Tom watched in stunned surprise as a knife appeared in the back of the man who was attacking him. He looked around. Who had thrown the knife that had saved his life? A man ran towards him. "Wolf, are you alright?" Tom shook his head. "I'm not Wolf." The man gasped as he really looked at Tom. "You are not Peter either. Yet I sense that you are a Caine... " Damon Caine turned to the rest of the group, letting his gaze linger on Caine. "Brother, you were blessed with triplets?" Kwai Chang Caine shook his head. How did you tell your brother that he was a father? Damon looked at the twins and then back at Tom. His eyes widened as he took in the jade pendant hanging around Tom's neck. Without asking permission, he turned it over and silently read the words engraved years ago by his own hand. "Where did you get this?" Damon demanded. "I found it...in my mother's things after she died," Tom replied startled. Was this him? Was this man his real father? He looked at the others. Wolf nodded slightly at him. "Dead? Katherine is dead?" Damon shouted, in anguish. "Perhaps we should all sit down," Matthew said quietly as he sat by a log near the fire ring. Damon didn't argue as Caine led him to a seat. Peter lit the campfire as Wolf and Martin dragged the dead bodies to the river further down the trail. "Katherine can't be dead," Damon protested, his head in his hands. Tom inwardly groaned as he realized exactly what he had just said. Great, he'd gone and blurted it out again. Would he ever learn? "Yes. My mother passed away about a week ago." "Mother?" Damon looked up as all of the implications hit him. "Wait, then that means....you're my son!" Tom nodded. He didn't know what else to do. Damon stood up and grasped Tom's face, turning it one way and then the other. Tom pushed himself out of his father's grasp. "Hey! Stop that!" Damon didn't mind his son's harsh tone. He was too happy. He had a son! After all this time, he finally had his greatest desire, a child of his flesh. He frowned as he remembered his overwhelming jealousy when his brother had had twins. Damon Caine hid in an old storage room in the the temple in Braniff, California. He had been sent by his masters to spy on his brother. After discovering that Kwai Chang Caine was on a journey, he had been about to leave, when an old priest had come out of Laura Caine's room. "Kwai Chang Caine is now the father or twin sons!" the priest excitedly told the others waiting outside. "It is as the prophecy was foretold." Why did his brother always get everything? Kwai got to spend most of his childhood with their father, but Damon? He hadn't even had one day. His mother was dead, and the only ones who cared if he lived or died were the Sing Wah. The Sing Wah were his family now. Damon stuck his head out and looked about. The coast was clear. With panther-like grace he slipped into the new mother's room, and, with one felling blow to the attending priest's head, the healer crumpled to the ground. He went to the crib nearby and picked up one of the twins. The other twin, sensing that his wombmate was no longer nearby let out a cry of protest. The dying mother stirred as if sensing danger to her young ones. She wearily opened her eyes and saw the danger. "No!" Laura softly exclaimed, using energy that couldn't be wasted. Damon quickly turned around upon hearing her voice. Damn! There wasn't time to grab the other one. He ran out of the room and didn't stop until he had made it to his hideout. The baby continued to cry. Damon akwardly rocked him in his arms. "Don't cry." Inwardly he groaned. What the hell was he doing? What was he going to do with a baby? How did you take care of one of these any way? Wait, Katherine would know! Damon placed the baby in a cardboard box full of blankets and drove as fast as he dared to his girlfriend, Katherine Connolley's, house. ***************************** The baby screamed as Katherine opened the door. "Damon? I thought you were busy-" She took a good look at what was in his arms. To the relief of Damon, the baby quieted down after Katherine held him. "Who is this? Why do you have a baby?" she whispered fiercely. To her knowledge, Damon had never expressed any wish to have a child. And this worried her. Her period was supposed to have started days ago. "He's my nephew. He was just born today." Damon shuffled his feet on the doorstep. "Can I come in?" Katherine moved aside to let him pass. "Damon, he needs his mother. Why is he here?" "I kidnapped him, alright?" Damon replied angrily. "You did what? Why?" Katherine shouted, temporarily forgetting about the newborn in her arms. The baby let out another scream. Katherine quickly hugged the baby towards her and rocked. "I don't know why. I'm tired of big brother having everything." "Damon, that doesn't give you the right to kidnap his son! His parents must be frantic with worry." "His father doesn't even know that they've been born yet and the mother isn't expected to live the night," Damon muttered. "They?" "There were twins." "You seperated this baby from his twin? Damon, you have to return him." "I can't." "How would you feel if he were your son and someone took him away?" "I could raise him as my son. We could get married and be a family..." Damon implored. Katherine shook her head. She had waited so long to hear a proposal, but this wasn't the way she wanted it. "No, Damon. I can't marry you unless you return your nephew." "No!" Damon grabbed the baby from her arms and ran out of the door. Katherine watched his exit sadly. Then she went to the phone. "Liam? I'm in trouble. I...I need your help." ********************************* Damon gently placed the baby in a dumpster in Klensville. He needed to make it look like the baby had been abandoned. The cops would be here any minute. After all, he had called 911 five minutes ago. "You be happy, you hear?" Damon whispered to the baby, as he used a Sing Wah trick and faded into the background. The police sirens were approaching fast. Damon watched as a cop car turned into the alley. A woman of petite size got out of the car with her partner. "I don't see anything here, Rose," the man said. "The station got a tip that something was-" Rose Gannett jumped as she heard the unexpected wail of a baby. She quickly ran towards the source of the cry. "Oh my god! Larry, somebody's thrown out a baby!" She gently picked up the baby from its makeshift crib. "We have to bring him to the hospital." She and her partner, Larry Russell, quickly reported what was happening to dispatch and drove to the hospital. They never saw Damon emerge from his hiding place or saw the devasted expression on his face when he went back to Katherine's to find out that she had left him. Damon looked at Wolf, who had returned to listen to the story. "I watched over Wolf as he was growing up," Damon stated to the stunned group around him. "I was there in the background when he graduated out of high school and the academy. And when he had no one left...I left my hiding place to pick up the pieces. I always thought of him as my son. And now I have two."