DECEMBER 28

"No, no, no!" I cried into the headset, just as the squire character nearly walked into a death spell. I had my character quickly throw out a different spell which would give my friend enough time to back away from the trap. "Ty, what are you doing? You're gonna get us all killed. Again. You're lucky I learned that slow motion spell."

Okay. We were nerds. Or geeks. Whatever. We all played this video game called The Five Kingdoms. We had our own little group of…Well, I guess it could be called warriors, who defended one of the five kingdoms in the game. My character was a powerful wizard, Adrian was the king, Tommy was the head knight.

And Ty was the freaking idiotic squire who always got us nearly killed in this game. He could level up to a knight if he would just stop being so useless. His character was still like, only at level three. The rest of us had managed to move up the ranks of our character's chosen paths.

"Sorry!" Ty's voice said in my ear. "The button got stuck! I couldn't make him stop walking."

"Buy a new controller!" Tommy, Adrian, and I yelled. It was a good thing my bedroom door was closed, or I would probably get in trouble for being so loud. But the walls in this house were pretty thick. I doubted anyone could hear me. Besides, my bedroom was the only one on the first floor. The only time anyone ever heard me and got upset was if they were in the kitchen or dining room, which were really just down a short hallway from my room.

"Whoa, pause the game," Adrian called. "Nature is a'callin'! I, uh, might be a while."

"Ugh," the rest of us groaned. "Sick."

"Five minute break," I said.

"Better make it ten. No, fifteen!"

"Adrian!" we yelled.

Disgusting.

I took off the headset and opened my mini fridge, just next to my desk. I was going to grab a soda, but I was out. I knew Dad had just gotten some the other night, so I left my room to go into the kitchen. I paused near the bottom of the stairs when I heard my mom's voice coming from just inside the kitchen. She was talking to someone on the phone, on speaker. I was kind of surprised that she hadn't told me to quiet down if she was on the phone.

"Wait a minute. Did I hear that right?" she said, her voice surprised. Ah, she must have just answered it. I didn't even hear it ring. "You said you're...Jonathan? Jonathan Essiter? I didn't even recognize your voice. It's been…Oh my gosh. It's been sixteen years. You weren't at our ten-year class reunion a few years back."

I frowned slightly. Jonathan Essiter was the name of my biological father. Like she said, she hadn't talked to him since shortly after my birth, when he signed away his parental and decided he didn't want anything to do with me.

My mom had never kept anything from me about my real dad. I knew that she'd gotten pregnant while in high school, and that Jonathan hadn't wanted the responsibility of a baby in his life. So she broke up with him and became a single mom. She finished high school - with a newborn baby, which was freaking amazing in my mind - and raised me on her own.

Until she met Alex, anyway. And Alex had become my dad.

I mean, it wasn't like she never talked about Jonathan. She didn't talk about him much, but I knew a little bit about my birth father. I knew what he looked like and stuff. My mom wasn't the kind of person to keep that a secret from me. She had never tried to lie to me and make me think that Alex was my biological father. But I had only heard about Jonathan through my mom. Jonathan himself had never tried to get into contact with me or anything. Not once, in all these years.

So why was he calling now? What did he want?

"Yeah, I was at a skate competition in Florida, with my fiancée."

"I hear you're pretty successful in those competitions. Congrats."

"Yeah, yeah, I guess. Thanks."

"What's up? Why are you calling after all these years?"

Jonathan took a deep breath. "Well, I'm moving back to Camelot, towards the middle or end of January. I'm setting up a skateboarding shop. And I've had some recent changes in my life that have made me think about some of the stuff in the past. So I wanted to know…I've been thinking a lot lately. I know that I signed away my rights, but I would like to get to know to my son. If that's okay with you. I'm not asking for custody or anything like that – I know I have no right to do that – I just want a chance to connect with him. To get to know him."

Mom didn't say anything for a full minute.

I was just as shocked. After sixteen years of absolutely nothing – no birthday cards, Christmas cards, nothing – he suddenly wanted to get to know me?

What the hell?

"Jonathan, do you even know our son's name?" Mom asked quietly. "Do you know what day he was born?"

"Stryker Anson Pendragon." Well, he was mostly right. I did have a second middle name, Amala. But that had been added later, when Alex had legally adopted me. "December third. I did read the papers I signed, Mac."

"I'm shocked. I really am. I honestly didn't think that you cared. I mean, you were the one who told me to get an abortion, Jonathan. Why are you suddenly interested in being a part of his life after sixteen years?"

Abortion? Okay, Mom had never told me that before.

"I was wrong. I was so wrong about the abortion, and I'm glad that you never listened to me. I'm glad that you decided to keep him. I regret even suggesting it. I just…I have a son. And I want to connect with him. I want to know what kind of a kid he is."

"He's a great kid, Jon. He really is. He's just about the best teenage son that any mother could ask for. But…you've had a son for sixteen years and you never did anything about it. You never wanted to do anything about it."

"I know. It was stupid of me. All I'm asking is that you think about it, please. Just think about allowing me to get to know him."

"That's not my choice to make, Jonathan. He's sixteen now. He's old enough to decide if he wants you in his life or not. I will not take that choice away from him. Just like I wouldn't take away his chance to have a life. I'll talk to him about it, but it's his choice. And if he says no, then that's it. I won't give a different response. Don't hold your breath, though. He's got a really good father figure in his life. He truly does love Alex like a father. And he's expressed about as much interest in you as you have in him. I don't know that he's going to want you in his life."

Jonathan sighed. "That's more than I deserve. Thank you."

I was starting to hate the kitchen. Why did so many life-changing conversations have to take place there? All I wanted was a freaking soda.

And why did I have to keep overhearing these stupid conversations?

Damn it.

A couple things. 1) We're going to pretend that Camelot is located somewhere in California. I was trying to be vague about it on purpose, because I didn't want to have to say that this fictional town was in an actual state. But California is a pretty big state, and so I think this still leaves it pretty vague. 2) Merlin and Arthur will make some appearances in this fanfic, but not as many as they did in the last one. I know that's kind of upsetting for some of you. I'll put them in there as much as I can, but this is Stryker's story now. I'm hoping that if you're reading this fanfic, you've read the prequels. And if you haven't, you should go read those first so you really know what's going on. Magic and Love, Magic and Family, and Magic and Mistakes. Um, there was something else I was going to say, but now I can't remember. Oops. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it. Stryker's gonna have some choices to make pretty soon. This is one of my favorite chapters so far (not that there are many to choose from ;) ). I love how Mac wants to let Stryk choose. She thinks that he has that right. She doesn't want to force him into anything that he might not want to do.