AN: Sorry about the wait and the short chapter! I promise the next one will be longer. This part just seemed like it should stand by itself as a chapter. Thanks again so much to everyone who reviewed! I'm eternally grateful for your encouragement, and slightly addicted to it... lol:-)

"Man, I don't know what his problem is," I bitched to Tonia the next evening. Jack was still in the middle of a huge hissy fit with both me and Angel. We couldn't figure out how exactly we'd managed to hurt his little feelings, but by then we were both sick of his attitude. I'd tried to patch things up with him the day before, after letting him sulk for a few hours. I walked into the living room and asked him if he wanted something to eat. He just sat there, playing his guitar and ignoring me, looking mad, his eyes rimmed red.

He refused to eat the entire day and, as much as I hated to admit it, that worried me. The kid couldn't afford to lose any more weight. When Angel got home from work we talked it over and decided our only options were to force feed him or send him to Jerry's.

I stormed out to the garage to find something to use for a funnel--Angel called Jerry and told him to get his ass over there before Jack ended up with a tube down his throat or worse. Jerry came and picked him up, took him home for the night. Later Jer called and said the girls cheered Jackie up enough to eat. Cracker even taught Dani a short little song on the piano, had her play it for her parents in a mini-concert.

Meanwhile, back at our place, Angel bolted to spend time with Sofi, and to get away from me. I sulked, angry and tired, eating dinner alone in a dark kitchen before finally heading off to work. I roughed up a couple of drunks far more than necessary while throwing them out of the bar, but it still didn't make me feel any better.

Damn fairy.

Sometimes I'll go too far when I make fun of him, and he'll get pissed for a while. Usually after an hour or two he bounces back and acts like himself again. I never had to do much more than pat him on the back or ruffle his hair before he'd forgive me, start following me around again like a lost puppy.

"I mean, I love the kid, but he's seriously wearing on my nerves right now. Does he have any idea the shit Angel and I have gone through taking care of him this winter?"

Sitting across from me, Tonia arched an eyebrow, letting her chin rest on her lightly clasped hands while she examined me. She had a number of books spread out in front of her. She'd been attempting to read them, in spite of my presence. "This is one of those moments, Tough Guy. You're smart, but you're not thinking. Jack's extremely empathetic, unlike you, which means he can probably pick up on your moods even through all your bullshit. He knows you're tired of doing everything for him. He's probably resentful that he can't do anything for himself. Besides, I never said I was moving in, and I didn't say I'd be the one helping him with his training exercises either."

I gave her a blank look. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't you help him? Why not move in? That's what would help him the most."

"Would it?" she asked, cutting me off before I could really get started. "I think Jack's scared of me moving in. I think he's afraid of me helping him. I think he wants you guys to do it."

"Why?"

She shrugged, speaking softly, "He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Bobby. Why do you think? When was the last time you saw him initiate the bare minimum of what could be considered intimate contact with another person? He trusts you guys, but I'm not one of his brothers. I'm an older woman with a potential agenda. Do you think it'd be a good idea to leave me alone with him? Do you remember what happened the time I tried to baby-sit him by myself when he was eleven?"

"Oh, yeah," I admitted dumbly. I'd almost forgotten about that. It happened during one of my road games. I'd only heard about it later.

Tonia came over to baby-sit for a few hours while mom was out, and Jack locked himself in the bathroom, hypervenalating himself into a trip to the hospital. For some reason I'd never really associated the incident with the fact that Ma left him home alone with a stranger. I just thought he'd been a ticking bomb that finally went off.

"You know what you should do?" she said. I waited impatiently until she continued, my fingertips tapping a broken rhythm on the table top. Tonia's the type of person who likes to think about things before she says them. I used to snap at her once in a while when she'd take too long to finish a sentence. She knows it drives me nuts. "You should try slowly introducing him to new situations with people he doesn't know and see if you can ease him into a more open comfort zone. At least, I think that's what it said in that book... Or maybe it was that one," she said, mostly to herself, pointing at two different books before shrugging and giving up.

"How long would that take?" I asked, rubbing one palm over my face. I was starting to feel bored and restless. It always made me fidgety when I had a problem I couldn't solve with a gun or a few punches.

She shrugged. "I really have no idea. Probably the rest of his life..."

"What?" I groaned.

She grinned at my response, closing up the books in front of her, preparing to leave. "No one said it'd be easy. Besides, do you have anything better to do than help out your little brother?"

I stared at her, letting the question sit out there for a moment.

"Bobby?"

"I'm thinking about it!"