✿ Patrick ✿

Patrick looked at the financial reports for the umpteenth time.

His eyebrows furrowed.

"Sir, here are the other reports you requested," came a voice in front of him.

Patrick raised his head, and looked at his assistant of over 10 years.

"Quentin, do you also think I was too harsh on Kyle?"

When Quentin didn't answer immediately, Patrick sighed and supported his forehead with the palm of his hand. He continued to flip through the documents, trying to focus while not thinking of his missing son.

"He's a Smith, Sir," said Quentin eventually, "It's inevitable that the two of you would clash. It was the same between you and your father."

"I was not as stubborn as Kyle!" protested Patrick, shutting the file he was reading in a huff, "At least, I didn't run away from home!"

"Your father never kicked you out either," Quentin pointed out.

Patrick glared at him.

"Are you working for me, or for him?" Patrick snorted, "If you were half as capable as Sam, you would have found out that Kyle had hired him independently. I would have known that all this time, Kyle had not been using my money at all. If ..."

"Would you like me to steal Sam over for you, Sir?" Quentin cut in, hardly bothered by the rant that Patrick was going on.

It had been like this ever since Sam had met up with Patrick.

Quentin wasn't feeling offended at all by Patrick's rant for he, himself, felt rather ashamed that he did fail to detect that.

He, like Patrick, had underestimated the capabilities of Kyle and Samuel.

He had been utterly depressed for a while until his wife managed to get out of him why he had been so moody the past few days. The moment she heard it, she started laughing.

In fact, she had laughed so hard that tears came out of her eyes and she said, gasping, "Did you really think that a monster like Kyle, would not have a monster by his side as well?"*

It was as if he reached an epiphany then.

Why hadn't it ever occurred to him before? It was so obvious that he felt pretty stupid. When he looked at his wife, she just smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, you were stupid."

Sometimes, it wasn't that great to be married to your soulmate.

His wandering mind came back to the issue at hand when Patrick slammed the file onto the table in frustration.

"Hell would freeze over before you could steal Sam away from Kyle," complained Patrick as he harumphed and his chair to face away from Quentin.

Quentin left without a word, but he had caught that ghost of a smile on Patrick's face.

Patrick didn't turn until he was sure that Quentin had left.

Once the door was closed, Patrick pulled out his desk drawer and took out a small photo frame. In it, there were only two pictures. On the right was of Kyle and Kay. On the left, were the Elite Five as they called themselves.

He touched Kyle's face for a second before putting it back into his drawer.

He was truly glad that Kyle had the Elite Five by his side. If they were anything like Sam, he had a solid support system. It was hard enough to get one person to trust. Kyle had three (other than Kay).

The only thing that was getting at Patrick was his son's ability to vanish into thin air.

Patrick was annoyed by Kyle but ...

He was also proud. Very proud.

He smiled.

✿ Delilah [Content is stolen if this is not in w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l. Please support me there] ✿✿

Delilah carefully placed Kyle's letters into her decorated shoebox.

True to his word, he wrote often. It wasn't an email as he had originally said, but this was far better. Kyle had taken the effort to actually write a letter and although it didn't give any hints or indication of where he was, it was enough.

He would seemingly be talking about mundane stuff but to Delilah, they were truly special.

It eased the pain in her heart, and it comforted her to know that he was doing well.

The letters were actually just him talking about his day. What he ate, people he met, things he learnt. He was also schooling but he didn't say where. Just that it was a good school. There was never any mention about money.

The only thing that she felt was lacking was that she couldn't write back.

However, the strange thing was, whatever she had talked to Kay about concerning Kyle, Kyle would reply in the letter. Yet, according to Patrick, Kay was never in contact with Kyle. She never wrote to him or called him.

This was the information Delilah could get out of Patrick in exchange for letting him read Kyle's letters. She knew that he was tracking him and monitoring not only Kay, but the other Elite Five.

She never told Patrick about Kyle's unerring ability to answer her unspoken questions, and Patrick never suspected. Kyle always answered her questions in a very natural way, as if it was something he would naturally say rather than state it was because she, Delilah, had been wondering about it.

Although Delilah was curious, she never asked Kay.

There was a tacit understanding between them not to touch on the issue.

Kyle would also send pictures once in a while, and these pictures she kept in an album that she brought around in her bag.

She was able to handle Kyle being away by telling herself that he had gone overseas to study - rather than him refusing to come home due to Patrick.

It made coping easier.

She prayed that Kyle would come home soon.