Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. It is significantly longer, so it took me longer. I also had to work out some of the things I wanted to do with this chapter.

This chapter takes place at the same time as last chapter. This is more from Ryan's point of view. There will be kind of a flashback, bringing to light an incident that somewhat references a slightly modified scene from The Brothers Grim (02x17).

Ryan was awoken by someone calling up the stairs. He rolled over to look at the clock on his bedside table: 7:10. It took him a moment or two to understand that it was his mother calling to his older brother to hurry up. His older brother. His mother. Ryan couldn't help but smile.

He realized that maybe for the first time ever, he was really happy. He had parents that cared about him, worried about him, and loved him. To the point where they grounded him, which definitely sucked, but at the same time didn't diminish his smile. He had his older brother back in his life, who really seemed to want to do well. And he was pretty happy with his second brother. Sure, he could out talk a professional auctioneer and he could be a little self-centered, but he chalked that up to the fact that he had been an only child for most of his life. Seth had proven to be a great friend, and a brother he was proud to have.

Speaking of Seth, Ryan knew he had plans with Summer later in the day, and knew that Seth would want to do something in the morning. However, being grounded greatly limits what one can do. Yeah, being grounded sucked!

If Ryan thought long and hard about it, he could probably see why his parents grounded him, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. He wanted to go down to the Pier with Seth; he wanted to go out and celebrate Trey's first day on the job. But, that just wasn't going to happen. Being grounded definitely sucked!

And it was all because of that stupid trip to the mall….

~~~~~Begin flashback~~~~~

It was a Wednesday. Trey was going to be starting work at the Newport Group the following week. He was still getting his room situation and setup. Sandy and Kirsten had made it very clear that he could decorate it, and get whatever furniture he wanted. He was still not used to everything and tried to politely turn them down. But, they weren't having any of it.

Ryan convinced them to let him and Trey go shopping. That afternoon, they headed off to the mall, on what would be a very new experience for Trey. Kirsten ushered them out the front door, with pretty much only one rule: Try to spend no more than $5000 per store. Trey's jaw practically hit the floor when he heard the outrageous amount. He shook his head as Ryan accepted the limit without even a second thought. It only served to remind him of the life his little brother was living.

Once they got to the mall, Trey was further amazed when they would make purchases, they didn't have to carry around the bags. Most of the stores simply took their bags for them and ensured them the concierge would get their bags to their car.

After a couple of the stores, Ryan could tell that his brother was not used to buying things for himself, especially using someone else's money for himself, but most definitely not the amount of money or quality of things he saw. Ryan helped him out a little by getting some stuff for himself, so that hopefully he wouldn't feel as bad.

As the afternoon went on, Ryan realized how much he enjoyed having his older brother around again.
Ryan no longer felt the edginess Trey used to exude, and his attitude was much more positive. If he had mentioned it to Seth, Ryan was sure he would have referred to Trey as a pod person, being that he had changed so much.

As they were walking along looking at some of the stores and enjoying each other's company again, a mischievous twinkle came into Ryan's eye. Since they were walking so close to each other, Ryan nudged Trey with his shoulder. Trey looked over to see the glint in his younger brother's eye, and the almost imperceptible smirk on his face. It only took Trey a moment to recall their tradition growing up. Especially when one of them needed cheering up, usually walking home from school, they would start bumping into each other, eventually to the point of making one of them trip or fall. It never took long after they got started for both brothers to be roaring with laughter.

Trey reciprocated with a slight nudge of his own, his own grin firmly in place. The playful shoving continued for a few minutes, and they were so lost in their own game, neither one of them realized how excited they became. It all came to a head when Ryan shoved Trey, accidentally into a display sitting outside one of the smaller stores they were walking past. Ryan hadn't shoved him very hard, it just happened that they didn't see the display and it was very easily knocked over.

Before they really realized what had happened, the earrings that were dangling from the display were strewn everywhere and Trey had ended up flat on his back. A small crowd had managed to form around them. The manager came out of the store when he heard the fracas, and upon seeing the two boys, wasn't at all pleased.

He told one of his employees to call Security right away. He then turned his attention back to the two miscreants before him, his hands on his hips. "What is going on out here?! What are you two doing?"

Ryan and Trey immediately both started to apologize. Trey was on his feet and picking up the display. Ryan started to pick up the earrings that had strayed everywhere.

It was clear the manager didn't want to hear anything they had to say, nor did he want their help. "Don't touch anything! You've both done enough! Just you wait until Security gets here!" he shouted.

Ryan's stomach started churning at that. He worriedly looked over at his brother, but Trey had an unreadable expression on his face. Just then, two security guards showed up and asked the manager what had happened.

He pointed to Ryan and Trey, "I want these two out of here! Just look at what they did! It's going to take all afternoon to clean this mess up!"

One of the guards turned to his partner and told him, "Why don't you take these two back to the office and get their statements. I'll stay here and get the details from the manager."

The other guard nodded and waved the boys forward to head to the security office. As they were walking away, they heard the manager shout, "And you might want to make sure they didn't steal anything!"

Ryan knew enough to keep his mouth shut, although it took everything he had to do so. He looked at Trey and was a little surprised that he didn't turn around and say anything. He could tell, though, that Trey's jaw was tightly clenched. Despite the nervousness he felt, Ryan was very proud of his brother for not turning on the manager.

Once they made it to the office, the guard that accompanied them ushered them into a small room with a table and a few chairs. It eerily reminded both boys of an interrogation room. They didn't like it a bit. They both glanced at each other, and they knew what the other was thinking about.

Once the guard left and closed the door, Ryan dropped his head into his hand, "Damn! Mom and Dad are going to kill us!"

Trey rested a hand on his back. "Now, calm down, little brother. Don't say a word, and let me handle this. We might be able to keep this from getting too much out of hand."

The guard came back in with a pad of paper and sat down. He wrote down their names, and other information for his report. Once he was finished with the preliminary information, he said, "Ok. Why don't you tell me what happened?"

They looked at each other, Trey again silently telling Ryan to remain silent. They both realized that this whole incident was started over a silly, stupid little game. They doubted very much whether this guard was going to believe them.

Finally, Trey spoke up. "Well, nothing happened really. My brother and I were just walking along, and we bumped into that display. We're really sorry. Honestly, we didn't mean to knock anything over, or to cause any damage." He took a deep breath, and again with clenched teeth, said, "And we certainly didn't steal anything!"

He then stood up and emptied his pockets. He looked at Ryan to get him to do the same thing. The guard looked through everything from their pockets: Ryan's phone, their keys, wallets, and that was pretty much it. Nothing from the store to indicate the manager's claim they stole anything.

The guard took several more minutes asking them other questions and making notes. After a while, the other guard came into the little interrogation room, and called their guard out so they could confer.

The longer they stayed out of the room, the more nervous Ryan got. He started bouncing his knee with nervous energy. He then started biting his nails. Trey noticed how his brother was working himself up, and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Ryan suddenly realized what he was doing, folded his hands in his lap, and gave Trey a little self-deprecating smile.

After a few more minutes, both guards came back into the room. The guard that spoke with the manager spoke first, "Ok. Well, based on eyewitness reports, there's nothing to corroborate the manager's claims that either of you stole anything. And based on what you told my partner here, that part of the story matches up."

The second guard took over. "However, other witnesses report that you weren't 'just walking along' when you knocked the display over." Both boys immediately looked at each other.

Trey looked at both guards, and sighed, "Yeah, I know. It was stupid, we know that now. I haven't seen my little brother in a while, and it was a stupid, little game we used to play. We were just having some fun, and it got out of hand. If you let us go, I promise it will never happen again."

The first guard nodded his head, assuming it may have been something innocent that got out of hand. "Ok. Here's what we're going to do. Since nothing illegal took place, we aren't going to press charges, or anything like that. However, we are going to insist that you not come back for the next 3 months."

Both Ryan and Trey sighed in relief. 3 months they could live with; as long as they didn't press charges. Trey responded, eagerly, "Ok. That we can do. We won't be back for 3 months."

The second guard asked, "Do you need us to call your parents?"

For the first time, Ryan spoke up, almost too earnestly, "NO! We, uh, parked in the west parking garage." Ryan tried his best to ignore the glare being sent by his older brother.

"Ok. We'll just escort you to your car."

Trey and Ryan were all too eager to get out of that particular situation, as they made their way to the valet to retrieve their car.

Once they made it out of the parking garage, and back on the road, Ryan said, "Man, am I glad that is over!"

"So am I, little brother. So am I." He sighed heavily, and continued, "So, what are we going to tell our…., your…., Sandy and Kirsten?" He suddenly found it a little awkward to know how to refer to them. He understood that they were Ryan's parents now. But what did that make them to him?

Ryan thought about it for a couple of minutes. "You know what…. Let me handle this. I'll deal with them."

~~~~~Jump to the next day~~~~~

The car ride home was silent. They had just left the mall, again, under similar circumstances as yesterday. Ryan could tell, even from the back seat behind Trey, that Kirsten was pissed. She was madder than he had seen her in a very long time, especially directed at him. Despite how mad she was, however, he wasn't all that upset.

He thought back to how mad both Sandy and Kirsten were during the whole Oliver debacle, and how upset, nervous, and worried he was about, well, everything. He was a little nervous now, but nothing like it was then. Part of him wondered why that was.

As they pulled into the gated community, up the street, and into the driveway, his nervousness did go up a little bit. But again, nothing like Oliver.

He and Trey silently got out of the car, and followed their angry mother to the front door. She opened it, and, as they followed her through, she pointed. "Kitchen! Bar stools! Now! I'm going to go find your father."

As they quickly walked into the other room, she shut the door, not very quietly. Yeah, all indications led Ryan to believe that was indeed the maddest she had ever been at him. He didn't like that he was the one that made her so upset.

As they sat quietly at the kitchen counter, Trey started bouncing his knee. Then, he started to bite his nails. Ryan, however, was simply sitting there, with his hands folded in front of him.

Finally, Trey asked, "How can you not be nervous? She was so mad. I am so out of here!" He dropped his head into his hands.

Ryan practically rolled his eyes. "They aren't going to kick you out. Trust me. I've messed up worse than this. Yeah, their upset. Yeah, they'll lecture, maybe yell. They'll ground us, and then it will be over."

Trey smiled to himself. He was really starting to see how well his little brother was melding into his new family. He also chuckled to himself about the absurdity of someone trying to ground him. Kirsten had just threatened that very thing earlier in the day, but he never thought it would have ever entered into the realm of possibility.

He was brought out of his musings as he heard Sandy and Kirsten coming down the hall from his study. Kirsten came in with her arms crossed. Ryan and Trey glanced at her, and they could tell that she wasn't as mad, but she was still pretty upset. Ryan didn't think Sandy was that mad, but he sure did look serious.

Sandy put the official looking document Kirsten had received from the guards at the mall when they were escorted back to their cars onto the counter. He then addressed the two brothers. "So, your mother tells me you guys had some excitement at the mall today, and yesterday actually. Care to tell us about it?"

Ryan gave his older brother one of his sideways glances, and then started talking, "Look, this is my fault. Trey and I were just horsing around at the mall yesterday. It was all innocent; we didn't mean to do anything. The guards tried to tell us not to come back for a couple of months. I told Trey not to worry about it, that I would tell you guys. I'm sorry I didn't; I guess I was just afraid of what would happen with Trey. I just got him back and didn't want to take the chance of something happening to him. I didn't really think they would know we were there, and that we would be out of there before anyone in security would see us."

Sandy and Kirsten looked at each other. As mad as they were at their kids for not telling them about what happened, they could understand maybe why they didn't say anything. They could understand it a little bit; that doesn't mean they agreed with it.

Kirsten was the first to speak, "Ok, Ryan, we understand that you are worried about something happening to Trey. But you have to understand that this situation is the very thing that might have caused something to happen to him."

Sandy continued, "And lying to us is completely unacceptable. I thought we had covered this territory before. We see how this could have started with something very innocent, and we are glad that nothing happened legally. But if you would have told us about this from the very beginning, we could have helped you even more."

Kirsten moved forward and leaned on the counter, "You should have called us right away, as soon as the guards took you to their offices. Your father or I could have made it up there in less than 15 minutes."

Both boys nodded their heads solemnly. "I guess we should have. We just weren't thinking," Ryan admitted.

Sandy jumped on that immediately, "That's right. Neither of you were thinking. But you'll have the next two weeks to think about this and other situations a little better!"

Trey's confusion was a little evident on his face, "Two weeks? What's two weeks?"

Ryan knew it would be something like that, but he wasn't expecting his outburst of shock, "Two weeks!? But Dad, we were going to go out Monday night to celebrate Trey's first day on the job!"

Again, Trey asked, "What about two weeks?"

Sandy didn't mean to outright ignore Trey's questions, but he wanted to deal with his middle son's objection. "Well, you should have thought about that earlier. We can still get takeout and have a little celebration here, and when your two weeks are over, you can maybe think about going out then. But Monday night, you're stuck here." His eyebrows left no room for negotiation.

"What's going on for two weeks?" Trey just wanted his question answered. He was so confused.

Ryan turned to his brother and answered him. "Two weeks. We're grounded for two weeks."

Trey just kind of blinked a couple of times, mostly out of surprise. "Oh. …..ok."

Ryan smirked at his brother's face, "Yeah, that was my reaction the first time, too."

Sandy and Kirsten wanted to drive home a couple of other points. "Ok, boys," Kirsten said, to get their attention. "Trey, one of the things that we've been trying to teach Ryan is that he doesn't have to carry the load anymore. That's what we're here for. We're all a family; now the five of us. It might be a little awkward at first, but, just know, that we're here for you the same way we're here for Ryan and Seth." Kirsten could tell the way Trey was shifting in his seat a little bit, one of his other tells, how uncomfortable he was. She decided to hand the reigns to Sandy.

"I just wanted to recap the issues we have with this… little escapade of yours." He paused and raised his eyebrows to emphasize his point, and Trey couldn't help but follow them up and realized just how hypnotizing they could be. "Lying is simply inexcusable. One of you should have told us. And Trey, I know Ryan said that he would take care of it, but you still could have told us. Sometimes that's the responsibility of the older brother. Ryan, you should not have put Trey in that position. And if either one of you would have called us when it first happened, we wouldn't be where we are right now. And, finally, Trey, this is more of a caution. You have to be more careful in the future. If the mall or the store had wanted to press charges, while it doesn't sound like it would have gone very far, it could have presented further complication with your probation."

Sandy and Kirsten watched both boys somewhat sulk into their chairs, as the weight of their little stunt came down on them. They looked at each other and decided to wrap up this little session.

Kirsten went into the other room for a moment, as Sandy said, "Alright, Ryan, give me your phone and keys. You will get them back in two weeks." With a sigh and a glance at Trey, Ryan stood and fished the requested items out of his pocket, and dropped them into Sandy's waiting hand.

Kirsten came back into the room with a little gift bag, walked over to stand next to Trey, and set the bag down in front of him. "We were going to give you this later, but this seems a little more appropriate." When he just kind of looked at the bag, and then back at Sandy and Kirsten, she prodded him, "Go ahead. Look inside."

He did as instructed, although cautiously. As he saw the bags contents, his mouth opened in surprise. He reached in and pulled out a new phone. Just like the one Ryan had just handed over. As he just looked at the new device, he didn't really know what to say at the moment.

Finally, his brain caught up with him. "Guys, I can't accept this. I can't pay you back, at least for a while."

Sandy waved off his concern, "Nonsense. You're family. And even if you weren't," there was another one of those eyebrow wags, "the cost of the line is on our family plan, so it's negligible. You'll need it to keep in touch and for emergencies."

Kirsten then took the phone from his hand. "But we'll be holding on to this for a few days. When you start work on Monday, you can take it with you. But only for emergencies; if you need to call me for anything. You will not use it for anything else. And when we get home, you'll give it back to me or your father. In two weeks, you'll get it back to keep, when your brother gets his phone back. Is that clear?" Again, she raised her eyebrows to emphasize her point, but it wasn't as dramatic as Sandy's.

Trey hadn't missed that Kirsten had referred to Sandy as his father, too. That was weird. It was nice, but weird. From the little bit that he could get Ryan to tell him, Sandy seemed like a pretty good guy, a pretty good father. From what Trey had witnessed first-hand, he seemed to agree with his brother's assessment. He could probably get used to that; it was allowed to continue.

Both Trey and Ryan nodded at her. Finally, Sandy told them to go to their rooms. Although, Sandy and Kirsten were under no illusions that they were going to stay in their separate rooms.

Once the boys were out of the kitchen, Sandy pulled Kirsten into his arms and held her tight. Now that she had managed to flush her parental fury, she found that she was shaking a little from the adrenaline. She was glad that she was in the arms of her husband. "I think we got through to them a little," Sandy said, quietly.

"I hope so", she responded from somewhere in his chest. Now that she had her three boys, she couldn't imagine life without any one of them.

~~~~~End flashback~~~~~

Still smiling, Ryan climbed out of bed. He wanted to see his brother off on his first day. He went into Trey's room, right next to his. He then plopped down on his brother's bed. He smiled at the look on Trey's face, and how he put his arms on his hips.

When Trey told him, "Hey, watch it! I just made that!", Ryan just had to smirk back. Ryan was even happier when he saw Seth come in, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He knew that Seth, too, wanted to see their brother off.

He wasn't really paying any attention to what they were talking about; something about how early it was. He was just happy how both of them were reacting to each other. He was a little worried how Seth would react to another brother in the family.

When Trey extended his fist to Seth, and called him 'bro', Ryan was even more at ease and thrilled at their budding relationship. After Seth left, and Trey was ushering Ryan out the door, he could not get the smile of his face.

As he walked past Trey, he pulled him into a tight hug. "I'm really proud of you, big brother! And I'm glad you're here."

"Thanks, little brother! I'm happy to be back in your life. And I'm not blowing this chance the Cohens are giving me. I want to do better."

As Trey shut his door and headed downstairs to their waiting mother, he went back into his room. He knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. He was much too happy with his life right now. Ok, so maybe this grounding wasn't going to be so bad. He had his family there with him!

Please give me ideas of what you would like to see. I would like to continue this series; I just need some ideas. Thanks in advance!