A/N: It might be a while before I get a chance to update again, so here's a good long chapter for you. And second I personally refuse to read spoilers for the show, because I like the element of surprise, but my friend does and she informed me that the plot line I establish at the end of this chapter as been rumored to happen towards the finale, so I'm just warning you that if it happens I swear I didn't mean to spoil anything for anyone, and I didn't mean for this to coincide with the show I mapped this story out two months ago.

Chapter Eight

"Do I really have to do this?" Ryan broke his kiss with Marissa and pleaded to her with his eyes.

"As much as I wish we could get out of it…"

"Well call," he reached into the center console of her car and handed her the phone, "Cancel, tell them we have other plans."

"You're funny," she ran her face down his face. "But if I did that I'd never here the end of it from my mother." She got out of the car and walked around to his side.

Ryan sighed, defeated; "Ok but we're going to be late then." He told her as he got out of the car.

"For what?" Marissa threw her head back, she didn't know they actually had other plans.

"This," he reached into his back pocket and handed her a white envelope.

Marissa took the envelope from his hands and looked at him quizzically. "What's this?" She watched as he shrugged and urged her to open the envelope. Her eyes widen as she pulled two tickets from the envelope, "Over It tickets! Ryan this is…"

"Your favorite band, I know you play the damn CD enough." He gave her a pleased half grin.

"This show has been sold out weeks, how did you get tickets?"

"I slept with the girl at the ticket counter," he grinned as she shot him a not so amused look. "Joey knows a couple of promoters he called in some favors for me."

"I so do not want to go to dinner now." She bit her bottom lip at him, "But we kinda have to."

"Yeah yeah I know, let's just get this over with so you can have fun." He took her hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek as they made their way up the Cohen's driveway.

"Marissa!" Kirsten opened the door and greeted her before she'd even had a chance to knock.

"Hi Kirsten," she leaned in and gave Kirsten a kiss on the cheek. "You've met Ryan right."

"Yes Ryan nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you as well Mrs. Cohen," he reached out and nervously shook her hand.

"Please call me Kirsten, come on inside you two. Jimmy and Sandy are in the living room, and Julie's not here yet."

Marissa took Ryan's hand again and gave him a firm squeeze as if to tell him everything was going to be ok. Ryan took a deep breath and followed a step behind Marissa as they entered into the living room.

"Marissa, hey kiddo." Jimmy Cooper jumped up to hug his daughter, not noticing the man in tow.

"Hey Dad, I want to introduce you to someone," she let go of her dad and Jimmy took a step back, "This is…"

Surprise crossed her face as her dad cut her off, "Ryan Atwood," Jimmy quickly extended his hand out, "The boxer right?" There was an amusing amount of glee in his voice. "You're a middleweight 8

and 0 with…" he paused to think, "Four knockouts?"

"Yes sir." Ryan answered with a half laugh then looked over to a surprised Marissa, who shrugged at him.

"You're the best young fighter in the division right now, they say you could be a contender for the belt before much longer.'

"That's what they say," he humbly answered Jimmy.

"Man I was at the fight you had in Newport a while back, you took a nasty punch to the temple. The guy got disqualified because it was after the bell, gave everyone in the crowd a scare that night."

Marissa gave a small laugh, "That was the night we met," she flashed Ryan a quick smile.

"Yeah it all worked out for the best in my case, didn't lose the fight and well…"

"Ryan!" He was cut off by the yell of Seth who was coming down the stair, "Good to see you again man," Seth grabbed Ryan and shook his hand with both hands. "How have you been good? Yeah me too, well no not exactly, but yeah we gotta talk man this whole thing with Sum…"

"Hi Seth," Marissa cut him off trying not to sound overly annoyed.

"Marissa hi, Mr. Cooper, Ryan… Did I interrupt the meet and greet here? I bet I did… I should go check on the take out make sure my mother's not trying to cook it or anything… I'm going to go to the kitchen now." Seth kitchen trip had both impeccably perfect and absolutely horrid timing, because at that moment Kirsten entered into the living room, followed closely behind by the infamous Julie Cooper.

"Marissa honey, good to see you, this must be Ryan. Hmm I picture you taller," Julie cocked her head to one side and continued to study Ryan, making him incredibly uncomfortable. "And better looking, you know Marissa's first boyfriend was incredibly gorgeous, you just don't measure up."

"Julie," Jimmy stopped her with harshness in his voice.

"What just being honest, I mean there's no since in fooling the boy into believing that he could ever be remotely good enough from my daughter. I mean for god's sake Jimmy he's from Chino for one thing and thinks he could make a living out of punching people, I mean is that really the type of man you want Marissa with?"

"Mother!"

"No it's okay, Marissa." Ryan stopped her, "I mean you're mother's right." He said with a stone cold straight face. "Where I'm from and what I do, it has everything to do with how I feel about you and how I treat you right Mrs. Cooper. I mean because I'm from Chino I couldn't possibly know how to treat Marissa with respect." He emphasized the word respect when he spoke to Julie.

"Now Ryan I'm not saying you're a not a nice boy, but Marissa deserves someone of… how could I put this higher quality."

Ryan nodded his head, then looked to Marissa, "This isn't going to work out, I'm gonna go hang out with Seth just come and get me when you're ready to go." He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then extended his hand out to Jimmy, "Mr. Cooper it was very nice to meet you."

"You too Ryan, and please excuse my ex-wife."

Ryan nodded once more then hastily made his exit into the kitchen, and nodded to Seth as he walked in.

"Once again, you're not much with the words are you… so I take in things didn't go so well."

"Mr. Cooper's cool."

"Yeah he is, really nice guys, he really loves Marissa too. And believe it or not so does Julie Cooper, it's just… she's Julie Cooper, she's kinda the spawn of Satan."

"I've known plenty of people like her, she knew me for a whole two seconds before she passed judgement on me. She didn't even bother to get to know me or know how I feel about Marissa. It was all where I'm from and what I do."

"We're not all like that, some of us actually know and like certain people for who they are and how they act. Like I know this guy, who knew me for like two seconds but he, was willing to get into a hue brawl just to keep me from getting my ass kicked. And I'd say he's by far one of the best guys I know."

"Thanks man," Ryan looked at Seth with a new understanding that he was right, they weren't all like that. "So, how do you think it's going in there?" He asked Seth referring to Marissa and her parents in the other room.

"My guess… Julie, Marissa, same room, never such a good combination."

"You chased him from the room mother!"

"It was his decision to leave the room, I never said anything to him about leaving."

"Yeah why would he want to stay, so he could continue to be insulted? My God he didn't even say anything and you attacked him. And you're going to wonder why I didn't tell you I was dating anyone."

"Well honestly Marissa, he's from Chino, you can do so much better. I just wanted him to know that he wasn't your only option."

"Does it even matter to you how I feel about him? Or is it all about where he's from and how much money he has."

"You deserve someone of higher class than him."

"I had guys of higher class, and they were both shit ok. I have finally managed to move past everything that happened, I am finally letting myself get close to someone again and you're going to come in here and in thirty seconds fuck it all up for me!" Marissa yelled at her mother, not caring that Jimmy, Sandy and Kirsten were all standing in the room. From the corner of her eye she could see Kirsten and Sandy slowly moving towards the kitchen.

"Man kid," Sandy looked at Ryan as he walked towards the fridge, "You caused some serious fireworks in there."

Ryan shrugged at him, "I don't know how, I barely said anything."

"Well, Julie Cooper is… Julie Cooper, don't let her get to you too much."

"Sandy, Kirsten, thank you for having us," Marissa told them after she stormed into the kitchen. "But we're going to leave, you guys have a nice dinner, we actually have other plans now." She reached over and took Ryan's hand, "Come on. Let's go."

"Alright, I'll see you later Seth," he called back as Marissa tugged him towards the front door.

Once they made it to the car, Ryan grabbed Marissa's hand as she tried to put the keys into her ignition, "You're really upset, why don't you let me drive."

"I am so sorry for the way she acted, I swear."

"It's not your fault. Your Dad's really nice."

"Yeah he's great… Would you be horribly upset if I didn't want to go to the concert? I just don't really like being around people right now."

"No it's totally up to you, I mean you can take me back to my car and I'll just go home."

"Ok people didn't include you, I was thinking we could just go to the beach or something."

Ryan gave her a half smile, "Sure."

Marissa reached up and caressed his face; "It doesn't matter ok." Her eyes bled sincerity. "All those things she said, I don't care about any of it. I care about you a lot and nothing else matters to me."

"I know you're not like her Marissa, I would be here if you were."

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The radio from Marissa's car blared onto the beach as Ryan stood back watching Marissa run in and out of the water singing along, they could have been at the concert but he knew that she was having just as much fun on the beach dancing along to the CD from her car, and that's all that mattered to him. He couldn't help but smile as she twirled around; hands tangled in her hair and sang along. His heart was filling up quick for her. And though he couldn't say that her mother's words hadn't hurt him, he knew that having money was just a pipe dream with a slim possibility of happening. That most guys boxed for years and never made more than a few thousand a fight, but money didn't matter to him and he knew he could treat Marissa better than anyone else. And even if her mother never accepted him, he wasn't going to let that affect how he felt about her. No one else had ever made him felt like she did and he wasn't going to let go of that.

Marissa charge up the beach to Ryan and threw her arms around him, she gave him and small kiss and then quickly pulled back singing along with the music to him.

"Its not easy. No satisfaction guaranteed I get queasy. They're rolling their eyes but here's what I've got to say." She pulled back and pressed her forehead against his, and instead of singing along she began mouthing the words, her lips brushing his with every words she mouth. "The price of beauty; to find love in a quiet moment of pain, Stay for a lifetime, its gonna take the rest of our days to explain." She let their lips fully meet and lost her eyes in a kiss. There was something about that kiss that made Marissa's head spin, every kiss with Ryan was like nothing she'd ever felt before, but this one was stronger. It took all the willpower she had to break the kiss, and look deeply into his eyes, "Let's go back to my apartment." She took his hand and led him back to the car.

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It was the first time Ryan had actually seen Marissa's room, not that he was paying much attention to the room itself, he was focused on her. He felt nervous like this was his first time, it wasn't and he was sure it wasn't hers either but for some odd reason they were both acting like scared teenagers.

"This is it, where I sleep," Marissa held her hands up as if to put her room on display, then sat down on her bed.

Ryan sat down next to her, and leaned in to kiss her. She was unresponsive at first, not in a cold or unsure way, but a nervous way. He reached up and gently rested his hand on her cheek, he felt her relax and respond to his kiss. Slowly they moved back onto the bed, and Marissa began unbuttoning his shirt, until it was off and on the floor leaving him in his wifebeater. For the moment he was content on staying that way. Ryan felt no need to rush this; he wanted to savor this, as did she. His kissed trailed from her lips all over her face and down to her neck. Marissa ran her fingers through his hair and her other hand smoothed up and down his back, as she felt his kiss move down over the fabric of her shirt until he reached her stomach. She let out a small giggle at the tickles of his kiss around her navel. Ryan looked up and met with her eyes as if he was asking permission, Marissa nodded and raised her arms as Ryan removed her shirt and began kissing his way back up.

Marissa relax more and continued to play with his hair as he kissed up her body, she was so relaxed that she let her eyes slip closed. She felt Ryan reach around and undo her bra clasp, but not remove it, she felt his hand reach for hers and interlock his fingers into hers tightly. With this motion Marissa panicked, her eyes snapped open and she abruptly sat up. "Ryan, I'm sorry I can't do this." Fighting tears that were beginning to well up. She flung her body away from him and reached for her discarded shirt clutching it too her chest in an attempt to cover her up.

Ryan confused sat up and reached for Marissa shoulder only to feel her skin quake at her touch and have her snapped away from him. "What's wrong, I thought you wanted to…"

"I did… I do…. I just… I can't. I'm sorry. I just can't." She broke into a full on sob, and pulled her shirt over her head.

"Hey," he moved onto the edge of the bed next to her, "What's wrong… did I do something to make you cry…"

"No it's not your fault I'm sorry," She sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"Then what is it," His eyes were soft and his voice gentle, "I promise whatever it is I can take, I mean I made it through you mother." He joked.

Marissa gave a soft laugh, "Yeah you did," she agreed and sighed. "Ryan," she turned to face him. "I haven't exactly told you everything about my past, I mean I've left some things out."

He shrugged, "So have I, its no big deal right?"

She sighed again, "I've had another relationship, other than Luke and Alex."

"Ok, you're not still seeing him right… or her…" He watched as Marissa shook her head and began to cry again, this prompted Ryan to reach up and wipe the tears from her eyes.

Marissa swallowed hard and continued, "Him, Oliver. After everything happened with Luke and I got out of the mental institution my parents still wanted me to go to therapy, that's where we met therapy. I guess that really should have been my first clue," she tried to joke through her tears. "Anyway our doctor shared a suite and our weekly appointments were at the same time, so we'd talk before hand. He seemed really sweet; he seemed to understand in a way no one else did, not even Summer. After awhile he asked me out, and I said sure. My mother was thrilled it didn't matter that I'd met him in therapy because here was a boy who was polite and nice and lived in a penthouse. We dated for a few months before… before I realized that he was crazy beyond the aide of therapy. We were dating and he was stalking me as well, then I found out he'd tried to kill himself over another girl before he met me, and I realized that it was just getting way out of hand and he needed help beyond what he was getting. I called him to come over to my mom's house so I could tell him that things weren't working right then and that he needed serious help, and that I would still be his friend and help him through stuff but I couldn't be with him right then," Marissa paused to look at Ryan who was completely focused on her and listening to every word she spoke. She swallowed again and fought back tears. "When I told him everything, he just lost it, he went nuts throwing things and screaming that he didn't need anymore help or medication that all he needed was for me to love him, and that was never going to happen I was never going to love him the way he loved me and he just kept yelling that over and over and I tried to calm him down and he said he would make me love him, and…." Marissa broke down into hysterics; she tried to speak again through her sobs but couldn't manage to catch her breath.

Ryan bit down on the inside of his lip, he already knew how her story was going to end, but for her own sake, he was going to let her finish. He reached up and smoothed her hair down over and over again trying to calm her. When she leaned into him, he put his arms around her.

His arms made her feel safe, she choked back her sobs, "He raped me, and I haven't been with a man since." She blew a breath she'd been holding out and buried her head into Ryan's chest. "I'm sorry," she let out a soft sigh and another tear trickled down her cheek. "I really thought that I was going to be able to go through with it with you I mean I want to it's just…"

"Shhh… It's ok," he reached down and gently pushed her face up so their eyes me. Hers were blood shot, but the pools of blue melted his heart. "My God, how could anyone ever hurt you, he whisper then pressed her back up against him. He wanted to wash her past away and make it to where she never had to feel a moment of pain. He wanted her to feel safe with him. "Come on, let's go to bed," he said pushing the blankets back.

"But Ryan I just…"

He cut her off, "I know, did I say we were going to do anything? No I said let's go to bed," he unbuckled his belt and laid it on the floor, crawling under her covers.

Marissa raised an eyebrow at him, "What are you doing."

"Making sure you're safe, I just want to be with you tonight, like here with you."

"Get out of my bed," she told him as she walked towards her closet, and began to dig around. "Here, she handed him a pair of gray sweat pant, with USC written down one of the legs. "You won't be comfortable in what you have on; those are my dad's so they should fit you. I'll be right back I'm going to go change."

Ryan put the sweat pants on and waited for Marissa to come back. "Come here," he told her as she came back pajama clad. "He rubbed his arms up and down her arms as if he were warming her up, then looked deeply into her eyes, "I won't ever hurt you ok. I want you to know and understand that I'm not like everyone else, I won't ever hurt you." He lean down and kissed her forehead, then took her hand and led her into bed and under the covers.

Marissa found herself in bed snuggled against Ryan, who was just lying there holding her. She sighed and let herself begin to drift asleep, and for the first time in years she truly felt safe. Ryan held her as she slept fighting off his own sleep as for hours he just watched her sleep. When he had heard her voice as he came to in the hospital he thought she sounded like an angel, now with her lying in his arms sleeping after crying herself tired, he knew she was an angel.