Seth glanced up when he heard his mother re-enter. He gave her a weak smile knowing she had been crying.

"Mom, Ryan and I were thinking." Seth started motioning to Ryan who hadn't moved since Kirsten left. "How about, at first, he gets the downstairs guestroom? That way he won't fall and break the other leg while going up."

"Hmmm, my smart boys." Kirsten leaned over and ruffled their hair.

"Mo-om, cute nurses! Gotta look good!" Seth protested while attempting to flatten his hair back down.

Kirsten laughed. "And where are these cute nurses? Why haven't they kicked you out yet? I'm pretty sure your ten minutes are up buster!"

"I think they are too. For like the next six hours. How's Dad?"

Kirsten instantly sobered. "I wish he would come in. To at least let Ryan know he's here. But he's blaming himself even if the autopsy-even when the autopsy shows it wasn't his fault; he'll still blame himself. He always does." Kirsten choked back tears and tried to hold back her sobs from Seth. She turned away as one lone tear made its way down her cheek. She immediately felt Seth's arms wrap around her and she turned into him as her sobs racked her body.

"Hey everything will be all right. Ryan is gonna wake, Dad'll come see him and we'll take him home and everything will be back to normal." Seth murmured not caring what he said as long as it soothed his mother.

A nurse entered to check Ryan but Seth waved her away, not wanting his mom to have to switch to made-of-steel mom mode. She needed this cry. Seth maneuvered her over to the couch and they both sat. It wasn't even ten minutes before Kirsten relaxed against him and had fallen asleep. Seth gently laid her out on the couch and grabbed her phone.

"Hello?" Sandy's voice came on the line.

"Dad, I need you to come pick mom up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Seth was furious as he pulled into the Cohen drive. Kirsten was still sound asleep in the back seat, even through the trip of him carrying her out of the hospital she barely stirred. She was beyond exhausted.

Seth jumped out of the car and closed the door softly behind him as to not disturb her. He ran into the house and right into Sandy's office without knocking.

"Seth what are you doing here? I thought you were staying at the hospital? Aren't you supposed to be in school?" He asked the last question with his thick eyebrows going down.

Seth didn't respond he just grabbed his dad's hand and began to pull.

"Seth what are you doing? Let go. What is going on?" Sandy fired at him as he was dragged down the stairs and out the front door.

Stopping short of the Range Rover Seth let it out.

"Dad you need to take responsibility! You need to stop this!" Seth yelled gesturing at Sandy's unkempt clothes and to the house. "I need you, Mom needs you, Ryan needs you! And your just going to stop because you think you could of killed Dawn. Think about it, if you hadn't of stopped her, if you did stop her, Ryan could be dead! We need you know! Not after the autopsy report, not tomorrow, not next week, NOW. I need you Dad, I can't do this alone." At the last few words, Seth pulled Sandy closer to the Rover so he could see Kirsten in the back.

Sandy was still in shock over Seth's yelling. Seth had never yelled at him before. Seeing Kirsten he immediately snapped out of the shock and became increasingly worried.

"Is she okay?" He asked panicked as he opened the door.

Seth stopped him from reaching in and shaking her.

"She's exhausted, she fell asleep while crying on my shoulder. See why I called you to come pick her up. She needed you. I needed you. And now I gotta get back to Ryan, I left him with a nurse."

Sandy sighed. "How's he doing?"

"The doctor said he should wake up soon."

"Maybe I should go. Be with him."

"No, Mom needs you. I'm going to go. You stay and I'll call you if anything happens."

Sandy at that moment was proud of how Seth was taking charge and he knew he was right. Kirsten needed him now.

"What about the ten minute rule? Ryan's still in ICU, right?"

"Yeah, but my dad's a lawyer, they kick me out and I'll sue." Seth smirked.

Sandy let out a real genuine laugh and turned to get Kirsten out of the car.

"Take care of her Dad, she's had a rough couple of day." Seth said sadly.

"I know, son. Take care of Ryan. When he wakes tell him we'll be there as soon as possible." Sandy smiled at his son immensely proud.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryan woke to screaming pain in his head and chest. It was like he couldn't breathe, but he recognized the feeling and knew he had broken some ribs. But how? He turned his head to see where he was but the pain grew more intense, so he rolled back to its original position.

He tried to listen to the sounds around him to gage what hospital he was in but it felt and sounded like he had cotton in his ears muffling them.

From his position all he could tell was it was daylight, sunshine was streaming in his windows, he was hooked up to various monitors and if he rolled his eyes down far enough he could see his leg in a cast elevated off the bed. This was bad.

Internally he started taking stock of his injuries. He knew something happened to his leg, he hoped it wasn't his knee. His stomach was sore but he wasn't sure why. He knew some ribs were cracked or broken. His left arm was secured to his chest by a sling, but he could move it so it wasn't that serious. The one side of his face hurt like hell, every time he blinked or winced pain would shoot through.

A quick flash of his mom swinging her purse at his face surfaced quickly but was gone before he could grasp anymore of it. The memory had to be wrong, he hadn't seen his mom in two months, and he lived with the Cohens.

Speaking of which, where were they? Did they not know he was there? Did they not care?

Ryan was very confused and it was making his head hurt even more.

Before he could concentrate more on the pain a nurse walked in.

"Oh, good you're awake. We've been waiting. How do you feel? Does your head hurt?" She asked, before he answered she injected something into his IV

"There that should help with the headache and I'm going to let the doctor know you are in the land of the living again." She joked and was gone before Ryan could think straight.

Ten seconds later a police officer entered.

Now Ryan was scared. He didn't even know what had happened to him. Had he done something bad, like beat someone up and this was their retaliation? He wished Seth was there to tell him what had happened and that everything would be all right.

The officer offered Ryan a sympathetic smile as he entered and Ryan felt a little better. Cops don't smile if they were coming to arrest you.

"Ryan Atwood?" Ryan's nod the policeman continued. "Can you tell me what happened two nights ago?"

Ryan squinted in concentration but could only come up with flashes of his mom and Sandy. He didn't understand.

"My mom.." Ryan asked confused and trailed off, hoping the officer would fill in more for him.

The officer nodded and scribbled in his book.

"Do you know what she did?"

Ryan shook his head no, but regretted the movement as more pain rippled in.

"Nothing?" The officer asked again.

Ryan didn't answer but just stared.

The officer sighed. He knew this might be the case. Either the kid didn't remember or he was protecting the father.

"Well, if you do remember, here's my card give me a call. I'm glad you're feeling better." With that he started to walk away.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Ryan asked hesitantly to the man's back. Horrible thoughts were racing through his head. What if him and the Cohen family had been in a car accident and they were hurt too? Or maybe Luke had beat him up so badly they thought he was dead.

The officer halted. He knew it was wrong to tell a victim what happened from his point of view. But maybe this would help clear the kid's head so he could remember what happened. Then he could get his statement and close the case.

"Two nights ago, we got a call from Seth Cohen asking for two ambulances. One for you and one for a Dawn Atwood. Apparently around 2 a.m. Mrs. Atwood entered your quarters and proceeded to.." The man didn't know how to put this lightly, but the kid looked like he knew what was coming next. "To hit you."

Ryan nodded no surprise there.

"Somehow you fell through the glass door of your house. A Mister Sandy Cohen heard this and came to help with a golf club. He claims he didn't hit her very hard, but Mrs. Atwood fell from his blow to her shoulder and back of head and..." Again the officer didn't know what to say. He was still talking about the kid's mother, even if she had abandoned him and beat the living daylights out of him.

"She what? Is she hurt? Is she here too? Where is here anyway?" Ryan asked confused.

"Here is HOAG, and no she is not here, she is at the county morgue." The officer ended softly.

Ryan froze; it never once crossed his mind that she was dead. His mother was dead.

Then a new realization dawned on him. Sandy had killed him mother!

The officer shuffled his feet.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you that son. Does any of it ring a bell?"

Ryan shook his head no again.

"Okay, are you going to be okay here?

Ryan nodded he just needed to think.

"Thank you officer." He added as an afterthought.

The officer just looked surprised at him for thanking him for such bad news.

"You get better and call me if you do remember."

Ryan nodded and tightened his hand around the number.

The officer left and he was alone.