Author's note; Thanks again to all the great reviews and to all the people who are reading but haven't reviewed. In this chapter you will get hit with a lot of information about Alex, read carefully.

Dedication – this chapter is dedicated to Trang Vu who was the one to convince me to take the plunge and write this story. All you O.C fans out there who haven't read 'Game Over' go take a look.

For the first time in years Ryan had slept soundly, safe in the knowledge that his brother was back in his life.

He wished he could stay like this forever but the reality of life was that Alex would soon be leaving, going back to his own life. However Ryan felt sure that this time Alex would feature daily in his life – letters, phone calls maybe even visits in the holidays.

Ryan knew Alex was an early riser so he risked cracking his eyes open a fraction, is memory had not deceived him, Alex sat on the chair by the foot of the bed dressed in an old grey T-shirt and blue running shorts.

"Come on sleeping beauty, up and at them. I think its time we went for a run."

"Urgh...Al its six o'clock on a SATURADY morning."

"Yeah well a run will wake you up. Plus I don't know this area well I could get lost or mugged or something."

"Oh yeah whose gonna mug you – Schwarzenegger!" The idea that someone from the Newport elite would mug his tank of a brother was comical.

"You never know he might not like me being in his state. Just get your ass up so we can go I don't want to get stuck behind all the 'Joggers."

With an over exaggerated sigh Ryan hauled himself out of bed and toward the bathroom, but the second the door shut he broke out into a genuine grin. Knowing that his brother usually ran about five miles in the mornings Ryan reckoned it would be a better idea to leave his shower till after they got back. After having a quick wash he pulled on an outfit which resembled Alex's, which wasn't that hard as Ryan's whole wardrobe consisted of about four colours – black, blue, grey or brown.

By the time the rest of the Cohen's surfaced Alex was freshly clothed in a pair of Ryan's jeans and a long sleeve shirt cooking breakfast.

"Morning Mr. Cohen, hope I didn't wake you. Just thought I'd make breakfast, I don't really know what you like so I made a little of everything."

Sandy was shocked he had known Alex had stayed over last night but the man before him was nothing like Ryan in the conversational department. He thought Alex had just said more in one go than Ryan did in a week, "Thanks it all looks great, you really didn't have to."

"Oh its fine I'm chief cook at home anyway." Alex took in a deep breath to prepare himself for his next statement. "I thought maybe we could all have breakfast together, you know meet properly. Get to know each other better cause my brothers been living with you for a while now and I don't even know who you are."

Sandy was unsure how to take this declaration, it had sounded slightly threatening but a spark remained in Alex's eyes like he truly wanted to know the family that adopted his brother so willingly.

"Well that's great; Ryan's really a great kid we'd love to get to know anyone who is important to him."

The conversation was cut short by Ryan's entrance from the pool house; his eyes immediately fell on Alex and Sandy standing close deep in conversation. The worry was evident, he fully anticipated Alex to be kicked out this morning and warned to keep away from the Cohen's newly acquired son.

To Ryan's relief Sandy took a plate of toast from Alex and tapped him lightly on the shoulder on his way past.

"Looks like we know where you got your talent for cooking from huh?"

They Cohen's plus two were now all seated around the table which was filled with every form of breakfast food available. Each person was trying to ignore the awkward silence by either filling their plates or in Seth's case filling their mouth.

Ryan reached across the table for the 'Captain Crunch' and automatically dipped his hand into the box until he felt the stare from across table. Looking up through his hair he saw his brother staring firmly at him, he cleared his throat once in clear warning.

"Bowls out of fashion these days?"

Without a hint of complaint Ryan reached for a bowl, poured in the cereal followed by the milk. Sandy and Kirsten shared an astonished glance.

"You're going to have to teach me how to get him to eat out of a bowl." Kirsten said with a smile on her face.

"I can't actually believe he still does that."

"Force of habit, you try eating soggy cereal and you'll want to eat it dry too." Ryan made an attempt at an annoyed face but both he and Alex soon broke into smiles.

"Yeah well taught you to get up in the morning didn't it." Taking the time to glimpse at each face around the table he saw the confusion at his and Ryan's memory.

"When I still lived at home I was responsible for getting Trey and Ryan ready for school in the mornings. Every day I would get up early go for a run, shower whatever then try too wake those two up but they would refuse. I was late for school so many times that I got fed up with the detentions and came up with a plan. I would put out their cereal in the morning, milk and all, then go wake them up. If they didn't get up quick enough the cereal would be soggy before they got to eat it and I wouldn't give them anything else. They soon learned to get up on time."

All the faces around the table now reflected the same smile, happy to be included in the anecdote from Ryan's past.

"Wow an evil big brother no wonder your all broody Ryan." Seth joined the conversation will taking a break from the ceremonious shoving of eggs down his throat. "So how much older are you than Ryan then? I mean obviously enough to be responsible for the school run."

"Seth." Sandy chastised from the head of the table although he was rather interested to know more about Alex.

"Oh no that's alright Mr. Cohen I think you're owed an explanation I don't mind answering questions. Nine, I'm nine years older than Ryan."

"So that would make you..." Seth desperately tried to calculate in his head so as not to look to incompetent.

"..26"

"Wow your Mom must have been really young when she had you."

"SETH" Another warning shot this time loudly from Kirsten's direction.

"Yeah um... she was fourteen when she had me. Still at school with a screaming baby at home not really an advert for teenage pregnancy. Wasn't all that much fun for me either."

The silence returned with a destructive force, Sandy and Kirsten were clearly appalled they thought Kirsten was young to get pregnant at twenty-two. Ryan was now twiddling with the corner of the tablecloth embarrassed by the revelations about his mother.

"That's young, so your Mom and Dad have been together for twenty five/twenty six years." Undeterred by the situation Seth continued own with his barrage of questions.

"Eh no Trey, Ryan and I have different dads." Alex was now starting to regret offering to answer these questions. "I mean Mom and Alan, Trey and Ryan's dad, got together when I was five so I don't really have any other Dad. I guess now we have really different dads." He was looking at Sandy now desperately trying to lighten the mood and change the subject.

"So what do you do now then? I mean Ryan told us you had left home and clearly you haven't seen one an other in a while."

"Actually I'm in the Air Force, when I decided to leave I had no money, no qualifications nothing so I decided the forces wouldn't be a bad idea. Roof over my head, square meals, decent wage plus I get to travel - sort of an all in one deal."

"Cool a real solider like G.I Joe. Do you get do wear camouflage gear and defuse bombs." Seth sounded like a kid at Christmas bringing the family back to the smiles they had before.

"No actually I'm an aeronautical engineer, so I work on the engines keep them running smoothly and design new devices so that we have the best planes in the business."

"Oh so you went to university..." Kirsten paused realising how judgemental and superior that sounded. Of course he went to university, he's an engineer, working with planes, the countries defences.

"I mean...of course you went...I'm sure your very clever...it's just you said 'no qualifications'..."

"That's alright I should have explained. I did graduate from high school, but that doesn't get you far these days especially when it's a Chino school. I did a year as a basic soldier, learning about the bases and planes, running errands boring stuff. I looked into Air Force scholarships to colleges, so I didn't incur the cost personally, I got excepted to NYU and graduated two years ago."

Ryan, who had remained quiet through out the proceedings, sensing a break in questioning took the opportunity to save Alex from any more painful questions.

"Ok think were done with breakfast and I promised Alex I'd show him around. So we'll see you around dinner time, say six. Bye."

"Umm guess we're going then. Thanks for breakfast I'll maybe see you again some time."

Once again the Cohen's could only watch as the two brothers disappeared from sight.