Author's Notes: No notes.

Part 2 - Moving In

        Taking his thumb out of his mouth, Daniel climbed down from the couch and went over to Jack; since his brother wasn't talking, he decided that he should go first.  Sticking out his hand like he'd seen the adults do, he said, "Pleased to meet you, Jack."
        Jack looked down at the little person in front of him.  The formality, especially when one considered that the kid was still holding his teddy bear, looked ridiculous.  But Jack responded in kind, crouching down to shake Daniel's hand.  "Pleased to meet you, Daniel."
        "I'm four," Daniel announced.
        Jack had the feeling he was supposed to be impressed by that so he said, "Wow, that's old."
        Daniel shook his head.  "No, it's not."  He could count up to one hundred, so he knew that four was a pretty small number.  
        "Right, it's not."  Don't tell me this kid is smart, Jack thought.  That was all he needed - a brother that was smarter than him.  "Do you want to see your bedroom?"
        "Okay,"  Daniel agreed.
        Jack took Daniel to the spare bedroom, which had now been converted into a kid's bedroom.  It was still very plain, mainly beige and white, but at least Jack had been able to get a single bed quickly as the double was way too large for a four-year-old.  Besides, he wasn't planning on keeping the kid so there was no point in doing up the room, was there?  Jack put the suitcase on the double bed, ready to be unpacked later, then turned to Daniel.  The kid's thumb was back in his mouth.  "What?  Don't you like it?"
        "There's no cuw-wers," Daniel commented, thumb in his mouth.  He was used to living in tents on digs and having lots of bright fabric around him.
        Cuw-wers?  Jack realised he was going to have to learn kid-speak pretty quickly.  He crouched down in front of Daniel and gently pulled the thumb out of his mouth.  "Rule number one: don't speak with your thumb or any other finger in your mouth.  Now - there are no what?"
        "Colours," Daniel replied, the word more distinct this time.
        "Oh, right.  Colours," Jack repeated.  "Well, I haven't had a lot of time to get things organised, you know."
        "Can we make it coloured?" Daniel asked, not sure how the suggestion would go over.  He had a nice rug in his suitcase that would be perfect.
        "Paint it?"  Jack sighed.  "Sure we can.  But not today."  He wondered whether Daniel would forget all about it by tomorrow - that way, he wouldn't have to spend any more money than he had to, nor would he have to change it back when the kid left.
        "Okay."  Daniel accepted that.  Now something else was on his mind.  "Jack?"  He tugged on his brother's arm.
        Now what?  "Yeah?"
        "I need to go."
        Jack was puzzled for a second.  "Where do you need to go?"  Then it hit him.  "Oh.  Right.  Uh, come with me."  Jack led Daniel next door to the bathroom.  The kid went over to the toilet but quickly found he wasn't tall enough to use it.  Jack resigned himself to getting some steps or something tomorrow as he came forward and lifted Daniel up to stand on the seat, taking the teddy bear from him at the same time.  
        Giggling at being up so high, Daniel aimed and for the most part, didn't miss the bowl.  Then he tucked himself in and pointed to the basin nearby.  Jack lifted him up there too and Daniel washed his hands thoroughly the way he had been taught.  "Thank you," he said, wanting to be put down now.  When Jack put him on the floor, he went over and dried his hands on a nearby towel.  "Can I unpack?"
        "Sure, why not?"  Jack was glad that the kid was making suggestions.  The only ideas for activities that had popped into his mind was television, colouring, and running around the backyard.
        Daniel grabbed his teddy bear again and headed into his bedroom.  The double bed was higher than he was used to though, and he got stuck while trying to climb onto it.  "Jack!"
        Jack had just cleaned up the mess that the kid had made when Daniel yelled his name.  Entering the room to see Daniel frantically kicking his legs, half on and half off the bed, almost made Jack smile.  He went over and helped Daniel the rest of the way, then unzipped the suitcase for the kid.
        "Thank you."  Daniel happily dug into his suitcase, pulling out all his clothes and placing them haphazardly on the bed.  Then he took out his journal in which his mother was teaching him to write both the English alphabet and Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and placed it carefully away from the clothes.  
        Jack looked at the leather covered book.  "What's that?" he asked.
        "The al-pha-bet book."  When Jack went to pick it up, Daniel moved it away and said, "Uh-uh. Mommy made it for me."  It was very special to him and he didn't want anyone else looking at it.
        "O-kay."  Jack didn't push it.  "How about I put your clothes away?"  He didn't really think he could trust Daniel to do it.  When Daniel agreed, Jack put most of the clothes in the small dresser - in the lower drawers - and the remainder in the wardrobe.  The shoes, of which there were only a few pairs of sneakers while the rest were sandals, went in the bottom of the wardrobe.  He did notice that most of the clothes were designed for summer.  "Daniel, where's your winter clothes? You know, stuff to keep you warm?" he continued when the kid looked quizzically at him.
        Daniel delved into his suitcase and got out a brightly coloured blanket.  "Mommy always wrapped me in this at night.  It was too hot in the day."
        Something wasn't adding up; however knowing that his mother had married an archaeologist made Jack think that Daniel maybe hadn't spent much time in cold countries.  "Daniel, where have you been living?"
        "Egypt," Daniel said happily.  He had liked living there lots and lots.  "But we had to come here for Daddy's ex-hib-ti-shon."  That had been really fun too.  It had been soon after that, though, that Daniel had been told that his parents had gone away on another trip.  His lower lip trembled; they hadn't even told him themselves.  They had just kissed him goodbye and then got in the car, leaving him with a babysitter.  And they hadn't come home.
        "What is it, what's wrong?" Jack asked, hoping that the kid wasn't about to cry.  What would he do with a crying kid?
        "They didn't tell me they were going," Daniel stated, rubbing his eyes and sniffing.  "They didn't come home like they said."  Tears filled his eyes and he sniffed again.
        Alarmed, Jack quickly sat down beside his brother and awkwardly patted him on the back.  "I'm sure they had their reasons."
        Daniel snuggled up against his brother's side, the tears starting to overflow.  "I wanna go home."
        "I know, kid, I know."  What should he do know?  Inspiration struck.  "Think of this as an adventure, like going to Egypt.  You can do that, can't you?"
        Daniel stuck his thumb in his mouth as he contemplated that idea.  An adventure?  He liked adventures.  "Uh-huh."  This was going to be an adventure.
        "Great."  Relieved, Jack gave Daniel one more awkward pat before pulling away.  "We'd better get the rest of your stuff unpacked then you can go... play or something."  Jack didn't have any idea what four-year-olds enjoyed doing.  
        "Okay."  As if the tears had never been, but still a bit sniffly, Daniel dug back into his suitcase, removing a few books, some photos, some pottery shards, and a thin multi-coloured rug that was as big as he was.  Holding onto the rug, he slid off the bed and put it on the floor in the middle of the room.  Much better, he thought.  "Jack?"
        "What?  Oh, very nice," Jack said as he spied the rug.  
        The corners of Daniel's mouth turned down at Jack's insincere tone.  "Don't you like it?"
        "It's... great, I swear."  When Jack saw the unhappy expression, he crouched down in front of the kid and looked him in the eye.  "Really."  He didn't want a repeat of the tears; a distraction was needed.  "Where do you want the books to go?"
        Daniel looked around the room, taking his time to seriously think about it.  He wanted the books easily accessible so there was only one place to put them, except that the bedside table was next to the double bed.  He pointed to it and said, "Can we shift it?"
        "Sure."  Jack lifted the table and put it beside the single bed.  "Is that okay?"
        "Yep."  Daniel went over to the big bed and, because he had put the books near the edge, was able to retrieve them and then carry them over to put on the table.  Perfect.  Unfortunately, there were no shelves for the rest of his things so they would have to go on top of the dresser.  "Can the other stuff go up there?" he asked, pointing.
        Jack gathered up the rest of Daniel's belongings and put them on the dresser.  "How about that?"
        Daniel nodded, happy with the decision.  "Thank you, Jack."  He retrieved his teddy from the bed and surveyed the room.  It would be okay but definitely needed some more colours.      "So... what do you want to do now?" Jack asked.
        "Can I do some writing?"
        "Why not?"  Writing at the age of four - yep, this kid was definitely smarter than him.
        Daniel retrieved his alphabet book and a packet of thick pencils, then followed Jack out to the living room.  Lying down on the carpet, Daniel started working while Jack sat on the couch and turned the television on to a hockey game.