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“Nope. I actually think you’re very exasperating and totally self-absorbed. And did I mention how reckless you are?”
“Ugh.” I blew out a gust of air.
“But that being said, you’re perfect for Da. It’s really good to see him happy.”
I fiddled with the car keys, it felt good to have them in my hand after days and days of not driving. I was so glad we left them in the ignition. If I had had them in my pocket, they would have been lost and I’d be screwed. I asked, “What do you think will happen to him?”
“I don’t know.” Another sigh. “But I’m still here. I didn’t disappear into a cloud of black dust like in the Avenger’s Infinity War.”
“How do you know all that stuff? I swear you seem like you’re from this time period.”
“When I dropped in and out I spent a lot of time with Michael. I especially like Marvel movies. Thor reminds me of Da.” He grinned.
“Yeah, me too.” We smiled at each other for a moment. “Was he a good father?”
“He was really great. I mean, he wasn’t around as much as I wanted. It caused me some grief that he was away fighting, but when he visited, I knew he really wanted to be there.” He nodded. “It was good.”
“It’s good you have those memories. Even if he doesn’t. And I’m really sorry he doesn’t.” I sighed. “One more question, and this is... weird, but would you say your mom was a good mother? I mean, I’m asking for a friend.”
He gave me a small smile. “I’m not really comfortable talking about that with you, but I get why you’re asking, she and grandmother were not nice to you, and so I’ll just say when she was telling Da what a great mother she would be I was really, really, really surprised.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. But hey, it’s a new timeline, maybe she’ll do better.” Then he chuckled. “It was so hard being around Magnus all week without blowing my cover. I almost called him Da at least ten times.”
“That would have been so weird.”
“Here’s another thing. I got the deputy minister to get me a fake name and the credentials. My name is actually Magnus Archibald Caelhin Campbell the second, everyone calls me Archie.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Humph. I guess I should have thought about getting Magnus credentials. I could have taken him on an airplane.”
“Here.” He shifted in his seat and patted his pocket. “Wait, I left it under my seat.” He got out of the car and stalked up to his truck and returned a moment later. He sat back down and unzipped a messenger bag. “There’s this.” He opened a Manila folder and pulled out a birth certificate. The baby name was Tyler Garrison Wilson. He dug through the bag and found a passport and opened it to the name page. He got out his wallet and pulled out the driver’s license. “You can have these. When Magnus comes back, he can use them.” He passed me the rest of the pile. “There’s a high school transcript, a credit card, even a Jamba Juice club card.” He grinned.
“You aren’t going to need these?”
“Nah. I think I’m going to be busy for a bit. Princely duties of the realm. Da fights so I don’t have to, but that means I have to run the business of the kingdom, and if I’ve screwed it up and ruined it all — I’ll have to woo my wife back to me. Man, I hope she’s still there.”
“I hope so too.”
“Wait, and just in case…” He pulled a piece of paper and a pen from the messenger bag and leaned forward to write on the dashboard. He wrote about ten lines of script, then added a list. He considered for a moment and then wrote a little bit more. He got down to the bottom of the page, folded it and handed it to me. “This is for Da if you see him before I do. This is what he knows about General Reyes after years of fighting him. Maybe it will help him get the upper hand.”
I put the folded paper with the rest of the credentials in the glove compartment.
He put his hand on the door. “It dawns on me I don’t actually need my truck after all. I should just head home. Do you have some way to get it to your place?”
“Sure. I’ll send Quentin for it, I’m assuming he’s back.”
“Cool. Tell him I’m really glad he got home. And say goodbye to the gang, maybe I’ll see them around someday.”
“Definitely.”
He put his hand on the door handle. “Help me pick up all this stuff?”
We both stepped out of the car.
