Kristen is a little late getting up on Saturday morning. After finding Seth last night she spent the night trying to figure out if there was anything she could do, or even should do. Having come up with no answers she finally fell asleep around 4am and didn't even notice when Sandy left their bed to go surfing. Entering the kitchen she's a little shocked to find Summer sitting at the counter drinking a cup of coffee.
Hi Summer, how are you this morning
"I don't really know."
"Huh?,…. Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, you could say so. Seth is driving me nuts. One minute he's the most loving partner a girl could ask for and the next minute he's someone you just want to shove out the front door and change the locks on. I told your damn son yesterday that we were pregnant and he kinda freaked out and pulled a disappearing act on me. He finally sent me a text letting me know that he had come here and that he was too drunk to drive and was going to pass out here so at least I didn't spend the night calling hospitals. So now I'm here to track down my sure to be hung over husband and …. Oh damn, this was so not the way I was going to break the news…..Seth is really getting to me."
"What?, your having a baby, oh my god that's great But you said Seth freaked out. Are you saying he doesn't want to have a baby? I've always thought he would be a great father."
"Oh no, its not that he doesn't want a baby. He's ecstatic about the idea of a little Cohen running around but something is freaking him out because a couple of hours after I told him he was just gone and it turns out here he is…"
Kristen is on an emotional wipsaw. She's ecstatic over the idea of her first grandchild but then the events of last night slam at her and she's at a loss as to how to respond to Summer.
"Well…. Becoming a father is a big change and we both know that Seth's initial reaction to change is not always good. Maybe he just needs a little time to get use to the idea" she tries
"Yeah, that's one explanation...but probably not the right one. Kristen, you know I love Seth and always will but I'm not sure getting married may have been the right thing to do."
"I'm not sure what to say Summer"
"Neither am I. I love Seth and but I'm afraid that he's not always happy and I don't want us to end up hating each other at some point. I won't do that to our child. I don't know what to do right now. We are going to have this child and we will be good parents, the question is will we do it together or not and honestly right now I just don't know." Summer runs down and just kind of looks at Kristen for a bit before continuing. "I'm sorry… I don't know why I'm telling you all this but you know you've always been more of a mother to me than any of my step-monsters and I just had to say it out loud to see if it was real"
"Oh Summer I'll always be here for you and while I don't have any answers for you know that I'm willing to listen, even if its my son that's being the knuckle head. Speaking of which, look who's decided to wake up.
Summer turns around as Seth opens up the sliding glass door from the deck. Its obvious he's just woken up and moving really slowly as if to keep his head from falling off his shoulders.
"Good Morning, dumbass, nice to see you haven't fall off the face of the earth" comes from Summer in a very loud voice causing Seth to wince and grab his hears.
"Oh, ow, no yelling please, hungover"
"So deserting your wife and hiding in the poolhouse, that's how you decide to celebrate the news of your first child" comes from Kristen"
Seth's eyes go wide at this note of displeasure from his mother. "Oh, so Summer told you". Looking at Summer "I thought we were going to do that together"
"If you hadn't have pulled your disappearing act and caused me to come over here blabbering all Seth Coheny then maybe we would have. So don't give me any grief boy.
It doesn't matter who told me I'm just so happy for you. I can't wait to tell Sandy"
"Tell Sandy what" comes from around the corner as he comes into the kitchen, obviously just back from surfing.
Seth sticks up his finger in the air pointing at both Summer and his mother. "Since Summer has already informed you its only fair I get to let Dad know. Then turning to his father. "So Dad….its time to add a new title to your next set of business cards" pausing for a few seconds to see if Sandy is getting the hint, which he obviously isn't.
"Grandpa" Seth continues with a huge smile on his face.
"Really..thats great..when did you find out…. I can't wait to let the Nana know she's going to be a great grandma"
Now that the whole family is involved in the good news Summer pushes back her concerns and basks in the glow of being a future mom, hoping the rest of the future takes care of itself.
Kristen answers the intercom. "Kristen, I have an Eddie on the phone. He says he's a friend of your son's. Kristen frowns at the phone. Ryan had brought Eddie to the house over a year ago when they were dating. She remembered him as a very nice guy and had hopped that Ryan had found someone he could settle down with. Unfortunately they had stopped seeing each other shortly after that trip. Wondering what would cause Eddie to be calling Kristen she told Jane she would take the call and picked up the phone.
"This is Kristen"
"Hi Mrs Choen, I don't know if you remember me but I'm a friend of Ryan's.
"Of course I remember Eddie. How can I help you?"
"Well… I'm sorry for calling you at work but I don't have your home number and Ryan's talked about your work so I was able to find this number…"
"Eddie… Is something wrong with Ryan?"
"I'm not sure"
"Excuse me"
"You know we're not together any more… but I still care about Ryan and I'm getting very concerned about him"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm sure you know, Ryan is not very open about his past, or at least his past prior to becoming a part of your family. Even so, I have a really good idea of how bad it must have been. The scars those bastards left on his body say a lot if you know what you're looking at."
Kristen is thinking this is a very strange conversation to be having about her son with an almost stranger. Wondering where this conversation is going she is beginning to dread the answer. As if reading her mind Eddie tells her.
"I know this is weird, me calling out of the blue to someone I don't really know but I don't know what else to do. Even though Ryan couldn't commit to me I still very much care about him and he needs help…Help I hope you can give him. I don't know if you remember but I work at the Center with victims of abusive relationships. I'm not sure if you are aware but it's not all that uncommon for abuse victims to fall back into abusive relationships and I'm pretty sure Ryan is on his way down this kind of a path."
Listening to this Kristen realizes that she's made another mistake with one of her son's. Ryan had been pulling away from the family for years and she should have done more to prevent it.
"How do you know this?"
"We occasionally cross paths and over the last 6 months it seems every time I run into him he's got some sort of injury. He does a good job of covering by telling people it's a sports injury of some sort but after about the fourth time I just didn't buy the story anymore. So I did a little digging. It turns out he's actually looking for guys who are into being rough and getting involved with guys who beat him.
"Oh my God…"
Kristen's mind is reeling. Ryan's hurting himself, well maybe not hurting himself but allowing other to hurt him. Why doesn't she know about this? Because she let Ryan drift away and didn't do anything to prevent him from doing so.
"The reason I'm calling now is the most recent guy has put him in the hospital"
"Ryan's in the hospital… why didn't he call me.. why didn't you tell me this first thing…Is he ok?
"He's not in the hospital any more. Although I'm willing to bet he left against advice. The only reason I know about this is I was at the hospital for a similar reason with one of my clients when they brought him in. I guess the bastard did a number on him and then kicked him out and the police found him unable to walk so they had an ambulance bring him to the hospital".
"When was this?"
"Last night..this morning. He's pretty banged up but was able to leave under his own power. I doubt he's going to be able to make it to work for a few days though."
"You think I can help…I'll be there as soon as I can get a flight but what do you think I can do?"
I hope there's a lot you can do. When Ryan and I were together I didn't see any of this so something recent must have triggered this path of self destruction. I know he cares deeply about you and your family, not only as his saviors but as the parents he never had growing up. I think you can use that relationship to break through the walls he has put up. If you want I can meet you at the airport and maybe give you some advice from a counselor's point of view."
"I'd really appreciate that… I can't tell you how much I appreciate you caring enough about Ryan to get involved, we've obviously dropped the ball."
"Just because I'm not the one for Ryan doesn't mean I don't want him to be happy and the way he's going right now things are only going to get worse."
"l'll call you as soon as I know what flight I'll be on"
Hanging up the phone she heads out the door. As she's scrambling for her cell phone to call Sandy she tells her assistant "Jane, I've got to go take care of Ryan. I need the fastest way there. I'm going home to get a bag. Call me as soon as you make the reservations"
