Author's Note: I know it took long to update, but hey, it was the weekend. I'll try to make the next update sooner, especially since this chapter's kind of short. Thanks for all the reviews- ha! I'm so amazed that my story makes people like Ryan/Theresa, yess!! Keep reviewing please!
Oh and for Josh, I still don't own The O.C.

Seth looks over to Summer who has now been wandering back and forth through the ICU since Marissa woke up. Well, that would be using the term "woke up" very loosely. Her eyes opened, revealing her pupils no longer dilated, and she moved slightly, as if snuggling into the hospital bed. But that was it. She didn't frown and say "Where am I?", she didn't scream calling out for more drugs, she hadn't wept and begged for her family, she hadn't even changed the direction of her gaze. She stared directly in front of her, and if not for the monitor that displaying the beatings of her heart and the constant rise and fall of her chest, Seth would say that she was dead.

He didn't know if Marissa could tell if he was in the room or not, because she hadn't so much as turned her head in his direction. And though she never reacted to any of the sounds in the room- door opening, closing, chairs moving, people whispering, doctor talking- Seth kept very, very quiet. It was both awkward and unusual to him to be there so quiet. He detested silence, it was the sound that followed him through his youth as an only child. Making up for that fact, he talked the equivalent amount of a full family. Yet now, he was silent. Top lip pressing forcefully on his bottom lip in a fruitful attempt not to make a sound.

The odd thing about the scene, a once beautiful Newport socialite lying in nothing but a hospital gown attached to two IVs and several monitors and a once social outcast Newport geek sitting by her bedside staring at her, was that Seth didn't even like Marissa.

For sixteen years they had lived next door to each other and other than play dates set up by their parents, they made no contact. Seth was in love with her best friend, and trying to use his address to his advantage he made numerous pleas to Marissa in hopes that she would befriend him and introduce him to Summer. But she never did. She was too busy being the most popular girl in school, going to house parties, getting drunk, being Luke's girlfriend, rejecting the loser girls that sucked up to her, in other words being herself.

And then there was Ryan. The first time in his life that Seth not only had a friend and a best friend, it was like magic. Seth didn't want to admit it but he had been waiting all his life for something like Ryan to happen. Someone who would appreciate his X-box and the multitude of games he had. Someone to tell when he read an exciting part of a comic book. Someone who could keep his secret about the name of his boat. Ryan was everything. In his own quiet, serious, experienced manner, he was the perfect Yin to Seth's babbling, goofy, innocent Yang.

But then Ryan ended up with Marissa.

He wasn't jealous of his brother's girlfriend. Yeah, right. He was not only jealous but annoyed and hurt. Then he was just plain pissed off when Ryan got in trouble for Marissa's mistake of liking Oliver. And then he was overwhelmed when Ryan left for Chino. And now he was annoyed at Marissa for being stupid enough to OD, for being a bad friend to Summer and for ruining his New York vacation.

He didn't mean to think of every negative feeling he had towards her but after almost four hours of sitting in the hospital, holding Summer as she sobbed, calling Julie Cooper, Seth was too worn out to look for a silver lining.

XXX

Theresa shook her head. She was in jeans and a wife beater. The latter was Ryan's. After a long discussion with Kirsten, the doctor finally agreed that Theresa was well enough to leave the hospital. And though, Kirsten was elated with the thought of Theresa getting better, she worried for her safety with her cousin. But Eva had promised both Kirsten and Theresa that she had taken care of the problem with Damon and they now officially had a restraining order against him. And while Kirsten glared at Eva, Theresa didn't really care. At least she was getting out of the hospital.

It was Kirsten that announced it, walking into Theresa room, just as Ryan was lifting her from the wheelchair to the bed. It was out of habit and not will that Ryan stepped out of the room when Kirsten asked Theresa if they could talk. It wasn't out of habit but out of his own will that Ryan leaned against the doorway, wanting to see Theresa as soon as the door opened. And it was out of too many years of watching Ryan walk out of her room, that Theresa knew that he would come back in as soon as the parent left. And of course, he did.

He stood with his armed propped up on the doorframe, leaning into the room, watching her. And as the tradition went on, he didn't step a foot back into the room until she looked up, nodded and gave a little smile.

Despite the army of nurses available, as well as Kirsten and Eva, it was Ryan who stayed nearby while Theresa changed back into civilian clothing. He brought the bag Eva had brought and handed her pieces of clothing one by one. And it was him she asked a shirt from when she realized that all the clothing Eva had brought would not accommodate the cast on her wrist. Taking the only wife beater out of the backpack he brought from Newport, he slid it over her head and laughed as he noticed how large it was for her.

Now, he was pushing her wheelchair down the hall towards the exit of the hospital. And all she wanted to do was stand up and kiss him.

But she couldn't stand. So, she did the next best thing. Her head leaned over a shoulder, her arm snaked up and grabbed him by the collar, tugging him down gently until they were looking eye to eye. She didn't have to say anything and he wasn't confused, just mildly surprised and dare she say, happy? And right there, in front of Kirsten and Eva and nurses and doctors, their lips met and sunlight found its way into their hearts again.

But that isn't what happened. For Theresa was too scared to reach up to Ryan for a kiss like that. And Ryan was too damn respectful of her to kiss her unless he knew it was absolutely right. So he kept pushing her wheelchair and she kept listening to her heart break.