Once again a big thanks to melanie39 for beta-ing

Thanks for the greatreviews folks.

R+R!

Come Undone

Chapter 9

Seth was pacing. A blond girl was leaning over the prone form of Ryan on the mattress trying to get him to wake up. Gently shaking him, and repeating 'come on Ryan, open your eyes, come on baby, wake up' The greasy haired man had rushed in with bags of frozen vegetables and ice and pulled up Ryan's wet shirt and placing them on his stomach.

"Why you doing that? He's going to be O.K right, cause I still think that we need to get him to the hospital, I mean what if he dies and we just nothing but deep freeze him…. why are his eyes doing that?" He was rambling he knew that but he didn't know what else to do. He'd never felt so useless in his life.

The sight of Ryan's rapidly flickering eyelids was severely freaking him out.

The man rounded on Seth.

"Will you just shut up….. Who the fuck are you anyway?"

Melissa gave Chris a warning glare.

"He's worried for Christ's sake, leave him alone Chris!"

Missy continued to stroke Ryan's bangs away from his eyes. She looked over at Seth.

" We need to get his body temperature down that's what's causing the seizure. Don't worry we know what we're doing, this has happened before."

Seth's eyes bugged.

"Ryan's done this before."

Missy gave a sympathetic smile.

"No, not Ryan, Someone else. I guess the new stuff was cut with some shit or something…. And Ryan's been hitting it hard the last few days. He's just had a bad reaction."

"What…" Seth was confused. Ryan didn't do drugs. He realised that he didn't know Ryan as well as he thought.

Chris gave a nasty laugh.

"Why? Did you think Atwood is in this state from taking a few Tylenol? He's been snorting coke like it's been going out of fashion."

Missy gave Chris another warning glare and turned her attention back to Ryan. The next ten minutes were spent shifting the ice around Ryan's body

His eyes were still now. She felt his forehead.

"He's cooling down. The seizure's stopped"

Seth walked over to where Ryan lay. He still looked like shit. All pale, clammy and still breathing shallow breaths.

Missy shook Ryan again; this time it elicited a response. Ryan moved his head and groaned.

It was the best sound that Seth had heard in his life; at least it meant that Ryan was alive.

"Look…. err who are you?" Missy glanced at the tall panicked boy.

"Seth, Seth Cohen." Seth couldn't take his eyes of Ryan.

"O.K Seth, I'm Melissa… we need to get him on his feet, can you help me with that?"

She figured that if he kept him busy that might help, the kid looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Seth nodded dumbly.

"Chris can you get some water for Ryan?"

"I'm on it."

Chris left the room; Seth was relieved to see him go. Ryan seemed to be in safer hands with Melissa. He trusted her more. She kind of reminded him of an older version of Summer. He watched her gently shake Ryan again.

"Ryan, We are going to get you up now. Do you understand?"

Ryan's eyelids half lifted and he gave a protracted 'Mmmmm'.

Seth reached under Ryan's arm with Missy the other side they heaved him upright. They half carried, half dragged him around the room in circles.

Slowly the pressure on Seth's shoulders began to ease as Ryan came too gradually. When he seemed to be walking fairly independently they sat him back down on the bed. Seth was relieved to see that he was able to sit upright on his own, O.K it was a slightly slumped upright but that was a distinct improvement. Chris walked over from the door where he'd been standing and handed Missy the bottle of water. She opened it and placed it in Ryan's hand. Seth watched Ryan drink and thought that this had possibly been the longest hour of his life.

Ryan put the water down and ran his fingers through his hair. He turned to Seth.

"Hey." His voice barely registered.

"That's quite a scare you gave us Buddy. Do you want to tell me what the hell that was all about?" Seth was still trying to make sense of what he'd just seen.

Ryan responded by looking back down at the floor. Missy looked from Ryan to Seth. In the short time she had known Ryan, she knew that this was not the time for a confessional.

"Hey Baby, I think you'll feel a lot better after a shower and a nap."

Ryan looked at her gratefully, and got up too quickly causing the contents of his stomach to awake like a leviathan, Missy saw him turn a shade of green and swallow a few times as a warning of what was to come and grabbed him pulling him into the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

Seth sat on the bed listening to the sound of violent vomiting within making him vow never to do drugs, EVER. Not after what he'd seen tonight. He gazed around the room. His brain not comprehending why Ryan would want to leave the luxury of his spacious pool house for this shitty room with its peeling paint and ripped stained rugs. His eyes rested on the tray by the side of the bed, the bag of white powder, the razor blade and the dollar bill. Still lying there from when Ryan had used them.

Seth got up and kicked the tray across the room. What the hell was wrong with living with them that made Ryan do this? Choose this?

He thought that Ryan had settled in, O.K things had gone a little complicated with Marissa and the whole Oliver thing. His dad dying couldn't have been easy but why was Ryan so fucking eager to help everyone else but be hell bent on self-destruction when things got bad for him.

Missy opened the door and went over to the pack that was lying on its side by the door. She removed the toothbrush and paste from within and returned to the bathroom. Seth grabbed the pack and turned the contence out on the bed, jeans, tee-shirts and the ubiquitous Ryan beaters. So he'd been right to turn around and head back here after 5 minutes on the road. Ryan had been ready to leave. So much for the promise of meeting in the morning, Ryan would have been long gone.

Ryan had emerged from the shower and immediately fallen asleep. Seth had spent the time trying to figure out what he was going to do. He fell into a fitful sleep a while later.

He awoke to find an exhausted looking Missy stood over him with two cups of coffee in hand.

"I thought you could use this."

Seth took the cup and nodded to the hall.

"Ryan O.K.?"

"Yeah, he's still sleeping." Missy took a sip of the scalding liquid.

"So do you want to tell me why you're here?" Missy looked inquiringly at Seth. This kid did not belong on Chino that much was obvious.

That opened up the floodgates for Seth. He told her all about how Ryan had come to live with them. Everything came out. All the things leading up to Ryan's disappearance at his father's funeral. The four-day search. How Sandy was going insane looking for him and how Kirsten spent most of the time walking around with red-rimmed eyes. Finally finishing on how he felt that he'd let Ryan down, that Ryan wouldn't open up to him …them. That he knew less about Ryan now than he'd know when he'd first moved in.

Missy had sat quietly throughout. She wondered how much to tell this boy. He seemed so earnest…hell he really seemed to care.

When Seth had finished she went and made the each a fresh coffee and sat down. She bit the bullet.

"I knew Trey, we were together for a few months a while back. You know Trey?"

Seth shook his head.

"Ryan's Brother. I've never met him. So you were his girlfriend?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm working my way through the family right…"

She gave Seth a smile causing him to blush.

" Well, the thing is Trey liked to think he was the big 'I am'…. but deep down I don't think he really liked himself. The tough guy image was a bluff... I see that in Ryan, But Ryan is a lot more sensitive than Trey ever was. You see, that family really fucked up its kids. Dawn was a real bitch. I mean Ryan probably doesn't remember me but one day Trey took me home and we found Ryan being punched by one of her ass boyfriends. He must have been about 13 at the time; Trey went off on one at his mother…. She defended her boyfriend by saying Ryan had been answering back. I mean what thirteen-year-old kid doesn't answer back… but Seth, this man was punching him, not slapping… Punching. A grown man against a skinny little kid."

Missy lit a cigarette and sighed before continuing.

" Trey used to drink a lot and sometimes it made him talk about stuff…a couple of times he'd speak about his father…He…err…he said that his father used to…. do things to him…"

Missy looked over at Seth to see if he understood, hoping that she wouldn't have to repeat the things that Trey had drunkenly told her.

Seth gulped and shut his eyes. Comprehension dawned in his brain. Ohh Shit.

" So I guess you know why Ryan is so fucked up, why he runs out on people…I guess he's trying to run from himself…Just promise me Seth you wont tell him we've talked about this O.K.?"

Seth felt sick.

He knew that Ryan's childhood hadn't been a bed of roses. In Seth's mind that had equated to not having cable or the top of the range sneakers. He knew that Dawn drunk too much and probably shouldn't have been allowed to keep a puppy let alone two kids. He knew that his father was in prison but apart from that he'd known nothing about Ryan growing up. He just hadn't really given it much of a thought. He'd been so pleased to have Ryan living with them. Nothing growing up in the Cohen bubble had prepared him for facing this.

Missy gave his arm a squeeze and got up saying that she was going to check on Ryan.

Seth realised that he was out of his depth. He flipped open his phone and dialled.

It was 5.30 am when Sandy reached for the phone. Kirsten sat upright next to him wiping sleep from her eyes. Worry etched on her face. Calls this early were never good news.

He picked up the handset. Looking at his wife with deep concern thinking the same as her.

"Sandy Cohen."

"Dad, You need to come out here right now."

TBC