Chapter 16

Heavenly Flower

Watching Sandy pace was never something that I particularly enjoyed doing. I knew he did it because he was either at a loss of what to say or of what to do. Layla sat in the middle of Marissa and I on the sofa in the living room. Seth was sitting cross legged on a chair in the corner still trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. We had woken Sandy up as soon as we had gotten home. Tears were still rolling down Layla's face and every so often her tiny hands would rub them away. Her whole story hadn't come out yet. Sandy continued to pace in front of the 4 of us.

"Will you please sit dad. Your making Summer nervous," Seth stifled a yawn. I smiled at him gratefully. Sandy sat down in the arm chair that was angled towards the coffee table. This was almost worse because now we were looking at him straight on and he wasn't exactly thrilled with our current situation.

"How old are you Layla?" Sandy asked gently. I guessed he was going to just start out with the basics and lead into the reason why she was alone, crying on the boardwalk.

"Five," Layla held up five little fingers. Marissa rubbed her back gently.

"How come you were all alone this late at night?" Sandy asked her.

"I couldn't go home," Layla answered softly.

"How come?" Sandy asked, leaning forward slightly.

"Because Mommy and Daddy went away," she whispered, starting to bawl again.

"Hey, it's okay sweetie. We're going to help you," Marissa said gently, hugging Layla tightly. "But you have to tell us what happened first."

"They were just gone when I woke up," she explained tearfully.

"But didn't you tell Summer and I that you thought they were dead?" Marissa asked.

"Well isn't that what they are if they aren't home with me?" Layla asked. My heart seemed to crumble into a million pieces and I wanted to go over and cry with her.

"Well you know what Layla, your going to stay here with us for a little bit until we can figure things out alright?" Sandy said.

"Will you find my mommy and daddy?" she asked hopefully.

"I will do the very best I can okay?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Layla answered, looking down at the ground.

"Will you three be able to manage her for a couple of hours?" Sandy asked getting his coat off of the back of the chair.

"Where are you going?" Seth asked suspiciously.

"Not now Seth. Will you be able to? I can wake up your mother," Sandy said reaching into both of his pockets in an effort to locate his keys.

"It's alright Mr. Cohen. We can handle it," Marissa jumped in before Seth could agree with Sandy in waking up Kirsten.

"Okay. I should be back before the sun comes up. And don't forget to check on Ryan every few minutes alright?" With that Sandy was gone and we were left alone in the living room with a tiny, scared, confused little girl.

"Can I wipe your nose for you?" I asked Layla gently touching her arm.

"No thank you," her response came out almost before I could finish asking the question. She pulled her knees up to her chest.

"You have very pretty hair," Marissa commented, touching Layla on the head.

"Thank you," Layla said wiping her nose on the sleeve of her torn jacket.

"Are you sleepy Layla?" Seth surprised both Marissa and I by speaking up. Layla nodded. "Come on then pal. Were going to get you some juice and wipe up your face and find you some nice clothes to sleep in." Seth had taken Layla's hand and was leading her out of the living room. She seemed a little apprehensive at first but then followed Seth without any indication that she was uncomfortable going with him.

"He scares me sometimes," Marissa commented.

"What do you think happened to her parents Coop?" I asked softly.

"I don't know. I hope Sandy will be able to find them. Do you want to go with me to check on Ryan?" she asked. I nodded my head and followed her out of the house. Whatever Seth was up to I figured he could handle it by himself for a couple of minutes. When we opened the door of the pool house, Ryan was well into a coughing fit.

"You poor thing!" Marissa crawled up next to him and patted him on the back until the coughing subsided.

"Where were you? Summer, are you alright?" he asked noticing me in the doorway. I came in and sat myself down at the edge of the bed.

"I'm okay. I just couldn't sleep. Marissa and I went for a walk," I said, leaving the last part of the statement open for Marissa to go into further detail with it. She didn't so I decided not to bring up Layla either. Ryan's head was probably already too cloudy from all the medicine he was on to take in a lot at once anyway.

"Why couldn't you sleep?" Ryan asked. The baby was still active and I was debating whether or not just to shrug it off with an 'I had a bad dream' or 'Seth was snoring'. But instead I took Ryan's hand and gently placed it over my belly like I had with Seth and Marissa. Ryan quickly retracted his hand away, like he had accidentally touched something hot.

"Is that…?"

"It's the baby," I answered before he could even finish the question. A couple of awkward seconds went by.

"It feels funny," Ryan said, putting his hand back over my stomach.

"Gee, thanks Chino," I teased him.

"Does it feel funny?" Marissa asked me.

"It did a little at first, but not so much anymore," I said.

"We found a little girl Ryan. Summer and I, when we were on our walk," Marissa said. I guess I was wrong about her saying anything about Layla.

"What?" he asked switching his attention back over to her.

"Her names Layla, she's only five and she was all by herself and she was scared so Summer and I brought her with us and now Sandy went somewhere to go do something but she's upstairs with Seth," Marissa rambled all at once.

"And you brought her home?" Ryan asked slowly, seeming to only digest bits and pieces of what Marissa was saying. She nodded. "And you left her alone with Seth?"

"Okay, maybe not the smartest thing to do but we wanted to see if you were okay," Marissa said. I looked over at the clock on Ryan's nightstand. It was only 4:30 and the sky hadn't even begun to change colors yet.

"You better go back and see if he's alright," Ryan said.

"Okay, but I'll be back in a little bit to see how your doing. Try to get some sleep," Marissa kissed Ryan on the forehead and followed me to the door.

"And Marissa," he said before we headed back into the night. "Keep Summer out of here please." I stuck my tongue out at him while Marissa promised she would.

"Why's he so uptight about that?" I asked.

"He's serious Summer. He doesn't want anything to happen to the baby," Marissa said before pulling open the door. We were quiet as we walked up the stairs and toward Seth's room. The door was open and we could see Seth sitting at the edge of his bed from the hallway.

"What are you doing?" Marissa asked.

"Shhh!" Seth pointed to a small bulge in the middle of his bed. There was Layla, all bundled up in a couple of Seth's blankets. Her eyes fluttered open.

"See!" Seth cried. "You don't even know how long it took me to get her to sleep."

"Oh please! You were barely up here 5 minutes!" Marissa exclaimed. Layla sat up in bed.

"I never fell to sleepy anyway," Layla offered, yawning. "Please don't fight ok?"

"It's okay Layla. Marissa and I aren't fighting, we're just merely having an in depth discussion," Seth said through gritted teeth.

"Do your parents fight at all Layla?" I asked. She nodded her blonde head.

"Lots. But Mommy says that it's vital in a healthy relationship for couples to have fights," Layla said innocently reciting the words her mother had said to her.

"I really like your name. It's pretty," Marissa said, sitting down next to Seth on the bed. I did the same.

"Layla is just my nickname. My real name is Lelani. It means heavenly flower in Hawaiian," Layla smiled proudly.

"That's very unique," I said.

"What's that?" Layla asked.

"One of a kind," Seth smiled at her.

"Oh. I've never met a 'Summer' before so your name is unique too," Layla giggled.

"Thanks sweetie," I said gently. She was so sweet and tiny! But I was determined to find the source of her bruises. And the story that was hidden underneath them.

Apologies for the length but it's what I've got for right now! Thank u all 4 being so awesome w/ ur reviews and I promise I will make an effort 2 make the next ch. longer. I bet you've heard that before right?

Dru

PS. Who else can't wait 4 OC 2morrow night? GO RM:)