Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to "The OC"

A/N: I seriously don't know where I come up with this stuff. And I know I have a small couple-parter story going right now but this just popped into my head so I'm going with. It's again only a three-parter.

Everything from the show stands except Kirsten giving birth to Sophie or anything in the very last montage that happened during the series finale.

Oh and P.S. – I suck at reviewing/writing back to reviews right now. I'm currently in the midst of finalizing all my plans to travel the world (I leave in 13 days to travel to the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and then through the Panama Canal to arrive finally in Florida in May) so really, on all accounts, I shouldn't even be writing SS stories. Too bad I'm awesome at procrastination.

Read, enjoy!, and (if possible even though I kind of don't deserve it) review!!!

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"Dude," he paused for added effect, "you're getting hitched!"

The blond shook his head in response, smiling into his drink. "Yup, I think I am."

"That's crazy!" The dark curly haired man put his own bottle of beer onto the bar's counter. "Are we that old?"

"Old enough that it's not stupid, young enough that it's not too late," the blond bobbed his head.

"Wow," the dark haired man responded, "you know, I always thought I was gonna get married first."

The blond snorted. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah…"

"Man," the blond slapped the brunette's back lightly, "you could get married if you wanted to."

This time it was the brunette's turn to snort. "Huh. You know, that didn't go over so well last time. Or, come to think of it, the time before that."

"It's been years, Seth."

"And yet, we always seem to end up right back in the same place we started, don't we, Ryan?" Seth brought the bottle back up to his lips, letting the cool liquid run down the back of his throat.

Ryan sighed, obviously not wanting to upset his brother further. "I'm getting married."

Seth stole a glance to his left, smiling sheepishly. "You're getting married, man. You're getting married…"

The two took their bottles, clunk them together, and then brought them back up to their thirsty lips.

Seth dropped the bottle back to the bar, turning away from his brother. "Is it sad that this is your bachelor party and we're the only two people in attendance?"

Ryan mimicked Seth's actions. "We need to get more friends."

Seth nodded in response holding his bottle in his hands as Ryan did the same, both staring blankly in front of them.

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"Leilah!" Seth barged into the house, shouting in a slur. "Leilah, baby, come here!"

"Seth," Summer switched on the lights in the living room, noticing Seth's disheveled appearance, "What the hell are you doing?"

Seth walked over to her, albeit staggered, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I'm looking for Leilah." Seth kept his hold on Summer, kissing her hair lightly.

"I kind of gathered that…" Summer mumbled into Seth's shoulders that were now starting to suffocate her. "It's nearly three in the morning. She's sleeping."

Just then, a small dark haired girl in her pony pajamas walked down the stairs, into the light rubbing her eyes. "Daddy…?"

Summer pulled out of Seth's abnormally strong hold, glancing at her daughter. "Leilah, honey, just go back to sleep. You have a big day tomorrow." Summer tried to walk her daughter back to her room, indicating she needed her sleep before being Uncle Ryan's all-too important flower girl the next day.

"Leilah!" Seth shouted again, pushing Summer out of the way and kneeling down to his little girl's height. "I love you so much, little girl. And you know what?"

"What?" the five-year old smiled at her father.

"We're gonna be a real family some day. You, me, and your mom. And you'll get to be a flower girl again. And you'll have a little brother or sister soon -"

"Excuse me?" Summer crossed her arms under her chest in defiance and shock.

Seth ignored Summer, continuing to Leilah, "- And we're gonna move out of this hellhole of a town and into a nice big house on the ocean far away from here. And I'll buy you a boat. A really, really big boat and -"

Summer grabbed Seth's arm roughly, pulling his body up into vertical position again. "Again," Summer reiterated, "what the hell are you doing?"

"Summer, I love you," Seth's eyes glazed over as he took Summer's face in his hands, bringing his lips to crash down upon hers.

Summer fell into the kiss – she never was one to deny Seth and his talented lips – and was relishing in how it felt to be like this with him until she realized her only daughter was standing there next to them. She pulled away as Seth continued reaching for her. Summer tried to knock his wandering hands away from her body as she walked her daughter back to her room, but with his hands reaching for her waist and pulling her out of reach with her daughter, she elbowed him in the gut to stop his wandering hands. He immediately cried out in pain, doubling over and falling to the ground, as her daughter looked on in horror.

"Daddy!" Leilah yelled, rushing to her father's side.

"Leilah, come on, you need to go to bed," Summer reached down grabbing her young daughter's body.

"No!" Leilah shouted from on top of Summer's shoulders as Summer walked her back up the stairs into her room, pounding her tiny fists onto her mother's back. "You hurt Daddy! Let me go!"

Summer let her back down onto her bed, gripping her shoulders, making eye contact with her. "Daddy's gonna be fine. You, on the other hand, need to get some sleep before tomorrow."

Leilah's eyes started to water and Summer knew what was coming next. Suddenly the young girl burst into hysterical sobs, hitting Summer's grip away as groans from the living room still lingered in the late night – or was it considered early morning? – darkness. Summer finally sighed, letting go of her daughter as Leilah jumped off of her twin-sized bed, racing downstairs for her father. Summer followed her out and down, seeing her curl next to Seth on the ground, watching as they both stared at each other while Seth's hand pushed away the stray pieces of hair that fell in her face. Both the whimpering of cries and groans of pain subsided in seconds as the two fell into a deep sleep right there on the carpet.

Summer rolled her eyes, walking back to her bedroom, muttering to herself, "Un-fucking-believable," as she climbed underneath the sheets.

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Seth woke to the smell of coffee and a sore back. He shifted in his place, reaching for a blanket but discovered his hands coming in contact with a handful of carpet instead.

"Looking for something, ass?" Summer sneered above him, gripping a mug of coffee.

Seth squinted his eyes upward, glancing at Summer's angry face. "Hi."

"Here," Summer thrust the mug downward into Seth's hands. He sat up on the floor, taking in his surroundings as a massive headache came to him. His empty hand reached up to his head as Summer thrust another hand down. "And here."

Seth looked at her questioningly, reaching his hand up as Summer let the pills fall into empty palm. "Thanks."

She ignored his comment, walking back towards the kitchen to finish making her breakfast. Seth stared at her as she ignored him, realizing that he couldn't remember anything past being at the bar with Ryan the night before. He attempted to stand up, groaning in the process and simply falling backward onto the couch, dripping coffee onto his jeans.

"Is there a reason I slept on the carpet last night?" Seth asked cautiously.

Summer looked over at him, her face clearly etched in annoyance. "Is there a reason you decided to come home drunk at three am, wake up Leilah, and further her hatred for me?"

Seth moaned to himself, closing his eyes. Obviously, Summer was pissed. Great. Just what he needed. "Shit."

"I mean," Summer spoke angrily from the kitchen, "seriously, Seth, she already adores you to absolutely no end. And I'm just her mother. Her mean, over-protective, no-fun mother. The one who sets all the rules and abides by them. Can't you for once try and help me out here?"

"Summer," Seth stood, ignoring the throbbing in his head, "I don't remember a single thing about coming back here last night. So for whatever it is you've decided to be pissed at me for, I apologize. Very sincerely. Overly sincerely. I'm sorry."

"You always do that, Seth!" Summer raised her voice, startling Seth from his walk towards the bedroom. "You and Ryan go out and get drunk and then I have to pick up the mess you make when you finally decide to return home!"

"Always?" Seth looked at her. "I think that's an exaggeration."

"Seth!" Summer yelled. "What the hell has happened to you?"

Seth opened his mouth to reply but couldn't find the right words. Instead he shut his mouth and walked lifelessly down into the bedroom, closing the door in his wake.

He would attempt to deal with this after the wedding.

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Summer stood alone in a hallway of the reception center, gripping tightly onto her champagne glass. She could see through the glass doors her daughter dancing with her father, beaming widely as her father reciprocated the same facial expressions. She saw his eyes flutter around the room a few times – probably looking for her – but he continued showing no signs of halting the happiness that was apparent on his daughter's face.

Summer gulped the champagne down quickly, sighing to herself. What the hell had been up his ass lately? Okay, so she had overreacted a bit earlier that morning when Seth had woken up – he didn't go out and get drunk with Ryan a lot – only a dozen or so times since Leilah had been born over five years ago – but still, it was so uncharacteristic of him to not pay much attention to her. She hadn't done anything wrong by him, she concluded, and yet he still acted as if he was only in a relationship with her merely because of Leilah.

And she loved that Seth was so close to Leilah – really she did – but it was obvious that Leilah and he had a bond that Summer couldn't touch. It had always been that way she guessed, but recently with all of Leilah's temper-tantrums, it had become more apparent. Summer was always on the receiving end while Leilah would go cry to Seth about how 'mommy won't let me do this' or 'mommy won't let me do that.' Yeah, Summer was a little over-protective of her, but what else was she supposed to do? She and Seth were raising a child in Newport Beach, California. And she definitely didn't want her to be raised in a spoiled manner, much like she herself had. She wanted to raise her daughter right, much like Kirsten Cohen had raised Seth. But when Seth would always bring her out to eat or get candy or buy her new toys, Leilah would cling to Seth and thus began the troubles.

Summer would yell at Seth for doing this – he had been for the past two years – but Seth would simply say he was allowed to spoil their only child if he had the money to do so. Then he'd fire back with a 'you-didn't-seem-to-care-when-I-spoiled-you-when-we-were-in-high-school' retort. This was true; Summer never thought of things like that back in high school, but everything was different now. She was a mother and she didn't want her child to turn out like all the rest of Newport babies were destined to. Seth would sometimes tell her she was crazy – that Leilah would never turn out like that as long as they stayed completely involved in her life – but Summer was never so sure.

Summer had said no to Seth's proposal back when she found out she was pregnant with Leilah. And it wasn't necessarily because she didn't want to marry Seth; it was just that she didn't want to be pressured into doing so because she was pregnant. This had already happened once and she knew how much they both didn't want that then so she decided it would be best if they waited until after Leilah arrived to discuss marriage. Seth lashed out on her then too, stating that she had now turned down his proposal twice and he wasn't willing to propose to the same person three times. Summer was upset at his rant, but let him cool down, figuring everything would work themselves out after the baby came.

Leilah Rose Cohen was now five years old.

Seth and Summer hadn't talked about marriage since that day nearly six years ago.

"Hey," Taylor crept into the hallway towards Summer. "How are you doing?"

"How am I doing?" Summer laughed, leaning against the wall. "I feel like that's a more fitting question for me to be asking you," Summer motioned towards Taylor's long white wedding gown.

Taylor laughed along with her best friend, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know how much you hate weddings, that's all."

"I don't hate weddings," Summer pushed off from the wall. Taylor eyed her as if to say, 'oh, really' as Summer continued. "I'm just getting kind of sick of watching everyone else from our graduating class invite us to their weddings while I'm still waiting for a simple hint of a proposal from Seth."

"Summer…" Taylor soothed, letting her diamond-clad hand run down Summer's arm in a comforting manner. "You guys have been together longer than mostly everyone who's invited you to a wedding – including myself. You'll get there. Seth's just… Seth."

"Right," Summer groaned. "Like that makes me feel better."

"Come on," Taylor reached for Summer's hand, "I gotta get back out there and I want my maid-of-honor with me."

Summer stayed glued to her spot, shaking her head. "Not right now, Taylor. I'll be out in a few minutes though. I promise."

"Swear?" Taylor dropped Summer's hand.

"On my forever unmarried soul."

Taylor rolled her eyes, reaching the glass doors, pushing them open. "Sure, Summer."

Taylor disappeared and Summer fell to the ground, bringing her knees up to her chest as she hid her face, crying into them. Some time must have past because before she knew it, she was being awoken by a stranger who was prodding at her arm.

"Hey, you there," the man chuckled slightly at the sight of Summer's sleepy eyes. "Hate weddings too?"

"You could say that," Summer muttered as the man – who looked around Summer's age, possibly a few years older with dark, short hair – sat down next to her, leaning against the same wall.

"Yeah, me too." The man leaned his head back against the cold tiled wall, sighing, then turned towards Summer, releasing a hand to introduce himself. "Teagan Tanner. Thirty-years old, divorcee, went to college with the groom. Nice to meet you."

Summer laughed, turning towards him, shaking her hand with his. "Summer Roberts. Twenty-eight years old, never married, mother of a five-year old daughter, maid-of-honor." Summer felt a twinge of guilt at first for not mentioning Seth – or attempting to describe the father/boyfriend figure very involved in her and her daughter's lives – but it quickly dispersed as Teagan continued.

"So you're a mother, huh? Something that's tough to be in this town."

"Tell me about it," Summer murmured, stretching her legs out in front of her. "It's a full-time job in itself."

"Yeah, I bet it is," Teagan agreed. "What's her name?"

"Leilah."

"Leilah." Teagan repeated. "Pretty name. And if she looks anything like her mom, she's probably very beautiful as well."

Summer couldn't help but blush. She hadn't received many compliments from guys in recent times, much less any compliments from Seth. It seemed as though every conversation she and Seth had had recently included an argument. It was tiring and wearing down on Summer and it was nice to meet someone like Teagan. Nothing would ever happen with him – she was much too in love with Seth, regardless of their arguing – but it was nice to know she still attracted the attention of the opposite sex.

"Thanks, Teagan," Summer smiled, beginning to stand up. "Well, I should probably get back inside and fulfill my maid-of-honor duties."

Teagan stood up as well, grabbing a hold on Summer's arm helping her up. "Absolutely, I wouldn't want -"

Teagan stopped mid-sentence to the opening of the glass doors, glancing to see who had just entered. Summer did the same.

Seth stood there, holding open the doors, with a raised eyebrow. Summer shook off the tension of the moment, wiping the nonexistent dirt off of her dress, speaking back to Teagan. "It was nice to meet you. And thanks again."

"Ah…," Teagan's eyes glanced between Summer and the unknown man standing at the glass doors who was still not saying anything, "no problem. I'll see you out there; I'm just gonna make a pit stop over there," he pointed towards the bathroom. "Nice to meet you, Summer."

Summer smiled, picking up her dress off of the floor with her right hand, walking towards Seth and the doors.

"Who was that?" Seth moved aside so Summer could get through.

"Teagan Tanner," she answered briskly.

"Teagan Tanner," Seth replied mockingly. "Nice."

Summer halted, turning towards Seth with an icy glare. "He's thirty, divorced, knows Ryan from Berkeley and happens to think I'm beautiful."

Seth's mouth dropped, unsure of what to say next.

"Yeah," Summer laughed curtly. "Of course you don't know what to say to that. To think some other guy thinks I'm beautiful? Wow. It's a shock, huh?"

Summer walked off, letting Seth trail after her. "What were you doing talking to him?" Summer limply shrugged her shoulders. Seth grabbed her by the arm, stopping her and looking her squarely in the eye. "What is going on with you?"

Summer paused for a moment before yanking her arm out of Seth's grip. "Why don't you tell me?" Before Seth could reply, Summer stormed off in search of familiar faces to converse with.