The man jerked awake when he heard his oldest son's voice, still outside, shouting at someone. Arguing. Probably that unfriendly friend of his.

Then a growl, and finally the door was flung open and Joshua shoved inside. Jeremy was dropped onto the floor, having been carried at least part of the way home. He was silent.

Both boys were bruised and bloody, their clothing torn.

"Get yourselves cleaned up," Jason ordered, before turning to their father. And shouting. "These devil children –"

"Jason!"

"Sorry. I don't know what else to call them."

"Your brothers?" Da suggested "Or, since they have names, you could use them."

Jason muttered something that it was probably best his father not hear. "They were fighting – no, they started a fight – in the classroom, on classroom time! Something they both know better than to do and have never done before! By the time the teacher rang the alarm, every boy in the school was involved."

"All seven of them? Nine, if you count those two?"

"Desks, papers, books, everything everywhere, torn, broken, destroyed! We're going to have to replace it all, and they aren't to go back until they're asked to return."

"That simplifies things."

"Maybe." Jason stopped pacing and picking things up and putting them down. "I doubt it."

"What things?" Josh asked. He and Jeremy were almost done helping one another clean up.

"You shut up. I'd like to turn you over my knee."

"You'll have to catch me first."

"Is that a DARE?" Jason whirled around on the younger boy.

Josh looked Jason in the face, studied the anger in his eyes and the worry in his brows, and shook his head. "No."

Jason opened his mouth to reply when Josh turned back to Jeremy while saying, calmly, "It's a fact."

Jeremy squeaked.

Jason swallowed air.

Da snorted, and started choking. Jason tended to him.

"Jason, you better come look at this. He got kicked a few times and I'm not sure about his ribs."

Jason went over to the washbowl and checked out the youngest brother, who wouldn't look at him. "We'd better wrap 'em just to be safe," Jason decided.

Josh handed Jason the bandages while Jason wrapped them around Jeremy.

"Which one of you started the fight?"Jason asked. Not for the first time, but he wasn't yelling now.

"Depends on what you mean by starting it," Josh answered.

"Who hit whom first? There you go, little one. You may as well get into your night shirt."

"Hitting isn't always how fights get started."

"In school it is. Generally, in public, it is. I should know."

Josh half-laughed. "Well, you should understand, then."

Jeremy rejoined them, shivering a little.

"We'd better get something warm in you," Jason said. "Both of you. Da, is there any tea left?"

"Enough for the two of them. Surely they are not that chilled?"

"Shock, not chill. Josh, you too" Jason shepherded them to the table. "It's like that when the excitement is over."

"I remember well enough. Warm up that stew for them."

"I am." While the stew was warming, he dropped a cover across the shoulders of each of them. "Who started the fight, Josh?"

Jeremy looked up and raised his hand timidly.

"It wasn't his fault," Josh said. "Tom was bothering him all day long, calling him names and stuff."

"Tom –?"

"Tom Finney."

"Isn't he your age?"

"Bigger than me, too."

"Here, eat. Do you want some more tea?" He'd been making a fresh pot, because tea was one thing that Da still enjoyed.

"I'd rather have coffee."

Jeremy nodded, agreeing with both brothers. He'd have tea, yes, but he'd rather it was coffee.

"If I make you coffee will you tell me about this fight?"

"Can't," Josh said, after a quick glance at Jeremy.

"Why not?"

Josh shrugged. "Just can't."

"We can talk later."

"I still won't know anything."

This was the first time he'd indicated he didn't know something, and Jason wasn't sure he believed that. He'd have to get the information some other way. Josh could be closed-mouthed sometimes.

"Maybe you should ask the others," Da suggested.

"I don't think any of the families will let me near any of their boys."

"What did you do? Pluck them off your brothers and throw them out the door?"

"Better if I had," Jason admitted ruefully. "I just threw 'em. Mostly across the room. They hit walls and blackboards and things, instead of flying through the air and landing on the ground."

Josh grinned and Jeremy giggled.

"So you did your share of the damages, did you?"

"I did. We Bolts are the most destructive miscreants ever known to civilized people."

"Ah, I thought I heard that voice, and you shouting back. The two of you amuse me."

"We amuse me, too, when I get over being mad. Or in the middle of the night when I need something to think about."

Someone knocked and Jason answered the door, then stepped outside to talk. It was one of the fathers.

By the time he came back inside, it was several of the fathers. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to take the boys up the mountain for a while. (Never mind that the fathers were more concerned with Jason's intervention than the brothers fighting. He'd have to take them, wouldn't he?)

He shook his head at Da, who looked up when he came back inside, because it wasn't really important. Just another situation to be considered, decision to be made, and so on and so forth. He was getting used to that, and it was a good thing, since he foresaw a lot of it in his future. "It's okay," he said out loud, to the room. "None of us are going to jail tonight, and no one will be attacked for stepping outside the front door. At least, not from the men." Who could say what schoolboys might do?

Although they would probably stay away from the biggest brother.

It was a long, quiet night at home, with the weight of many things unsaid felt by them all. Everyone was calm, and nothing of any import was discussed. Even Jeremy was glad to go to bed come bedtime, although he first went and stood in front of their father until the man looked at him, smiling.

Then, Jeremy wrapped his arms around Da's neck and leaned his head into Da's shoulder.

Joshua came and stood behind Da, and he, too, put his arms around the man's neck.

Then, without a word, both the boys turned and got into bed, together.