Chapter 2

"Sandy, where are we going? You said you were taking me out to dinner." Kirsten knew something was up, she was a smart woman. All of this suspicion told her one thing: surprise party.

"We are going to dinner, its just a ….new restaurant." Sandy had always been a terrible lier when it came to lieing to Kirsten, she could always tell.

"Okay Sandy," Kirsten just went along with it, not pushing.

They were driving in Sandy's BMW in a direction that looked suspiciously like towards her fathers mansion. Kirsten looked over at Sandy in the drivers seat, he looked nervous.

'Oh god let the boys have pulled it off,' Thought Sandy. He was sweating now, normally he wouldn't have been this nervous but it was his 20th anniversity, and Seth had been left in charge of party prep. Not that he wasn't confident in Seth's party planning abilities but he had the inkling that if Seth had planned this from the start, they'd have ended up inviting all of Sandy's old hippy friends and instead of appetizers they'd have joints or something like that in some twisted version of what Seth called 'reminding Dad of the good old days' whereafter he would make some barely recognisable gesture that Sandy guessed symbolised taking a puff of a joint. In other words, he prayed that Ryan had done most of the planning.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the BMW pulled up outside Caleb's. Sandy looked over to his wife, who gave him a look. She knew.

They stepped out of the car and walked towards the big oak door.Sandy breathed deeply, ready for possible disaster. He raised his hand and knocked. A moment passed and the door opened…

"SURPRISE!" It looked like everyone in Newport was there, the decorations looked fabulous, the food looked great and-

"Sandy!" Sandy turned his head to see his eldest sister Steph run up and hug him.

"What-" Sandy was cut off,

"You didn't honestly think that we'd miss this, did you Sandy?" said a voice to his right, his brother Rick.

"Rick? Anne?" Kirsten looked just as surprised as Steph hugged her too. Sandy looked around, they were all here, Steph, her husband Gary, their kids Jackie, who was 8, Chris who was 12 and Mike, 16, Terry, her husband Ray, their twin daughters Tara and Jenny, 15, Rick and his two boys Mark, 5 and O'Neil, 9, and last but not least, if she had anything to say about it, his mother, The Nana.

After everyone greeted Sandy and Kirsten, things got more mellow, Sandy and Kirsten went over to Seth, Summer and Marissa to talk.

"Thank you guys for doing this, the party turned out great." Sandy said, very grateful that it hadn't turned into a pot smokeing stoner bash.

"Yeah thank you guys, this is excellent. Where's Ryan, by the way, I wanted to thank him." Kirsten said, looking around.

"He's gonna be a little late," Seth explained, " He was called into work, he'll be here soon." He hoped so.

"Oh, okay," Kirsten was a bit disappointed, it was an important occasion, she wanted her whole family here, and Ryan was part of her family now.

"Kiki, there you are," Caleb walked up swiftly, kissed Kirsten on the cheak, "Happy anniversary," he nodded to Sandy as he shook his hand.

"Thanks Cal..that's sweet of you." Sandy said, cheekily. Just then his mother walked up.

"Sandy, where is Ryan, everyone is anxious to meet him now that he's the newest member of our family," Said the Nana. Caleb snorted,

"Maybe your family." He said under his breath as he walked away, of course, everyone heard.

"Am I missing something?" The Nana questioned Sandy and Kirsten.

"My father feels very … against.. Ryan joining the family." Kirsten explained.

XxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxXxxxxX

He was late, he was very late. Ryan glanced at his watch as he rode his bike quickly down the road. Sandy and Kirsten were already at the party by now, he thought. Seth said he wouldn't start any of the speeches with out him so that was a relief, but he didn't want to disappoint Sandy and Kirsten in being very very late for such an important occasion.

Don't worry, Ryan said to himself, you're almost there.

…….

"Where is he?" Seth asked Summer and Marissa for the forth time in the past 20 minutes.

"Seth, I have never seen you this stressed," Marissa stated as they stood apart from the crowd, waiting for Ryan. "I didn't think that you even felt stress."

"I don't but I really really don't want to have to go up there in front of all those people all alone." Seth said honestly, shakily.

"We can go up with you Cohen, if Chino doesn't get here soon." Summer stated, more confidently than she felt, she hated public speaking.

"No, that's okay, no offense but I was thinking that I'd just be family, you know?" Seth said gently, not sarcastically? He must be nervous.

Seth glanced at his watch, "Okay, we can't wait any longer, I gotta do this now." He took a deep breath and walked towards the stage. When he got up there his anxiety, if possible, got worse. All those people. Shit.

"Ahem." Seth cleared his throat. Nothing happened, no one looked up. He looked around and picked up a champagne glass and a knife. Just like in the movies, he told himself. He hit the knife against the glass making a loud ringing sound just a little to close to the microphone, which made it a really really loud ringing sound. Everybody winced, but it worked, they looked over at him.

Seth breathed in deeply again and put the glass down. Just don't be an idiot, he told himself. Who knew that Seth Cohen, the best entertainment you can get, was afraid of public speaking.

"Um…I'd uh…first like to thank..Marissa and Summer, for uh..for all the decorating they did." Seth breathed nervously as the crowd applauded and the girls blushed. Damn he wished Ryan were here.

While he was thinking to himself, the audience had stopped applauding and was once again staring at him expectantly. He hesitated and looked at his parents who were front row center smiling encouragingly, Kirsten gave him a thumbs up, Seth rolled his eyes at her.

"Anyway…uh we are here to celebrate my parents 20th anniversery…obviously." He added. God this couldn't get any worse, he told himself, he saw Julie Cooper out of the corner of his eye, smirking.

His mouth was dry, he didn't think he could continue,

"Uh…" He looked up and was very very very very very relieved to see Ryan jogging towards the stage and unconsiously said, "Oh thank god." Into the microphone.

Ryan went up the stairs and onto the stage, and Seth practically threw the microphone at him. Ryan looked at him questioningly, Seth whispered,

"I hate to admit it, and don't tell anyone, but your hero, Seth Cohen, has stage fright," he gestured that Ryan should start. Ryan turned towards the crowd and, like Seth had done moments before, breathed deeply.

"Uh…hi, I'm Ryan, this is my brother Seth, in case you don't know. And we are the ones that planned this party, at Sandy's request, and … I hope.. we did him proud." He looked to Sandy, who smiled and nodded.

"Kirsten and Sandy are the most amazing people I know. Kirsten is a great mom and wife and shes so dedicated to everything she does. Its unbelievable how she works so hard yet still manages to spend time with her family." Kirsten smiled at Ryan, reassuring him that he was doing okay.

"Sandy is an excellent family man and an amazing lawyer..i should know." As nervous as he was, Ryan felt that this was going well, he looked to Seth beside him, who still looked grateful to not be the one talking.

"A little over a year ago I had nothing and no one, Sandy and Kirsten took me into their home and gave me the thing I wanted the most, a family. We'd like to say thank you for everything you've done for Seth and I." He handed the microphone to Seth, who looked as ready as he'd ever be.

"Thanks mom and dad for being the best parents we could ask for." Kirsten and Sandy's eyes were watering by the end of the speech. They were so proud of their boys. Kirsten mouthed a 'thank you' to them, tearfully.

"If anyone else would like to come up and say something…" Seth said. as expected, Marissa and Summer rushed up onto the stage. Marissa took the microphone.

"We just wanted to say thank you," she spoke, "I have always been given a welcome in the Cohen home and I appreciate it, its amazing that Sandy and Kirsten can be so loving, even to kids that aren't their own." Kirsten smiled and clapped along with the audience.

Summer was next, "as Ryan and Seth said, Sandy and Kirsten are amazing and they, like, accomplished so much, and Sandy makes awesome bagels." Everybody chuckled.

The girls stepped aside and handed the microphone to Caleb who had been waiting.

" I, aswell, just wanted to say thank you to my daughter and her husband. Kirsten an excellent asset to the Newport Group and Sandy, though it was difficult to accept him at first, as a son-in-law, I admit, that I've grown to accept him," he paused and could hear Sandy speak up,

"Aw, Thanks Cal." From the front row.

"And dispite some of his…misjudgements," Caleb quite obviously looked over at Ryan, who said nothing, "He is now a welcome member of my family." Everybody applauded as he finished.

Kirsten looked over at Sandy, "Tell me he didn't just do that." She said, speaking of course about Calebs comment about Ryan. Sandy looked back at her,

"Honey, if I've told you once, I'll tell you a thousand times…there is nothing that your father wouldn't do."

TBC…..