Title: Falsehood Is Easy, The Truth So Difficult.

Summary: In episode 1.18 The Truth, what may have happened in the penthouse after Ryan talked Oliver into putting down the gun.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: The title is a quote from George Eliot.

"Oliver, put the gun down, man."

"Why, man? I'm doing you a favor."

"Why would you want to do that? You hate me. ... That's right, if you do this, you won't hurt me, you'll hurt Marissa, the one person who cares about you, and I know you don't want to do that. Oliver, put the gun down, man."

"You don't know anything about me, man."

"I know what it's like to be abandoned by your parents, your friends, have no one in your life who believes in you. But you put the gun down, you get a second chance."

After a long tense moment, Ryan breathed a sigh of relief when Oliver finally moved the gun away from his head, crouched down, and put the gun on the floor. The two men from hotel security moved in swiftly to get Oliver and the gun out of the penthouse.

Ryan rushed immediately towards Marissa, who was doing the same thing, so they met in the middle at the top of the steps and wrapped their arms tightly around each other. Marissa was trembling and on the verge of tears. She must have been scared to death.

All Ryan expected to feel at that moment was relief that she was all right – that he was able to get there in time and talk Oliver down. And he did feel relieved and happy that she was okay. But that feeling was joined by others. Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. It had hurt him profoundly when Marissa hadn't trusted him and had believed Oliver over him and had let Oliver get between them.

Still hugging him tightly, Marissa told him, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

He told her, "It's okay." Even though it wasn't really.

From behind him, Ryan heard Natalie the concierge say softly "Oh my god" and then walk quickly out the door. A moment later, he felt Sandy's hand on his back.

"Why don't you guys go ahead and sit down?"

Ryan looked at what Sandy was pointing to: the couch in the living room.

Sandy lightly pushed Ryan in that direction, and said gently, "Come on."

Ryan steered Marissa that way with an arm around her waist. When they got to the couch, Marissa collapsed onto it. As soon as Ryan sat down next to her, she leaned into him and buried her face in his chest and started to cry. He put his arms around her and tried to sooth her.

Sandy had followed them down and was now crouched in front of Marissa. He put his hand on her knee. "Marissa, honey, do you want me to call your dad for you?"

Ryan answered for her, "Her dad is out of town this weekend. She was supposed to be staying at her mom's."

"Oh, right." Sandy nodded thoughtfully. Ryan supposed that he was remembering how Marissa was at her mother's house last night when Ryan went over there to talk to her without permission. "Okay, then, I'll call your mom for you. ... Okay? Marissa?"

Marissa looked up at Sandy and met his eyes for a moment. "'kay."

Sandy stood up and looked at Ryan then back at Marissa.

"You know. the police will want statements from us – all of us – about what happened here. But don't worry, just tell them what happened. It'll be fine." After Ryan and Marissa both acknowledged that, Sandy gave them a little smile. "Okay, then, I'll call Julie."

Sandy moved away to another area of the penthouse and took out his cell phone to make his call. Ryan noticed, though, that he stayed within sight of them. He probably wanted to keep an eye on them, and honestly, Ryan felt better knowing that Sandy was nearby. Despite all the tension that had been between them since his so-called "break-in", which had gotten worse after his attack on Oliver, Ryan still trusted Sandy and knew without any doubts that Sandy would be there to support him, and Marissa, in any way that he could.

With that security in mind, Ryan turned his attention back to Marissa and set about calming her down as he half listened to Sandy talking on the phone. It sounded like he called Julie, and then Kirsten, to let her know what was going on.

While he and Marissa were still on the couch, and Sandy was still on the phone, Luke arrived.

"What the –"

Ryan turned to look, at which point Luke apparently spotted them and rushed over. He was carrying a duffle bag which he dropped at Marissa's feet. He looked worried.

"What's going on? I saw Oliver downstairs. He didn't look too good. And the security guys were talking about calling the police?"

Marissa looked at him with tear-filled eyes. "Oh, god, Luke. He had a gun!"

Luke looked swiftly between Ryan and Marissa. "What? Are you guys okay?"

Ryan answered, "Yeah, yeah, we're fine."

And Marissa told him, "It was so awful." And then she started to cry again.

Luke looked stricken. "Oh, hey..." And then he sat down on the couch on the other side of Marissa.

Suddenly Marissa turned on Luke and hit him in the chest, hard. "Where were you? I sent you to my mother's like hours ago! You should've been here!"

Luke rubbed the spot on his chest where he got hit. "I'm sorry. I went to your mom's and got your stuff." He indicated the duffle bag with his foot. "On the way here, my truck got a flat. I tried to call –"

Ryan interrupted, "That was you? We passed by you on our way here, but I didn't realize that was your truck." Ryan looked at Marissa. "I guess I didn't really look closely, I was too worried thinking about Marissa being here with that... that... psycho."

Marissa leaned forward and hugged Ryan tightly.

Luke asked Ryan, "Yeah. Hey, what are you doing here anyway? I thought you were grounded."

"I am grounded." Ryan looked over at Sandy who looked like he was just finishing up his call to Kirsten. Luke followed his gaze. "Sandy brought me."

Luke nodded, but looked confused. "But how did you know to come?"

Ryan didn't get a chance to answer because Sandy had finished his call and was summoning him over. After nodding acknowledgement to Sandy, Ryan disengaged himself from Marissa and gently leaned her towards Luke.

"Luke, could you watch out for her for a minute?"

"Sure, man. Go ahead."

"Thanks."

Ryan got up and went over to meet with Sandy. When he took a quick look back, he saw that Luke had put his arm around Marissa and she was leaning into Luke like she had with him. Ryan felt a little bit of jealousy at the sight of them together, but not nearly as much as he would have pre-Oliver. Maybe he should take that as a sign that he and Marissa shouldn't get back together. Something to think about anyway.

Sandy watched Ryan hand off Marissa to Luke after Sandy called him over. He was surprised that Ryan did that since Luke was Marissa's ex-boyfriend. Sandy would have thought that Ryan would be too jealous to allow them that much intimacy. Maybe he would have to rethink his idea that Ryan was just jealous of Oliver. Maybe Ryan didn't do jealousy. And of course, Ryan had just been proven right about Oliver – he was dangerous.

Sandy knew that he and Ryan would have to have a long talk after this was all over. Straighten everything out. He heard everything Ryan said, about being abandoned and nobody believing in him. He had to convince Ryan that he, Kirsten, and Seth, did believe in him, despite recent appearances.

But for now...

Sandy told Ryan when he made his way over to him, "So, yeah, Marissa's mom is on her way."

Ryan nodded.

Sandy looked over at Luke. "What's Luke doing here?"

Ryan glanced over there too. He shrugged. "I guess Marissa sent him to her mom's to get a bag of clothes for her." Ryan looked back at Sandy. "His truck got a flat tire. I guess that was him we passed on the way here."

Sandy nodded. He remembered seeing a vehicle on the side of the road.

Ryan sighed and looked away. "If only he'd gotten here sooner..."

Sandy tried to reassure him, "Hey, hey, you can't dwell on the what-ifs. Everything turned out all right in the end, right?"

Ryan said without conviction, "I guess."

Sandy followed Ryan's gaze over at Marissa. They both watched her for a few moments. She looked like she was still shaky and on the verge of bursting into tears at any moment. Then Sandy watched Ryan watching Marissa for a few moments until Ryan looked at him.

"You want to stay with her today, don't you?"

Ryan blinked his eyes a few times. Then he said, uncertainly, "Yeah?"

Sandy sighed. He hated how things had gotten strained between them. He hoped that now that the truth about Oliver was out, things could go back to normal. Well, no time like the present to start moving in that direction. And it helped that Marissa was probably going to be at her mother's house, just next door, so if he let Ryan stay with her, he wouldn't be too far away.

"Okay."

Ryan looked directly in Sandy's eyes, surprised. "Yeah?"

"There are a few conditions." Sandy had to smile a little when Ryan raised his eyebrows. "I'm assuming that Marissa is going to go back to her mother's house. That is, after the police are finished with us, of course."

Ryan nodded.

Sandy took a quick look at Marissa again. Ryan followed suit. "She doesn't look like she's in any shape to drive herself home, so you can drive her home. And then you can stay with her at her mother's for as long as she needs you. Although I'd prefer it if you were home for dinner. We need to talk."

Ryan looked down and nodded. He looked very uncomfortable with that idea.

"Hey. It won't be that bad. One of the things we have to talk about is maybe lifting your grounding."

Ryan looked up and gave Sandy one of his half-smiles. "Yeah?"

Sandy smiled. "Maybe. We'll talk about it."

Ryan chuckled a little. "Okay."

Just then, Sandy saw a couple of police officers walk into the penthouse accompanied by one of the hotel security men plus that concierge... what was her name? Oh, yeah, Natalie. Sandy directed Ryan's attention towards them.

Upon seeing the cops there, Ryan suddenly got very serious again. He nodded to Sandy, and then headed back over to where Marissa was. He sat back down next to her and took her from Luke.

"Thanks, man."

Luke gave him a little smile and a nod. "No problem."

Ryan looked down at Marissa. "Hey, look, the cops are here." Marissa sat up straight and looked towards the doorway. "And Sandy said your mother's on her way, so hopefully we'll be getting out of here soon. Sandy said I can spend the afternoon with you, if you want."

Marissa looked away from the police and back at Ryan. She looked scared. That was understandable. Having the cops around made him nervous, too, and he didn't even do anything wrong. This time.

Ryan put his arm back around Marissa. "Hey, it's okay. Don't worry. Like Sandy said, just tell them what happened. Remember, you're the victim here."

Marissa bit her lip and nodded. "Right, I know."

Ryan tried to reassure her by tightening his arm around her. It seemed to work. She relaxed in his arms.

Ryan watched as Sandy walked over to the police and started talking to one of the officers. The other one approached the kids sitting on the couch. In response, all three teens sat up straighter and Ryan removed his arm from around Marissa.

The cop sat down on the coffee table in front of them and took out a little notebook and pen. He addressed Marissa.

"I'm Officer Clement. Are you –" He looked down at his notebook. "Marissa Cooper?"

"Yes."

Officer Clement looked at Ryan. "And you are?"

"Ryan Atwood."

He looked down at his notebook and nodded. Then looked at Luke.

"Luke Ward." Luke quickly added, "But I wasn't here. I didn't see anything. I came in after it was over."

The cop nodded and made a note in his pad.

"Okay, I just need to get your statements, Marissa and Ryan. We already have statements from the security personnel and the concierge. I just need to hear what happened in your own words. I'd like to talk to each of you separately, and since you are both minors, you can each have a parent present, if you want."

Ryan answered for them. "Marissa's mother is on her way." Ryan turned to Marissa. "Maybe you should wait for her." Marissa nodded. Ryan turned back to the cop. "And can Luke stay with her? Since he wasn't here..."

The officer nodded. "Sure. That would be all right. What about you? Are your parents on their way too?"

Ryan turned in his seat and looked over at where Sandy was talking to the other officer. "That's Sandy Cohen. He's my legal guardian." Ryan turned back to the cop. "And I'd like him with me."

The officer looked over there and frowned. "Hmm. That complicates things since he's also a witness, but since you're under 18, I can't refuse your request to have your guardian present, so we'll work something out."

Ryan was relieved.

"All right, since your guardian is already here, why don't I start with you." The officer stood up. "Wait here." He headed over to Sandy and the other cop and started talking with them.

A few minutes later, Officer Clement called Ryan over. Ryan handed Marissa off to Luke again before he headed over to join the cop and Sandy. The other cop, the one that Sandy had been talking to, had already left, so it was just the three of them.

Sandy followed Officer Clement and Ryan into another room of the penthouse so that they could talk in private. The officer had told Sandy that Ryan had requested him to be there while he gave his statement. Sandy couldn't express how happy it made him that Ryan still wanted him around, that Ryan still trusted him, needed him, even after everything that had happened.

After they all sat down, the officer began his interview. Sandy listened with interest while Ryan gave his side of the story, telling the cop about the phone call he got from Marissa and how he and Sandy came as quickly as they could and about everything that had happened once they arrived at the hotel. Sandy in a couple of cases had to bite his tongue to keep from correcting Ryan about something, but the police had warned him that they wanted Ryan's own words and he was there as Ryan's guardian, not as another witness, so he knew that he needed to just let Ryan talk.

The police also told him that he had to have given his own statement before he was allowed to sit in on Ryan's, to keep Ryan's answers from affecting his. So it was a good thing that Sandy had already given his statement to the other officer, otherwise Ryan would have had to wait until they were finished with Sandy.

In Ryan's statement, Sandy noted that he stuck closely to the facts of today's events, and didn't go into his whole history and previous conflicts with Oliver, which was probably just as well. They weren't pertinent to what happened and would just complicate matters. As it was, the cop seemed satisfied with Ryan's statement and after asking just a few questions to clarify a thing or two, the interview was over. It was fairly painless, and even Ryan looked pleasantly surprised at how easily it went.

After shaking hands, they all headed back out to the penthouse's main room. When they got there, Sandy could see that Julie had arrived while Ryan was giving his statement. She was seated on the couch with Marissa and Luke. Officer Clement headed right over there, presumably to take Marissa's statement, so Sandy directed Ryan away from the living room, towards the small kitchen area.

After getting a couple bottles of water from the fridge, Sandy and Ryan sat down on the kitchen stools to listen in on Marissa's statement. Sandy found it quite interesting to hear what all had happened before they got here. A quick glance at Ryan showed that he was also enraptured. When Marissa got to the part where Sandy and Ryan had arrived, Sandy found himself losing interest in listening, since he already knew what happened from that point on. Another glance at Ryan showed that he felt the same way.

Sandy decided to take this opportunity to say something to Ryan that he'd been wanting to say.

"Ryan." Sandy waited for Ryan to give him his attention. "I just wanted to say how proud I am of you for what you did here today."

Ryan shrugged like it was nothing.

Sandy continued, "No, really, what you did, putting aside your differences and talking Oliver into putting down that gun..."

Sandy shuddered thinking of what all could have happened, with a gun in the hands of someone as obviously unstable as Oliver.

Ryan looked down, a little embarrassed. "Um, thanks."

Sandy smiled at Ryan and patted him on the back affectionately. He really hoped that he and Ryan could patch up their differences soon.

As Ryan watched Sandy walk off, he thought about what he had said. Ryan hadn't known how to respond when Sandy said he was proud of him. It was a new experience for him. Ryan smiled to himself. It felt good though. He knew that he could forgive Sandy for not listening to him, for not believing him about Oliver. And he could forgive Seth. He still owed them so much for taking him in and letting him stay, even after everything he'd done in the past week.

Ryan sighed and looked back over at Marissa who was finishing up her statement to the cop. He still didn't know if he could forgive Marissa, though. She really broke his heart when she didn't trust him. He thought that she knew him better than that. He had thought that they'd built up a level of trust between them, but then this guy just came along and just like that, she trusted him more than she trusted Ryan. Ryan still had feelings for Marissa, but he didn't know if he could get over her betrayal any time soon. He didn't know if he could get back together with her.

Ryan watched Marissa sitting with her mother and Luke, as she finished up her statement to the police. As he watched, he noticed something strange going on between Luke and Julie, some strange looks exchanged between them. He didn't know what it meant, though. Julie was a hard one to figure out. Ryan laughed to himself. Of all people, he never would have predicted that it would be Julie Cooper who would believe him. Okay, well, maybe she didn't just outright believe him about Oliver, but at least she listened to what he had to say and took it seriously enough to follow up and call Harbor and also try to talk to Oliver's parents. Ryan shook his head in disbelief. Now he owed her one.

Once Marissa was done with her statement and the cop walked away, Ryan went over to her. Sandy also came from wherever he had gone and joined him. As they approached, Julie stood up and held her hand out to her daughter to help her up.

"Come on, honey, let me take you home. I want to get out of this place." Julie looked around and shivered.

Marissa hesitated. "Mom, I've got my own car here..."

"We can come back and pick it up later."

Marissa looked at Ryan. "And I want Ryan to stay with me."

Julie looked at Ryan and looked like she wanted to refuse, but she hesitated. Ryan was glad when Sandy stepped in to help.

"Julie. How about if Ryan drives Marissa's car back to your place? That way you don't have to come back for it. And then Ryan can spend the afternoon with Marissa. I think he'd be good for her. Help her through this."

Ryan sent Sandy a grateful look and then looked at Julie, who still hesitated.

Marissa stood up and went over to Ryan and took his hand. "Please, Mom?"

Julie looked around at Sandy, Ryan and Marissa, and even Luke, who were all looking at her, encouraging her to say yes. Julie looked back at Marissa and sighed.

"Okay, all right, fine. I guess we owe Ryan one for handling that psychotic."

Ryan and Marissa smiled at each other. "Thanks, Mom."

"Mmm. Well, all right, let's go then." Julie started walking towards the door with Marissa and Ryan following.

As Sandy watched them leave, he remembered he wanted to talk to Ryan before he left, so he called out to him.

"Ryan, could I talk to you for a second?"

Ryan let go of Marissa's hand and went back to Sandy and looked at him expectantly.

"Okay, now, remember what I told you earlier. Drive straight to Julie's house and I expect you to stay there. I'd like you home for dinner. If you're not going to make it, give us a call. And remember you're still grounded. At least until we talk it over and decide otherwise. All right? Got it?"

Ryan smiled. "Yeah. Got it. And, um, thanks again."

Sandy smiled back. "You're welcome. Now go, your girlfriend's waiting."

Ryan gave Sandy a strange look that Sandy couldn't interpret and then went over and rejoined Marissa. Before they went out the door, Sandy remembered something else he wanted to tell them.

"Oh, and, the police told me that they're going to take Oliver to the psychiatric hospital."

Julie said, "Oh, thank god. I hope they lock that boy up for good."

Nobody could argue with that.

After Julie, Marissa, and Ryan were gone, Sandy took out his cell phone to call Kirsten one more time and update her on the status of Marissa, Ryan, and Oliver. Hopefully that was the end of it.

The End