Fix You

Chapter One: Seven

When you try your best, but you don't succeed.
When you get what you want, but not what you need.

The number seven seemed to hold some significance in Seth and Marissa's relationship, it always had. At seven months the two had first met, at seven years old Seth had had a crush on Marissa, at seventeen their lives became inexplicably changed when they lost their best friends, and seven years after that they got married. So without a doubt in his mind Seth knew that the reason Marissa was making a big deal out of this years' anniversary was because this would be the seventh year of their marriage.

This was also most likely why he was standing in the card store with his mother, Kirsten Cohen, trying to deal with the bickering of his two kids, and his mother's constantly picking out the worst cards imaginable in Seth's mind. He couldn't find one card that would fit what he wanted to say to Marissa, not one card that wasn't completely utterly corny.

Seth despised corny, and he knew Marissa well enough to know she did too.

"How about this one," Kirsten thrust a card at Seth that had a dog with a fluffy pink heart and the words 'I Woof You' written across it.

"Mom," Seth grimaced at the card, "No, that's just...That's a card you get a three year old kid, not Marissa, my wife."

"Fine," Kirsten sighed and replaced the card on the shelf. Seth knew he was being difficult, but he couldn't help it.

Their anniversary each year was a reminder of their binding their lives together forever, and a reminder of the day, fourteen years ago, when they lost Summer just days after Ryan had left Newport, forever. Every year since then Seth would do something outstanding to make Marissa forget it, to make himself forget it. This year, he felt as if he was running out of ammo, and yet, he wanted to do something-extra special for her this year, especially after seven years together.

Seven years.

For Seth, it seemed like such a long time to be married to a person. Most people he and Marissa had known who'd gotten married had barely lasted this long. It seemed, that in order to make a marriage work you had to go through a lot in life together. Like Seth and Marissa had. Fifteen years of friendship, fourteen years of it being just the two of them, and seven years of marriage, and even then Seth had known Marissa Cooper his whole life.

"Daddy, can we go yet?" Seth was again reminded of how much Marissa and he and been through. Their five-year-old daughter Allison Bean Cohen, or Allie as she was called by most, was shoving her two-year-old brother Kurt away from her.

"Not yet Allie-Bean," Seth heaved a sigh, knowing very well that his blonde-haired vixen of a daughter was growing very impatient with him, and Kurt was probably ready for his naptime. Again, he was reminded of the number seven when he thought of the combined age of his children. Seven. The famous Cooper-Cohen number. Allie was born ten and a half months after Seth and Marissa were married, and Kurt when Allie was three and Marissa felt that their daughter needed a sibling, Seth had more than agreed to that.

At the moment though, he regretted taking his precious angels shopping with them when he knew that his dad would've been more than happy to have a distraction from his work by taking care of his favorite, and only, grandchildren. After all, he said that there were many Cohen wonders he had to teach them.

That was what scared Seth though, his father teaching them Cohen things. He didn't need Kurt inheriting those famed Cohen eyebrows. For all he knew, they skipped a generation in the family. Seth forced Marissa to check and make sure that Kurt's eyebrows were of normal proportion every morning when he woke up.

"I'm bored," Allie didn't hesitate to remind her father of her current state. She crossed her arms over her chest, much like Marissa did when she was irritated with her husband.

"Fine, fine," Seth relented, knowing very well that he wasn't going to win a battle against Marissa's daughter when she was pulling out all her mother's tricks.

Scooping Kurt up in his arms as Kirsten took her granddaughter's hand, the four of them headed out of the store, and nearly ran into a tall, dark-haired fourteen year old girl. Seth quickly moved out of the way, brushing shoulders with her only, but it was enough to make the girl stop and turn around. Her eyes were a striking blue, and she looked shyly up at Seth.

"Sorry," she mumbled, shuffling her feet. She looked tougher than she acted, that was for sure.

"S'okay," Seth shrugged, shifting Kurt in his arms. He really hated when people felt bad for accidentally bumping into someone. Reminded him of how he felt when the bullies at school used to ride his ass for just being alive.

As Seth turned to leave though, he realized that his mother was stopped in her place, staring at the girl. Seth frowned, it wasn't like his mother to suddenly become one of Newport's snobs by staring at the girl for not being "up to Newport standards." Not that Seth thought she wasn't.

"Mom, you do realize that if you wanted to, you could take a picture," Seth mentioned, "It might last longer than these moments we're wasting standing here since it's obvious Allie's going to pull a 'Julie Cooper' on us any second."

"Am not!" the five-year-old protested, glaring at her father and sticking her tongue out. Even at her age, she knew exactly what Seth meant. They had raised her well.

"Cassandra," Kirsten's voice was a near whisper, she seemed sort of mystified and weepy, as if this was a relative or an old friend she knew and missed dearly. Seth knew very well though that she was not a Cohen, despite the pretty blue eyes. There was no way because he knew all his relatives, on both sides.

The girl furrowed her brows, instantly becoming suspicious of Kirsten. She edged closer towards the coffee shop beside the card store and shook her head, "Sorry, must be mistaken."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she bolted into the coffee shop, and Kirsten returned to her normal behavior, pretending as if the encounter had never happened. Seth became suspicious now as he led his children and mother out of the mall.

Who the hell was that girl, and how did his mother know her?

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

Marissa wished she could be put out of her misery. Be it by Julie Cooper falling dead on the spot or Marissa herself it didn't matter. All she wanted was to be free of this afternoon with her mother, this afternoon in hell. Not only was Julie talking about a memorial for Caleb, who had passed away after a heart attack four years ago, but also she was asking Marissa to be her co-chair on the event.

Now way in hell.

That one phrase came to mind, and it was a phrase she wanted to tell Julie. She knew that it would only result in her mother bursting into tears about how all she wanted was for her dear Cay-Cay to be remembered fondly. As if.

Over the years, as Marissa's relationship with the Cohens and Seth blossomed, the relationship with her mother seemed to become more and more strained. Marissa tolerated Julie more in her efforts to be the good mother she wanted to, but Marissa would forever resent Julie for things in the past. For ways she had managed to single handedly ruin Marissa's life.

Marissa knew her mother couldn't really be blamed for most of it, but she needed someone to blame it one, and Julie was the best target. She always found ways to make it easy for Marissa to hate her no matter what she did or how she acted. Marissa always found a way to blame Julie for everything.

After Marissa and Seth got married though, Marissa stopped blaming her mother for anything altogether. With all the time she had spent with Seth since Ryan and Summer had left, Marissa learnt to just let things go. Forget blaming people for what had gone wrong. It turned out, she hadn't gotten that bad of a deal.

She'd gotten Seth.

She'd gotten to be a member of the Cohen family.

She'd been happier than ever being with Seth for the past seven years.

Thinking about Seth and how long they'd been married made Marissa smile, which seemed to only make Julie continue on happily with whatever she was saying, but Marissa had tuned her out long ago. Thoughts of Seth only helped her do that even more. If she hadn't been in love with him seven years ago when they "got hitched" as Seth sometimes put it, she was pretty sure she was in love now.

"And I've got the best planner, obviously," Julie rambled on, "She comes highly recommended a…Mrs. Roberts-Downey. She should be here soon."

Marissa paused,her breath catching in her throat. The name rang familiar. Leaning over, she picked up her mother's magazines, flipped the pages and found it. A picture of her old best friend, Summer Roberts-Downey, who had done modeling and acting all through her college career before she became an events planner-slash-designer. Summer had married a well-known actor Samuel Downey five years ago. They were the hottest Hollywood couple.

"Oh my god! Coop?" the familiar voice rang through the room.

Marissa's heart fell.

It had been fourteen years since she had seen Summer Roberts. Seven years since Seth had promised her with all his heart that he had let go of his ex-love and was ready to marry Marissa and make a life with her.

She wondered if Summer being back would change that.

She wondered if it was possible that she could lose the one person who had always been there for her, the one person who promised he would never leave her.