Chapter 40

Trust

"I'd be lying"- Greg Laswell

Kyle (POV)

*4 months later*

"So this was Adam's?" I questioned, taking in the beauty of the land.

"Yeah, Adam left this to you when he died." Foss paused. "I'm not exactly sure what his intentions were for this land. I came across a few of his blue prints; I think he was planning on building a safe house closer to Seattle."

We had taken a ferry boat to get here and it over looked the bay that coasted downtown Seattle. The tree line dipped down perfectly causing an outstanding view of the water and skyline. I look around the clearing where we stood; I could only imagine what Adam had planned.

"And now this land is mine?" I asked, slipping my hands into the pockets of my coat.

"Yeah, yeah I guess it is…" he smirked.

"You said he had blueprints?" I questioned.

"They're back at the warehouse," he paused. "I just wanted to let you know about this land, as to what you do with it, that's up to you."

I nodded, but before I could speak my pager beeped.

"Thought it was your day off?"

"I thought so too…I've got to go; I'll stop by the warehouse on my way home if it isn't too late," I sighed reluctantly, wishing I wasn't on call today.

"I'm going to stay out here, see if I can find anything." I nodded.

I took the ferry boat back to the city and drove my car to the hospital. Once I was there I quickly changed into my scrubs and checked who paged me.

"I received a page," I told one of the nurses at the desk.

"A young lady told me to page you. She said you were her brother. She's sitting over there," she pointed over my shoulder to the waiting area, where I spotted Lori sitting by herself.

"Is everything alright Lori?" I asked making my way over to her.

"Yeah… I need your help with something, and you cannot tell Declan. At least not now anyway." She seemed a little on edge.

"Lori, why don't we go to another room?" I placed my hand on the small of her back leading her to one of the empty exam rooms.

"What's going on?" I asked once we were alone.

"You have to promise me that you won't tell Declan." She demanded.

"Lori…"

"Kyle," she warned.

"Alright, I won't tell him, now what is going on?" I insisted.

She paced for a moment. "I think I might be pregnant," she finally blurted out.

"Are you sure?" I could understand why she was nervous but I couldn't help but be happy for her as well.

"Well, I peed on a stick and a pink little plus sign magically appeared. As far as having it confirmed: you're the first doctor I've seen," she ranted.

"We'll do a blood test then, and go from there." I placed my hand on her shoulder. "But I really think you should tell Declan."

"We weren't planning on this, Kyle; it's just something that happened. And he has so much to worry about right now with finishing up med school; I don't want to tell him until I'm sure that I'm pregnant."

"Okay, okay… If that's what you want, I won't say anything," I promised, pulling her into a hug. "It's going to be okay Lori."

"Thank you, Kyle." She calmed down a little.

I left to get an I.V. kit from the supply room and came back.

"You'll feel a pinch," I warned sticking the needle into one of her veins.

I got the blood I needed and sent it down to the lab.

"How long until we get the results back?" she asked.

"About an hour," I paused. "We can go get coffee if you want."

"Alright," she smiled.

I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Come on," I smiled leading her to the cafeteria.

"One Calomel tea," I said, handing her the cup and taking a seat on the bench next to her outside.

"Thank you…" she mumbled. "Kyle? You and Amanda haven't had a…"

"A pregnancy scare?" I finished.

She nodded, sipping her tea.

"No, we've always been very careful," I chuckled softly, putting my arm around her. "It will be okay Lori. Besides, didn't you guys plan on this happening eventually?"

"Yeah, but not now. Declan is still in med-school, I'm trying to get a label going…it's just… bad timing."

"Well there is always the chance that the test you took was wrong. You may not be pregnant," I reminded her, but there was also the same possibility that she was. And it would be too early in the pregnancy for me to detect a heartbeat, even with my hearing.

"I've thrown up every morning for the past week. On top of that I'm late." So the chances of her being pregnant were higher than I thought.

"You'll make this work. Don't worry," I reassured her, squeezing my arm around her shoulders. "Let go see if your blood test is ready."

I checked with the lab for her results and read them as I walked back to the room I had left her in. According to the blood test, there was no doubt that she was indeed pregnant.

"Well?" she questioned as I slipped through the door.

"You're pregnant," I smiled.

"Okay, okay. We weren't planning on this but Declan and I can make this work… We'll be okay" she tried to assure herself as she paced.

"We should really do an ultrasound, and I think you should call Declan," I said calmly, causing her to stop mid pace.

"I have to tell Declan…" She paused and turned to me. "I'm not ready to tell him."

"Lori, I think he'd want to be here for his baby's first ultrasound," I reminded her.

She turned away from me looking out the window, lost in thought.

"I know if it were Amanda in your situation, I would want to be here," I spoke after a moment.

"You're right…" she said over her shoulder. "I'll call him."

"Okay, I'm going to go get another doctor for the ultrasound," I said before leaving.

I went to the nurse's desk to page Dr. Robins, the OB/GYN. She was helping out in the pit today and I knew she would appreciate getting out of there. One of the nurse's, Todd, needed help setting an IV on a patient so before I could go back into Lori's room I had to help him. I ran into Declan as I was leaving the patient's room.

"Kyle, where's Lori? Is she okay?" Panic covered his face.

"She's fine Declan," I calmed his nerves. "She needs to talk to you though; she's in there."

"What's going on?" he questioned, and I urged him to go into the room.

I waited outside the door for a moment, and was joined by an average height, skinny, woman, with straight brown hair: Dr. Robins.

"Called in on your day off, Trager? Who'd you piss off?" she joked with a slight smirk playing on her lips.

"My sister."

"And I think it's safe to assume that she is the one in need of an ultrasound, not you," she continued with her teasing as she read over the chart.

"Yeah, she's in there with her husband. He didn't know, and she just found out," I explained ignoring her teasing.

"Ouch… That's tough… Well let's go get this over with," she whispered before knocking on the door and opening it.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Robins; I'll be performing the ultrasound today," she said cheerfully extending her hand to Lori.

"I'm Lori, this is my husband Declan." Declan mumbled a hello, he seemed a little nervous about the whole situation.

Dr. Robins explained the test like I had seen her do multiple times before. Then she got the monitor set up and Lori changed into a gown.

"This will be a little cold," she warned before squirting the gel on Lori's abdomen.

Declan stood quietly beside Lori holding her hand as they watched the monitor tentatively.

"This mass of cells in your uterus is your baby." Declan had already noticed the baby before Dr. Robins pointed it out. I watched as the grin spread across his face, and his eyes glistened in joy.

"That's our baby." Lori mused; all her nerves washed away replaced with a grin that matched Declan's.

"That's our baby!" she cheered, tearing her eyes away from the screen to look at Declan.

They shared a simple kiss, and Dr. Robins began to explain the next nine months to them. I wished them my congratulations before slipping out of the room, not wanting to intrude on their moment any longer. I went back to the locker room to change into my street clothes. My light grey sweater and dark wash jeans.

On my way out of the hospital I sent a text to Foss saying I was on my way over to the warehouse. On the drive over I thought of Lori and Declan becoming parents. I was happy for them; they have always been great with Brice, so I wasn't worried for them at all. I knew that it would be tough for them to adjust to the needs of their child, but I knew they would be fine.

The tires crunched on the gravel as I pulled up to the warehouse. I slipped out of my jacket and threw it onto the passenger seat, noticing the warmer temperature as I got out of the car.

"Foss?" I called out, opening the metal door.

"Back here," he called back.

I followed the sound of his voice and found him hovering over a table with the blueprints spread out across it.

"The blueprints," I concluded.

"Yeah, take a look," he replied, taking a slight step to the side.

The layout was fairly simple; it was smaller than his last house, a lot more open. I noticed more windows, and a porch that wrapped around the northern and eastern walls of the house until it connected with the front porch. With the layout of the house I knew the windows that covered most of the back and right side walls were meant for the view from the property.

"He always felt that the old house was a dungeon, kept him trapped from the world," Foss finally spoke. "That's why he spent most of his time in the garden…"

The first level of the house had a kitchen, there wasn't a formal dining room but there was a table that would have been placed just off of the kitchen, in the corn of the room overlooking the view. From there, there weren't any barriers connecting the family room it all flowed together. The stair case to the second level was to the left of the front door, with a slight hallway in between it too flowed with the rest of the first level. There was a spare bedroom off of the kitchen as well as a small bathroom.

My eyes scanned the second level of the house; they stopped for a moment when I noticed Adam's hand writing. He had written 'Kyle's room' on the bedroom that had the best view. He planned on building this after I came to live with him. There was a loft that connected the other room to what would have been mine. I assumed that room was supposed to Adam's and that the loft would have been used as a study.

"He thought of everything…" I spoke not looking away from the blueprints.

"That was Adam for you." Foss said softly. "But this land is yours now, you can leave it like it is, you can build a house for your family, you can do whatever you want with it."

"I know," I said finally looking up at him.

Before I could say anymore we heard the metal doors open.

"Tom, I hope you know-" The man stopped mid-sentence when he came into view with us.

"Christopher, what—what are you doing here?" Foss stumbled on his words.

"I came by to drop this off…" he answered, handing Foss a thin envelope without breaking eye contact with me.

"Kyle, this isn't the way I wanted you to meet, but…" He paused. "This is Christopher Baylin. Adam's father, your grandfather…"

The man looked to be in his late 60's early 70's. I could see the resemblance between him and Adam. He had the same blue green eyes that Adam had and that I had inherited as well. Even the way he stood resembled Adam's demeanor.

"I've waited a long time to meet you Kyle," he said while holding out his hand.

"It's nice to meet you too," I said, taking his hand. That was when I noticed the Latnok ring. "Latnok?"

Instantly my heart rate increased and I dropped his hand.

"Kyle, it's okay," Foss tried to assure me. "He's on our side, we can trust him."

"Kyle…I'm not here to hurt you…" His voice reminded me of Adam's.

"With everything Latnok has done, I hope you can understand, my hesitation." The sternness in my voice was something I hadn't heard in a long time.

"Of course I can, Kyle, if I could take back every wrongful action Latnok has taken against you, believe me I would."

"His only intentions are to help you, Kyle," Foss said, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"I know with my involvement with Latnok, I don't deserve this, but would you mind taking a walk with me? So I can explain things…" He smiled faintly.

I looked to Foss; there was no doubt that he could see my hesitation. He nodded in encouragement letting me know it was okay.

"If you're a part of Latnok, why would you be on my side?" I asked, matching my pace to his when we were outside.

"You're my grandson," he said simply.

"Cassidy was my half brother, and his only intentions were to harm myself and my family," I retorted.

He stopped abruptly on the pier and turned to me. "There is nothing I can say to take back his actions, or the emotional toll it has taken on you. But just know this, I am sorry. Cassidy was only searching for the approval of his mother and he took matters into his own hands. I haven't approved of many of the measures Latnok has taken against you, Kyle"

"Kyle, I'm going to be honest with you, my relationship with Adam wasn't always the best. In my younger days I was a very career oriented man and I've always regretted that. Adam was the first to notice the changed in Latnok's intentions from the beginning of our experiments with you. He tried to get me to see them as well, but I didn't want to acknowledge it. It's one of the many decisions that I'm not proud of." He was being truthful another quality that Adam and he shared.

"Christopher, I would like to say that I can fully trust you, but I then I would be the one being dishonest." I sighed, wishing my words weren't true.

"I understand Kyle; I have to earn your trust. That's to be expected." He placed his hand on my shoulder as we walked back in the direction of the warehouse. "You know, you look identical to Adam…" He chuckled, and I couldn't help but smile as well.

AN: So another appearance from Christopher. Liking the character? Hating the character? Let me know! Also I want to know where you the readers would like to see this go. It doesn't have to be related to Christopher at all, it can be whatever you guys have ideas about. Anyway just leave a comment with your thoughts; I hope you enjoyed this new chapter!