Infectious Chapter 1
Obvious FYI: I don't own anything about the O.C.!
Probably considered AU because Seth and Ryan never left that summer…character timing might be off, too.
Updates most likely not as often as my other stories…sorry!
It was going to be a great summer. The past year had been eventful, but nothing the Cohens and Ryan couldn't handle, and now that school was out, life was even better. Ryan was working at the Crab Shack again and was looking forward to his hard-earned spending money. Seth was just excited to be away from the wrath of Dr. Kim.
"Dude, so I can't believe Marissa already left," Seth said he rode his skateboard next to Ryan on his bike. "She never even said why. I mean, doesn't the program start in like, July?"
"No kidding. She said she wanted to 'enjoy Europe before she got too busy' or something," Ryan responded shaking his head in disbelief. In May Marissa decided that she was going to take a six-week fashion class in France, making her absent for the better part of the vacation. She would always dismiss the topic every time Ryan wanted to talk about it, but in recent days, Ryan had come to conclude that maybe her trip would be for the better.
"Well I guess it's better anyways. I mean for starters your on-again-off-again relationship is affecting more than just you two, you know. No offense," Seth replied, speaking as if he wanted to say that comment for a while.
"I know, I know. Sorry." Ryan had been realizing the exact same thing.
"Maybe she's not going to Europe. Maybe Julie's sending her away—" Seth began before getting cut off.
"Shut up, Seth," Ryan dismissed, though Seth did have an interesting point. Ryan didn't even know six-week fashion classes in France existed. He realized later that he should have expected something like this in Newport. Almost a year and the town still surprised him.
"Come on. Think about it. Let me have my fun here. Maybe Marissa's at some finishing school in England. She'll come back in September having needle-pointed a heart with your name on it, Ry. Or maybe she's at a boot camp in Texas. Although she might be starting at a boarding school in Timbuktu. You know I heard Julie say that to her in like sixth grade once. Maybe she finally came around. Or—"
"Seth! Can we just, let's just not talk about it, ok? I just want to have a relaxing summer with no drama, you know? That's all I want. Let's just get home, ok?" Ryan decided, praying for an angst-free summer vacation.
"I hear ya, bro," Seth responded. "Casa de Sanford Cohen, here we come."
"Thank you," Ryan replied, happy to be heading home.
Suddenly, disturbing the eerily-tranquil open road, a loud screech of spinning tires erupted from behind Seth and Ryan. Instinctively, the teens turned around only to see a sleek black sports car swerving everywhere having just turned onto the main road. Somehow, the driver managed to stay on the pavement, yet was zigzagging all over at breakneck speed. Sensing the danger, Ryan yelled to Seth to turn down a dead-end side street to let the asshole pass.
The car came up on the brothers so quickly that neither barely had any time to react. Ryan looked back as he turned down the side street and was shocked at how quickly the car had come towards him. He noticed that one scratched-up side mirror was hanging down by the passenger side window like a loose tooth, most likely a result of hitting a mailbox or a parked car.
Still on his bike, Ryan pushed Seth out of the way as the car hit a pothole and veered towards him. Ryan made a move to get off the road as well but the right front tire of the car clipped the back wheel of Ryan's bike and sent him flying off and down the slight incline on the side of the dead-end.
The driver instantly knew he hit something, and spun the car around to see the two boys laying on the side of the road. Panicking from hitting the boy, the driver spun off down the road faster, if it was even possible, than before, leaving Seth and Ryan in his dust.
"Ryan?" Seth called as he slowly got up onto his knees and looked around. When Ryan had pushed him away, Seth had tripped over his skateboard and fallen to the pavement, hearing but not seeing Ryan get hit. "Ryan?" he called again.
First he heard multiple, brief screams, then Seth looked down the small embankment and saw Ryan gasping for breath. Ryan was lying flat on his back, left leg bending and kicking the air, left hand balled into a fist and pulling on the grass beside him.
"Ryan! Ryan? Oh my God, oh my God, uh Ryan, just hold on," Seth stammered. His voice became higher and higher as he moved closer towards his brother. When Seth was standing over Ryan, he did a quick survey of the injuries and then threw up.
One bone in Ryan's right forearm was through the skin. Seth saw the smooth, glistening end right near Ryan's elbow. A long, deep gash surrounded the open fracture and Seth noticed multiple fragments of the bone sticking every which way in Ryan's raw flesh. It looked like the end of an old-fashioned broom. The worst was what was in the cut. Bits of gravel and dirt and grass had made their way into Ryan's forearm. Tufts of sod were mixed in with the pieces of bone and little pebbles scraped their way all over Ryan's right arm. Ryan's t-shirt was ripped all on the right side as was much of his jeans on the right leg. Seth could see blood slowly pooling in that area as well.
As he fumbled around for his phone, Seth kept watch of Ryan whose face was getting sweatier and paler by the minute.
Shit, shit! Seth thought to himself as he stared at his phone shaking in his hand, somehow at a loss for the inability to dial 911. All he could do was watch Ryan helplessly.
All of a sudden, someone appeared next to the boys.
"I was just running by and I saw you two. What happened?" she asked calmly. How could she be so collected in this situation? Who the hell was she?
"Uh, uh there was a guy in a car…he hit Ryan on his bike. He—" Seth was cut off.
"Here, let me," the girl said as she grabbed the phone out of Seth's quaking hand. "You didn't call anyone…" her voice trailed off but she looked questionably at Seth who shook his head.
"Hi, yes we need an ambulance at the intersection of Main and Woodward please? He was on his bike and was hit by a car and has an open radial fracture with significant debris embedded throughout the arm. He's dyspneic and looks in beginning stages of shock. His friend here is also shaken up and has cuts on his hands. Ok. Thank you." The mysterious girl hung up and handed Seth the phone back.
Seth looked at his hands. They were raw as well, especially his left hand. Why didn't he notice that before? That's why the girl held the phone away from her ear. There was some blood. His blood.
"Who are you?" Seth blurted out, eyebrows wrinkled in question.
"Katrin. Like I said, I was out for a jog. And your name?" Katrin asked almost casually as she moved towards Ryan.
"Seth. And he's Ryan," Seth replied, still dazed. He noticed her carefully rip a piece of Ryan's pants and secure it around the cut on his Ryan's leg. "What are you doing?" Seth continued.
"He has a significant cut on his leg. We need to try and control the bleeding," Katrin replied as if it were common knowledge. "Here, pull on this," she continued as she directed Seth's hand to pull on the makeshift bandage. Ryan let out another scream.
"Shhh I know you're in pain, but we're trying to slow down the bleeding," Katrin soothed as she moved up towards Ryan's head. "Can you look at me?"
Ryan didn't reply as he stifled another wave of pain. His lip was becoming bloody from where he was continuously biting down on it. Katrin unzipped her hoodie and gently placed it under Ryan's head.
"Ryan, the ambulance is coming. Hang on, you're doing good. Tell me, did you hit your head at all when you fell? Ryan?" Katrin tried to coax a response out of him.
Ryan's world was turning a blurry gray and bursts of pain blacked his vision out completely. What had happened? Where was he? He had heard Seth's voice earlier, but who was the woman? It didn't sound like Kirsten. The voice belonged to someone younger. Marissa? No, she wasn't supposed to be here…was she? What was happening? All he knew was his entire right side felt on fire and he could feel the squishiness of the damp grass beneath him. His arm throbbed and his leg seemed to be melting. The noise of the siren coming down Main Street didn't even register to Ryan. He was lapsing in an out of consciousness while struggling to take deep breaths.
"Seth how's his leg doing?" Katrin yelled as she cleared some gravel away from Ryan's face.
"Uh, good I guess? It's not really doing anything anymore. Is that good?" Seth didn't want to look. He was frozen, his voice quivering.
"That's good. You're doing it right. You hear the ambulance? Seth, did he hit his head when he fell?" Katrin replied, blowing back some stray hair away from her face.
Seth stared and looked her in the eye for the first time. She was stunning. Who was she?
"Seth? Are you ok? Do you know if he hit his head?" Katrin repeated.
"Uh, no I don't think so. He, he just fell on his arm I think. I didn't see him get hit. I saw him fall though," Seth replied still mystified by Katrin. "Are you like a doctor or something?"
"Something like that," Katrin said with a smirk. The rest of the conversation was cut off by the grateful arrival of the paramedics.
"What happened here? Said he was hit by a car and fell from his bike?" one paramedic asked Seth.
"Yah some jackass was driving all over the road and I think he hit Ryan's back tire or something. He fell on his arm. Obviously," Seth shook his head and followed the paramedics towards Ryan who was now drenched in sweat.
"Son, can you hear me?" the second paramedic asked as he flicked his pen light into Ryan's eyes. "Ryan can you look at me? My name's John and this is my partner Billy. We're going to get you to HOAG as soon as we can, ok?" John talked as he and Billy worked.
"This is a good pressure bandage," Billy remarked. "You did this?" the paramedic asked Seth.
"Katrin did it. I just held it. Is Ryan going to be alright? I mean you can help him, right? I don't know what to do," Seth responded, nervous for Ryan.
"Who did this?" Billy asked, confused.
"Katrin," Seth turned around to point at her but no one else was in sight. "She was here, I swear. See, that's her sweatshirt under Ryan's head. She was out for a jog she said and she came and helped. She's like some doctor super woman person. Where did she go?" Seth was bewildered.
Neither paramedic was paying attention to Seth any more, both focused on Ryan. John was carefully wrapping Ryan's leg while Billy was readying a splint for Ryan's arm.
"Ok, Ryan I'm going to splint your arm now, alright? Bite down on this cloth if you need to. Give your lip a rest. This isn't going to feel good. Hold on, buddy. Stay with me," Billy said as he lifted Ryan's broken arm. Rather than clean his arm out here, the paramedics decided to just cover it before they braced it.
As soon as his arm was moved, Ryan let out an Earth-shattering scream of pain and passed out.
"Oh my God. Ryan!" Seth knelt down as close to Ryan as he could without getting in the paramedics' way. "He's not dead is he?"
"Just passed out from the pain," John confirmed as he finished re-taking Ryan's blood pressure. Noticing Billy's completed splint job John continued, "Let's get him in."
Ryan was strapped into a back board, neck brace and all and loaded into the ambulance.
"You coming, kid?" Billy asked as he shook Seth's shoulder.
Seth nodded and followed the paramedic. The frightened teenager's eyes were wide and he walked like a zombie.
"Here, let's get you cleaned, too," John said as he reached for some alcohol pads.
The sting of the antiseptic on his cut-up palms barely roused Seth from his frozen state. All the noises around him blended together as Seth stared down at Ryan, unconscious, bloody, bandaged, and splinted.
How had their day suddenly changed so much? How did all this happen? Seth couldn't help but think the obvious: this was not going to be the relaxing summer Ryan wanted.
-Kinda gruesome, I know, sorry. Please read and review!