It was, by Josh's reckoning, a long time before Jason returned. Fully dark; full night, and a storm brewing out over the water. As well as in the streets of Seattle, and the residence(s) of the Bolt Brothers.

Josh was waiting at the jail, staying with his younger brother, who had finally gone to sleep from exhaustion. He watched as Jason slowly reappeared, finally, with the key to let Jeremy out and take him home.

"How long's he been asleep?"

"A while. What did you find out?"

Jason's lips twitched. "Other than Jeremy has the full-blown Bolt temper? I always hoped his smaller size would curb that somewhat."

"Yeah, other than that."

Jason shook his head. "It's quite a story. Let's get home first. Jeremy!"

Jeremy stirred but didn't wake up.

Jason laughed, and reached through the bars and shook Jeremy. "Hey."

Jeremy looked at him.

"You in control of yourself now?" Jason asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Let's go home and talk about it." Jason opened the door.

"Kay."

The brothers walked to their place side by side, the youngest sandwiched between the other two.

Once inside, Josh started coffee and scrounged up some bread and meat.

Jeremy sat in a chair at the table and waited silently.

Jason paced.

Jeremy dozed off, sitting straight up, looking straight ahead, eyes wide open.

Jason laughed, and sat down. "We should probably let him sleep it off."

"That's fine, but if you think I'm going to wait…! Well, I'm not; that's all!"

"How are his hands? Anything broken?"

"Just scraped up, mostly. The palms almost look burned, as well."

"Rope burns. It's quite a story, Josh. Let me get him to bed and I'll fill you in."

"Damn right you will."

Jason laughed, and stood, snapping his fingers in Jeremy's face. "Jeremy!"

Jeremy jerked and almost fell. "Oh."

"Let's get you to bed."

"Ok." Jeremy sat there as he had been.

Jason swooped him up and carried him to his bed, stripping the boy of his outer garments, forcing a nightshirt over his head and pulling it down and the covers up over him. He stroked his youngest brother's hair, patted his cheek, and just looked at him for a minute.

Josh watched until Jason rejoined him at the table. "You don't seem terribly upset now."

"No, I'm not. They put him in jail because he was out of control. It was somewhere safe. For him."

"So he's not in trouble?"

"No. Not with me, not with the town. Not with anyone." Jason shook his head. "Not at all." Jason fell silent.

Josh waited. It was usually a good idea to wait when Jason got pensive like that. Plus, he'd worked up a good head of steam on the way in, and he was dealing with the ups and downs of his own temper. Always wiser to not interrupt that process.

Josh refilled the coffee cups and scooted the plate of food closer to Jason.

Jason sighed, and began building a sandwich. "Do you know anything about the jump ropes at the school?"

That was an unexpected question! "The other boys were cutting the girls' jump ropes. The first three days I was here,Jeremy was braiding them a new one with metal in it, and then braiding like three of them together so they wouldn't be able to cut it through. Even if they cut through one strand, the others would hold. He didn't have it the next week, so I figured it had been finished." Josh paused. "I can't see Jeremy losing control even if they did manage to cut it all up. He'd be mad, but not crazy?"

"No. Not crazy, but that's the start of it. Our boy boy-proofed the girls' jump rope and the boys didn't like it. But there wasn't anything they could do, especially with Jeremy being on guard, and doing repairs on the spot."

"Oh. Yeah, he got pretty good at that, and fast."

"One of the boys is a Latimer, brother to Francis that you were in school with."

"Fatty Latty? Oh yeah, he did have a brother a bit younger than ours. I don't think he was coming to school when I stopped. The little brother, I mean."

"Frank Latimer isn't a fatty anymore, now that he's working. He's still big, though." Jason paused, again organizing his thoughts.

"I am going to choke you," Joshua informed him.

Jason snorted. "That's another part of the story. I'll let Jeremy tell you that part himself. If he remembers doing it."

"Uh-huh. That's if you live long enough to hear if he remembers."

Jason half-laughed. "I'm sorry, Josh. I'm still putting it together for myself. I wish I'd had Jeremy's side before everyone in town started telling me their version. Then I'd at least have a timeline to start from."

"I'm waiting as fast as I can!"

Jason did laugh then, loudly enough that Jeremy stirred from his exhausted sleep. "What, you're trying to make it three for three on Bolt tempers tonight?"

"Why should I be left out?"

Jason gestured for Josh to sit back down. "There was a fight at the school. Boys against girls, only Jeremy was fighting for the girls. Frank Latimer was there doing something with the girls. The schoolmarm heard the fight, sounded the alarm, went on the attack, and the town responded. It took several men to subdue Jeremy after the others had stopped. When he tried to strangle Aaron Stempel, they put him in jail so he wouldn't hurt anyone else. And that –"

"You're kidding!"

"I am hoping this is all a nightmare."

"I would have loved to have seen that!"

"I'm sure I would have, too, if it had been someone else's little brother."

"What did Stempel have to say?"

"That the kitten had grown into a tiger. And he smiled."