Life in Berkeley

The year is 2014, Taylor and Ryan are together and she's pregnant, Seth and Summer are newly married, and Kaitlin has just graduated from Williams and she's moved to Berkeley while trying to hold together a long-distance relationship.

About the story: This is my new story, and the title sucks, but it sticks for now, until I find a more appropriate name for it. This is like a season five in Berkeley: The year is 2014, Taylor and Ryan are together and she's pregnant, Seth and Summer are just married, and Kaitlin has just graduated from Williams and she's moved to Berkeley while trying to hold together along-distance relationship. This will be a love/drama story and the characters will experience good and bad times with love, work, friendship, parents…you name it.

The story will mostly center around Ryan and Taylor, because I've got the most ideas for them, and I love writing them, but I want Seth/Summer and Kaitlin to have their own storylines, and be a big part of the story as well. Unfortunately, my inspiration for Seth and Summer is running kinda low because there is NO way that I for a season 5 can come up with everything myself, so I need help. ANY ideas or suggestions- good or bad, or things you'd like to see in the story for any of the characters would be GREAT, so PLEASE do!

At the moment, I think there'll be maybe 50-60 R/T interaction, and the remaining percent will be focused on the other three main characters in this story. In the future however, this can change and I'll probably include some Cohen-family and maybe some Julie in the far future, probably without their own storylines, but it all depends on your ideas and suggestions. The Seth and Summer storyline is almost completely open right now, so tell me of any suggestions you have and what you want to see.

What you need to know: This is sort of a sequel to my other story, When They Met Again, because everything in it between R/T has happened, but if you haven't read it, it's not necessary to read beforehand. However, you should know that Taylor's been back from France a year now, and she and Ryan finally got back together after having had an affair impregnating Taylor, behind Ryan's new girlfriend, Sarah's back. (Note to all Sarah-haters out there: She will NOT be appearing in this story. Lol) Any other details will be made apparent throughout this story.

It's rated just to be safe. Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review! And come with your own suggestions please!

Chapter 1: Pleasant Surprises

"Good morning", Taylor said to the person lying next to her as she woke up with a huge grin on her face. She knew that it was going to be a wonderful day, and she could hardly wait to get up.

"Good morning", Ryan answered stifling a yawn. He was a little tired, but smiling all the same. He still couldn't believe that she was here. He couldn't believe that he was once again waking up next to Taylor Townsend and that they were together now. He had been without her all too long, and the three days they had spent together after Seth and Summer's wedding, had been the best of his life. They didn't have to sneak around anymore, and everyone was happy for their sake. And even though it didn't show, they were having a baby in seven months. Life was good.

"Do you think it's actually okay for someone to be this happy?" Taylor wondered, as she frowned in a way that made Ryan convinced that she was actually being serious as she continued: "Because this is like the essence of being happy, and I'm not so sure we deserve that."

"Oh but we do,", Ryan said, returning her smile as he moved halfway on top of her, his face only inches away from hers.

"Is that right?", Taylor asked with a pleasant and mischievous smile.

"Uh-huh", Ryan nodded, kissing her softly, and she returned it with great eagerness. The kisses grew more passionate, and his hands started moving to places she had longed for him to touch before they got back together.

"Ryan!", she giggled at his intensity and desire. She sort of wanted to get out of bed, because she felt she had more important things to do, but she was also giving into his kisses and lingering fingers, and was almost out of breath when she asked: "Aren't we even going to leave the bed today either?" She was feeling that history was starting to repeat itself, this was what had happened the previous days as well.

"I wouldn't mind that at all…", Ryan responded, kissing her neck and collarbones.

Taylor quivered from the traces of his fingers as he moved further down, kissing her stomach and touching her thighs. They both very much wanted it, and Taylor had almost completely surrendered to his touch when all of a sudden, she sat up straight. "Oh my god!", she exclaimed, traces of panic apparent in her voice, her face growing paler by the second. Ryan immediately backed off, afraid that he had hurt her or the baby, and he gave her a quizzical and worried look.

"You know what I just thought of?" Taylor continued still looking rather pale, and Ryan shook his head in reply. "I just realized that I haven't told my mom about us. I haven't even talked to her…about you and me being back together, or about the baby…she doesn't know about any of it."

"So call her", Ryan suggested, definitely trying to take the easy way out.

"Ryan, I can't do that. I haven't seen her in over three months, and she barely remembers you, I can't just tell her that she's about to become a grandmother over the phone", Taylor insisted. "We should meet with her and tell her."

This was what he had feared that she would say, and he grunted unhappily by her words. Meeting Taylor's mom again was one of the scariest things he could possible imagine. She was possibly even more intimidating than Julie had been when he and Marissa had first started dating, and just the thought of Veronica Townsend was enough to send chills running down his spine. And actually meeting her…telling her about the baby…That was a nightmare Ryan did not want to experience even when he was asleep, and he would have to be very much awake if they were to tell her she was about to become a grandmother. "A meeting with you mom?" he complained. "Can't we just…not?"

"No, Ryan this is important to me. I'm mom's only child and this will be her first grandchild, so I have to tell her in person."" She said it with a convincing and authoritative voice that made it clear that she had definitely made her mind up about this, and he knew that when Taylor set her mind on something, she went after it, and she always got her way. It had worked when she'd gone after Social Chair position, and it had worked when she'd gone after him. In a softer voice, she added: "And I would like you there with me when I do."

Ryan just shrugged. "Yeah, yeah."

"I'll call her right now, so we can decide when we should meet." Then she jumped off the bed, suddenly full of energy, and grabbed the phone on the bedroom dresser and started dialing the number. After a few signals, the housekeeper must've picked up, because Taylor started babbling away in Spanish. After a brief chat in English with her mom, Taylor hung up and sat down on the bed again. "So we'll drive down to Newport tomorrow morning, and we'll get there kinda late, and we'll tell my mom, spend the night, and then drive back the next day, on Sunday morning."

"But I start working on Monday", Ryan reminded her. Even though he had graduated from Berkeley's architecture program less than a week ago, he already had a job waiting for him at a rather small, private building company. He had done an internship there a few years ago, and they'd been so happy with his work, that they'd called and asked him if he wanted to start working for them full-time the week after graduation, and now the documents were already signed and sealed. His first day was on Monday, and he was really nervous about it even if he knew most of the people at the company and liked them.

"I know, that's why this weekend is perfect, because I have an ultrasound next Saturday so that won't work, and this way, we'll get home by Sunday evening so you can still make it to work." She had really planned everything in detail and was actually getting excited by the thought of seeing her mom. They had only seen each other a few times each year after Taylor had gone to study in Paris, and the occasional phone calls were hardly enough to keep the relationship going. But Taylor knew her mom still cared about her. At least she thought she knew. Her mom had never been to keen on showing emotions.

"Look, I know you don't like my mom", Taylor said. "And I know that you're not exactly best friends…"

Ryan snorted at this. Veronica had tried to kick him out of school, basically organizing a rally to expel him and Marissa, and when Taylor and Ryan had gotten together, she hadn't been very approving of their relationship since she still thought of Ryan as a criminal for the car theft. They were certainly not the best of friends. "That's an understatement", he muttered under his breath.

"You know, she's a little nicer now than before", Taylor said, failing to sound convincing. The words nice and Veronica Townsend had probably never been used in the same sentence before, and Taylor wasn't so sure if she even believed in it herself. "Or at least she's sort of trying to be. Maybe…kinda…hopefully." The hesitation in her voice grew with every word, and Ryan looked skeptical at her, his eyes telling her he wasn't buying it. "But she's my mom, and I really want you there."

She gave him a pleading look, and after some hesitation, Ryan simply sighed knowing he'd been beaten, and gave in. He had never been able to resist her. "Okay. If it's that important to you, I'll go with you."

"Yay!" Taylor exclaimed, and hugged and gave him a quick kiss to prove her happiness. As they pulled apart, she grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it over her head, as she started discussing plans for the weekend, knowing that Ryan wasn't paying too much attention. "Maybe we can tell her over dinner at that little Greek restaurant by the ocean…"

Ryan's mind was some place else altogether. Meeting Taylor's mom tomorrow…He didn't want to think about it. Then it hit him: If he and Taylor were ever to get married, Veronica Townsend would be his mother-in-law. Now that was a scary thought.

Summer and Seth were on the third day of their honeymoon, and they were definitely trying to enjoy it. Neither of them had been to Hawaii before and Seth hadn't been too psyched about going, but it had turned out to really be heaven on earth. Not only were they thrilled about finally getting married after being together for ten years, but they were definitely still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, meaning: the first two days, they hadn't left the room, and Seth had found nothing to complain about it.

Now however, they were lying on the beach, and for Summer, it was just like in the old days. She was perfecting her tan in a gorgeous white bikini, hiding behind a pair of dark sunglasses reading magazines. Only now, the bikini was made out of organic material, and the magazine she was reading was no gossip rag, but Forbes, and she was deeply engaged in a story about global warming and how it would affect the economy of the world.

"Isn't this the most amazing place in the world?" Summer thought out loud, looking out at the water, and the endless amounts of soft sand on the beach, enjoying the soft breeze cooling her... Casting a quick glance at Seth made it obvious that anything but happy to be sitting on the beach doing nothing.

First of all, he had sensitive skin, so he had to sit in the shade covered in SPF 60 to even be in the sun, and secondly, doing nothing, bored him. He missed his job in Berkeley. Having just been made editor of the local film magazine he was working at, he used to always be busy with something, and it was fair to say he had become somewhat of a workaholic because he loved his job so much, and just relaxing, was getting on his nerves. He wanted to do something: surfing, skydiving, visiting volcanoes…anything that didn't include sitting still. And he was just about to tell Summer that for the thousandth time, when all of a sudden…

"Oh my god! Summer and Seth!"

Seth couldn't immediately place the voice, even if it did sound somewhat familiar. However, as the young man walked up to them, it was unmistakably…

"Zach!" Summer was certainly surprised, but very happy to see him, and she rose from her chair as soon as he came close enough and hugged him. "It's been ages", Summer commented, taking a good look at him.

He looked good as he stood there in just a pair of khaki shorts, nothing covering the top half of his body. Even Seth found no point in denying that. Zach was as tall as ever, if not taller, he had kept his body in good shape, and he had a perfect golden tan covering his entire body, and still the same thick hair. But he still shaves his chest, Seth noted triumphantly. He always had, and always would look down on guys who shaved their chests. That was one of the things that the childhood trauma of being bullied had done to him.

"Sure has", Zach said flashing her his big pearly white smile. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Um, I was just about to ask you the same thing", Summer said. She wasn't uncomfortable at all around Zach, and Seth found that slightly intimidating and scary as he watched their interaction.

"Well, actually I live here now. I moved here right after college and I run this water sports-store a few hundred yards away."

"What happened to the comic book?" Seth inquired, still unsure about how he should behave.

"Dude, that was just a phase that I grew out of eventually. This sort of just took over, you know?"

Seth just nodded, wanting nothing more than to sink through the ground and disappear as Summer and Zach just continued talking, Summer telling him about the wedding and that they were here on their honeymoon. He had no idea how long they stood there talking: Seth's wife and her ex-boyfriend, but he couldn't have been listening at all to their conversation because all of a sudden, Summer said: "So we'll meet at seven?"

These words immediately made Seth snap out of his world, feeling a wave of horror washed over him, and he felt almost something like an outer body experience when he watched Zach say: "Seven it is."

When Zach finally left, Seth asked Summer: "What was that about?"

"Didn't you listen? We're having dinner with Zach tonight, and then he's going to take us to this club afterwards. It's gonna be awesome."

Seth just nodded again, panic striking him. Spending an evening of his honeymoon with his wife's ex-boyfriend and his own ex-friend certainly wasn't going to be awesome. It was going to be anything but awesome, it was going to awful. "But I kinda just feel like staying in", Seth tried to excuse himself.

"But you're the one who's been complaining about not doing anything. Well, now you will. It's gonna be fun."

Oh yeah, real fun, Seth thought to himself. Even in his own thoughts, he was sarcastic, and it was certainly needed in this case. When he'd said he wanted to do something, this had NOT been what he'd meant. Not at all.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if it wasn't too special. The next chapter will include meeting with Taylor's mom, more Summer and Seth on their honeymoon, and we will see a little Kaitlin (I would've included her in this chapter, but I didn't want to make the first one too long). Now please review and tell me what you think, and give me ANY ideas for the Seth/Summer storyline! Please, it's really necessary. Please!