Jason was finally stripping off his own rain gear, when he looked up and saw another yellow mac trudging up the trail from town. Well!

He shook the excess water off his own raincoat, and folded it over his arm, and waited. This would be interesting. He should have gone into town this evening, but …. Just but.

The walking raincoat stopped in front of him.

"Well, hello," he said to the yellow hood.

"H'lo," Jeremy mumbled, tilting his head back just enough to catch a glance at Jason's face.

"Nice night for a walk, isn't it? I wasn't expecting any visitors." Jason put his hand to the boy's shoulder, and steered him over to the dry-line for the raincoats.

Jeremy swallowed a laugh., raised up his arms so the rain dripped off his sleeves onto Jason's boots.

"To what do I owe the honor?" Jason hung up his raincoat and helped Jeremy out of his., before leading him away. "Would you like a hot drink?"

"Uh-huh."

Jason poured coffee for both of them, and ushered his young brother to a seat.

Jeremy rather formally sipped his coffee before meeting Jason's eyes. "I w-wanted to see you."

"Here I am. Was there a particular reason you wanted to see me?"

Jeremy nodded, shook his head, and shrugged.

Jason, maintaining the pleasant formality, drank from his coffee, keeping an eye on Jeremy. He didn't seem distressed and he wasn't shivering. His color was good. His behavior was fairly normal.

"You haven't had an argument with Josh, have you?"

Jeremy shook his head.

"Anyone else?"

"No."

"Well then."

"Uh-huh."

Jason refilled both their coffee with the last of the day's coffee, and made small talk with the crew that passed by them while Jeremy warmed his insides and hopefully found his words.

A brief sudden spate of heavy rain had everyone scurrying for cover – everyone but Jason and Jeremy, who waited under the hanging tarp until it slowed and stopped as suddenly as it had started.

When it stopped, Jason bowed and made a shall-we-go gesture to his brother, who laughed and grabbed his hand, and the two of them crossed the camp to their tent.

It was early yet, but Jason had had a long hard workday, and Jeremy had just had a long sloppy walk, so they puttered around without speaking much. Jeremy was doing something with pencil and paper, and Jason decided to read until Jeremy was ready to talk about whatever had brought him out. Jason had no doubt there were questions in store.

He looked up from his book, and discovered that Jeremy had already gone to bed. Now, had his book been that absorbing, or had he dozed off? Would Jeremy wait as usual until he was nearly asleep? Time would tell.

Time – and Jeremy – were good to him. He fell asleep with no interruptions, and woke in the darkest silence of the predawn. No light, no sounds, except for his breath and the stirring of his youngest brother. His lips twitched.

""J-jason?"

He remained silent.

"Jason, are you awake?"

"No."

Instead of the usual giggle or gurgle of laughter, Jeremy said, "I heard you w-wake up."

"You did? How?"

"You stopped snoring."

"Oh. Did you want something?"

"Josh said I needed more exercise."

An unexpected response. "I see. No, I don't see. Why?"

"B'cause I ain't been sleeping very good at night."

"That is relevant, why?"

"Because I did."

Jason blamed not quite being awake for why that temporarily made no sense to him. "Did what?"

"Sleeped."

"Oh." He thought that over. "Is that why you walked up here tonight? For exercise, so you could sleep?" Wringing Josh's neck had a momentary appeal.

"Last night, and kinda."

They fell silent.

"I th-think we both did?"

"Yes, we did. We can probably get in another hour, hour-and-a-half, if we try."

"Are you still t-tired?"

"Are you ready to get up?"

Jeremy yawned. "Not really. But I wanted to ask you something, only I can't remember it."

"I thought so. Well, lie there until you think of it, then ask. If, that is, I haven't gone back to sleep."

"Okay. If you snore again, I'll just write it down or something."

"Thank you." Jason wondered if he could fake snoring adequately enough to make it become real. Probably wouldn't have the time.

"Jason?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember telling me you scared me when you didn't shave?"

"Yes." As if he'd forget his precious baby brother running from him in fear! "Why?"

"Because of the monster."

"Is that old monster bothering you again? I was hoping you'd outgrown that."

Jeremy sighed. "I dreamed I was the monster. I 'member dreaming you was the m-monster, but I knew you wasn't the monster, but I thought you was before I could think."

"Oh."

"But you wouldn't hurt me, and I wouldn't hurt me. And the m-monster hurt m-me." There were tears in his voice.

"Hmm. Could the monster maybe be all the things you are afraid will hurt you? But you somehow know they won't really?"

"No. B'cause it really really really hurts and makes me scareder, too."

"Could it have anything to do with the way you lost your temper and the talk we had about that?"

Jeremy took his time thinking that over. When he spoke again, there was relief in his voice. "M-maybe. That f-feels – close. Not exactly, b-but close." He may have been relieved, but he didn't sound reassured.

"Mmm,"Jason said, being unable to think of any words. The fact that he even noticed Jeremy's stutter meant the boy was emotional. That was troubling.

And then they were waking up for breakfast.

Josh joined them while they were eating. "No school today?" he asked Jeremy.

Jeremy looked at Jason, who waited, as Josh did, for Jeremy's answer.

"Nuh-uh," Jeremy finally said, after studying Jason's expression.

"Any particular reason?" Josh asked.

"It just f-feels funny. Everybody that ain't there."

"That's only three, and whats-his-name will probably be back."

Jeremy shook his head."No, his da put him to work. There's only me."

"It's just a few more weeks."

"If you're too uncomfortable, Jeremy, you needn't go back."

Jeremy shook his head. "No, Jason. I s-said I'd d-do it and I w-will. Then I'll never have to do it anym-more. Right?"

Jason smiled. "Right. Good for you. We've plenty enough work for all of us. We'll be working on what we felled yesterday, then head into town at dark." Jason shook his head at a sudden spatter of rain. "I hope we get more breaks in the weather today. Working's risky enough. Working in the wet is worse. Working in rain gear in the downpours – there are no words for that."

"And yet, here you are, finding them," Josh observed, surprising a laugh from both his brothers.

Jason watched Jeremy closely throughout the day. He had to give the boy a lot of credit. He worked slowly at first, some times clumsily, but he stayed with it. He didn't complain, he just did as he was told. One could almost see the shoulders and arms gathering strength and taking shape. (Of course, some of that could be the persistent but more-than-light rain.)

Already the trousers he'd brought Jeremy from Frisco back in January could do with being let down. Damn, what, three months? Four? Hard to believe. Incredible.

Jason shook his head. What in the world would he do with no child brother?

Except, he reminded himself wryly, in the dead of night consumed with curiosity or frightened by nightmares. The child was definitely around then – the child in both of them.

Since the days were short, there was no lunch break,the men took breaks when they needed. That was simple enough with the small crew they had working this season, but could be a problem with larger crews. That, however, was a problem for another time.

Jason finally managed to take a break at the same time as Josh, and asked him about 'his side of the story.'

"Why, what did he tell you?"

"That you said he needed exercise so he'd sleep at night."

"I didn't expect the little freak to take off for the mountain just before the gloaming!"

Jason frowned. "Joshua, don't –" call Jeremy a freak, he was going to say, but Josh cut him off.

"I only said that to you; don't yell at me. He's just so frustrating sometimes!"

"Hmm. He said he had no quarrel with you."

"I doubt that's what he said. Yeah, we didn't rattle any windows. He's been kicking and making noise moving around when he sleeps. That's fine: I can live with that. But when he starts squeaking, I wake him up. I can't stand that! So I wake him up. Then he yells at me that he can't sleep with me waking him up!"

Jason chuckled at that. Yeah, that was something Jeremy would do. "What did you say to that?"

"I told him to quit squeaking like a screaming mouse and running away when he's sleeping. You don't wanna know what he said to that, I'm telling you! SUCH language!" Josh's eyes were dancing, and Jason had to laugh again.

There was a burst of profanity from the crew at that moment, and Josh and Jason shared a boisterous laugh.

"Can't imagine where he'd learn that, unless you're teaching him," Jason teased, looking over at the workers to be sure nothing had gone terribly wrong.

"As if I'd dare! Sometimes I still look around for Da to overhear me before I even mutter damn or hell."

"So do I," Jason agreed. "But that didn't stop either of us from trying it out when we knew for certain he was nowhere around. Sometimes it's satisfying."

"I'm still not tattling about it, though."

"Good for you." Between the three of them, any two rarely 'tattled' on the other. It was, Jason mused, a part of their brotherhood. "He mentioned his monster last night."

"Oh."

"Exactly." Jason finished his coffee and returned to the job at hand.