Four years earlier...
Summer Roberts confidently walked into the doors of Newport Middle School, making her way to the same locker she had had since she was in fifth grade. Now, as an eighth grader, she had finally reached the top. She was the head of this school. She smiled, noticing her two best friends leaning against their lockers which flanked hers.
"Hey Coop, Hutch," she greeted them as she took the last few steps to reach her locker. She swiftly turned the lock and scanned the pictures that remained on the door from last year. Most were of herself, Marissa and Mike at various parties and vacations.
Marissa Cooper turned to her, after taking in the rest of the hallway, "Hey Sum. So, no new guys to go for this year." Summer only half heard what Marissa was saying; she was busy intently studying a picture of herself and Mike at her last birthday party. She looked at the real thing, lounging indifferently against his locker, shaggy brown hair falling across his eyes. Frowning slightly, she swallowed the urge to tell him how she really felt about him.
Turning slowly, Mike Hutchinson looked her up and down quickly, "New outfit Roberts?" He smirked as a light blush crept into her face, "Take that as a yes. Looks good. Gotta jet." He threw her another satisfied smile before ambling down the hall toward his homeroom. She turned to Marissa, who walked backwards a few steps, "Not touching it. I gotta run too! Peterson's an ass about attendance!" She spun quickly and jogged in the same direction that Mike had strolled.
Summer sighed, before turning and leaning against her locker, banging her head against it lightly. A boy with curly brown hair walked by, stumbling slightly when his eyes caught hers. He blushed and hurried away. Summer snorted lightly, mumbling quietly, "Geek."
Today...
Seth Cohen sprinted through the hospital doors, Marissa Cooper and Ryan Atwood right behind him. He skidded to a halt in front of the information desk, "Roberts. Summer Roberts. Where?"
The receptionist smiled lightly, clicking a few buttons on the computer, "She's still in surgery. Are you a relative?"
Shaking his head and swallowing heavily, he replied, "Boyfriend." And, gesturing to the two behind him, "And best friends. I just... I just need to know how she is. Please." He gasped, trying to catch his breath. "Please!"
She looked at him calmly, before pointing toward the waiting area, "You'll have to wait over there. I'll send someone over as soon as we know anything."
He glared at her disbelievingly, throwing up his arms. Ryan grabbed one arm, guiding him toward the waiting area, "Calm down, man. You're not going to get anywhere by causing a huge scene."
"But... but she's hurt and she's alone. And I'm not with her. And she's alone," he sat down heavily in on of the hard hospital chairs, throwing his head into his hands. "And... and... I can't do anything about it." He looked up at Ryan and Marissa with tears lining his eyes, "She needs to be okay. She needs to be! I got so used to having her around. I don't know what I'd do without her."
"Seth, she'll be ok," Marissa put a hand on his shoulder. "Sum's a trooper. She's been through a lot. She'll make it through this." Tears started rolling down her cheeks, "She'll make it through this."
Just then, Summer's father walked up with a doctor. The three friends stood and Seth rushed over to meet Mr. Roberts. The two men shook hands and Seth searched Mr. Roberts' face for an answer, "How is she? Is she ok?"
Mr. Roberts sighed deeply, "She made it through surgery. The doctors were able to get the bullet out." Seth's face rose with joy, but Mr. Roberts next words broke his optimism, "But she slipped into a coma. The doctors... the doctors..." His voice broke off as he tried to finish but was overcome with emotion. Summer was his only child, and she meant the world to him, even if he never really showed that to her.
The doctor took over where Mr. Roberts left off, "We think the coma came from a combination of the shock of being shot and the depression."
A confused look crossed Seth's features, "Depression? What... depression?"
Mr. Roberts looked up quickly, "You didn't know? Summer's been suffering from depression since she was fourteen. Its varied from mild to quite severe over the past four years. She didn't... why didn't she tell you?"
"No, I didn't know," turning to Marissa, he looked questioningly at her, but didn't need to hear her answer to know the truth. Shock covered her features. Shock so deep there was no way she could have known.
"I had no idea," Marissa sat down slowly, stupefied that her best friend would not share this information with her. Seth dropped into the chair next to her, head back in his hands, trying, without success, to comprehend all the information he had just been given. Ryan stood still, staring into space, his mouth dropped slightly open. He didn't know who to comfort - Marissa was Summer's best friend and his girlfriend, but Seth was her boyfriend and his brother and best friend. He finally made the decision to just stand behind them, one hand on Marissa's shoulder, her hand gripping his tightly, and the other on Seth's, no reaction from his friend at all. The room was completely silent, except for the sound of Marissa's breath catching as she cried uncontrollably, and completely still, except for Seth's shoulders shaking as he tried to contain his tears.
Three years and nine months ago...
Summer ran up the front steps of Mike's house, ringing the doorbell before changing her mind and turning around. She only made it down two steps when the door opened.
"Roberts?"
Her face flushed and she turned around quickly, smiling uncomfortably at Mike, who was leaning against the door frame with a curious look on his face. He pushed himself lightly off the frame and walked down to stand on the same step as her, "What's up? Since when do you play ding-dong-ditch?"
She laughed nervously, wringing her hands near her stomach, "Okay, well. Since never. Umm... I came over because." She paused to take a deep breath to try to calm her nerves, "I came to tell you that I... I... I like you, okay? I really like you. Now I'm leaving before I continue to make an ass of myself."
She hurried down the rest of the steps and was twenty feet down the sidewalk before Mike started to run after her. He caught up to her quickly, as she was trying to jog away in flip flops and he was not only wearing sneakers but the captain of the junior high soccer team, grabbing her arm and spinning her around in front of him. Her face was bright red and she refused to look him in the eye.
Mike laughed lightly, "Hey Roberts? When did you get so shy?" He touched her chin, lifting it up so she had to look at him. She tried to keep looking at the ground, but he wouldn't let her, "C'mon. Roberts? Roberts?" He laughed again, "Summer?"
She looked up, smiling at little, but still blushing, "You never call me Summer."
He laughed, looking down at her with a twinkle in his eye, "Well, it is your name. And, I'm calling you that now, because I like you too. Do you wanna do something this weekend? Just us?"
A wide grin spread across her face, lighting up all of her features. She nodded, smiling even wider as he kissed her softly on the cheek. He waved lightly and turned around, jogging back to his house. She watched as he disappeared through the door before spinning around and jumping up and down. She took off her flip flops, running as fast as she could, sandals in hand, to the end of the street where Marissa lived. As she walked quickly past the house next to her best friend's, she noticed that curly haired boy dragging the garbage cans down to the sidewalk. When her eyes met his, he stumbled, dropping both garbage cans, spilling the trash all over his driveway. She rolled her eyes before hurrying down Marissa's driveway, "Geek."
Today...
Mr. Roberts, Seth, Marissa and Ryan all stood in Summer's hospital room. Seth had yet to actually look at his girlfriend - he didn't think he could handle actually seeing her lying there and not being able to do anything about it. A doctor was standing with them, explaining Summer's current condition, "Her vitals are strong, but she seems to be very deep in this coma."
Seth swallowed harshly, "When will she wake up?" His voice was barely a whisper.
The doctor looked back at Summer before answering, "At this point, that's up to her. It sounds like she was under a lot of stress, and from what her father has told me, she wasn't taking her medications for her depression the way she should have been. Plus, with everything Mr. Roberts and Marissa have filled me in about the boy who shot her, she's probably very scared and very upset. Her body will decide when its ok for her to wake up again."
Marissa couldn't take her eyes off of her best friend, "So, what can we do?"
Sighing, the doctor looked at the four people who cared about the young girl in the bed so deeply, "All you can do, is make her feel safe. Talk to her about things you know she's comfortable with. Let her know that you're here and you're going to help her." He smiled concernedly, before leaving the room.
Mr. Roberts walked slowly over to the bed his daughter was lying in, sitting down in one of the chairs next to it. He reached out for Summer's hand, grasping it lightly between both of his own. He let go with one of his hands, lightly stroking her hair, "Sweetie? It's Daddy. Can you hear me?" He sighed, a tear slowly rolling down his face, "I know I'm not always there for you baby, but I love you and I really want you to open your eyes. Please, for me?" More tears spilled out of his eyes when he got no response, and he leaned his head down on the bed, his shoulders shaking.
Seth finally tore his gaze from the floor and looked over at Summer. He walked over and stood behind Mr. Roberts, placing a hand on his shoulder. Mr. Roberts reached up with one hand, gripping Seth's tightly and crying even harder. Marissa was sobbing silently in the corner of the room, hugging herself tightly until Ryan enveloped her in his arms.
Summer lie motionless on the bed, the only indications of life being the constant beeping of the heart monitor in the background and the slow and shallow rise and fall of her chest. Her eyes moved rapidly underneath her eyelids...
She was... swimming. It felt like she was swimming underwater, only she could breathe. 'Am I a fish?' She looked down at where her legs should have been, but saw a fin. Realization hit, 'I'm a mermaid!' She swam around and around. She could hear voices, but they sounded far away, muffled and muted. It reminded her of the way her parents' voices sounded when they fought, because when she was little, she used to hide in the bathroom when she heard them yelling, running the tap water as fast as it could come out. Their voices were muffled just by the two or three doors and many feet of hallway in between where she was hiding next to the quickly filling tub and where her mother and father were screaming at each other. But when she got in the tub and dunked her head underwater, the angry voices were even more muffled and distant sounding. These voices sounded different though, and she couldn't figure out why. Slowly, the pieces began to fall together - there were more than two voices and the voices all sounded sad, not angry. It couldn't possibly be her father and mother. They were never sad when she hid in the bathroom. Their voices were always angry. Who were these people and why were they so sad? She was perfectly happy and safe, swimming in the vast, empty ocean, all alone, content to swim through the waves, watching the sunlight sparkle on the sandy bottom of the sea. 'Nothing can hurt me as long as I'm here,' she thought as she turned somersault after somersault. Those voices were making her rather curious. She remembered when she was little, she used to bring her ears extremely close to the top of the water so she could tell when the fight was over. Those two little ears, already pierced at the age of five, would never break the surface, but they were so close they almost did everytime. Finally, curiousity got the better of her. She swam up, closer and closer to the ocean's surface, the voices becoming clearer and clearer.
"Summer? Can you hear me? It's Seth. Please wake up. Please. I can't live without you. I love you."
Another conversation was being spoken, just loud enough to hear.
"Marissa, who was this Mike guy?"
"I really think that's something for Summer to explain when she wakes up!"
At the mention of Mike, she dove back down into the depths of the sea, her heart racing...
"Should the heart monitor be doing that? It's going awfully fast!" Seth was panicking, gripping Summer's hand tightly as the monitor beeped much more rapidly than it had been since the group had entered the room.
A nurse came jogging in, checking the monitors and checking Summer's pulse for herself, "She's alright. This is actually a good thing. It's a sign that she's responding to outside stimuli, so she can or could probably hear you."
The monitor was steading out again, return to the slow, monotonous pattern that was easy to block out until it changed.
Summer Roberts confidently walked into the doors of Newport Middle School, making her way to the same locker she had had since she was in fifth grade. Now, as an eighth grader, she had finally reached the top. She was the head of this school. She smiled, noticing her two best friends leaning against their lockers which flanked hers.
"Hey Coop, Hutch," she greeted them as she took the last few steps to reach her locker. She swiftly turned the lock and scanned the pictures that remained on the door from last year. Most were of herself, Marissa and Mike at various parties and vacations.
Marissa Cooper turned to her, after taking in the rest of the hallway, "Hey Sum. So, no new guys to go for this year." Summer only half heard what Marissa was saying; she was busy intently studying a picture of herself and Mike at her last birthday party. She looked at the real thing, lounging indifferently against his locker, shaggy brown hair falling across his eyes. Frowning slightly, she swallowed the urge to tell him how she really felt about him.
Turning slowly, Mike Hutchinson looked her up and down quickly, "New outfit Roberts?" He smirked as a light blush crept into her face, "Take that as a yes. Looks good. Gotta jet." He threw her another satisfied smile before ambling down the hall toward his homeroom. She turned to Marissa, who walked backwards a few steps, "Not touching it. I gotta run too! Peterson's an ass about attendance!" She spun quickly and jogged in the same direction that Mike had strolled.
Summer sighed, before turning and leaning against her locker, banging her head against it lightly. A boy with curly brown hair walked by, stumbling slightly when his eyes caught hers. He blushed and hurried away. Summer snorted lightly, mumbling quietly, "Geek."
Today...
Seth Cohen sprinted through the hospital doors, Marissa Cooper and Ryan Atwood right behind him. He skidded to a halt in front of the information desk, "Roberts. Summer Roberts. Where?"
The receptionist smiled lightly, clicking a few buttons on the computer, "She's still in surgery. Are you a relative?"
Shaking his head and swallowing heavily, he replied, "Boyfriend." And, gesturing to the two behind him, "And best friends. I just... I just need to know how she is. Please." He gasped, trying to catch his breath. "Please!"
She looked at him calmly, before pointing toward the waiting area, "You'll have to wait over there. I'll send someone over as soon as we know anything."
He glared at her disbelievingly, throwing up his arms. Ryan grabbed one arm, guiding him toward the waiting area, "Calm down, man. You're not going to get anywhere by causing a huge scene."
"But... but she's hurt and she's alone. And I'm not with her. And she's alone," he sat down heavily in on of the hard hospital chairs, throwing his head into his hands. "And... and... I can't do anything about it." He looked up at Ryan and Marissa with tears lining his eyes, "She needs to be okay. She needs to be! I got so used to having her around. I don't know what I'd do without her."
"Seth, she'll be ok," Marissa put a hand on his shoulder. "Sum's a trooper. She's been through a lot. She'll make it through this." Tears started rolling down her cheeks, "She'll make it through this."
Just then, Summer's father walked up with a doctor. The three friends stood and Seth rushed over to meet Mr. Roberts. The two men shook hands and Seth searched Mr. Roberts' face for an answer, "How is she? Is she ok?"
Mr. Roberts sighed deeply, "She made it through surgery. The doctors were able to get the bullet out." Seth's face rose with joy, but Mr. Roberts next words broke his optimism, "But she slipped into a coma. The doctors... the doctors..." His voice broke off as he tried to finish but was overcome with emotion. Summer was his only child, and she meant the world to him, even if he never really showed that to her.
The doctor took over where Mr. Roberts left off, "We think the coma came from a combination of the shock of being shot and the depression."
A confused look crossed Seth's features, "Depression? What... depression?"
Mr. Roberts looked up quickly, "You didn't know? Summer's been suffering from depression since she was fourteen. Its varied from mild to quite severe over the past four years. She didn't... why didn't she tell you?"
"No, I didn't know," turning to Marissa, he looked questioningly at her, but didn't need to hear her answer to know the truth. Shock covered her features. Shock so deep there was no way she could have known.
"I had no idea," Marissa sat down slowly, stupefied that her best friend would not share this information with her. Seth dropped into the chair next to her, head back in his hands, trying, without success, to comprehend all the information he had just been given. Ryan stood still, staring into space, his mouth dropped slightly open. He didn't know who to comfort - Marissa was Summer's best friend and his girlfriend, but Seth was her boyfriend and his brother and best friend. He finally made the decision to just stand behind them, one hand on Marissa's shoulder, her hand gripping his tightly, and the other on Seth's, no reaction from his friend at all. The room was completely silent, except for the sound of Marissa's breath catching as she cried uncontrollably, and completely still, except for Seth's shoulders shaking as he tried to contain his tears.
Three years and nine months ago...
Summer ran up the front steps of Mike's house, ringing the doorbell before changing her mind and turning around. She only made it down two steps when the door opened.
"Roberts?"
Her face flushed and she turned around quickly, smiling uncomfortably at Mike, who was leaning against the door frame with a curious look on his face. He pushed himself lightly off the frame and walked down to stand on the same step as her, "What's up? Since when do you play ding-dong-ditch?"
She laughed nervously, wringing her hands near her stomach, "Okay, well. Since never. Umm... I came over because." She paused to take a deep breath to try to calm her nerves, "I came to tell you that I... I... I like you, okay? I really like you. Now I'm leaving before I continue to make an ass of myself."
She hurried down the rest of the steps and was twenty feet down the sidewalk before Mike started to run after her. He caught up to her quickly, as she was trying to jog away in flip flops and he was not only wearing sneakers but the captain of the junior high soccer team, grabbing her arm and spinning her around in front of him. Her face was bright red and she refused to look him in the eye.
Mike laughed lightly, "Hey Roberts? When did you get so shy?" He touched her chin, lifting it up so she had to look at him. She tried to keep looking at the ground, but he wouldn't let her, "C'mon. Roberts? Roberts?" He laughed again, "Summer?"
She looked up, smiling at little, but still blushing, "You never call me Summer."
He laughed, looking down at her with a twinkle in his eye, "Well, it is your name. And, I'm calling you that now, because I like you too. Do you wanna do something this weekend? Just us?"
A wide grin spread across her face, lighting up all of her features. She nodded, smiling even wider as he kissed her softly on the cheek. He waved lightly and turned around, jogging back to his house. She watched as he disappeared through the door before spinning around and jumping up and down. She took off her flip flops, running as fast as she could, sandals in hand, to the end of the street where Marissa lived. As she walked quickly past the house next to her best friend's, she noticed that curly haired boy dragging the garbage cans down to the sidewalk. When her eyes met his, he stumbled, dropping both garbage cans, spilling the trash all over his driveway. She rolled her eyes before hurrying down Marissa's driveway, "Geek."
Today...
Mr. Roberts, Seth, Marissa and Ryan all stood in Summer's hospital room. Seth had yet to actually look at his girlfriend - he didn't think he could handle actually seeing her lying there and not being able to do anything about it. A doctor was standing with them, explaining Summer's current condition, "Her vitals are strong, but she seems to be very deep in this coma."
Seth swallowed harshly, "When will she wake up?" His voice was barely a whisper.
The doctor looked back at Summer before answering, "At this point, that's up to her. It sounds like she was under a lot of stress, and from what her father has told me, she wasn't taking her medications for her depression the way she should have been. Plus, with everything Mr. Roberts and Marissa have filled me in about the boy who shot her, she's probably very scared and very upset. Her body will decide when its ok for her to wake up again."
Marissa couldn't take her eyes off of her best friend, "So, what can we do?"
Sighing, the doctor looked at the four people who cared about the young girl in the bed so deeply, "All you can do, is make her feel safe. Talk to her about things you know she's comfortable with. Let her know that you're here and you're going to help her." He smiled concernedly, before leaving the room.
Mr. Roberts walked slowly over to the bed his daughter was lying in, sitting down in one of the chairs next to it. He reached out for Summer's hand, grasping it lightly between both of his own. He let go with one of his hands, lightly stroking her hair, "Sweetie? It's Daddy. Can you hear me?" He sighed, a tear slowly rolling down his face, "I know I'm not always there for you baby, but I love you and I really want you to open your eyes. Please, for me?" More tears spilled out of his eyes when he got no response, and he leaned his head down on the bed, his shoulders shaking.
Seth finally tore his gaze from the floor and looked over at Summer. He walked over and stood behind Mr. Roberts, placing a hand on his shoulder. Mr. Roberts reached up with one hand, gripping Seth's tightly and crying even harder. Marissa was sobbing silently in the corner of the room, hugging herself tightly until Ryan enveloped her in his arms.
Summer lie motionless on the bed, the only indications of life being the constant beeping of the heart monitor in the background and the slow and shallow rise and fall of her chest. Her eyes moved rapidly underneath her eyelids...
She was... swimming. It felt like she was swimming underwater, only she could breathe. 'Am I a fish?' She looked down at where her legs should have been, but saw a fin. Realization hit, 'I'm a mermaid!' She swam around and around. She could hear voices, but they sounded far away, muffled and muted. It reminded her of the way her parents' voices sounded when they fought, because when she was little, she used to hide in the bathroom when she heard them yelling, running the tap water as fast as it could come out. Their voices were muffled just by the two or three doors and many feet of hallway in between where she was hiding next to the quickly filling tub and where her mother and father were screaming at each other. But when she got in the tub and dunked her head underwater, the angry voices were even more muffled and distant sounding. These voices sounded different though, and she couldn't figure out why. Slowly, the pieces began to fall together - there were more than two voices and the voices all sounded sad, not angry. It couldn't possibly be her father and mother. They were never sad when she hid in the bathroom. Their voices were always angry. Who were these people and why were they so sad? She was perfectly happy and safe, swimming in the vast, empty ocean, all alone, content to swim through the waves, watching the sunlight sparkle on the sandy bottom of the sea. 'Nothing can hurt me as long as I'm here,' she thought as she turned somersault after somersault. Those voices were making her rather curious. She remembered when she was little, she used to bring her ears extremely close to the top of the water so she could tell when the fight was over. Those two little ears, already pierced at the age of five, would never break the surface, but they were so close they almost did everytime. Finally, curiousity got the better of her. She swam up, closer and closer to the ocean's surface, the voices becoming clearer and clearer.
"Summer? Can you hear me? It's Seth. Please wake up. Please. I can't live without you. I love you."
Another conversation was being spoken, just loud enough to hear.
"Marissa, who was this Mike guy?"
"I really think that's something for Summer to explain when she wakes up!"
At the mention of Mike, she dove back down into the depths of the sea, her heart racing...
"Should the heart monitor be doing that? It's going awfully fast!" Seth was panicking, gripping Summer's hand tightly as the monitor beeped much more rapidly than it had been since the group had entered the room.
A nurse came jogging in, checking the monitors and checking Summer's pulse for herself, "She's alright. This is actually a good thing. It's a sign that she's responding to outside stimuli, so she can or could probably hear you."
The monitor was steading out again, return to the slow, monotonous pattern that was easy to block out until it changed.