A/N: Thank you all SO much for the reviews. (Yay! 7 reviews in two days! Keep it up!) I obviously did not know about the whole pregnancy tests have to wait a week or two before showing up positive thing. If I really felt like it, I could have that whole thing be actually right, which would mean the baby wouldn't be Ryan's, but I could never do that SO I do apologize for that mistake, and there's not really anything I can do to fix it without rewriting Chapter Four and making a few more chapters until Marissa finds out, but I'm not going to do that, since I need to move on with the story. So, let's just say that… hmm… Walgreen's is actually very high-tech, and they invented a new kind of test that detects it within eighteen hours. I honestly have no clue if that's possibly, but you know this story is based on a TV show, which means anything can happen. So yeah. It would kind of ruin my plot if Marissa had to wait half a month before find out.

Disclaimer (I seriously need to start writing more of these): I do NOT own the O.C., even though it would ROCK if I did, but I do own hmm, let's see, that policeman and receptionist in Chapter One, and all new situations and plots that you see in this story (The only exception to that would be if, by some amazing twist of fate, Josh Schwartz and the O.C. team read my story, love it, and decide to use it on the show. That would be perfectly fine with me. More than fine. I think if that happened I might pass out, actually).

Okay, now my locoing A/N and disclaimer are over! Whew.

Marissa stood, stunned, staring at the little test that had changed her life. Summer's mouth was hanging open, and Ryan shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortably.

"And just when we thought our lives were returning to normal," Summer managed to say.

"We? Maybe you guys. Not me. As far as we know, I'm charged with murder. You think that's normal?" Marissa snapped.

"Oh. Yeah." How could I forget? Summer asked herself.

Seth came jogging up the stairs. "Sorry to interrupt, but Ryan, I 'm gonna turn off the game and grab lunch, so… Why are you all standing with your mouths agape in the hallway? What are you all staring at?"

No one bothered to answer him. Seth moved in to the circle, getting a clear view of the positive pregnancy test.

"Oh, my God. Summer why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant? How could this have happened? We 're careful. We use protection. I can't believe you would go off and run to Marissa and Ryan and not tell me-" Seth yelled at Summer.

"Cohen," Summer said calmly.

"and now we've got a friggin' baby on our hands and-"

"Cohen!"

"What are we supposed to do? I'm not ready for a kid. I'm still a kid I just-"

"COHEN!"

"What, Summer?" Seth said icily.

"I'm not pregnant."

"Oh." Seth said sheepishly. "Then wha-"

Marissa sighed. "I am."

Seth blinked. "Huh? You are what?"

"I'm pregnant. Not Summer." she explained, trying to keep her tone down.

"Oh, my God." He said again. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Marissa choked out, and began to sob. Ryan held her. She cried and cried and cried. Her tears stained his shirt.

Seth and Summer looked uncomfortable, and after an eternity Marissa emitted one last sniff and wiped her face with a Kleenex that Seth had retrieved from the bathroom.

"We'll, uh, leave you two alone," Seth said. He took Summer by the hand and led her downstairs to the kitchen.

"Do you want to sit down?" Ryan asked. Marissa nodded, and they went into the nearest room (Seth's bedroom) and sat down on the bed.

"So…" she said, "um…"

It had never been hard to talk to Ryan before. Conversation had always flowed naturally, with no awkward pauses (or at least not many.) But now, Marissa couldn't think of a word to say to him.

"What are we going to do about it?" he asked.

"I'll understand if you want to leave me," she said, her voice breaking. "You don't have to stay."

"I'm staying."

"I don't want you to feel that you have to. When you stayed with Theresa last summer, I know you didn't want to, but you felt obligated. I don't want you to feel like that. If you want to dump me and run away, I won't stop you." She was close to tears again.

"I'm staying," he repeated, "and it's not because I think I have to. Marissa, I don't want this kid to grow up without a dad." He added softly. "I know how horrible that is."

"So does that mean you want me to keep it?" Marissa was confused. She had thought the first thing out of his mouth was going to be a comment about how she should get an abortion.

He nodded.

"If we're going to actually have a kid, we've got to commit it to it. Right now, we've got to agree: No adoption, no abortion, just you and me and the baby." she told him.

He nodded again.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Okay."

From that moment on, Marissa vowed that she would be strong. No more tears. She had to stay healthy, which meant no more drinking. It would be hard, and she didn't know if she could do it, but damn it, was she going to try.

"Anyways," she continued, standing up, "I'm hungry. Let's go see if Seth and Summer are up for going out to lunch."

"I ate while you and Summer were at the store, so you three can go on without me, I'm just going to stay here." Ryan lied.

"Alright then," Marissa said. "See you later!" He heard her going downstairs and saying something about lunch to Seth and Summer.

He hadn't really eaten, in fact he was starving. But he needed some time alone to think.

He heaved a huge sigh, and as he heard Marissa calling from the kitchen ("Bye, Ryan! We're going out to lunch. Call my cell if you need me.") he got up and left Seth's room for the pool house.

Once there, he sat down on his bed and buried his head in his hands. What had they gotten into? They were seventeen years old, and having a kid. They weren't married, hadn't been dating for that long, less than six months, and here they were with a baby on the way. How were they going to tell Sandy and Kirsten? They'd already been through the shock of having Ryan get someone pregnant once, they were probably hoping they wouldn't have to have it happen again for another five or ten years. At least they didn't have to worry about what Julie would think.

"Guess Julie really would have had a reason to kick Marissa out this time," he said aloud.

He just hoped that the Cohen's would be supportive. He knew they would probably try to convince them to give it up one way or another, but in the end, would support whatever decision they made. And just when Kirsten was finally getting better…this would really make her want to bring out the booze. And Sandy. He was going to work on Marissa's case. If she had to appear before a judge and jury to plead her case, all they would see is a pregnant teen murderer, who had almost died on drugs in TJ, and had a record of underage drinking. The only way Marissa would even have a chance would be if the trial came before she started to show, and Ryan doubted that that would happen. He didn't know much about trials, but he had learned from Marissa making him watch Chicago a while ago that it takes at least like five months for a murder trial date, if they were going to charge her with that. What else could they lay her with? What exactly was manslaughter, anyways? He had never really gotten it. Still pondering about that, he got up and went back into the house. He went into Sandy's office, and found a law dictionary. M… ma….man… ah ha. Manslaughter. It turned out that it was a killing without "premeditation or malice aforethought", which meant that it was a killing that wasn't planned. That fit the situation, Ryan thought, and read on. There were two kinds: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary manslaughter "includes killing in heat of passion or while committing a felony." That sort of fit. Had it been heat of passion? Not really. She was defending him. Defending… it rang a bell in his head and he flipped to the defenses section, then to "defense of others". It was a justification for breaking the law, he read, and it was used to argue that the person should not be liable for the crime, since the actions were being used to protect another. He was satisfied that Marissa could get of on it, until the last sentence of the definition caught his eye. "Most courts have ruled that this defense cannot be used to protect friends or family members who have engaged in an illegal fight." He cursed aloud. It couldn't work. He had been in an illegal fight with Trey.

But Ryan had grown up accustomed to sneaking around the rules, and his mind still could think of ways to slide past the government. If Trey couldn't testify, then who was there to say that Ryan had been fighting with him? Yes. They could say that Ryan came over to visit his brother, when they had gotton into a slight argument and Trey, who was stoned (which was true), had began to beat up Ryan, who had only hit back in self-defense. Marissa walked in on Trey strangling Ryan, and saw the gun on the floor, and shot Trey to save Ryan.

But that would mean lying to the jury, which was also a criminal offense. Ryan didn't care, he would testify to that, not Marissa, and if the jury found him guilty of perjury, then he'd go to jail. Anything, anything, to keep Marissa out of there…

A/N: I would just like to credit http/en. for my quoted definition of defense of others, and http/dictionary. for my definition of manslaughter. I'm starting to get into this legal thing, so you think I did an OK job so far, let me know. ALSO if you know how a trial for murder or voluntary manslaughter could go, like realistically, please email me at I'm gonna need help on that. Thank you!