Sandy Cohen looked out at the idyllic scene in front of him. The waves rolled in to the sand, not ferociously, but just enough for a surfing enthusiast such as himself. On the horizon, he could barely see the line between where the clear blue sky and the beautiful blue water blended together. He had been coming to this beach every morning since he and Kirsten first moved to Newport 20 years earlier - every morning, of course, save for the morning that Seth was born.

Seth thought about that morning and smiled despite himself as he tried to get a signal on his cell phone. He was trying to get through to Kirsten for their morning phone-call. It had been hard on Sandy this month since Kirsten had gone into rehab, but he had called her every morning and every night, and it was only a few months until she was to be released, Dr. Woodruff said it may even be before Christmas.

Finally, he got through, but it was the rehab clinic's answering machine. Sandy frowned at how odd that was, he couldn't believe that no one was able to answer the phone. He decided to try again after he had been surfing, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit worried.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The cell was smaller than she was used to, but at least the company was better than she got at home. Marissa thought to herself. Of course, she knew this wasn't true. Even her Mom, the infamous Julie Cooper (or was it Cooper-Nichol? Marissa couldn't keep up anymore), was better than her current room-mate - who, ironically, called herself Big Mamma.

Marissa was just thankful that she wasn't in a cellblock with the real criminals. She was in a two-person cell down a corridor that houses three other such cells which housed those awaiting trial. Big Mamma was currently doing laundry duty, so Marissa had the cell to herself for the moment, and had time to reflect on what had happened for probably the first time in the month that she had been living in Newport Juvenile Detention Centre.

It was like a nightmare - one minute she had been protecting her boyfriend from his psychotic brother who was trying to kill him, and before she knew it she had been locked up. Aside from the visits from her Mom and her Dad, Jimmy, and the occasional brief stop-by from Sandy Cohen, she didn't have a clue what was going on in the outside world. For all she knew, Seth, Summer and Ryan may have a perfectly good reason for not coming by to see her - maybe they had been banned from seeing her, maybe they were locked up as well. She couldn't believe it would end like this though, after everything that had happened.

"Marissa, honey!"

Julie Cooper's voice shook Marissa from her thoughts. Julie was the most important woman in Newport, being that she was married to Caleb Nichol and was now the CEO of the Newport Group, and as such was led into the cell by armed guard, even though there wasn't anyone else around. Marissa sometimes wondered why they even bothered having a jail in Newport - no one around here actually got punished for their crimes.

As soon as Julie was in the cell, Marissa threw her arms around her and began to sob. She had never been so happy to see her estranged mother. She often thought that she was going to go mad in the cell, and just wanted her nightmare to be over. Julie returned the embrace, but had a distressed look on her face.

"Please, mom," Marissa said as the tears fell down her face, "I just want to go home."

Seeing her daughter in this state almost made Julie cry as well, but she managed to maintain her composure as usual - but only just. "I know you do, sweetie," was all she could say. It hardly seemed like words of comfort, but what else could she say?

"Have you spoken to your lawyer?" Marissa inquired, drying her eyes and sitting down on her hard, flat bed. Julie was going to sit down next to her, but decided against it after looking at the state of it.

"That's actually why I've come here, Marissa," Julie said, desperately trying to stop the tears. "I spoke to Mr. Millar, and he said that from what the police can see, it looks like you shot at Trey with intent to kill."

Marissa's eyes widened in shock as this sank in. "What… what do you mean? It was self-defence! He was going to kill Ryan!"

"I know, I know sweetie, but you had a gun, and he didn't," Julie replied, maybe a little more forcefully than she should have.

"But he was going to kill Ryan, I had to do it to protect him! He was about to kill him with the lamp!"

Julie didn't know what to say. How could she tell her daughter that she would be going to jail for at least 6 years? How could she tell her daughter that she would miss her college years, the greatest years of her life? How could she tell her daughter that just when it seemed that the Cooper family was about to be one again, they would be split apart more than they ever were. As all of these thoughts went through her head, Julie did something she had never done, not even when she divorced Jimmy, not even when Caleb died, and not even when Marissa was arrested - she started to cry.

Marissa could see this, and said calmly, "Mom, am I going to jail?"

Julie couldn't take it anymore, and her emotions overcame her. The tears flowed down her face as she rested her head on her daughter's shoulder. She had never felt so helpless.

Marissa almost lost it as well, but managed to keep herself together - it wasn't going to help if both of them sat there crying. "What about Mr. Cohen, can't he help?"

"Everyone has done everything they can Marissa, I'm sorry," Julie said.

Marissa had known that months ago, but had always held onto the hope that it would all be okay. Now, she knew that there was nothing to hold on to.

She sat in her cell with her mother and cried.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"I guess that's it," said Grady. "The end of an era. It's all over."

"Don't worry," said Kate. "The Valley will always live with us… in our hearts."

Summer tried to stifle her tears. It had been two weeks since the last ever episode of The Valley had aired, and she was still finding it hard to get over it. This was the third time today that she had watched her tape of the final season finale. She knew all the lines to the episode, but watching Grady and Kate get into their car and leave the valley for good was too much, so she turned off the tape.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Summer rolled her eyes and shouted back, "No, I won't go down to the store and get you your pills."

"Man, and I thought my day couldn't get any worse," came the familiar voice from behind the door. Summer get up and opened, revealing Seth standing in the hall.

"You thought I was your step-Mom, right," said Seth.

"How did you know?" Summer replied defensively.

Seth smirked and placed a reassuring hand on Summer's shoulder. "Our little me-pretending-to-be-your-step-mom banter has been getting a little repetitive of late."

Summer rolled her eyes and walked back into her room, sitting down on her bed. Seth stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

"You know, it's been so long, Summer, I thought I'd hardly recognise you," said Seth sarcastically.

"Quit it, Cohen," Summer snapped back.

"So what's with the random text after three weeks of totally ignoring me?" Seth replied, with a little more hostility in his voice than usual.

"I found something," Summer said conspiratorially, "but you have to promise not to tell anyone."

"What is it?" Seth said excitedly.

"Cohen!" replied an exasperated Summer.

Seth placed one hand in the air and said solemnly, "I promise, on my oath as a member of the Harbour School Comic Book Club."

"Wasn't Leon in that comic book club?"

"Um, yes," Seth said sheepishly.

"That kid creeped me out," Summer replied.

"It's still a legitimate oath," Seth said defensively.

"Look, Cohen, you're getting off topic! This is serious!" Summer said before rummaging under her bed for something.

"What is it about anyway?" asked Seth.

"I don't know what it means, but it was pretty confusing to me so I thought I'd show you," said Summer, re-emerging with some pieces of paper. "I found these while I was doing a first aid presentation for the 9th Graders the other day and I had to get something from Ms. Fisher's office."

"Wait a minute, you were doing a first aid presentation?" scoffed Seth.

"I'm a candy striper you ass," Summer scowled, hitting Seth on the arm. She handed the papers over to Seth, who looked over them with a confused look on his face.

"What are these?"

"They're the forms that Ryan filled in to take advanced math and science last year," Summer said. "It says that he was planning to become an architect."

Seth frowned. "He never told me about that. Hey, wouldn't he be doing an architectural college course next year if he wanted to be an architect?"

"Right. See what I mean?" Summer said, concerned.

"Look, Summer, I'm sure there's a good explanation for this. Maybe he just decided he didn't want to become an architect anymore, it's no big deal."

"Why would he just decide that, Cohen?"

"I don't know," replied Seth. "Maybe he talked to Archie the builder when he was working on my house and decided it wasn't a good idea."

"Where did Archie go anyway?" asked Summer.

"That's a good question," Seth said back, looking a little concerned.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As Seth and Summer were talking about him, Ryan was in the Cohen house, playing PlayStation. Suddenly, the phone rang.

"Hello?" he said, answering the phone.

"This is Dr. Woodruff at the Mayo treatment centre, is Mr. Cohen in?" came the voice on the other line.

"Uh, no he's out right now, but can I take a message?"

"Is this Seth Cohen?"

Ryan thought for a second, and then answered, "yes."

"Seth, your mother was admitted to Newport Hospital at approximately 7.15 this morning. I'm afraid she attempted to commit suicide."

Ryan face didn't show any emotion as he replies, "oh my God."

"I'm sorry, Seth."

"I'll, uh, I'll call my Dad right away. Thank you doctor," Ryan said.

"He has my number, tell him to call me. I'm already at the hospital," said Dr. Woodruff as he hung up.

Ryan looked down at his cell phone and got Sandy's number up on the display screen. He then smiled and looked down at his hand, where he was holding Sandy's surfboard rope to keep him safely on the board…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The waves lapped gently against the side of the yacht as Jimmy Cooper relaxed on board. It was a beautiful summer day, and he was finally taking some time for himself to relax. Ever since Marissa got arrested, life for the Cooper's had been hectic, and although Jimmy was worried for his daughter, he needed to take some alone time. Even so, he still felt guilty.

Suddenly, something hit against the side of the boat. Jimmy opened his eyes and scrambled off his lounger to take a look. In the sea below him was a surfboard with the words "Sand-Man" emblazoned on it in flames. Jimmy immediately recognised it as Sandy Cohen's board.

"Sandy?" Jimmy called out, a little concerned. Sandy was a keen and competent surfer, but he had been having his problems since Kirsten went away, and Jimmy had been worried about his state of mind. Who knows what could have happened.

When no reply came, Jimmy began frantically looking around. He had a bad feeling in his stomach and was about to get on the phone and call the coast guard when suddenly he saw it.

Sandy's body was floating facedown near by. Jimmy swallowed his panic and fear and steered the yacht over to the body before pulling it in. He checked for a pulse - Sandy wasn't breathing. He quickly grabbed his phone and called the Cohen house.

"Hello?" came Ryan's reply.

"Ryan, it's Jimmy!"

"Oh, hey Mr. Cooper, what's up," said Ryan.

"Listen, I've just found Sandy in the ocean. He must have fallen off his surfboard and he looks in bad shape. I need you to call the coast guard right away, my phone's about to die."

Once again, Ryan's face showed no emotion as he said, "yeah, no problem Jimmy."

Ryan hung up the phone and then dialled a new number.

"Hello, Newport Coast Guard," said the voice on the other end.

Ryan spoke very clearly: "I need to file a report. I think that Jimmy Cooper has killed Sandy Cohen."