Lee was seriously starting to think that she was going to have to find something else to keep her occupied during the day once Kevin was off at the mansion. Without it taking so long in the mornings now for her to get anything resembling energy, even with going running in the mornings with Tarin, Lee was going to get finished with her paperwork for the bar far too early in the day to keep herself occupied without being bored out of her mind before Tarin gets home.

But that was a problem for later, after Kevin had moved to the mansion.

Even if Kevin was still spending the majority of his time in his room. On his computer.

At least he was more than willing to venture out a few times a week to head to the gym, so Lee was able to spend that time with her son. And Kevin was doing a good job with the lessons that she was giving him.

Even if a number of the trainers, and fighters, who were at the gym at the same time thought that she was teaching Kevin the wrong things.

But since finding something else to keep her occupied was a future problem, Lee settled for reading more of one of the books she and Tarin had gotten from the library to research any information they could find about this ancient Egyptian mystic Michael had come to Tarin about.

Kevin was definitely hanging out in his room, sitting in front of his computer, but he wasn’t actually playing any games right now or even talking to any of his friends.

The night his Grandparents had come over and his Mum had gotten so upset she’d said some things and Kevin had asked her questions that she’d actually answered. And then she had actually said that if he had any other questions, she’d answer them and wouldn’t tell him that he was too young.

So Kevin had been working on a list of questions. He had those questions saved on his phone and had been staring at them for the last ten minutes. It had been days since he’d added anything new, and that probably meant that he had enough.

Tapping the arm of his computer chair and trying to decide if there was anything else he wanted to ask his Mum, Kevin decided it was just time to go and stood up to make his way out to the living room.

Keeping his shield down so he didn’t startle his Mum as he came down the hall, Kevin walked out with his note pulled up on his phone and stopped in front of where his Mum was reading a book…about Egypt.

Weird.

“I have my list of questions.” he announced, “If you are still okay answering them.”

Lee may have been focused of the reading, trying to parse anything useful out of a book written thousands of years after the fact, but that didn't stop her from noticing Kevin making his way out of his room.

Though Lee initially didn't think much of it, figuring that he was going to the kitchen for a drink, or a snack, before he'd head back to his room and ignored her until it was time for dinner.

Except Kevin didn't head to the kitchen. He was making his way into the living room.

Lee was definitely a little surprised. There wasn't enough time to go to the gym before dinner, so she really wasn't sure what would have prompted this. Lee she tried not to show her surprise, not to make too big of a deal of it as she closed the book and looked up as Kevin came around the front of the couch.

And spoke before she had a chance to ask what was up.

A list. Of questions.

With the amount of time that had passed since Lee had told Kevin she would answer any questions he had, Lee had been hoping that he had forgotten about that promise.

Apparently not.

Was she ready to answer this list of questions? She wasn't even sure what questions he had put on his list, but Lee was pretty sure that she wouldn't be ready to give her son those answers for another decade.

She had told Kevin she would answer them, though. Nodding, Lee took a deep breath to prepare herself. "If it's taken this long to make the list," she said, looking up at Kevin standing in front of her. "You're probably going to want to sit. What's first?"

She was actually going to do it…

Kevin could tell that his Mum was not very happy about it, but she was actually going to answer his questions.

Kevin almost couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his Mum, she’d always done what she said she was going to do, but for as long as Kevin could remember there were things that she just wouldn’t talk to him about.

All of that was going to change, but he probably needed to sit down?

Wasn’t that what people said to someone when they were going to tell them something really bad? Kevin knew that the things his Mum wouldn't tell him about were serious things, but were they really that bad?

For a brief minute, Kevin thought about telling his Mum nevermind and just going back to his room…but this was his chance to know things.

So Kevin sat and looked down at the list on his phone.

”I wrote them down so I woudn’t forget…” he said, trying to decide what he wanted to ask first, not being able to choose, and figuring he would just start at the top.

“Why did Aunt Rachel take me to see Grandma and Grandpa in the spring?” His Mum had told him a little, but had always stopped before she told him why he’d suddenly had to leave the city.

Lee thought that Kevin looked a little nervous and unsure when she suggested that he sit down. Lee had simply suggested it because if he had a list of questions, it was likely going to take a while, and Lee wasn't eager to sit looking up at him the entire time.

But Kevin still sat down and looked at his phone. As she waited, Lee set the book on the coffee table and turned slightly on the couch to look at her son.

He had written all of his questions down so that he didn't forget any. That was smart, Lee thought. Though it certainly hadn't seemed that way over the years, Kevin had definitely learned from her quite well.

And Lee was proud of that. Right up until Kevin asked about the sudden trip to see his grandparents with Rachel.

Maybe it would have been good if he hadn't learned quite so well.

Lee nodded slightly as she looked at Kevin. "Do you remember when you got back how I explained that I was helping Tarin with a problem he had with his powers?" Lee asked Kevin. That was what she had vaguely explained as she reason he was moving in. Plus the fact that he had still just been living in the back of the shop.

"That's exactly what I was doing that weekend when you were with Aunt Rachel," Lee continued. "There are a few spirits who are strong and can be dangerous. And you know how nosy she can be, especially with me. The best way to make sure she didn't poke her nose in, especially since she was watching you, was to get her out of the city. Taking you to see your grandparents seemed like the easiest way to do that."

As he asked his first question, Kevin still wasn’t sure that his Mum was really going to answer his questions. She was his Mum, after all, and she could still decide that he was too young to hear some things if she wanted.

But she didn’t do that. When she asked him if he could remember the talk they’d had when he got home, Kevin nodded. The whole thing had been kind of weird, but Tarin had seemed okay and Kevin hadn’t really cared either way if there was someone staying in his Aunt Rachel’s old room.

As his Mum kept talking though, Kevin’s eyes narrowed a bit skeptically. His Mum had wanted to keep Aunt Rachel out of the middle of things so she had called his Aunt, told her about a problem she didn’t even know about, and had them leave town.

Kevin decided he’d let that one go and not push his luck, ”Dangerous how?” he asked, frowning slightly.

Lee could tell that Kevin didn't really buy it when she said that the trip had been to keep Rachel from being nosy. Yes, Lee had wanted Kevin out of the city to keep him safe, but Lee had worried about Rachel wanting to know what was going on and showing up at the shop, possibly at the worst possible moment. With Kevin in tow.

But rather than question that, Kevin decided to ask how those kinds of spirits could be dangerous.

"Even Tarin, who as you said, always has control of his powers can have trouble with them," Lee tried to explain. "Those kinds of spirits can take energy from him, even when he's fighting that. And with that energy, they can actually do things. Move things.

"The spirits that would even try to do that were not good people in life," Lee continued. "When they're trying to do…whatever it is that caused them to stick around as a spirit, and someone tries to take that away from them, they get angry. Spirits, just like people, can be dangerous when they're angry."

Kevin’s eyes widened slightly as his Mum explained that there were spirits so strong that Tarin had a hard time with them. That they could take energy from him whether he wanted them to or not and do things with that energy.

When they couldn’t do what they wanted, the spirits got angry.

Something still didn’t make sense, but Kevin couldn’t figure out what it was. Maybe he could ask Tarin about it later, see what he said, and figure it out from there.. The worst Tarin would do was tell Kevin he needed to ask his Mum.

And his Mum had answered the question. Kevin nodded, ”I guess that makes sense…” he said.

Looking down at his phone again, Kevin realized a lot of his questions had to do with Tarin, but he shrugged and asked, ”That time I went and had guy time with Uncle Robert I can back and Tarin had a black eye. He said it was because he left dishes in the sink, but I don’t think that’s what happened. What happened?”

Kevin was thinking over her answer, trying to figure out if it made sense.

Trying to figure out if she had actually answered his question.

And she had. In much greater detail than Lee had ever wanted to get into with Kevin since she realized that his father was gone. Though Lee was glad that she had been able to explain it enough without actually having to explain about merging.

The spirit had actually been taking Tarin's energy against his will in order to interact with the living world. She just hadn't told Kevin that the spirit was inside Tarin's head, body, whatever, when it was doing that.

Lee had thought things might get easier with that question behind them now, but she was wrong. This could quickly get into dangerous territory of a different sort.

Though, Lee had said she would answer his questions. That didn't necessarily mean explanations of those answers.

"No, it wasn't because he left dishes in the sink," Lee replied. "Tarin's always been good about taking care of his dishes."

"Your uncle punched him."

Kevin nodded as Lee explained that Tarin hadn’t left his dishes in the sink. That definitely made sense and Kevin hadn’t really thought that his Mum had been responsible for that bruise. In fact, that was about the time his Mum had decided to do maybe the weirdest thing ever and ask him if he thought it was okay for her and Tarin to date. The memory still made him kind of want to crawl in a hole and die.

The real explanation for what had happened to Tarin’s face made Kevin’s eyebrows rise in surprise though. ”He did what? Why?!” Kevin said. He had assumed it was another power problem thing that his Mum hadn’t wanted to tell him about.

”When did he even…wait is that why you were mad at him?” It ready wasn’t a secret that Kevin’s Uncle Robert didn’t like Tarin. Kevin hadn’t ever really worried about it though because Uncle Robert was always getting on his Mum’s nerves anyway. Also, Robert didn’t have to live with Tarin or anything, so it didn’t really matter. But Uncle Robert had actually hit someone?

Kevin's shock and surprise at Lee's answer was pretty much as expected. Lee was pretty sure that Kevin had never even thought about the fact that his uncle might have hit someone when he played hockey.

It only took him a couple moments to realize when exactly Robert had hit Tarin, and that that might have been why she had been mad that morning.

"That is why," Lee told her son. "Your uncle doesn't like Tarin. He saw the bruises I had from that sparring match and decided to punch Tarin."

Well yeah, Kevin had already kind of thought about the fact that his Uncle didn’t like Tarin, but there were plenty of people that Kevin didn’t like. He didn’t go around punching them though.

”How can he not like Tarin?” Kevin said, ”He doesn’t even really know him.” Kevin said, trying to wrap his head around the whole thing.

And the bruises from the sparring match were what made Robert want to hit Tarin?

”Why would your sparring match make him want to hit Tarin? You didn’t spar with him….”

None of this made any sense Kevin thought.

Kevin did not understand what her having bruises making Robert want to punch Tarin implied, and Lee was glad.

"You're right Kev," Lee said to her son. "Your uncle doesn't really know Tarin."

Lee paused and took a deep breath as she looked at Kevin. To answer the question of why Robert didn't like Tarin would mean she had to tell him things about his father that she didn't want to. Information that Lee was sure Kevin would not like knowing. Things that could change how he felt about his father.

"You're not going to like the answers to those questions, Kevin," Lee told him gently. "Some things are better left in the past."

Lee wasn't refusing to answer Kevin's questions. She was giving him the chance to not find out things he wouldn't want to know.

Kevin was even more confused now. How did you dislike someone you didn’t even know enough to want to hit them? Sure, his Uncle Robert had a temper, especially if he was watching hockey and things weren’t going well…but this just didn’t seem like him.

Now his Mum was acting really strange too, she took a deep breath and looked at him like she really didn’t want to answer this question. What she said didn’t help either. Not at all. It just proved what Kevin thought. She really didn’t want to answer this question.

It made Kevin nervous to know that, but he was just so confused that he knew it would bother and bother him if he didn’t find out.

”Tarin hasn’t even been here that long…” Kevin said finally.

"Tarin hasn’t even been here that long…”

Kevin still wanted to know. Even with the knowledge that he wasn't going to like the answer that he got.

Lee nodded and just continued to look at Kevin for another moment before she finally spoke again. "No, Tarin hasn't been here very long," Lee agreed with Kevin. "And your uncle has known him even less time than that. But you're uncle decided that he doesn't like Tarin the moment he found out that his powers are like your dad's."

Lee paused and let that sink in for a moment before she continued. "When your father had trouble with his powers, with those kinds of spirits, your uncle believed that it was your father hurting me," she finally said, her voice quiet.