Ways to Grieve
by: Allison
Disclaimer: Not my players, just my playground.
Fandom: The OC
Summary: "So it's just you and me?" Companion to "Changes" and "The Last Time". AU. One-shot.
A/N: Companion to "Changes" and "The Last Time". Please READ them first before you read this. You won't understand it if you haven't read the first two. I'm trying to create an explanation here, sort of wrap things up, but I don't know how it'll work out. I hadn't planned on writing it.
Sandy found him on the couch in the den, clutching the Chrismukkah card from the previous year. He didn't know where Seth had found it, he'd stashed all the family photos - everything that reminded him of her, in a box in the attic. It was too hard to look at her face everyday.
"Dad..."
"You're home."
Seth nodded, hands still clutching the holiday card, head bowed.
"Good."
Sandy sat down and stuck an awkward arm around his son, eyes to the floor. He couldn't look at that photo - couldn't open those wounds back up again.
"So it's just you and me?" Seth tucked the card into his jacket pocket and looked at Sandy, eyes filled with understanding and defeat. He didn't need to be told - he knew.
"And Ryan." Seth cocked an eyebrow at him, and Sandy smiled - same old Seth. "He came back...after...everything. Theresa miscarried. It seemed logical."
"Uh huh..." The room was quiet for a moment. Still. Tense.
"Dad..." His son's voice finally came out, soft and shaky.
"Yea?"
"How? When?"
"Cancer, last month." The words stuck in his throat before tumbling out of his mouth in a rush.
Seth just sighed and fell silent. There was nothing to say - no joke or witty comeback. Not even he could laugh through this one.
There was just silence, deafening silence - and a void that could only be filled by her voice, her laugh.
God, he was nothing without her.
He was nothing.
Fin.