A few people have been commenting about Jon exacting revenge...

He's not going to. I never really thought about having him do anything in revenge for the frog thing. Mostly because he knows he could never do anything. What could he do against the magic of Mac, Maddie, and Merlin? He knows how close they are (even if Mac always pretends not to like her family). He knows that they would band together against him if he gave them a reason. He figures it's not worth it. He just doesn't want anything to do with the baby. So, if you were expecting some big smack-down, sorry.

NOVEMBER 10

I stood back, watching the somehow organized chaos as Dad, Uncle Mordred, and Uncle Lancelot carried boxes of Harper's stuff to the moving van. I had been expressly forbidden from helping, because men were macho idiots. It also had something to do with the fact that I was pregnant, but whatever.

In fact, all of the women had been banned from helping. Which was just stupid. Hello, I, Mom, and Maddie had magic. We could make the boxes weigh nothing, so they wouldn't be hard to carry. But whatever. Like I said, men were macho idiots.

I was actually a little…sad to see Harper go. It was strange. We'd spent so many years hating each other. All I'd ever wanted was for her to leave. Now that she was I was realizing that I was actually going to miss my big sister.

Somehow, in the past few months, we'd started actually liking each other. We still got on each other's nerves a lot, but not nearly as much as we used to.

Mom came to stand next to me, watching the guys. She shook her head. "I'll never understand men."

"Me, neither," I said, wincing as I pressed my hand to my stomach. Stryker didn't do a lot of moving this late in the pregnancy, but every little movement hurt. I was so glad that I only had a few weeks left. My doctor expected me to go to about thirty-six weeks, and had put his due date at the twenty-seventh of November.

Mom gave me a knowing look. "Uncomfortable, isn't it? Imagine having two babies in there. One of whom seemed to think that my womb was a soccer field."

I groaned at the thought. "How did you do it?"

She shook her head, smiling softly. "Sometimes, I don't know. Your father was amazingly patient with me."

We fell quiet. Then Mom said, "Your grades have improved drastically, I noticed. What brought that change?"

I sighed. "I…I know what I want to do. For a career. It'll require college, so I figured I should get my grades up."

"What do you want to do?"

I couldn't keep a small blush from filling my cheeks. I knew I was never going to hear the end of it, once I told my family my career choice. Not after all the insults I'd thrown at Dad for being the CEO of a company full of computer geeks. "An information security analyst."

Mom looked at me blankly. She wasn't into the computer stuff. She knew the basics, sure, but nothing too fancy, like all the different computer tech jobs available.

"It's…I'd be working with computers, and the security of networks. Keeping hackers out, basically."

Mom gave me a teasing grin. "I thought working with computers was for geeks?"

I huffed. I'd have to get used to the teasing, because I was sure it would never end. "I guess I'm a geek, then." Not that I was happy about that title. I was so not looking forward to telling Dad. He was going to have a heyday with it.

But Mom was right. I needed to think about what I wanted to do. And even though I had always denied it, I enjoyed playing around on computers. I especially enjoyed hacking, but that was illegal, and I couldn't take care of my son from jail. So being a security analyst was about as close as I could legally get to hacking. It would be something that I would enjoy, and the pay was great, so I would be able to take care of Stryker. He'd have a good future. We'd have a good future.

She nodded. "Well, I'm glad that you know what you want to do. How long will it take?"

"I'll need to get my bachelor's degree in computer science. I can do that entirely online, through Avalon University, so I'll be able to stay home with Stryker. But I was thinking of asking Dad if I could get an internship at Camelot Corporation during my last two years, because I'll need some experience in a related field before I can apply for a job as an analyst."

Mom's smile widened. "Arthur!" she called.

My eyes widened. "No!" I didn't want to tell him just yet. He was going to go ballistic.

Dad looked up from the box he'd just set inside the van. "Yeah, Merlin?"

"Come here for a second."

I groaned. "Mom, don't tell Dad about –"

But my father was already coming toward us. "What's going on? Is everything all right, Merlin? Mackenzie?"

"Everything's fine. Guess who's decided a career path?" I nearly groaned at the obscene pride in my mother's voice. It wasn't that big of a deal.

Dad looked at me. "Oh?"

I sighed, and that stupid blush came back. "I want to be…an information security analyst," I mumbled.

He frowned. "Wait. Hold on just a second. My daughter, who has spent countless hours telling me now geeky it is to work with computers, wants to do exactly that? Is this a joke? This has to be a joke."

"No. It's not a joke," I grumbled. "I've already started filling out the application for Avalon University. I'm going to get my BA online, in computer science."

"She was hoping she could do an internship at Camelot Corporation," Mom explained. "Toward the end of college."

Dad smiled widely. "I think that can be arranged."