Chapter 96 - Ache In His Heart
Mary watched as her daughter began positioning herself on Kyle's lap, trying to find a comfortable position. She leaned towards him, hugging him but her small arms could barely touch his waist. Kyle figured out what she was trying to do, so he placed his arm under her head, positioning his elbow right at the back of her head.
Dahlia leaned back then. Kyle looked at Kay, then his feet, whispering for help to take off his shoes. She smiled and got down on her knees on the floor, then easily took off his shoes. Luckily, he had changed his socks when he went to Rock5 Gym then, so there was no assault to anyone's nose with his stinky socks.
Kyle then slowly brought his legs up onto the sofa and sat cross-legged on it. With great care, he positioned the now sleeping Dahlia in the crook of his crossed legs. She was small enough to fit in there, so he didn't need to support her head in any way.
Kyle leaned back on the chair, gently stroking Dahlia's hair. He started thinking of his own babies and wondered what they were doing now. His son, Joseph, is seven while his daughter, Lianne, is only five.
He remembered how they were when they were born. Such cute little angels. Joseph was the sociable one while Lianne was the more quiet and serious one. Even at two years old, she was utterly serious. Extremely curious about everything, too.
Seeing Dahlia like this reminded Kyle so much about his own kids, especially Lianne. He hadn't seen or touched them in 13 years. Just having to settle with looking at them from afar, protecting them from a distance.
His Lianne had fine, curly hair - much like Dahlia right now. So he couldn't help but keep touching her hair at that moment. Even though he could barely feel it with the gauze on his palm. Yet, it was enough.
Mary was still watching Kyle and the way he was with Dahlia. The way he handled and took care of Dahlia was unlike normal kids. Kids generally would be awkward around little kids and the most that they would do was play with them. Kyle was different. He would play with her, talk to her like Dahlia understood everything and now he had put her to sleep.
That's not all. Mary also noticed how Kyle was looking at Dahlia. It was akin to how a mother would look at her kids. There was a gentleness in his eyes that could not be faked. All mothers instinctively know that look. But why did Kyle have such a look in his eyes? It did not make any sense!
"Do you babysit?" Mary couldn't help but ask.
Kyle was taken aback, "Er, no."
"Do you have any younger siblings? Cousins?" she continued to ask.
"No," Kyle replied, looking at her in puzzlement.
"Do you hang around and mix with young kids a lot?"
"No," he said again then asked, "Why?"
"Nothing, just curious," Mary said.
In the end, Mary decided to stop asking and felt that Kyle was probably just an unexplainable existence. If this was a work of fiction, he'd probably be the main character that's insanely powerful or the ideal guy. What's important was that Kyle was a good guy and Dahlia liked him. She would never forget what he had done and she promised herself that she would never lose touch with Dahlia's Guardian Angel. She had a Life Debt to Kyle that could never be repaid.
Five minutes before the time was up, Harrison came in and told them that everything was set up at the conference room. All that was left was to connect to Delilah and Patrick. Kyle looked helplessly at the comfortably sleeping Dahlia. It would be such a shame to wake her, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
Mary came and gently picked up her sleeping baby, who struggled at first in protest but calmed down when Mary put her on her shoulder, patting her back. Once Dahlia fell back asleep, Mary cradled her close to her chest and they walked towards the Conference Room.
[You okay, brother?] Kay asked, picking up on his melancholy mood.
[Yeah] Kyle replied, following the others from behind [Just suddenly missing my kids]
It was something that he normally was able to just put at the back of his mind. His kids had absolutely no connection to him here, so it was easier to accept the separation. There was nothing in this life that could remind him of them, such as the park that they usually go to. Or the dining table where they would have their family dinners. Or the places they used to eat.
So long as he just focused on his life here, he could deal with the sense of loss and separation. However, this situation hit too close to home. Touching a baby, holding a baby ... and having a baby be so attached to you.
All the memories and feelings that he had been suppressing all these years just came to the surface. It had taken him supreme effort to squash them and bring them back down. The ache in his heart didn't go away, however, and a part of him just wanted to go back and stare at his kids' pictures that the Mary Poppins Agents sent.
He knew that it would be a bad idea, though. If he viewed them while feeling this ache in his heart, he would most likely break down and cry. So it would be best if he only looked at the album after he had calmed down.
Kay held on to Kyle's arm, leaning on him and wishing that she could do more to help ease the pain in his heart. It frustrated her that she couldn't but Life was like that, wasn't it? You can't have everything under control. You can't help even your loved ones in some things, no matter how much you want to. There are things that only they can go through and all you can do is just be their silent support by their side. You don't have to say anything, but just make your presence known.
Once they entered the Conference room, Kyle could see Harrison and another person adjusting a laptop each. They then started positioning the laptops so that it would not only be able to see part of each other but also the rest of the people at the table. Kyle, Kay, and Mary were directed to their positions.
Kyle could see his parents' faces clearly at the laptop screen and he was careful to have his hands hidden under the table.
"Hello, I am Davis and I would first like to thank you, Patrick and Delilah, for agreeing to this meeting at such short notice," Davis began, "As you are already aware, Kyle here had done a rather miraculous feat in saving the life of Dahlia."
Dahlia by that time had awoken from her mother's embrace, due to the walk to the Conference Room. She was sitting on the table in front of Mary, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She looked up upon hearing her name then looked around.
"Bi bloodder!!" she called out then started crawling to him on the table. She then sat right in front of him and put her little hands on his cheeks, patting them.
Despite the slight disturbance, Davis didn't skip a beat as he then continued, "Right now, we've secured Kyle and Kay here in the Office, but the press is waiting for a statement from Mall T. They would, of course, like Kyle to be there as well."
"Absolutely not," Patrick replied firmly, "He's only 13. I don't want his life disrupted by this."
"I understand but unfortunately, I believe his life is already going to be disrupted by this. If we can allow him to be there, it would feed their curiosity and hopefully, stop them from trying to get more later on."
"He has a point, dear," Delilah said, her eyes not wavering from watching Dahlia playing with Kyle. Her eyes narrowed.
"And Kyle, sweetheart," Dahlia began and Kyle sat up straight.
[Oh. Oh. You're gonna be in trouble again, brother]
Their Mum had many tricks. The name thing was one. This was another. If she started off sweetly, she's going to then drop a bombshell. It was never a good bombshell.
"Yes, Mum?" Kyle turned to look at 'her' with a Sweet Smile.
"Let me see your hands," Delilah demanded.
Kyle sighed. Trust her to notice. With Dahlia playing and demanding attention, he had merely made faces and allowed her to continuously pat his face and head. His hands had been under the table the whole time and he had tried to act as normal as possible. Didn't work.
Well, he DID get his smarts from his mother, albeit he was at a much higher level.
He slowly took out his hands from under the table and he heard a sharp intake of breath from both Delilah and Patrick.
"It's just normal rope burns," Kyle said hurriedly, "Will heal easily in a few days."
"Good," Delilah said, "Good. Good. That's really good."
[You got four 'Good', brother. Shall I plan your funeral now, or when we go home for the school holidays?]
[You're NOT helping, Kay] Kyle growled inwardly, but on the outside, he gave a sorry expression as he looked at his parents.
"Fine, Kyle can be there at the Press Conference but we will be there as well. When will it be?" Patrick asked.
"Is tomorrow morning a convenient time? Say, 8am? It's rather late now, and we will need to prepare the venue as well," Davis explained.
"That's fine," Patrick replied.
"Great," Davis said, clasping his hands together, "We'll have it here at Mall T, of course, in our Convention Centre."
"Noted," Patrick said.
"And Kyle?" Delilah called out.
"Yes, Mum?"
"You and Kay go to Shifu's place. We'll be there tonight," Delilah said.
Kyle nodded. Master Shifu's house had an elaborate security system so there was no worry of the reporters getting in. Plus, the fact that he was their guardian while they were here was in the school's private records, and there was no way an outsider would find out. Not so soon, anyway. So it was the safest place to go to.
Until his parents arrived, of course.