Well what do I do now?

[Kellen McCrea]

When Kellen came into the common room, it was easy to see that he was agitated about something. His eyes didn't seem to focus on anything, and he didn't say anything to anyone. He paced around, and couldn't seem to keep still.

If one looked closer, they might notice the paper he had rolled up tightly like a scroll in his hand, kept in a grip so tight a pry bar couldn't get to it. It contained news, of course. News Kellen didn't really know what to do with.



[Open ]

[Hiro McVeil]

"You know it sometimes makes people nervous when you pace like that." Hiro said, he had been going over his notes before starting his paper. "Especially if they don't know who's there." He muttered to himself.

[Kellen McCrea]

"It's me," Kellen muttered as he heard Hiro's comment. Assuming the boy would be able to recognize his voice, he didn't say anything else right away. After pacing a bit more, he stopped and sat down across from Hiro.

"She was seventeen," he non-sequitured. "She was seventeen, and she was scared, and her mother didn't know she was pregnant, and she didn't know what else to do," he went on, as though he was talking to himself. If no one else in the common room knew what he was talking about, he didn't care. His agitation showed in his voice. He really didn't know what to do.

[Hiro McVeil]

Hiro was going to poke fun about Kellen having a crush but things didn't seem to be in that mode at the moment.

"Slow down there, who? Have you done something wrong?" Hiro had a hard time saying Kellen doing anything like that but he seemed very nervous and upset.

[Kellen McCrea]

Kellen immediately stopped babbling and looked at Hiro. Had he done something wrong ... "Me? No!" the boy insisted immediately. "No, I ... no. No. My Mum. I mean, my biological Mum. She ... found me. I didn't do anything." Hiro's suggestion had dazed him somewhat. He hadn't even thought about it ... he was seventeen now, too. Wow.

[Hiro McVeil]

"She found you?" Hiro asked still trying to catch up. A moment ago he was talking about a girl and now he brought his mother into it.

[Kellen McCrea]

"She gave me up when she was seventeen and I was born, just, abandoned me at this church. And now she found me," Kellen said, more than a little dazed about it all. Sure, he'd gotten a letter a few weeks earlier from his sister about the woman, but now, actually seeing her writing and reading her story, well, there it was. Right in front of him.

[Hiro McVeil]

Now the story came together, in an unfortunate twist. The girl was his mother! Hiro didn't really know much about Kellen's family, his brother was sick for some time and Kellen had experience in taking care of the sick(Hiro knew this first hand). But other than his one brother and at least another sibbling Hiro was in the dark.

"Are you going to meet her?" Hiro asked.

[Kellen McCrea]

Kellen sat back in the chair and let out a slow breath. He folded and unfolded the letter a few times, glancing at it. "I don't know," he finally said, quietly. "I don't know."

He stood up suddenly, took a couple of steps, and turned. "I spent so many years being so upset with her. For abandoning me. For not caring about me. I couldn't understand, I didn't want to understand. And now that I know..." he trailed off. "I don't know."

[Hiro McVeil]

"Know what? That you're parent finally has to pay attention to you becasue they feel guilty?" This hit home more than Kellen probably knew for Hiro. "'I feel like I've neglected you for too long and want to make it up to you'! That's what the letter says right? You have a family, you have a choice she does or doesn't have to be a part of it."

[Kellen McCrea]

Kellen sighed heavily, once again. "It's something like that, yeah. Not that she's guilty, exactly. She even says that she still believes it was for the best, especially now that she found out that I was adopted by a good family and whatever," he said, glancing over the letter. "She was just curious. And since she didn't leave any traces of who she was, she had to be the one who found me."

[Hiro McVeil]

Find you and try to convince you that she's still a good person. Hiro didn't want to press on that matter, he knew all too well what that was like.

"So are you curious enough to find out her story in person?" Even Hiro knew the answer to this one, deep down it was the same for all children like this.

[Kellen McCrea]

"I don't know. I don't know," he repeated his earlier statements, in about the same tone. "I mean, my biggest curiosity about her was whether she was magical, you know? Or if my dad was. But the letter makes it pretty clear that they weren't. They went to school together. And that school wasn't Hogwarts, so they weren't, you know?"

[Hiro McVeil]

"So if you already know your biggest curiousity, why bother?" Hiro knew that Kellen didn't just want to know that. If that had been the case the letter took care of all his problems. However Kellen was obviously not problem free.

[Kellen McCrea]

The question struck Kellen as odd. He scratched the back of his neck, trying to figure out an answer. "Well, it just kind of feels like I should, yeah? Like, if she went through all this trouble to find me--and broke a few laws along the way, even--the least I could do is have dinner with her. I mean, right?"