When Jamie woke up, he was warm and dry. He was also in a brightly-lit room and a narrow bed, not on a dusty floor in a house with no electricity. Nearby, he could hear the reassuring beep of a heart rate monitor instead of the constant boom of thunder, and the only scent was antiseptic and his father’s distinct aftershave, rather than ancient dust bunnies and recent sex.

Something sticky had attached itself to his skin,. It itched, but he found it was attached to a wire. It was probably a sensor for the heart-rate monitor.

He opejed his eyes and wished he hadn’t. His head ached badly, and his stomach gave a lurch from the sudden addition of bright light. Part of him understood this probably meant he had a head injury. The rest of him just hurt.

Once his vision cleared, the could push his pain to the side. Phil was there, as was only appropriate in a hospital. Lincoln was there too, but Jamie had already figured that part out.

Ryan was right by Jamie’s side, and Anthony next to him. How anyone had convinced Anthony to leave Marissa behind was anyone’s guess. Even Liam was there, eating a container of what looked like hospital pudding.

“Hey,” he said with a grin that only worsened the pain in his head. “You came and got me.” He had no idea how his family had known where he was, but he appreciated the rescue all the same.

“Er, not so much.” Ryan smirked. “We totally would have, you know, if we’d had the first clue where the hell you were. But as it happens, Morgan Patrick brought you down. He had to boost your ride to do it, which is a very interesting skill set I didn’t know he had. Remind me to take that up with him later.”

Jamie hadn’t known Morgan could steal cars either. Why wouldn’t he just do that, instead of hiding up in abandoned houses with no running water? He rubbed at his skull. “What happened?” he asked, not taking up Morgan’s apparent life of crime. “My head is killing me.”

“According to Mr. Patrick, there was an incident at the house up on Culver Mountain. You’d taken shelter in the abandoned house up there, but you tried to get outside and let us know where you were.”

Lincoln scratched his head. “What anyone would be doing at the old dump is a mystery. The house is basically useless. Can’t put water, sewer, or even a septic system up there because of the old mines. I hope you didn’t drink any groundwater.”

“Focus, Dad,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, Morgan said while you were trying to call us, like a responsible human being, lightning hit a tree and sent a branch toward you. He says you hit your head when you got out of the way.”

Jamie looked down. Now, with his brother’s words to prompt him, he remembered what had happened. He could smell the burning branch, if he let himself.

“No,” he said, squirming. “Morgan tackled me, to get me out of the way. He saved my life.”

“And caused your head injury.” Liam licked the plastic spoon he was using to eat the hospital pudding.

Phil swatted Liam on the back of his head. “It’s not anything serious. He’ll be fine in a day. If that branch had hit him, we’d be talking about a different story. If Morgan hadn’t bandaged the cut with his own shirt, and gotten Jamie down the mountain by himself, we’d be talking about a very different scenario.” He smiled softly at Jamie. “We did a full CT scan. You’ll seriously be fine by tomorrow.”

“They saved your one brain cell,” Liam told him with a little smirk. Jamie flipped him off.

“Boys,” Lincoln said, smiling faintly.

Jamie looked up at Phil. “Is Morgan okay?" His stomach roiled. He didn’t know if it was from the concussion, or fear about Morgan’s health.

“Oh it’s Morgan now,” Liam teased. He pressed a hand against his chest and pretended to swoon. “My hero.” He fluttered his eyelashes. “Remember when he snaked that internship out from under you?”

Jamie glowered at his brother. Lincoln also glared at Liam, although Jamie had to believe it was for different reasons. “That was years ago,” Jamie told him. “We’ve discussed it.

“Phil, just tell me. I mean, if Morgan brought me in, he must have carried me half a mile down that mountain, with no shirt…”

Phil bowed his head. “You were both a little hypothermic,” he admitted. “Morgan more than you, because he had you bundled up pretty good when he brought you in. We admitted him for observation, and he’s responding well to treatment.” He frowned deeply. “What was he doing up at that house, anyway?”

Jamie didn’t answer. He wasn’t ashamed of dating, sleeping with, or loving a homeless man, especially since he had every intention of offering him a home if his family didn’t. He just knew Morgan had a lot of pride, even now.

If Morgan wanted them to know, it was Morgan’s story to tell. All Jamie cared about was making sure Morgan was okay.

He fought to get out of the bed, but Ryan held him down with one arm. “Dude, you’ve got a gash the size of the Grand Canyon in your noggin. Stay put, would you?”

“I have to see him,” he said, fighting back tears. Since when was he the kind of guy who sat around and got weepy? It had to be the head injury, because Roscoes didn’t cry. “Where is he? The guy saved my life, you can at least let me go and thank him, right?”

Lincoln watched him carefully, a contemplative frown on his face. “Is something going on there?” he asked, his tone deceptively mild.

Jamie froze. His heart rate monitor was going wild, but he didn’t dare move a muscle. Neither did anyone else.

Ryan’s arm, which had been restraining him, now became a source of support. Jamie knew exactly what his father meant by that, and so did Ryan. So did Phil, who put a hand on Jamie’s shoulder.

“No,” Jamie lied. Then he took a deep breath. He hated himself for that lie, even more than he hated the scars on his back or the drunken idiocy that had put them there.

“Maybe,” he corrected. “Would it be a problem?” He held his head high, and Ryan gave him an approving little nod.

Jamie basked in that approving little nod.

Liam sat up a little straighter, pulling back from his pudding cup. “I’ve missed a lot in the past few weeks,” he said. “This deal with Valor is killing me. I have got to get out of the office more often.”

Lincoln paced the length of the room and walked over to the window. Weak light streamed over his face. Only now did Jamie realize it was still raining outside.

“I’m a big fan of my kids making their own choices,” he said finally. “I mean, you’re all smart, and you’re all strong. Ryan couldn’t have made a better choice when he and Anthony got together, for example — either for him, or for the family, and it’s not like we would have gone out and chosen Anthony for him out of a lineup.

“But Morgan Patrick. That’s an … interesting decision.” Lincoln scratched at his chin and looked back at Jamie, away from the window. “He had some interesting morals in his younger years, that’s for certain.”

Liam looked up. “Well, there’s the time he undercut us for the Randall Hills development.” He started counting off on his fingers. “And the time he hired Betheny Ruiz right out from under us. And the time he told the board of selectmen in Reno we were hiring illegal immigrants at well below minimum wage. And the time we caught him moving stakes on the Diamond Links Golf Club project.”

Jamie glowered. “Each and every one of those was at his father’s orders. Most of it is pretty sleazy, sure, but we’ve all done stuff under Mom or Dad’s orders we didn’t necessarily understand at the time.”

Ryan cleared his throat.

“Except for Ryan,” Jamie hastened to add. Ryan had never followed anyone else’s orders in his life. “And while ratting us out to the selectmen was a shitty thing to do, we were hiring illegal immigrants at exploitive wages on that project. And as soon as we found out our new contractor was doing it, we ended the contract and hired people at a living wage, like we usually do. He should have come to us and told us, but he was trying to do business like his father does. He was trying to get his father’s approval.”

“Nothing’s worth losing your soul for,” Ryan pointed out. “Not even your parents.”

“He knows that now.” Jamie glared again. “They’re estranged, completely. They kind of hate each other now.”

A little part of him screamed at the rest of him, deep inside his head. This was too much information to give, too much of Morgan’s story for someone who wasn’t Morgan to tell.

What could he do, though? He had to say something. Otherwise, his ability to help Morgan and give him a job would be pretty slim indeed.

Lincoln’s eyes widened. “Really? How long?”

“Two years.” Jamie pressed his lips together. “The rest isn’t mine to tell. It’s all him. But believe me, Morgan and his dad aren’t going to have anything to do with one another. Okay?”

Lincoln tugged at his collar. “Well, shit.” He hung his head and grimaced sheepishly.

Ryan turned to their dad. “What?”

Jamie’s stomach sank. “What’s wrong, Dad?”

“Well, I mean you were both out cold. I didn’t know. All I knew was he’d saved my son’s life, right? I figured I could put our differences aside for family. I called his father. I left a message with his secretary, about him being here in the hospital. He’s probably here by now.”

Anthony got the emesis basin to Jamie just in time. “Well, shit,” Liam said, summing up Jamie’s feelings perfectly.