Yeah, Josh it isn't mine.

Ryan leaned in, his arms sliding forward on the top of his thighs, glad to have something to talk about that didn't involve him. He also wanted to hear what Seth had to say and was confused, because Seth had led him to believe that Summer was livid with him. Why would she be furious at the invitation to sail to Tahiti with her boyfriend?

"When I asked yesterday, you made out like Summer was royally pissed at you."

"What should I have said? I wasn't going to admit that my girlfriend stood me up. I'd like to keep some of my dignity. It was easier to let everyone believe that I thought she was mad at me. Besides, she is obviously mad at me," Seth propped himself up on his elbows. "Otherwise, why wouldn't she join me?"

Ryan chewed his bottom lip, trying to absorb what he was hearing. "She didn't tell your parents where you were heading," he offered. "Otherwise it wouldn't have taken three days for the police and coast guard to catch up with you. They would have known exactly where you were heading."

"I guess."

"Have you talked to her? Did you try and find out why she didn't come?"

"Obviously she doesn't love me the way I love her."

Seth could be so difficult and stubborn when he wanted, Ryan thought letting out a long sigh. "Call," he insisted.

"If you haven't noticed, my parents put me on house arrest."

Ryan leaned over and picked up the phone. "They won't mind if you call Summer. They'll understand. If they don't, I'll cover."

Seth shook his head vehemently. "I can't."

"Talk to her." He waved the phone in Seth's face. "Find out why she didn't come. Maybe she tried and her father stopped her. Maybe the police caught up with you before she could get there."

Seth titled his head and raised his brows, trying to mimic Ryan's classic look. Ryan thought it was scary that he was beginning to master it.

"It doesn't take that long to get to Catalina. I was waiting for her in the hotel for nearly three days before I ventured back to the Summer Breeze and the cops caught up with me. It's not like it's such a big deal to get to Catalina. They have a ferry every day. She just didn't want to be with me."

"I don't believe that."

"So have you called Marissa?" Seth deliberately changed the subject.

"We're talking about you."

"Usually, I don't mind. Talking about me is a good thing. But right now, I'm not so interested in talking about me."

"Well, I don't want to talk about me."

Seth bit the inside of his cheek. "If we're not talking about me and we're not talking about you what's there left to talk about? Talking about the parents is just… ew!"

Ryan laughed. He got up and slapped Seth on the back. "I'm going to take a shower."

"Good. You smell."

"You're still scrawny man. Watch it."

As the water pelted on his back and slid down his naked legs the good feelings Ryan had slowly ebbed away. In the silence of the bathroom, he realized how much he had missed Seth. It was hard to believe that it had been less than a week from the time he had left Newport for Chino before Sandy had come with guns drawn, ready to drag him back home. Sandy hadn't even given him a chance to make sure he could make it on his own. Maybe he couldn't support a child and girlfriend without a high school diploma, but Sandy hadn't given him the opportunity to try.

He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm the anger that was welling up inside of him. He couldn't think about what Sandy had done. It would only serve to rile him up. Ryan toweled himself dry and threw on a fresh tee shirt and a pair of jeans. He rummaged around his duffel bag, which he hadn't yet unpacked, and found what he was looking for.

Ryan needed some time alone. He needed to forget about Sandy. Grasping the pack of cigarettes he had bought while he was back in Chino, he made his way down the driveway. When he had moved in with the Cohens last year he had given up smoking at Sandy's request. Every so often he grabbed a cigarette, mostly to calm his nerves, but the look on Kirsten's face when she smelled smoke on him— and Kirsten had the uncanny ability to smell cigarettes on him hours after he had puffed on one— made those occurrences less and less frequent. But the first thing he had done back in Chino was to buy a carton.

He leaned against the gate and took a deep drag at the end of the Cohen's driveway.

"Don't let Kirsten catch you."

Ryan didn't even flinch. His eyes slid from the ground up to Sandy's face and then back to the ground. He purposefully took another deep drag off the cigarette, daring his guardian to say anything.

"So, how long am I going to get the silent treatment?" Sandy smoothly took the cigarette from Ryan's mouth, dropped it to the floor, and ground it under his shoe.

Ryan glowered but said nothing.

"We have to move on."

He turned away from Sandy.

"Is it so awful that Kirsten and I wanted you here with us? So awful that you can't look at my face?"

Ryan didn't want to answer. He didn't know what to say. So he kept on looking at the ground and kicked a pebble around with the tip of his shoe. He dug his right hand into his pocket and felt his pack of cigarettes and his lighter. He let his gaze shift up to Sandy, sizing up his foster father and deciding it didn't pay to cross Sandy by taking out another smoke.

"Ryan, you can't ignore me forever."

"It's working for me now." He pushed himself off the gate and started to walk down the street.

Sandy sighed. "I invited Theresa and her mother for dinner tomorrow night."

Ryan stopped and turned slowly. "What for?"

"The five of us have to sit down and talk. If this baby is yours you'll have to take responsibility."

"I thought I was doing that when I moved back to Chino."

"No. You were running away from your home. You're so scared of taking from us that you thought that the best thing for you was to go at this alone. But that's the worse thing you can do for this kid. If it is you kid."

"It doesn't make a difference if it's my kid or not," Ryan spat out. "I don't want it to end up living like I did. No kid should have to grow up like that."

"What makes you think the only way you can prevent that kid from growing up like you is by moving to Chino and throwing away every opportunity you worked your ass off for this year? Why can't you do that if you live here in Newport?'

"Because," Ryan yelled, "Because if I don't stay in Chino Theresa will go back to Eddie. It probably is his kid. And he'll sweet talk her and she'll let him convince her to try and make a go at it. My kid or not Sandy, if I can protect him from… from the possible abuse… then I'm going to do my damndest to give this kid hope and save him from the life I had."

Sandy felt like someone was squeezing his heart. Ryan didn't often refer to his past or the abuse he had suffered as a child, so when he did Sandy listened. He wanted to make those years all right, though he knew he couldn't turn back the clock and change things. But what really frightened Sandy was that Ryan was willing to give it all up for a kid that wasn't even his.

"Ryan, I won't let this child—"

Ryan cut him off. "If I'm here, I can't do anything. Not if I'm an hour away. If I'm an hour away this kid will grow up with a part time father at best. Maybe that's better than what I had, no father at all, but would you have been willing to be there for Seth only some of the time?"

Sandy shook his head. "Even so, Ryan, you will only perpetuate the cycle if you divorce yourself from your family. Without a high school diploma you can only make minimum wage. So the two of you will barely be able to cover your living expenses. You'll come home tired and angry. Not to mention how tired a newborn will leave you.

You're only seventeen. You're not emotionally equipped to handle this."

Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but Sandy held up his hand.

"I know you've lived more life than most kids your age. Hell, you lived more than I did when I was your age, but I've been around for a lot longer than you, so I know things. And I'm telling you that to be there for your child, to really be there, emotionally as well as physically, then you need to do this with your family around you.

"You're here to stay. You're not leaving. I can't stop you when you turn eighteen, but there's full year until that happens. Tomorrow Theresa, her mother, Kirsten, you and I will all sit and try and figure this thing out. But I will not let you leave school; give up graduating from Harbor, college or your family.

"Furthermore," Sandy continued not giving up on his tirade, "Your attitude is going to improve." He wagged a finger in Ryan's face. "I will not let you push me away because you're mad. Sometimes parents just do things their kids don't like. Right now, you're mad at me and that's okay. But you will not avoid me."

"Why'd you let me leave in the first place?" Ryan said it so quietly that Sandy barely caught the question. "If you feel so strongly that I should stay, then why did you say it was okay for me to go back to Chino? You could have stopped me last week."

Sandy didn't answer right away. Ryan was glad, because he knew Sandy was searching for an honest answer and not just coming up with some pat line.

"I was taken aback. And when you first told us that you wanted to go back, I thought, I can't stop him. He's not ours. But when I saw what your leaving did to us. Kirsten couldn't stop crying. I was miserable. Seth ran away. I realized then that you were ours. That sometime between August and May you had become our son. And I would never let my son make the colossal mistake you were about to make. So that's why I changed my mind. You don't have to like it. But you have to accept it and move on."

"What if I can't?" He hopped from foot to foot, stretching, tired from standing for such a long time.

"Then I'm going to have to be that parent whose kid hates him. But you're smart Ryan. Before I knew if you were a good person, I knew you were smart. You'll realize that I'm right about this."

Ryan didn't have an answer for Sandy. He was listening to his foster father and was trying to understand Sandy's words, but didn't know what to say.

"Come on. Let's go back in. Kirsten wants me to barbecue for dinner. I'll make Nana's famous sauce."

"I just need to sit here and think."

"Okay. Dinner won't be ready for a half hour at least." Sandy hesitated. "Just hand over your cigarettes." He stretched out his open hand.

Ryan rolled his eyes, but grudgingly gave him the pack. Sandy had just mentioned the Nana, who was starting another round of chemo, and that was enough to guilt Ryan into obeying his guardian.

Sandy took the pack and reluctantly walked back up to the house. He threw a few glances over his shoulders and noticed that Ryan was puffing on something. He shook his head with a rueful smile, realizing that Ryan had somehow slipped at least one cigarette out of the pack before giving it to Sandy. Chuckling to himself, Sandy went to start dinner thinking, wait until Kirsten smells the smoke on him.