Title: Alternate Thanksgiving

Summary: What if someone else had gone with Ryan to visit his brother in prison in Thanksgiving instead of Marissa?

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C..

On Thanksgiving, after "talking" to Marissa in the pool house, Ryan grabbed Seth's Legion comic book and headed into the kitchen. Sandy, Kirsten, and Seth were in there.

He told them, "OK. So. I'm going to take off."

"Hey." Sandy walked over to meet him, taking his cell phone out of his pocket. "Just in case, why don't you take this?"

Ryan nodded as he took Sandy's cell phone and put it into his pocket.

Sandy asked Ryan, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah... yeah."

Kirsten asked, "Do you want anyone to go with you?"

Of course he wanted someone to go with him. He didn't want to do this alone. He didn't want to walk into that prison by himself and see his brother in an orange jumpsuit, surrounded by barbed wire, just like his father was the last time Ryan saw him.

But Ryan didn't want anyone here in his new life in Newport to meet his brother, or see Chino, or learn anything about his old life there. Marissa had wanted to go and Seth had offered, but there was no way that he'd let either one of them go. Or Kirsten, either.

The only other option was Sandy. Now that was a possibility. Sandy was already familiar with seeing people in jail all the time, so he wouldn't be shocked. And in fact Sandy had already been to Ryan's old neighborhood and seen his old house.

Sandy caught Ryan sneaking a look at him after Kirsten asked him if he wanted someone to go with him. Sandy knew Ryan well enough by now that he knew that even if Ryan wanted Sandy to go, he'd never say so. He'd never ask. So Sandy had to read Ryan's body language, and it was telling him that he wanted Sandy to go.

So Sandy clapped Ryan on the back. "I'll go. Let's go."

Sandy steered Ryan towards the front door. He knew that if he gave Ryan the chance to say 'no' that he would, so he didn't give him the chance. Sandy knew that Kirsten had wanted to give Ryan an apple pie to give to Trey, but he didn't want to wait even a few seconds to give Ryan a chance to back out. So they went without it.

As they walked out the front door, Ryan took a long look at Sandy. Ryan knew what Sandy was doing. And strangely, he was grateful that Sandy wasn't giving him the choice. Of course, he could never tell Sandy that. It wasn't cool for a 16-year-old kid to want his "Dad" to come with him.

As they got into the BMW, Sandy said to Ryan, "Why don't you let me have my phone back?"

Ryan gave him a little smile and handed Sandy his cell phone.

When they arrived at Chino prison, Sandy took care of everything to check them in. As they were about to head in to the visiting area on the roof, Ryan suddenly had second thoughts about Sandy meeting Trey.

"Why don't you stay here? I can go in and visit Trey by myself."

But Sandy wouldn't hear of it. "I want to meet your brother."

So the two of them went in. They walked through all the gates as the guards opened them for them. After they went through the last gate into the visiting area, Ryan took the lead and looked for Trey. He spotted him sitting by himself at one of the picnic tables, and headed over there.

As they approached, Trey stood up. Sandy was watching Trey as he spotted Sandy walking in with Ryan. Trey then looked at Ryan. It looked like he was angry.

When they reached him, Trey said, "Hey, little brother."

"Hey." Then Ryan turned towards Sandy. "This is Sandy. He's my lawyer, and my guardian."

Trey nodded at Sandy. Sandy stepped forward and shook Trey's hand. "Sandy Cohen."

Trey looked uncomfortable. He looked back at Ryan. They stood there uncomfortable for a moment. Then Trey hugged Ryan. "Good to see you, man."

After the hug, they stood awkwardly again. Ryan glanced at Sandy. Sandy took the hint and moved off. "You guys talk. I'll be over here."

Ryan nodded. Sandy moved over to the next picnic table and sat down. He watched Ryan turn back to Trey and then sit down with Trey at Trey's table. Ryan handed his brother the comic book.

Sandy watched the Atwood brothers talk. Trey seemed very upset at Ryan about something, and Ryan was being defensive. The two of them looked over at Sandy several times, and Trey gestured in his direction. Sandy could guess that Trey wasn't very happy that Ryan had brought his guardian along.

Pretty quickly, Ryan and Trey's conversation turned into an argument. Sandy still couldn't hear what they were saying, because they were talking in low voices. But they were definitely angry. Suddenly, Ryan got up and yelled at Trey.

"You know what, bro, fuck you." Ryan turned and started to walk away. He stopped and turned back and yelled, "And don't ever call me again."

Ryan started to storm out. Sandy got up quickly to catch up with him. When they got to the gate and had to wait for the guard to open it, Sandy took a look back at Trey. He was furious.

When Ryan and Sandy got to the car, Sandy put his hand on Ryan's shoulder and stopped him from getting in. "What was that all about?"

Ryan leaned back against the car. He crossed his arms and looked down. He didn't say anything.

"I know it had something to do with me being there. Come on, Ryan, talk to me."

Ryan looked up at Sandy. He took a deep breath. "Trey was going to ask me to do a favor for him, but couldn't since you were there."

"What favor?"

"He wouldn't say."

"But it was probably illegal, right?"

Ryan looked away.

Sandy now knew why Ryan wanted him to come along. He knew that Trey would ask him for a favor, something illegal, something that Ryan shouldn't do. But Ryan knew himself. He knew that he couldn't refuse to help his brother. So Ryan wanted Sandy there to stop him.

Sandy smiled. Ryan was growing up. Sandy put his arm around Ryan. "Let's go home."

The End.