A few things to know beforehand.
This is my third OC fan fiction, my first two 'Nothing is what it seems in Newport' and 'Welcome to the Dark Side' were written over a year ago, half way during season 2 and I eventually got tired of them and started writing 24 fan fiction instead. I've found that 24 fan fiction however is very tiring to write, mostly because of the many intricate plot lines it generally involves. So taking this into account, I'm a little rusty but I also feel that my writing has improved quite a bit since my last attempts.
This new fan fiction will be my personal take on Season 4, it will involve elements of the first and second episodes of Season 4 which I've seen and personally thought were brilliant, further chapters will also work with what happens on the TV show, the plot of my story will follow it loosely but by different means. I tend to prefer darker story lines and this will be reflected on my takes of what should or could of happened. I'm also an obsessed Summer/Ryan fan, even though they've never actually been a couple on the show, I think they would work really well and ever since seeing episode 1 of Season 1 I've always wanted them to get together. On the other hand I would also like to see something happen between Taylor and Seth, I think the episodes in Season 3 where Taylor bought Seth the Yakuza DVD implied that they might share a connection beyond friendship and Taylor had something that Summer didn't have. But anyway, whilst the pairs I put together in the beginning might be different from what's shown on the show, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll always remain that way.
And now, time for the main event.
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Graffiti was splattered all over the walls of a alley somewhere in Chino, rain was falling from a clouded sky and the night was almost pitch black, splintered only by the light from a nearby street lamp, one of the few in the area not yet broken. A figure lay next to an overflowing trash can covered by a thin blanket and miscellaneous rubbish, slow shallow breaths exhaled from a body as still as a corpse. A puncture mark was clearly outlined on the figure's arm, cuts and bruises crisscrossed across his face, his hands were scraped and bloodied, he might as well of been dead.
A patrol car moved slowly down the road, one of Chino's worst areas the policeman were wide awake and alert, on the lookout for any of the three major crimes in Chino, prostitute's, vandalism and drug deals. The policeman on the right was glancing out the window, moving his flashlight down the dark alleys on the right of the road. That's where the deals would be going down, out of sight. As he moved his flashlight over the nearest alley he called to his partner to stop the car. He pointed to a figure that appeared to be sleeping in one of the alleys, "another homeless Paul, we better send him back to the shelter" he muttered to his partner. He left the car and started walking over to the figure, "Rise and shine buddy, time to get you to the shelter". The policeman moved over to the figure and reached down to rouse him, as he began to turn the figure over his eyes went wide as he saw the bloodied face and puncture wound on his arm. He quickly grabbed for his radio, "This is Sergeant Richardo, car number 43, I need an ambulance at Weary street, Chino ASAP. Teenage Male, with cuts and bruises covering much of his face, hands and upper body, also signs of heroin use and his eyes are not responding to my flashlight. Could be unconscious, breathing is very shallow and his pulse is slow and faint. Looks like an overdose of some kind."
Within about 10 minutes the ambulance came screaming down the street towards the alley, the policeman were with the figure, talking to him, trying to rouse him from his unconsciousness. The paramedics raced over to the figure, the stretcher with them, sliding it next to him they gently lifted the figure up and onto it. After the figure was in position and strapped up, they moved the stretcher back to the ambulance, loaded it up and within seconds they were back on the road, heading for the nearest hospital.
The two policeman were left standing next to the alley, the one who had found the man, Sergeant Ricardo remained standing, thinking as his partner returned to their vehicle.
"You know Paul, that kid can't have been older than 18," Ricardo called over the top of the squad car.
"I know man, I know man," Paul replied as he climbed into the car.
Richardo shook his head before he walked over to the police car, this was a messy neighborhood but seeing a teenager lying in a alley, bloodied and dying was almost too much. Thinking of his kids back home he hopped into the car and they drove back to the station. They were going to be spending the rest of the night filling out paperwork.
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The doors to the ICU burst open as the paramedics rushed the young man towards the operating room, a short blood test during the ambulance ride had revealed dangerous quantities of heroin in the man's blood stream, a Heroin overdose was much easier to the treat than a stimulant overdose. Usually it would take several hours for a person to die from a opiate overdose and that was only without first aid, the youth had a fighting chance and the doctor's and nurses of Chino Hospital were going to help him out as much as they could. The first steps were to ensure that his airways weren't blocked and give him a respirator to help him breath, this was done in the ambulance shortly after he was diagnosed.
When the team reached the nearest empty emergency room the Doctor proceeded to inject Naloxone into the man's blood stream. Naloxone was a counter drug that would work to reverse the effects of a Heroin overdose, preventing life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. After this was administered, the Nurses and doctor began to treat the wounds covering the face and hands of the man, stitching them up and applying bandages where necessary. Once he was patched up the Doctor's left him in his bed, he was still unconscious and wouldn't awaken till the effects of the Heroin had worn off. He needed to be watched for several hours, in case the drugs failed and he went into respiratory failure, but for the time being he was in the clear.
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Downstairs one of the hospital's nurse's began typing the details from the young man's driver's license into the hospitals computer system. When the results came up she stared at the computer screen for a few seconds, before typing the details in again. A family from Newport had come up as the young man's legal guardians, knowing this couldn't be right she went about re-entering the details. When the Newport address and phone number came up on the screen again, she inspected the license once more. She definitely hadn't made a mistake, every letter and number matched, the man's guardians really must be from Newport. She reached over and lifted up a nearby phone, dialing the number from the screen.
The phone rang only once before it was picked up, "Ryan?" a lady answered into the phone, the hospital secretary took a deep breath before she replied, this was always one of the hardest parts of her job.
"Am I speaking to the legal guardian's of Ryan Atwood?" she asked the lady,
"Yes this is Kirsten Cohen, Ryan is my son".
"Kirsten this is Nurse Parker from the Chino Hospital, Ryan was recently admitted via an Ambulance, he appears to have overdosed on Heroin, he also appears to have been assaulted, he has cuts and bruises covering much of his arm and face. The doctor's have managed to stabilize him for the time being". Nurse Parker could hear the sharp intact of breath on the other end of the line when Kirsten heard the news, she could almost feel the pain that Kirsten would be feeling right now, almost taste the tears that would be leaking out the sides of her eyes.
Kirsten spoke as calmly into the phone as she could, "We'll be right over, thank you for calling", before she dropped the phone to the ground, forgetting even to press the end call button. She reached out for the wall next to her to stop herself from falling and then started to slide down the wall with her arms covering herself, she was already crying, unable to keep it in any longer. Sandy appeared from around the corner, a look of curiosity on his face, "Was that Ryan?" he called to Kirsten from down the hallway. As soon as he saw the way she was sitting, arms wrapped around herself, rocking back and forth, tears falling off her face onto the carpet, he raced down the hallway towards her, reaching down to rest his arms on her body. "Kirsten, what happened?" he asked her.
"Ryan... drug overdose... hospital... in... chino", Kirsten let out between sobs. The news hit Sandy like a mack truck, he stopped dead in his tracks and just looked at his wife for a few seconds.
"Well... is he... is he alright?" he asked her.
Wiping the tears away from the side of her face, Kirsten moved to stand up, "He's in the ICU, they're still observing him. He's unconscious at the moment but the Nurse sounded hopeful. I'm going to drive over there now and see him".
"Don't worry sweetie, I'll drive", Sandy reached down and gently helped Kirsten to her feet. He cupped his hands around her face and kissed her softly, pulling her towards him in a tight hug. She started sobbing again into his shoulder as he gently brushed her hair with his fingers. "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be ok. At least we know where he is now, we can look after him. It's all going to be okay".
When Kirsten's tears had subsided and the pair had parted, they both walked in silence to the car outside. When they were moving Sandy called Seth's phone to no response, he left a message, telling Seth to call him back as soon as possible, he didn't say anything about Ryan, he wanted to talk to Seth in person for that. Seth had sailed over to Portland for the holidays, Luke had asked him to come visit after hearing the news of Marissa's death, with Ryan not around Seth had been lonely and accepted the invitation.
Neither Sandy nor Kirsten spoke for the rest of the car trip, both lost in their thoughts, both hoping, both praying, that Ryan would be ok.
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On the other side of the country Summer lay in bed with her eyes closed, it was approaching 2 am and she still couldn't sleep. She sat up in bed and looked around the room, at the save the whales, save the rain forest, Greenpeace and assorted posters that covered her bedroom from floor to ceiling. Deep down inside she knew what it all meant, she knew why she was trying to save the earth, she knew why she busied about herself, filling her mind with anything but the thoughts that she dreaded.
Lying back down again she looked at the phone on her desk and instantly thought of Seth. Ever since the accident they'd barely spoken, oh she'd cried into his arms when she heard the news, hugged his skinny frame and wept for the best friend she'd ever had, for the friend she'd had for more than 10 years. But after the accident, she flown as far away as possible, distanced herself from Newport as much as she possibly could, even thinking about it made her hurt so bad she couldn't see straight. Moving to the side of her bed she reached down behind the desk beside her and grabbed at a small flask hidden behind the desk's wooden framed, she unclasped the lid and pulled it up to her mouth, just as she was about to take a swig her phone started rattling on the desk next to her. Scared that it was Seth she ignored the phone, simply moving it off the desk onto the floor so the silent ringing would rattle anymore. At the same time she drank long and deep from the flask, it was vodka and it was straight but it was one of the only things that helped clear her mind for the time being.
She placed the flask back behind the wall and laid back in bed, she felt at ease now, ready to go back to sleep. As she closed her eyes she heard the phone again, now knocking into the bottom of her bed frame. Still ringing it had moved it's way from where she had put it to the side of the bed, crawling across the carpet with each pulse. Frustrated she reached down and picked the phone up, flipping it open so she could see the caller ID. She was confused for a moment as 'Sandy Cohen' came up on the screen, before she moved out of bed, donned a dressing gown and walked out into the hall.
"Hello?" Summer answered into the phone.
"Hi Summer, it's Sandy."
Summer thought it was abit weird for Sandy to be calling her and was already on guard, he would only call (especially at this time of night) if it was important.
"I'm sorry to wake you up but somethings happened, I know you've got a lot on your plate right now so I don't want you to worry but I thought you should know."
Summer's insides panged with each word that came out of Sandy's mouth, what could it possibly be now? Was Marissa's death not enough? What else could possibly of happened..."
"It's Ryan, he's had an accident," Sandy said quietly. "He's at the hospital right now, he's unconscious but the doctor's say that he'll be okay."
Summer didn't speak for a long time, her knuckles began to grow white as she gripped the phone against her ear. Already her mind was breaking down all the barriers it had put up since Marissa's death, she could feel the wave of depression sweeping over her. She longed desperately for the flask behind her desk.
"I... do you want me to come home?" She said softly.
"No, no, it's okay." Sandy cooed back, "I'm sure he'll be ok, I don't want you to worry ok. I just thought that you should know."
Summer slowly closed the phone shut and stood in the hallway with her phone in one hand, her other against the wall supporting herself. Ryan was the one person who was always stable, he was the one that would still be standing, still be calm when everyone else was distraught. No matter what happened, to any of them, Ryan would always be there for them. But lately even he had broken, he didn't even turn up to Marissa's funeral for god's sake. Summer didn't know where he was, she didn't even know what had happened to him, she didn't care, Ryan would always be there for her, for Seth, for Marissa. And now she was going to be there for him. Tears falling down her face she walked back into her room and began to stuff clothing into a dufflebag. She threw on some clothes and grabbed the small flask behind the desk, some money and her phone. She wrote a quick note to Amber, to cover for her in classes and let her friends know where she went. She dialed a number for a cab as she walked down the hall...