DISCLAIMER: I don't own The OC or its characters.

Author's note: Sorry this chapter took so long. Please let me know what you think!

Sandy arrived in Newport at around 10am local time. Thoughts were racing through his mind about Kirsten. Something seemed off with her.

He couldn't wait to get home, but at the same time he didn't want her to suspect that he was checking up on her. He had to think of a reason why he came home early so she wouldn't suspect anything. At least he had all day to think about it while Kirsten was at work…

…or was she? Fifteen minutes later the cab pulled up to drop Sandy off, where he noticed that the Range Rover was parked in the driveway. Why was Kirsten home? Now Sandy was very worried and had no idea what to tell Kirsten his reason was for being home. He sighed, it was going to be a long day.

He opened the front door to find a quiet house. Instead of his usual greeting of, "Honey, I'm home," he decided to quietly look for Kirsten. He walked down the hall, past the bar, and into the family room to see if Kirsten was watching tv.

He stopped suddenly when he saw what looked like blood and glass shattered on the floor. "Oh no," he started panicking to himself, "someone broke into the house and hurt Kirsten!"

Sandy then ran into the kitchen, hurriedly looking for his wife in a panic saying, "Kirsten?" He slowed down a bit when he saw two empty glasses and an empty bottle of wine and cheese and crackers on the counter, wondering what could have been going on.

He then headed toward his and Kirsten's bedroom, praying his wife was in there unharmed. The doors to the bedroom were open, which was odd, considering that the Cohens' always kept the bedroom doors shut, considering that the kids would surely not want to know what went on in there. Sandy sighed, unfortunately, those days were months ago. For all he knew, those bedroom doors could have stayed open since last May when Seth and Ryan ran away, as their love making declined drastically in one year's time.

Sandy found Kirsten passed out with an empty bottle of wine in the bed with her. Instinctively, Sandy nudged Kirsten's arm and said, "Kirsten, wake up!"

Kirsten jumped, startled when she heard someone's voice. She let out a soft, but frightened, "Aahh! Leave me alone!" as she covered herself in the blankets trying to hide.

"Kirsten, its me…Sandy!" He didn't mean to sound alarming, but he was worried about his wife…not answering the phone…acting weird…staying home from work today…the blood and shattered glass…the empty wine glasses.

Kirsten moaned softly as the throbbing pain in her cheek returned as she awoke. She turned around to face Sandy, revealing the scrape and bruise around her eye and said "Sandy? What are you doing home? Is everything alright?"

"Kirsten! What happened to you?" Sandy said in a panic when he saw her face.

"Huh?" she asked confused, still not awake enough to remember last night.

"Your face, what happened to your face," Sandy said more sternly, beginning to think it wasn't an attacker but a careless mistake on Kirsten's behalf.

Kirsten just stared at Sandy. The events weren't coming in to her mind clearly. She had a hangover. Everything hurt. She just didn't feel like thinking about it this early.

"Kirsten, wake up!" Sandy said sternly. "I've got a lot more questions for you so start answering!"

Kirsten sighed, still trying to remember everything. She rubbed her head and said, "I fell. I tripped on the way to answer the phone."

"That's it?"

"Yeah," Kirsten said, although she knew Sandy knew she was lying. She just didn't know what to say…it was too early and she had a hangover and Sandy wasn't supposed to be home yet!

"Kirsten there's got to be more to this than what you're telling me. I found some stuff around the house that you need to do some explaining for. I suggest you take a shower and meet me in the living room."

"You asked me how I cut my cheek and I told you. You didn't ask about anything else so don't start accusing me of anything," Kirsten replied snottily. The hangover turned into major crankiness. She then got up and took a shower, anything to avoid the current situation.

When she came out, she was more composed and began by saying, "Sandy who do you think you are barging in here so early in the morning and demanding answers from me. It's not like you told me why you're home. Why are you home?"

There was no way around the subject and the answer just came out, "I'm worried about you!"

"What?" Kirsten said taken back with a suspicious look on her face.

"I am," Sandy said more calmly. "You've been acting weird and when you weren't answering the phones yesterday, I knew something was wrong. So tell me, what went on here last night. Why is there shattered glass and blood on the floor?"

"From when I fell. The glass cut my face."

"Were you drunk?"

"Sandy you're interrogating me! I'm not a child who snuck out past her curfew."

"Don't you think you would be suspicious if you walked into this mess? Were you even going to tell me?"

"You want to know what happened? Here's what happened. Carter came over. We worked on the magazine over wine, cheese, and crackers. He left. I finished my glass of wine. I put a bottle we hadn't opened back in the bar. The phone rang and I dropped my glass as I went to get it. Okay?"

"What about the empty bottle in the bedroom?"

Kirsten was caught. So far her half-truth story was working but she had no idea how to cover for the empty wine bottle in the bedroom. "After I cut my forehead, I went back to the kitchen and grabbed the bottle Carter and I had started. My head hurt badly so I drank the rest of the bottle. I wasn't thinking straight and I brought it in here."

Little did Sandy know that was a bottle Kirsten drank all on her own within one day, besides what she had drank with Carter.

"I'm sorry Kirsten," Sandy said more calmly, "but I'm worried. I mean what if I didn't come home today."

"I would have rested like I was planning on doing. I didn't really want to go in to work today with this huge cut on my face," Kirsten said as if she had everything under control when the truth was, she never heard the alarm go off and hadn't even called work to let them know she wasn't coming in. Speaking of which, she wondered why they hadn't called wondering where she was. Then it came to her, Carter probably covered for her.

Sandy noticed Kirsten daydreaming and said, "Kirsten? Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Kirsten was startled and said, "No, nothing else," with what she hoped was a reaffirming smile. "Why don't you go shower, and then you can tell me about Miami over breakfast."

Sandy nodded, still thinking about everything his wife just said. Meanwhile, Kirsten scurried into the kitchen and went right for the vodka. She chugged it right from the bottle. She needed some after that interrogation.

Little did she know, Sandy was watching from inside the bedroom through the open curtains. He frowned. What was happening to his wife?

Sandy debated with himself all day about whether or not he should bring up the subject with Kirsten. He hated to keep accusing her but he wanted to make sure she was okay.

Meanwhile, Kirsten was having one of her bad drinking days. It was one of those days when she just craved alcohol so bad. All of the tension from last night and this morning were getting to her and she just couldn't control herself. The alcohol relieved her pain.

While Sandy was on the phone checking in with the boys, she grabbed the vodka again for a quick chug. Sandy had been clingy and suspicious around her all day so when she had the opportunity for another quick drink, she went for it. Not fast enough though. As she was putting the bottle back into the fridge, Sandy walked back into the kitchen to hang up the phone.

"Kirsten, what'd you take out of the fridge?"

Kirsten froze, letting the cool air of the fridge relieve the redness that was developing on her cheeks.

"I was, uh, checking to see if we had any dinner for tonight. We don't. Want to go out?" she said hurriedly.

Pretending to play along with Kirsten's plan, Sandy said sweetly, "Yeah, that sounds good, we haven't gone out for dinner alone in a long time," as he hurriedly went towards her and wrapped his arms around her. He leaned in to kiss her, wanting to taste the vodka on her breath so he had proof she was just drinking.

Kirsten was hesitant about kissing Sandy. Just last night she had been kissing Carter. She felt like Sandy would know she kissed another man. She sighed, how was she ever going to tell Sandy about what really happened last night? Would she even tell him?

As thoughts raced through her mind, Sandy quickly approached her lips. He slid his tongue out and raced to get into her mouth. Normally he'd race to get into her mouth because he loved kissing her, but not today. Today he wanted to catch her in the act of drinking, as horrible as that might seem, because he was worried about her. Not meaning to, he quickly pulled his mouth out as his tongue tasted strong vodka. It was way too strong to keep kissing her.

"Kirsten," Sandy said as he coughed, "you were just drinking! I taste vodka!"

Kirsten froze again. She had been so concerned about Sandy noticing her awkwardness to kiss him because of the Carter kiss that she forgot that she had just drank.

"Yeah, I had a drink. So what?"

"So what?" Sandy repeated what she had said loudly. "Kirsten I've been watching you all day. You didn't have just one drink. You've been swigging that vodka ever since I walked through the door. Tell me what's going on with you?" he said angrily. He didn't mean for it to come out like that, but he was frustrated. Now that he thought about it, his wife had the signs of being an alcoholic.

"You know what Sandy? I'm tired of your accusations. Why is it such a big deal that I had a few drinks today? You've never said anything any of the other times I've had a few drinks."

"I know! Maybe I should have been watching you more carefully! You went from chardonnay in a glass to drinking vodka straight out of the bottle! There's something wrong with that, Kirsten! Add to that the mess the house was when I walked in this morning. You need some help, Kirsten! I think you're an alcoholic!"

"I am not! Why'd you come home? Just to sneak up on me and accuse me of being an alcoholic?" she screamed back as she grabbed her keys and purse.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sandy said angrily.

"None of your business. All you're going to do is follow me. Just leave me alone!" she said as she quickly ran out of the house.

Sandy quickly grabbed his keys and left. He couldn't let Kirsten drive in her condition. He had seen her sneak in drinking 3 times so far that day, maybe even more when she went to the bathroom and while he was on the phone. Who knows where, when, and how much she had been drinking. He sighed. It was going to be a long night.