Title: A Note and A Bus Station
Summary: What if Sandy was the one who found Ryan's note about taking a bus to Chicago to see Lindsay instead of Seth?
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C. No profit is taken from this story.
Author's Notes: Cesar Chavez Day is a real California state holiday. According to articles on the web, schools are encouraged to have a day promoting community service on March 31 or the Friday or Monday closest to it. For this story, I'm going to say that The Harbor School is honoring it this year on Friday, April 1.
Chapter 2
On his way to the bus station, Sandy thought a lot about Ryan and Lindsay. He was rather surprised that Ryan was willing to travel all the way to Chicago without permission just to see her for a weekend. Earlier in the week, Sandy had been quite surprised at how depressed and upset Ryan was about Lindsay leaving. He hadn't thought that they had been all that committed to their relationship. It seemed as though they broke up, or gave each other space, or took a break, practically every other week.
But after thinking about it, Sandy figured that it wasn't the Lindsay part of "Lindsay leaving" that was really kicking Ryan's ass, as Seth put it, but the leaving part. Not that Ryan didn't care about Lindsay – he did – but Sandy figured that if it had been instead just a case of Lindsay breaking up with Ryan, permanently this time, but she was still around, Ryan would be sad, but pretty much OK. It was how it happened that really floored Ryan. Another person that just left him. It must have brought up all kinds of bad memories and unresolved feelings about his mother.
Well, Sandy was resolved to prove to Ryan that he and Kirsten and Seth weren't going anywhere. He was stuck with them.
When Sandy arrived at the Newport Beach bus station, he just had to shake his head in mild disbelief. Here he was at the bus station two weekends in a row. He couldn't think of one time that he'd been at the bus station in the 10 years before that. He had to smile as he drove past the place where he and Kirsten had kissed under her umbrella when she came to meet his bus in the pouring rain last Sunday. She was surprised that he had taken the bus, but there was no way that he was going to stay away from Kirsten for another night waiting for his BMW to be repaired after his minor accident on the road with Rebecca. He had a lot to make up to his beautiful and loving wife, and the kiss was a start.
Sandy parked his car and headed towards the waiting area, hoping to find Ryan there. If he wasn't there, Sandy planned to ask around and see if he could find out if Ryan had already gotten on a bus, and which bus.
On his way in, Sandy saw all the soldiers there and it reminded him of when he was a kid. When he was around 8, 10, 12 years old, his mother had been heavily involved in various liberal causes, including anti-Vietnam-war demonstrations and petitions. Since he was just a kid, Sandy himself hadn't cared about the war either way, except that it took his mother away from home even more than before. It seemed like she never had time to spend with him.
Sandy's reminiscing was cut short when he spotted Ryan. He was sitting facing away from the door, in his gray hooded sweatshirt, holding a cup of coffee from a vending machine, and he was looking down. It looked like he had something in his hand, maybe a bus schedule, that he was examining. Sandy could also see Ryan's duffle bag on the seat next to him. He looked like your typical runaway teenager.
Sandy walked over and sat down in the vacant seat next to Ryan without saying a word. As you would expect, Ryan looked up to see who had just sat down next to him. Except for a slight raising of his eyebrows, Ryan didn't have much of a reaction to Sandy's arrival. In particular, he didn't seem surprised. Maybe a little guilty, though.
"Hey."
"Hey."
Sandy decided to go with levity first. "So – it's good to see you out of the pool house."
Ryan gave him a small hint of a smile.
"Look, I know you're upset about Lindsay leaving, but running away isn't the answer."
"I'm not ..." Sandy gave Ryan a look. "... OK, I guess technically I am, but I'm coming back. I'm just going to visit her for the weekend. To surprise her."
"Yes, so you said. In your note." Sandy shook his head a little. "But I think Lindsay has had enough surprises. You need to give her some time. And give yourself some time."
Ryan looked away and didn't say anything.
After a few moments, Sandy continued. "Besides, Chicago is a long way from Newport. It's like 2 days on the bus. 48 hours. You wouldn't even get there this weekend."
Ryan nodded slightly and started to leaf through the booklet in his hands, which Sandy could see now was definitely a bus schedule.
After a few more moments of silence, Sandy offered, "Tell you what. Cesar Chavez Day is coming up in a couple of weeks, right? How about this – if you still want to go and see Lindsay then, and Lindsay says it is OK, you can go to Chicago and visit her for the long weekend. And you can take a plane so you can actually get there and back in a reasonable amount of time. What do you say? You can make up the community service requirement the following weekend."
Sandy gave Ryan a questioning look, waiting for his answer.
Ryan seemed to think it over for a minute, then looked at Sandy. "Yeah. Yeah, OK."
Sandy smiled at Ryan. "Great."
Ryan gave Sandy a small smile back. Briefly.
Then Sandy became more serious and turned in his seat to face Ryan. "Listen, I know I haven't been around much lately, and I want to make it up to you."
"You don't have to – "
Sandy interrupted, "I want to. I want to spend time with you. Just you and me? We can do something together."
Ryan looked skeptical. "Like what?"
"I don't know... We could play video games, or I could teach you how to surf..." That didn't go over too well. "Or, or maybe we could..."
Sandy thought for a moment. "I know. We could go to the driving range. Hit the stuffing out of a couple of dozen golf balls? You were so good at it when we went there last year..."
Sandy stopped, remembering why they went to the driving range last year. Oliver had invited all the kids to his mansion on a golf course in Palm Springs. Sandy watched Ryan, hoping that he didn't just get him more upset by reminding him of Oliver. And Ryan was so good at whacking golf balls, he hoped that the association with Oliver didn't just ruin golf for Ryan for the rest of his life.
But Ryan looked OK. In fact, he was nodding. "Sure. I guess we could do that."
Sandy smiled and patted Ryan on the back. "Great. Let's get home. I have some plumbing I need you to look at."
"Plumbing?"
To Be Continued
