Chapter 14

The Message

"And Summer Roberts goes in for the pin…one, two, and three! She wins by a landslide!"

"Now get off of me!" Seth was gasping for air as he pushed me off of him.

"Hey! Watch the pregnant one!" Marissa scolded.

"It's alright Coop. As you could just obviously see, Cohen's ticklish. I'm good, I can punish him later on," I squeezed Seth's side and he went nuts.

"Can't you leave me alone for two seconds?" he kicked my foot gently. Even though he was joking I could depict some sincerity in his voice. I had been extremely clingy to Seth since we had come home from the hospital almost two weeks ago. We were in our first day of summer and already driving each other crazy. My dad was still absent and Sandy was still desperately trying to locate him in order to sort things out. I was happy Sandy couldn't find him but at the same time I hated to see him get so discouraged.

Sandy and Kirsten had been so wonderful to me. They allowed me to stay with Seth in his room and they treated me like part of the family. I thought Sandy was going to go into heart failure when we explained to him and Kirsten that I was pregnant with Seth's child. But both of them had been surprisingly supportive. I had erased all possible doubt from my mind that the baby wasn't Seth's. I came to the conclusion that there was a time that the condom must have broke or a time when we just got too caught up in each other and didn't remember. And Seth and I had also come to another conclusion together. We were going to put the baby up for adoption. We were going to finish high school, but we couldn't do it with a baby. We knew it would be extremely hard giving the baby up. But we decided that we would always be there for each other nonetheless.

"Ready to eat guys?" Sandy poked his head into Seth's room.

"It all depends," Seth said. "What is it and who made it?"

"Chinese take out," Sandy rolled his eyes at Seth. "Come on. Marissa would you like to go check on Ryan? He was still fighting a fever when I checked on him earlier." Poor Chino was sick the first day of summer. She nodded her head as we left Seth's bedroom. He clasped his hand into mine and gave it a kiss. We entered the kitchen to the smell of orange chicken and fried rice. Another thing I had gotten used to during my stay at the Cohen residence was eating regularly. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It had been hard at first, especially factoring in morning sickness, but I was now able to keep down decent amounts of food.

"So," Kirsten said setting glass of water next to her plate of food. "What did you guys do today?"

"Absolutely nothing," Seth answered, stuffing an egg roll into his mouth. That wasn't really true. We had spent most of the day in the living room, caring for a sick Ryan who kept telling us he was fine. Between doing that and Jerry Springer I saw our day as being scaled on, at the very least, a vaguely entertaining.

"Well that's good. It's better for Summer to take it easy anyway," Sandy seemed distracted tonight. I watched as Kirsten closed her hand on top of his and gave him a small smile.

"It feels weird in here without Ryan," Seth commented. Even though Ryan usually said only four words during dinner, 'Thank you for dinner', it did seem unusually quiet without his presence.

"Could we go eat in the pool house?" he asked. Sandy nodded his head.

"Don't make a mess!" he called after us as we picked up our plates and headed outside.

"Hi honey," Marissa crawled up into bed next to Ryan whose face was still flushed. The smell of Mentholatum and cherry cough drop was in the air. Ryan opened one of his eyes and groaned.

"I told you I was okay you guys," he stated groggily.

"Birds of a feather flock together Ryan," Seth said, sitting crossed legged on the floor next to me with his plate of food.

"What?" Ryan asked, looking like he had a headache already.

"As long as your sick then we're going to keep you company. Except when your asleep…it's kinda freaky…you start talking," I said.

"I don't want to risk getting you sick Summer. It wouldn't be good," Ryan said.

"I won't get sick," I assured him, putting a small fork full of rice into my mouth. Marissa and Seth both knocked on the wooden nightstand.

"I won't get sick!" I repeated.

"I brought you soup," Marissa said helping Ryan sit up. He was pretty quiet after that.

"We need to get you a TV in here," Seth said after about a minute or two of silence. He brought his knees up to his chest having finished his dinner.

"Why did your dad seem so distant tonight?" Marissa asked, using her own spoon to scoop the chicken out of Ryan's soup.

"Did he?" Seth asked playing with his fork. "I didn't notice."

"That's because you've never been the most observant one in the bunch," Marissa said.

"Do you think it was about me?" I asked. Anytime anyone seemed even just a little discouraged I automatically assumed it was about me. Especially when it came to Sandy.

"Nah, he'd come to you first," Seth said.

"How are you feeling Ryan?" We turned and saw Sandy standing in the doorway.

"Speak of the devil," Seth muttered under his breath.

"A lot better, thanks," he said.

"Summer, do you think I could see you in the house for a moment?" Sandy asked.

"Sure Mr. Cohen," I said getting to my feet.

"Can I come?" Seth asked as I took his plate from him.

"We'll only be a minute," Sandy said.

"Think of it as the first time you'll actually be rid of me for more then a couple of seconds in two weeks," I teased.

"Ha, ha. Very funny," Seth pinched my leg and I followed Sandy out of the pool house.

"Dinner was good," I replied as he opened the door to the kitchen.

"Why thank you. It was my world famous call-to-the-Chinese-place," he joked. I smiled then placed our dirty plates next to the sink. Kirsten was still sitting at the table. Her hands were clasped together and she had her head bowed down, almost like she was praying. She looked up as Sandy motioned for me to sit down. My stomach took a painful lurch. This couldn't be good. Sandy sat down across from me, next to Kirsten who was still seated at the head of the table.

"Summer," Sandy began. "Your father left a message on my phone today." I felt my breath catch in my throat and I couldn't even form words to reply. "He said for me to stop looking for him, which you understand I cannot do. Besides some static, the rest of the message only said that we shouldn't try to contact him in anyway. There wasn't a callback number and he didn't say where he was, but I think I will be able to get together with the FBI and figure out where the call was sent from."

"No," was my knee jerk reaction. "He said not to contact him."

"Summer, there is nothing more I want right now then to get things straight between your father and I. And if that means finding him, trying him for child abuse and neglect, throwing him in jail, and putting you into the system then that's what I am willing to do," Sandy said sternly.

"The system! I can't go into foster care! I just can't," I felt that I was fighting a losing battle.

"I will try and locate your mother if I have to," Sandy said not backing down. My mother. I don't even remember what she looks like.

"I want to stay here," I said quietly. "I want to stay with Seth."

"You see how well things went with that the first time," Sandy said slightly cocking his head to an angle.

"It was an accident," I pleaded gently. "We just weren't careful."

"And we aren't going to hold that against you honey," Kirsten finally jumped to my defense. "You are going to stay with us until things are figured out. And at this point Sandy's got a ways to go until anything is permanent. I don't want you to worry about any of this Summer. We were at odds if we should even tell you or not."

"I'm glad you did Mrs. Cohen. Thank you," I whispered quietly, staring down at my hands.

"I don't mean to scare you Summer. I promise you that you will be safe with us until things are figured out," Sandy said resting his hand on top of mine. "Don't worry." I gently nodded my head.

"Will you take this to Ryan?" Kirsten handed me a box of tissues and some more cough drops.

"Of course," I said taking the things from Kirsten and heading back outside, not looking back. I quickly pulled the door open. Seth, Ryan, and Coop looked up at me expectantly. I sighed. It was time to uncover the latest update to my partners in crime…