Title: Home

Author(s): Sara and Lizzie

Rating: R

Disclaimer: The only thing we own is the psychotic plot that came from reading way to many Mary Higgins Clark books.

" Suffer me, call on me and I will call on you." –Matchbox Twenty

Summer walked into the small room where the Cohens and Ryan were sitting. She had steeled herself on the way over to the hospital and now the tide had turned.

She wasn't going to break down again. She was going to stay strong. Or so she thought. She walked into the room, and Ryan stood up, and hugged her. And she started breaking down for the millionth time in just a few hours. It had been just a few hours ago that this had happened, but it felt like days.

Summer's eyes filled with tears again. She felt Marissa's arms close around her too, and the three of them stood there hugging. The door opened, and the doctor walked out. Summer felt Coop squeezing one hand and Ryan squeezing the other.

The doctor hesitated. "It's up to Seth now. He's in God's hands. I can give one of you five minutes."

Summer shrank back, hoping to go unnoticed. Kirsten spoke. "Summer, go."

"I couldn't." Summer told her.

"Summer." Kirsten said strongly. "I am fully convinced that you are the only one who can do him any good right now. Go."

Ryan and Marissa squeezed her hands again, and she followed the doctor behind the door. She sat down next to Seth's bed again, and took the hand closest to her in both of her hands.

"Cohen, what are you doing?" she whispered. "I know you're in there. You just have to pull through for me. I know I'm difficult sometimes, Cohen. I know I used to be a lot more difficult. But you never gave up on me."

She paused and brushed the tears off her cheeks. "I won't give up on you now. I won't let you die Seth Cohen. Do you understand that? This is not a choice. You just have to be ok."

She reached out and, maneuvering around the oxygen mask and wires, touched his cheek gently.

"I love you. Just hold on for me babe." The doctor tapped her shoulder, signaling the time was up.

Summer leaned down and kissed Seth's forehead. Then she walked out of the door, past the Cohen's, Ryan and Marissa and broke into a run down the hall.

Marissa and Ryan both rose to go after her, but Kirsten stopped them. "Let her go."

Summer kept running out the doors of the hospital. She sunk down under a few palm trees, brought her knees to her chest, out her head down and sobbed.

For a long time. She was so tired of crying, but she didn't know what else to do. Summer looked skyward dubiously.

Summer was not a particularly religious person, but she didn't know where else to turn at this point.

"I know I'm not exactly a model citizen, or a great person, or anything, but Seth Cohen is." She whispered. "I know what I was like before him, and I know how he changed me, and these days have been horrible, but he came through. Any one that risks themselves like he did for a spoiled brat like me..." she trailed off, and looked up again.

"He's one of the better people you put in this world. Just let him be ok."

She sat still and marveled at what she was right now. Vulnerable. In love. The old Summer Roberts was long gone. No more ice queen.

It amazed her what one boy did for her. Here she was, praying to a God that she wasn't entirely sure she believed in, because she needed him to be ok.

She stood up shakily and walked back toward the hospital. When she reached the room, the Cohen's, Marissa and Ryan were nowhere to be found. She shrugged and noticed that the door to Seth's room was open a crack.

She crept in, and found herself staring into the open eyes of Seth Cohen.