shoulder and indicate where he'd lost a negative while still making appropriately appreciative noises. And he did appreciate it since if it wasn't for his mother he'd never hear about half the things that happened back home, but even he was pretty sure that he'd been switched at birth most of the time.

Eventually she wound down, and after repeating his standard promise that he'd do a better job of calling regularly he was able to hang up.

"That was your mom?" Jamie asked as he put the phone back on the hook.

"Yep."

"She talks a lot more than you."

"She talks a lot more than everyone. And she's probably going to want to talk to you sometime too, for the record."

Jamie shrugged. "That's okay. I don't... Listening's okay."

Alex remembered abruptly that Jamie was close—or had been close, anyway, and even now still visited regularly even when she didn't always remember him—to his own grandmother. Well, it wouldn't hurt to let his mother talk to him a little, at least after Alex had had time to establish a few ground rules with her when Jamie wasn't listening. "Did you figure out your problem?" he asked, indicating Jamie's math book.

"They cheat, that's the problem," Jamie said. "They try to make it hard."

"And how are you going to learn if everything is easy?"

"When's the last time anyone asked you to calculate how much water it takes to fill a stupid weird shaped fish tank?"

"Finish your homework and have a snack," Alex suggested. Because Jamie was perfectly right and he hadn't calculated anything like that since school, but that wasn't the point. "And then if you're done with the rest of your homework, I'm pretty sure you still owe me a book report, don't you?"

"Alex..."