A/N: Hey O.C. Fans, well this is a new idea I came up with. It's a pretty major AU, kind of I guess you could call it a Hallmark idea. It'll probably have a very similar vibe to a Hallmark movie, not that it's based on anything in particular. Just thematically similar to some of those types. It takes place in two separate times, that is, there will be flashbacks to when Ryan and Seth were teenagers, but a good chunk involves the adult Ryan and Seth and their families in an alternate scenario. Anyway, this is just a prologue with a bit of a setup.

As always: I own nothing recognizable. The O.C. belongs to FOX and Josh Schwartz. Just my storyline.

Prologue: The Letters

Hey, uh… it's me again. I don't know if you even read these or if you even can. Dad says you get time to read letters is that true? Write me back and let me know otherwise I won't bother you anymore. If you can...I mean if you get time to read letters they should give you time to write back right? Or if you don't care just send a photo flipping me the bird and I'll get the message uh… okay, anyway. School sucks, but I did get my acceptance letter. I got in dude! You're reading a letter from the newest member of the class of 2010 of the Rhode Island School of Design. Maybe I'll finally get my chance to prove to those Newpsie Water Polo assholes I can make something of myself. No actually I know I will, because that comic I showed you, you remember right? I finished the first issue. Maybe I'll get a meeting with a publisher, they give college kids those opportunities right? Anyway, um...I think this is the time when Dad would say I'm talking about myself too much. Mom would say to slow down and let the other person get a word in, or well this is a letter so I'll just ask a bunch of questions I guess…

The young man released a breath as he tossed aside the page he was reading, ignoring the questions, the ones he'd memorized. Stupid ones about prison food, what he'd had for lunch that day, if he ever got to see any girl prisoners in the yard and were they hot? (No and probably) The letter went on for three, front and back. He wasn't surprised, not in the slightest considering who wrote it. However, his mind was flooded with an influx of other emotions. He finally shook his head and tossed aside the whole thing, back in a box with several other identical letters, all by the same person except for one, which his lawyer had written. The date was not much later than the date of the other person's letter, perhaps a few weeks difference, but the year was the same as the previous, 2006.

Ryan,

How are you doing Kid? They treating you alright? I hear you're getting released in a few days. Wish I could be there to welcome you back to civilization, but we're dropping Seth off at RISD. I bet he spent four pages telling you about the place huh? I don't know if he's more excited about the school or getting out of Newport. Anyway, I've enclosed another business card with this letter, home and work numbers. If you need anything, I mean it Ry, anything, you call alright? Kirsten, me, even Seth at school, we'll help anyway we can. Don't leave us in the dark.

Sandy Cohen

That business card was what he was looking for. Over two years, he'd accumulated several. Between the in-person meetings and the letters, he probably had about ten. That number had dwindled, between the halfway house, moving back home with his older brother who'd been released three years before he had on good behavior, his brother's second arrest, moving in with his friend Theresa, and everything that came afterwards, the number had dwindled to three. Now he was trying to find any of those three he could, in with the letters he hadn't glanced in years.

Ten years, ten years and a mountain of trouble later and he only just now thought of the family that had offered help. It probably had an expiration date. Sandy Cohen was probably a senile old fool by now, and Seth...well eighteen ignored letters, was there even hope for a helping hand left with the man?

His hand clasped cardstock and he gave a sigh of relief. He pulled it out and surely enough…

Sanford Cohen

Public Defender's Office, Orange County CA

324-780-1200

Home number (Call us Ryan, I mean it)

324-672-9045

Yellowed and frayed with age, but this was it. Now he just had to call and pray they'd remember him.

A/N: Well, this is it. The beginning of the Boy Behind Bars. Thoughts?