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Right, I guess I should have expected some version of that question at some point.

Almost immediately the kid looked like was regretting asking. He held up one hand to stop me from answering. "I'm sorry, that wasn't a fair question. It's just something that I wondered about a lot as a kid. It just popped up in my head from somewhere deep."

I slowly nodded. "It isn't as if I don't have that same question sitting in my own head. Buried real deep."

We both went quiet for a bit before I finally started putting a few things into words that I made myself stop thinking about years before.

"I loved your mother with all the passion of youth, and I spend years looking for her until I realized that after that long. She was either dead or she didn't want to be found."

I gave myself the chance to take a deep breath before I continued. "Just before she vanished I had bought one of those heart shaped necklaces that came in two pieces like it had been split in half. One with her initials for me to wear, and one for her with mine."

"When I decided to give up on finding her and move on with my life. I tossed mine into a river near the college. Then I did move on with my life."

"Last week a tired looking little girl show up at my front gate with the other half of that necklace. telling me her grandmother had sent her."

"It brought back a lot of memories, good and bad. Memories I've been too busy to try to deal with. All of which are all going to come crashing down on me when I see your mother tomorrow."

I started pacing back and forth across the room. "And I ain't going to have time to deal with it tomorrow either. Tomorrow is all about keeping Ami safe and with her family. Whatever needs to happen between me and your mother is going to have to wait."

I stopped in place. "As far as I'm concerned it can wait forever." I looked back over to my son. "If you plan on walking right back out of my life the same way you came into it. Or if you have to take the kids and run. Then I don't want to rip open that old wound with your mom. I don't have any leftover issues that I want to deal with if I only have to get through seeing Brie one last time."

He stepped forward and hesitated before putting his hand up on my shoulder. "I'm not going to walk away from you again, and I am not going to let those two old monsters tear my family apart. Any of my family."

He stepped back. "I'll warn her you aren't ready to talk yet. Seeing you again will still hurt her, but she will understand you two's feelings aren't the priority. But I don't think she's leaving without cornering you and making you listen to her."

He let out a soft laugh. " She doesn't have the same reputation as Endora and Rose, but she is just as powerful in her own way. Now that she can get to you without getting you killed you aren't going to be able to escape talking about your feeling. Way more than there is any possible need for."

I chuckled as well. You would think staying single almost my entire life would spare me from those kinds of conversations. But unless you cut yourself off entirely. Somehow you still find yourself having them.

I turned to the young man I didn't know enough about. "So what is it you do, for money, or fun?"

He looked off into the distance as he thought that over. "I used to work for Endora as an errand boy. Picking things up and dropping things off. Sometimes there were issues I had to settle, other times some people just needed help. Eventually, people started thinking of me as a problem solver no one wanted to do anything lethal to, for fear of getting the Wickedest Witch upset at them."

"So I ended up earning a lot of favors since money wasn't much of an issue for my family to provide. But getting out there and earning something for myself meant something to me. Also, all those favors helped me get things done."

He grinned. "When I found out just what it ment to only have enough magic to improve myself, I started pushing my limits as far as I could go."

He looked down. "I broke a lot of my bones doing it. But I can do a lot of things that are beyond normal human ability. Enough to stand out too much if I get measured up against regular people or even other inner magic users."

I reached over to nudge him on the shoulder "Too bad, I could have bragged to everyone about having a pro athlete for a kid. Can't exactly tell people about my son the freelance secret agent."

That seemed to make him happy as he smiled at me. "Well, I did get to compete a few times in what they call the Games. It was only against a few dozen other contestants since most people like to keep their full capabilities a secret. But it's also a form of advertising for people looking for jobs."

He looked thoughtful. "In fact, that's where I met Yuki for the first time. For some reason, she was not happy with me."

I gave him a surprised look. "Really, what happened?"

He pursed his lips. "I had trained myself by reading books and watching videotapes and movies. Then I ended up placing higher than she did." He waved his hands around helplessly. "I didn't even fight her that time, but she got all offended because I wasn't using a "Real style." I was just steamrolling people all the way to forth place because I was faster and stronger than most people."

I grinned. "Then what happened."

He sighed. "She kept showing up, everywhere. If there was some competition I signed up for, she would be there for it too. When I found people to train with, she would show up to challenge me to a fight to prove her family's style was better."

"She even later would go looking for the same type of jobs I liked to do. Not always on the same side."

He started pacing around the kitchen. "It didn't even matter when we ended up fighting and she won. She wanted to trounce me entirely. I was having to train constantly just to stay even with her."

Finally coming to a stop as he looked out the patio door, he brought his rant to a conclusion. "Then we ended up both fighting the same guy while arguing with each other the entire time to the point he told us to get a room."

He turned and grinned at me. "Pretty much brought the whole fight to a screeching halt as we both looked at each other that way for the first time."

"The guy was so invested in being involved in us making a connection he handed over the artifact and let us go rather than interrupt the moment with a fight. Surprisingly nice guy for an international thief. He even came to the wedding. Got us a tea set."

He shook his head. "Stolen, of course. We still kept it.

We did talk a little more, but nothing of consequence. Just a bit of small talk before I led him upstairs in the elevator and send him to bed. Then I headed downstairs to put the last load of laundry in the dryer.

After that, it was time to deal with the newest intruders on my land.