I've been on a roll lately, because NOW I'm ignoring the two Astronomy labs due next week and the test I have on Friday.

Also, this is for Angell! Happy birthday!!

He opened his eyes, and he couldn't for the life of him remember where he was. All he knew was that his head hurt like a motherfucker, and he was laying on something very uncomfortable in a dark room. He relaxed a little, the familiar smell of alcohol, stale cigarette and pot smoke making him remember. He was in the living room, on the couch. He and Trey must have been out drinking – that's why his head hurt. Jesus, he must really have been drunk not to even make it back to his room. He should get back there before his mom woke up and started bitching about this.

He sat up, and blinked in confusion. This wasn't his living room. He was probably at the house where the party was… except that, looking around, it wasn't a house. It was an apartment.

"Ryan?" He looked up at the girl walking toward him, a glass of water in her hand and a concerned expression on her face. Who…?

It came back to him then. Meeting Taylor, stealing the car with Trey, getting arrested, the Cohens taking him in, finding Taylor again, the triangle, going back to Chino with Theresa, coming back to Newport, Lindsay being Caleb's daughter, Trey getting out of jail and staying in the pool house, Trey's birthday party, busting the drug dealer, Seth telling him Trey tried to rape Marissa, coming here to make him leave, seeing Taylor sitting on the couch with a bruised face and dried blood in her hair.

"Are you ok?" she sat next to him, pressing the cup into his hands, but he wasn't thirsty. He was fucking angry.

"Where is he?" he surged to his feet, slamming the glass down on the table.

"Ryan," she stood up after him, grabbing his arm.

"I'm gonna fucking kill him." His heart beat wildly in his chest, and he couldn't get the picture out of his head. Of course Taylor would try to come over here and talk to Trey, right after he tried to rape some other girl. And he could see it in his head; Trey grabbing Taylor, hitting her as she fought back, throwing her down on the couch…

"It wasn't Trey." Her grip on his arm was surprisingly strong, and he tugged hard to get out of her grasp. He could just see it; Trey getting on top of her, pushing her skirt up as she struggled… wait. What?

"What?"

She sighed in relief as he stopped trying to rip his arm from her hands, "Trey didn't attack Marissa." Marissa? What did Marissa have to do with this? Oh, right, attempted rape.

"How can you defend him?" She was too forgiving, his mind reminded him. Remember? She forgave him for fucking running off with another girl. She was too forgiving for her own good – look what happened. She opened her mouth to explain, but he cut her off. She needed to know that not everyone could be trusted. "He hit you." Oh God, it was Theresa and Eddie all over again.

"What?" She looked genuinely confused for a few seconds, before her hand went up to the bruise on her cheek, and her eyes widened. "Oh. Oh! No, Ryan, Trey didn't hit me."

"What?" Ok, this conversation was missing something. They obviously weren't on the same page. Were they even talking about the same Trey? She sighed wearily, sitting back down on the couch and tugging him down with her. He sat down slowly, swallowing the lump in his throat as he caught her face close up – the faint bruise on her cheek, the cut above her eye, the swollen lip. He also caught the way she winced a little as she sat, his stomach rolling at the possibilities of what other injuries she had.

"Ok, here's the story," she began, sliding her grip from his arm to his hand and squeezing a little. The pressure of her hand on his made him relax slightly, enough to focus on what she was saying. "I went for a walk on the beach tonight, and I saw Marissa and Hunter together," she held up her finger when he opened his mouth to say something – probably along the lines of 'what the fuck?' "I know. I thought the same thing. Turns out, they've been plotting – with my mother – to break us up." Another 'what the fuck?' tried to make its way out of his mouth but she sighed in annoyance, clamping her free hand over his mouth. "No interruptions, ok? Just let me talk." She waited with raised eyebrows until he nodded before dropping her hand. "So I kind of got angry and confronted them." It all made sense now, his brain clouded over with rage. Fucking Hunter had hit her, tried to force himself on her… "I called Marissa a bitch, and then I kinda slapped her." Wait, what? His head rose sharply to look at her, and she blushed in embarrassment. "Then she slapped me, and I got really angry, and… remember back in October when we were doing the friends thing, and you tried to teach me how to punch?" He nodded dumbly, still in shock that his girlfriend had hit Marissa Cooper. "Well, I got angry when she slapped me, so I kinda punched her in the face." He choked. What? She blushed furiously, not meeting his eyes anymore, and starting to ramble, "so she went down, and I tried to apologize, but she tackled me, and I hit my head on the sand, and it all took my breath away, and she was hitting me, and I think she was trying to dislocate my shoulder or something, and I think one of her rings caught me," she put a hand to the cut on her face, "and then Hunter pulled her off. Then he told me he wanted me back, and I told him to get over it, and then I left." She took a deep breath before continuing, looking back up at him now. "Then Summer called me and said that Marissa told her that Trey hit her, and I knew she was lying, so I came over here, and I told him to leave town, cause I knew you'd be mad when you found out, and I didn't want you to overreact, and I waited here for you."

Well shit, that was a lot of information to process. "You punched Marissa?" he said slowly, making sure he had it all straight. She opened her mouth, turning red again, before pressing her lips together and nodding. He couldn't help it – he snorted loudly, a grin breaking his face from its normal blank expression. She looked surprised, then started to smile back.

"You did say my right hook was coming along nicely…"

His grin got wider, and he shook his head at her. Looks like she was the dangerous one now, he joked to himself. "I fucking love you, you know that?" She giggled, and he assumed relief was making her slightly tipsy.

"You might've told me once or twice…"

He brushed the tip of his fingers over the bruise on her face. How could he ever think Trey did that to her? Not that Trey wouldn't hit a girl – he wasn't that naïve to say his brother wouldn't – but the bruise was definitely not bad enough to be his brother's work. He wondered how bad the bruise on Marissa's face was…

Wait, there was something else. "Ok, I remember coming over here and seeing you, but… I don't really remember anything after that." He remembered seeing her bruised face, and then… nothing. He was surprised when she turned red again, dropping her head to look at her hands, and she picked nervously at her nails. "Did I faint or something?" She was silent, but she shook her head no.

"Um, you freaked out, and you started yelling about killing Trey," her voice was low and ashamed. What had happened? "And you started trying to look for him," she waved vaguely at the room, and he noticed that a chair was upturned, and there was a smashed clock on the floor, a few broken dishes scattered across the place. "I couldn't get you to calm down, you weren't listening to me." Shit. Did he hit her? Fuck, if he hurt her, he'd never forgive himself… "Ryan, I was afraid you'd actually try to kill Trey, so… I um, I…" he waited, and she began to pick furiously at her nails. He grabbed her hands, stilling the movement so she had nothing else to focus on.

"Taylor." She winced as he used that tone of voice – the one he usually reserved for Seth when the boy was being annoying and rambling and not getting to the point.

"I may have… kinda… made you black out."

"Um." What? "How?"

"Ok, remember you were rampaging, and I was worried, so I kind of hit you over the head. With that," she pointed to the lamp on the floor, and he barked out a surprised laugh. She looked up at him fearfully, "you were only out for five minutes or so…"

"Oh, Taylor," he shook his head at her, "Taylor, Taylor, Taylor," she looked mournfully up at him, looking confused when his hands cupped her face, pulling her in to kiss him.

"You're not mad at me?" Hope colored her voice after they broke apart, and he laughed lightly again.

"Am I mad that you can defend yourself?" He kissed her again, a little more forcefully this time. "I'm so proud of you."

She broke into a smile, lighting up his world. "Really?" He nodded, kissing her again.

"Really. Plus," he added, lips brushing against hers as he talked, "the thought of you all angry and throwing punches is fucking hot."

"Really?" her tone deepened, and he groaned, nodding desperately as he pressed his lips to hers, hands dropping from her face to trail down her sides, coming to rest on her hips. God, he loved this girl so much. And right now his head was working this out – this place had belonged to Trey, so who knew what kind of diseases the couch held. No way was he letting her lay down on her back on it. Not a problem, she could just get on top of him. He loved when she rode him, rocking her hips against him, arching her body back, eyes closed, mouth open…

"Trey!" He pulled away from her, what the fuck? "Oh, no, not 'Trey!'" she mimicked the way she usually said his name during sex, "I meant 'Trey!' He's leaving town. You should go talk to him before he goes."

She watched him grip the steering wheel, entire body tense, staring straight ahead. Despite the overwhelming urge to meddle, she wouldn't push him to get out of the car. She'd already forced him to drive to the bus station, but she shouldn't make him get out if he really didn't want to. She could see the muscles in his jaw clench and unclench, the different emotions flicker behind his ice blue eyes. She loved his eyes. Ok, back to the job at hand…

"Ryan," she murmured, giving him what she hoped was an encouraging look when he glanced at her. He sighed, leaning back and unbuckling the seatbelt.

"Wait here," he muttered – like she was going anywhere – and got out of the car.

Ok, so maybe she was going somewhere, her mind argued as she slipped out of the car a few seconds after him, following behind him stealthily. But it wasn't like she was going anywhere. She just wanted to make sure he didn't get mugged or something… not spying.

He walked through the buses, looking around for his brother, shoulders hunched and hands shoved deep in his pockets. She watched him pause next to one bus and look up into the window, and when she looked up, she saw Trey sitting there. He noticed his brother, and looked down at him blandly. Then he raised one hand, face sadly expressionless, and on the ground Ryan raised his own hand in response.

It wasn't even a wave.

He didn't try to stop the bus, and Trey didn't try to open the window. The bus pulled away, and she watched Ryan's hand slowly fall to his side, shoulders relaxing as if the weight of the world had finally been lifted.

She went back to the car, trying to figure out why she wanted to cry.

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