Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing related to the O.C. to my great and total distress. I bow down to you oh might Josh Schwartz, and thank you for blessing us with the best show ever!

Readers Note: this part's kind of short...sorry about that. Thanks for all the reviews you guys, they're really appreciated. I promise the next chapter will be longer. Enjoy! Also all you R/M fans, I love them as much as you do, so keep reading and I promise to try and make it end all happy! Okay and on with the story....

Ryan consulted the doorman before he headed out. There were two hotels on both sides of theirs and he wanted to get to Marissa as soon as possible. After all he had seen what she could do when she was really upset. The doorman thought that she had headed to the hotel to the right, so that's where Ryan headed. He was starting to get nervous and he broke into a run. Summer's words kept ringing through his head. He had to find her. Ryan felt relief rush over him when he saw Marissa slumped over the bar.
"Hi Ryan," she slurred as he walked over to her
"What are you doing Marissa?"
"Drinking," she said simply
"Oh," Ryan said not wanting to make trouble, "let's go back to our hotel now," Ryan said and touched her lightly on the shoulder. Ryan watched in horror as she shrunk back from his touch.
"Don't touch me. You might hurt me" Marissa said, "I'll go alone. Besides you're going to leave me. Again."
"Okay," Ryan said uncertainly. Marissa got up and promptly fell. Ryan rolled his eyes and picked her up despite her arguments. Finally she was silent enough that he could carry her. He would have called Seth and Summer to tell them that he had found her, but Marissa was dead weight in his hand no matter how strong Ryan was and how tiny Marissa was, she was still heavy. He carried her, even though people gave him odd looks. He realized that it might look kind of odd, but at this point he really didn't care.
Ryan was surprised to find that the doorman and the hotel workers didn't say anything as he got in the elevator. Ryan breathed a sigh of relief as he walked into the empty elevator. He slid down against the wall and laid Marissa down, as she had fallen asleep at some point while he was carrying her. The two of them ride up towards their room where Ryan then puts Marissa to bed and settles in for his next task. Talking to Teresa. He took his phone out onto the balcony and sighed before speed dialing the number. The phone rang twice before Teresa answered.
"hey," Ryan said when she answered
"Ryan, where are you?" Teresa demanded. Ryan bit back a sigh, he should have expected this. After all Teresa handled her problems in a very different way then Marissa did, she got all defensive, Ryan wasn't sure which he liked better. But that fact that Marissa was silent and okay, well at the moment he thought he liked that better.
"I'm still at the hotel. Listen Teresa..." he started to say but she cut him off. Ryan's hand clenched into a fist, Teresa was getting on his every last nerve.
"I know that Seth already called, but why?" Teresa asked still in a defensive tone
"Because I lost Marissa," he said quietly. Ryan knew that bringing up Marissa with Teresa now was probably not the best thing to do. But he figured he at least owed her the truth.
"Oh so now why the hell couldn't you just let Seth and Summer find her? Huh Ryan?" Teresa said quickly without taking a breath, Ryan didn't say anything he knew she wasn't finished. "I needed you, she's just some rich spoiled brat who didn't need your help. You could never resist a damsel in distress. Now get on a plane, I need you more then she does!"
"Teresa," Ryan warned trying to keep and even tone. Teresa had been on his case about Marissa recently but he had blamed it on pregnancy hormones, now he wasn't sure what to think.
"Don't interrupt me!" Teresa practically screamed and before Ryan could say anything he heard her take deep breaths "listen I'm sorry, could you just come home please?" she pleaded. And even though Ryan knew that she was apologizing in her own way, he couldn't help it if his blood boiled.
"Where's home?" he challenged before he could stop himself. He regretted it almost as soon as he said it. It was something he had to figure out for himself. He didn't really want to know what Teresa had to say. So he quickly said "Never mind. I'll be there as soon as I help Marissa. Okay. Bye." Ryan said and without waiting for an answer he hung up. He sat down on one of the chairs and closed his eye. He didn't know when he drifted off to sleep but the next thing he knew Marissa was standing in the doorway looking at him.
"Uh hey," Marissa said uncomfortably "I um just wanted to say thanks for uh everything"
"It's was fine, but Marissa we need to talk" Ryan said bring up an untouched subject. He felt nervous bringing it up. But Ryan decided that he had to at least do it before he left. Although to be truthful he wasn't quite sure when he was going home.
"No...no...no..." Marissa said slowly backing out of the room. "I'm going to Seth and Summer's room. Um and Seth asked me to ask when you're going home," Marissa said suddenly stopping. Marisa realized that she too was waiting for this answer. Ryan on the other hand was focused on the last word she had said. HOME. He couldn't figure out why everyone assumed that Chino was his home. He remembered seeing a saying on a pillow once "home is where the heart is" and well his heart was definitely not in Chino, it was in Newport.
"I-I-I don't really know yet," Ryan finally spit out and Marissa nodded.
"Okay then I'm going to go," Marissa said and hurried out of the room.
"Wait!" Ryan called and jumped up and ran after her. He caught up with her. "Listen will you promise me that we can talk sometime during this trip? Please Marissa," he pleaded. Marissa looked at him for a long time and finally sighed loudly and nodded.
"Okay," she said and smiled. "Come on let's go visit them, and then we should go. Oh my god, I'm so excited!" she practically squealed. Ryan nodded and with a grin he chased Marissa down the hall to Seth and Summer. He pinned her to the wall and tickled her. They weren't quite sure how it happened but it wasn't really either of their faults, but they kissed. It was a long kiss and when they finally broke up for air, they were surprised to see a few people looking at them. Among those people were a very amused Seth and Summer.
"Nice going man," Seth said as everyone except for them left. Ryan, who was still in shock, just nodded. He wasn't sure if kissing Marissa was a good idea. He wondered if it had given her the wrong idea, he wondered if it had given him the wrong idea. He's not sure what that kiss meant. Because it wasn't a kiss that told him that he still loved Marissa, he already knew that. But something inside he told him that something had changed between Marissa and him, but he wasn't quite sure what.
"Yeah," Ryan said and followed Seth inside. Marissa and Summer were whispering together as they sat on the couch. Ryan had a feeling they were taking about him. It made him feel very nervous. But then Marissa turned towards him and smiled, and well Ryan figured out they could work out the details later. Maybe this trip was going to be all right after all.
They ordered room service and sat down to eat. They discussed what they wanted to do today using the guidebooks that Julie had sent with Marissa. They decided that they would spend the day at the Magic Kingdom. Seth, Summer, and Marissa all seemed pretty excited and they had already been there, so Ryan couldn't help feeling just the tiniest bit excited. Oh forget it, Ryan finally thought, who was he kidding? He was excited! Not that he was going to let anyone see that of course. It could ruin his bad boy reputation to be excited about going to an amusement park. As they walked out of the hotel room, Seth pulled Ryan back, so the two of them were walking side by side. Ryan turned to Seth and raised an eyebrow up ever so slightly.
"What are you doing, man?" Ryan asked in a low voice.
"Listen try and act a little bit excited, for Marissa" Seth said in the same low voice.
"Why? You, Marissa and Summer have enough excitement for a truckload of people," Ryan said
"Hey, don't say that its Disney, dude! You like have to be excited or they won't let you in," Seth joked with a laugh. Ryan rolled his eyes, but to be truthful he had actually missed Seth's attempt at humor. Sometimes it was actually funny, but well most of the time it wasn't.
"What are you guys laughing about?" Summer asked abandoning Marissa and bounding back towards them. Summer wrapped her arms around Seth's waist and snuggled up against him. Ryan felt like giving Summer a taste of her own medicine and saying Ew! But he was too mature for that; at least that's what he told himself. At the moment two parts of him were contradicting themselves. In Newport he had finally learned how to be a kid again, how to give parent's the responsibility not him, but now being back in Chino he had to be an adult again. Now he wasn't sure what to be with his Newport friends. Ryan wasn't sure when his life had become this complex. The bus that was to take them to the park was full to bursting and they managed to snag the last two chairs in the entire bus. Summer sat on Seth's lap and Marissa on Ryan's.
"Oh my god Coop!" Summer squealed turning to her best friend "I am so super excited!" Marissa grinned so hard it looked like her face was going to split. Ryan couldn't help but smile at Marissa's excitement. He wrapped her hands around her familiar tiny waist and smiled even harder.
"Now that's what I'm talking about with excitement man!" Seth said and held out his hand for a high five. Ryan just raised and eyebrow and gave him a look. "Okay dude, enough said"
"Ew Cohen!" Summer said rolling her eyes. "Who high fives anymore? That is like so last season"
"Oh Summer, you never fail to amuse me. Now give me a high five and you'll see that even last season's things can be fun," Seth said and held out his hand. Summer recoiled as if the idea of giving Seth a high-five was disgusting. "Okay, Marissa?" Seth said and turned on her. Marissa was in too good of a mood to roll her eyes so she gave him a high-five. Seth smiled triumphantly and raised his fists in victory. "Marissa you know what, maybe you're the girl for me instead of ms. Roberts over here. You'll give me high fives," Seth joked.
"Uh-Uh," Ryan said getting in on the joke, "She's mine. Sorry dude,"
"Oh my god," Summer squealed "This is so Luke and Ryan all over again. Except for that you Cohen, will never been a Luke or a Chino. You should just face the fact that you are a skinny nerdy emo loving geek" Summer said laughing.
"Oh, but Summer," Seth said wrapping his hands around her wrist and kissing her neck before saying "you love me for it,"
"Ew! Cohen, no PDA, I've told you that a million times,"
"Okay," Seth said with a shrug, "so tell me a million and one!" Summer just rolled her eyes.
The rest of the ride there Seth kept up a one sided conversation that the three of the basically tuned out. It was well know, at least if you knew Seth, that some times it was just better to not listen to him then to try and shut him up. Ryan figured that Summer had probably come up with an idea (one Ryan probably didn't want to think about) to shut him up, otherwise he wasn't quite sure how she put up with him. It was times like these, when Seth rambled on and on and on, that Ryan use to be glad that he lived in the pool house. At least the pool house's doors could be closed, and locked. And in the very worst case there was a bathroom big enough so that Ryan could lock himself in it. But of course he would never do that, I mean who would want to get away from Seth every once in a while. Certainly not Ryan. Ryan rolled his eyes and held Marissa closer.
Ryan's mind drifted off again. It seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Teresa said he never lived in the present, and Ryan wouldn't admit it but she was right. Ryan always lived with the what if's. It wasn't something new. When he had lived in Chino he always thought about what if his mom wasn't into drugs/alcohol? What if they were rich? What if they lived in a better neighborhood? Ect. While living with the Cohen's the what if's had sort-of stopped, and really the only ones that he thought had to do with Marissa. And well knowing her history, Ryan had figured that was pretty okay. But he had started doing them again now that he was back in Chino.
He couldn't stop, he would go over and over a what if question for days. Completely over analyzing it again and again. The questions were things like what if Marissa and Oliver had never met? What if Teresa hadn't come to look for a job in Newport? What if he hadn't snuck into the school? What if he hadn't slept with Teresa? What if she hadn't come back? What if he had never found out? What if. What if. What if. It ran through his head over and over again.
Ryan had started more to live in the stories then in the present. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he woke up fifteen years from now and was just another chino deadbeat dad, and he was worried that the visions so clear in his mind right now of everything Newport would suddenly be gone. And he would go back to Newport and they wouldn't know who he was. He was just a boy who had lived with them for a while and was gone now. That was the thing Ryan feared most.