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

Warning: Discussion of drugs, drug usage, and implied character death in this chapter.

Alex finished putting away the groceries and stretched tentatively, but despite his fears his back didn't protest any more than usual. He'd expected far worse given the weather, but since it seemed that for once his body was inclined to cooperate, he decided to take advantage of the situation and get one of his once-a-year type chores out of the way. Unlike Jamie who could still do with a few more clothes in Alex's opinion, Alex needed to sort through his closet and get rid of some things. Even after shirts got stained or collars wore out he tended to keep them around for work around the house, but at this point the ratio of work-appropriate to not was more than a bit skewed.

He'd just opened the first dresser drawer when the phone rang—his cell, not the house phone—and he frowned as he pulled it out. It wasn't out of the question that something came up to require his attention on his day off, but it wasn't a common occurrence either. "Freeman," he greeted.

"Hey, Alex, it's Erica."

Her squad was on as backup today as he recalled, and his frown deepened. "Hello. Is there a problem?"

"Not here, but we just got radioed by Ryan's team. You should probably get to the hospital."

"What? Was there a pileup?" Normally the hospital would have called him directly if they'd had an emergency rush that required him to come in, especially since he wasn't even on call this weekend.

"No, I—it's Jamie. He's okay," she said quickly. "But a kid that he was with isn't. Ryan's team brought him—the kid—in and Jamie with him, and Ryan said they'll stay with Jamie as long as they can, but he thought that it would be better if you were there."

"I'm on my way," Alex said. As far as he knew Jamie liked Ryan well enough, or at least he liked him as much as Jamie liked anyone on any of the adult squads, but that didn't mean that he was entirely comfortable around him. "They're at the emergency room?"

"Yeah. My team will cover as primary until I hear than Ryan's squad is back on the road or we get called out."

"Thank you."

The drive to the hospital was mostly a blur, and Alex was just as glad that the light rain seemed to be keeping people off the roads. He'd have preferred fewer people in the emergency room as well, but at least his EMTs were easy to spot, and he hurried over to them. "Ryan? What happened?"

Jamie's head jerked up from where he'd was sitting at the center of the small group. "Alex?" He swallowed hard. "Kenny won't wake up. He wouldn't wake up. I don't..." He shook his head and then went back to staring down at his hands, and Susanna—who was probably the best choice on Ryan's team to sit beside him, but since she wasn't touching him either Alex guessed they'd already learned how Jamie responded to that—shrugged helplessly.

Jamie wasn't visibly injured in any way, but he was pale even for him, and Alex gestured for Susanna in to stay where she was and then braced himself and crouched down. "Hey. Jamie? Kiddo, can you look at me?"

Jamie blinked and then nodded and lifted his head again slightly.

"I need to talk to Ryan for a minute, but I'll be right back. I want you to stay right there with Susanna until I do. Can you do that?"

It took Jamie a minute, but he eventually nodded again. "Okay."

Alex braced himself, using the arm of Jamie's chair to push himself back to his feet, and once he was upright again he stepped away with Ryan following. "What happened?" he demanded as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Nothing good. We got the call a little less than half and hour ago. Not a lot of detail: seventeen year old male, unconscious with no detectable breathing or pulse, possibly a drug overdose. We didn't even know that Jamie was the one who called it in until we got there." He sighed. "He'd been doing CPR for probably eight or ten minutes by the time we were able to take over, assuming he'd started as soon as he called it in, and when we put the kid in the ambulance...I couldn't just leave him there."

Alex nodded. Technically they probably should have left Jamie behind after taking his details, he was a minor and not a member of the patient's family, but under the circumstances he couldn't blame them. "And the kid? Kenny?"

Ryan hesitated and then shook his head. "No official word yet, but it didn't look good. There was no rigor, but Jamie couldn't tell us how long he'd been without oxygen or a heartbeat, and even with epinephrine we couldn't get any kind of rhythm on the ride in. We haven't heard anything since they took him back, but the doctor may just be waiting for his relatives to arrive."

"Right." Ryan had been an EMT long enough that Alex trusted his judgement, and while he could probably—unofficially, of course—find out Kenny's status himself, there was nothing he could do that the doctors on call wouldn't already be doing. He was more concerned about Jamie. "Thanks for staying with him. Jamie, I mean. And having Erica call me."

"No problem. He's not much older than Becca, and even as an EMT I can't imagine finding a friend..." He shook his head again. "Val's father, his friend, these kids don't catch too many breaks."

"No, they don't." There wasn't much else that Alex could say. It was no different than for any of the adult squads, obviously, but the kids had had a rough year.

"Anyway, now that you're here, I guess we'll head back to the station unless you want us to stick around. "

"No, that's—I've got it."

"All right. We'll let Erica know that they're back on backup on the way."

"Thanks," Alex repeated, heading back over to where Jamie sat and taking Susanna's place as she got up to head out with her squad. "Jamie? Hey, kiddo. How are you doing?" It was a stupid question and he knew it, but it was also automatic. "Would you like some water?"

"No. I...he's going to wake up, right?" Jamie asked.

Alex hesitated. Given what Ryan had told him he didn't want to give Jamie false hope, but he didn't want to upset him any further either. Especially since there was still no official word and likely wouldn't be for some time if Kenny's parents had yet to be located. "I'm sure that the doctors are doing everything that they can," he said after a minute. It was a complete non-answer and there was no way that Jamie wouldn't recognize that, but it was all that he had. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Jamie blinked, but before he could answer two men in police uniforms approached. "You came in with Kenneth Brown?" the one in the lead asked, looking between Jamie and Alex.

"Kenny," Jamie said after a moment. "Yeah."

"I'm Officer Tomas, and this is Officer Grantham. We need you to come with us, please."

It clearly wasn't a request, and Alex stood and stepped between them as he reached for Jamie's arm. "May I ask what this is about?"

"We just need to ask him some questions," Officer Grantham said. "You can wait here."

"He's both a minor and in distress, so no."

"Are you a doctor?"

"Yes."

That clearly hadn't been the answer that either of them had expected, and they hesitated for a moment.

"Now, you said that you need to ask him some questions?" Alex asked.

"About the circumstances of the boy that he came in with, yes," Officer Tomas said.

"Jamie?" Alex asked, looking down at him. "Are you up to telling all three of us what happened?" He didn't see their presence as a positive indicator as to Kenny's condition, but if Jamie didn't realize that he didn't intend to bring it up. And if it was as bad as he suspected, Jamie was going to have to speak to the police at some point anyway.

Officer Grantham glared. "This isn't a request, and if he doesn't want to answer us now we can take this down to the station and—"

Alex wasn't sure how long the man had been a police officer, but he clearly wasn't accustomed to anyone standing up to him. Unfortunately for him Alex had years of experience when it came to dealing with the officious sorts, and he wasn't in the mood to humor anyone at the moment. "I will repeat, he is a minor and in distress. But if you'd prefer, I can call my lawyer and she can meet us wherever you'd like."

"I'm sure there's no need for that," Officer Tomas interrupted before his partner could say anything else. "The woman at the desk said that we could use one of the unused exam rooms so why don't we try to get through our questions here?"

"Jamie?" Alex asked again.

"Yeah. Sure," he said quietly, pushing himself to his feet. "I...sure."

He wasn't as steady as Alex would have liked, but he was able to keep himself upright and moving, and Alex gestured to one of the side doors. "The west rooms tend to get the least use."

He was proven right a moment later, although it took the officers a few minutes to drag in the couple extra chairs necessary after Alex got Jamie situated in the first available and took the one beside it for himself.

Once they were situated, Officer Tomas pulled out a small device. "Do you mind if I record this?"

Jamie looked at Alex and then shrugged. "Sure, I guess."

"Thank you. Now, I gather that your name is Jamie?"

"Yeah."

"Last name?"

"Waite."

"And you?" he asked, turning towards Alex.

"Alex Freeman. Doctor, as I said." Normally he didn't bother bringing that up unless asked, but under the circumstances he thought it bore repeating. Especially if Jamie got upset enough that he needed to end the interview.

"You two know each other."

It was a statement, not a question, but Alex answered him as anyway. "Jamie is my foster son." And Alex was actually fairly sure that being Jamie's foster father meant that they could bar him from the room while they spoke to Jamie if they wanted to since the state was technically Jamie's legal guardian and not himself, but the fact that Jamie was a minor remained, and if they tried to remove him he would call his lawyer because he didn't particularly like their attitudes. Particularly Officer Grantham's and he suspected that that wouldn't improve if they looked into Jamie's record. The officers only nodded in unison though, and then Officer Grantham took over the questioning.

"What kind of drugs did he take?"

Jamie shook his head. "No clue."

"But you did say on the 911 call that you thought it was a drug overdose?"

"Yeah. His arm, he had a..." He gestured vaguely. "Bruises, like from a tourniquet, and there were some needles on the dresser."

"You didn't ask him when he was taking them?"

"I wasn't there when he took them. I don't..." He shook his head again. "I've got enough problems without drugs, and I wouldn't just stand by and watch him shoot up either. And he knows it."

"Has he used drugs before?"

Jamie hesitated. "I...yeah. I mean, I've never actually seen him take anything, but I've seen him with needles and I've seen him high."

"On what, specifically?"

"Don't know, but he was ticking a lot of boxes. Messed up eyes, shaky hands, nasty temper—nastier than usual, I mean—weird energy, all of that. Plus like I said, I saw the needles."

"And did you tell anyone when that happened? His parents?"

Jamie snorted, and when he answered his voice was bitter. "I don't even think Kenny knows who his dad is, and his mom's not going to care. She might pretend, but she's been on one drug or another for his whole life. Hell, whatever it was, she's probably the one he stole it from. Her or one of her boyfriends."

None of that was welcome news to Alex, especially given what he knew about Jamie staying at Kenny's place when he was between foster families, but he didn't see any point in pursuing it just now. Especially since the officers had paused and he had a chance to get his own question answered. "Can you tell us what happened after I dropped you off earlier? That would have been what, maybe one o'clock or so?"

"Yeah, probably." Jamie's voice returned to a more normal tone, and he shrugged and swiped at his eyes. "After you left I went upstairs and knocked on the front door of his apartment, but nobody answered so I went around back and climbed up the fire escape."

"Is that something that you normally do?" Officer Tomas asked.

"Sometimes, yeah. I...when I was little my dad and my brother and I lived in 5B. Kenny and I used to climb in and out each other's windows all the time."

Alex hadn't known that either.

"But you don't live there any more?"

"No, not for a long time. But when no one answered..." He shrugged. "His mom doesn't always come home so I wasn't surprised that she didn't answer, but I figured that he might have been out late and just didn't hear me knocking, so I went around to where he would hear me." He took a breath, and Alex could see his hands starting to shake.

"Jamie. Hey. Deep breaths." If he'd thought that Jamie would tolerate it Alex would have rubbed his back, but given how Jamie reacted to physical contact on good days he didn't see it helping the situation.

Jamie nodded and at least made an attempt to do what he asked, and under the circumstances Alex would take it.

"What happened after you climbed up the fire escape?" Officer Tomas asked.

"I could see him—Kenny—lying in bed, so I knocked on the window and yelled at him to get up and let me in. I figured he was still asleep, but it was starting to rain and I didn't feel like sitting around out there. But he didn't even twitch, not even when I banged and yelled some more." He looked at Alex. "I was loud about it, too. The lady upstairs stuck her head out and yelled at me to shut up."

"Do you know who she was?" Officer Tomas asked.

"Whoever lives in 4B now, I guess. The only person I still know in the building besides Kenny and his mom is old Mrs. Dalin down in 1A."

"So if he didn't wake up, how did you get in?" Officer Grantham asked.

"I got annoyed when he kept lying there—I kind of thought that he must have woken up by then and was just being a jerk about it—and pushed on the window frame, and it turned out that the window wasn't even locked. So I just opened it and climbed in."

"The window didn't have any bars on it? Given the neighborhood, I would have expected more than just window locks."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, there are bars everywhere, but the fire escape ones have to be able to open or the fire escape isn't much use, and all the latches rusted out forever ago so you can just lift them up. Everybody in the building knows about it, but it's not like anyone really has anything worth stealing anyway."

"And leaving the window itself open is also normal?"

"That not so much, even Kenny usually leaves his window locked unless he's planning to be out late and doesn't want to risk getting caught by his mom in one of her 'caring' moods, but..." He shrugged again. "Maybe he was out last night and forgot to lock it when he got back, I don't know."

"You weren't out with him?"

Officer Grantham was back to sounding accusing again, and Alex's jaw tightened. He probably should have called Natalie. Jamie just shook his head, though.

"No, I was at a show with Caitie and her family, and then they dropped me off at home afterwards. Alex's, I mean."

"So when was the last time you saw him before today?"

"Thursday. After school. It's finals week and he wasn't there yesterday for whatever reason, but we hung out until I had to head for the bus stop on Thursday."

"And there was nothing unusual that you noticed then about his behavior?"

"No. He was just Kenny."

"What happened after you opened the window?" Officer Tomas asked.

Jamie bit his lip. "I climbed in and went to yell at him, and that's when I realized that he really wasn't awake. And he wasn't waking up. "

"Deep breaths," Alex prompted again as his breath began to hitch. "It's okay."

"No, it's not," Jamie said. "I shook him, and he wouldn't wake up. And then I realized that I couldn't see him breathing, either, and I couldn't find a pulse, and when I shook him again he just..."

Alex closed his eyes and then braced himself and wrapped an arm around Jamie's shoulders. It was entirely possible that Jamie was going to react badly, and if that happened he was probably going to end up in pain, but he had no idea what else he could do under the circumstances.

Jamie's entire body shuddered, but despite what Alex had feared he didn't lash out, he just looked at Alex pleadingly. "Make him wake up."

"I can't, Jaim," Alex said quietly. "I'm sorry."

Jamie ducked head and a sob escaped.

Since he wasn't fighting, Alex scooted his chair a little closer and tightened his arm. "Kiddo..." He shook his head and then looked at the officers. "Is there anything else that you need to know?" The fact that the officers hadn't contradicted his assertion about being unable to wake Kenny was in no way encouraging, and he wanted to take Jamie home. Under the circumstances letting him hide in his room for a little while might actually be the best thing for him.

"Do you have any idea where Kenny's parents—or his mother, I suppose—are?" Officer Tomas asked. "Maybe where she works? We have her name, but nothing else aside from their address."

"No." Jamie took another shaky breath and shook his head. "She's worked lots of different places. Maybe one of the local bars or convenience stores? Or she might just be at some boyfriend's house."

"You don't know who this boyfriend might be?"

"I never know any of them. Don't want to, either."

The officers exchanged glances. "And your contact information if we need to speak with you again?"

Alex shifted, removing his arm, and was surprised by Jamie's quiet noise of protest. "Just a minute, kiddo." He pulled out his wallet and handed over a card. "That has both my work and our home number if you need to reach us."