Sorry this took so long to post, but I had the flu. Man, the flu sucks. I vow to do what ever I have to do next year to get a flu shot. Even if I have to dress up like Bea Arthur and push old ladies out of my way.
xxxxxxxxxx
Ryan's mouth dropped open in surprise and his cigarette fell out. "Ow!" He cried as the cigarette landed on his arm and burned a hole in his shirt. Ryan slowly bent over and picked the cigarette up off the cement. How the hell had Seth figured it out so quickly? Ryan himself had just figured it out and he wasn't even sure if Summer knew, since he had told he when she was under the influence of heavy painkillers. He was not ready to have this conversation with Seth. "I … um … what?" Ryan staggered, his brain not quite quick enough.
"You know what Ryan," Seth said his voice low. "Answer me."
Ryan didn't know what to say. He didn't want to hurt Seth, but he didn't want to lie to him. Ryan had had enough with lying. "So that's where you have been sneaking off to lately huh," Seth said, unable to stay quiet any longer. Ryan looked up, surprised. He didn't think anyone had noticed his late night absences. "I knew you were staying out all night man, but I didn't say anything. I covered for you so that you could … what play knight in shinning armor to Summer?" Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but Seth was on a roll and kept right on talking.
"That's how you get your women, huh? You save them and then they fall in love with you. First Marissa and now Summer. How fucking convenient." Seth was starting to yell. "Seth, that's not fair," Ryan said quietly. Seth snorted, "You know what not fair Ryan? It's not fair that you, my brother, who is supposed to have my back is getting together with my ex girlfriend and not just any ex girlfriend, but my first love." Seth stopped to catch his breath and Ryan took the opportunity to finally speak .
"Look Seth, I don't really know what is going on." Ryan said as he took the last drag of the cigarette and flicked it away. "This last week has been crazy. Everything has happened so fast and I don't really know how I feel about Summer. All I know is that I care about her and when I saw Zach hurting her today…" Ryan stopped and turned away from Seth. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes. He blinked the tears back; he couldn't cry. The last thing Ryan had wanted was for Seth and Summer to be hurt. He could have prevented it, all of it, but he hadn't.
"It wasn't hard to figure out," Seth continued. "I mean with the way you attacked Zach and the way you acted here at the hospital. You kissed her right in front of me dude. You didn't even try to hide it and now you are telling me …" Seth was interrupted by Kirsten who cleared her voice and said, "Boys." The sound of her voice startled them both. They had been so intent on their conversation that neither of them had heard Kirsten walk up behind them.
"The police have some more questions and Sandy should be here any minute," Kirsten said while wringing her hands. She had heard enough of their conversation to know what they were talking about. Ryan turned back toward them, stealthily trying to brush a tear from his cheek, but both Seth and his mother saw his action. Kirsten put her arm around Seth and said, "Honey, why don't you go inside and wait for you father. We will be right in." Seth started to protest, but Kirsten put her arm on his back and gently guided him toward the door.
Ryan took one look at Kirsten's concerned and sympathetic face and he couldn't hold back his tears any longer. Kirsten held him as he cried. After a minute, Ryan pulled away from Kirsten. "I'm sorry," he said. That was all he seemed to say anymore. "I should probably go in." Kirsten stepped in front of Ryan, blocking his path to the door. "I think I know what you and Seth were talking about," Kirsten said gently. "You … have feelings for Summer." Ryan nodded. "I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it and now Seth … I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't know what to do."
Ryan looked up at Kirsten, his eyes red from crying, the anguish obvious on his face. Kirsten paused for a moment. She wanted to choose her words carefully. It wasn't very often that Ryan talked about his feelings and this was a tricky situation. "Ryan you can't always choose who you care about. Summer needed you and you were there for her. I think she is going to need you now more than ever and you should be there for her."
"But Seth," Ryan interrupted. Kirsten took a deep breath and said, "Ryan, I don't know what will happen in the future." Kirsten reached forward and smoothed down a stray piece of Ryan's hair. "Seth is upset. He doesn't know how to deal with any of this. If you and Summer decide to see each other then you and Summer and Seth will have to figure it out. Right now, the most important thing is to help Summer recover, and that's what we should be focusing on. Ok?" Ryan sighed and said, "Ok". He was relieved that Kirsten didn't seem to blame him. "We will have to talk about the sneaking out, though."
"Right," Ryan said, smiling for the first time in hours. He pulled the door open for Kirsten and winced as pain shot through his right hand. Kirsten saw him flinch and asked, "Did you do something to your hand?" Ryan looked down and his hand and flexed it several times. "It's probably just a little bruise." He really didn't want Kirsten to know the details of his fight with Zach. Kirsten was just about to ask Ryan why his hand would be bruised when she remembered that Ryan had stopped Zach's attack on Summer.
"Is that the hand you hit Zach with?" Kirsten asked. "Yea," Ryan replied uncomfortably. He wasn't ashamed of beating up Zach, but he didn't want Kirsten to know what kind of violence he was capable of. Kirsten sensed his discomfort and didn't ask anymore questions. "We will ask the doctor to look at it," she said in a tone that Ryan knew not to argue with.
When they got back to the waiting room, Sandy was speaking animatedly with a police officer while Seth and Marissa sat waiting in chairs. "You don't need to get a statement from her tonight. You have hundreds of witnesses who saw exactly what happened and you know good and well that you don't have to have her statement to charge him." The young officer backed away from Sandy, "My … my boss told me to come down here and get her statement."
"Well, go tell your boss you will get it tomorrow." Sandy turned away from the overmatched rookie and hurried towards Kirsten and Ryan. "Hey kid, how are you holding up?" Sandy asked Ryan as he put his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "I'm alright, what was that all about?" Ryan asked as he pointed towards the retreating officer. "Oh, its nothing. Did you already give a statement?" Sandy asked. "Not really, I talked with Sergeant Brooks. I told him that my … that I lived with a lawyer and he told me not to worry. Everyone saw that I was acting in defense of Summer."
Just then Kirsten walked up with a doctor. "Ryan, this is Doctor Richards and he is going to look at your hand." Ryan started to protest that his hand was just fine, but Kirsten wouldn't hear it. Finally Ryan gave up and followed the doctor down the hall. Sandy and Kirsten were talking quietly down the hall, leaving Seth and Marissa alone in the hard plastic chairs.
"Did you know?" Seth asked. Marissa looked at him quizzically. "Yea, I thought you knew that both Ryan and I had been taking care of Summer for the last week." Seth shook his head, "No, did you know about Ryan and Summer? That Ryan is like in love with her or something." Marissa looked down at her hands, intently examining her nails. After a minute she said, "I kinda thought so. The last week things have been really intense between Summer and Ryan and he was so worried about her…" Marissa trailed off. She was obviously not very comfortable talking about this.
"Doesn't it bother you?" Seth continued. "I mean you and Ryan were dating and in love just a couple months ago and now he has moved on to your best friend."
Marissa sighed. "At first it did, but I mean things with Ryan have been over for a while. We had our shot. So much has happened since then it would be hard for us to go back." Marissa stopped and thought for a minute. "I know what you mean though. If it was different, like if they had just hooked up at a party one night or something …."
Seth stood up and began pacing the hallway again. "I can't believe he would do this to me." Marissa stood up and grabbed Seth's arm. "This is not about you Seth. Summer is the one in the hospital. She is the one who had the shit kicked out of her by her boyfriend in front of the entire school. If you really cared about Summer, you would be glad that Ryan can help her. He knows about this stuff since he has been through it before. You and I never have. Summer feels better when she is with him and so that's that."
Seth stopped pacing and focused his attention instead on them a stray thread on the hem of his shirt. He knew that what Marissa said made sense. He knew that he should try to be adult about this, but it was hard. When it came to Summer, he had always had trouble thinking rationally. Marissa came up behind Seth and put her arm around him. "I know this is hard for you, it's hard for all of us. Summer is going to need you Seth, she is going to need all of her friends." Just then Summer's doctor approached Sandy and Kirsten. Seth and Marissa looked at each other. "Thanks," Seth said as they headed towards the doctor.
"The break in her ankle was just a simple fracture. There is no need for to surgically repair it so we just set it and put a cast on it. She is going to have to keep weigh off of the ankle for at least six weeks. Her nose is broken, but it is a non-displaced fracture, so it won't require surgery either. It will hurt and be swollen for several weeks, but eventually it will return to normal. The x rays did show several cracked ribs, but they looked to be several days old. There is not much we can do for the ribs. If they are causing her pain, you might try wrapping them with an ACE bandage. Otherwise she will just have to take it easy for a few weeks. Overall, I would say that she was lucky."
Everyone winced when the doctor used the word lucky again to describe Summer's situation. "When will she be able to go home?" Kirsten asked. "I am not going to admit her, so she can go home as soon as they are done with the stitches," the doctor replied. "Why does she need stitches?" Seth asked. "She has a small cut above her eye that will require maybe six stitches. Luckily John was on call. He is very good with stitches and Neal would never let us hear the end of it if we left a scar." The doctor looked down at his pager. "I need to go, do you have anymore questions?" Sandy and Kirsten shook their heads. "Ok then," the doctor said as he shook Kirsten and Sandy's hands. "The nurses will be able to give you the rest of the information."
Everyone stood quietly for a minute absorbing what the doctor had said. "Did you get a hold of her dad?" Seth asked. Kirsten nodded. "Yes, he was upset, of course, and is working on getting a flight home. Summer will be staying with us tonight until Neal gets back. Marissa have you told you mother where you are?" Marissa opened her mouth to reply, but she saw Ryan walking down the hall towards them. Kirsten hurried down the hallway to meet him.
"How is your hand?" she asked with evident concern. Ryan shrugged, "I guess there are a couple little bones broken, but there's not much they can do. The nurse just wrapped it up and told me not to punch anyone for at least a month." That got a smile from everyone. Kirsten announced, "I am going to see about the paperwork so that we can get Summer out of here."
Seth pulled Ryan over to the side. "I guess that means I won't get hit for that stuff I said earlier." Ryan looked down at his bandaged hand. "Well, I could probably use some practice on my left hook." Seth took a step back and Ryan laughed. "I'm kidding Seth." Ryan cleared his throat and said, "You were right though, about what you said. I shouldn't have … " Seth interrupted Ryan. "No, I wasn't right. I shouldn't have said what I did about you and saving people. We can figure everything out later, right now we just have to help Summer." Seth threw an arm around Ryan and said, "We've got to stick together, remember?" Ryan nodded. Seth felt better, but he couldn't believe that he had actually listened to and followed Marissa's advice. Since when had she become the voice of reason?
"Ok guys, we are all ready to go," Kirsten announced as she walked up to the group. She saw Seth with his arm around Ryan and felt relieved. She didn't think she could handle a fight between the boys right now. "Sandy, will you go get the car?" She asked handing him the keys and he headed off down the hallway. Everyone fell silent as a nurse wheeled a bruised and bandaged Summer out of her hospital room. "Hi sweetie," Kirsten said as she rushed Summer's side. "We are going to take you home with us until you dad gets here, Ok?"
Summer quietly said, "Ok." The nurse started to wheel her down the hallway. "She will be a little out of it this evening until the morphine wears off. She needs lots of rest and quiet." The nurse said sternly eyeing Seth, Ryan, and Marissa. The nurse helped Sandy load Summer into the back of the BMW. "Ok boys, you guys bring the Rover home," Sandy said. Kirsten turned to Marissa and said, "You are more than welcome to come over, but I think Summer will probably sleep all night."
"I had better get home, I am still in trouble for sneaking out and I need to explain all this to my mom before she ships me off to military school or something. Marissa bent down and gave Summer a quick hug. "I love you Sum, and I'll see you tomorrow."
Kirsten and Sandy got Summer home and into the guest bed with no problems. Sandy, Seth, and Ryan sat around the table absent mindedly munching on bagels, while Kirsten settled Summer in. Sandy knew that he should say something to the boys, but honestly right now he just couldn't come up with an "everything is going to be ok speech." Sandy was actually feeling lucky that he didn't have a daughter. He couldn't image what it would be like to have a daughter and find out that she was being abused by her boyfriend.
Kirsten walked into the kitchen and announced that Summer was almost asleep. "I forgot to get her prescription for painkillers filled today," she said. "Why don't you call it in now and I can go first thing in the morning and get it," Sandy offered. Kirsten nodded gratefully. She felt exhausted and she hadn't really done anything. I must be emotionally exhausted, she thought. Ryan cleared his voice and asked quietly, "Can I go see her?" He looked at Seth after he spoke, but Seth didn't look at him.
"Sure honey, take her up this glass of water," Kirsten replied. Ryan stood outside the door with the glass of water in his hand. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but he wanted to be close to Summer. She was already drifting off to sleep when Ryan opened the door. He walked over to the bed and sat down on it. "Hey," he said. Summer's eyes opened at the sound of his voice. "Oh Ryan," she said sleepily. "You need to get some rest, I just wanted to come see you first," he said as he stroked her forehead. "Will you stay?" She asked. "Sure," Ryan said and he carefully laid down on the best next to Summer.
When Kirsten went up to check on Ryan, she found him asleep on the bed next to Summer. She knew that she should probably wake him up and make him sleep in his own bed, but she didn't. Summer would feel better if she woke up in a strange bed if Ryan was next to her. Kirsten quietly shut the door and went downstairs.
Kirsten had just barely got out of bed and gotten a cup of coffee when the doorbell rang. She knew that Sandy had run to the pharmacy, so she went to answer the door. "Where is she?" Neal demanded. "Hi," Kirsten stuttered as Neal pushed by her and into the house. "Summer is still sleeping and Sandy should be back any minute with her prescription, why don't you sit down and we can talk." Kirsten said stifling back a yawn.
"No, I want to see my daughter now," Neal demanded. Kirsten was slowly waking up and she remembered that Ryan was sleeping in the same bed as Summer. "Why don't you wait here and I will go wake her up." Kirsten wasn't sure how Neal would react if he walked in and say Ryan sleeping next to Summer; she didn't even think he knew Ryan. "Kirsten," Neal said forcefully, "Thank you for what you have done, but I am here to take my daughter home." He started up the stairs with Kirsten right behind him.
Neal opened the door of the guest bedroom and was startled to see his injured daughter sleeping under the covers with a boy he didn't even know. "What the hell is going on here?" He asked as he pulled Ryan out of the bed. "Who the hell are you?" Ryan was too surprised to answer. Kirsten stepped in front of him and said "this is Ryan, my son." Neal turned his attention to Summer. "Hi daddy," she said softly. Neal walked over to her and picked her up. "Hi baby, I am taking you home now."
Neal carried Summer down the stairs, with Kirsten and Ryan following close behind. He settled Summer into the backseat of his car while Kirsten hurriedly tried to tell him what the doctor had said. He cut her off saying, "I have already spoken to her doctor." He then turned to Kirsten and said "I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I can't believe you would allow this … felon to sleep next to my injured daughter."
Kirsten opened her mouth to protest, but Neal didn't give her a chance. "I don't want you anywhere near my daughter," he said to Ryan. "Do you understand?" Ryan took a few steps back and nodded. "If there is anything we can do to help…" Kirsten started to say. "Thank you, but we will be fine," Neal said as he slammed the car door shut.
Kirsten put her arm around Ryan as they watched the car drive away. "I shouldn't have … I didn't mean to," Ryan stopped. He wasn't even sure what he was apologizing for. "You didn't do anything wrong Ryan, Neal can be difficult." Kirsten said. As they walked back inside the house, Kirsten hoped that Neal would not deal with this the same way he dealt with his wife leaving, which was to shut everyone else out. She knew that Summer would need her friends to get her through this and she prayed that Neal would realize that.
xxxxxxxxxx
So what do you think? I have enough plot left for a couple more chapters so if you guys are still out there, let me know.
