Disclaimer: I don't own The OC.
A/N-For some reason, I really enjoyed writing this chapter, I think it's one of my favorites. Just to let everyone know there's only 2 chapters left for this story. Well, technically, there's 1 chapter and then a short little epilogue. But the good news is that the last chapter is quite long, I think my longest one. As soon as I get that edited, it'll be up. Thanks to those who've been reviewing and thanks to Meg for editing.
"Seth, you do realize that this is a little more than ridiculous right?" Summer questioned.
"It's not ridiculous."
"Seth, you're suggesting breaking into someone's office to get evidence about newspaper articles. That's not exactly sane…"
"I know but what else are we going to do? How else are we going to get proof that Taylor has been making these stories up about us?"
"Uh, going to her office and asking her?"
"Because that is obviously a full proof plan."
"I can scare her into talking. One rage blackout from me can get just about anyone talking."
"That's an excellent point my little Summer, but uh, are you sure it's going to work."
She shrugged. "I have no clue. We'll find out, won't we?"
"It has to work. You sure you don't want to just break into her office?"
"Cohen, we've been in the headlines enough as it is. I think that that would take the cake."
"No one would probably believe that one, just because it was true."
"You're probably right. But still, we need to go talk to Taylor, like immediately."
"Okay, okay, let's go."
The two walked into the newspaper office, obvious to all that they were on a mission of some sort. Summer searched for Taylor until she finally spotted her.
"Aha! There she is!"
"You are really too excited about this you know that?"
"Remember to let me do all of the talking."
"Uh-huh, I got you Summer. We just got out of the car, like two minutes ago, I think I can remember what you told me in that time span."
"All right, just making sure."
They got to Taylor's desk rather quickly, due to Summer's speed walking to get to her. As soon as they got to her desk, she looked up at them, a rather shocked look on her face.
"Seth…and Summer? But I thought you two broke up!" she exclaimed.
"Somehow I don't think that was the smartest greeting," Seth said.
"Hey, me all the talking," Summer turned her attention to Taylor. "So I think that you should start explaining all of these articles."
"What articles? I only print articles that tell the truth."
"Please stop the lies."
"But I'm not lying."
"Okay, Taylor, if you tell us who's been telling you to write the articles, we won't file a lawsuit against you. How's that sound?"
Taylor didn't even contemplate this for a second. "Okay, fine. I admit that those were all fake articles."
"Well, thank you for stating the obvious. Now, can you please just tell us who told you to write the articles? Unless you somehow came up with those ideas on your own, which I highly doubt considering you've never met us before in your life."
Taylor bit her lip. "Well, see that's the problem. I don't really know."
"How do you not really know?" Seth asked, breaking the rule again.
"Well, I've just been receiving emails from some random email address. The person never stated their name, so I have no clue who they are. They just told me to write the articles each time and then they would send me a check in the mail." She shrugged. "It was all working. I never really thought about you guys though and what it was doing to you."
"So you don't know at all who's been making you do this?"
"No. And I swear I'm not lying. I honestly am done with all my lies. If I knew anything at all I would tell you guys."
"Okay. Well, listen Taylor, we have one final request for you--please stop writing for the gossip column and about celebrities. Especially for that awful magazine that you wrote for. I think that you'd be better off writing for something else. Actually, I think you really should, because I honestly do not want to see anymore gossip articles from you about anyone or I will bring a lawsuit against you."
"Okay," Taylor agreed. "I promise. Definitely. Er…just to let you guys know that there's an article published in the newspaper about you guys…" she caught the look on Summer's face, "but I'll write a retraction to be published tomorrow."
"Sounds great."
Summer led Seth out of the building. As soon as they were out, she let out a frustrated sigh.
"That did nothing."
"I told you we should have broken in."
"Well, that wouldn't have done anything due to the fact that there was nothing. She has nothing at all."
"I know. I just really wanted to break in."
Summer rolled her eyes. "Okay, we need to figure something out. Some other way for us to figure out who it was."
"Well, we already know that it was Noah--"
"We do not know that it was Noah."
"Why do you still defend him?"
"I don't. I just don't want to accuse someone and have it blow up in our faces. We need to act maturely about this."
"Uh, whoever's doing this is the one who is acting immaturely about this all."
"Right, well we are not going to stoop to their level, all right? So let's go home and brainstorm for a while."
Summer tucked her feet underneath her as Seth sat down next to her. He had all the supplies they needed: drinks, pizza, notepad, pen, and TV Guide.
"Okay, so what do you want to watch?" he questioned.
"I thought I read somewhere in there that Breakfast at Tiffany's was going to be on today."
"I don't want to watch that again," Seth whined. "We watch that all the time."
"Well, you asked me what I wanted to watch."
"Though I just said that to be nice. Truthfully, I meant that I wanted you to let me, your amazing husband, pick what we watch today."
"We always watch those stupid action movies though. I'm sick of them. They're boring."
"They are not! They are amazing and you would know that if--"
"Yea, yea, I hear this every time I say something about the movie, Cohen. I'm a little sick of it."
"I can't help that you have bad taste in movies."
"Should we just put on music instead as background noise?"
Seth gave her a look. "Because we agree on that so much better?"
"Good point. How about I just put a random channel on?"
"That works too."
Summer flipped the TV until she found something interesting, ending on an old Friends episode. "This good?"
"Yes." Seth focused on the TV for a few minutes. "Ha, I love this episode. It's the one where Chandler laughs about the word duties isn't it?" He burst into laughter just at the thought of it."Why did I marry you again?"
"Because of my charm and good looks?"
"Uh-huh, you think that."
Seth pouted for a few minutes before Summer leaned over to him and kissed him. "You know I love you. It's just moments when you laugh over words like duties that I doubt your maturity level and start to wonder."
He chuckled again at her restatement of the word and she rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I can't help it. It's just such a funny word."
"Moving on from that…do you have any sort of plan of what we could do?"
"Well, my plan was to break in and you shot that down long ago."
"Because it was a stupid idea."
"It would have worked."
"No, it wouldn't have." Summer shook her head. "Can we just get back on task?"
"Sure. Okay, so what are we going to do?"
"Well, I did kind of have one idea."
"And that was?"
"We have that press conference about the film next week. It's a moment where whoever wants to know something about us will definitely be there. I think that this would be the perfect opportunity for us to catch who is doing this to us."
Seth contemplated this for a few minutes. "Hm… I actually kind of like the sound of that. Do you think it could work?"
"I think it's going to have to because that's pretty much our only plan."
"Then we'll do that next week and just really hopes it works." Seth looked at the TV. "Do you think that we could watch this now. They just advertised it's a marathon."
"Since when are you such a closet Friends fan?"
"Since the other day, when I was living out of my car."
"Because you were watching Friends in the car?" Summer asked, clearly confused.
"Well, kind of. See I was staying outside of this one apartment building and this one old lady saw me sleeping in the car and she felt bad for me and gave me a small TV to watch. I only got one station on it and they played Friends nonstop during the night. It's rather addictive."
"All right fine, we'll watch it. Move over a little."
Seth did so and Summer readjusted herself, resting her head in his lap to watch.
"This is nice."
"Yes, we should plan out ways to find out who is spreading rumors about us and who almost caused us to break up and then watch Friends all the time. How's next Tuesday looking to you?"
Summer laughed at him. "I mean, us being together. I feel really bad that I made you stay in car for four days Seth. Really bad."
"It was five."
"Gee, thanks for making me feel even better."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mind. Look, it introduced me to an awesome show," he gestured towards the TV, "and it made me realize that I don't think I can live without you."
She smiled. "Thanks. I'm glad that you're not mad at me."
"I can't be mad at you. It's like a sin to human kind."
She just rolled her eyes. She loved Seth so much and moments like this reminded her of why she loved him so much.
"Now we have to be quiet. This episode is getting good."
"All right."
So they sat there, just being the two of them together, like they always wanted to be.