Thanks for the reviews, as always they are aspirational!

I learned everything I know about medical stuff from Scrubs and ER and my legal knowledge comes from Ally McBeal so…….

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Ryan finally broke free from Seth. Both boys stood staring at each other, their chests heaving from their efforts. "We need to find Summer. She might be in trouble," Ryan said. "Zach?" Seth asked, already knowing the answer. Ryan nodded his head. Seth had a million questions, including why Ryan knew about this, but he realized this was not the time to ask them. "I'll go this way," Seth said pointing down the hall," and you go that way. We'll meet out front. They each turned and ran down the hallway.

They met up again at the front of the school. "Did you find her?" Ryan asked. "No," Seth answered, panting from his short run. Ryan looked around, but it was hard to see through the crowd of students laughing and talking. "Lets try over here," Ryan said pointing to the outdoor terrace where they ate lunch. As they reached the terrace, they heard a girl exclaim to her friends, "Oh my God, look!" Ryan and Seth followed her pointing finger and saw two people fighting on the grassy hill beneath the terrace.

Seth and Ryan took off at full speed, jumping the low wall and running down toward Summer and Zach. As they were running, they saw Zach hit Summer in the face and Summer crumple awkwardly to the ground. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion for Ryan. He saw Summer go down, he heard screams from the students watching on the terrace, and he heard himself yell as he launched himself at Zach.

Seth stopped in shock when he saw Zach hit Summer. He stood still for a second trying to absorb the scene; he couldn't quite believe what he had just seen. When Seth saw Ryan tackle Zach and begin punching him, it pulled Seth out of his daze. He ran to Summer. Her face was bleeding and she was crying and grabbing her ankle. "Oh God Summer, are you ok?" Seth asked as he knelt down beside her. Summer shook her head. "I think my ankle is broken and … maybe my nose," she said weakly. Seth turned and called out "somebody call 911!"

The next few minutes were complete chaos. Several security guards and teachers were right behind Seth and Ryan. They guards pulled Ryan off of Zach. Ryan had only gotten several good punches in and it took both guards to restrain him as he tried to get to Zach. "You fucker, I'm going to kill you!" Ryan was screaming. Ryan wanted to run to Summer to see if she was ok, but the security guards wouldn't let him go. They kept telling him he had to calm down first. "How the hell am I supposed to calm down?" Ryan asked. Ryan was trying to calm down, but every time he looked at Zach his anger overpowered him.

Seth was barely conscious of the drama around him. All of his attention was focused on Summer. He could tell that she was in terrible pain, but he couldn't do anything about it. Seth kept hold of Summer's hand, even when the school nurse arrived, Seth wouldn't let go. I took about 10 minutes for the police and EMT's to arrive, but it felt like an eternity to everyone involved.

The EMT's made Seth step away from Summer. For the first time, he looked around and took notice of what was happening. He saw Ryan talking to several policemen, animatedly trying to convince them that he was not the one who hurt Summer. Zach was being attended to by paramedics. Seth could see that Ryan had bloodied his face and Seth was glad, although he would have liked to have been the one to do it.

It didn't take the paramedics long to get Summer strapped to a backboard. They couldn't pull the ambulance up very close, so they had to carry Summer up the hill to where it was parked. Seth knew he should check on Ryan, but he didn't want to leave Summer. As they got to the ambulance, Seth became aware that what seemed to be the entire school was watching. He heard a scream from back in the crowd and Marissa came running up. "Oh Summer," Marissa said with a hint of hysteria in her voice. "I waited for you after school and when you didn't come…" Marissa was interrupted by a paramedic ordering her to stay back.

Seth explained that Marissa was Summer's best friend and the paramedic seemed to soften a bit. The medic said, "Well, only one of you can ride with us." He adjusted the gurney so that it could be placed in the back of the ambulance. Marissa was already crawling in, so Seth grabbed Summer's hand and told her he would see her at the hospital. In a faint voice Summer said, "Please tell me I am dreaming." Before Seth could answer, she was loaded in the ambulance. He stood frozen for a moment. None of the students in the crowd made a sound. Seth wished that it was a dream.

Ryan was unable to convince the police that he was not the one who had attacked Summer. They thought he had been on some sort of rampage and attacked Summer and Zach out of jealousy. They had just put Ryan in handcuffs when the sergeant walked up with the two security guards in tow. "Let him go," he said gruffly, "he was just trying to protect her. I want you two to stay with him." He said pointing to Zach. "Once he is done with the medics, bring him in."

"How is she?" Ryan asked, more concerned for Summer than for himself. "I don't know, they are taking her to the hospital. I'll take you over and we can talk on the way." He felt sorry for the kid. It was obvious that he had strong feelings for the girl who was attacked and he had been trying to protect her. It was too bad that the Johnson and Wise were the first on the scene. Both were young and overzealous and had been about to handcuff this poor kid and take him in.

Seth started to look around for Ryan and he saw him being put into a cop car. "Wait!" Seth yelled as he ran toward the car, "don't arrest him, he didn't do anything wrong." The office smiled at Seth. "He isn't being arrested, if he was he would be in the back of the car. I'm giving him a ride to the hospital." Seth was relieved. He didn't think he could deal if Ryan was arrested. "Can I come?" Seth asked. Sergeant Brooks shook his head. "No, we have some things to discuss on the way." Ryan pulled the keys to the Range Rover out of his pocket and tossed them to Seth. "I'll see you at the hospital, drive carefully."

Seth reached the hospital right after Ryan did. He ran into the emergency room and saw Ryan, Marissa, and Sergeant Brooks talking quietly. "How is she?" Seth asked breathlessly. "They think her ankle is broken and her nose might be too, but she is going to be ok. The medics said she was lucky she didn't have any head trauma." Marissa replied. Sergeant Brooks said that he had to leave, but that someone would be here to take their statements. "What's going to happened to Zach?" Marissa asked as he walked away. "You won't have to worry about him for a while," the sergeant replied. He walked out of the hospital, leaving Seth, Marissa and Ryan alone.

"So what do we do now?" Seth asked. "We wait I guess," Marissa replied." The nurse said that the doctor would come talk to me when they are done." Seth shook his head, "I can't believe this is happening," he said. He was still in a state of shock. Marissa lead them over to the waiting room. "Ok," Seth said, "tell me everything." Marissa took a deep breath and told Seth the about the party last weekend. "I can't believe you didn't tell me! Why would you keep something like this from me?" Seth said to Ryan. Ryan said nothing, but Marissa jumped to his defense. "Summer didn't want anyone to know."

"So why did Ryan know?" Seth was hurt. Why had Summer told Ryan and not him? "Well, it was really me that told him. I didn't give Summer a choice." Marissa said defensively. Seth ran his hands through his hair, causing it to stick out in all different directions. "You should have told me, man." Seth said to Ryan.

Ryan didn't respond. He hadn't said a word since he had arrived at the hospital. Ryan knew that this entire situation was his fault; he should have done more to protect Summer. He knew better. Suddenly Ryan felt sick. He couldn't breath. "I'll be right back," he said to Seth and Marissa as he ran out the front doors. He ran outside to the parking lot and leaned up against the wall. "This is all my fault," he muttered over and over. Then he bent over and threw up.

Ryan went to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face. He knew he had to get a grip on himself, but when he thought about how he had felt when he saw Zach hurt her, he began to feel sick again. Ryan stared at himself in the mirror as he splashed water on his face. The afternoon's events had given him a revelation; he was in love with Summer. Ryan had been terrified when he couldn't find her after class, and when he had seen Zach hurt her, he knew. Sometime in the last week he had fallen in love with her. He hadn't meant to, but it had happened anyway. Consciously realizing this didn't make life any easier. Now he had to feel guilty about that too.

When Ryan got back to the chairs they had been waiting in, Seth and Marissa were gone. Ryan panicked for a moment. Had something happened to Summer? A passing nurse saw the panicked look on Ryan's and told him her friends were down the hall talking to the doctor. They doctor had just walked away when Ryan got there. "Are you ok Ryan?" Marissa asked. "You look really pale."

"Yea, I'm fine, what did the doctor have to say?" Ryan asked. "They are taking her up to do x-rays. Her ankle is broken and maybe her nose. He said she was lucky though…" Marissa trailed off. It didn't seem very lucky to any of them that Summer was lying in a hospital bed. "We need to get a hold of her dad, but I have no idea how to do that. The doctor was worried because Summer couldn't remember where he dad was, but I told him that was normal. He travels so much it's easy to lose track." Marissa said. "I think we should call my parents," Seth said quietly

Marissa agreed. They were in way over their heads here and it was time to get some parents on the scene. Since hers were sailing and crazy, and Ryan's were crazy and in jail, that left the Cohen's. Marissa and Ryan could hear snippets of Seth's conversation with his mother as they sat in the molded plastic chairs. "We should have told somebody about this," Marissa said as she looked down at her hands.

"I know," Ryan replied quietly. He had thought that he could handle the situation, but obviously he couldn't. He should have gone to the Cohen's. How many times was it going to take for him to learn to ask for help? He had wanted to call the police; he had wanted to do something, but Summer didn't want him to. He should have done it anyway. He probably shouldn't have hit Zach, or maybe he should have hit him more so he wouldn't be physically able to hurt Summer. Ryan knew that this was all his fault. The first attack had been Zach's fault, but this one was Ryan's. He wondered what Sandy and Kirsten would have to say about this.

Kirsten made it to the hospital quickly. When she got inside, she found Ryan and Marissa sitting in the hallway. Marissa had her arm around Ryan, and Seth was pacing up and down the hallway. Kirsten had been stunned when she received Seth's call. Once she had gotten past the initial selfish relief that was not one of her children who was hurt, she jumped into action. Kirsten hurriedly left the meeting she was in and stopped by her office to get Neal's latest contact info.

Kirsten was worried about Summer. She had had a soft spot for Summer ever since the day Summer's mother wound up on Kirsten's doorstep. Kirsten had known that Summer's mother was desperately unhappy; it was not a big secret in Newport. What did surprise Kirsten was that Cynthia came to see her before she left. She had cried and told Kirsten that Summer would be better off without her. She had also asked Kirsten to keep an eye on Summer. Kirsten had not understood how a mother would leave her child, but she had seen it again with Ryan's mother.

Kirsten had tried to help, but Neal was a proud and private man and refused Kirsten's attempts. Kirsten could tell that Summer was having trouble adjusting to her mother being gone. It didn't help that Neal refused to talk about her. It was like Summer's mother had simply disappeared one day and the child was not allowed to talk about her.

She had been relieved when Summer had become good friends with Marissa. Julie Cooper may not be the ideal mother, but she was better than nothing. The only thing Neal had allowed Kirsten to do was to be Summer's emergency contact in case something happened while he was traveling. He would faithfully send Kirsten an email every time he was out of the country for an extended period. There was no polite chat, no inquiries about Kirsten's health or family, just an email saying that he when he would be gone and where he could be reached.

"Mom!" Seth said as he ran to his mother and hugged her. "They think her ankle is broken, but we haven't seen the doctor for a while and he keeps telling up she was lucky, but I don't think she was lucky and then …." Kirsten interrupted Seth and said, "Ok sweetie, I am going to go find out what is going on. Then I will call Neal." Kirsten looked at Marissa and Ryan, "Are you guys ok?" Marissa nodded her head and said," Yea, I guess." Ryan lifted his eyes to meet Kirsten's, but he said nothing. He looked so sad.

Several minutes later, Kirsten returned with the news that Summer was out of x-ray and had been taken to a different room. "They need to set her ankle, but the doctor said you could see her for a few minutes first." When they got to her room Ryan hesitated. He didn't think he could do it. He didn't think he go in there and see Summer hurt again, especially when he could have prevented it. He didn't think he could go in there and not tell her he loved her. "I'll wait out here," he stammered. Marissa was surprised; she knew that Ryan and Summer had become close.

Ryan watched through the window as they entered Summer's room. He watched as Kirsten talked soothingly to Summer. He watched as Marissa sat holding Summer's hand and tried not to cry. He watched as Seth paced around, running his fingers through his hair, unsure of how to act and what to say. When they came out of the room Kirsten said, "Ryan, Summer would like to see you. She's a little out of it, but the nurse says that it's from the drugs" Ryan nodded. He took a deep breath and walked into the room.

Ryan hated hospitals. He hated everything about them, especially the antiseptic smell and the harsh whiteness of the lights and the walls. Summer looked so small in the hospital bed. Her face actually didn't look as bad as last time, but seeing her in hospital and not at her house made it seem much worse. "Hey," Ryan said gently as he walked up to the bed. "Hey," Summer replied, the pain killers were kicking in and she was getting sleepy, but she wanted to see Ryan first and thank him. "For what?" Ryan asked. "I didn't stop him from putting you in the hospital."

"No, but you tried." Ryan wanted to respond that that wasn't good enough, but he didn't. Ryan sat down and took Summer's hand. "I love you Summer, and I'll be here when you wake up." Summer smiled. The nurse walked in. "It's time to go upstairs honey, and get your ankle set," the nurse said. She then turned to Ryan and said, "she will be back in about and hour." Ryan leaned down, kissed her gently on the lips, and left the room.

When Ryan walked into the hallway, both Kirsten and Marissa were on the phone. Seth was standing still, staring at Ryan. Ryan realized that he had been watching through the window. Ryan quickly excused himself, saying he had to get some air, but he was really going to have a cigarette. He needed something to steady his nerves and he had watched the receptionist come back in from her break with a pack of cigarettes in her hand. Ryan bummed one from her and walked outside. He had just taken his first drag when he heard the door open behind him. Seth walked up to Ryan and asked, "Are you in love with Summer?"

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Ok guys, has there ever been something on the show about summer's dad always being gone or is that a handy convention of fanfic?