Short story that would take place between season 3's The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-vahkkah and The Safe Harbor.
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the O.C. No characters, shows, episodes, etc, etc.
The Chrismukkah that didn't need saving
Summer pursed her lips and nodded her head quietly as she looked outside the window. Her eyes narrowed as she contemplated her options.
"This isn't what I had planned."
"What?"
She jumped at the sound of Seth's voice and turned to face him. He was too far for her to hit for having scared her out of her thoughts, so she simply shook her head at him instead. "Nothing. I wasn't talking to you."
"You're disappointed." He laughed as he put down the clothes he'd been taking out of his suitcase and made his way to sit next to her on the lodge bed. "I told you it would be cold."
"I knew it would be cold."
"I told you it would be snowy."
"I knew it would be snowy," Summer answered. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned away from him when he moved to pull her toward him.
Seth shrugged. "So it's what you wanted."
"No," Summer answered with a big sigh. "I wanted big, sticky flakes. Not this grainy white stuff that stings when the wind whips it against your face."
"Speaking of whip—"
"Cohen!"
"What? You brought these fantasies on yourself by dressing up for a bunch of comic book—"
Her hand reached out and smacked the side of his head before she could even realise what she was doing. "Your parents are right next door."
"I didn't invite them along."
"No, they were kind enough to invite me along so I could escape the step-monster while she's doped up on eggnog and her regular dose of sedatives. They trust us to share a room, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. I'm not going to pay them back by having them wonder what exactly causes that whinny noise you make every time I—"
"I'll come back."
Seth and Summer's heads shot up at the sound of the new voice. Seth raised an eyebrow at the visitor, reaching out to pull Summer against him. "Aren't I usually the one interrupting you?"
Ryan shrugged as he pulled out the wooden chair that rested at the work desk. "Marissa's on the phone. I didn't want to be making too much noise."
"You are a noisy chatty one, Ryan Atwood."
Summer smacked Seth in the stomach without bothering to glance in his direction. "Who's she talking to?"
"Johnny."
"And you left the room?" Seth asked.
"Yeah."
"You aren't wondering what they're talking about?" Summer asked, finally letting herself fall against Seth's body, moving closer to her own relationship as she once again felt the fear of Ryan and Marissa drifting apart stirring in the pit of her stomach.
"No. She's just worried about him. Just checking up. Honestly, I'm worried about him too. I'd rather she know what's going on with him than he do something stupid."
"Like what?" Seth asked.
Ryan shrugged. "I don't know."
"What happened with you guys at the bar mitzvah?"
"Chrismukkah bar mitz-vahkkah," Seth interrupted.
Summer shook her head in an attempt to encourage Ryan to speak despite his brother's nonsense.
"We just… got to talking, I guess. He's from the same kind of place I grew up in, you know? I understand what he's going through, afraid that he's lost the only shot he may ever get."
Seth bit his lip and looked down at the floor. Summer saw him flinch when her hand moved toward him. He visibly relaxed when her palm touched his back and made gentle circles against his shirt.
"Hey." All three heads looked up when Marissa walked through the door. She shivered as she pulled the sleeves of her shirt over her hands. "What's up?"
"Nothing. But now that you're here we can find something to do."
"Great." Marissa nodded to Summer as she made her way to sit with Ryan on his chair. There wasn't room for the two of them, so she let herself drop down on his knee.
"How's Johnny?" Ryan asked as she swooped in for a quick kiss.
"He's bummed, still. I mean, he's happy he's going to get the surgery, but that doesn't mean he'll be all right on time for the tour. I could hear Chilli talking about something in the background though, so at least he's there to cheer him up."
Ryan nodded. "Yeah, that's good."
"So what do you guys want to do?" Summer asked.
"We could go skiing," Marissa suggested with a shrug.
"It's way too cold. Besides, have you seen Cohen try to walk and talk? I doubt he'd last a minute on his feet before spending the rest of his time on his ass."
"Hey, if you can skateboard, you can snowboard. I've got this covered."
"So you want to ski?" Ryan asked.
Seth shook his head quickly. "Are you kidding me? Those are inhospitable temperatures out there. We're talking Iceman whether here, Ryan."
"We could check out the main lodge," Ryan suggested.
"And hang out with all those people who come here to get drunk off their asses without their families there to witness it and then think they can, like, swap wives and stuff for the night? Ew."
"I think my parents went to the main lodge," Seth mumbled. "Thanks, Summer."
"Well, I think there's a hot tub."
Summer was on her feet before anyone could vote on the suggestion. "Now you're talking, Coop."
"Explain to me again why we have to travel all this way and pay this much money to sit in a hot tub."
"It's called a vacation, Atwood," Summer told him, her head leaned back against the edge of the tub and her eyes closed.
"It's called Saturday night at my house. Ryan's right. We can do this any time."
"Are you complaining about having a reason to hang around your girlfriend when she's wearing practically nothing? Because understand me Cohen, it's cold with all this snow around and your parents share a room right next to our own. There are going to be several layers between us when we go to bed tonight."
"I'm not complaining." Seth held his hands up, blinking when a few drops of water fell a little too close to his eyes. "I'm just saying."
"Whining."
"Expressing an opinion—"
"That you are an ass."
"Ryan." Seth waved his friend over in his directly, quickly retreating against the wall of the tub, close to, but not quite next to Summer. "Tag in, buddy. You take your shot here."
"I just commented that this was a little extreme."
"Ex—"
"All right," Marissa interrupted before Summer could get to the more colourful words of whatever she was going to say. "So we find something else to do. Anyone got anything in mind?"
Seth raised his hand, moving his head to the side so he wouldn't get any water on his face this time. "I've got a suggestion."
"We're not doing that," Summer interrupted before he could say anything more.
"You don't even—"
"I can imagine."
"I'm just—"
"Kids."
The four looked up at the sound of Sandy's voice.
"Am I not going to get to finish an entire sentence at all today?"
"You got that one in, son. Why aren't you kids outside? We have hot tubs in Orange County. Snow, not so much."
"Snow is cold."
"You're very wise, Summer."
"Leave her alone, Sandy. I don't see you rushing to get out there."
"I grew up where there was snow. I've lived the snow dream, and have since wised up and moved somewhere that I can go swimming Christmas day should I wish to do so."
Kirsten shook her head at her husband. "Anyway. What are you kids doing?"
"Nothing really," Marissa answered before either Seth or Ryan could make something up.
"I was hoping you'd say that." Kirsten's smile widened when both her boys groaned. "There's a little gathering at the main lodge tonight, and Sandy and I promised we'd be there. So we thought it would be fun if we could go as a family."
"Fun?" Seth asked.
"You're coming." Sandy smiled and winked as he reached over to Kirsten. With a hand on her back, he guided her out of the room.
"Well, I guess we have something to do now," Marissa said with a shrug.
"And technically," Seth added as he lifted himself out of the tub, "I can't be blamed for how sucky it is."
"I can't believe your parents—"
Seth grabbed a towel and dropped it over Summer's head before she could get much further. "I stand corrected."
"Seth, are you almost… Seriously?"
"What are you…" Seth looked down at Ryan's hand as his friend held Captain Oats out for him to see. "I don't know how he got there."
"Really? He just trotted himself along into your suitcase? A stowaway?"
"Maybe. Do not doubt the captain, Ryan."
"You brought your toy horse on vacation with you?"
"He's not a…" Seth snatched his horse from Ryan and pet him a few times before finally putting him back down on the night table next to a smaller and much more colourful horse. "He's just here to keep Princess Sparkles company. Summer just had to bring her along, and we wanted something to distract her when we were doing it."
"Cohen!"
Both men jumped at the voice. Despite the fact that there was the bathroom door between them and Summer, she had sounded as though she were right behind them.
"You'll never lose her, that's for sure." Ryan sat down on the bed, leafing through the comics Seth had laid out, probably while waiting for Summer to get ready. "Are you guys almost set to go?"
"I don't know. Summer, you about done putting your face on?" Seth asked as his girlfriend walked out of the bathroom.
"Listen, asshat, when I'm with you, I have to look extra good to make up for the mess you are, so don't start complaining when I take a moment or two to make sure you don't make us look like complete fools, okay?" Her eyes narrowed, waiting for him to say something. Seth simply shook his head. Summer huffed and grabbed her purse, swinging it widely and almost hitting her boyfriend as she moved it over her arm. "Where's Coop?"
"She's in the hallway fixing her shoe. Apparently it couldn't make it all the way over here."
"I'll go help." She squinted her eyes at Seth one more time before leaving the room.
"If I haven't told you before, let me tell you now: that girl's a peach."
Seth nodded his head for a moment. "But even as peachy as Summer usually is, you have to admit there's something off about her. She's never Little Miss Sunshine, but she's a little more hostile than she has to be these days. At least, she's a little more hostile than she has to be when there aren't that many other people around."
"She does tend to melt a little when you eliminate all the school boneheads and whatnot."
"That's what I'm saying," Seth agreed as he grabbed the key to the room. "Something's off. So what's the plan?"
"Plan?" Ryan asked, getting up from the bed.
"Yeah, the plan to get her to tell me what's wrong."
"Why don't you just ask her?"
Seth bobbed his head slowly, then pursed his lips and changed the movement to a shake of the head instead. "No, that's too simple. It will never work. What else you got?"
"Why am I coming up with the plan? I thought you were supposed to be the brains of this operation."
"I think we should switch. I've been working out." Seth flexed his arm and pointed at what Ryan could only assume was his muscles, but couldn't quite tell through the layers of clothes covering his friend's body.
With one last unimpressed glance at Seth, Ryan reached out and pushed him, sending the taller of the two falling back onto the bed.
"All right," Seth answered as he stood up, straightening his clothes, "you remain the brawns. And it's a good thing too because your plan sucked."
To be perfectly honest, Seth had never liked the name Alexander. In fact, he was sure that in some edition at some point, there had been a comic book villain who's name was Alexander. He was just too angry at the moment to remember which comic book it had been, and that was saying a lot for Seth.
"Who is that guy?"
Seth's eyes narrowed as he moved his body towards Ryan without actually letting Alexander drop from his sight. "The enemy."
"What?"
"His name is Alexander. He's rich, and he's a college student, and he's been hanging onto Summer's every word since he spotted her and his eyes grew the size of cartoon saucers. Ryan, I am going to lose my girlfriend over Chrismukkah to a preppy, college version of a male newpsie. He's a comapsie."
"A what?"
"A college male newpsie."
Ryan took a sip of his drink. "He's from Newport?"
"No."
"Dude," Ryan sighed.
"Ryan, there's something bothering Summer, and she won't tell me what it is and now she's hanging all over that guy."
"So you asked Summer what was wrong."
"Are you insane? I told you that was a bad plan. I tried to guess what was wrong so I could see her reaction. And you know what I got Ryan?"
Ryan shrugged. "Alexander?"
"Nothing. I got nothing."
Ryan grabbed Seth's arm and pulled him out of the room. He knew all too well where the conversation was going. Seth's head was already shaking erratically, his hands were moving nervously and his voice was slowly getting higher and higher. There was no doubt in his mind that soon enough, Seth would have the attention of everyone in the room if he wasn't taken away from the crowd.
"What exactly did you say?"
"I asked if she thought we were finally going to last for more than two months without breaking up. I asked how Zack was doing. I said something about Anna, how different we are and Atomic County. I mentioned how you and Marissa and all the personal drama you guys bring along usually breaks us up. Dude, I even talked about Luke and Julie Cooper. Nothing. I got no reaction."
"You talked about all the reasons why you guys are probably not going to work out and you don't understand why Summer is talking to some other guy?"
Seth opened his mouth to talk, then paused for a moment. He reached out and grabbed Ryan's jacket. "I am going to lose her."
Ryan took another sip of his drink and nodded slowly.
"Yeah." He watched as Seth's face dropped and then slowly pried his brother's fingers from his jacket. "Listen, man, you have to stop worrying about this stuff. Just go talk to her. Ask her what's going on. Summer loves you. She's abandoned her family to be with you this Chrismukkah despite the fact that her father hates you."
"I mentioned her father as well."
"Seth."
"Fine. Direct approach. But if this is the end of us, I'm blaming you and I'm sabotaging your relationship with Marissa."
"I have no doubt you would."
Seth pointed one warning finger at Ryan before leaving the hallway and heading back to the party. He spotted Summer before even trying to find her, a talent he had honed over many years of admiration. He watched as she smiled up at something Alexander said, and made his way over to join the conversation.
"Hey."
"Hey," Summer smiled as she leaned up for a quick kiss. "Alexander was just telling me what it's like to play on the water polo team for his university."
"Fascinating. I was wondering if I could steal my girlfriend away for a moment."
"I um…" Confusion washed over Alexander's face as he looked from Seth to Summer and back again. "This guy is your boyfriend?"
"Yeah," Summer smiled.
Alexander shrugged. "Sure, why not."
"Thanks," Seth offered, already pulling Summer away.
"Thank God, Cohen," Summer told him as she let him lead her along, barely paying any attention to where they were going. "I was about ready to rip that guy's throat out just so he would stop talking about himself and his water polo team and how he was so great and—"
Seth pulled her inside of their room and let the door slam behind them. He brought her to the bed and pushed her to sit down, then dropped to his knees in front of her. "What's wrong?"
"What?"
"What's wrong?"
Summer sighed. "Look, I know I was talking to that guy for a while, Cohen, but believe me, you really don't have to worry because—"
"I'm done worrying. We've had Grady Bridges and Zack and Danny—who still, was so not funny—and we have everyone else who hits on you, because who can blame them. I'm not worried about the water polo players of the world. I'm worried about you, because, there's something off Summer, and you haven't told me what it is."
Summer's mouth dropped and she simply sat there, staring at Seth.
"This is the part where you tell me what's wrong."
"Oh, sorry. I just… God, Cohen. That was just, really honest. I'm not used to really honest from you."
"I'm letting Ryan be the brains for the day."
"So, you're the brawns?"
"Unfortunately, I think Marissa's got a better chance at getting the job than I do."
"Hey," Summer protested, punching him in the arm, "I should be next in line for the brawns. I can take Coop."
"I don't doubt you can, but then who would be the boobs?"
"Co—"
"It doesn't matter." Seth waved his hand between them, then sat himself next to her on the bed. "What's wrong, Summer?"
Summer took a deep breath, bouncing slightly on the mattress. "It's just… I… I know I ruined our Chrismukkah, and I just…"
"What?"
"I know this Chrismukkah was a bust for us, and I just… I'm sorry."
"What are you talking about?"
"I should have come up with some Chrismukkah miracle for Johnny that didn't ruin the holiday for you."
"Summer…"
She rose from the bed and started pacing, grabbing Princess Sparkle on the way to have something to keep her hands busy. "Our first Chrismukkah we had all the Anna drama, and I dressed up as Wonder Woman and you got me that gift, though I never opened it to find out what it was."
"A Seth Cohen starter pack," Seth interrupted.
"What?"
"It was a Seth Cohen starter pack. Some movies, CDs, books. My essentials."
Summer stopped her pacing for a moment. "That gift sucks. Anyway, then the next year I like, saved Chrismukkah when everyone was going to give up on it, and you just seemed like you were so proud of me, and… it was nice, and I was happy Zack was out of town because of it."
"I was proud," Seth whispered.
"But this year, the first year when we're actually together and Marissa and Ryan are together, and things are going well for your parents, we just… nothing. We're not even a blip on the radar. We're just the couple in the background watching everyone else have their drama and their holiday excitement. It's your favourite holiday and I have nothing to make it special for you."
"Are you kidding me?"
Summer's eyes narrowed and her hands found their way to her hips. "You asked, Cohen. Don't make me regret telling you."
"Summer," Seth rose from the bed, grabbed Princess Sparkles to put her back where she belong next to Captain Oats, and held on to his girlfriend's hands. "This has been a great Chrismukkah because we haven't had all the drama. This is the first Chrismukkah that we're together and I don't have to worry that you're going to leave me or that you're sleeping with someone else or that anything else with us can go wrong. This is the first Chrismukkah where I have you and I can just enjoy that. This is like, the best Chrismukkah ever."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You're not sad that everything's going well and that the biggest bump or surprise we've had so far is that you had to entertain people until Ryan could finally show up to his own bar mitzvah?"
"Chrismukkah bar—"
"I know, Cohen."
"You, my little Summer," Seth told her as he leaned in to rest his forehead against hers, "are my Chrismukkah miracle this year. The fact that we're lasting this long without me screwing up is the Chrismukkah miracle of a lifetime."
"That is pretty impressive."
Seth nodded without moving his head away from hers. "I'll be the first to admit it."
"So, then, you don't really need a present do you?"
"You are present enough."
"But you really want one, right."
He pulled away from her so she could see him smile. "If only to respect the true Chrismukkah spirit."
"Well good, because I might have packed the Wonder Woman costume somewhere in my luggage."
"Have I mentioned I love this holiday?" Seth asked before grabbing Summer around the waist and throwing her onto the bed where he was quick to follow.