New Life : A Second Chance

Whenever the Smith Twins did something their mother didn't like, one would know how deep in trouble one is in depending on how she addressed them.

If she called them by including the surname, they were in trouble but it wasn't bad yet. A prelude to the storm, if you will. However, if she started calling them by their full names ... then all Hell would break lose.

When she did so, she was also very emotional and more often than not, irrational. Not such a good trait for a social worker, one would think - but the strange thing was, she only lost control with them. Perhaps since she bottled up most of her negative emotions caused by work had stressed her out and she can only be normal with them? It gets released then?

Kyle started scratching his head. How was he going to explain to her without her going ballistic?

"Well? I am waiting!!" his mum said tersely over the phone.

Just then, he heard something over the phone. A piece of one particular familiar opening music. His eyes darted to the wall and he groaned.

It was the 5 o'clock news.

His mum always watched the news, to find out if there was an area that may need some help. Kay understood what happened and went to Davis to ask him politely if he could switch on the television to watch the 5 o'clock news.

There, right smack bang as the first news was some shaky video of Kyle scaling the wall. The reporter was saying, "This just in! Just minutes ago, at Mall T, a brave young boy by the name of Kyle, saved a baby that had fallen!"

"KYLE REXINGTON SMITH!! IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL A SMALL MATTER?!" roared his mother. "You - you - .... since when ... wait till I tell your Father about this ... I ... "

Then the line went dead.

"Well, that went well," Kyle said sheepishly, "I'll call back after the news coverage is over."

Davis stared at the both of them. The moment their names had been mentioned by their mum, Harrison had immediately done a background check. It wasn't hard as any basic internet search would yield a lot of results. The Smith Twins.

More importantly, the boy was the heir to the Smith Corporation. Davis knew Patrick Smith - who in the business world wouldn't? He was known to be an aggressive businessman, but generally easy going. However, when it came to his family, he was fiercely protective.

He knew that there's no way that Patrick would allow his kids to be interviewed. Patrick had made it clear that his kids were off limits. Thus, the only thing he needed to do was discuss with the Smiths was what sort of information is allowed to be shared.

Kyle and Kay watched the news in silence. One had to admit, watching it was far more impressive than actually doing it. There was hardly any commentating while the video of the rescue was going on, adding to the 'mysterious' factor bit, Kyle supposed. At the end of it, they even managed to get Cole interviewed.

He stood there, looking rather composed for being in the spotlight suddenly while answering the questions targeted at him.

"Tell me, Mr. Cole. You're the owner of Rock5 Gym and Kyle was using your harness," began the reporter.

At that moment, there was a small square shown at the top right corner of the television, whereby it was a zoomed up picture of Kyle when he climbed over the railing the first time. The harness in front of him was circled and the logo of Rock5 Gym could vaguely be seen.

"You even helped him by throwing him the rope," the reporter continued, "Tell me, just who is this Kyle?"

"Well, he's someone that's a total natural and a prodigy at rock climbing. He is actually our secret weapon - though it's not secret anymore," Cole explained.

"Secret weapon??"

"Yes. Our trump card, so to speak, for the qualifying rounds in the Rocky International Competition at the end of the year. He's been training secretly at our gym since the beginning of the year," Cole explained.

[Nice. Cole covered for me well] Kyle said with approval.

[What would you have done if he didn't?] Kay asked.

[I took a huge gamble, I admit. I didn't know if he would keep to his word but from the way he kept pestering me to join the team, I figured he had some high stakes at hand and wouldn't bail on me.]

[Huge gamble indeed]

[Yes. If he didn't cover up for me, I would have had to deal with it accordingly. It really depended on what he would actually say, really. Couldn't cover all contingencies due to the lack of time. Luckily he followed the plan. Otherwise ... well, I would have made sure Cole regrets breaking his promise]

[Truly risky indeed. Now we 'only' have Mum to deal with]

Kyle grimaced. [Once she calms down, she'll be ok]

[True. The question is ... how long will it take for her to calm down?]

After the news was over, Kyle turned to look at Davis and said, "I'm sorry for my Mum's outburst earlier. She tends ... to be rather overprotective."

"Understandable," Davies replied, "Perhaps it's best that I talk to her now."

"Yes, Sir," Kyle agreed. His Mum, Delilah, wouldn't blow her top at a stranger, so now that she knew what had happened, it would be easier to have some sort of discussion.

Davis pressed the redial button and the moment the call connected, Delilah's voice screamed through the speaker-phone, "KYLE REXINGTON SMITH!! You come home RIGHT NOW. I'm pulling you and Kay out of Sakura Academy. You're already a target just because you're a Smith and you have to go and pull that stunt?! What were you thinking?! Are ..."

"Mrs. Smith," Davis cut in at that point, "I am Davis Grant, the owner of Mall T."

"Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was my son, Kyle," Delilah replied, her voice suddenly all sweet and normal now.

"I'm truly sorry for the harrowing experience you must have gone through, but I am truly grateful that not only did nothing happen to your son, but he also managed to save the life of an innocent child."

"Yes, yes Mrs. Smith. I'm Mary, the mother of the baby that your brave son saved. I'm so sorry Mrs. Smith. So sorry but I ... I ... if it wasn't for him, my baby would be dead. I ..." she started to cry again and Kyle came over and put his arms around her shoulder.

On the other end of the phone, Delilah's face scrunched up. She hadn't known that the phone conversation was heard by those involved. If she had known, she wouldn't have acted the way she did. She was just worried over Kyle and seeing that video of him ... almost made her faint.

She was so upset that she couldn't even talk to Kyle at that moment, her eyes glued on the tv set. If it wasn't for the fact that Kyle was on the phone with her, she would have been at the edge of her seat, thinking he had fallen.

The height. The moves. The danger! There was nothing between him and the ground. What was he holding on to? What if he slipped? When she saw the baby fall and Kyle sway as he caught the baby, she screamed. She actually went to the television and was touching the screen, her eyes full of tears while her heart was in her throat.

Kyle had always been a strange baby. Never needing her help and never asked for anything. He even refused to be breastfed, unlike Kay. He was so independent ... his whole life was Kay, then those other boys he befriended in school. Despite that, she loved him. He was a part of her. He was her son. To see him put himself in danger like that. What mother could stand it?

"No, I am sorry for my outburst," Delilah began, "I am glad your baby is safe, Mary. Please, call me Delilah."

Delilah could hear the quiet sobbing of the woman in the background and the sounds of a toddler's baby talk. She could barely make out the faint "Bi bloodder! Bi bloodder!!" amidst clapping sounds. Delilah sighed and massaged the space between her eyebrows.

"Delilah, I'd like to discuss the press release statement with you and your husband, Patrick. Would it be convenient to Skype ... say, in 30 minutes?" Davies asked.

"Yes, that would be fine," Delilah said, "I'll let my husband know and we'll be waiting."

After disconnecting the call, Davis looked at Kyle who was now playing with Baby Dahlia. She was happily smiling as Kyle did the normal 'peek-a-boo' game. He hid his face behind his hands, making her anxious and when he opened it with a smile, she clapped and kept calling, "Bi bloodder! Bi bloodder!"

"It's a good thing that she doesn't appear to be traumatised," Kyle said as he played with Dahlia.

"Yes, and she seems to have become quite attached to you," Mary commented with a smile.

"Ah, I seem to have that effect on girls," Kyle said with a grin, "Though she's the youngest ever!"

Kay smacked him on the shoulder, saying, "Shameless!"

Kyle laughed and shrugged his shoulders, "Can't deny the facts now, can we?"

Kay took Dahlia, who was trying to climb onto Kyle at that moment, as she crawled up and grabbed onto his shirt. She protested loudly but Kay merely said gently to her, "Big Brother's hands are hurt. See? He can't hold you."

Dahlia sniffed, looked at Kyle's hand and stretched towards it. Kay let her go and she went to Kyle again, gently patting his hands then looked up at him.

"Don't worry, little one," Kyle said, "It doesn't hurt."

Dahlia continued patting his hand. She always found that when Mummy pat her, it was very comforting. So she wanted to make sure Big Brother was also comfortable. Soon, she was starting to feel sleepy. It was her evening nap, after all, and she just had her bottle of milk.

Mary watched all of this in wonder.