Fix You

Author's Note: All right, the interludes have kind of been significant in he fact that they portray two different parts of Marissa and Seth's lives. Their evolving friendship first to separate the happy couple to the one that's falling part and their relationship second to show what their love for each other and the live they forged together in love and to signify the end of the fall out and the beginning of them trying to fix things, trying to get back to that. At least, that's how I see it when I read it. I am interested in knowing how you see the interludes and how they tie in with the plot. We could all see it differently.

Chapter 16: Stay

Trying hard to speak and
Fighting with my weak hand

Seth didn't know how to explain any of this to Allie who sat looking confused in front of him. She'd asked so many questions that he didn't know how to answer at all. They were questions that should be easy, questions he had asked himself since it had all happened. Since his marriage had fallen apart in the briefest time period ever.

How had this happened? Why had this happened? What was going to happen?

Marissa wasn't home. Everyone was out looking for her. Everyone blamed him, or at least that's what he thought. Luke had sympathized; Anna had scolded him and asked him what he was thinking when he'd done it.

They shouldn't have been there for him. They all should've turned on him.

Like they all had turned on Luke when he was caught cheating on Marissa.

He couldn't believe that he had allowed himself to hurt Marissa like that all over again, and thinking about that night in Mexico only made him worry more about Marissa.

Was she all right? Was she hurt? Was she lying in some alley drunk, drugged and dying?

"Seth…" she stood in the door to their room now, slender and afraid. Sad looking.

She shouldn't be the one afraid. He'd kissed Summer, been caught by the whole town. Sure, she had kissed Ryan, but no one but he had seen her. For all he knew, Ryan had kissed her and she'd pushed him away. A least, that's how he chose to view it. He was afraid of losing her over this.

"Marissa, I'm so sorry…" He jumped to his feet. Allie looked between her parents with a child's keen interest in everything around her. His mother was still watching Kurt and he was glad for that.

"Allie, honey, go see Aunt Alex and have breakfast," Marissa said quietly, moving over to Allie and kisses he top of her blonde head, "I'll come and talk to you in a minute."

The six-year-old obeyed, sliding off her seat and giving her mother a big hug before going off down the stairs to the kitchen to greet Alex.

Marissa took Allie's former seat across from Seth and he sat down again, regarding his wife with caution. He didn't know what to think, didn't know what she would say to him. Didn't know what was going to happen to his marriage. It all made him feel like a little lost boy.

It made him feel bad.

"We both screwed up, badly," Marissa sighed, "We should've stuck together."

"Brains and Beauty, always better united," Seth nodded in agreement, "I shouldn't have avoided you, we should've talked before. I should've stayed and talked instead of leaving."

"I followed Ryan outside," Marissa said, "If I hadn't…"

"We can't keep blaming ourselves," Seth cut her off, "We've been doing that since we were seventeen. Since they left, even before that."

"What do we do Seth?" Marissa asked, "Everything's fallen apart, I feel so broken."

"We fix things," he told her, "I fix you. You fix me. We make it better. We're superheroes Marissa, we can do anything."

"You and your comic books Cohen," Marissa shook her head and reached over to take his hand, "Let's fix things."

Driven to distraction
So part of the plan

"Dad?" Cassandra Dawn Atwood bolted up in bed as she heard the back door open. Jumping up, she hurried to the kitchen and saw her dad and Summer walk in. "Dad!"

"Don't talk so loud," Summer warned, "We're just coming to get Chino's stuff."

"Why?" Cass asked, scrunching her eyebrows, "What's going on?"

"I'm leaving," her dad spoke up for the first time. She studied him carefully. Sadness and guilt were etched across his tough features he was completely serious.

"What? Why?" Cass felt herself crumble. It was finally happening, her family was coming apart. She'd known it for years. Her parents would always fight, her mother would yell at her dad for not really being there for her, for always being miles away. Yet, they'd always stayed together.

"It's just time," he shrugged, "Your mom doesn't want me here anymore."

"I want you here," Cass stopped herself from being weak, stopped herself from crying in front of her dad, "I don't want you to go. Doesn't that matter?"

"It does," Ryan assured her, "I'll visit."

"What if I want to go with you, could I?" she looked up at her father with her big, blue Atwood eyes, pleading silently with him to let her go. She knew what had happened all those years ago now, knew why her parents were the way they were, she didn't want to stay in Chino knowing that this life was never enough for her dad. Knowing that he really would not come back this time.

"Yeah," he nodded his consent, "If your mom's all right with it. Yeah."

Cass launched herself at her father, throwing her arms around him in a hug. All she had to do was ask her mother if she could live with her dad and everything would be perfect. Everything would be right. She could start fresh, new. No more Chino, no more reputation.

It would be just her and her dad, wherever they decided to be.

A new life for both of them.