Disclaimer: The OC and its characters are owned by Josh Schwartz and Fox. I am just borrowing them.

A Helper

"Sandy, it's her birthday," Kirsten said.

"I know, honey, if I could get out of it, I would. Can't we do it tomorrow?" Sandy and Kirsten entered the kitchen as they spoke. He headed for the coffee pot and poured both of them a cup. "I am available all day tomorrow."

"No, I have appointments. Besides, today is my Mom's birthday. I wanted to do something special. I thought I told you about it two weeks ago."

"You did, you did. I had it on my calendar and everything. But you know how it is sometimes things just come up out of the blue. What about this weekend?"

"I have today off, Sandy. Just for this reason--"

"I can go." Sandy and Kirsten turned in the direction of the voice. Ryan was standing just between the dining room and the den holding a box of cereal. "I mean…if you need someone to go."

"Ryan, no, I couldn't ask you. You have school," Kirsten said.

Ryan looked at Sandy and then back at Kirsten, "It's okay, I just thought if you needed…"

Sandy smiled brightly. "I think it's a great idea. It won't hurt him to miss a day of school." He walked over and put his arm around Ryan's shoulders. "I'm sure he doesn't mind." He pulled Ryan into a tight squeeze and then added, "You don't have any tests, right?"

Ryan shook his head.

"He'll be a big help. Probably more help than I would be." Sandy shook Ryan by his shoulders as he spoke.

"Seth will mind," Ryan said. But Sandy was right— he didn't mind missing a day of school, although he had not known he would get that bonus when he had volunteered to help.

"Well, I'll just mention that there's heavy lifting involved. I'm sure he will be glad to let you go alone," Sandy said with a laugh.

"You know what? Sure. Why not?" Kirsten said hesitantly as she walked to the end of the island. "Do you know what you have volunteered for?"

Ryan shook his head.

"Today is my Mother's birthday and I wanted to plant some flowers at her grave. The fresh cut ones always look bad after a couple of days and the silk ones don't last very long either. Are you still interested in helping?"

"Sure, whatever you need."

"Okay, then, after breakfast." Kirsten smiled and took a long, drink from her coffee mug. "Make sure you wear some clothes that can get dirty, but not too rough looking, because we will be stopping by a couple of places."

"There won't be any shopping, will there?" Ryan hated shopping and he wasn't sure he could do that, even for Kirsten.

Sandy patted Ryan's back as he removed his arm from around the boy's shoulders. He laughed at Ryan's apprehensive expression.

Kirsten crossed her arms and said, "Well, I wasn't planning on it but I'm not making any promises. I have noticed that you need some new shoes."

Ryan lowered his head, shook it, and then made a quick escape to the pool house. He would let them have all the fun telling Seth that he, Ryan, would be skipping school today. He knew there would be a lot of whining, complaining and challenging of the fairness of it all. A few minutes later he heard a soft rap on the poorhouse door. He opened and there stood Kirsten.

"Let's go," she whispered. "Before Seth sees us, he's in there arguing with Sandy right now." She put her finger to her lips and motioned for him to follow her. Ryan glanced towards the main house and saw a very animated Seth pleading his case with Sandy. Ryan turned to follow Kirsten, who was tiptoeing around the side of the house. Ryan wasn't quite sure why she was tiptoeing, since Seth couldn't hear them, but he smiled and followed anyway without the tiptoeing.

When they got to the front of the house, she took off running for the Rover and jumped into the front seat. She put her arm out the window and motioned for Ryan to hurry. Ryan did quicken his step but he was definitely not running. Ryan got into the car and Kirsten pulled out of the driveway even before he finished putting his seatbelt on.

As they left the driveway, she said, "I think we made it."

Ryan smiled despite himself. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we did." He was actually sure that Seth never even noticed that they were missing. When Seth got into his whining mode nothing much else in the world existed.

After a few miles the silence in the car was beginning to feel awkward. Kirsten tried to think of a smooth way to start a conversation. She didn't understand why she found talking to Ryan so difficult. She was actually quite good at small talk—it was a talent she had acquired from the many socials, parties and business meetings she had attended in her lifetime. Usually she didn't have to worry about it because Sandy or Seth was there to keep the talk flowing. Granted, Ryan rarely said much during those times either, but at least it didn't feel so awkward. Finally, she turned on the radio and said, "Find us something to listen to—but not rap. I hate that noise."

Ryan pushed the seek button on the radio until he found an oldies station. Bob Seger's voice filled the car with Ole' Time Rock 'n 'Roll. Ryan was sure she would like this station; it's the kind of music that older people like. He thought he had heard Julie Cooper listening to this stuff a few weeks back. Besides, the song wasn't that bad. He glanced in Kirsten's direction and she was already tapping her fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the song. He had chosen correctly. That was great, now maybe she wouldn't try to get him to talk.

After a couple more oldies, Kirsten turned the radio down and said, "Hey, what do you say about some Krispy Kremes? There's a store right up there on the corner."

"That's okay, I'm not hungry," Ryan said, but really he loved Krispy Kreme doughnuts especially when they were hot.

"Oh, look the sign is flashing. They have hot doughnuts," Kirsten said excitedly.

"If you want to--" Ryan wasn't able to finish his sentence as Kirsten turned sharply into the parking lot of the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Shoppe.

Kirsten pulled into the drive thru. "How many do you want?" she asked.

"One's good."

She pulled up to the menu board and when the speaker asked for her order, Kirsten said, "One dozen of those hot glazed, and two large coffees with sugar and cream, please."

Ryan just looked at her.

Kirsten shrugged. "Nobody— and I mean nobody— wants just one Krispy Kreme."

Ryan was just finishing his third doughnut, when they pulled into parking lot of the Open Rose Nursery. He quickly stuffed the rest of the doughnut into his mouth and took a big gulp of coffee to wash it down.

"We need to pick up a few things before we head to the cemetery." Kirsten said as she exited the car, taking box of remaining doughnuts with her. "I'm just going to give these to the couple that work here. I think we've had our sugar overload for the day." She waited at the entrance as Ryan walked from the passenger side to join her. She paused for a moment when she saw some of the glaze from the doughnuts around the outside edges of his lips. She was surprised at that moment how young it made him look. She was so used to him acting so much older than he was that it was easy to forget, and then little things like doughnut glaze would remind her. She handed him a napkin and pointed to the corner of her own lips. When he realized what she was telling him, his cheeks flushed pink. He took the napkin and bowed his head as he wiped the sugar from his mouth, and she was once again struck by how young he really was.

They entered the nursery and were greeted by two people, Med and Jean. Kirsten introduced Ryan and gave them the leftover doughnuts. Jean said something about a low-carb diet but that she could treat herself this one time. Jean set the doughnuts aside and then she and Med began to gather all of the items Kirsten had on her list—with one exception. Med came back and said, "I'm sorry we don't have any lily-of-the-valley tubers in. How about some daylilies or some calla lilies? Those are real pretty flowers."

"No," Kirsten said adamantly. "I want lilies-of-the-valley. Do you know where we could get them?"

"I'll call a couple of other places around here. How's that?" Med asked.

"Thanks, it means a lot to me. I really want lily-of-the-valley." Kirsten wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her arm.

Ryan watched and wondered what was so important about a flower. All flowers kind of looked the same. Well, not really the same, but they all just bloomed and looked pretty. How different could this flower be that it had to be the only choice?

After 3 or 4 phone calls, Med informed Kirsten that none of the local nurseries had any of the flowers she wanted in stock.

Kirsten's face fell and for a moment Ryan thought she might cry. Ryan stepped forward and asked Med, "Excuse me, are there any really big nursery suppliers in this area? They might have them."

"Well, the nearest nursery supply is about an hour and a half drive from here, son. But I can call them if you are interested."

"Please, and we will pay for the long distance, just add a few dollars to the cost of the items we are already buying." He turned to Kirsten and said, "I'll bet that place will have them."

"Ryan, if we drive there and back and then plant the flowers, most of your day will be wasted. I can't ask you to do that."

Ryan shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his feet. "It's not wasted. I want to do it," he said as he kicked as small stone.

Just then Med came back smiling. "They have them. Lots of them, they said. I'll draw directions on the back of your receipt."

Med and Jean helped Ryan load everything into the back of the Rover. Ryan looked at the carefully draw map as Med told Kirsten which way they needed to head on the interstate. Then both he and Kirsten got in the car and headed for the nursery supplier.

After about 10 minutes of silence, Kirsten said, "Lily-of-the-valley was my mother's favorite flower. She said they reminded her of church bells. Have you ever seen them?"

"No, I don't think so," Ryan said.

"The flower itself is really small but there are several on each stalk. And they do look like little tiny bells. They look so pretty and delicate. Her wedding invitations were even embossed with them."

Ryan felt sure these flowers were just like any other flower. But it seemed important to Kirsten and that's what really mattered. So he said, "Church bells, huh? That's interesting."

"I've always liked daisies. I know it's silly. Daisies are a very common flower. But I think that what I like is their simplicity. I think that's what mom liked about her flower, just simple, white church bells." She glanced over at Ryan who was leaning on the door with his head against the window. "Oh, listen to me. I'm sure you're not interested in listening to me extol the virtue of flowers."

Ryan lifted his head and shook it. "No, it's okay. I don't mind. So you like daisies, huh? I guess girls, uh, women like flowers, right? Because me, not so much."

Kirsten chuckled, "Yeah, I don't know too many boys, or men that care about flowers. Once on our third anniversary, mine and Sandy's, I thought I had a really cute idea. I went to the florist, had them make up an arrangement that would be okay for a man and had it delivered. I thought I was being so clever, but Sandy brought it home that night. He didn't keep it in his office, like I would have done. And although he never said anything other than to thank me, I understood not to do that again. I can only assume the other men in the office gave him a hard time about it."

"Yeah, I would have given him a hard time," he said with a smirk as he looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"So, you don't want me sending any flowers to you at school for say, your birthday, right?

"Right!" he said a little too strongly and then added, "I mean, no thanks. I already get a hard time about enough."

Kirsten glanced a Ryan again, "Really, are they still giving you problems? Because I can talk--"

Ryan sat upright and said strongly, "No, I mean… It's nothing. They don't bother me much anymore. It's just the occasional idiot."

"Okay, but if you need me to talk to someone, let me know." She tried to look into his eyes and give him a meaningful nod, but he would not look at her. He was now staring out the passenger window, shifting back into silent Ryan mode. Oh, well. She had managed to get him to talk for a little bit. She actually felt like she had won a prize—a small connection made with her always-aloof foster son.

"I'll let you know," he said softly. The car fell into silence once again for the remainder of the trip to the nursery supplier. It actually appeared to Kirsten as if Ryan had fallen asleep leaning against the window, so she stayed quiet and let him sleep.

But Ryan had not fallen asleep; he had only closed his eyes for a second to pull himself out of the hypnotic trance brought on by the passing landscape. As he did, a memory of other flowers in his life had come back. He remembered the smile on his mother's face when he brought her a handful of weeds that he thought were pretty when he was about six. Then he remembered the drawing of tulips he had made for her in the fourth grade. He could not afford flowers for Mother's day, so he had drawn them for her. She had smiled then too, and tacked the picture to the wall. But later that night, after many drinks, and Ryan's argument with her present boyfriend, she ripped it up, called Ryan an ungrateful brat and did not stop what's-his-name from hurting Ryan. Sometimes flowers don't mean as much as you think they do.

tbc