Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: Christina: No, Ryan didn't tell Sandy what was going on in chapter 9. Ryan and Sandy made a deal. Ryan promised to tell Sandy later, and that's why Ryan wasn't grounded any more.

Chapter 10

After Sandy left, Ryan sat on the bed for a moment playing with the cordless phone in his hand. Ryan smiled to himself. He knew that Sandy wouldn't let him stay grounded for too long. It just wasn't in him. Ryan could tell that he always felt guilty whenever he grounded him or Seth. Sandy was just too easy-going. That hard-ass act of his most of the time was just that, an act.

Ryan thought over the conversation that they just had. Sandy had surprised him with what he said about the Oliver thing. Ryan didn't think that Sandy was able to see how he had been talking at first and then stopped when Sandy didn't listen or didn't believe him. He was glad that Sandy finally figured it out.

But now Ryan was feeling a little guilty because he told Sandy that this situation wasn't anything like the Oliver situation. And, well, that wasn't quite true. In both, he was trying to keep a guy who was not a good guy away from his girlfriend. And like with Oliver and Marissa, Ryan was worried that Caleb had charmed Lindsay to the point where she didn't see his bad side any more. She obviously wasn't listening to her mother's warnings about staying away from Caleb, so Ryan wasn't even going to try. If he tried to get Lindsay away from Caleb, Ryan was worried that Lindsay would turn on him, like Marissa did when he tried to get her away from Oliver. Ryan sighed. He just hoped that this situation wouldn't end up going bad, like the Oliver situation did.

Ryan looked back at the phone in his hands and went ahead and called Lindsay.

"Hello?" Good, it was Lindsay. Ryan smiled.

"Hey! I have some good news. I'm not grounded any more."

"That's great, Ryan. So we can go out tomorrow?"

"Sure. I'd like that. So, um, how did everything go with your mother? Did you tell her?"

Lindsay sighed. "Yeah. She wasn't very happy. We got into a fight."

"Oh, no."

"Yeah, we like never fight."

"I'm sorry. Well, this whole Caleb/adoption thing should be settled soon, right? One way or the other. Maybe after that, you and your Mom can work things out."

"I hope so."

A week later, Ryan found himself at Caleb's, but this time he was invited. They were supposed to get the paternity test results any time now, and everyone involved had gathered. Nobody wanted to be left out. So Ryan picked up Lindsay and met Kirsten there, and of course Caleb and Julie were there. The only one missing was Renee. She and Lindsay were still fighting, and Lindsay told her not to come if she couldn't support her. Ryan just hoped that Lindsay would let her mother comfort her when she got home after hearing the news.

So there they all were, sitting anxiously around in Caleb's living room, waiting for the call. Ryan sat on the couch next to Lindsay and he had his arm around her. He could tell she was nervous. He rubbed her arm with his hand. She looked up at him and gave him a nervous smile. It was the same smile she gave him a few days ago when they went to Caleb's doctor's office to do her part of the paternity test. She was nervous then, too, even though the test itself was simple, just drawing some blood.

Finally, the phone rang. Caleb got up to answer it. Ryan tightened his arm around Lindsay and prepared himself to comfort her when she started crying after hearing that Caleb wasn't her father.

"Hello. Caleb Nichol... Yes, doctor, we've been waiting for your call. And? ..." Caleb looked quickly at Lindsay, and then away. "Thank you for expediting matters... Yes... Good bye, doctor."

After hanging up, Caleb paused for a moment and then turned towards the assembled group. Ryan noticed that he carefully avoided Lindsay's eyes. Ryan could feel Lindsay shifting nervously next to him, and he could tell that she saw it, too.

"I'll get right to the point. Lindsay is not my daughter."

Lindsay burst into tears. Ryan put both arms around her and hugged her close. Ryan glared at Caleb. He sounded so cold, so unfeeling. So he wasn't surprised when Caleb just gave them all a curt nod and left the room without saying anything more. Ryan looked at Julie, who looked back at him expressionlessly for a moment and then followed her husband out.

Ryan turned his attention back to Lindsay. "Shhh.. Shhh... Everything's going to be OK."

Lindsay continued to sob uncontrollably. Ryan looked helplessly at Kirsten. Kirsten, who had been watching this unfold, came over and sat on the couch on the other side of Lindsay. She put out a hand and rubbed her back.

"It's OK, sweetie. It's OK to cry."

Lindsay picked her head up from where she had it buried in Ryan's chest and turned towards Kirsten. "I thought I had a Dad... and a sister... and now I have nothing."

Kirsten continued to rub Lindsay's back. "You still have me. We may not be sisters, but we can be friends, right? Like go shopping together? You know I can't take the boys..."

Kirsten smiled, trying to lighten the mood. It worked. Lindsay smiled at Kirsten then turned around to hug her. "Thank you, Kirsten."

Kirsten looked up at Ryan and they shared a smile as Kirsten hugged Lindsay back. "Ryan, why don't you take Lindsay home?"

Ryan nodded and stood up. Lindsay let go of Kirsten and let Ryan pull her up. Ryan nodded to Kirsten then took Lindsay's hand and led her out of Caleb's house. When Lindsay smiled at him, Ryan knew that she'd be all right, eventually.

Sandy heard the news from Kirsten when she got home from her father's. He couldn't help but feel sorry for Lindsay. All this up and down, you don't have a father, then you do, then you don't. He hoped that she wasn't too devastated by how things turned out. Sandy waited up for Ryan to return from Lindsay's to see how she was doing.

Sandy was sitting in the family room watching TV alone when he heard the front door open and close. He muted the TV and turned to see if it was Ryan. It was.

"Hey, kid." Ryan heard him and turned to walk down the hallway towards him. "How's Lindsay?"

Ryan sat down in the chair. He shrugged. "She's upset. Her mother's with her."

Sandy nodded. "Poor girl."

Ryan nodded back, then stood up. Sandy expected him to head out to the pool house, but instead he just took off his jacket and sat down again.

"So..."

Sandy turned off the TV and leaned forward. "So?"

"Um... yeah... I guess you want to know now what's been going on..."

Sandy raised his eyebrows. "This is what that was all about? Caleb? Lindsay? The adoption? The paternity test?"

"Yeah."

"OK, shoot."

Ryan took a deep breath and started telling his story.

To be continued