DISCLAIMER: Everything's been derived from a "little" show we all love, called "The OC". The premise of what's written below was concocted by my imagination, so if anything down below is the same (names etc. etc.), it was unintended and purely coincidental. If you have a problem, just tell me and I'd be glad to oblige…I'm a loving pacifist, I can't help it :-). Hmmm…what else is there to say? Oh yeah. I own nothing. I love pink jelly beans. Does anyone actually read this? Ruff ruff.

Author's Note: I just wanted to apologize to everyone for having such a long break period from the last time I wrote, it was completely unintentional. To cut a long story short, I graduated in June, found out two days later that someone backed out of this one traveling program I was the alternate for and suddenly five days later I was traveling all over Asia and Europe. It was extremely hectic getting all my stuff together, so I couldn't update the story. Then during the trip, around late July, right before I was going to go home, I had a small accident (involving me falling face first), as I am without a doubt the clumsiest person in the world. The small accident ended up affecting me more than I expected, as I was diagnosed with Temporomandibular disorder (I think that's how you spell it)—a thing where you've got headaches from hell constantly and can't swallow or sleep or think clearly (well at least I couldn't). So for a while now, I've been incapable of doing anything but watching episodes of The Golden Girls, Spongebob Squarepants, The O.C and a ton of movies…all while in pain. I feel better now, it took meds and some trips to the doctor's. Absolutely cured, I think…I hope. So now I'm finishing off what I've started.

So for the readers still out there interested in this story, I hope you enjoy it. I could not express more how sorry I am for the hiatus and I hope that you'll still continue to read this story. And if you don't, it's okay, I understand if you're pissed. I'll be finishing this up within the next two weeks, before I head off for college. PLEASE CONTINUE TO REVIEW, I was surprised that a lot of people have gotten to really enjoy and look forward to this story. Thanks again.

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Chapter 10 – The Six-Year Scar

What just happened? Both thought at the same time as they slammed their front doors shut. It had been a good half hour after the kissing debacle and both frantically paced around their own homes.

I'm married. Ryan. How did I do this? I'm a married woman. Ryan's free, what will I say to him? How will Sandy and Kirsten react? How will Tom react to all of this? Did I just kiss a man I just met?—not the first time, but high school's long over. What the hell did I just do? All of this ran through Summer's head, when she suddenly heard a creak from behind her. She hoped to God that it wasn't Tom.

"Mommy, my ear hurts, I accidentally stuck a candy corn in it," a little voice whispered.

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Seth was at his home, keeping himself away from mirrors. His hand was scratched up enough that it was a miracle that no one in the party noticed his banged up hand.

He walked quickly upstairs to his office—he wanted to go into his vault and reopen the files that the private investigators had given him. He wanted to believe at that point that Summer did not remarry immediately because of love but because she had to for some reason. His heart had never pounded that way and it didn't stop, even at the beach. Seth wanted to believe in Summer.

He opened a bottle of the finest and strongest liquor around and started staring at the files. He drank and drank as he stared at everything. He stared at the pictures taken of her and Tom kissing on a sailboat, with Adam, just 3 years old, on board playing with a super soaker.

Seth had always been a man of smiles, but he began to slowly cry. He loved Summer so much that he could have forgiven her for it all—I mean he'd already gone through all the stages…denial, anger and grief.

Ever since they were young, he was always ready to go into submission whenever Summer looked at him. Deep inside of him, he always believed it was progress—that Summer was going to be in his arms. Even when she called him "Stanley", instead of "Seth", a billion times, Seth stood by her side, waiting for her to fall in love with him.

She did. And it was the best feeling ever—lying beside each other, arguing and yelling, and then kissing the very next second.

Seth cried now because there was too much weight in his heart to forgive Summer this time around. Perhaps had it not been Tom, he would have. After all, he did die in her eyes.

But Tom destroyed everything around him, from Ryan to his parents.

Tom was now the head of the Newport Group, a position that was once held by Seth's grandfather and mother. He gained control of Seth's massive fortune from Caleb Niccol through Summer. With that, Tom partnered with Richard Houston, owner of the largest realty company in the nation—Cathexis Incorporated. Richard Houston was a man that Seth despised when he was alive. He saw how taxing he was towards Kirsten. He pushed and pushed to try to gain control of the Newport Group and she did everything in her power to keep what she and Caleb had kept afloat for years—and for a while, she did. But then Seth died and her will to fight sank along with her son's ashes once Ryan, who she had hoped would run the company, was convicted of planning Seth's death. Now, because of Tom, Richard was now the most powerful company on both coasts.

Why? Why? Seth, extremely plastered, kept asking himself. Why of all the men in the world, did she choose Tom, unless Summer too, was involved in his own death somehow.

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After dealing with her mischievous but nevertheless charming and sweet son, she tucked him into bed and gently rubbed his back, slowly lulling him back to sleep. He started to breathe heavily the way his father did, with an occasional baby snore here and there.

It was dorkishly cute. It reminded him of when he was an infant.

She laughed a little, with a few tears coming down her eyes. Her heart raced again when she started to think about the kiss she and Aidan had. Even though he was a stranger, he felt so familiar to her. It was a combination of tears and smiles at that moment.

Summer's six years had been a living hell.

…She held her newborn son in her arms. It was a combination of tears and smiles for her and everyone around her. Like any newborn child, he was so small and so soft.

Taking after his father almost immediately, he was freaked out by the world around him and cried like no other. His grandfather Sandy, whose eyes were watery, was the one who had the immediate gift of calming the newborn down. He put on a miniature yarmulke on the baby's head (the little cap Jewish men put on for special occasions or Sabbath) and consequently, the baby gave off his first smile. This of course made Summer smile, as well as everyone else in the room

A few weeks later, Summer, with only the thought of a joyous and peaceful life ahead of her with their son, was a happy woman, all things considered.

But Tom suddenly entered her life. He was a "friend" of Seth's and charmed his way into Summer's life. Summer did not think of him romantically at all, her heart belonged to her late husband, but she did trust Tom.

Summer was not the trusting type, but after having had a baby, and with her being estranged with her own family, and with the Cohens dealing with financial and legal burdens and with Marissa Cooper, the one friend she truly trusted, overdosing on cocaine a week ago, she felt alone. And when Tom somehow got Marissa to willingly go to rehab, a task that even she or Jimmy Cooper, Marissa's beloved father, could not do, Summer became eternally grateful.

So Tom quickly entered all of their lives—Summer's, the Cohen's, the Cooper's, with all of them not even noticing. And just a little before Seth's death anniversary, Summer crushed, shocked and astonished everyone with the announcement that she would marry again.

Everyone wondered at how Summer could even be capable of such a decision. Kirsten and Sandy Cohen were especially at first, hurt. But they loved their daughter-in-law and believed that Seth's death anniversary made her want to seize the day at an even faster pace—after all, it wasn't as though Summer was cheating on their dead son.

But the real reason as to why Summer accepted Tom's proposal so hastily would remain Summer's secret.