Disclaimer: I do not own Jericho or any of its characters. Only my ideas and new characters.

Important information:

This is my own version of the episode "Heart of Winter". I changed Jake's time away from how the show had it and made up my own version of his time away. If you don't like how I changed the episode I'm sorry like i said this is my own version. Please leave a review if you did or didn't like the story.

Chapter 1

2 months after the bombs. . .

Jake walked out of the court house headed for Bailey's to get a drink. He wasn't sure what he had been drinking it tasted terrible but it did the job and so as long as Bailey kept making it he would keep drinking it. He pushed opened the door and found Eric and Stanley sitting at the bar.

"Hey" Jake mumbled and sat down between Eric and Stanley. He nodded at Mary who was cleaning glasses and she sat a glass down in front of him and poured him a drink.

"You look like shit" Stanley said laughing. Jake couldn't blame him considering he probably did look terrible. He had been up almost all night on perimeter one of his other guys had just replaced him and after he left Bailey's he would be heading home to get some sleep.

"Thanks"

"You been up drinking all night?" His brother Eric asked. Even though it had been 2 months since the bombs had gone off and everything had changed his brother still thought of him as the black sheep of the family the one that always screwed up. And while he had do nothing but prove that he was still the same rebel teenager that left five years ago Eric kept waiting for him to slip up. He knew he couldn't blame Eric for thinking this but he still wished that they could be closer like they once were when they were kids running around playing in the basement of the courthouse.

"No I had perimeter duty last night. I'm about to head home to crash Stanley and I are going out this evening to see if there are any game left to hunt." Jake didn't wait around for his brother reaction on him being wrong he just downed his drink and stood up.

"Thanks Mary for the drink" he patted Stanley on the back and headed for the door

"See you later Jake!" Stanley yelled after him. Jake waved his hand in acknowledgment to what Stanley had said. Stanley watched as Jake walked out the door and then turned to Eric.

"You should really lightened up on your brother, Eric. He has changed, he isn't the same as he was when he left. Everyone can see that surely you can too." Stanley watched Eric as he stared into his drink.

"I know I can see it. He is completely different it's just you weren't there with my parents when he left. They were devastated and broken they had no idea what to do. At first they thought he would come back soon but as each day passed you could see it in their eyes and faces they knew he wasn't coming back. Each time I called the phone I had to specify that it was me and not Jake because we sound so alike on the phone you can't tell the difference. And then he comes back all of a sudden and just like that everything he did is forgotten so screw me for not forgetting so easily." Eric sighed and chugged the rest of his drink.

"No one is asking you to forget Eric but with everything going and the threat of dying at any minute hanging over everyone's head they are just choosing to ignore the bad. Because they don't want that to be the last memories they have of your brother. Can you really blame them for that?" Stanley countered.

Eric sat there staring into his glass thinking about what Stanley had said to him. He could understand why his parents had done that sometimes he wanted to do that too. But it was too hard when he didn't know where Jake had been for five years. The guy disappears and then suddenly reappears five years later not saying we're he had been all that time and he was supposed to just let that go? Eric was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Stanley getting up and leaving him to brew on his words.

Stanley walked across the street to his trucked to head back to his farm and get Mimi ready to go hunting with him later. He knew that it wasn't Mimi's type of thing but he needed to know that if something happened to him she would be taken care of so if he had to drag her out there he would. His only reservations were that the roads were sketchy at best and anything could happen he only hoped nothing will happen otherwise he would never hear the end of it from Mimi.