Lily points out that Gabriel cries so loudly that even Jonas will awaken, Father agrees to "...try it, just for tonight."

When Gabriel awakens in the middle of the night, Jonas hears him and goes to his crib. He is able to get the baby back to sleep by rubbing his back. However, Gabriel continues to stir and awaken throughout the night; so, Jonas continues his rubbing of the infant's back to get Gabriel to fall asleep. One time, as he stands quietly beside the crib, Jonas's memory is stirred, and he recalls a memory shared with him by the Giver:

...a bright, breezy day on a clear turquoise lake, and above him the white sail of the boat billowing as he moved along in the brisk wind.

Then, as Jonas recalls this memory, he feels it slide through the hand he has on the back of the baby. Startled, he quickly removes his hand, retrieving what he has left of the memory. But now, the baby sleeps well. When he stirs near dawn, Jonas impulsively decides to give Gabriel the remainder of the memory by placing his hand once more on the baby's back.

By giving Gabriel a memory, Jonas has taken a personal action for which he has no authority:

He was not yet qualified to be a Giver himself, nor had Gabriel been selected to be Receiver.

Frightened by his new power, Jonas decides to keep his act of sharing his memory with Gabriel a secret. There is also in Jonas a burgeoning feeling of anxiety about the conditions that exist in his society. For, he wonders about Elsewhere and how easily his parents speak of this place where Gabriel may be sent. Also, Jonas is concerned about the fact that his father mentions so dispassionately that if Gabriel is released, there is another set of twins due to be born very soon. When his father will be the one to select which one will live in the community and which one will be released, Jonas feels uneasiness, as well as wondering where these human beings all go.

The Nurturing Center gives babies labels before determining them unfit and ready for release. After Father applies for the baby to get an extension, they label him Uncertain. The two criteria that Gabriel must meet in order to be placed with a family and not released are to gain the specified weight for his age and sleep through the night. If Gabriel is not sleeping through the night at the end of a year, then he will fail the trial period and be released. This is why Jonas and his father are concerned with Gabriel—because he hasn't been thriving at their home as they had hoped, and his life depends on beginning to do so.

One night in chapter 14, in an effort to comfort Gabriel, Jonas rubs the baby's back to calm him down and accidentally transfers a memory of a beautiful white sailboat floating on a clear lake. Before he could stop himself, the memory was shared and Gabriel became quiet. After Jonas discovers the secret to calming Gabe down, he transfers other memories to him. Hence, Jonas tries to solve Gabe's problems by giving happy and peaceful memories.

In chapter 14, Jonas's father complains about Gabriel's inability to sleep and constant fretfulness during the night. Jonas's father begins to worry that Gabriel will be released if he does not meet his developmental milestones and start to sleep peacefully like the other babies. Fortunately, Jonas volunteers to care for Gabriel during the night and pacify him when he becomes restless. That night, Gabriel becomes restless and begins to cry, which wakes Jonas from his sleep. Jonas proceeds to take Gabriel from his crib and rhythmically pat him on his back to calm his spirits. Jonas instinctually begins to think of a calming memory he had received from the Giver. As Jonas remembers a sail on smooth waters during a slightly breezy day, he successfully transfers the memory to Gabriel, who becomes quiet and falls back asleep. Like Jonas, Gabriel also has pale eyes and can receive memories.

They are worried about Gabe's problems because if he keeps having them, he will not be able to get placed with a family.  No family will want to put up with that.  In that case, Gabe will just get released because he can't be placed with a family.

Jonas solves the problem by becoming something of a Giver himself.  He starts to give Gabe some soothing memories to lull him to sleep.  He knows that he is not really supposed to do that, but he can't help it -- he does not want Gabe to be released.

Jonas and his father were worried about Gabe's fretfulness at night because it was an indication that he was not developing at the rate that was expected and could result in release.

Jonas lives in a world like ours, but not like ours.  Children come from birthmothers and are given to mother and father teams after an application process more similar to a job interview than adoption.  Jonas's father is a little different.  He had the ingenuity and emotion to ask to bring a baby home when it wasn't developing at the rate of the others.  He thought "extra nurturing" in a family environment would give the newchild what he needed.

Jonas's father unknowingly sets off a chain of events that alters the entire course of the book, and the community.  This is because Jonas and the boy have a connection.  He is fretful not because he is weak, but because he is gifted.  Jonas recognizes it instantly.  He looks at the boy when Lily, his sister, comments that they have the same unusual light eyes.  He notices that the child is not a normal baby because of the expression those eyes.  They seem to make him look like he has something.

Depth, he decided; as if one were looking into the clear water of the river, down to the bottom, where things might lurk which hadn’t been discovered yet.” (Ch. 3)

Perhaps Jonas's father subconciously noticed it too and connected his son to the baby, feeling pity.  Either way, he saved Gabe.  The depth was not superficial.  Jonas is able to transfer memories to the baby.  Gabe has the capacity to see beyond, and it almost doomed him.  He is such a special child in a community where special is not allowed that he almost didn't make it past his first birthday.  Unfortunatel, it doesn't last.  Gabe is scheduled for release anyway.  Jonas, having had the training and knowing what release is, takes that as his cue to take Gabe and go.  His father? He's only a little disappointed.  We saw him murder a newborn in cold blood.  We expected nothing more.