67 – This Gift, This Curse

 

Mira glanced at Mick, who was nodding. "I take it you know the story and didn't tell Kev."

 

"It's not my story to tell," Mick said.

 

Kev shook his head. "I know he saw it, Mick admitted that much, but nothing more."

 

"He did, and he tried to keep it from happening, but he was too late." Mira looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap, and said softly, "I blamed him for that."

 

"And so he left," Kevin said. He tried to keep the anger out of his voice because on some level he could understand why. "Where did he go? Some other city?"

 

"No, I was the one who moved. Once I'd calmed down and realized he wasn't to blame, I thought about trying to find him, to apologize, and tell him he was going to be a father. And then I'd have left the decision up to him whether he wanted to come back to me. But… I just couldn't. I couldn't bear the thought he might reject me. And, honestly, I couldn't bear living here where it all began."

 

"Then how, where…?" Kevin's eyes narrowed as he looked at Mick. "He wasn't some cop who took you under his wing, was he? He was living on the streets too."

 

Mick nodded. "He saved me when some punks tried to attack me and, well, I sort of tagged along after him until he finally gave up and let me be with him."

 

Curious, Kevin asked, "Did he have a vision about that?"

 

"Yes, although I didn't figure it out until a few days ago. I had no idea about what he could do until the night he saw your attack."

 

"He rarely, if ever, talked about it," Mira told them. "He always had some excuse why he happened to be in the right place at the right time to help someone."

 

"He should have seen what was going to happen to him and… and avoided it," Kevin said.

 

Mira smiled a little. "His is the only future he can't see. He was shot, six months or so before Danny died. I got really pissed at him because I felt the way you do, that he should have seen it happen and done something different. He said that seeing his own future never happened."

 

"Probably because if it did, he'd always be running scared," Mick put in.

 

"Possibly, yes. Or it's just not part of his gift."

 

"He calls it a curse," Mick told them. "A gift—and a curse."

 

"I suspect, if I were him, I'd think the same thing," Mira said softly.

 

"So when Uncle Danny died, Will just decided to give it all up and go live like a bum."

 

"Hey now," Mick protested. "He might have been living on the streets, but he wasn't a bum, any more than I am."

 

"I'm sorry." Kevin took Mick's hand. "I didn't mean that the way it came out."

 

"Yeah, I know. I shouldn't be so touchy."