Jayne was not particularly fond of kids. Kids were stressful to be around. You had to behave all the time, constantly mind your tongue and manners – and you couldn't punch them when they annoyed you. And the worst type of kids were the ones who stared or asked stupid questions – and Jayne found out soon enough that his nephew Finnegan did both.

He'd returned to the house that morning with his parents, and this time around he'd gotten over the initial fear pretty fast and started following Jayne around wherever he went. Not even throwing him angry glares did the trick; he backed off a little each time, but always came back.

His sister's kid.

It felt weird. When Jayne had landed here two days ago, the Jude he'd remembered had still been a skinny, little girl in ponytails sitting on the porch throwing her dolls a tea party. And here she was, a woman – grown and married. To Fergus, the freckled little kid who lived down the lane and always told on him and Jo when they'd been out doing their shenanigans.

A wave of realization and another indefinable emotion suddenly washed over him. Fergus wasn't that little freckled kid anymore, and Jude didn't have ponytails, and he didn't really know much about any of them. Jo had been right about that.

"Are you a pirate?" The boy suddenly spoke to him.

Jayne glared at him. "A pirate?" he spat. "No, I'm no pirate! Why'd you think that?"

"You look like one."

"Oh yeah? What does a pirate look like?"

"Like you."

Jayne's narrowed his eyes even more, hoping it would scare the boy away again.

It didn't.

"Then what are you?"

Ok, different tactic. He looked away, pretending to be busy. "I'm nuthin'," he muttered.

"You can't be nothing. Nobody can't be nothing."

Jayne huffed and glanced at him. "I ain't gonna tell you, kid."

"Why not?"

"'Cause if I do i