Chapter Twenty-Three

 

Guinevere Pendragon agrees to limit surprises to three (3) a day.

Clause 13- Limitation of Surprises

 

Midas’ whole body went still.

For one endless moment, he stood frozen in the doorway, his hand on the knob.  It seemed to Gwen like she could actually see his mind switching gears at high speed, trying to process what he’d heard.  By the time his head had swung around to look back at Avalon, she was fast asleep, cuddled up with Queen Lyrssa.  He blinked rapidly, staring at her in the soft glow of her rocking-horsefly shaped nightlight.

Gwen nearly laughed at his astonishment.  “Really, Midas, I would have thought you’d have figured this out by now.”  She chided.

“She just called me ‘daddy.’”  He sounded blindsided.  “Did you hear that?”

“Of course I heard it.”  Gwen touched his arm.  “Who else would her daddy be?”

Midas still wasn’t getting it.  “That’s impossible.  You and I have never…”

“She’s not biologically your daughter, obviously.  But, that doesn’t matter to Avalon.  She… claims you.  She always has.”

His attention was still riveted on Avalon. “That is my child?”

“Yes.”  Gwen shrugged.  “I don’t exactly know why she selected you to be her father.  In her mind, there isn’t a question about it, though.  Sorceresses see more than we do.  They pick their own path.  They can choose. … And she chose you.”

Midas didn’t move.

“It’s why I put in Clause 3- ‘Care and Protection of Avalon Pendragon.’”  Gwen added, a little worried by his silence.  “I was afraid of what might happen if you didn’t choose her back.  If she got used to having you around and something went wrong.  I worried how you would react, if a little girl just showed up and called you ‘Daddy.’  I thought it would be better if you ignored Avi, until I could be sure…”

He cut her off.  “That is my child.”  This time it wasn’t a question.  Golden eyes swung around to impale her.  “You wanted to keep her from me?”  He looked almost betrayed.

“I brought her to you.”  Gwen retorted firmly.  “Despite my fears and when it made no goddamn sense, at all, I walked into this house and handed my baby to you.”

“You did.”  Midas seemed to be having a hard time focusing, like he wasn’t sure whether to be angry or hurt or happy or confused or ten other things.  “You literally did.”  He shut the bedroom door and leaned against it, staring at nothing.  “I never understood why, but you just… put her in my arms.”

“And you took care of her.”  Gwen agreed.  “In my heart, I knew you would.  It’s why I came here.  Why I trusted her with you and with Trystan.  A gangster and a gryphon and I trusted you two with my little girl.  Because Avalon is always right and she said you were both hers.”

“We are hers.”  He whispered.

Gwen smiled at the surety in his tone.  “For two years, all Avalon’s talked about is you, Midas.  I had nowhere to go and no one to help me, when I escaped that dungeon.  Then, Avalon said, ‘I want my daddy’ and I didn’t even think about Arthur.  I knew she meant you.”

“She meant me.”  He ran both hands through his hair, still looking dazed. “She chose me.  A sorceress chooses her path.”  He gave a slightly crazed laugh.  “She told me that, when I was fifteen years old and so fucking alone I wanted to die.”

“What?”

“Vivien said it.  She said there would be a great queen who chose me over all other men.  I didn’t believe her, but she was talking about Avalon.  She saw Avalon coming to me when I was only fifteen.  Our paths have always been the same.”

Gwen’s eyebrows compressed.  “Is this the same Vivien who cursed you?”

Midas didn’t even hear her, lost in his own head.  “Avalon’s mine.  She’s always been mine.”  His expression shifted to reflect a fierce, primitive satisfaction.  “I knew she was mine.  I fucking felt it.  That is my daughter.”

“I know.”  Gwen agreed simply.

“Two years.”  Midas repeated, his brain snapping pieces into place.  “For two years, she’s said I was her father?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why Arthur sent me to prison.”  Again it wasn’t a question.

Gwen winced.  “It wasn’t Avi’s fault you…”

“No, it was his fucking fault!  That son of a bitch tried to keep me from my daughter!”  He sounded ready to drag Arthur’s body from his tomb and kill him all over again.

“To be fair, she was Arthur’s daughter, genetically.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?  She didn’t want him.  She wanted me.  She chose me.”

“Arthur hated to lose.  He didn’t care about Avalon, but he hated that she saw someone else as her father.  She talked about you and your wonderfulness, all the time.  It hurt his ego.”

“I don’t give a shit about his feelings!  Avalon claims me as her father.  I claim her as my child.  She’s mine.”  Midas sliced a furious hand through the air as if everything was clear, undisputable, and legally binding.  “That girl was mine fifteen years before she was born.”

He and Avalon were clearly on the same page about the paternity issue.  Which happened to be the gryphons’ page, come to think of it: You claim what you want and fight for it.  But how else should something so important be decided?  Trystan’s people weren’t so primitive, as the “civilized” kingdoms thought.  They kind of had the only logical system.

“You should have come to me sooner.”  Midas continued.  “That fucking asshole should never have been near my baby for even one day…”

“He would have killed us both, before he let that happen.”  Gwen interrupted baldly.  “Believe me.  He was unhinged, when it came to you.”

Midas stopped talking so fast his teeth clinked together.  There was a long pause and she could see the final puzzle getting solved inside of his razor-sharp brain.  His head tilted to one side.  “How did Arthur die, Gwen?”

She hesitated.  He’d never asked her that before.

Midas watched her.  Waiting.

“Everything happened because you kept getting yourself on television.” Gwen finally told him.  She moved to sit on a green-and-black checked bench that was arranged in the hallway.  “That new PR firm of yours would not have approved of all the negative coverage.”

Midas watched her, not saying anything.

“The first time I ever saw you was in a mugshot on the news.  You were being investigated for something.  I honestly don’t remember the specifics.  I just remember… Avalon.” She sighed, picturing it all as it played out.  “She was toddling around the Queen’s Parlor, as I watched TV.  And Arthur came in, for some reason.  It was rare that I saw him, at all, so it was just bad luck that he was there.”

“He stayed away from you, even back then?”

“Always.”  Gwen shrugged.  “I was happy with that, though.  We both were.  Still, it might’ve all gone differently for him, if he’d been any kind of father.  If Avalon hadn’t been forced to go looking for a better daddy.”  She glanced up at him.  “For you.”

“No.”  Midas sounded very sure.  “It always would have happened this way.  You two were always meant to be mine.”

“Arthur wanted me to get rid of her when she was born, you know.  He said she was deformed, because she was Bad.”  It was mindboggling how blind he’d been.  How unwilling to see past his bigotry. “I hated him, after that.  If there had been a way to leave him…”

“How did he die, Gwen?”

“Arthur always had such dreadful timing.”  She rubbed her forehead, lost in the past.  “Just as he walked into the Queen’s Parlor, the newscast showed that close-up of your mugshot.  Avalon saw it.  …And her expression lit up.”  Gwen recalled it all so clearly.  “My God, you would’ve thought she’d just seen Santa Claus.  She screamed --screamed, mind you-- ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!  Mama, it’s my daddy’ and she put her teeny little hand right up on the screen like she could touch you.”

Midas’ mouth curved, looking smug.  “My daughter.”  He said quietly.

“Arthur, as you can imagine, was not as pleased as you appear to be.”  She informed him archly.  “Avalon had never called him anything but ‘Arthur.’  I doubt it occurred to him to care about that before, but now he was furious.  Afraid that someone else would hear her say you were her father.  He said it would humiliate him if that rumor got around.”

“He knew I’d show up on his doorstep, if I heard about it.”  Midas corrected.  “I would have been there to see the child, even knowing it was impossible that she came from me.”

“Either way, it was a side of him I’d never seen.”  She would never forget it.  “Usually he was just spoiled and callous, but suddenly he was on a rampage.  I tried to calm him down, but he was shouting curses at you, and accusing me of cheating on him, and threatening to disinherit Avalon.”  She glanced at him.  “There were already so many rumors of my infidelity, you see.”

“I’m sorry I ever, ever doubted you about that, Gwen.”

“Well, you were kind of right.  Avalon wasn’t Arthur’s daughter, in any way that mattered.  I just wasn’t sure how to explain that to you.”  She rolled her eyes.  “‘Hi, I’m Gwen and I know we’ve never met, but my baby thinks you’re her dad.’  I mean, it’s not exactly a great conversation starter with a man.”

“It would have worked great on me.  I promise you.”

“Well, how could I know that, then?  How could I be sure you wouldn’t refuse her or even kick us out?  That first night you told me you didn’t even like children.”

“I never said that.”

“Close enough.  You said you wouldn’t bond with her and that you’d make a terrible father and that you wanted to just ignore Avi.  I was very worried that she’d somehow gotten you all wrong, Midas.”

“That’s why you almost left.”  He blinked, remembering their initial meeting.  “You asked me about rocking-horseflies and I told you I loved them.  That was the only thing that made you stay.  I couldn’t figure out why.”

“They’re Avi’s favorite.  She said they were your favorite, too.  I thought if she was right about that, she was right about everything.”

“That’s what saved me?  Liking those sparkly bugs?”  He paled like a man who’d come within a single step of a thousand foot cliff.  “Holy fuck.  One call to an exterminator and I would’ve lost my wife and daughter.”

“No.”  Gwen shook her head.  “Right after that, you insisted on buying Avi a doll.  I would have stayed with you then, regardless, because I thought that was very cute and promising.”

“Buying things is always a great first step.”  He agreed.  “How did Arthur die?”

Gwen made a face at him.  “Anyway,” she went back to her story, “after Avalon called you ‘daddy,’ Arthur was so upset he wouldn’t listen to me.  He kicked the TV screen in. He was shouting at Avi, and she was crying, and I was so afraid of what he might…”  She trailed off.  “There are tabloid pictures of it.  You’ve probably seen them.”

“Yes.”

“That’s why I got the gun.  After that, I knew I might need it.  Galahad bought it for me.”

Midas scrubbed a hand over his face.  “I guess I can’t hate the Beige Adonis anymore, if he protected you.  Which is a shame, because I really fucking hate him.  I even hate rerunning his stupid show on my new network, although it’s working against the Scarecrow.”  He paused.  “…And it makes great ratings.  I hate that.”

“Galahad always stood up for me.  Always shielded Avalon.  Aside from you, he’s my best friend.  I just wish I knew where Gal is, so I could help him, now.”

“I’ll find him for you.”

That surprised her.  “You will?  Why?  You just said you hated him.”

“So what?  You want him back.”

Gwen smiled at that profound answer.  “Thank you.”

He grunted.  “Just remember when he gets here: You’re not attracted to boring heroes.”

“That’s true.  I’m only attracted to one hero and he’s certainly not boring.”

Midas’ mouth kicked up at the corner, but his eyes were grave.  “How did Arthur die, Gwen?”

“After that day, Arthur had you arrested for whatever random crimes he could think of, probably for things you didn’t even do.”

“No, I did all of them.”  Midas admitted without even blinking.

She flashed him an exasperated look.  “Regardless, I blamed myself.  All I could think of was how you were unfairly targeted because of me.”

“I would be sent back to prison a thousand times over for you.”

“Well, I got it into my head to free you.  I offered Arthur a DNA test on Avalon.  I’d never really cared enough to bother, before.  Let him think what he wanted, the ass.  At least he was staying away from us.  But I wanted to help you.”

He smiled at that.  “You’re so fucking Good, it breaks my heart.”

“Well, it didn’t work.  I’d hoped that the results would calm him down.  Any paternity test would show him where Avi came from.  I never cheated on Arthur, so I thought I’d solved everything.  That he would stop with his obsession and let you go free.  Instead, when he got the envelope back from the lab, it just seemed to make him more… unhinged.”

Midas’ gaze sharpened.  “Whose blood did he test?”

“All our blood.  Once he arrested you, he said it was legal for him to get your DNA.  So he sent off his blood, my blood, your blood, and Avalon’s blood.  It was a waste of resources, because all he needed was his and Avalon’s to show a match.  I told him that.”

“But he tested your blood and my blood, too? Together?”

She frowned at the intensity of the question.  “Yes.  Why?”

Midas didn’t respond to that, staring off at nothing, again.  “That son of a bitch knew.”  He murmured.  “He knew I’d take them both.  That’s why he wanted me dead.”

Gwen blinked.  “Arthur tried to kill you?”

“Yes.”  Midas moved to sit next to her on the bench, his arm resting along the back rail behind her.  “Did he try to kill you?  Is that what happened the night he died?”

“No.  He tried to kill Avalon.”

Midas’ fist clenched along the back of the seat, but he kept his voice low.  “Tell me.”  He said.

And so she did.