A/N: Title is for the song "Take Me Home" by Aqualung. Sorry it's been a while since the last chapter went up! Anyway, read and review, please--I love to know what people think, good or bad. Thank you!

TAKE ME HOME

"Good morning, girls," Seth chuckled as he walked into his kitchen wearing boxers and a bathrobe, seeing Audrey perched atop a counter eating a banana and Summer with her back turned at the stove.

"Cohen!" Summer squealed when he came up behind her, tickling her side gently. "I'm cooking," she scolded lightly, a grin dancing on her face that immediately erased any note of irritation in her voice.

"I see that," he commented, his tone laced with mock dubiousness. "You sure that's a good idea?"

"Mommy's a good cook," Audrey promised, crinkling her nose. "Mostly."

"Should I believe you, little girl?" Seth laughed, picking Audrey up and swinging her over his shoulder so she shrieked.

"I'm a big girl! I have a big girl bed!"

Seth looked at Audrey pensively for a second before speaking. "How do you feel about school, Aud?"

"Real school?"

"Sort of," Seth nodded, trying to remember his experiences at Harbor's pre-K and remembering close to nothing besides painting, blocks, and sitting in a circle.

"I want to go to school!"

"Then it's your lucky day." He set her down and glanced up, seeing Summer gazing at him with her daughter, her deep brown eyes full of wonder and amazement. He felt a burning sense of pride that he had put that wonder and amazement there. He knew what they had was special, and he wanted to protect and defend that to the extent of his ability.

"Can I go put on school clothes?" Audrey begged excitedly.

Summer nodded silently and Audrey scurried out of the kitchen.

"Like mother, like daughter, huh?" Seth asked jovially. He noticed Summer still wasn't reacting. "Sum?

"You're perfect," she whispered wondrously.

"Well, that's certainly what I like to hear."

"No, really, Cohen. You're perfect."

"Almost as perfect as you," he replied, kissing her forehead softly. She closed her eyes, savoring the feeling of his lips on her delicate skin.

"Breakfast is ready," she told him, smiling and laying pancakes and bacon onto a plate. He snatched a piece of bacon with his fingers before she could swat him and grinned.

After a moment, he paused in chewing long enough to respond. "Audrey doesn't lie."

"Like mother, like daughter," Summer taunted, smirking, as she handed Seth his plate. They sat down together at the wooden kitchen table, Summer pouring them coffee and Seth pouring them juice, enjoying the Newport sunlight streaming in through the windows and big French doors, warm and bright and full of memories.

"This is delicious," Seth complimented. "I'm impressed."

"Thanks. I know I can never make up for what you've given us, but I want to try—"

"Hey," Seth interrupted sternly, his eyes suddenly serious. "You have nothing to make up for, Sum. I need you to understand. I'm so glad that I could give you and Audrey a better life—but you've given me a better life too, in a different way. Okay? Before all of this, I was all about my work; I tried to forget everything that had happened. I tried to erase my past. You taught me, Sum…that I can't do that."

She nodded and leaned over to kiss him, not knowing another way to respond. It was as if every word he said matched with every word she had so desperately wanted to hear for so long. He knew her fears, her insecurities, the anxiety that was buried deep inside her, and he knew what to say and do to fix it. It only made her hope that she could do the same thing for him.

"Tomorrow morning will be my turn for breakfast, okay?" Seth said suddenly. Summer shrugged, agreeing, knowing that he wanted to level the playing field, even though she wouldn't have minded making breakfast every morning forever, as long as he was there eating next to her. Then Audrey ran in, wearing a tiny purple cotton dress and baby converse sneakers, holding her hairbrush out with one hand.

"Mommy? Will you help me with my hair?" She asked.

"Of course, baby." She turned to Seth. "I'll be back in one sec."

"Okay. But I want you to eat more, alright?"

"I'm fine, Seth," Summer groaned, secretly loving how protective and caring he was.

"Please? I'm worried about you."

"Want to wrap me up a pancake in a paper towel to go after I finish playing stylist?"

Seth grinned widely, pleased with their compromise. "Okay."

After signing some paperwork, Audrey was hand in hand with her preschool teacher, being led to a big, bright classroom with blocks and painting and dolls and books and everything Summer had always wished her daughter's daycare in LA had had. The entire application and admission process had been waived, and Summer was grateful. The double legacy and Seth's high position at the Newport Group and his status in Newport as a whole had shortened the usually months-long process down to about forty minutes.

"Where to, your highness?" Seth asked when he and Summer got back in the car in the Harbor parking lot. Audrey would be in preschool every day until two, with an optional after school program where she could stay for a few hours after the end of the regular day, and it wasn't even nine in the morning. Time felt limitless.

"Bus stop."

"Bus stop?"

"I'm going to work, Cohen. We already discussed this."

"I'm driving you."

"I can take the bus."

"You don't want me to drive you?"

"I would love it if you drove me. I don't need you to drive me, and I know you have work to do at the Newport Group. In fact, I'm sure you do. Especially because you've been spending so much time with me and Audrey."

"You're more important than the Newport Group to me."

"Regardless? The bus won't kill me."

"Sadly, you're in my car, and that means I get to decide where we go."

"So where are we going?"

"A certain Lucille's Diner, in Los Angeles, California."

"You're so stubborn!" Summer laughed once they had set out, heading towards the highway that would bring them towards L.A.

"Likewise," Seth smiled, rubbing the knuckles of her left hand with his thumb. She sighed contentedly.

Finally they arrived, Seth deciding not to park and instead pulling the car up to the entrance of the diner. "So for later?" He asked.

"I'll check the bus schedule and call you when I'm going to come in, and then maybe you could pick me up at the stop?" Summer asked.

"I meant, what time should I pick you up?"

"I don't want you to do this."

"I'll only do it until you have a car. We'll go check some out this weekend, how's that?"

"I would protest but I know you won't let me," Summer sighed.

"There we go! She's learning!" Seth laughed, and Summer shoved his shoulder gently. "How about I come in with you so we can discuss hours with your boss?"

"You never give up," she said in awe as he got out of the car quickly to open the passenger for her before she could get out on her own.

"Never," he said seriously. Summer smiled and followed him into Lucille's Diner.

"Hi, Marcia," Summer said. "Lou in?"

"Sure. In the back," the older woman with poorly dyed auburn hair replied.

Summer led Seth through the restaurant until they found Lou—an obese, balding guy in a white t-shirt and apron. "Lou?"

"So, Summer Roberts decides to show up for work," he laughed snarkily. Seth opened his mouth to protest but Summer squeezed his hand warningly.

"Look, Lou, I moved to Newport. I'm going to have to change my hours around, and I wanted to talk to you."

"Give me a good reason I shouldn't fire you."

"Because the chances that the girl you'd hire to replace me would do the job as well as I do are slim to none," Summer retorted saucily. Lou considered her words while Seth's mouth set in a line with corners upturned, sensing the return of the bossy, won't-take-no Summer he had known so well in the past.

"What do you want if I let you stay?" Lou inquired.

"Nine to one."

"That's four hours, Summer. How did we go from eight to four to nine to one? You want to cut your hours in half?"

"I moved, I told you. Transportation added in…give me a break, Lou."

"The shift is eight to four. Take it or leave it, Roberts."

Seth squeezed her hand and Summer knew exactly what he wanted her to do. Leave the job at Lucille's. Live in Newport, find a job there if she really wanted one. But she was determined not to let Newport infiltrate every aspect of her life. Newport Beach had been who she was until she was eighteen, and she wasn't going to allow it to be who she was again.

"I'll take it."

"Put on your uniform, then," Lou retorted. "Table five needs more coffee."

"Thanks, Lou."

"Get to it, girl!" He spat. Lou was not particularly known for his kindness.

"Summer," Seth whispered. "Don't do this. Don't do this to yourself."

"You'll pick me up at four?" She whispered quietly, lowering her eyes so she wouldn't have to make eye contact with him. She was too ashamed.

"Do you want me to pick up Audrey at two or let her stay until five with the after school program?"

"She can stay," Summer told him, even though she would have said to pick her up earlier if she didn't feel guilty for taking away from his time at work already. "We can get her on our way back to your house."

"On our way back home," Seth emphasized.

"Roberts!" Lou shouted. "Get to goddamned table five, you hear me?"

"I have to go," Summer pulled away from Seth, tearing slightly. "I love you?"

"I love you too," Seth sighed, not happy with the outcome.

She watched him leave before going into the employee room and sliding on that embarrassing ensemble again, the short pink and white dress with the heavy apron and the painful high-heeled pumps, grabbing the coffee pot and a tray, pouring the truckers at table five their coffee and then picking up the assorted plates covered in grease and ketchup on tables three and four, balancing them carefully on her tray and carrying it back to the kitchen, steadying it awkwardly on her still injured shoulder.

Seth watched her for a few more minutes without her noticing, before putting the key into the ignition of his car and driving back to Newport.

"Please don't say anything," Summer said quietly as she slipped into Seth's car, which was waiting dutifully outside, after her shift. She was relieved to see Audrey snoozing in the backseat, strapped into her car seat.

Seth's jaw was gaping. Her left arm was covered in a brand new splotchy, dark bruise. He looked up at her with eyes wide. "Summer?"

"Please—Cohen. Please just do me this one small favor and I'll explain it later?" Summer asked, turning to him and begging him with her eyes, which were watering.

"As you wish," he said simply. They drove in silence, both thinking deeply, before finally reaching his house in Newport. Their house. Summer picked up Audrey, adjusting her over her shoulder carefully while carrying the sleeping child inside.

He came into the bedroom fifteen or so minutes later, watching her wince as she rubbed her feet at the edge of the bed—visibly red and swollen from eight hard hours of work.

"Here," he said soothingly. "Let me help you." He sat down at the end of the bed and let her lay down so that her feet were in his lap. Her head hit the pillow softly and she smiled at him as he began to massage her feet. He hated this whole situation. He wondered where the high school Summer, little miss weekly pedicure Summer, had gone—to be replaced by this Summer, with cracked, blistered, aching feet, which had been mercilessly shoved into the horrible high heels he saw in the corner of the room. He pressed down on the ball of each foot and she moaned quietly, clearly enjoying both the massage and his touch. Then he spoke. "So, you want to tell me what happened to give you those bruises?"

"Customer got a little rough," she said nonchalantly. "Don't worry, Lou got him off me. Nothing happened. Just the bruising."

"Just the bruising!" Seth sighed exasperatedly. He paused, realizing that making a big deal out of the whole thing would make her upset. "Does it hurt?"

"A little," she admitted. "It was mostly just scary, not painful or anything. He just grabbed me by the arm."

"I wish I'd been there."

"You would have tried to kick his ass," Summer smiled warmly, "and then he would have kicked yours." He laughed with her, knowing this was entirely true.

"Do you have to go back tomorrow?" Seth asked her quietly, knowing what her answer would be.

"No," Summer replied.

"No?" Seth asked, disbelieving.

"I told Lou I quit."

"Summer!" Seth exclaimed happily, kissing her on the lips lightly.

"I want to get a job, Seth. I want to help support Audrey. Us. As a family. But I know there's a better way to do it, I just have to find it first."

"I'm proud of you, Sum."

"Good, I mean, that's what I want. I want you to be proud of me. It's just hard for me to let you do all this for me. I'm not used to—"

"Letting someone take care of you," Seth filled in. She nodded. "It's going to be different now, Sum. I love you, and I love Audrey, and I'm going to take care of you and protect you and be there for you in every way I can. Okay?"

"I'm ready," she nodded. Finally, it was all turning around for her, and she was letting it all happen.