Thanks for the reviews! Please keep them coming, they're such a motivator.you other writers know what I mean. Thanks for reading! Hope you like it!

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The words slammed into Ryan as if he'd been clotheslined by a 400 pound quarterback (though, admittedly, he had no clue what that felt like). Marissa.pregnant? By Seth? Meek, nerdy little Seth Cohen? He'd barely digested the idea of the two of them being..lovers. And now they were going to be parents?

"Oh my God.." was all Ryan could say as he tried to digest alarm and jealousy and anger all at once.

"Ohh.." Seth moaned miserably. "My parents are going to kill me. No, no, wait. Marissa's parents are going to kill me. Nope, Luke is going to kill me, and then the Coopers are going to burn my body while my parents dance around it!"

Ryan struggled to find words of consolation somewhere in the murk of shock that had permeated his conciousness.

"No, Seth, don't stress out just yet-" he managed pathetically, the words coming out forced and unnatural.

"Don't stress out? Don't stress out?! Ryan! Marissa is pregnant! Did you even hear what I said?!"

"Calm down," Ryan said, trying to be the sensible one. Seth evidently wasn't going to volunteer for the position.

Before Seth could start repeating Ryan again, Ryan coaxed him up the stairs into his room.

They both sat down, but Seth only rested for about four seconds before he was up and off, pacing the floor, running his hand through his hair and biting the nails off the other. His eyes were wide, almost maniacally. Ryan felt bad for him, but at the same time, was perturbed by that sensation of jealousy.

"Okay, Seth, I'm sorry, but I have to ask this.you do know that it's yours, right?" Ryan mumbled.

"Yeah, it's me, all right," Seth said distantly. "Marissa and Luke weren't ever.or, at least she said-"

"Don't go there, Seth. She wouldn't lie. Focus on one thing at a time, man," Ryan coached. He was good at dealing with crises, he'd grown up teaching himself how.

"What am I going to do, Ryan!? I'm so screwed!" Seth moaned, dropping onto his bed and putting his face in his hands.

Resisting the urge to sneak in a smart comment, Ryan smiled inwardly in spite of himself and tried his best to help Seth.

"What does Marissa think? I mean, what does she want to do about this?" Ryan asked, setting his jaw.

Seth shrugged.

"I don't know, she didn't want to talk about it. She said she felt like she had to tell me, but she was so freaked out she hadn't really thought about it yet. I didn't want to leave her so upset, but she practically threw me out." Seth said.

The dismal lilt in Seth's tone had returned.
"You know," he said, staring into space. "I think she was going to end it between us, I mean, before she found out that she was- well, you know."

"Like I said, Seth, one thing at a time, okay?" Ryan said, putting a hand tentatively on Seth's trembling shoulder. Man, did he feel bad for the kid. A rich, Newport kid with two parents and everything he could ever want or need, and he felt sorry for him. Come to think of it, Chino wasn't so awful after all..

"Right. One thing at a time. Focus on the fact that Marissa is (gulp)..pregnant.Oh, shit."

Seth leapt from the bed and made a beeline to the bathroom. Ryan took his seat and massaged his throbbing temples. He felt like he was in a poorly-written episode of The Twilight Zone. He pinched himself again, and unsatisfied, smacked himself across the face. He felt as sick as Seth when he felt the hot pain on his cheek.

When Seth finally managed to lurch out of the bathroom, bleary-eyed and worn out, Ryan convinced him to take some of Kirsten's sleep aids and lie down. That kid is so high strung, Ryan mused, that it will be a miracle if he doesn't have a massive coronary before he's old enough to vote. Ryan grinned sardonically at this. Not old enough to vote, but old enough to have a kid. He felt more and more at home every day.