Thanks for all the great reviews. As usual, I don't own the OC or any of its characters. It all belongs to Fox and Josh Schwartz.
Ryan and Seth were camped out in the family room, playing video games when Sandy walked in, a solemn expression on his face. He sat down on the coffee table, blocking the boys' view of the screen. Seth opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he saw the look on his father's face. Besides, Sandy hadn't commented on the fact that Seth was grounded and shouldn't be playing on the Playstation. He didn't want to remind him.
"Listen guys, your mom needs a break from the baby."
"When are you going to hire a Nanny?" Seth asked.
"We've interviewed over two dozen. Kirsten didn't like any," Sandy said with a sigh. "The thing is, I want to take her out for dinner and a movie. She won't trust a babysitter, so I need the two of you to watch the baby."
Seth and Ryan looked at each other briefly, before turning back to Sandy. Between the two of them, they had changed maybe five diapers in the four months that Christina was alive. Ryan was more adept at the bottle-feeding, but Kirsten didn't ask for help too often. Could they do it?
"I'm not really asking. I'm telling you," Sandy said. His voice brooked no argument. "Tomorrow at seven, make sure you're home." Sandy stood, smoothing out the wrinkles in his slacks. "And Seth, put down the game controller. I didn't forget you were grounded."
Seth put it down, making a face at his father's back. "Finally wakes up and realizes that we're alive and it's to turn us into domestic help."
"It won't be too bad," Ryan insisted, though his voice was unconvincing. "Maybe she'll sleep most of the time."
"She always cries through dinner."
"Maybe she'll do us a favor."
"Maybe for you. But Hope doesn't like me much."
Ryan didn't argue.
The next evening, Kirsten was just as dubious that the boys could handle the baby themselves. But Sandy was firm. He practically dressed Kirsten and applied her makeup until she realized her husband wouldn't relent. So she took the make-up brush from him, so at the very least she wouldn't look like a scarecrow when she left the house.
Ryan and Seth only half listened to Kirsten's laundry list of instructions. They hoped between the two of them, they'd catch everything.
"And if you need anything, just call us on the cell."
"In case of emergency," Sandy amended.
"Okay. Enjoy," Ryan said, holding open the front door.
"Don't worry," Seth said. "Hope is in capable hands. Marissa and Summer said they'd come over."
Seth was only joking, but his parents thought he was serious.
"No friends. Not even the girls."
"Jeez. I was just joshing."
"If you weren't," Sandy said, "Go call and cancel. The four of you get together and you're liable to forget all about your sister."
"We got it," said Ryan. "No girls. No fun. Just watch the baby like a hawk. Will do. Just go," he said impatiently.
"If you lose her pacifier, I have one just like it in the top drawer of her dresser. You know she only takes a certain type of nipple."
"Mom don't say nipple."
Kirsten rolled her eyes. "She'll get hungry in the next hour or so."
"Okay," Seth said with a salute, some of his old personality emerging. He took the door from Ryan and started to close it on his parents.
"One more thing," Kirsten said, stopping the door with her hand. "There's a bottle of breast milk in the fridge, but if she's hungry, you can make a formula bottle. One scoop to two ounces of water."
"Formula bottle, check," said Ryan.
"Her pediatrician's number is on the fridge."
"Okay," Sandy said, pulling Kirsten behind him. "They'll be fine."
"Dandy," Seth said. "Hope is in our capable hands."
Finally, they were able to shut the door, leaving their parents on the other side. Ryan and Seth leaned against the door, breathing deeply, trying to recover from Kirsten's barrage of instructions. They turned to each other, rolling their eyes and burst into a fit of giggles.
Ryan was thrilled. It had been weeks since he had seen Seth react to anything with humor. Perhaps Mitch wasn't affecting Seth as much as he feared. Perhaps the old Seth would slowly return to them.
Ryan was about to open his mouth and say something when Christina started to cry.
"I'll flip you for it," Seth said, taking a coin from his pocket. "Heads you get her. Tales, I stay here."
"Do I have stupid tattooed to my face?"
"I had to try."
"I'll get her, but you get the first diaper."
"I don't do diapers."
"You do now."
With a bounce, Ryan jumped off the door and started for the nursery. Seth followed.
"Hey squirt," Ryan said gently lifting Christina out of her crib. "Your big brothers are here. No need to cry."
He cradled her in his arms and swayed back and forth, hoping it would calm her down. But Christina persisted to cry. Ryan tried her pacifier, but she pushed it out of her mouth. He held her over his shoulder and patted her on the back, but it didn't work. He offered her a bottle, but Christina would not stop crying. No wonder Kirsten always looked haggard, thought Ryan, it was practically impossible to console the baby.
"I have an idea."
Seth ran out of the room and brought in a portable CD player. He stuck in a CD and lowered the volume before hitting the play button. Suddenly, Rooney's I'm Shakin pulsed in the room. Seth stretched out his hands and Ryan gave her over gratefully.
"Just move with the music," Seth explained as he gyrated to the beat of the song. He held the baby over his shoulder, supporting her head, as his mother had instructed a million times in her many baby lessons.
"She likes Rooney?" Ryan asked with raised brows.
"Actually, she prefers the Sex Pistols and Clash, but I happened to have stuck this song on when burning the CD."
Ryan shook his head in disbelief. But suddenly, Christina Hope's cries started to subside.
"I thought she didn't like you."
"She's like all the girls," Seth said. "She only likes me in private. Lately, I go into her room when everyone's sleeping. Sometimes I hear her start to whimper, but Mom hasn't woken up yet. Anyway, I started to play her my music and she likes it. It calms her down."
"I see."
"You try," Seth said.
"I don't dance."
"You waltzed."
"That was when I first moved here and I was still insecure about my place here."
"This is for your baby sister."
"Okay," Ryan said, caving in. He took the baby from Seth, admiring her downy skin and wide blue eyes. When Ryan peered into her face, she smiled and as he danced to the next song on the CD she gurgled with delight.
Seth watched, a pit sinking in his stomach. He had been the one to find the key to calming Hope, but it was Ryan she really loved. In all the time he spend with her, she never once smiled or cooed in his presence.
The phone rang and Seth grabbed the cordless that was lying around the nursery.
"Hey dude. How are you doing?" Seth waved at Ryan and left the room for some privacy. Five minutes later, he returned to the nursery and told Ryan he was leaving.
"You can't leave. You have to help me babysit."
"Mitch said there was a Rave tonight. I want to go check it out."
"You're grounded."
"They won't even know I'm gone."
"They're not exactly party animals lately. They'll be home by ten. A Rave won't get under way until midnight."
"I'm not asking you Ryan. I'm just telling you. Hope doesn't like me much. She prefers you. You'll be fine. Call Marissa. I'm sure she'd love to come over."
Seth ran out of the nursery and into his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. The sound set off Christina and she starting crying again. Ryan put on another CD and danced with her until he could calm her down. As soon as she was settled, he put her down into her crib and went to convince Seth to stay and not risk his parents' wrath.
"Come on Seth," Ryan said as he adjusted his open shirt. "You're not making any sense."
"I just want to get out. What's there to get?" Seth was pawing through his closet, taking out a shirt or pants, studying it for a minute and throwing it on his bed when he decided it wasn't right. "You think I can borrow one of your wife beaters? Maybe a muscle shirt?"
"You don't have any muscles, Seth. Besides, I'm not going to help you with this madness. Your parents are going to freak when they find out you went out tonight."
Seth shook his head with disgust. "They're your parents too." He took out a navy corduroy shirt and considered for a minute. "What's up with that? You were there too last June when the judge signed the papers and said you were officially a Cohen now."
"It was just a slip of the tongue," Ryan said nervously. "I'm so used to saying your mom and your dad. They've only been my parents for a year out of my seventeen. But you're changing the subject."
"Whatever. Don't know how to convince you that you're a Cohen. Have been since Dad brought you home."
"Seth, it was just a slip of the tongue." Ryan turned as Seth started to pull his tee shirt over his head.
"Freudian slip."
"Can you just shut up about this? It's getting old. I love Sandy and Kirsten. They're my parents. You and Christina are my brother and sister. I'm a Cohen. Okay?'
"Yeah. Whatever." Seth finished buttoning his shirt, smoothed down his hair in front of the mirror and said, "I'm out of here." He grabbed his skateboard and bounded down the steps.
Ryan watched helplessly as Seth skated down the driveway. When Seth was just a speck in the distance, he went back into the house and heard Christina crying again. Before going up to the nursery, he grabbed one of the bottles out of the fridge and put it in a bowl of boiling water. He carefully carried Christina down the stairs and tried to feed her, but she kept spitting it out. Ryan sighed in frustration. He didn't have the patience to do this alone. Maybe he would call Marissa.
The Rave was in full swing when Mitch pulled the car into a makeshift parking lot. It was actually a field of grass with cars parked willy-nilly. Seth followed Mitch in, trying to look nonchalant while taking in his surroundings. The music pulsed through the room, so that Seth could feel his heart beating in his throat. The room was dimly lit, dotted with the glowing end of cigarettes and joints, and crowded with wall-to-wall people.
Though he tried to keep close to Mitch, it was difficult in the crowd. Suddenly, a girl dressed in a tight jeans and a tank top that didn't even try and cover her midriff, had him pinned to a wall.
"Hey handsome." She seductively put a finger between two of his buttons, looking for some chest hairs to curl around her finger.
"Um — hi." Seth swallowed hard.
She flipped her long blonde hair out of her eyes. "How about a drink?" she asked.
"I – I'm not thirsty," he stammered. If Summer saw him, she would have one of her rage blackouts. And as Seth let this strange girl fondle him, he realized he didn't want to cheat on Summer. Despite everything that was going on, he didn't want to ruin what he had with the best thing that had ever happened to him.
"I'm thirsty," said the girl.
With his realization, the confidence that had turned his legs to jelly returned. He pushed the girl's hand out from his shirt and said, "I have a girlfriend."
But she didn't take no for an answer. She pulled his hand and put it on her waist, guiding it to her ass. "Is she here?" She asked looking around.
"No."
"Then what's the problem?"
For a moment, just a moment, Seth was tempted. But then a vision of Summer and her sleek black hair, and her dazzling smile and her sexy curves shot before his eyes and Seth knew he could resist. His eyes darted around the dark room, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mitch, but his friend was nowhere to seen.
He pulled his hand off the girl's rear end and out from under her clutches. "Your offer is — sweet, but no thanks. Like I said, I have a girlfriend."
He skirted around the girl and pushed through the crowd, trying to find Mitch again. He darted around couples, dancing pelvis to pelvis and some who were just standing in middle of the room entwined as one, before he finally saw Mitch's red hair bent over – Seth thought it was a girl, but it turned out it was a line of coke. His friend held one nostril close while holding a straw to the other and snorted the white powder up his nose.
"Seth! Man, good to see you. Want to try some?" Mitch asked, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.
Seth shook his head.
"Coke not your style?" Mitch held out a Ziplock™ bag full of white tablets. "How about some X.?"
Seth didn't want any, but then he remembered how the marijuana had made him feel. Relaxed. Empty. In control. He looked at Mitch and said, "Do you have a joint?"