Ricky who originally been sat beside Phoebe moved after Nate left to sit beside Brax who she felt needed her more now that Roo was able to look after Phoebe. While she looked around the room, Ricky noticed that the people who were sat in this room were amongst some of the people who carried about Kyle the most. That made Ricky think about an important point in Kyle's life after he moved to the Bay.
Flashback 2 – 2 years ago…
It was a Saturday afternoon and she had just returned from the shops to find Kyle sat on the couch watching TV.
"Hey Kyle, can you give me hand with these bags please?" Ricky asked.
"Hey Ricky, yeah where do you want them?" Kyle asked as he stood up and grabbed the bags off her.
"Just put them on the table for me while I grab the last one from the car."
Kyle put the bags on the table while Ricky went outside. When Ricky re-entered the house she found Kyle putting the shopping away which shocked her as she wasn't used to a Braxton always helping with the shopping.
"You didn't have to do that."
"That's ok, I wanted to help after all I have nothing else to do."
As she looked around she asked: "Where is everyone else?"
"Well Brax is at the restaurant, Heath and Bianca have taken Darcy to the cinema and Casey is with his friends at the beach."
"Why didn't you go with Casey?"
"He didn't ask me to go with him."
"That didn't mean you could go as well Kyle."
"I know but I didn't want to intrude when I hadn't been asked."
"Kyle you wouldn't have intruded. Casey would have let you go with him."
"I also had homework to do so I wanted to get that out of the way."
"Ok if you say so, I'm not going to stop someone from doing their homework as I know how important homework is."
"Anyway I think I'm going to go to my room now unless you need my help with anything else?" Kyle asked Ricky before he left the kitchen.
"No that's everything thanks but I'll let you know if I need any help with anything else." Ricky replied to him. "Oh Kyle!"
"Yeah?"
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine why?"
"You just look a bit pale that's all."
"No I'm fine."
"Ok then."
Kyle smiled and went off to his room leaving Ricky to wonder what was really going on with him.
30 minutes later…
Ricky was sat in the garden relaxing when Brax walked through the gate.
"What's this like?" Brax said as he approached her.
"I don't know what you mean?" Ricky laughed.
"Being lazy is not allowed." Brax joined in the laughing.
"Oh well I guess I didn't listen but you know what maybe you should join me instead of being busy all the time with work."
"That sounds like a great idea. Maybe we could head inside as well considering everyone else is probably out."
Ricky didn't reply and just starred at Brax.
"What?"
"Not everyone is out."
"What do you mean?"
"Kyle is in his room. I came home an hour ago to find him sat on his own watching the TV."
"Why is he on his own and I thought he would have gone out with Casey?"
"He said he had homework to do and that he didn't want to intrude on Casey hanging out with his friends."
"That's weird I know for fact Kyle did his last bit of homework last night when he got home from school. Also why would he be intruding on Casey and his mates?"
"To be honest Brax, I don't think he has made any friends yet."
"How can he not of made friends yet he has been here for four months?"
"I get the feeling that Kyle doesn't make friends to easily."
"Hmm, maybe there is more to it than that?"
"I don't think there is Brax I mean you've seen Kyle when he is around new people, he goes quiet."
"Yeah but he should be over that by now."
"Yeah well I don't think he is."
"I might go check on him and see if he is ok."
"Ok and I'll go make us a coffee." Ricky said as the two of them got up and went inside going off in their separate directions.
5 minutes later…
Ricky had just poured the coffee into the mugs when Brax appeared beside her.
"Well that was a quick conversation." She said as she looked at her boyfriend.
"Well I knocked on the door and there was no answer so I went in to find him fast asleep." Brax explained to Ricky.
"Well that new."
"Not really Heath used to do it all the time when he was younger."
"Yeah but Heath was 17 and didn't sleep through a day on the weekend just on days when he had to go to school."
"True maybe he is just tired."
"Yeah maybe your right, but saying that I remember he did look pale when I came in from the shopping."
"Well there we go he was probably not feeling well which is why he didn't go out with Casey and it would also explain why he's asleep now."
"Yeah your right there's nothing to worry about he'll be fine once he has slept."
"You really need to stop worrying to much, Kyle seems like he can handle pretty much anything." Brax told her as he went back out the room to get changed.
3 hours and 30 minutes later…
Casey had returned from hanging out with his friends and was currently setting the table for dinner, while Ricky was cooking and Brax had gone to get something he left at the restaurant.
"Hey Casey, can I ask you something?" Ricky asked Casey.
Casey finished what he was doing and sat down: "Sure, what's up?"
"Well it's about Kyle."
"What about him?"
"Did he ask you if he could hang out with you and the others?"
"No why? He said he had homework to do so he was going to stay here, when I asked him if he wanted to come with me."
"So you did ask him because he told me that you didn't and that he didn't want to intrude."
"Did he?" Casey asked with a confused look on his face.
"Something smells good." Heath said as him and the rest of the family entered the house.
"I knew something was wrong Brax!" Ricky shouted as soon as she saw Brax stood beside Heath, Bianca and Darcy.
"What are you on about?" Brax asked her.
"Casey just told me he did ask Kyle if he wanted to go with him to the beach."
"Is that true Case?"
"Yeah I made sure to ask him as I didn't wan to hang out on his own but he told me he had homework which I know for fact he doesn't cause me and you saw him finish it last night, so I thought he might just want to chill around here on his own." Casey told the others.
"Can someone tell me what's going as I'm confused." Heath spoke up.
Darcy decided at that point to wind her dad up: "Your always confused dad is your permeant state."
"Darcy!" Bianca shouted at the girl who was currently laughing her head off.
Ricky looked at her friend and said: "SHHH!"
"Why?"
"Kyle's asleep."
"Still?" Brax asked Ricky.
"Yeah and I do think he isn't well Brax."
"Hmm maybe one of us should check on him?"
"Check on who?" came a voice from behind them.
"You lazy! But now your awake we don't have to so we can now sit and enjoy dinner." Brax told his brother.
"Ok!" Kyle said as he went and sat down with everyone looking at him.
Throughout dinner Ricky and Brax kept one eye each trained on Kyle to make sure he was ok. Which was the way the rest of the night carried on until everyone went off to bed.
During the night…
Ricky woke to the sound of running water from the bathroom down the hall, so she decided to go and investigate as she wasn't used to anyone being up at that time of the night.
As she approached the bathroom Kyle came out still looking pale.
"Hey are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm…" Kyle started to say before quickly running back in the bathroom and straight to the toilet where he was sick.
Ricky rushed over to him and rubbed his back: "So you are ill, I guess that explains why you lied to me and Casey about having homework to do and why you were asleep when Brax got back from work."
Kyle stopped throwing up and looked at her: "You knew?"
"I had an inkling that something was wrong when I saw how pale you were earlier."
"I'm sorry!"
"What you sorry for?"
"Well lying and being ill." Kyle said as he started to throw up again.
"Oh Kyle it's not your fault but I wish you had told us the truth so we could look after you."
The two of them sat in silence for another five minutes when Ricky thought it would be a good idea for Kyle to go back to bed and she could put a bucket in his room in case he was sick again.
In Kyle's room
"You can go back to bed now I should be fine now that I have everything I need." Kyle told her.
"Well tough because I'm not going anywhere so shut up, close your eyes and go to asleep." Ricky instructed Kyle.
Kyle deciding that it would be best not to argue, did what he was told and went to sleep with Ricky sat beside him in case he needed her.
Present time…
For some reason that memory made Ricky think about how much she really cared about Kyle. The way he didn't want anyone to know he was ill at the time had made her worry that something was really wrong but it just turned out that he did want his new found family to have to look after him when he was ill.
