Ugh. Back to school again. It sucks. I miss the beach already, and since it is almost St. Patrick's Day, I can't totally blame my Irish ancestors, but I'm pretty angry with them right now, because I could be tan, but no, I'm Irish, I burn. So, alas, no nice tan for me. Anyway, here is the next part. Let me know what you think. And thanks for reviewing! You guys are so totally and completely awesome. Do it again? Please? It will make me so very happy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.


Sandy knew that look on his wife's face. He had been the on the receiving end of that look, and he knew that it wasn't a good look to be on the receiving end of. And he knew that her look stemmed from something that Ryan had done. Sandy braced himself for whatever it was that his son had done now.

"What's the matter honey?" Sandy asked when Kirsten walked in.

"He's gone." Sandy's mouth dropped open.

"What?"

"His window is open and he is gone," Kirsten reported sighing.

"What!" Sandy ran to the stairs and ran up to his son's bedroom, only to find what his wife found: the window wide open, and Ryan no where in sight. When he walked back down to his wife, he found her pouring herself a glass of wine.

"You didn't believe me?" Kirsten asked as soon as he came in.

"I had to see for myself," Sandy said. "So what do we do now?" Kirsten shook her head.

"We could go get him at Luke's?" She suggested. It was Sandy's turn to shake his head.

"I think we should call him first," Sandy said grabbing the phone and dialing Ryan's number. "Let him come home on his own."

"Ello?" Ryan answered.

"Where are you?" Sandy demanded. Ryan held the phone away from himself and muttered, "shit."

"Upstairs?"

"Try again."

"I'm sorry."

"Do better."

"I'm really sorry."

"Come home now."

"But Dad…"

"Ryan, I swear to God, if you don't get in your car and drive home this very instant, I will come there and get you, and you do not want that," Sandy threatened. He heard Ryan sigh and finally answer,

"Fine. I'll be home soon."

"I know that it takes about twenty minutes to get from Luke's house to our house. You better be here in a half hour or else your mother and I are coming to get you," Sandy told him before hanging up the phone. He turned back to his wife.

"He's coming home." Kirsten nodded and took another drink of her wine and got out a glass for her husband and poured some for him. They went to sit in the living room, silently sat and waited, each drinking their glass of wine and holding the other's hand. Kirsten felt like the time ticked by so slowly that she didn't know what to do with herself.

"Seth is at the party too, right?" She finally spoke up. Sandy nodded.

"He and Summer were going to go," he said. It was Kirsten's turn to nod.

"What time did we tell him to be home?" She asked trying desperately to make the time move a little faster.

"One."

"Okay."

"Are you okay?" Sandy finally asked giving her hand a squeeze.

"I can't believe he snuck out," she replied. "I thought…he's a good kid, and I just don't…"

"He's a good kid, yes," Sandy said turning to face her. "And the key word there is kid. He's a kid, he pushing the limits, seeing what he can get away with." He paused and put a hand to Kirsten's face. "He won't get away with it. We'll put our foot down. He's seeing how far he can go, and it's time that we make sure that he knows that he's gone too far." Kirsten nodded, feeling immensely better already. Sandy was always so good at that. At making her feel better. She placed her glass of wine on the coffee table and leaned in to kiss him.

"Mommy?" She felt a small tug on her blanket and opened her eyes to see a five-year-old Ryan standing at the edge of her bed. Blinking a few times to get used to the dark, Kirsten felt Sandy's strong arms around her and noticed that Ryan was clinging to the dinosaur that Sandy had brought back for him on his trip to New York a few weeks before.

"Hi baby, what's the matter?" She asked moving a little, which was enough to wake up Sandy who yawned and was about to ask his wife what the matter was, when he spotted his son.

"Buddy boy, what's the matter?" Sandy asked as he and Kirsten sat up and Kirsten reached down and scooped up Ryan and placed him in her lap. Ryan didn't have a chance to answer as clap of thunder echoed and shook the house.

"Honey, it's just a storm," Kirsten said as he buried his head in her nightgown. "We're safe in here. You're safe with me and Daddy. We would never let anything happen to you. We love you so much."

"I love you too," he replied wrapping his tiny arms around her neck. Sandy leaned and placed a kiss on the back of Ryan's neck.

"Do you want to sleep in here with me and Mommy?" Sandy asked his son, who nodded before snuggling underneath the covers next to his mother who wrapped her arms around his small body. Sandy placed a kiss on both their foreheads before lying back down. Thunder shook the house again and both Kirsten and Ryan flinched. They were just about back to sleep when there was a tug on Sandy's blanket.

"Daddy?" Sandy turned to see Seth standing holding Captain Oats, his present from New York.

"Hey Seth," Sandy said as he picked him up. Kirsten smiled at her other son and lifted up the covers so that Seth could get in next to Ryan. Sandy made sure that the three were comfortable and warm and then slipped under the covers himself and smiled at his wife over their two little boys who had now fallen asleep. Sandy loved having all three within reach. His favorite times were when he had all three of the most important people to him within his grasp. Kirsten's slender hand reached across the boys and took his and he fell asleep holding her hand.

After twenty minutes, Kirsten went to refill her glass and then began to pace the living room.

"Why isn't he home yet?"

"We gave him a half hour to get here," Sandy reminded her. "He's on his way home. Do you want to call Seth to make sure that he left on time?" He didn't get an actual answer from her, but she grabbed the phone off the hook and dialed Seth's number.

"Hello?" He answered on the third ring.

"Seth did your brother leave?" Kirsten asked.

"Yeah, he left like twenty minutes ago, he should be home any minute," Seth told her.

"Are you lying to me?"

"No, seriously Mom, he left twenty minutes ago," Seth assured her.

"Did you know that he was going to sneak out?" There was silence on the other end, which let her know that he did, indeed, know what his brother was up to.

"I'm sorry," Seth finally said. Kirsten sighed and pinched the top of her nose. She had the worst headache forming. In a twisted way she was happy that Seth would lie for his brother. It meant that maybe they were closer than Kirsten had first thought. After all, they grew up together, and they were blood related, there wasn't that constant need for acceptance and reassurance as there was in her world. Seth obviously didn't have that desperation for friendship, and Ryan didn't crave normalcy so much because here, with them, as a Cohen, he had normalcy, he had a brother whose idea of bonding didn't involve stealing a car. He had a mother whose idea of family time didn't involve him cleaning up after one of her benders, and he had a father who…who was there.

"We'll talk about it tomorrow," Kirsten finally said and she sighed and hung up the phone.

"He left on time?"

"According to Seth, although Seth knew that he was going to sneak out tonight, so I don't know how much his word really means right now," Kirsten told him. Sandy patted the seat next to him, and Kirsten sat down and curled up next to him. "They should have stayed little forever." Sandy laughed.

"Have you conveniently forgotten their terrible twos?" Sandy asked her as he began to play with her hair. Kirsten laughed remembering the tantrums the two would throw when they didn't get their way.

"No, I remember," she told him. "How about we have them go back to say five or six and then stay at that age? That wasn't a bad age, right?" Sandy didn't answer at first and Kirsten remembered what had happened at that age. Her mother had died when the boys were that age. "I just miss being able to hold them in my arms, you know?"

"I know," he said dropping a kiss onto the top of her head. They returned to silence as they waited for Ryan.

"Dad is going to teach me how to surf," thirteen year old Ryan told his mother bouncing with excitement. She hadn't seen him this happy about anything in quite some time. The teenage years had come into the Cohen house with a bang, turning both him and Seth from the nice little boys they had been, into some sort of mutant beings who could turn from nice to unpleasant in under three seconds.

"That's good honey, when is he doing that?"

"Tomorrow morning he's going to take me." Sandy swept into the kitchen and gave his wife a kiss good morning, and for once Ryan said nothing about the display of affection from his parents.

"Dad, are the waves going to be good?" Ryan asked.

"I hope so buddy," Sandy said.

"Mom? Can you take me to get a wetsuit today?"

"Sure," Kirsten told him.

"Great, I want one like Dad's, be sure to look at Dad's so that you know what kind I want." With that, Ryan left the kitchen to go get dressed and Sandy placed his arms around his wife.

"He's a little excited huh?" He asked.

"You've made his month," Kirsten said. "That's all he can talk about."

"Good. I asked Seth, but he just scowled at me."

"He has a girlfriend now," Kirsten reported with a smile.

"No!"

"Yes."

"Who's his girlfriend?"

"Summer Roberts? Neil's daughter. They're officially 'going out' as he puts it."

"Going where? He's thirteen." Kirsten threw her head back and laughed.

"Well, when I asked a question along those lines he gave me his patented, 'Mo-om,' so I learned not to ask questions like that anymore." It was Sandy's turn to laugh just as Seth was coming into the kitchen.

"Speak of the devil," Sandy whispered into Kirsten's ear.

"Good morning honey, do you want to come to the mall with me and Ryan?" Kirsten asked pleasantly.

"No," Seth answered immediately and then there was a pause. "Maybe."

"Well, let me know, we're getting a wet suit for your brother," Kirsten told him. "We could get you one too?"

"I don't want to learn to surf," Seth told her. "But…" Both his parents looked at him expectantly. "Can I take sailing lessons? Summer says…" He stopped and looked down at his shoes. "Anyway, can I take them?" Kirsten and Sandy exchanged a look and Kirsten shrugged, and Sandy nodded and then spoke up.

"Sure, son, we'll get you some sailing lessons." Seth smiled at them, a real smile, a smile that Kirsten hadn't seen in awhile.

"Thanks," he said as he grabbed a bagel and headed out of the kitchen.

"I should get going," Sandy said leaning in and placing a kiss on her cheek. "I have to get some work done today." Kirsten frowned slightly.

"It's Saturday."

"I know, but I have this new case. The kid turns eighteen next week, and he stole a car," Sandy said shaking his head. "His name is Trey, and talking to him is like talking to a wall, he just doesn't listen. But anyway, I'll be home around the same time you guys are back from the mall and maybe we'll talk the boys into going out for a nice dinner?" Kirsten grinned.

"Sounds good to me," she answered as she gave him a kiss. "I better go look at your wetsuit. I have to have it memorized." She rolled her eyes and Sandy gave her a grin as she walked away. When Kirsten was dressed and ready, she came back downstairs to find both her sons waiting impatiently for her.

"Mom, can we go now?" Seth asked. "We've been waiting forever."

"You've been waiting for like two minutes," Kirsten replied as she grabbed her purse and her keys and the three headed out towards the car.

"Tell Seth to put his game away," Ryan complained once they were headed towards the mall. Seth, in the backseat, ignored his brother. "I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept playing that stupid game." It almost seemed to Kirsten that Ryan was simply bored and picking a fight with Seth just to have something to do.

"Honey, leave him alone," Kirsten said. "So Seth? Where did you want to go?"

"Can I just go and meet up with you guys later?" Seth asked. "I mean, I'm thirteen now. And I don't want to have to wait for Ryan to try on stupid wetsuits. It's so boring to just stand there waiting for him. And besides, do you think that I want to be caught shopping with my mother?" Apparently it was be a moody teenager day in Seth Cohen world. Kirsten took a deep breath, reminding herself of what she was like at thirteen, and then let it out.

"We'll see. I'll decide when we get there," she finally said. "But you have to be where I tell you to be when I tell you to be there, understand?" Seth looked almost surprised that his mother was even considering this.

"Understood," Seth replied returning his attention to his game. When they got to the mall, Kirsten told Seth that he could have forty minutes by himself.

"Forty minutes Seth, if you aren't there in forty minutes I will send mall security to find you, and if you thought that being with me was embarrassing, just wait until they have you paged all over the mall," she warned, and Seth nodded, and hurried off to make the most of his forty minutes. Kirsten then took Ryan to the sporting goods store to buy the wetsuit.

A half hour and one wetsuit, identical to Sandy's, later, Kirsten and Ryan went to the fountain in the middle of the mall where they were supposed to meet Seth. Ryan couldn't keep his eyes off of his new wetsuit, he kept opening the bag and fingering the material and showing his mother.

"You think the waves will be big?" He asked.

"I don't know kiddo," she told him smiling.

"Do you think that Dad will let me go again if I'm good at it?"

"I think that your dad would love to have you come with him again," Kirsten said to Ryan. Kirsten checked her watch. Seth had three and a half minutes.

"Do you think that I'm going to be good at it?"

"Yes."

"Will you come with us?" Kirsten wanted to say no, but Ryan looked so hopeful that she just gave him a small smile.

"We'll see," she said falling back on a perennial parental favorite. The "We'll see" worked in all situations and was enough for the kid to stop bothering the parent about whatever it was that they were currently bothering them about. She spotted Seth hurrying over to the fountain, a bag from the department store in his hands.

"I'm not late," were the first words out of his mouth.

"I know you aren't," Kirsten said smiling.

"Whatcha get?" Ryan asked trying to peer into his brother's bag.

"Nothing," Seth said immediately defensive, holding the bag tightly to his chest.

"Mom! Make him tell me what he bought!" Ryan whined. Kirsten ignored him.

"How about we go get some burgers or something?" Kirsten suggested. As they headed towards the store Ryan grabbed the bag out of Seth's hands.

"Hey give it back!" Seth cried reaching for it. It was too late, Ryan had already pulled out what was inside. A pair of earrings.

"Who are these for? You?" Ryan teased.

"No."

"Then who?"

"Ryan leave him alone," Kirsten warned. Seth grabbed back both the earrings and the bag.

"They're for Summer," Seth finally spoke up. He turned nervously to his mother. "Do you think she's going to like them?" Kirsten opened the bag and looked at the earrings and smiled at her son.

"I think she's going to love them," she assured him. Ryan was thoughtful for a minute.

"Hey can we go back?"

"Why?" Kirsten asked.

"I want to get a pair for Marissa," he stated simply. "Girls like having things that their friends have. And I want to ask her to go out with me." Kirsten wanted to laugh, but she instead nodded her head and they went back to the department store. When did her boys become so grown up? Buying presents for girls, wanting to off by themselves? They had grown up right in front of her, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to make them small again and hold them in her arms.

"Where is he?" Ryan was now fifteen minutes late, and Sandy was pacing in front of Kirsten who was nervously clutching a pillow.

"I'm calling him again," Sandy said. But once again Ryan's phone went straight to voice mail. Sandy tried Seth's phone, and Seth told him the same thing that he had told him five minutes before when he called, and that was that Ryan had left right after Sandy told him to, and that he should be home any minute.

After forty five minutes, Kirsten had reached full blown panic.

"What if something happened?" She asked Sandy who crossed over to her and pulled her into his arms.

"I'm sure that he's okay," he told her.

"But…" She opened her mouth to say more when the doorbell rang. Sandy and Kirsten exchanged a look before hurrying to the front door. As soon as Kirsten saw the police officer standing there, her heart dropped. And she barely heard the words, "son, car accident, killed on impact" before dropping to her knees and sobbing. Sandy stood in shock for a moment before dropping down next to his wife and pulling her into his arms. He didn't understand why she kept saying it, but she kept repeating the same thing over and over again.

"I want to go back. I want to go back. I want to go back. I want to go back."