Okay, so here's the next chapter, thank you so much for reviewing! You guys are so totally amazing. I'm currently at the beach, and it's wonderful, warm and sunny! I called my mom and she told me that at home its snowing. Yay for Spring Break! But boo for papers for Philosophy that make me have to take my laptop to the beach. Although you guys benefit because I am procrastinating from that and doing this instead. So you know, thank Plato for this chapter. Anyway, review again please!

Disclaimer: Um. I don't own the characters and please don't sue me, because after this vacation I'm going to have like two cents to my name.


"Are the boys ready?" Kirsten asked Sandy as she tightened his tie and leaned in for a kiss. She turned after she was done to study herself in the mirror.

"Almost," Sandy answered and leaned down and placed a kiss on her bare shoulder. "Have I told you yet that you look gorgeous in that dress?" Kirsten grinned and leaned back into him. She studied herself again. The dress was a dark blue, and extremely low cut. She hadn't been completely sure that she liked it when she bought it, but now as she studied herself in the mirror, she decided that she had made the right choice. Sandy's hand brushed some of her hair, curled for the party, off her neck to kiss it.

"You like the dress then?" She asked.

"I love the dress, but honey, you could look good in a brown paper bag," Sandy assured her. Kirsten smiled and reluctantly pulled away so that she could place her earrings in her ears. "I'll go check on the boys again, I'll meet you downstairs?" She nodded and Sandy gave her one more kiss before heading down the stairs.

It had been a week since she had woken up to find herself in this strange world where Ryan was biologically hers. Ryan was still grounded, and Kirsten was almost reconciled with the fact that he and Seth were just not as close here as they were in her world.

She had to stop saying her world. It wasn't anymore. This was her world now. It looked as if she was here for good. Kirsten was remembering more and more from this world, and remembering less and less from her former world. She still wasn't sure why she was here, or how she got here, but she was so grateful that she was. Except for a few minor mishaps, things were immensely better here. She checked out her appearance one more time and walked down the stairs to the living room. The doorbell rang and she strode over to answer it.

"Jimmy!" She smiled, pleased to see him, and he gave her a half smile.

"Hi, is Sandy home?" Kirsten nodded and opened the door wider for Jimmy to step in. "You look beautiful." Kirsten blushed slightly.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"It's that Children's hospital fund-raiser? Right? The Mardi Gras themed one? Marissa was talking about it."

"That's the one," Kirsten said nodding, she headed into the kitchen and Jimmy followed her.

"Jimbo!" Sandy said smiling when Jimmy and Kirsten walked in. "To what do we owe this pleasure?" Jimmy smiled back at his friend.

"I just had a few papers from the restaurant that needed signed and I thought I'd stop by and get you to sign them," Jimmy stated placing the folder of papers on the counter.

"Oh okay," Sandy reached for a pen and began to sign his name in the appropriate places. "So how come you aren't getting dragged to this thing?"

"Um, no one to drag me I guess," Jimmy shrugged and Sandy wanted to hit himself in the head for being so thoughtless.

"Right, well, consider yourself lucky," he tried to cover, and smiled at Jimmy, who kindly gave him a smile back silently telling him that it was okay.

"Besides, I'm still not Newport's favorite person. Not yet anyway." Both Seth and Ryan appeared in their suits at that moment.

"Hey, we ready?" Seth asked. "Oh, hi Mr. Cooper."

"Hi, Seth, I better go drop these off, enjoy the party," Jimmy said taking the papers from Sandy and heading towards the doorway. Kirsten gave him a hug and watched as he drove off and turned back to her family.

"Let's go," she said brightly. The four walked towards the BMW, and Sandy opened the door for Kirsten who climbed in and sighed.

"What's the matter?" Sandy asked as he got in the driver's seat.

"I just feel so…bad for Jimmy," she finally answered. Sandy nodded and placed a hand over hers.

"You would think that he would be happy to get rid of Julie Cooper," Ryan commented from the back seat. He and Julie Cooper had never not gotten along, but they had never been the best of friends either. They tolerated each other, Julie mostly because he was a Cohen, and because he was a good match for Marissa, and Ryan because he was in love with Marissa and Julie was her mother. Julie had made it well known that she had hoped that Marissa would marry Ryan Cohen one day and inherit part of the Nichol fortune, and she had been as excited as Caleb when she found out that Ryan was working with his grandfather and mother at the Newport Group. Julie was campaigning heavily for the reunion of Marissa and Ryan. This was something that Kirsten found ironic, and she wished that she could tell Sandy why it was so funny that Julie was trying so hard to get them together, but she knew he would think that she was crazy, so she had to laugh to herself.

"I think that he misses her, God help him," Sandy replied. "Or maybe not even her, I think that he just misses his family."

"This restaurant is so good for him," Kirsten said squeezing Sandy's hand. "Thank you again for this."

"For what?" Sandy responded. "I'm doing this for me. This is going to be my happy place." Kirsten laughed and shook her head. They pulled up to the party and the valet took their keys as Sandy placed a hand on the small of her back and the Cohen family walked into the party.

"Kirsten! Sandy!" A Newpsie spied the four and made a beeline for them.

"We'll find you later," Seth said as he and Ryan made a hasty retreat towards their friends. Sandy watched them walk away longingly and Kirsten smothered a laugh as they were led deeper into the party.


The party was nearly over before Sandy and Kirsten saw either of their sons.

"Seth!" Kirsten called out and Seth and Summer walked over. "We're going to leave. Hi, Summer, do you need a ride home?" Summer and Seth shared a look that Kirsten caught, but wasn't exactly sure what it meant and Summer nodded.

"Sure, if you don't mind. I came with Coop, her mom gave her the car for the night, but….uh…." She trailed off and looked wide eyed at Kirsten. "But I'd love a ride home, thanks."

"Have you seen your brother?" Sandy asked Seth who shook his head a little too vehemently.

"Nope, haven't seen him all night. I have no idea where he is, none at all. In fact, I think that on a scale of one to ten, ten being that I know exactly where he is and one being that I have no idea, I'm at like a negative four," Seth rambled. Seth always rambled when he was lying. It was a trait that Kirsten had always liked about her son, because it made it easy for her to guess when he wasn't telling the truth.

"You are an awful liar, son," Sandy told him. "Where is Ryan?"

"In the guest house," Seth reported and hung his head as Sandy told Kirsten he would go get him and stalked off in the direction of the guest house.

"You shouldn't lie for him," Kirsten said when Sandy was gone.

"I know."

"We've talked about this before."

"I know." Seth shrugged. "He's my brother. I have to have his back, it's like an unwritten law of brothers." Kirsten spotted her husband first, his face red with anger, before she saw her drunken son stumbling behind him with an equally drunk Marissa in tow.

"Here honey," Sandy said handing Kirsten the car keys. "I'm going to drive Marissa's car home, if you could follow me, we'll drop Summer off and then take Marissa home and then we'll take the boys home." Ryan at least had the decency to look ashamed as he trailed behind his angry father as they headed towards the cars.

The valet pulled up with the Cohens' car and Kirsten, Summer, and Seth climbed in and watched as the valet went to get Marissa's car.

"I wouldn't want to be in that car right now," Seth commented. "Dad looks like he's going to blow a gasket." Kirsten was more disappointed in Ryan than angry. What did he think? That they weren't going to notice that he had gone with Luke and Marissa and gotten tanked in the guest house? Did he think that his parents were complete morons? Sandy pulled out ahead of her, and Kirsten followed behind as they went to Summer's house first.

"Thanks for the ride," Summer said as she gave Seth a quick kiss goodnight.

"No problem honey," Kirsten said giving Summer a small smile. Summer returned the smile, and hopped out of the car and practically ran to her front door. They drove to Marissa and Jimmy's apartment and Sandy and Ryan got out of the car and walked Marissa to her front door. Kirsten and Seth watched as they disappeared into the apartment building and saw the lights go on. Sandy and Ryan reappeared a few minutes later and Sandy climbed in the front seat and Ryan struggled to get into the backseat. Silently, Kirsten reached over and placed a hand on Sandy's hand trying to calm him down. She was livid, sure, but she rarely saw Sandy like this. Only twice before, and that had been when Seth and Ryan had been out drinking the first night that Ryan had been with them in her former world, and then when Ryan had driven home drunk that first night in this new world. Sandy generally was the cool, collected parent, and it was Kirsten who usually was more emotional about the boys.

The car ride home was silent, and when they arrived back at their house, Seth scurried away up to his bedroom leaving Ryan alone and drunk with two very pissed off parents.

"Add another week to that grounding," Sandy said trying to remain calm. "I can't believe you. How stupid did you think that we were? How stupid were you? Did you think that you would get away with this?" Sandy didn't get an answer as Ryan bolted past him to the bathroom where they heard retching sounds. When he came back out, he looked even more miserable and contrite.

"I'm sorry."

"Well, sorry doesn't cut it, go upstairs to your room. You will be seeing the inside of those four walls for another three weeks," Sandy instructed. Ryan sighed, knowing better than to argue and walked past his parents and up to his bedroom. Sandy and Kirsten stood in silence for a minute before Sandy took her hand and led her towards the stairs.

"Let's go to bed huh? We have a miserable, grounded teenager to deal with in the morning," Sandy reminded her. Kirsten shook her head and let out a little laugh and followed Sandy up to their bedroom.

She was not looking forward to the morning. Ryan, it turned out, could be quite difficult when he wanted to be. And they had several points during the past week that Ryan whined and complained about having to be grounded. Kirsten had stopped when he was pouting and remembered a similar expression on his face.

"I want it now!" Ryan screamed throwing himself onto the floor and kicking his legs. His little fists were balled up and he was hitting the floor. The other adults in the store gave Kirsten sympathetic looks as she held onto Seth's hand and kneeled down to gather her other screaming four-year-old.

"Ryan Matthew Cohen," she said in her best authoritative voice. "Get up now."

"No!" He screamed. "I want it! I want it! I want it!" He continued his rant as Kirsten let go of Seth's hand to yank Ryan up from the floor.

"We're going home now, and we're calling your father and you will not be allowed to go to Luke's birthday party this weekend."

"That's not fair!" Ryan wailed.

"Ryan, then stop crying. You have five seconds or else you aren't going to Luke's party." As Kirsten began to count down to one, Ryan calmed down considerably. It was then that she realized that Seth was no longer right next to her. She scooped up Ryan in her arms and looked around trying to remain calm.

"Seth?" She called out. She looked around and still no curly-haired little boy in sight. "Seth?" It was then that she started frantically looking around the store. "Excuse me?" She stopped the first person that she saw. "Have you seen a little boy? Four years old? Curly brown hair?" The woman shook her head and Kirsten felt herself getting more and more hysterical. "Seth?" Finally one of the sales associates came over to Kirsten and Ryan.

"Ma'am? Can I help you?"

"My little boy, I can't find him," Kirsten managed to get out. "He's four, and he has curly brown hair, and he's wearing…God! I don't remember…um…he's wearing a Ninja Turtles t-shirt." The woman placed a calming hand on Kirsten's arm and promised her that they would get security to look for him. They locked the doors to the store and led Kirsten to a chair and she sat holding Ryan tightly and rocking back and forth slightly. Her eyes darted around trying to catch hold of Seth and his green t-shirt that was currently his favorite and that he insisted on wearing every other day.

After a few minutes Kirsten was officially panicked and was crying as she clung to Ryan. It was then that she heard a familiar voice, and she looked up to see the security guard carrying Seth over to her. Seth was laughing and chatting away with the guard. She placed Ryan on the ground as she pulled Seth into her arms holding him tightly.

"Mommy! I can't breathe," Seth giggled. "This is Burt."

"Thank you," Kirsten said tearfully to the guard.

"No problem. It seems that he got a little hungry and wandered off to find something to eat," Burt explained. "You shouldn't do that to your mommy, you scared her." Seth held his head looking appropriately repentant.

"Oh thank God, you're okay," Kirsten whispered as she held onto Seth. She placed him down next to Ryan. "Don't ever do that to me again, promise me?"

"I promise," Seth said.

"You too Ryan, I don't know what I would do if I lost either or you," Kirsten said shaking her head to rid the thought. She wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks and thanked the security guard one more time before taking a hand in each of hers and leading the boys out to her car. When she got home, Sandy was there and he noticed right away that his wife was frazzled and looked exhausted and she began to cry as soon as he pulled her into his arms. She told him the whole story and both Ryan and Seth got lectures about behaving in the store, and not wandering off. Kirsten learned two things that day. One, to never take her eyes off her sons for a second, and two, that Ryan certainly knew how to throw a fit. She was suddenly not looking forward to his teenage years.


"This isn't fair. You told me that I could go to the party," Ryan argued the next morning with Sandy.

"Well, that was before you got grounded for four weeks. I might have thought about giving you a reprieve but that was before last night's little stunt." Ryan sulked for the entire rest of the day, once in awhile dropping little comments letting his parents know just how angry with them he was for not letting him go to Luke's party that next night.

"You should have thought about that last night," Kirsten reminded her son. Seth kept quiet, as he was under strict orders not to tease his brother about being grounded. Though, he couldn't help but let a little chuckle escape now and then when Ryan was fighting with his parents. Kirsten, Sandy, or Ryan would shoot him a dirty look and he would wisely shut his mouth again.

The intensity of Ryan's campaign only heated up the next day, and right before the party. With a final no from his father, Ryan told them that they were being completely unreasonable and stalked up to his bedroom where they heard the door slam. After a little while, Kirsten decided to go check on her son and headed up to his room.

"Ryan? Honey?" She knocked and got no answer and so knocked again a little louder. "Ryan, I know that you are mad, but please open the door." Again there was no answer, so she turned the doorknob and stuck her head inside the bedroom only to find it completely empty with the window wide open.


So I hope you enjoyed that chapter, please review and I'll update as soon as I possibly can! Thanks!