Stranded Memories

Rating: PG-13 for language

Disclaimer: I own crap. They wouldn't even give me the bloody Lost poster at Disney, and that ruined my day. FOX owns all OC characters and OC related thingys… and ABC owns sobs all Lost related things… even my Charlie…

Summary: Little things can push people over the edge. That very thing happens to Seth Cohen. When something happens to him that sends him into a crashing situation, who knows how he will survive. Seth-centric. Lost/OC Crossover.

A/n:

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"Permanent Goodbye"

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It was another two weeks later, and the snow had melted. We had actually gotten a full inch, and Summer took enough pictures to last the rest of our lives. It was the only good thing that came from Chrismukkah this year.

Aerin was coming in a week, which seemed to be the only good thing now. Summer visited here less and less. I had told her that Kirsten wasn't pissed, but she refused to believe me.

Kirsten was a lot more talkative since the holidays. She now insisted on closure. After a while, it had become annoying. She'd probably end up going to the memorial and saying goodbye. That would be the extent of her closure.

I walked out of the pool house, since I refused to take a room inside the house. Walking by Seth's room everyday was too much for me to handle. The pool house was better.

"What's the date you want to put on it?" I heard Sandy say as I lightly opened the door.

"I guess the date it...um..." Kirsten was answering. I didn't move away from the door. I didn't want them to see that I was eavesdropping.

"Crashed?" Now I understood what they were talking about. Kirsten and Sandy were getting a gravestone for Seth. That's what Kirsten was meaning by closure. I held my breath. I could believe they were completely giving up. I hadn't given up, none of us were, so why the hell were they?

"Yeah. That seems to be most likely when he died," Kirsten choked on the last word. I kept holding my breath and listening.

"Yeah. But what do you want to put on it? Maybe a saying? Like, 'Great son'?" I still couldn't believe what they were doing.

"Almost father?" Kirsten added.

"Kirsten..." Sandy warned.

"Sandy, his girlfriend is having his child, he's only eighteen, he died too young!" Kirsten was in tears and screaming at her husband. Now I felt really bad for eavesdropping.

"Calm down, Kirsten. We'll get through this. It's almost been six months. We've been through the roughest part of it, now this is the easier part," I was ready to walk in just so I didn't have to hear anymore of this.

"Burying our missing son and giving up that he's alive is easy? I don't think so, Sandy. Seth is gone, and he is our son. This is not near easy. It will never be easy. I want him back, but instead, we're setting up a gravestone for him," Kirsten seemed really pissed. I decided to go back to the pool house.

I grabbed the phone in there, and dialed Summer's cell phone.

"Hey," She said as I sat down on the bed. "What's up?"

"Can you come over?" I asked her. I really needed to talk to someone about this. This wasn't right. Seth was alive, he had to be.

"Um, I guess. Coop's with me, is that..." Summer started.

"That's fine. Just please come over," I told her. More people to vent to, the better. They could finally see me speak another mouthful.

"Okay, I love you," She said to me.

"Love you too," I didn't quite think about telling Summer I loved her. I had told her numerous times before. Before the accident. It was one of the last things I said to her before we crashed.

I didn't know where Summer exactly was, probably shopping. That's what she did best. After a few minutes, I got back up and decided to actually go in the house this time. Kirsten and Sandy were still sitting in the kitchen.

"Hey," I said as I finally walked in. I headed to the refrigerator and grabbed a drink.

"Hi," Kirsten mumbled and I saw that she had just stopped crying.

"What're you doing?" I wanted to see if they would tell me.

"Bills," Sandy answered without a pause or any uncertainty in his voice.

"Oh. Cool," I commented and the doorbell rang. I left my drink there and went to the door. I opened it and Summer and Marissa standing there. "Hey," I greeted them and kissed Summer. I saw Marissa stand there looking uncomfortable, and I knew why. I dated her and now I was sating her best friend. Yeah, that would be strange.

"So what do you wanna talk about?" Summer asked.

"It's something I overheard," I answered.

"Okay, so to the pool house. Wait, is Kirsten here?" Summer stopped. I knew why.

"Yeah, but..." I objected.

"Can we go around the back way?" Summer looked at me, begging-like.

"Fine," I gave in.

"Why are we going around the house?" Marissa asked, then I remembered. She wasn't here at Chrismukkah.

"Kirsten totally freaked out on me and now completely hates me," Summer put it in simple terms.

"Why weren't you here?" I wondered.

"She was with Alex," Summer was in a very gossipy mood today.

"You're still with her?" I remember the shock I had when I found out that my ex-girlfriend and Seth's girlfriend were dating each other. That was too weird.

"On and off," Marissa answered as we walked back to the pool house. Summer and Marissa sat down on the bed, staring up at me.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Summer asked.

"Well, Kirsten and Sandy are giving up on Seth being alive, and they're getting a gravestone, and Kirsten freaked out on Sandy, and now they're in there setting up what's gonna be said on it, and I think it's majorly stupid to do that, and really soon we're gonna have Seth dead and that he's never coming back, and it shouldn't happen and I need you guys to help me stop them," I rambled.

"Ryan...that made no sense," Summer told me bluntly.

"I'm not good at rambling, sorry," I didn't quite apologize.

"So what did you mean by all that?" Summer tried to keep up.

"I meant that Seth is getting a gravestone. And it's all over," I answered and sat on the bed next to them. They sat there silent for a moment, letting it all sink in.

"Aren't gravestones permanent?" Summer asked me. I looked at her.

"Yeah. That was partially my point," Maybe I shouldn't give Summer a whole lot of credit in the intelligence department.

"Right," She commented and Marissa continued to stay silent for now.

"Can we stop them somehow?" Marissa finally said a word in the pool house.

"I don't know. Kirsten's pretty adamant on it. She used to be the one who didn't want it," I couldn't believe how much life had changed. We were so different. All

of us had been part of the cause for Seth to leave. We all screwed him over.

This was our fault.

"Well, we can at least try. For Seth, I mean, I think he's still alive," Marissa exclaimed. I was with her. We had to try for the thought of Seth being alive.

"I don't know," Summer objected.

"About what?" Marissa began to argue.

"With trying to stop the gravestone," Summer looked really torn.

"You want them to get a gravestone?" I now asked Summer, blown away from her. She was always the most optimistic. And now, all of a sudden, she wasn't.

"No, I mean, yes," She couldn't make up her mind. "What I mean is, I know it's a great thought that Seth is alive, and it could be true, I'm not saying it isn't, but we have to think realistically. It's been almost six months. Nothing's been discovered. They've searched everywhere, and there is no sign of that plane. There is a possibility that they're on some deserted island you know, with coconut phones and huts, but honestly, that stuff doesn't happen. I want Seth to be alive, but do you guys really think he is?"

I didn't answer at first. I had to think about this. Seth was alive, he had to be. But what if he wasn't? What were we doing then? Putting all this false hope into a lie.

"Yeah, but he's our best friend. He shouldn't get a gravestone until we know he's really dead," Marissa argued after a moment.

"He ran away eight months ago, okay, he hated us. We made him leave, and he didn't want to do anything with us. We've been wishing he's gonna come back, but do you think he will? We're putting ourselves through hell for someone that may or may not be dead. Someone who believed we were all dead to him," Summer looked from me to Marissa, and now I got it. We had to let Seth go. If there was a hope that he was alive, there wasn't much.

"So we let Kirsten and Sandy go on with the gravestone," I announced after a few moments.

"I guess," Summer added.

"Then what happens after that?" Marissa wanted to know.

None of us did.

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It rained the day the 800 pound stone was laid in the ground. The ground was soft, and our feet sunk in it. None of us spoke as were stared at the slab of stone.

We were all dressed in black as we just looked at my brother's name etched in the stone.

I held the umbrella over me and Summer, whose head was resting on my shoulder. I looked down the long line and found not a single one of us were crying. We were emotionless, drained out.

This was the end of a huge chapter in our lives, it had unfortunately ended. I felt unfazed, like it wasn't actually happening. We had all said our goodbyes. I suppose the ones we said before this day were just temporary. Now we were done going through all the pain Seth caused us.

But he hadn't caused us pain. He made us laugh, smile. We had all lost that.

The rain was washing away someone we didn't want to go away. Seth was leaving our lives, and I knew, one day, he'd be just a memory for us all. We wouldn't be able to remember all the times he said something sarcastic, or the times he protected us. Or we protected him rather.

I guess I could say Seth was my only real friend. I had had friends in the past, but none as great as Seth. He knew the value of a friend. Sure, he overreacted about things and got pissed really fast, but he was still great.

I didn't know how much I missed him.

Slowly, people walked away, until it was only me, Summer, Kirsten, Sandy, and Aerin. You could tell Aerin was pregnant, way pregnant. I still was amazed that the kid would be Seth's.

He had left so much, so many people behind. He wouldn't know how we felt about him.

"Bye Cohen," Summer said again to the gravestone.

"See ya Seth," Then we walked away, leaving Aerin, Kirsten, and Sandy to their thoughts.

All the rain was flowing down the walkway, it was just a long stream of thoughts. It was all the goodbyes we had said. They were just headed to the sewer.

We met up with Marissa, Alex, Lindsay, Zach, Anna, and Luke in the parking lot, where we headed to the Cohens. Kirsten had invited every single person Seth ever possibly knew. There weren't many people there.

All eight of us then settled into the dining room table as caterers prepared food for the after party that was going to be held here. Of course there was a party, it was Newport.

"I can't believe he's gone," Luke commented. I hadn't seen Luke since the beginning of summer, when he hung out with us for a bit. We thought Seth being gone would be a two week thing. From two weeks to three months. We made bets once. As a joke. We were taking Seth being here for granted.

Everyone had lost. None of us had thought he'd be gone for as long as he was.

"Yep," Summer agreed. We didn't look at each other, we just stared at random objects for as long as we could.

"I wonder if he's happy," Marissa commented.

"How can he be happy? He's dead," Luke shot that down.

"I meant that if he is alive, he's happy wherever he is," Marissa told him.

"Oh," Luke answered.

"I was trying to remember a great memory with Cohen in it that didn't end up crappy, but there are none," Summer exclaimed.

"What about when we went to the L.A.?" Marissa suggested.

"You found about..."Summer nudged her head over to Luke.

"Oh, right," Marissa understood. I tried to think of a time when not everything fell apart. This was hard.

"How about the SnO.C.?" Lindsay commented. That was a relatively good time for me, but not for anyone else really. Maybe Marissa.

"I punched him," Zach ruined that.

"Summer, what about the time he stood on the coffee cart for you?" Anna now suggested. I remember Seth talking about that. I didn't pay attention that much to it then, but now, I did.

"That was a pretty good time. Except we broke up," Summer informed her.

"What about the model home?" Marissa looked over at me and smiled.

"Model home? What model home? I'm missing something here," Summer complained.

"Seth and me hid Ryan in a model home back when he first came here," Marissa told my girlfriend.

"Oh yeah, I remember that. Didn't it burn down?"

"Luke did that," I said.

"You helped," Luke argued.

"How so? You and your friends beat me up and left me for dead in a burning house," I couldn't find where I had been part of the problem.

"You were there in the first place," Luke defended and we laughed.

And then we were back to silence.

Once the party, if you could say party, was in full swing, we got a bit more friendly. I walked around, and Julie actually was nice to me. I got away fast before she could say anything more.

"Hey Ryan," I looked back and saw Anna.

"Hey," I greeted her.

"So, you and Summer are together?" Anna wanted information.

"Yeah, about eight months," I couldn't believe it was that long.

"Neat. I heard about your coma thing," I remembered that last time I saw Anna. It was two years ago, and I was with Theresa. Things had really changed.

"Yeah," I didn't quite like remembering being in that.

"How long was that?" She asked.

"Six weeks. Not as bad as Seth's going for," I commented.

"He'll come back," At least there was one person with a little optimism.

"Hope so. Are you staying in Newport long?" I asked.

"I want to, but I have school back in Pennsylvania. I just have this weekend off. I'm flying back tomorrow," Anna informed me.

"It was good seeing ya."

"Yeah, same here," And Anna walked away. I guessed it would be another two years before I saw her again.

I walked around some more, wading through the barely twenty people. Not many people knew Seth. I felt bad, seeing how many people were his friends. But they were his real friends, they cared about him, even if in the end, he didn't care about them.

Yeah, I had a feeling he'd come back.

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A/n: claps for Ali

alexis - Haha. Confusing. You mean it isn't confusing already? Hota ka!

paige fan - Who was that? No clue. Kidding. I have an idea for where this is going… why was she being chased by the police? Well, I don't wanna ruin the show for you, but it may have something to do with robbing a bank. wink

Harper's Pixie - I couldn't kill Charlie again! And thanks. Haha.

AME - oh wow. Thanks! And I am feeling a bit better, thanks.