A/N Sorry for the long wait; here's the new chapter. I hope you like it. Please R/R!!!
Despite the fact that the boy was partially hidden by the shadows that had settled in with the afternoon, it didn't take Sandy long to find Ryan on the beach. He was sitting with his back against a small tree, smoking, his eyes were closed and even as Sandy approached, they didn't open. Sandy knew that Ryan was aware of his presence; never once had he seen anyone successfully sneak up on the kid. Settling down on the sand next to Ryan, Sandy let out a long sigh.
"The ocean's so beautiful at this time of day." He commented casually. Instead of picking up the normal conversation, which Sandy had instigated, Ryan, his eyes still closed, replied softly.
"You're back early." Came the whispered observation.
"Yeah, I know; I took off early. No one in their right mind would hang around in a stuffy office on a day like this." Came another nonchalant comment from Sandy. Ryan didn't respond to this one, he simply took a long drag off of his lit cigarette.
"I thought you quit kid." Sandy tried, yet again, to start a casual conversation.
"No you didn't." Ryan was aware that Sandy knew he had yet to break the bad, yet oddly soothing habit.
"How do you know that I didn't?" This time, Sandy hoped that a challenge would instigate a conversation. Once again, the question triggered absolutely no response from Ryan.
"Seth called me." Sandy decided to skip the small talk and get to the point.
"I knew he would." Ryan informed the older man.
"You know a lot, don't you?" Sandy commented.
"Too much." Ryan's voice was now scarcely more than a whisper.
"Do you want to talk about what you told Seth this morning?" Sandy tested cautiously. This was shaky ground; these next moments measured Ryan's trust in his lawyer/foster father. There was a long pause and the only noise was the distant chattering of sea gulls and the gentle crashing of the water against the rocks, which lined the shore.
"What's there to talk about?" Sandy could tell that this time, Ryan was testing him.
"Well, what are you willing to tell me?" This was a delicate moment, so Sandy decided not to bring up the fact that he could smell the vodka, which Ryan had consumed.
"What do you want to know?" Ryan said, making it known that he did trust Sandy, even after the whole Oliver incident. Sandy, knowing how hard it was to gain Ryan's trust, felt somehow satisfied. He was proud that he had been deemed worthy to be trusted by a boy who had been hurt so many times in his short lifetime by the very people who were supposed to protect him.
"Can you tell me who Janine was?" Sandy questioned.
"She..." Ryan began, but then he paused for a moment as if considering what he wanted to say, "She was someone I cared about, a lot, but she's gone now."
"What happened to her?" Sandy asked. Even though he knew full well what had happened, he questioned Ryan, hoping that the alcohol would have loosened the boy's tongue. Sandy had learned over the years that getting someone to talk about how they'd been hurt was the best way to start healing wound.
"I was always there, except for the time she really needed me." Ryan voice was still a whisper, but it was steady. Sandy was at first surprised by how much Ryan was willing to tell him, but soon he realized that the alcohol must have been what was making the kid talk. Sandy knew that Ryan knew that getting wasted was not the right way to deal with problems, but the boy seemed to have forgotten the history of alcoholism in his family because he was defiantly drunk. There are those who become extremely silly when they get drunk; some become violent; some become angry; some become quiet; Ryan became more open to conversation.
"Ryan, you know that you can tell me anything, right?" Sandy asked the distraught teenager.
"There are some things that just aren't meant to be talked about." Ryan responded, avoiding the question.
"Ryan," Sandy began, laying a hand on the boy's shoulder. He wasn't surprised when Ryan pulled away, as if he'd been shocked. "Ryan, you need to listen to me. What happened to that girl was not your fault."
Ryan looked up and Sandy recognized the pain in those bright blue eyes.
"You don't understand Sandy. If you knew what I did, you wouldn't want me anymore." Ryan tried to explain.
"Ryan, I think that I already know most of what there is to know about what happened that night. I can see how you would feel guilty about not knowing about what was going on with her father, but it's not your fault that you didn't know; she hid it from you on purpose. Janine's death was the result of years of sexual and physical abuse inflicted upon her by her father. She loved you and she knew that you loved her."
Ryan scrambled to his feet and began to stumble away from Sandy. The words seemed to have had an effect on the boy, but Sandy could tell exactly what it was. Standing up, Sandy didn't even stop to brush the sand from his pants before he jogged down the beach to catch up with his foster son.
"Ryan, slow down. Don't do this; I want to help you."
"Leave me the hell alone!"
As soon as he was close enough, Sandy grabbed Ryan by the arm to slow him down. The boy responded by whipping around yanking his arm out of Sandy's grasp before taking a half-hearted swing at the older man's head. Sandy caught Ryan's fist and pulled the boy into a strong hug. Ryan struggled from a moment before bursting into tears and letting himself be held. Sandy couldn't help wondering how long it'd been since Ryan had let someone actually comfort him.
After a few minutes of hugging the sobbing boy, Sandy slowly led him back up to the house. After putting the teenager in a guest room, Sandy watched over Ryan until the kid fell into a deep sleep. Ryan was obviously physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted; it'd been a long day for him. Tomorrow, they could straighten everything out.
A/N Please R/R! I know it's short, but I wanted to post what little I had. The next chapter will be longer. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I promise to try and have the next one up a little bit faster. I'm so busy that it took being home sick from school for me to be able to find time to write this chappy.