Someone had him by the shoulders and was shaking him ferociously.

"Jason, Jason, w-wake up. Wake up. I n-need you to w-wake up."

Jeremy, and he was whispering urgently.

"What is it? Are you alright? Has something happened?" Jason sat up.

"I needta t-talk t-to you."

"About what?" Jason shook his head slightly. Jeremy didn't appear injured in any way. There was no commotion from the rest of the camp. If everyone wasn't sleeping, they were being very quiet. Even Josh appeared to be asleep, although Jason wouldn't have bet on that. After all this time, they didn't wake at the normal comings and goings of one another, but this wasn't normal. "What is it, Jeremy?" Jason asked again, this time lowering his voice.

"I got scared." Jeremy stood there, shivering and pale.

Jason pulled the boy onto the cot beside him and wrapped his blanket around them both. His brother was cold. "Of what? Did you hear a bear or a bobcat?" Unlikely they'd come into the camp, but this time of year they could be more hungry than cautious.

Jeremy shook his head.

"Alright." Jason waited. When Jeremy finally warmed up a little and stopped shaking, he asked, "Did you have one of your bad dreams?"

Jeremy shook his head and said 'yes', then nodded his head and said 'no.'

"Well, make up your mind," Jason teased gently, rubbing Jeremy's arm with the blanket.

Jeremy ran his hands on Jason's face, feeling the curves of the bones, the texture of his skin, and ran a finger down his nose and across the ridges beneath his eyebrows. He sighed and tucked his head against Jason's neck. "I jus' n-needed you," he murmured.

"I'm here."

"And you're really you." Jeremy patted his brother's cheek. "I'm so glad."

He yawned. He was going to sleep. He patted Jason's cheek again. "Don' leg-go o' m-me."

"I won't." He probably wouldn't be getting any more sleep tonight. More than one of them just didn't fit in the same bed anymore, especially the beds here at the camp. Oh well. He made Jeremy comfortable and himself uncomfortable, and dozed off and on until Jeremy woke up enough to go back to his own bed, probably embarrassed at where he found himself.

Being a boy-into-man was a hard row to hoe. He'd been there and he'd brought one brother through the worst of it (he hoped); he could do it again. (He hoped.)

When Jeremy went to get his breakfast in the morning, he barely glanced at Jason before hurrying off.
"What was that about last night?" Josh asked, once Jeremy was out of hearing. "Once you woke up, I went back to sleep."

"So did he."

Josh laughed.

"Told me not to let go of him, then got up and left me. I wasn't sure what to do about that. I let him go. Figured he knew where to find me." Jason yawned. "Did you notice anything before he started waking me?"

Josh shook his head, swallowing the last of his coffee, and passing Jeremy on his way back as he went for a refill.

While eating, as usual, they discussed the work for the day ahead. Would they do two teams, or three? They were about ready to start cutting, but there was an appreciable amount of pre-work to still be done. It was a lively discussion, finally resolved by a vote instead of mutual agreement. They would be three, each brother with a different crew. Jeremy, of course, would go with the more experienced men, like Big Swede and Big Jack. Jeremy's had been the deciding vote.

Jason was not happy, as he had wanted to keep an eye on the boy, but the vote had been his idea. Not just that day, but since they had started working together as a unit. There was that same growing up issue again. This time he wasn't in favor of it, or it wasn't in favor of him; whichever it was (or wasn't.)

Josh wanted to laugh at the expressions crossing Jason's face, but decided against it. He got his crew together and headed for their assignment.

The crew Jeremy was with had already left.

Jason stood staring that direction with a frown, until one of his men asked if he wanted them to start without him. "What? Oh. No, let's get started." Shouldering his axe, rope and handsaw on his belt, he strode off to their work site.

1029

When Jason made his rounds after lunch, Josh's crew was just finishing their lunch. The work was on schedule.

Jeremy's crew was just starting their break. Big Swede and Big Jack were conferring in one place, under a tree. Jeremy was sitting by himself, and the other three men were eating and talking.

"How's it going, Jeremy?" Jason squatted beside his youngest brother.

Jeremy shrugged, and stuffed his mouth full of bread so he wouldn't have to talk.

"That bad, huh?"

Jeremy choked, laughing.

"That's better. What's the problem?"
"That Billy B-billy boy. He don't l-like me t-teaching him."

"Billy Bilby. You're the best match with him in size and strength. That's why I paired you with him."

"Uh-huh. I'm sm-maller and y-younger, and he d-don't like neither."

"I see. Do you want to swap out? Work with one of the others?"

"Yeah, but I'm not g-going to."

Jason laughed. "Good for you. Are Swede and Jack aware?"

"Uh-huh. And now he th-thinks I'm a t-tattletale or a c-cryb-baby. As w-well as not able to t-talk."

"I see. Are you going to be able to handle that? I can trade you out for one of my crew."

"And b-be a tattler to m-my b-big b-brother b-bossman as well as the f-foremen I'm w-working for?"

"Bad idea, huh?"

"Bad idea. B-besides, you j-just wanna k-keep an eye on m-me, because you got a headache from n-not sleeping and you're worried about me." Jeremy grinned at him.

"Saucy," Jason reproved, touching Jeremy's face. "Is that so bad of me?"

Jeremy sent him one of his sidelong looks. "It's just you, that's all."

"Thanks for that. Here comes Swede." Jason raised his voice a little. "Are you on schedule?"

Jeremy shrugged. "C-close enough."

"Do you agree?" Jason asked his foreman as they walked away together.

Jeremy felt Billy-Billy staring at him and ignored him as hard as he could. He hoped to avoid problems, but he didn't think he'd be able to. But Jason didn't need to worry about that; not yet, anyway.

He watched thoughtfully as Jason spoke to all the others, including Billy-billy, before heading back to his own crew. In his mind, he reviewed the ways Jason had told him to keep calm, and he remembered seeing Jason struggle to keep his own temper in check when challenged.

It could be done.

For a while, anyway.

Jeremy would have been as surprised as Jason to know they were both thinking the same thoughts.

6758

As the sun sank lower, the wind changed, blowing in from the north. The clouds that had been held back all day by the southern wind began to wander their way, slowly, but with a chill.

Swede and Jack told the men to finish up what they were working on and head in.

Jeremy and Bilby were trimming branches with hand tools. Jeremy was trimming neatly, and Bilby was reckless, sometimes gouging into the trunk. That was bad, and Jeremy coached him to be more careful, and tried to correct the damage where he could.

Bilby didn't like being corrected. He knew what he was doing, he said. He'd worked on several jobs like this. He had EXPERIENCE.

"Th-this is how WE w-want it d-done." Privately, Jeremy thought that if he'd had several employers, he probably wasn't working to suit any of them, which explained why he was never hired for a second season.

The other members of the work crew were gathered waiting for these two to finish their share of the work. They had been going to step in and help them, but hesitated when they heard the anger in Bilby's voice.

"Besides, nobody in hell cares about the branches." Bilby threw a branch over his shoulder. "Look at you, fussing around sorting them out according to size, when they ain't nothin' you could build with. Foolishness."

Jack and Swede exchanged looks, and signalled for the other men to go on without them.

"We do it this way," Jeremy said firmly. "We use every b-bit of the tree that we c-can. You may not b-be able to b-build houses or ships from b-branches, but they can be m-made into sh-shelves or p-pictures frames and s-such. Small th-things."

"Tis a waste of time!"

At Bilby's shout, the men broke into a trot.

"T-time that we are p-paying you for." Jeremy was getting irritated, but forced himself to remain calm. Bilby might not like it, but Jeremy was one of his bosses.

And Jeremy wasn't going to put up with nonsense any more than he had to do.

He wondered what Jason would do. Huh. No guess about that. Jason would tell Bilby to do it our way or leave; it was up to him. Jeremy didn't think he had the authority to do that; although if he did do it, he was pretty sure his brothers would back him up.

After a lot of talking about all the reasons why and the ways how, and Jeremy didn't really want to talk that much, not even to Jason.

"C-c'mon, B-bilb-by, just f-finish up. We c-can be d-done in f-five m-minutes, easy." Jeremy started to get back to the work.

"And I'll be DAMNED," Bilby shouted, "if I'm going to take orders from an imbecile who can't – even – talk." He threw his hatchet at Jeremy.

Jeremy, having half-turned away, saw the movement in time to raise his own tool and deflect the blow. He tossed his in the same direction as the other had gone and turned to face the man who was already rushing him.

Big Jack stepped in and collected the hatchets so that they couldn't be used in what was coming.

Jason, followed by eight or ten men, strode into the area, and stopped abruptly. The battle was already well underway, in the half dozen steps it had taken from the time he'd heard the shouting.

"You couldn't stop this?" he snapped at Big Swede, who shook his head.

Jason stepped forward.

Swede put his hand on Jason's arm. "Let them be. Has been coming all week."

Jason crossed his arms, watching the fight. It was an uneven match, with the other man being taller and older than his brother, but Jeremy was holding his own well enough. "So it has."

"The boy had cause."

"I heard it."

Joshua came running up to them, took one look and started for the brawlers.

Jason put out a hand and stopped him.

"Why aren't you stopping this?"

"Would you thank me for stopping you from fighting with a man who called you an imbecile?" Jason grabbed Josh's arm as he again moved toward the fight.

"I'll kill him!"

"You will not. It's Jeremy's place. Have we enough cash to pay Bilby off?"

"You're just going to let him get away with that?"

"Does it look like he's getting away with anything?"

Bilby was again rushing Jeremy, and Jeremy stepped in his path, lowered his head, and ran at him.

The resulting headbutt knocked Bilby backwards, and out.

Jeremy stood shaking his head, fists at the ready.

Jason gestured at the men. "Get him up," he instructed them, and they yanked Bilby to his feet and dragged him to stand before Jason.

"Take him into town," Jason told them, curtly, without looking at the man. He passed him without acknowledgement and headed for Jeremy, who was looking around, bewildered. Where had all these people come from.

"You heard the boss," Josh told the men, who loudly hustled the loser away.

Josh joined his brothers. Good job," he said to Jeremy, clapping him on the shoulder, then putting his hands up, palms outward, as Jeremy jerked his fists his way.

Josh laughed.

"Oh," Jeremy said, looking confused. He looked up at Jason. "Is it over?"

"For now," Jason answered, crouching down to examine Jeremy. Bloody and bruised, but not actively bleeding. All his limbs seemed to be intact, and his eyes were clearing up.

"Where'd he go?"

"He's going to jail." Jason took in a breath and his eyes twinkled, "and our men are going to be painting the town red tonight with their stories, no doubt."

"If they celebrate on our money, we won't have enough to pay Bilby off," Josh said.

"Poor man, he'll have to sit in jail then, won't he?"