Ryan was sure of only two things Wednesday morning. One was he knew he couldn't sit through a day of school, not with the Child Services lady coming to talk to the Coopers, but the other was that there was very little chance that Sandy would let him skip another day. He was going to at least try, though.

"Look, Sandy, about school," he started to explain when Sandy walked into the kitchen.

Unfortunately the look in Sandy's eyes and the tone of his voice when he said,

"What about it?" already told Ryan what he didn't want to hear.

"I just can't." Ryan tried to explain, again, "I can't just sit there knowing that this Mrs. Dawson lady is talking to people, to Julie Cooper, about me. Trying to decide if I can stay here or if I need to go. To some group home. I just. Look, if Dr. Kim already thinks I have some flu, than what would another day be? I just need to think, and not about school. I just can't."

"Ryan," Sandy said, trying to be gentle and yet firm at the same time, "I know this is hard for you. Really hard. Believe me, I understand, but you have to go to school. We need to continue our lives as normal as possible, and that means you and Seth at school and Kirsten and I at work. This Mrs. Dawson has to see that we are a normal family, carrying on with our normal day to day routine. I'm sorry, but the answer is no, you can't skip school."

"Sandy..." Ryan started to plead.

But he was cut off by a more stern Sandy who said,

"No, Ryan." And that was the end of the discussion.

So Ryan went to school. He didn't like it, but he did it. Sandy left him no choice. He turned in his work from the previous two days, and grunted that he felt better to anyone who asked. But besides that, he had nothing to say. To anyone. Not Seth or Marissa or Luke. No one. He spent his lunch hour in the library since he wasn't hungry anyway, and headed for the school parking lot the second the school bell rang. Unfortunately, it was in the school parking lot that he saw Marissa leaving with her dad, and Ryan knew they were heading to where ever their meeting with Mrs. Dawson was. Ryan couldn't help but notice how sad Marissa looked as they drove away.

As Ryan watched Mr. Cooper's car drive out of sight, all he could think about doing was running. Away. Any where. But he didn't. He headed for home, just like he was told to do by Sandy. He couldn't do anything about Mrs. Dawson or her meeting with the Coopers so he decided for once he would do as he was told, for once he would try to be a good son, and he went home.

It was around 5:00 o'clock when Ryan left the pool house, and headed for the kitchen. His homework was finished, and since he wasn't allowed to watch TV or play video games, he figured he'd make dinner. Seth was still at Summer's and Kirsten and Sandy were still at work, so Ryan quietly started dinner. He figured it was the least he could do.

"Hey," Seth said as he walked into the kitchen, "Sucking up to the folks just a little bit, are we?"

"What?" Ryan asked, not looking up from making the salad. He wasn't exactly sure what Seth was talking about, but that wasn't anything new.

Seth just laughed,

"Come on, man. What, do you thinking cooking dinner will win you some time off for good behavior or something?"

Before Ryan could answer and tell Seth what to do with his good behavior, the doorbell rang, so instead Ryan told him,

"You wanna get that? I'm a little busy here."

"Yeah, busy sucking up." Seth answered as he walked out of the kitchen to answer the door.

Ryan continued working on dinner, not really paying attention to whomever was at the door. It was probably just Summer again, he thought. He was shocked when he turned around and saw Marissa coming into the kitchen.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He didn't know why he asked. He knew she was there to tell him what happened with Child Services.

"I thought you'd want to know about today, and Mrs. Dawson. Is it ok? That I'm here?" Marissa asked.

Seth jumped in to answer before Ryan could,

"I'd say it was better then ok. We all want to know."

Ryan wasn't exactly sure why, but he really didn't want to know about Mrs. Dawson. It would make it all too real.

"Well, technically, I am, um, grounded." Ryan told her, "See, I told you Sandy wouldn't be as understanding about cutting school."

Marissa smiled, a little, and told Ryan,

"Yeah, but I only cut the one day. You cut two."

When Ryan didn't answer, or smile, or even acknowledge her in anyway, she continued,

"If you want, I'll go, but...."

Seth quickly blocked the exit of the kitchen and put his hands up to stop Marissa,

"No, don't." he said, "Tell us what happened. Dad will understand that that's what you're here for. He's going to want to know, too."

Before the conversation could continue, Ryan saw Sandy walk into the kitchen, and knowing that Marissa wasn't supposed to be there, he quickly told Sandy,

"She just wanted to tell us about Mrs. Dawson. She hasn't been here that long."

Sandy told Ryan, "Yeah, that's fine."

And then turned to Marissa and said, "So, how did it go?"

"I think it went really well," Marissa explained, "She was nice. Mostly she asked about what happened with Oliver, how we got mixed up with him, and stuff like that. I told her, Ryan, that it was my fault. I told her everything that happened and how all of it was all my fault."

"Marissa..." Ryan started, but was interrupted by Marissa,

"No, Ryan. It was my fault. You can say no it wasn't all you want, but it was. She also asked about our relationship. The one we had, and what it was like now, after everything with Oliver."

Seth really didn't want to listen to whose fault everything was all over again, so he quickly asked,

"But what did your parents say?" Everyone had to be concerned about what Julie Cooper had said or did. She hated Ryan. That was no secret, and even though his parents kept saying not to worry about her, well, she was Julie Cooper. How could he not be worried?

"My dad told her what a great guy he thought Ryan was, how much he really liked Ryan, how much he liked us together, as a couple, and how he hoped everything would work out." Marissa said.

"And my mom," she continued, "well, she really didn't say anything, which surprised me. My dad and I were waiting for her, well you know, to say or do something, but she just sat there, smiling and nodding her head while my dad talked. It was strange. Especially when Mrs. Dawson asked if they were ever worried about Ryan being violent and hurting me."

"What did you say?" Ryan asked. He remembered the look in Marissa's eyes after he attacked Oliver in the student center. He remembered, she was afraid of him.

Marissa just looked at him. She was surprised that he would even ask, so she told him,

"We all said No, even my mom. We told her that we knew that you'd been in fights before, but that you were a really nice guy, who cared a lot about your family and friends, and you would do anything you could to protect them."

"What else did she want to know about me? Besides my being violent, I mean." Ryan asked.

Marissa shrugged her shoulders at that point, and told him,

"Not much. I was actually kind of surprised. I didn't know what to expect, but it was better then I thought it would be."

"Yeah?" Ryan asked, "Look, again, I'm really sorry about all of this."

Marissa still didn't understand why Ryan kept apologizing to her. It was her fault, and she told him,

"No, Ryan. I'm sorry. If it wasn't for me getting us all mixed up with Oliver...."

Sandy had originally thought he would remain quiet and let Ryan and Marissa talk, some how make each other feel better, but he could see that wasn't happening. Once again, neither one was listening to the other.

"Ok," he told them, "We don't need to go into all of this again. Let's stop playing the blame game. We all made mistakes, and now let's all deal with them. Is there anything else?"

Marissa looked at Sandy and told him,

"No, not really. That was about it." But then she looked at Ryan and said,

"She did ask if I thought we could work out our problems, and get back together again."

Ryan didn't answer her, though. He didn't know what to say, so he turned around and began to work on dinner again. He could hear the hurt in her voice when she said,

"Yeah. That's what I thought. Look, just so you know. I told her that was what I wanted, but that you didn't. That I love you, and that I probably always will."

When Ryan still didn't turn around or answer her, she told him,

"Alright. I'm gonna go now. I'll see you in school tomorrow. Bye. Bye Sandy, Seth."

Sandy waited until Marissa left. He knew he should probably say something to Ryan about being so rude to her, but he figured this wasn't the best time to bring it up. It was obvious that Ryan was upset, even though it sounded like the Coopers meeting with Mrs. Dawson went well.

"Well, that sounds like it went well." Sandy said to both boys, "See, things aren't as bad as they seemed." He then figured it might be better to change the subject for the time being and asked,

"So how was school?" He directed the question at Ryan, who told him,

"It went. I stayed the whole day, and then I came right home. Like you said."

Ryan still wouldn't look up from working on dinner. Sandy could tell, it was his distraction, his way to keep from getting really upset, overwhelmed.

"Smart boy." Sandy told him, "And I know you're going to do the same thing tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that, right?"

"Well, technically, Dad," Seth answered for Ryan, "The day after the day after tomorrow is Saturday, and even at Harbor, there is no school on Saturday."

Sandy looked at Seth. He could tell Seth was also trying hard to change the subject, move onto more normal stuff. Seth wanted to steer the conversation away from Mrs. Dawson and the investigation, and so he resorted to what Seth did best- sarcasm.

"Ryan knows what I mean. No one needs your help Seth." Sandy told him, and then turned back to Ryan and told him,

"On Saturday, you can come down to the Lighthouse and work with me."

"But what about Mrs. Dawson?" Ryan asked, still looking down at the salad he was working on. "Isn't she coming some time this week?"

"No, it doesn't sound like it." Sandy explained, "I talked to my contact at Child Services this afternoon. She just got back to work today and talked to Mrs. Dawson this morning. Apparently, Mrs. Dawson has some reports that she wants to review, from Dr. Colefield and the school, plus review what ever information she received from the Coopers this afternoon, and then she'll be here sometime the beginning of next week."

It was killing Sandy to see what this was doing to Ryan. Ryan wouldn't look up, wouldn't meet his gaze. He wouldn't even look at Seth, who decided the best thing he could do was quietly set the table, and let Ryan keep to himself.

"It's going to be ok, Ryan." Sandy told him, "You'll see."

But Ryan didn't answer. He didn't want to believe it. Believing it would just get his hopes up, and then he'd just get himself hurt, again. He quietly finished making dinner, and when Kirsten got home, he quietly ate dinner. He let Seth and Sandy tell her the so-called great news about the Coopers and Mrs. Dawson, and then he quietly went to bed.

The routine was the same on Thursday, too. He went to school, came straight home, did his homework, made dinner, ate dinner and went to bed. He figured Friday would pretty much be the same thing. He was, however, wrong. Very wrong. Friday started out to be the same, but it wouldn't end that way.