A/N- In honor of Christmas (or Chrismukkah), I here present an ode to both my favorite movie that I watch every Christmas Eve, "It's a Wonderful Life" and the best show on television, the O.C. For the sake of the story, now that it's like next Christmas, Seth and Summer have been dating since last February-ish, and Ryan and Marissa are of course still together. Without further ado…
~IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, SETH COHEN~
"Good morning everyone! Merry Chrismukkah Eve!" Seth practically bounded down the stairs.
"Whoa, that's a lot of holiday cheer at seven o'clock in the morning." Ryan sighed, eating his cereal.
"I know, my dear brother, I am very full of cheer this morning. The sun is out, it's not even close to snowing, and everything is right with the world. It's Chrismukkah in Newport, baby-well, almost."
Kirsten and Sandy entered the kitchen, looking a little haggard.
"Mother, may I say that it totally absolutely sucks that your evil Grinch of a father is making you go on a business trip on Chrismukkah Eve!"
"I told you, Seth, I'll be back tomorrow morning. You guys will just have to wait a little bit on the gift-wrapping frenzy."
"All right, all right. I still say that's pretty Scroogey, but whatever. At least I still have dad and Ryan."
"Actually, I'm going over to Marissa's. She wanted to do our gift-exchange tonight."
"All right, well, at least I still have dad."
"That's right, we'll have a real father-son bonding night."
"Sounds groovy."
"What about Summer? When are you going to give her your "awesome" gift?" Ryan asked.
"First of all, Ryan, the air quotes were NOT necessary. Secondly, I'm going over there right now. I'll be back in like an hour or so."
"So things are going pretty well with Summer?" Kirsten asked.
"No, mom, we've been dating ten months because she makes me absolutely miserable."
"Has it been ten months? Oh, honey, your first long-term relationship, I'm so proud."
"I guess we are in a real relationship. I never really thought about it." Seth looked a little flustered.
"I can't wait until the first Cohen grandchildren." Sandy teased, drinking his coffee.
"Hey, dial it down, dad! We're just dating…you know, a fun, casual, unserious kinda thing!"
"You don't date someone for that long you're not serious about."
"Oh, what do you know, Ryan? You're the person who said "thank you" when Marissa said she loved you-you don't know any more about relationships than I do!!" Seth was now completely freaking out.
"Seth, chill out. What's the big deal? Real relationships are nice." Ryan shrugged.
"We're not in a relationship!!!" Seth shouted, looking completely unhinged.
"All right, honey, whatever you say. Deep breaths. Okay, I've got to catch my plane, I'm sure the LAX is going to be totally insane so I have to leave early. And I have to drop off Ryan's thing at Child's Services."
"Seth, couldn't you do that while you're out?"
"Huh?" Seth looked up from his reverie.
"Ryan's form…drop it off at Child's Services."
"What form?" Ryan looked up, interested.
"It's basically…well, kind of a renewal of our "Ryan Contract" to put it in layman's terms. All it's saying is that everything's going great and we want to keep you on for another year. But if we don't turn it in by the end of the year, they can revoke our right to keep you. Just a sort of check up on the family's responsibility, I guess." Sandy explained, passing Seth the envelope.
"All right, I'll take care of it." Seth said, still looking distracted.
"Bye, honey." Kirsten kissed Seth on the head as he left.
"Yeah, bye…everyone." Seth wandered out the door in a bit of a daze, wind whistling into the house before he slammed the door.
~*~
Seth unlocked the Range Rover, putting the envelope on top of the car as he picked up Summer's present to put in the back.
"A real relationship? I never even had a fake relationship." He said aloud to himself, closing the car door and getting in.
He shakingly turned the ignition and drove off quickly to Summer's, deciding he'd go by Child's Services after the very brief, very non-committal present-giving.
~*~
He rung the doorbell at Summer's house, shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other and tugging at his collar. Suddenly, he felt strangely like he was choking.
Summer opened the door, looking gorgeous as always in a dark red sweater and jeans.
"Cohen! What a nice surprise! Merry Christmas Eve!" She kissed his cheek, but Seth pulled back slightly.
"Oh, sorry, Chrismukkah Eve. My mistake." She grinned.
Seth still didn't say anything. Summer looked at him, her smile faltering slightly.
"Are you…okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Let's get this present thing over with."
Summer looked even more confused.
"Okay, I guess we should get it "over with." She said, looking a little hurt as they both walked inside her huge house.
"Well, your present's in my room." Summer explained.
"Okay…are you going to go get it?" Seth raised his eyebrows.
"Or…we could both go. Cohen, what is up with you today?"
"Maybe I don't want to go up to your room. Maybe that makes me uncomfortable."
"Maybe you've been up there forty billion times and judging from our activities in that very room, you have no reason to feel uncomfortable." Summer said, getting angrier.
"Well, excuse me for expressing my feelings."
"Cohen, seriously, are you high?" Summer threw her hands up in frustration.
"Now, I am not high, Summer Roberts, I am just wondering if we're moving a little fast here in our little dating thing."
"Our little dating thing? We've been together for ten months!" Summer yelled.
"Stop yelling at me!"
"I think I'm required to yell at you, you idiot! I have no clue why you're acting this way, but if this is how you feel about me, maybe we are making a mistake. I thought this was the greatest relationship I'd ever been in…and now that I know this is how you feel…just…just get out of here. I can't talk to you right now. Merry Christmas, Cohen." Summer said bitingly, storming up the stairs.
"CHRISMUKKAH!" Seth yelled after her.
There was no answer.
~*~
Seth got in the car, chucking Summer's present in the back seat, and putting his head on the steering wheel. What the hell was his problem? Why, why, why didn't he ever think before he said things? He supposed he could go in and apologize, but Summer was too mad to talk to him right now. The coolest, hottest, funniest girlfriend in the world, and he'd just blown it. What a great beginning to the eve of Chrismukkah.
He decided to just go home and sit in his room where he could just sit quietly and not offend anyone. But first, he had to go to Child's Services.
~*~
Seth arrived there, completely frazzled and really wanting to go home. He looked in the seat next to him for the envelope. It wasn't there.
Seth felt his heart drop into his chest. No, no, NO. It was here somewhere. He opened the glove compartment, looked in the back seat, looked under every place he could fit…it was nowhere. NOOOO. This was not possible. Child's Services closed today, there was no other day to turn it in before they reopened January 5th. The only part of the place still opened was a window to turn in any forms with a tired looking old lady.
Seth raced up to the window as fast as he could. He banged on the window with such intensity that the lady looked absolutely furious when she looked up at him finally.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm supposed to turn in a form for Ryan Atwood, from the Cohen family, we just assumed responsibility for him last year and I'm supposed to turn in some form…" Seth was now completely flipping out for the third time that day.
"Oh, yes. Those forms."
"Thank God! You have more?"
"No. We close in an hour." The lady shut her window.
Seth leaned up against the window, his eyes burning slightly with frustration. This was awful. When was the last time he could remember having it?
Suddenly, a horrible, horrible memory presented itself. The last time he'd had it…he was putting it on top of the car…but he had never put it back in the car.
Seth almost started crying. He had driven off with the envelope on top of the car. He drove home as quickly as he could, gripping the wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.
He reached their house, and began a frantic search over the entire front yard, the Cooper's front yard, the house next to his on the other side, the gutter, every single place he could think of. It was gone. It was a very windy day, and it was gone.
~*~
"Hey, Seth. You're back soon. Did Summer like her gift? Did everything get dropped off okay?" Sandy looked up from the paper, doing the crossword by himself.
"Dad, I can't find Ryan's form. I looked everywhere and I can't find it." Seth said, his voice cracking in panic.
"What?" Sandy set down the paper.
"I lost it. They don't have anymore. I am so sorry."
"Seth, what do you mean you lost it? You can't have lost it!"
"Well…I did."
"Do you realize what this means? Do you realize they could take Ryan away from us? That they probably will take Ryan away from us?" Sandy stood up, doing what he rarely did and yelling at Seth.
Ryan walked in at that moment, putting on his tie and jacket for his lunch with Marissa.
"Whoa…what?" Ryan looked confused and a little terrified as he overhead Sandy's last words.
"Ryan, not now!" Sandy couldn't seem to stop yelling.
"Dude, you turned in the form, right?" Ryan looked even more panicked.
"No, I am so sorry. I can't find it."
"You can't FIND it? What the hell does that mean? Go get another!"
"They…don't have anymore." Seth said weakly.
"So that's how much you care about me being here, Seth? So much that you just LOSE the only thing that's going to keep me here?" Ryan grabbed Seth by the shoulders, his old Chino side coming out rapidly.
"Ryan, calm down!"
"I'm not going to CALM DOWN! If they make me leave, where am I supposed to go? What am I going to tell Marissa? I can't believe you, Seth!"
"Ryan, just-"
"I hope you're happy, man. You just ruined my life. But it doesn't seem like that matters to you at all." Ryan said spitefully, in a very rare show of emotion and stormed out the front door.
Seth and Sandy stood in the kitchen, Sandy practically shaking he was so mad and Seth seriously about to cry.
"Dad, I-"
"Just go upstairs, Seth. I'm going to have to figure out what to do. If there's anything we can even do."
~*~
Seth flopped onto his bed, exhaling deeply. Why couldn't he do anything right? Why did he have to screw up everything?
After a long while of sitting on his bed with his arms over his face, it had gone to twilight outside and his bedroom door opened suddenly.
It was Marissa, looking royally pissed off.
"Hey…Marissa." Seth sat up.
"Seth Cohen. You are not exactly my favorite person today." Marissa sounded like she was barely containing herself.
"Why is that?" He asked innocently.
"Hmm, well, let's see," she said with extreme sarcasm, "First Summer calls me this morning sobbing hysterically and tells me all about your little "gift" this morning. That made me pretty pissed off right there. THEN Ryan comes over practically in tears, which believe me, is a very, very rare occurrence, and tells me all about your little "situation" with Child's Services. You make my best friend cry and…AND are possibly are taking my boyfriend away from Newport?" Marissa was clenching her fists at her side as she advanced towards the bed.
Seth stood up.
"Come on, Marissa, just hear me out-"
"I don't want to hear one of your stupid rambling anecdotes that Summer says you always use to apologize! Unlike her, I don't think they're cute! I don't want to hear your explanations, I just came here to do this, you son of a bitch."
Marissa slapped him then, so hard that one of her rings cut his cheek. He put his hand up, feeling blood.
"Have a great holiday, Seth. Completely alone." She practically spat, slamming his door behind her.
~*~
Seth leaned against the wall, his eyes burning almost painfully as he still didn't start crying. All the horrible events of the day thus far kept piling up on him. He had ruined Summer's Chrismukkah. He might have lost Ryan forever. Marissa hated him. His father hated him. And all of this was due to his stupid, STUPID mistakes.
"Maybe it'd just be better if I'd never been born." Seth said melodramatically, closing his eyes.
Suddenly, the window to his room flew open, and a cold gust of wind knocked practically everything over.
"Even the weather hates me." Seth said under his breath, going to close the window.
He turned around, and jumped.
A rather short man with bottle glasses and a very ugly plaid shirt was standing in his room, smiling. The biggest problem that immediately came to mind was the fact that Seth had absolutely NO idea who he was.
"Who are you?" Seth said, terrified.
"Hello, Seth Cohen."
"You know my name?"
"I know a lot about you. I know you're seventeen years old, your parents are Seth and Kirsten Cohen, you're adopted brother is Ryan Atwood, you're dating Summer Roberts, and they all love you very much but today you pretty much screwed all that up. Am I right so far?"
"Strangely and frighteningly yes." Seth looked at the man in horror.
"And I heard you just say that you think they'd all be better off if you'd never been born."
"Well…probably." Seth said moodily.
"Good. Because you're about to find out."
Seth laughed.
"Oh, okay, what are you like a wizard or something?"
"Or something. Your guardian angel to be exact."
"Right." Seth rolled his eyes.
Suddenly, Seth and the man were not in his house at all but on the Newport beach.
"Whoa, dude, what the-"
"I figured this would be a good place to start. You got your wish, Seth Cohen. You've never been born."
~*~
A/N- The Conclusion to come tonight! Please leave a review!
~IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, SETH COHEN~
"Good morning everyone! Merry Chrismukkah Eve!" Seth practically bounded down the stairs.
"Whoa, that's a lot of holiday cheer at seven o'clock in the morning." Ryan sighed, eating his cereal.
"I know, my dear brother, I am very full of cheer this morning. The sun is out, it's not even close to snowing, and everything is right with the world. It's Chrismukkah in Newport, baby-well, almost."
Kirsten and Sandy entered the kitchen, looking a little haggard.
"Mother, may I say that it totally absolutely sucks that your evil Grinch of a father is making you go on a business trip on Chrismukkah Eve!"
"I told you, Seth, I'll be back tomorrow morning. You guys will just have to wait a little bit on the gift-wrapping frenzy."
"All right, all right. I still say that's pretty Scroogey, but whatever. At least I still have dad and Ryan."
"Actually, I'm going over to Marissa's. She wanted to do our gift-exchange tonight."
"All right, well, at least I still have dad."
"That's right, we'll have a real father-son bonding night."
"Sounds groovy."
"What about Summer? When are you going to give her your "awesome" gift?" Ryan asked.
"First of all, Ryan, the air quotes were NOT necessary. Secondly, I'm going over there right now. I'll be back in like an hour or so."
"So things are going pretty well with Summer?" Kirsten asked.
"No, mom, we've been dating ten months because she makes me absolutely miserable."
"Has it been ten months? Oh, honey, your first long-term relationship, I'm so proud."
"I guess we are in a real relationship. I never really thought about it." Seth looked a little flustered.
"I can't wait until the first Cohen grandchildren." Sandy teased, drinking his coffee.
"Hey, dial it down, dad! We're just dating…you know, a fun, casual, unserious kinda thing!"
"You don't date someone for that long you're not serious about."
"Oh, what do you know, Ryan? You're the person who said "thank you" when Marissa said she loved you-you don't know any more about relationships than I do!!" Seth was now completely freaking out.
"Seth, chill out. What's the big deal? Real relationships are nice." Ryan shrugged.
"We're not in a relationship!!!" Seth shouted, looking completely unhinged.
"All right, honey, whatever you say. Deep breaths. Okay, I've got to catch my plane, I'm sure the LAX is going to be totally insane so I have to leave early. And I have to drop off Ryan's thing at Child's Services."
"Seth, couldn't you do that while you're out?"
"Huh?" Seth looked up from his reverie.
"Ryan's form…drop it off at Child's Services."
"What form?" Ryan looked up, interested.
"It's basically…well, kind of a renewal of our "Ryan Contract" to put it in layman's terms. All it's saying is that everything's going great and we want to keep you on for another year. But if we don't turn it in by the end of the year, they can revoke our right to keep you. Just a sort of check up on the family's responsibility, I guess." Sandy explained, passing Seth the envelope.
"All right, I'll take care of it." Seth said, still looking distracted.
"Bye, honey." Kirsten kissed Seth on the head as he left.
"Yeah, bye…everyone." Seth wandered out the door in a bit of a daze, wind whistling into the house before he slammed the door.
~*~
Seth unlocked the Range Rover, putting the envelope on top of the car as he picked up Summer's present to put in the back.
"A real relationship? I never even had a fake relationship." He said aloud to himself, closing the car door and getting in.
He shakingly turned the ignition and drove off quickly to Summer's, deciding he'd go by Child's Services after the very brief, very non-committal present-giving.
~*~
He rung the doorbell at Summer's house, shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other and tugging at his collar. Suddenly, he felt strangely like he was choking.
Summer opened the door, looking gorgeous as always in a dark red sweater and jeans.
"Cohen! What a nice surprise! Merry Christmas Eve!" She kissed his cheek, but Seth pulled back slightly.
"Oh, sorry, Chrismukkah Eve. My mistake." She grinned.
Seth still didn't say anything. Summer looked at him, her smile faltering slightly.
"Are you…okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Let's get this present thing over with."
Summer looked even more confused.
"Okay, I guess we should get it "over with." She said, looking a little hurt as they both walked inside her huge house.
"Well, your present's in my room." Summer explained.
"Okay…are you going to go get it?" Seth raised his eyebrows.
"Or…we could both go. Cohen, what is up with you today?"
"Maybe I don't want to go up to your room. Maybe that makes me uncomfortable."
"Maybe you've been up there forty billion times and judging from our activities in that very room, you have no reason to feel uncomfortable." Summer said, getting angrier.
"Well, excuse me for expressing my feelings."
"Cohen, seriously, are you high?" Summer threw her hands up in frustration.
"Now, I am not high, Summer Roberts, I am just wondering if we're moving a little fast here in our little dating thing."
"Our little dating thing? We've been together for ten months!" Summer yelled.
"Stop yelling at me!"
"I think I'm required to yell at you, you idiot! I have no clue why you're acting this way, but if this is how you feel about me, maybe we are making a mistake. I thought this was the greatest relationship I'd ever been in…and now that I know this is how you feel…just…just get out of here. I can't talk to you right now. Merry Christmas, Cohen." Summer said bitingly, storming up the stairs.
"CHRISMUKKAH!" Seth yelled after her.
There was no answer.
~*~
Seth got in the car, chucking Summer's present in the back seat, and putting his head on the steering wheel. What the hell was his problem? Why, why, why didn't he ever think before he said things? He supposed he could go in and apologize, but Summer was too mad to talk to him right now. The coolest, hottest, funniest girlfriend in the world, and he'd just blown it. What a great beginning to the eve of Chrismukkah.
He decided to just go home and sit in his room where he could just sit quietly and not offend anyone. But first, he had to go to Child's Services.
~*~
Seth arrived there, completely frazzled and really wanting to go home. He looked in the seat next to him for the envelope. It wasn't there.
Seth felt his heart drop into his chest. No, no, NO. It was here somewhere. He opened the glove compartment, looked in the back seat, looked under every place he could fit…it was nowhere. NOOOO. This was not possible. Child's Services closed today, there was no other day to turn it in before they reopened January 5th. The only part of the place still opened was a window to turn in any forms with a tired looking old lady.
Seth raced up to the window as fast as he could. He banged on the window with such intensity that the lady looked absolutely furious when she looked up at him finally.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm supposed to turn in a form for Ryan Atwood, from the Cohen family, we just assumed responsibility for him last year and I'm supposed to turn in some form…" Seth was now completely flipping out for the third time that day.
"Oh, yes. Those forms."
"Thank God! You have more?"
"No. We close in an hour." The lady shut her window.
Seth leaned up against the window, his eyes burning slightly with frustration. This was awful. When was the last time he could remember having it?
Suddenly, a horrible, horrible memory presented itself. The last time he'd had it…he was putting it on top of the car…but he had never put it back in the car.
Seth almost started crying. He had driven off with the envelope on top of the car. He drove home as quickly as he could, gripping the wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.
He reached their house, and began a frantic search over the entire front yard, the Cooper's front yard, the house next to his on the other side, the gutter, every single place he could think of. It was gone. It was a very windy day, and it was gone.
~*~
"Hey, Seth. You're back soon. Did Summer like her gift? Did everything get dropped off okay?" Sandy looked up from the paper, doing the crossword by himself.
"Dad, I can't find Ryan's form. I looked everywhere and I can't find it." Seth said, his voice cracking in panic.
"What?" Sandy set down the paper.
"I lost it. They don't have anymore. I am so sorry."
"Seth, what do you mean you lost it? You can't have lost it!"
"Well…I did."
"Do you realize what this means? Do you realize they could take Ryan away from us? That they probably will take Ryan away from us?" Sandy stood up, doing what he rarely did and yelling at Seth.
Ryan walked in at that moment, putting on his tie and jacket for his lunch with Marissa.
"Whoa…what?" Ryan looked confused and a little terrified as he overhead Sandy's last words.
"Ryan, not now!" Sandy couldn't seem to stop yelling.
"Dude, you turned in the form, right?" Ryan looked even more panicked.
"No, I am so sorry. I can't find it."
"You can't FIND it? What the hell does that mean? Go get another!"
"They…don't have anymore." Seth said weakly.
"So that's how much you care about me being here, Seth? So much that you just LOSE the only thing that's going to keep me here?" Ryan grabbed Seth by the shoulders, his old Chino side coming out rapidly.
"Ryan, calm down!"
"I'm not going to CALM DOWN! If they make me leave, where am I supposed to go? What am I going to tell Marissa? I can't believe you, Seth!"
"Ryan, just-"
"I hope you're happy, man. You just ruined my life. But it doesn't seem like that matters to you at all." Ryan said spitefully, in a very rare show of emotion and stormed out the front door.
Seth and Sandy stood in the kitchen, Sandy practically shaking he was so mad and Seth seriously about to cry.
"Dad, I-"
"Just go upstairs, Seth. I'm going to have to figure out what to do. If there's anything we can even do."
~*~
Seth flopped onto his bed, exhaling deeply. Why couldn't he do anything right? Why did he have to screw up everything?
After a long while of sitting on his bed with his arms over his face, it had gone to twilight outside and his bedroom door opened suddenly.
It was Marissa, looking royally pissed off.
"Hey…Marissa." Seth sat up.
"Seth Cohen. You are not exactly my favorite person today." Marissa sounded like she was barely containing herself.
"Why is that?" He asked innocently.
"Hmm, well, let's see," she said with extreme sarcasm, "First Summer calls me this morning sobbing hysterically and tells me all about your little "gift" this morning. That made me pretty pissed off right there. THEN Ryan comes over practically in tears, which believe me, is a very, very rare occurrence, and tells me all about your little "situation" with Child's Services. You make my best friend cry and…AND are possibly are taking my boyfriend away from Newport?" Marissa was clenching her fists at her side as she advanced towards the bed.
Seth stood up.
"Come on, Marissa, just hear me out-"
"I don't want to hear one of your stupid rambling anecdotes that Summer says you always use to apologize! Unlike her, I don't think they're cute! I don't want to hear your explanations, I just came here to do this, you son of a bitch."
Marissa slapped him then, so hard that one of her rings cut his cheek. He put his hand up, feeling blood.
"Have a great holiday, Seth. Completely alone." She practically spat, slamming his door behind her.
~*~
Seth leaned against the wall, his eyes burning almost painfully as he still didn't start crying. All the horrible events of the day thus far kept piling up on him. He had ruined Summer's Chrismukkah. He might have lost Ryan forever. Marissa hated him. His father hated him. And all of this was due to his stupid, STUPID mistakes.
"Maybe it'd just be better if I'd never been born." Seth said melodramatically, closing his eyes.
Suddenly, the window to his room flew open, and a cold gust of wind knocked practically everything over.
"Even the weather hates me." Seth said under his breath, going to close the window.
He turned around, and jumped.
A rather short man with bottle glasses and a very ugly plaid shirt was standing in his room, smiling. The biggest problem that immediately came to mind was the fact that Seth had absolutely NO idea who he was.
"Who are you?" Seth said, terrified.
"Hello, Seth Cohen."
"You know my name?"
"I know a lot about you. I know you're seventeen years old, your parents are Seth and Kirsten Cohen, you're adopted brother is Ryan Atwood, you're dating Summer Roberts, and they all love you very much but today you pretty much screwed all that up. Am I right so far?"
"Strangely and frighteningly yes." Seth looked at the man in horror.
"And I heard you just say that you think they'd all be better off if you'd never been born."
"Well…probably." Seth said moodily.
"Good. Because you're about to find out."
Seth laughed.
"Oh, okay, what are you like a wizard or something?"
"Or something. Your guardian angel to be exact."
"Right." Seth rolled his eyes.
Suddenly, Seth and the man were not in his house at all but on the Newport beach.
"Whoa, dude, what the-"
"I figured this would be a good place to start. You got your wish, Seth Cohen. You've never been born."
~*~
A/N- The Conclusion to come tonight! Please leave a review!