A/N: I hope no one is too disappointed that this isn't Seth/Ryan. I didn't really mean to fool people, it just took so long to get Ryan & Kirsten into the car together! Also, I realize Hotel California isn't on the same album as Desperado - creative license. And my name isn't Josh Schwartz - as a result, I don't own anything to do with OC.

As Ryan and Kirsten walked to the car, Kirsten asked, "Are you sure you don't want to drive first?"

"No, that's OK, Kirsten. You can. Unless you don't want to…"

"No, I don't mind. I just wanted to be sure you were OK with it..."

"Yeah, go ahead. You drive first."

They both got into the car and they were underway. Once they got onto the highway, Ryan pulled the envelope out of his pocket. "What do you think this is?"

"Who knows with Seth. I guess the only way to find out is to open it."

Ryan opened it up and pulled out a stack of index cards and a note. He read the note out loud. "Hi guys, I didn't want a perfectly good road trip wasted on you two sitting there the whole time in silence. So I've given you some good topics for discussion, as well as some things to do along the way. Enjoy!"

"He's crazy, right? Only Seth can monopolize the conversation even when he's not here."

"It might be fun?" Kirsten said. Ryan looked at her. She looked like she wanted to try Seth's game. He guessed it couldn't hurt to try. They didn't have to do everything he said.

"OK, here's the first index card. Your first topic is an easy one. Discuss me! I'm sure there's lots of things you guys can say about me so I'll limit you to an hour. So after an hour you have to stop talking about me. It'll be hard, but I have so much more planned for you." Ryan looked incredulous. "He's not serious, is he?"

Kirsten laughed. "Of course he is. Seth Cohen is his favourite thing to talk about so he'd assume it was everyone's favourite subject. And it is something we have in common?"

Ryan was dubious. "I guess."

Kirsten was getting into this game. "Let's start with something we like about him."

Ryan didn't want to disappoint her. "OK. You go first."

"What I like about Seth is how open he is. He doesn't know how to hide what he's feeling. Whether he's happy, sad, mad, he'll let you know what's going on with him." Kirsten laughed. "Sometimes it's more than you want to know, but he'll always tell you. Your turn. What do you like about Seth?"

Ryan thought for a minute. What did he like about Seth? He said, "I like how he can distract me from myself."

Kirsten glanced at Ryan. "What do you mean?"

Oh. He had to explain it? Did he want to tell Kirsten how Seth's babble could keep him from going too far into his head when he had too much on his mind? "I don't know. I mean, I like how he's always joking, making me laugh."

Kirsten just nodded, but didn't say anything. She didn't think that's what he meant the first time, but she didn't want to push him. They had a long drive ahead of them and she preferred to do it with a Ryan that was talking to her. "OK. How about something we don't like about him?"

Ryan looked at her and smiled. "Hey, you're his mother. There's not supposed to be anything about him you don't like."

Kirsten smiled back. "I always have to love him. I don't always have to like him."

"Ouch. OK, tell me, what don't you like about your own son?"

Kirsten laughed. "If you put it that way, maybe we had just better move on."

"Good idea. I'll check the next card to see what we're supposed to do next." Ryan pulled the stack of index cards out and read the next one, "Hey, that wasn't an hour yet. I bet you're not even at Long Beach yet." Ryan looked up just as they were passing a sign that read 'Long Beach: 10 mi'. "How did he do that? Keep talking about me!"

"He certainly is persistent," Kirsten said.

"Does that fall under the like or don't like qualities?" Ryan teased.

"Depends on the situation," Kirsten replied, and they both laughed.

"Tell me about when he was little," Ryan suggested. "Any embarrassing stories you can think of."

So Kirsten started telling Ryan stories about when they lived in Berkeley. Like the time Seth decided to run away, but he knew he wasn't allowed to cross the street without a parent, so he just kept walking around the block until he got tired and came home again. And how on his third birthday he got a shiny red tricycle and he rode it up and down the hallway in their house, singing at the top of his lungs "Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday Dear Me! Happy Birthday to ME!"

After they finished laughing about the time Seth tried to flush all his socks down the toilet, Kirsten suggested they look at the next card. "Because knowing Seth," she said, "there's probably at least one more card in there that suggests we discuss him and we don't want to use up all our stories."

Ryan pulled out the stack of cards and read the next one. "Knowing you two, you've been driving for over an hour now and there's been no music playing." Ryan looked at Kirsten. "I think he knows us too well. Whoever is in the passenger seat gets to pick out a CD to listen to. Yeah, I know, neither one of you thought to even bring CDs. That's why I had my lowly minion (read Dad) stock the vehicle with CDs."

Kirsten interrupted, "God, I hope we aren't subjected to Sandy's choices."

Ryan laughed and kept reading. "Don't worry. I gave him explicit instructions about which CDs to include. Check behind the seat. And pick something you want to hear. The other person will get a chance later. Feel free to talk about anything you want, or just listen to the music. See, I'm not all controlling in this game."

Ryan reached behind the seat and got the CD holder out. He wondered what CDs Seth included. He started flipping through them. He realized some of them were his, from the pool house. When did Sandy get them? He started trying to decide. Journey was a possibility. It was an 80s band, so Kirsten might enjoy them. He had no idea what type of music Kirsten liked. Outkast? No, definitely not. He was pretty sure they weren't Kirsten's type of music. Eagles Greatest Hits? He liked The Eagles, but that wasn't his CD. That must mean Kirsten liked them too. OK, The Eagles it was. He slipped the CD out and popped it in.

Kirsten looked at Ryan while he chose a CD. She had enjoyed sharing her silly Seth stories with him but it made her think. Who knew all the silly Ryan stories? Sure, they had accumulated a few since he came to live with them, but all of his cute little boy stories? Dawn had those, if she even remembered any. It made Kirsten realize how lonely it must be, to have no one around who shared your history, who knew anything about you.

As the sound of Desperado came out of the stereo, Kirsten looked at Ryan and accused, "You cheated!"

Ryan feigned being hurt at the accusation. "What do you mean?"

"Seth said pick something you like. I'm pretty sure this is my CD."

Ryan looked sheepish. "I know. But I do like The Eagles."

"Really? Where did you learn to like The Eagles?"

Ryan hesitated before saying, "My dad listened to them all the time. On Saturday mornings, we'd get up and Dad would have the stereo on while he was working around the house." Ryan smiled at the memory. "I'd follow him around, hand him the tools he needed."

Kirsten smiled too. Ryan never revealed much about his childhood and Kirsten was relieved to know he had some happy memories.

Hotel California came on. "Oh, I love this song," Kirsten exclaimed as she turned it up. As the words started, Kirsten started singing along softly. "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…" Once she got to the chorus, she got louder. "Welcome to the Hotel California..."

After the song ended, Ryan started to laugh.

"What?"

"I've never heard you sing before. You don't strike me as the singing type."

"Shows what you know," Kirsten replied. "I used to sing with a friend at Open Mike nights when I was in college. Well, she was the singer and guitar player, I just joined her once in a while."

"Does Seth know that?! He'd have a field day with that knowledge."

"Yeah, he would, wouldn't he?"

Then Peaceful Easy Feeling came on and Kirsten started singing again. Ryan stared out the window and listened to her, singing along under his breath. Kirsten realized Ryan was singing too, but she didn't say anything. He had a nice baritone and didn't want to embarrass him into stopping.

When the CD ended, Ryan sighed. "I guess that means it's time for a new Seth card."

"It hasn't been too bad, has it?" Kirsten asked. She was actually enjoying Seth's "tasks".

"Not so far," Ryan agreed. "I'm just nervous each time we have to read a new one. Who knows what his mind can come up with?

Ryan pulled out the next card. "Time for a game. It's called 'The Geography Game'. Driver starts by naming a place, say 'Newport'. Then the passenger has to name a place that starts with the last letter, in this case 'T'. Keep going until someone can't think of a new place."

Kirsten looked expectantly at Ryan. "What do you think?"

"I don't know. I don't really do games."

"Oh." Kirsten looked disappointed.

"No, we'll play," Ryan said.

"Not if you don't want to, Ryan."

Ryan gave Kirsten a half-smile. "It's not like I have anything else to do."

It turned out that Kirsten and Ryan were both quite competitive. They each tried to come up with the most obscure places they could think of, challenging the other to ask, "Where's that?" or exclaim "That's not a place."

Finally Ryan got an H and said, "Halifax."

Kirsten looked at him and said, "Where?"

"It's a place up in Canada."

"And you know this how?"

"We read Longfellow's Evangeline in English class. It's a poem about this girl who was exiled from Nova Scotia. Halifax is in Nova Scotia." Ryan smirked. "That gives you an X."

"X? There's nowhere that starts with X."

"You give up? That means I win."

"No, you don't win. It's not that I couldn't think of a place. There's just no place that starts with X. You cheated." Kirsten laughed.

"Face it, Kirsten. I won."

"I'm not admitting anything. But if it makes you feel better to pretend you won and didn't cheat, then I'll leave you to your delusions."

Ryan laughed and shook his head. "All right. How about I check the next card?" He pulled it out. "It must be almost time for lunch. You have a break until after lunch."

Ryan checked his watch. "He's right. It is about that time. Should we look for a place to stop?"

"Good idea. Next exit, we'll stop for lunch and stretch our legs."

TBC