7: Thicker Than Blood

I sat on death's door after what Cassidy did to me, but I was able to recover. I don't know how, and even looking over everything, it seems to be nothing short of a miracle that I recovered as well as I did. I know that, I want to question it, but at the same time I don't. I feel that I must, but if I do, then I might not be able to explain what happened.

As a man who roots himself down with science and facts, a miracle is a hard thing to explain. Yet things such as childbirth and love can be described as miracles, despite being easily explained things. But for some reason, I feel that even if I looked into it, I'd find no answers, and get none from anyone who might know. The doctors said as much, because they didn't know what happened either.

As I laid in that bed, I almost felt as though I wished I had died. It would have hurt less dying than what I had to say to Amanda. I wish I hadn't had to have said those things to her, but that is how I feel. I can't be with her again, not yet. Not under these circumstances alone. I hope she understands that.

As will Jessi, for why I can't be with her.

I know Cassidy is my enemy. He, like Latnok, must be stopped. But I want to know how someone can do something like that to their own blood, even if our blood is so thin. How could he, if he's the one who constantly brings up our semi-shared parentage? I know he doesn't like me, but why would he try to kill me, of all things? How could he?

I try to bury it deep, but I do know that I almost killed him. I still don't understand how I could nearly do that. How could he? How can anyone take a life? Especially of someone related to them? Besides, doesn't Grace Kingsly want me alive? For the clone information in my brain?

Kyle was supposed to be resting, but he couldn't sit around and do that. He was out of his tub, just trying to keep busy. He shouldn't be pushing himself, but yet he was doing pushups on the floor, trying to gauge his heart. It felt perfectly fine, along with his entire body.

How had he recovered this well? His heart shouldn't be this strong. Not yet. How was it working so well?

He got to his feet and walked to the window, looking outside. The day was dark, as a storm was expected. He remembered the last time it had stormed; he had seen Cassidy's face at his window. He hadn't liked that. He hoped that it would lighten up, lest memories flash back to him.

"How can you be doing this?" Cassidy demanded over his cellphone. He was in his office, no longer sitting, having risen to his feet in outrage, "I gave you the information! It's all there, isn't it?"

A pause.

"…I'm sorry for my outburst," he muttered an apology, "But…is it all there?"

Pause.

"Good. I'm glad the data was accurate. I also apologize in advance for how I obtained it. …I will tell you how I did it, just not yet."

A long pause again.

"I had to put Kyle's life in danger in order to obtain the data!" Cassidy defended himself, "I'm sorry I had to go against orders like that, but we have it, and Kyle's fine! I had it all planned out."

A pause once more.

"You underestimate your firstborn, mum," he said, "I knew what I was doing. I knew how to fix things. I knew who to go to to get the information. And I got the information. Kyle was healed. He's fine. I succeeded! Take off your blinders for once, mum, and look at me as a competent, willing man! You may hold me in regard as the second best, as your worst son, but I did well! I did the job that no other could do! I did everything right! It all worked out!"

One final pause.

"How…how can you do that, mum?" he demanded, "…Fine. Just remember something, mum. I am the one who's loyal to you. Not Kyle. He will never be loyal to you! Only I will be!"

Then the other line went dead as he was hung up on.

Cassidy threw his cellphone at the door and dropped into his chair. He heard a knock on his door.

"Come!"

Nate opened the door slowly, noticing the phone on the floor, "What? Bad call?"

"It's none of your concern, Nate," Cassidy hissed, "What is it that you want?"

"I wanted to get an update on things," he said.

"What things?" Cassidy questioned.

Nate shrugged, "Well, you haven't had me do anything for a while. I mean, I didn't even get to work on that software that you had made to get at Kyle's brain! I need some assignment, or what point is there to me being 'promoted' if I don't have any work?"

Cassidy pushed his chair out as he abruptly rose, "Look, Nate, I don't care what you do with your time. I really don't care! Now, do you want to do something? You can get out of my office, and get out of my sight! I don't care about you or your problems, you insignificant little worm!"

Nate backed away at Cassidy's outburst. He reached behind him for the door, "Yeah…ok, I'll come back later," he muttered under his breath, "When you don't have a stick up your ass."

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Nate said, ducking out as fast as he could.

Cassidy fell back into his chair, putting his head in his hands. How could his mother do this? How could she take everything he had succeeded in doing, and yet show him no appreciation? It was only because of him that they were getting anywhere.

Cassidy reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a handgun. He hated guns, though he did quite enjoy using the electrical weapons that had been developed by Latnok. They weren't meant to kill, rather just to stop. For torture. It was a weapon that he could use to get himself farther ahead, and not incur the wrath of his mother, as it couldn't kill Kyle when he used it on that man.

But this. This could kill. This would kill. He turned it over in his hand, considering going to the Trager home and killing Kyle. They had what they needed, after all. And the serum that he had given Jessi had worked, so that was a success. Now that he survived, maybe it was time to kill him.

Make himself the favorite by being the only one left. But his mother would resent him for killing Kyle. Her favorite child, even if she had never met him.

"What should I do with you?" he muttered, looking at the gun, then he decided to put it away.

Not now. Not yet, anyway.

There was a knock at the door. Nicole went to answer it, opening it to see a woman standing there, a few years older than her, wearing business-like clothing, with a cold demeanor about herself, her eyes trying to appear warm, however. She had coarse, black hair that went a bit below her shoulders, a bit wavy.

"Can I help you?" Nicole asked her.

"I'm here to see Kyle," she said in a distinctly British accent.

"Kyle?" Nicole asked, "What business would you have with him?"

Slight wisps of a smile came to her face, "I have probably the most important business with him that he has had yet. That he may ever have. I am his mother, and I am here to take him home."

"His mother?" Nicole questioned critically, "How…how can you be his mother if he…"

"I guess he hasn't said everything there is to say," Grace replied, "May I come in?"

"Kyle!" Nicole called, stepping aside to allow this woman in, ignorant of all of the facts, or she wouldn't have let her inside.

Kyle was coming into the hall, "Nicole?" His eyes went to Grace Kinsgly. He didn't need to know her name to know who she was, "Grace Kingsly…"

"I can see that you know who I am just by feeling," she told him.

"I don't know how," he replied.

"A son feeling his mother. That's all it is," she said.

"I am not your son!" he shouted at her.

"Oh, but you are," she replied, "I still haven't had an invitation to come in," she told Nicole.

Nicole allowed her to come inside, "We…we need to settle some things," Nicole said, "Please, come in."

"You're here to take me away, aren't you?" Kyle demanded.

"Now, now, Kyle. This isn't the place to be talking of such things," Grace said, "We shouldn't have to stand in the middle of a hall to speak to each other."

"That's all you're getting from me," Kyle hissed to her, "I refuse to speak to you. I refuse to do anything for you!"

"For your own mother?" she questioned, "Kyle, you should listen to everything."

"I don't care about everything," he told her, "I don't care about anything you have to say to me!"

"Even about Adam?"

"He would have told me anything I needed to know," he told her, "Leave. Now!"

"Now, now, Kyle. I'm not going anywhere. Not without my son with me," she said.

"Wait, you're not taking him anywhere," Nicole said, "Not unless he wants to go."

Grace looked to Nicole, "I don't like standing here and speaking to you two like this. Let us sit and discuss things. With your entire family. Then you should see things my way, and let me take my son, whom you have been so kind as to raise for me while I could not."

Before Nicole could come up with any response, Grace walked towards Kyle. He backed away from her, against the wall, just afraid of her for some reason. She walked past him, going towards the kitchen. Nicole came to Kyle's side.

"We need to get rid of her," Kyle said angrily.

"I don't like her either, but we should hear her out," Nicole said.

He turned to her, "You actually want to listen?"

"We're not going to let her take you away from us," Nicole assured him, "But we would like to know what she has to say. I'm sure we all would. Even you."

"I don't care what she has to say," he said, "Cassidy is her other son. Cassidy is the man who threatened everyone I love. I don't care what that woman has to say! She has to leave, now!"

"I can see how much you don't like her, how much it pains you to see her here, but knowledge is power, Kyle. Knowledge of the situation could be useful. And maybe you'll learn something that you might need to know."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. But maybe you will learn something."

"I doubt it," he said, "I just want her gone. The longer she's here, the more danger everyone is in. She's Latnok, therefore she's the enemy. Not only is she a member, but she seems to be one of the heads. We can't let her be here!"

"I'm sorry Kyle, but she is going to be here," Nicole said, "I can't stand to see one of my children hurting, but it might be even worse if we force her to leave without saying anything."

I could see the wisdom in Nicole's words. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. But could this really be anything but trouble, letting Grace Kingsly be here? I don't think so. She can only be here for terrible reasons. I'm certain of that.

The family was gathered around the table, sitting together, with Grace Kinsgly sitting there as well, but away from them. It would look to anyone who didn't know the situation as obviously the family and an outsider.

"So…you're saying you're Kyle's mother," Stephen said, "How…how is that even possible?"

"Yeah," Josh chimed in, "Clones don't have mothers. At least, that would defeat the point of cloning, wouldn't it?"

"I'm not–," Kyle began.

"Let me," Grace said, "I can possibly explain it better. He's not a complete clone. He does look exactly like Adam Baylin, and could be mistaken as a clone, that is for sure. But he's not a pure clone. He has the genetic information of Adam Baylin as the primary code in his genetics, while I provided an egg for Adam's sperm. I play a small role in Kyle's genetics, but a role none-the-less. I didn't birth him; no. He was a test-tube baby, then placed and developed in the serum created by Adam. He was developed with in it, rather than a womb.

"He has my genetics, none-the-less. My blood, as he does Adam's. Adam's genes are the primary genes, with mine mostly pushed aside so that Kyle would be just like Adam, as it was believed that his mind would better be able to develop if it was like Adam's in almost every way. So my genes were suppressed to the point where they almost don't exist inside of Kyle. But he is still my son.

"Blood is blood, no matter how thin."

"Your real son likes to say that to me," Kyle growled at her.

"Michael? You're both my real sons, Kyle," she told him.

"I am not!" he shouted, losing his cool.

"Kyle, calm down," Stephen said, putting a hand to his shoulder, "Just calm yourself down. There's no point in anger like this."

"Yes there is! Don't you see that she came here for a reason?" Kyle shouted, "She obviously wants to take me away!"

"You're not taking him away!" Josh shouted at her, clearly falling into what Kyle had said. He couldn't dispute the logic. Or maybe he just didn't like Grace and wanted to shout at her. Probably a bit of both.

"We won't let you take him," Lori said, keeping a bit calmer about herself than Josh had, "He's our brother. He may be your son, but he's our brother first!"

"I renounce you and your blood," Kyle told Grace coldly, "The Tragers are my only family now."

"Now, now, Kyle," she started, "don't talk like that. The Tragers did an excellent job of raising you these few years, of helping you to develop and see what you could of the world, but they can only hold you back at this point.

"Don't you see that I can offer you so much more? I can offer you the world, if you desire it, Kyle. I can offer you just about anything you would ever want or need."

"How do you plan on managing that?" Kyle questioned her.

"Because that's what Latnok is," she told him, "Latnok is your calling. It's your heritage. Why do you think I've managed to rise as far as I have? Because Adam was respected. By being his egg donor, I am respected in another way. It isn't pure respect; they aren't that shallow to see that. I devoted my life in Latnok to being the best I could be. They finally saw me as Adam's equal, if not superior. I've managed to secure a good place for myself, and I'm not as good as you, Kyle. Imagine the spot that you will have in Latnok when you come with me.

"Latnok already wants you. They already know what you can do, respect and admire what you can do. They want to have you as one of us, Kyle. I, as your mother, am only looking out for your best interests by planning on bringing you back. Can't you see that, my son?"

"I am not your son," he hissed, "If anything, I am Adam Baylin's son!"

"Baylin is dead and gone," she told him, "You need to find your mother, now. You need to come to me."

"I don't need you," he hissed, "I have the Tragers. They're the only family I need anymore."

"You really think that, don't you?" she questioned, "How far will they let you go in your life, though? Answer me that," she challenged.

"I don't know what you mean."

"I don't think any of us do," Nicole said.

"I think she's insulting us as a family," Josh put in.

"I mean no harm," Grace said, "I mean that you hardly have the resources to help Kyle advance. He could advance on his own, but nowhere near as high as he could with the help of Latnok, with my help."

"I won't take your help," he told her, "I'd rather die than go anywhere with you, accept your help."

"We've only just met. I'm trying to get you to abandon your life that you've known for the last few years; the only life you've ever known. I know this can be frightening, Kyle, the unknown is frightening. I'll forgive your insults."

"They aren't insults," he said, "Dying would be better than going with you, with Latnok. Latnok is an evil organization. But if I were to die, then nobody would be around to try to stop them. To stop you."

"We don't need to be stopped," Grace said, "We only try to help."

"Help? By selling clones of me to the highest bidder?"

"Look at yourself, Kyle," Grace told him, "Look at what you've done with your life since coming to the Tragers. You've touched many lives, in the conventional sense as to what we would call 'many'. Most of those lives have been touched for the better. Look at how good of a person you are, Kyle.

"Now, imagine that on a much larger scale. That is our hope with the clones, if we could have the formula from you. Imagine a small army of good, healing individuals like you working throughout the world, trying to right wrongs, fix everything that can be fixed. Bring rain to the deserts, bring food to the hungry. Imagine it, Kyle. That is what we hope to accomplish as Latnok!"

"I don't believe you," he told her, "Latnok has become a corrupt organization. Its only interest is in gaining a profit. You don't care if the clones would do good things. You don't care if they would do morally wrong things. All you care about is getting paid for them. For anything you create.

"That computer program? I saw it working as it was meant to work. I saw it working on a mentally damaged woman, working to find the cause of the problem and allow the C.I.R. to help fix it. I saw how wonderful such a program and machine could be. I also knew of what you were planning on doing with it, and had to destroy it.

"The things that Latnok creates can be wonderful, or they can be dangerous. Oftentimes both. They can help humanity, or they can help fill Latnok's purse. You and everyone else at Latnok is interested only in filling your own pockets. In gaining the money from the sales, from the deals you make. Isn't that right?"

"You're wrong."

"Josh, Lori, I think you two should go," Nicole told her two children.

"What?" Josh questioned, "You think we're going to miss this? I mean, it's only a discussion of philosophy or something, of right and wrong, but this is too good to miss!"

Lori shot him a look, "Besides, we're Kyle's brother and sister. We're both part of his family. We both care too much about him to let this woman take him. We're here for him."

"Yeah, that too," Josh said.

"Nicole is right. Please, leave," Kyle told the two of them.

"Kyle, we're here for you!" Lori told him, "We can stay and help be moral support."

"I have my morals in place," he said, "I don't need support. I also don't want you two here to be witness to what is going to happen here. You've already heard enough. I know I tell you all about Latnok and what happens, but I don't want you to know more than you have to, lest you too become targets, more so than Cassidy claims you already are."

"My other son has been warned," Grace said.

"That's not going to stop him, considering he put me in the hospital and nearly killed me," Kyle told her.

Lori and Josh were getting up from the table. Josh was going to complain, but Lori shook her head and pulled him out with her.

"What do you think is going to happen in there?" Josh asked, "And…he mentioned some computer program. Any idea what that's about?"

"I don't know what's going to happen," she said, "And…no. I don't know what he was talking about. I was hoping you could tell me. I figured he might have told you about that adventure, whatever it was."

"No, he didn't," Josh said, "Now, where do you think the best place to listen would be?"

"Come on," she said, pulling Josh away from where he was, "We're not going to hear anything there."

"You actually want to do this?" he asked, "I'm impressed."

"Kyle's family. We can't let that woman take him."

"Glad to see we're thinking the same," he said.

"We both love him. We can't lose him. I don't think we could live properly anymore without him."

"Yeah…we couldn't. I hate to say it, but he really is family now, even after so many years without him."

"He's a fundamental part of the family," Lori agreed.

In the kitchen, Grace leaned forward, "Now that those two are done, we can really get into this," she said, "You're coming with me. That's all there is to it."

"You can't make me come," he said.

"Adam Baylin had a fake paternity test done to get you to leave a few years ago, remember that? The Petersons?"

"What of them?" he questioned.

"I also have the proper DNA for a test," she said, "And with Latnok, we can win any legal case brought up because of the Petersons, even if they are legally deceased. I can make you come back, legally."

"I'm basically an adult," Kyle said, "You can't do that."

"You don't know your exact age," she said, "You're not quite eighteen yet, though. I can have you for at least some time."

"If you can win fast enough in court," he said.

Her expression darkened, "If you don't come with me, then you will regret it, Kyle. You and this family."

"Are you threatening us?" Stephen demanded.

"No," she said, "I'm not here to do that. I'm saying that you will all regret holding him back."

"We won't hold him back," Nicole told Grace.

"You may not think you are. You may not think you will. But you can do nothing but hold him back. This family isn't suited to him. It limits his potential. He must leave it if he is to become greater than he is. If he is to live up to what Adam Baylin sought for him. He must come with me, to the resources of Latnok."

"Never," Kyle said, "I'll make do with the Tragers. They're all I could ever need, and more."

"Kyle. If you don't come, then you will never have access to your legacy."

"Latnok?"

"Yes. It is your family business, so to speak. Adam, myself, and it goes back to our parents as well. Your grandparents on both ends. Even Michael is a part of Latnok. Do you really want to be left out of that?"

"If it means being with the Tragers, yes."

"And we're back to this," Grace said, shaking her head, "Kyle, you must stop hiding behind this family."

"I'm not hiding."

"You're hiding yourself from the proper world. From your fate, your destiny, by being with this family."

"We've done everything for Kyle," Nicole defended, "We allow him to live with his own choices, like parents do. He's made his choice, so why don't you act like his mother and accept it?"

"Because I want what's best for him, as a parent does," Grace said, "And what's best for him is Latnok."

"That's what you think is best for him," Nicole said, "What's best for him is a family that loves him unconditionally."

"Kyle's clearly made his decision not to go with you," Stephen said, "Why don't you just leave?"

"Because he's mine!" she snapped, "I will have my child back!"

"He's hardly a child anymore," Stephen said, "You never were meant to be involved in his life, were you? You gave an egg and that's all. You can't lay claim to him if that's all you did."

"I can lay claim to him," she said, "I will lay claim to him. He is my flesh and blood, and I hold his legacy in the palm of my hand. He must come with me."

Kyle sat there, listening to his mother by blood and his 'real' parents arguing over him. He watched back and forth, listening to their sides, listening to their words, their tones, their passions. The Tragers were determined to keep him, as Kyle had said he would stay with them. Grace was fighting to take him, and wasn't going to back down.

I had two decisions at this point. I could either go with Grace, my real mother, and go to Latnok. I could change it from the inside; return it to the benevolent organization that it was always meant to be. I could do it in Adam's name, and return the glory of the organization.

Or I could stay with the family that loves me. With the family I love. With the Tragers. If I did, I wouldn't be able to affect Latnok the way I could otherwise, but I could still attempt to change the organization from the outside. It would be a harder path, a longer path, but it would be the path I would take.

"If I may?"

"Kyle, go ahead," Stephen told him.

He looked to Grace, "I know you have my best interests at heart. You're my mother. I could feel that from the moment I saw you. I'm sure you can just tell I'm your son, even if you had nothing to do with me. Even if I have very little of you within me. I'm sure that you really do have my best interests at your heart. You want me to take over the legacy of my family; the legacy of Latnok.

"I understand why you're here. I understand why you're fighting to take me. You just want back what's yours. But the Tragers took me in! They helped me become this man I am! The man is what Latnok wants. That's all, isn't it? It's because of the Tragers that I'm this man. The Tragers deserve respect that you aren't showing. They molded me into the desirable man that I am to the organization, and to you.

"Listen to me. I am staying with the Tragers. I've thought about the offer. I've thought about what being in Latnok entails. I want nothing of it. If I will become a member of Latnok, it will be without you. It will be because I change things from the outside, where I can do good for everyone, not for the few members who work with me. What I mean to say is, I will do good with my own two hands, not with the power of that organization doing it for me. Only by doing it alone will I ever accept Latnok to join me in helping others. Only my own way will ever lead me to join Latnok.

"Do you understand me?"

"I understand you," Grace said, "You're a fool, Kyle. You're a passionate fool, just like Adam."

"You said your genes were repressed in me. Of course I'm like Adam," he said.

She got up from the table, "Well, I think it's about time I left. It was a…pleasure to meet you, my son."

As she turned to leave, he spoke to her back, "I'm not your son."

"Say that all you want. Blood is blood, no matter how thin."

"I've heard that from your son more than I'd like to," he said, "Did he get it from you, or you from him?"

"He got it from me," she said, "He actually got things from me. You got nothing from your mother, and wouldn't even take the offer. At least you considered it."

"Very briefly," he said.

Wisps of a smile appeared, "At least you did show some consideration to it. That's what I wanted. You'll come to Latnok before the end, Kyle."

"The end?"

"Nothing sinister, just an expression, of sorts," she said.

"You should stop talking and just leave," Kyle told her.

"Fine, I'm going. But remember, the offer is always open. Just speak to Michael and he'll get you to me, to get into Latnok."

"I won't take the offer," Kyle said, "So don't be waiting to hear from me."

Her smile vanished, "Goodbye, my son."

Lori and Josh scrambled away as they heard Grace coming in their direction. They hid while she walked out, towards the door, and left the Trager house. They came back out and went to the kitchen, pretending to have not overheard anything.

"I take it you're staying," Lori said.

Kyle nodded, "I couldn't leave my family."

Josh smiled, "That's great!" he clapped Kyle on the back, "You gave up power and money for us! I don't know if that's a good thing or not."

"It's a good thing," Kyle said, "Money and power can only get you so far. Family and love is what gets you the farthest."

["Cry" by James Blunt .com/watch?v=1vkp3eqV0rM]

Maybe I should have tried to find out more about Grace Kinsgly. The woman is my mother, if only by blood. She didn't even birth me, but I feel I should have found out more about her. The Tragers give me love, but Grace showed none. Perhaps had I made an effort, she would have.

Am I a bad person for not caring? For not wanting anything to do with her? With the way she acts, through Latnok, I have to think I'm not. I have to think I made the right choice in every action I made towards her.

I would never leave the Tragers, but at least knowing my mother might have been nice. It makes me think of the old debate of nature verses nurture. Nature is being raised in a specific surroundings. Nurture being the way you were raised. I was raised by a loving family, showing unconditional love towards me. That was my nurture. I was natured in a proper home as well.

In the end, it didn't matter where we would have been, as long as the Tragers had been there. Nurture.

But with Grace Kingsly? Raised with money and power, even from nearly sixteen years of age? I feel that she isn't the nurturing type, looking at Cassidy. Nature would have been the deciding factor. And once more looking at Cassidy, it wouldn't have been a good way for me to have come out.

Even now, even raised and proper as I am, I wouldn't want anything to affect me that Grace could have had working for or against me. I'm fine where I am. I'm where I belong.

I don't care anymore about Grace, about Latnok. The offers she made me are nothing but empty. She was serious about them, but I would never take them. I could never take them. I couldn't leave the Tragers like that. I couldn't be with such a woman, even if she is my mother. I don't care about her nor her offer any longer.

Cassidy and Grace may be my blood, but the relationship I have with the Tragers is thicker than blood. I'm where I belong.

[Song ends]