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

Warning: Chapter references child abuse.

"Uh-uh, no way." Alex picked Jamie's coffee mug up before he could fill it again. "Two cups was already one too many; there's no way I'm sending you to school with three cups of coffee in you."

Jamie scowled. He just needed to wake up a little more, that was all.

"No," Alex said when Jamie opened his mouth to argue. "Why don't you sit down and have some cereal instead?"

Jamie sighed and shoved the coffee pot back into the machine before dropping down at the table and putting his head down on crossed arms. "I'm not hungry."

"Did you have another nightmare?"

"No."

"Jamie."

It was so not fair when Alex did that. "It's stupid," he muttered into his arms.

Alex sighed. "Kiddo, you've gotten a decent night's sleep what, three nights this past week? At most? I know you don't want to, but I think you need to talk to someone. It doesn't have to be me, but you can't keep going like this."

This had been his fifth nightmare since last Sunday, actually. The four that Alex knew about, plus he'd had one Friday night too, but since he usually slept in on Saturdays anyway he'd managed to make some of that up after the sun had come up and he'd finally been able to go back to sleep. Not that he planned on admitting that. "It's stupid," he repeated instead.

"All right, I'll tell you what," Alex said after a minute. "You don't have any tests today, right?"

"No." Tests on Monday were cruel and unusual and shouldn't be allowed ever, but he definitely didn't have one today.

"Well, I don't have to work until the evening shift tonight and I know you aren't working until tomorrow, so why don't you change back into your sweatsuit and go lie down on the couch for a little while? I'll join you after I clean up in here, and we can talk about it after you've gotten a little more rest."

That was enough to make Jamie jerk upright because as much as he had no plans to talk about anything ever he was pretty sure that Alex had just said— "I can skip school?"

"You can take a day off to catch up on your sleep," Alex said firmly. "One day off, and only since I don't think any of your teachers would appreciate me sending you to school ready to fall asleep at your desk any more than they'd like having you there and bouncing off the walls courtesy of three cups of coffee. And don't think you're going to get out of doing any homework that gets assigned."

Jamie opened his mouth to argue, realized that he was about to argue about getting to skip school even if he did have to do the homework, and shut his mouth so quickly that he heard his teeth click.

Alex nodded in the general direction of Jamie's room. "Go get changed. I'll call the school and let them know." He frowned. "Figure out what I actually need to include in a doctor's note."

it didn't have to be a real doctor's note if it was just for a day as far as Jamie knew, but then again it was technically a doctor's note anyway if it came from Alex so whatever. He didn't really want to change back into the clothes he'd slept in, though, since when he'd woken up a couple hours ago he'd been soaked in sweat and had ended up throwing them all in the wash when he'd been getting ready for school. But he still had Alex's sweatsuit, and since he didn't want Alex to change his mind about letting him avoid school today, he headed for the living room and curled up on the couch as soon as he was done.

There was some clattering from the kitchen as he was getting settled and then the dishwasher rumbled to life, and Jamie heard footsteps behind the couch. "Do you want to pick something to watch, or do you want me to?"

"You go ahead." He was pretty sure he was tired enough that even the two cups of coffee he'd managed to drink weren't going to do as much as he'd wanted them to anyway.

Jamie yawned and sat up. The television was still playing something about octopuses or jellyfish or whatever so he couldn't have been asleep that long, but Alex wasn't in the recliner anymore, and he pushed himself to his feet and looked around. "Alex?" Maybe the program was on repeat or something?

"I'm in here."

Jamie headed into Alex's room and found him in front of his computer. "Hey."

"Hey, kiddo," Alex said, shutting his computer and pushing it aside. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Hungry?"

"A little, maybe."

"Well, that's an improvement." He slid his chair back and patting the top of his desk lightly. "Come have a seat for a few minutes, all right? We need to have a talk, and then we'll go see what there is for lunch."

Crap. He'd forgotten about the whole talking thing. Jamie shook his head and started to back out of the room automatically.

"Jaim, come on." Alex gestured him forward. "Come sit down."

"I'm fine," Jamie repeated.

"You are most definitely not fine if you're having nightmares so bad that they're affecting your overall sleep and keeping you out of school."

Jamie kind of wanted to point out that he could have napped in math class—he'd done it plenty of times before—but he'd be lucky to get off with just a look if he gave an answer like that so he shook his head and tried to back up again. "It's nothing. It's like you said. Everyone has nightmares sometimes."

"When I said sometimes I didn't mean multiple times in one week, especially when they're bad enough that you aren't falling back asleep afterwards." He nodded at the desk again. "Come in and sit down, please."

Alex sometimes said please even when what he was saying most definitely wasn't a suggestion, and Jamie sighed and gave in, heading for the desk and slumping down against the top.

"Thank you. Now, has this happened before? Strings of nightmares like this?"

Jamie crossed his arms over his chest and kept his eyes on the floor. "I don't know."

"You don't remember if you've had nightmares before?"

Alex sounded more than a little skeptical, and Jamie made a face at the floor before shrugging. "I guess maybe, but it was a long time ago."

"And what qualifies as a long time ago? Last year, or earlier than that?"

Mostly it had been right after he'd ended up in foster care, but whatever. They'd stopped eventually back then, and they would this time too. He lifted his head enough to shoot a scowl in Alex's general direction. "I don't know. A long time ago. What does it matter, anyway?"

"Because if something triggered them, maybe we can fix it."

Jamie shrugged again.

"Okay, well, can you tell me what they're about?"

Jamie's arms tightened around himself reflexively. "No. Nothing. I don't remember."

That most definitely got him a look. "Jamie, enough. If they're upsetting enough that you aren't able to go back to sleep afterwards, you must remember something."

Jamie's stomach rolled in a way that made him think that his coffee from earlier was going to make a reappearance, and he uncrossed his arms and shoved himself back to his feet. "I don't remember! It was a long time ago, and I don't want to talk about it!"

"Jamie!"

Jamie was already moving, though, and there was no way that he was going to turn back at that command. Not that he really had anywhere to go, and slamming his door and hiding under his blankets didn't exactly accomplish much, but...

There was a light knock at his door a few moments later. "Jamie? May I come in?"

"No!"

He heard Alex sigh even through the door. "Kiddo, you can't do this. I know you don't want to talk about it, but you can't keep going on like this."

"I'm fine!"

There was silence for longer this time. "Are they about your dad? The nightmares? You know I've seen the medical report."

Jamie started to gag on coffee and forced it down again. "No! Nothing happened; they aren't about anything!"

Alex didn't say anything for a couple more minutes although Jamie could hear rustling right outside his door, and the next time he spoke it was from lower down, like he was sitting on the floor. "Jamie, the way your arm was broken is called a spiral fracture. It's what happens when something—something or someone—twists the bone until it breaks."

"Stop it!" Jamie snapped, pulling his blankets in tighter. "I told them before, I fell, that's all!"

"Falling in the right way can cause a spiral fracture," Alex said after another moment of silence. "And I know you've been on callouts where people broke ribs or fractured their skulls in falls too. But if you think about it, most of those injuries were pretty localized, right? With the injuries that you were brought in with...kiddo, you'd have had to have fallen about half a dozen times in half a dozen different ways all at once to get hurt like that. Unless someone helped."