Disclaimer: Don't own any of it.

A/N: It's not always that obvious where one day finishes and another starts in O.C land but I reckon that The Rainy Day Women occurred over two days and so this fic is based on the second of those two days. Its a WOP- let me know what you think. Oh, and I borrowed some of the lines from that episode (and I don't own them either).

The Groundhog Day.

"I wake up every day right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it's always February second and I can't turn it off." — Groundhog Day.

Ryan woke up in the pool house to the sound of his cell phone ringing. He covered his head with a pillow and waited for the repetitive high-pitched ring to stop. Lindsay was leaving and all he wanted to do was lie in bed and forget the world existed for a while. Finally the ringing stopped. He sighed and rolled over.

"You seriously need to answer your phone. Man, is this rain ever going to stop?" Seth exclaimed as he barged through the pool house door. He looked over at Ryan's duvet covered form. "You're still in bed?"

Ryan rolled his head slightly so that one eye could see his alarm clock. 7.13. Of course he was still in bed. When got back to the pool house the night before Seth had appeared, bouncing around and talking a mile a minute about how Summer had turned up at the house to find Seth hanging upside down in his Spiderman mask after falling trying to fix the satellite. The last thing Ryan needed right now was to hear about it all over again. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the sound of Seth's voice.

Of course, Seth carried on regardless of Ryan's lack of movement. "So Alex gave me my job back and an advance. Operation Summer Breeze is all go."

Operation Summer Breeze? Seth had already bought back the Summer Breeze, or should he say, the Gimme Sex. Somehow he'd hoped that getting Summer back would make Seth a little less crazy. Stupid idea really: Seth was always crazy.

He could hear Seth pacing impatiently, still rambling about how all he needed was this one last grand gesture.

"Ryan!" Seth exclaimed again. "Get out of bed. We need to go and buy my boat back!"

Ryan was fed up of this now. All he wanted was to be left alone to brood for a while. Brood and sleep. God, it was too early. "The boat's in the garage Seth," he muttered into his pillow.

Seth paced his way over to the edge of the bed and stood over Ryan. "Uuh? I sold it for snacks. You reminded me of that last night." He waited a beat for Ryan to respond then added, "You're really not a morning person are you?" When Ryan didn't respond again he grabbed at the edge of the duvet. "Okay. I'm giving you 5 seconds to get up and then I'm taking your covers away. Five, four, three – You're not naked under there are you? Two – You'd better not be naked under there-"

Ryan really didn't need this right now. He pulled the pillow away from his face and grabbed at the covers. "Seth!" he snapped.

Seth shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, I'll go and get the boat myself. Just make sure you're here later so we can go over my plan one more time." With that Seth made his way out of the door into the rain.

Ryan rolled over in his bed again, pulling the covers back around him. Finally. He could get some peace and quiet while Seth was out. It had taken Seth ages to get his boat back yesterday so he should be able to get a few more hours sleep inbefore he got back. Hang on? Why was Seth going to buy back a boat he'd already bought back? Now he thought about it Seth had been making less sense than normal. And the rain? Seth had been standing there just a few moments ago with wet hair and shoulders complaining how it hadn't stopped raining. But the rain had stopped last night as he left the pier and by the time he'd made it back to the pool house the sky was clear and full of stars. Now it was raining again and Seth was talking as if yesterday had never happened. Wearing the same clothes he was wearing yesterday.

Ryan got an uneasy sense of deja vu. He grabbed around on his bedside table for his cell phone and flipped it open. The screen read: 7.23 02/23/2005. Yesterday. He threw off the covers in confusion, pulled on some sweatpants and headed to the house, getting soaked on the way from the rain that he was sure had stopped the night before. He leant against the kitchencounter and poured himself some coffee, hoping the world would make more sense with some caffeine in his system. From the corner of his eye he caught sight of the newspaper on the kitchen island. The headline was the same as yesterday; the date was the same as yesterday. Maybe someone had just left yesterday's paper out. Maybe Seth was playing some weird joke on him to stop him brooding over Lindsay. But that still didn't explain the rain. He took his coffee with him into the family room. This was all too much too early in the morning but now he was too wired to go back to bed. He flipped the TV on and settled down on the sofa. Maybe after a few hours of mindless channel surfing the day would begin to make sense.

"Morning."

Ryan rubbed his eyes. He must have fallen asleep. He looked up to see Kirsten in the kitchen wearing her pyjamas and robe. She looked hung over. Hadn't she looked hung over yesterday morning too? Sure, Kirsten liked a glass of wine or two but she was no Dawn Atwood. There was no way she would be hung over two days in a row.

"Morning," he replied back. This was getting weird. "Where's Sandy?"

Kirsten looked distant for a moment. "He's, um, he got caught up with some business last night so he stayed at the office." She looked cagey for a moment, concentrating on pouring herself some coffee. When she looked back over at him her usual relaxed expression had returned. "So," she began, changing the subject. "My Dad said the DNA results should be back today."

"Um, yeah." Lindsay hadn't gotten her results back yet? Then she didn't know that she was Caleb's daughter. Which meant she hadn't decided to go to Chicago with her mother yet. A flicker of hope caught in Ryan's stomach. If today was in fact yesterday then he still had a chance to stop Lindsay from leaving. He still had a chance to fix things. Leaving Kirsten to her coffee, Ryan headed back to the pool house and quickly got dressed. Grabbing his bike he started in the direction of Lindsay's house, ignoring the rain as it soaked through to his skin. He could stop her from leaving. He could make everything right. He still had time.

Ryan rang the bell, remembering how the day before yesterday Lindsay had refused to answer the door. Okay, not the day before yesterday because today was yesterday. Which made today? Ryan shook the water from his hair, still trying to make sense of the whole situation. He was thinking about how someone like Seth was better equipped to deal with this kind of thing when Lindsay opened the door.

She looked quizzically at the soaking wet boy dripping on the porch. "Ryan. You're soaking!" She stood in the doorway wearing a pink top and grey slacks. For once her hair wasn't tied back but instead hung around her face.

He smiled in relief, silently thanking whoever had decided to give him a second chance. Suddenly it didn't matter whether today was today or yesterday or any day. Lindsay was here. Lindsay hadn't decided to go to Chicago yet. He pulled her close to him and kissed her hello. "Yeah, I forgot how bad the bike idea was in the rain."

She kissed him back. "What are you doing here?"

Ryan ran his hands through her golden red hair. "I missed you."

Again, Lindsay looked at him quizzically. "You saw me last night."

Last night he thought he would never see her again. Except now last night hadn't happened yet. Now he still had a chance to stop her from leaving. "Don't go to Chicago," he blurted out.

Lindsay could see him shivering from the cold. "You're freezing. Come inside. We can talk about this inside." She took his hand and started into the house but Ryan stayed exactly where he was.

"Don't go to Chicago. Stay here. Stay with Caleb. You have people here that care about you. I care about you. Don't go to Chicago." It was everything he had wanted to say when Lindsay had told him she was leaving. But instead he had admitted defeat, put his walls up and given up. Now he had a second chance and there was no way he was letting her go.

Lindsay looked into his sparkling blues eyes and smiled. She moved towards him, wrapped her arms around him and whispered quietly in his ear, "I told you yesterday. I can't be without you. Whatever happens, I'm not going anywhere."

"Dude!"

Ryan was just pulling on a dry dark red t-shirt when Seth came bouncing into the pool house. "Hey. I'll help you get the boat out of the car." In the previous version of this day's events Ryan had had to sit through a good few minutes of Seth monologue before he had even mentioned that he needed Ryan to help get the boat from the SUV. At the best of times Seth's conversations were repetitive but an exact repeat of this conversation Ryan could really do without.

"So," Seth started, ignoring Ryan's offer for help, "I got the Summer Breeze back. She's gone through some changes."

Ryan tied the lacesof his boots while Seth continued with his monologue regardless. Apparently some things could not be changed. He stood up and headed towards the door. "I'll help you get the boat out of the car," he repeated and Seth, still talking, began to follow him to the driveway.

They manoeuvred the boat into the living room and Ryan felt almost overwhelming deja vu. Most of the day so far hadn't played out like the previous version. However, sitting in the Summer Breeze opposite Seth felt far too familiar.

"So what's the plan?" Ryan asked, knowing full well what Seth was about to say.

"We get the boat in the pool, I get Summer to come over. Walah."

Ryan smiled inwardly, knowing that Seth's plan would fail but that it would all turn out alright. Just as he and Lindsay would.

"Oh, by the way. Our exes: Are dating each other now." Seth grinned and rubbed his hands together.

Ryan's mouth fell open. Not in shock as it had during his previous experience of this conversation but because he couldn't believe he'd forgotten that piece of information. Marissa and Alex. Marissa with a girl. Just as he had the last time he'd had this conversation, Ryan found himself picturing the two girls together. He was a guy, what else was he going to do?

"Lindsay called. The tests are back. She wants us to go with her." Kirsten brought his thoughts firmly back into check.

Lindsay. The DNA test.

Ryan stood at the pier, soaked to the skin but not feeling a thing. He'd been so sure Lindsay wouldn't leave this time. He'd turned up at her house and stood in her bedroom doorway thinking how different it was all going to be and trying really hard to keep the smile from his face. That was never usually a problem.

"Hi," he had said.

"Hey," she'd replied, looking just as she had yesterday. He got the now familiar sense of deja vu but brushed it aside. He'd fixed it. This time it was going to be different.

"All packed?" he had asked.

"Getting there."

"Called Caleb? Let him know you're coming?" Okay, so her living with Caleb wasn't the ideal outcome but it was a definite improvement on Chicago.

"No." Lindsay had replied quietly. "Cos I'm not."

"Oh okay," was all Ryan had managed to get out.

"I talked it over with my mom and I'm going to go with her. To Chicago."

"But I thought.." He thought he had changed things. Thought he'd got to her in time and managed to remove the idea of moving to Chicago from her options list. Thought he had managed to persuade her that living with Caleb was for the best. But their conversation played out just as it had before. As he held her in his arms all he could think was that he'd blown it all over again. Someone had handed him a second chance and he'd blown it. He should have tried harder. He should have done more.

As he looked out over the ocean something Lindsay had said caught him suddenly. "As sorry as it is to leave you I can't leave my mom." He'd gone about it all wrong. He should have known that Lindsay would never move in with Caleb. But if he could persuade Renee not to go to Chicago then Lindsay wouldn't go either.

"Hey," Marissa said, appearing next to him holding an umbrella.

Ryan didn't respond but instead turned and began to run down the pier. He had to get home. He had to get to bed. Because maybe -just maybe- he'd wake up tomorrow and it would be today again. Maybe -just maybe- he'd get a second second chance.

TBC