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If Jamie was being honest, he was paying a lot more attention to the clock than to whatever was currently playing on the television. But Alex was supposed to be home soon, and while he'd sort of technically looked in the fridge like Alex had asked, that had also technically been this morning when Alex had insisted that he eat something for breakfast, and he hadn't been paying much attention to the contents of the vegetable drawer at the time.

He should just get up and go see if whatever they had would work for stir-fry. He knew that. The kitchen was all of twenty feet away, and it wasn't like he was sick or hurt or anything. He just...

He heard the sound of the garage door opening before he could convince himself to get up, and he gave up and pulled his blanket in a little tighter. Too late now. Anyway, Alex might look at him, but it wasn't the kind of thing that he'd really get angry about.

"Hey, Jaim," Alex greeted a moment later.

"Hey."

Alex crossed behind the couch and ruffled Jamie's hair lightly, and Jamie looked up. He wasn't used to grown-ups touching him, but Alex did sometimes now, and he didn't mind so much. As long as it was Alex.

"Did you get a chance to check and see what might be good for supper?" Alex asked.

Jamie looked down again and shrugged.

Alex sighed. "All right, kiddo, it's time to get up. Come help me get some food together."

"'m not hungry."

"I know you're not, but you can come help me anyway. There's something that I want to talk to you about."

In Jamie's experience nothing good ever came from somethings, especially since Alex was coming from a meeting with people in the foster care system, and he shook his head.

"Jamie."

If he raised his head, he'd definitely be getting a look right now.

"Jamie, up," Alex ordered.

He didn't want to. But he also wasn't quite willing to say 'no,' so after a long minute he swung his legs down to the floor and pushed himself into a sitting position, shoving the blanket away.

"Thank you."

Jamie scowled at Alex's back as he trailed him into the kitchen, and if it wasn't a scowl quite up to his usual standards...well, it wasn't like Alex was paying any attention anyway.

"It's a selection," Alex said, staring down into the vegetable drawer a minute later. "But it should be edible enough. Would you get the rice started, please?"

Since starting rice just involved dumping it and water into the cooker Jamie was done long before Alex even finished checking the vegetables for bad spots, and with a sigh he pulled down the wok from the cabinet and set it on the stove for when Alex was ready. "So what 'something' are we supposed to talk about?" he asked, staring down into it. Might as well get the bad stuff over with.

"Hm? Oh." Alex pulled a knife out of the block and started chopping up the vegetables. "I talked to my mother for a few minutes on the way back from the Croms. I was thinking that it might be nice to go out and visit my family earlier this summer rather than later."

Jamie's head jerked up again almost of it's own volition. "You're going to leave?" He hadn't wanted to get dragged up off the couch, maybe, but that didn't mean that he wanted Alex to go away for real. It wasn't...he was sixteen and not six and he could take care of himself just fine, obviously, but...

"Well, I wasn't planning on going by myself. You're invited too, remember? And I guarantee that my mother will not be happy if I forget to bring her newest grandson, foster or not, along." He paused in his vegetable chopping to reach over and turn on the burner under the wok. "Tyler will be back soon, and since Hank doesn't leave for almost a month, I thought that as long as Sonja is okay with it we could get flights out in maybe two weeks. It'll take some schedule juggling on both of our parts, but it should be doable."

Jamie hesitated. "I've never been on a plane before."

"Well, it's a straight flight from here to Denver so it's not a bad way to get started. And I usually just rent a car and drive up the rest of the way from there because while there are transfer flights between Denver and Cheyenne, with the layover it doesn't really cut that much off the trip." He paused for a moment to add oil to the wok. "Are you okay with me giving Sonja a call tomorrow to get started on whatever paperwork we need to fill out?"

"I don't...I guess," Jamie said after a minute. It wasn't like he had any other plans for the summer except for maybe a race sometime later this year. "But..."

"But what?"

He shrugged and looked away again. "Your mom said it's okay if I visit, but it's not just your mom who's there."

"Dad might not say a lot, but I know he'd like to meet you too, and I'm sure Pete and Cathy feel the same. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm kind of surprised that Cathy hasn't called to give me the third degree because while Pete might be willing to wait, she's a bit more direct." He shook his head. "And on the off chance that you don't want to get stuck with my parents and siblings and myself for too long, Pete's oldest is a boy pretty close to your age, and there should be a couple other kids around the compound who're the same."

Kids were better than adults, that was true enough, and Jamie was a little bit interested despite himself. "Are they like me kind of kids, or like you kind of kids?" he asked after a minute. Because 'Are they total dorks?' seemed like a bad way to phrase it, even if he was generally cool with Hank and the rest of the super squad.

"I can't say that I know all of my nieces and nephews all that well, but I'm going to have to go with none of the above. I was very much the odd man out growing up—I love my siblings, but there's a reason that they're there and I'm here—and I kind of doubt that the tenor of the place has changed that much since then, but I don't recall a lot of kids on motorcycles or with your sense of fashion either. Although if you'd like to bring your guitar along, my father plays and I think a couple of the kids do too."

Jamie shrugged. He didn't play very much for other people.

"It's up to you." Alex lifted the cutting board and slid the chopped vegetables into the wok. "I'll check with Sonja tomorrow and then see about getting tickets booked. You take a look at your schedule and see what shifts you've got that'll need coverage, all right?"

"Come in," Dr. Laura called as soon as Jamie tapped lightly on the door, dashing his last hope for avoiding therapy today.

He was tempted to take off anyway, but that wouldn't save him when Alex came to pick him up—hell, Alex's plans to pick him up were the only reason he hadn't 'accidentally' missed the bus in the first place—and after a moment he sighed and pushed the door open.

"Hello, Jamie." She looked past him for a moment and then returned her attention to him. "No Alex today?"

"No." Just because he had to be here didn't mean that he had to be cooperative. Unfortunately while she didn't look the same way Alex did, she was weirdly hard to stay quiet around when she was staring at him, and after a few minutes of awkward silence he finally added, "He'll be here after he's done at work."

If it bothered her that the words were aimed in the general direction of the floor, she gave no sign. "Ah. This would be a shift at the hospital?"

"Yeah."

"Well, why don't you come in and have a seat, and we can talk just the two of us until he gets here."

Jamie looked up again, rolling his eyes. "Alex never hits me or hurts me or anything else."

"I'm glad to hear it, but that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about." She pushed herself up from her desk and headed over to the pair of couches they usually sat on during his sessions. "Unless you wanted to?"

"No." Those was just the stupid questions that everyone 'needed' to ask. Sonja he kind of understood, even if he still thought that it was stupid, but with the doctor and and at the emergency room and all of that there was no point at all. He stalked over to the couches after her and dropped down in his usual spot, crossing his arms over his chest.

Dr. Laura nodded and took her seat as well, pulling the same star-shaped board game onto the table between them that they'd been playing for the last couple weeks before pausing with the bag of marbles in her hand. "I suppose we could play regular checkers this week, if you'd like, since it's only the two of us."

"This is fine," Jamie said after a minute. Not that he had a clue why they played games at all, but at least it gave him something to do while he tried to avoid the rest of the questions.

They set up the board quickly, and then she waved at him to take the first turn. "So how have you been? I know that the last time we talked you were coming off a pretty rough week."

Since Kenny hadn't stopped being dead things hadn't gotten better, so he just shrugged and nudged one of his marbles forward.

"Have you been working, or did you decide to take some time off?"

"I can do my job." Alex had asked if he wanted to take some time off too, but since working was the only time that he felt useful he didn't see why everyone thought he should skip out. At least Val and Hank hadn't said anything like that even if they had been kind of awkward about the whole thing.

"I'm sure that you can, but that doesn't mean that you have to right now."

He crossed his arms again and didn't bother to respond.

"Well, it's something to think about," she said as she took her turn. "Have you had time to work on your book any more?"

Oh. Shit. He hadn't—or, rather, he'd had plenty of time but he certainly hadn't spent it on that stupid workbook—but he hadn't actually meant to leave it at home, either. Alex wouldn't be happy about that if he found out. "Uh, I think I might have left it on the counter when I went to catch the bus."

She raised an eyebrow but didn't dispute the statement. "We'll take a look at it next week then." A pause. "I didn't think that Alex usually worked on Mondays. Has his schedule changed?"

A discussion about schedules was way safer than anything else she'd said thus far, and Jamie shrugged. "He was only on the schedule for the day shift originally, that's usually where they put him if he's at the emergency room on Mondays at all, but he's been trying to move stuff around so we can go visit his family in a couple weeks. Today that meant staying a little later than usual to cover the start of another doctor's shift."

"I remember him mentioning that trip. You were going to go with him, I think? Is that still the plan?"

"Yeah."

"When are you going? Are you looking forward to it?"

The first question was better than the second, but even so he spent a little time considering the board before moving another marble. "Not this week or next, but probably the week after that. Alex hasn't gotten the tickets yet, though, we have to get some form back from Sonja first." Which was even stupider than anything else in his opinion since it was summer and Sonja probably wouldn't even notice if he disappeared for a week. It had taken certainly taken her way longer than that for her to hunt him down when he'd run away to Ken—when he'd run away in past summers. It was a rule that Alex had decided mattered for whatever reason, though, so the form would get signed.

"Ah, right, that would be a requirement," Dr. Laura said. "But are you looking forward to going?"

And so much for the hope that she'd forget that question. And it wasn't...he was pretty sure that he wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but he didn't want to be left here alone, either, so it was sort of the best option available. Probably. "I guess," he said finally, because he had to say something before the silence got weird again.

She nodded and took her turn as if his answer was actually useful. "Have you ever met any of them?"

"No."

"Talked to them, maybe? I can't imagine that Alex is taking you there without letting them know that you're coming."

"Yeah, they know. And I talked to his mom once when she called to remind Alex about his dad's birthday and Alex wasn't home yet."

She nodded again. "What did you think of her?"

"I don't know. She seemed nice." Mostly she'd talked and Jamie had listened, but he hadn't minded. Even if he still thought it was kind of hard to believe that she and Alex were related.

"May I ask what you talked about?"

Another shrug. "Just a bunch of different stuff. She told me about their farm and some things from when Alex was little and whatever. And then Alex got home so I gave the phone to him." He jumped another marble forward.

"Well, that sounds like a nice chat." She moved one of her marbles towards him. "Have you talked to your grandmother recently?"

He frowned as he thought back. "It's been a little while." There was no point in trying to call the nursing home, even if the aides could get her on the phone she wouldn't recognize his voice or she'd forget that they were talking and put it down and that would be the end of the call, but he should probably go visit at least one more time before they left.

"Maybe something to think about?"

"Maybe." It had been one of the things that Alex had been suggesting too, he just hadn't felt like it.

She nodded and let it go. "Does Alex have other family that you'll be visiting besides his parents?"

"A brother and sister and some nieces and nephews. One of them—one of his nephews—is supposed to be pretty close to my age."

"Oh, good, that should be fun for you."

Mostly Jamie just hoped that they got along or it would be a long week, but he didn't bother to say so and picked another marble at random to move forward.

"Have you seen your brother recently?" she asked after a minute.

That was sort of a weird twist in the conversation, but whatever, it was another subject that he didn't care much about. "Not in like a year." If Jamie really wanted to find him he might be able to do it through Peter's college, but realistically wasn't like he needed Peter for anything. And Peter sure as heck didn't need him.

"So you aren't close. Were you when you were younger and living together?"

"Not really. He didn't come home that much, he was mostly either with his friends or at the library."

"He never took you with him?"

"Yeah, right. I was always too little or too noisy or made too much of a mess."

"Well, you were at most eleven, right? Noise and mess are pretty typical for a child."

Jamie scoffed. Peter had probably never been described as too noisy or messy or anything like that even when he'd been a baby. He'd been the ones the librarians had welcomed while the one time he'd brought Jamie along they'd suggested that Jamie go play elsewhere within ten minutes of his arrival. He'd have said that it was the one stupid book tower that he'd knocked over, but even now he sometimes got sideways looks when he stopped in to kill time, and that was when he was just using the computer or reading a book.

"So is that when you were spending most of your time with Kenny?"

Jamie looked away. "Yeah. Some other friends too, but mostly him."

"Have you seen any of your other friends since Kenny died?"

"No." Not since the day of the funeral, anyway, and he didn't figure that that counted.

"Why not?"

"I just don't want to right now."

She nodded, and turned her attention back to the board. He had no idea why she was paying it such close attention when he wasn't—he wasn't sure if his last move had even been legal—but at least it was eating up time.

"Do you think you'll see them before you and Alex leave for your trip?" she finally asked.

"I don't know." Well, actually he'd better at least call Caitie since while none of the others would think anything one way or the other about it, she'd probably kill him if he left for a week without saying anything. Or maybe he could just ask Val to tell her? He rejected that idea almost as soon as it came to him because Val's first question would be why he wasn't talking to Caitie himself, and it wasn't like he had an actual answer for that except that he didn't really feel like talking to anyone. There was no way that that ended well for him even if Caitie was still upset about Kenny too. He was a little surprised that she hadn't called him at some point during the past week, now that he thought about it.

"Hm?" Dr. Laura asked, clearly reading some of his thoughts from his expression.

"Nothing, I just realized that there is one friend that I need to call before we go so she doesn't worry."

"That's a good thought." Another pause. "I know you've been in foster care for a while, and I know that as part of that you've been moved around quite a bit, but what did you do during the summers before foster care? Did you ever go on vacation with your dad and your brother? Or your mom?"

"No." He shoved another marble forward without paying much attention. "Dad always had to work, and Grandma didn't have a car. And I was little when Mom left." Which she knew.

"What did he do? Your dad, I mean."

Why did it even matter? But after a minute of her looking at him and waiting silently for an answer he finally shrugged. "Mechanic most of the time, but sometimes he'd switch over and pick up construction jobs in the summer. He said that welding paid better."

She nodded. "I think you mentioned once before that you've spent some time working as a car mechanic too. Is that something you learned from him?"

Jamie made a face. He probably had said that since the 'skills and interests' and 'work experience' questions had been among the least objectionable in that stupid booklet, but that didn't mean that there was an interesting story behind it. Or that he wanted to talk about it. "Maybe some stuff, I guess, but it's not like it's that hard."

"Did you enjoy it when he was teaching you?"

"It was fine. What does it matter, anyway? I was a little kid."

"Little kids matter too" A pause. "Was it a problem if you were noisy or messy when you were with him?"

"It was fine," Jamie snapped, pushing himself up from the couch. He wasn't quite sure where he was going, but before he could get anywhere anyway there was a light knock at the door, and he twisted towards it. "Alex?"

The door opened, and Alex stuck his head in. "Hey. I hope I'm not interrupting."

"I want to go home!"