"Jeremy, why don't you go treat yourself to a soak in the Loop?'

"Why?"

Jason shook his head, amused. "Because you used your arms in a new way today, and you'll be getting stiff now that you've stopped. The cold water will be good for your neck and shoulders."

"Oh." Jeremy stabbed at his food. "Do I hafta? I want to go to b-bed."

"I'd advise it," Jason said slowly. It wouldn't do to treat the boy as a man all day and a child by night. He'd made that mistake with Joshua a few too many times, until Josh had fired up and told him to choose which person he was supposed to be.

Jason blew out a breath. "No, you don't have to. I just think you might sleep better if you cool off first."

"Oh."Jeremy finished eating, And winced as he set his dish aside. He rubbed his neck and shoulder. "I th-think m-maybe you're right. I will do that." He stood up.

"Your dry clothes and your bed will be waiting for you."

"Uh-huh." Jeremy stood, rubbing the other side.

"Better take a towel or a jacket to wrap up in on your walk back," Josh advised. "You'll be cold when you get out of the water."

"G-guess I'll b-be cold when I g-get in it."

"Would you like an escort?" Jason asked, when Jeremy still just stood there.

Jeremy shook his head, and took a couple of reluctant steps away from them.

"Jason, I don't think he can do it. Maybe you should carry him."

Jeremy's head whipped around to glare at his brother, who laughed when he winced. "You j-just wanna t-talk ab-bout me!"

"Of course we do. I wanna hear how many things you did wrong today and how many problems you caused, so I can brag about never having been that dumb."

"Josh." Jason's reproof was mild.

"Huh." Jeremy stomped off, and heard his brothers laughing after him.

Jeremy had a quick soak. It was getting dark, and there was a full moon hiding in the clouds, and he kept hearing things. He was always supposed to listen for things, especially after dark, and there was a lot of them. Coos and calls and clicks. Falling leaves and nuts and branches. Scrunchy footsteps of things walking on top of the leaves so they could eat the nuts and bite or break the branches.

And some of them turned into monsters, no matter what Josh said. Josh said monsters weren't real, and only babies were scared of them.

Jason said that all depended on how one defined monsters. There were plenty of people who could be labeled as monsters. That wasn't exactly soothing, and Josh told Jason he was an idiot.

Besides, he knew for himself that people could turn into monsters.

He shuddered.

So, he hurried to get back before it was too dark. It was cold anyway. If he got too cold, they'd say he was making himself sick.

Life was a lot easier when he'd been the dumb kid Josh always called him. Sometimes he wished he was still a dumb kid.

"That was fast," Jason said, when he got back to the camp.

""It's c-c-c-old."

Jason nodded. "Get dried off and changed . Do you feel better? We can rub in some liniment if you need it."

Jeremy wrinkled his nose. "The smelly stuff? Yuck."

"It works," Josh said.

"We'll check with you again in the morning," Jason said with a smile. He'd really put his youngest brother to work today. He'd be sore as heck in the morning. "You did good today. Now go get dried off before you take pneumonia. Scoot."

Jeremy shrugged and disappeared into their tent. He 'd really surprise them and crawl into bed, too. He didn't think he'd ever been so tired, ever. He was glad he'd been good enough for Jason though. That was better than being a dumb kid any day.

"Too bad I never knew that you'd put me to real work if I just followed you around all day." Josh said, with a laugh.

"If I recall correctly, and I do, at that time you were usually mad at me and wanted to stay as far away as possible."

"Well, yeah. You were always giving me crappy baby work if you saw me stop to breathe."

"That was the only way I knew to teach you from the ground up. It was how Da taught me."

"And you hated it."

"Yes, but once I started here, I realized the wisdom of it. At least I never pulled you off jobs because I just wanted you back home."

"That would have been hard to do, since I've rarely worked away from home. Besides, you're still starting Jeremy a lot earlier than you did me."

"That's partly your fault. You taught Jeremy how to do all the 'babywork' as you learned it. Saved me the trouble. Although I was worried when you started teaching him to chop firewood and trees while the axes were still bigger than he was. Worried until I found your customized axe, anyway. That was clever, and showed me you were paying attention to what he could reasonably do, so I left you to it."

"I wondered sometimes if you knew. You never said anything."

"Have I ever thanked you for doing so much of my work for me?"

Josh grinned. "About as often as I've thanked Jeremy for doing mine."

The brothers laughed together.

Jeremy hadn't heard what they'd been talking about, but laughter didn't need words to be understood. Jeremy contentedly drifted off to sleep.

/

He wasn't so content in the morning. Not just his neck and shoulders ached, but his arms and legs too. And his back. His hands, too. His feet seemed okay, though.

He couldn't say he hadn't been warned. He pondered the idea of the linment, and couldn't remember if the smell got stronger when working, or not. He did know he'd be working. Maybe not at the same job, but they had all learned long ago that keeping working was the best cure for aching muscles, as long as it was just aches.

Jeremy stretched carefully, half-hoping for a twinge of pain. He wasn't sure if he was glad or not that he didn't. Maybe a little of both.

He got dressed and went outside.

"We brought you breakfast," Josh said, indicating a full dish and a mug of coffee on the table. "Thought we'd make it easy on you."

"How'm I going to w-warm my m-muscles up if I don't walk around?" He picked up the plate and found a seat. He really was really hungry.

"Do you want a rubdown before we start?" Jason asked.

Jeremy shook his head. "What w-will w-we do tod-day, Jason?"

"Work on the job we started yesterday. With our small crew that's going to take us the most of the week."

Jeremy nodded.