This is based on the season finale episode of season 2, and the events that occur after it. It is based on my little world if things went the way I wanted them to.

She lay on her bed for the last hour and thirty minutes. Her mother's life had changed so quickly, and she was not even there to support her. Marissa hadn't even given Caleb Nichol a chance, once he entered her life she was horrible, horrible to both him and her mother. But they deserved it, didn't they? For all, Caleb did bribe Marissa into moving in with them, they took her away from her old environment, and they shipped Kaitlin to boring school. What kind of relationship between mother and daughter, step-father and daughter, should be so painful? Marissa Cooper's. Marissa only did things in spite of her mother. She wanted some sort of respect and acknowledgement, and she didn't get it. Julie only used her relationship with Marissa when she was kind and giving only to get something in return. And she got his death.

Only if Marissa had known her mother wanted to plot a death against Caleb, after he wanted to divorce her after the porn tape scandal. But Julie, once again, convinced him not to, and they remained married. Only to have him follow her. And then this. A heart attack in the pool. He practically drowned! Whoever knew Julie was not the cause of this actual event. If everyone heard that rumour, they'd think it was true.

Back to the fact that Marissa was on her bed, with red eyes and a soaked pillow made her realise that her life was bad. Not because of the loss of money, or the possibility that her mother could be called a killer, even though she isn't, or the fact that her parents may be coming back together, it was because of another thing. After Ryan Atwood and Seth Cohen had left for Venice Beach, Marissa was left with Ryan's brother. She spent many hours, up to three in total, with him in his apartment. They went for fresh air. And there it happened. She'd been awkward around him ever since, lying to those who would be so moved to help her. Trey Atwood was the one she was avoiding, and she didn't want Ryan to know what had happened on the beach when he was gone.

Ryan and her may have some history with a romance, but it was never something that had risen up once again this time. It'd gone. Even if there was tension, the two were like to magnets that couldn't be united. At least Seth and Summer Roberts were happy with their second relationship.

Marissa was shaken away from her thoughts when she heard her mother's heeled shoes make her way to the door. She knocked, and waited for a split second before allowing herself in. Marissa would've went wild at Julie for not waiting for her to let her in, but she wasn't up for a mind splitting argument. She needed time to register all the recent events that had happened in the last month.

"Honey, Marissa, are you alright?" Julie stood in the doorway, looking at the lifeless Marissa on the bed with her back faced to her. All she could see was her sides moving up and down as her daughter exhaled. "I'm," she sighed, she'd at least try and get Marissa to talk to her, "I'm going out to, uh, you know. To sort out the preparations for .." her voice drifted off. Was she really choking back tears? Or was it all an act? "for Cal." She spoke softly, almost like a whisper.

Marissa nodded slightly, yet it wouldn't have been as noticeable as it would've if she was standing up. "Yeah. Okay." Her voice was full of tears. You could tell she'd had the waterworks in effect. Her voice was shaky, and pitchy, just like Julie's had been when she mentioned 'Caleb'.

"Call me on my cell if you need anything." Julie decided to settle on that. She smiled a little, a straight line if you paused her face motions, and started to close the door. She stopped, and pushed it open so her head was hanging inside the room without a body, "And Marissa ..." it took her a while and enough strength to say this, "I love you." It may have seemed unlike Julie, but after her recent loss, she didn't want to lose someone she held so dearly to her heart, even if she was a stuck-up snob. She closed the door with a click and walked away, out the door and into the car to sort out all that needed to be for Caleb's funeral.

She left Marissa, shedding tears once again on her pillow.

Kirsten Cohen sulked in the kitchen. All she could remember of her father was their last minutes together. Fighting. Kirsten wished she could rewind to that point, and tell him that she loved him no matter what. But she allowed her temper and pride get the best of her. She regretted it all. The drinking, the hidden romantic tension between her and her ex-co worker Carter. It was affecting Seth and Sandy all too well. Only if everything in the past hadn't happened. Kirsten could go on in her mind and mention all the 'what ifs' that she could come up with to prevent what had happened. She gripped the tequila bottle in her hand, and moved it up to her thin lips to pour some down her throat to get her away from her grief.

All she could do was cry.

Sandy, her husband, approached the kitchen without caution. Seth had been in his room, locked away in a dungeon like Princess Fiona in Shrek. Sandy was worried about his wife, due to her drinking problem prior to the recent damaging event.

"Kirsten, do you think you should be drinking?" He said soothingly and sympathetically, with calm and caution.

"Sandy, I am allowed to drink after what had just happened to my father! It's a time to drink, for me anyway! You were never close to him, and you are telling me not to drink? Do you not remember what my last words to him were? Do you? I have reasons behind my drinking, and I am allowed to drink due to what has just happened!" Kirsten snapped, almost in one breath of anger. Everyone seemed to worry about her since the small knowledge of her drinking habit. She had had enough. She was a grown woman, a mother and wife. It was her time to do what she wanted, and after her father's sudden departure of the world, she could.

Sandy sighed. He knew this was coming. "Kirsten, you know that you shouldn't really be drinking so much. A bottle of," he looked at the bottle for a quick second, trying to find the brand name, "tequila! I know this is a tough time for you, but we, Seth, Ryan and I can help you through it."

"Sandy! Seth is in much pain as I am! At least he has positive memories of his grandfather, as I only have one negative! It hurts, Sandy! Don't start with me about not drinking!" Kirsten's face was soaked wet with tear stains. "This is a time to drink!" Kirsten sighed in frustration. "After someone you love dies, you have to do something! Something! And this is what I am doing."

"Kirsten -"

"Sandy! Don't!" Kirsten had had enough. She rose up off of her stool and snatched the tequila bottle from the table, as she had held it while it was still on it. Kirsten left. She wasn't in the mood for arguments, who would be after a great loss? Sandy just doesn't understand. He hated Caleb. What would he know? All Kirsten could think of was negative thoughts, which did not help her at all.

Seth lay on his bed, his shoulders resting on his pillows which stood upright, leaning on the header of his bed. He held Captain Oats, his toy miniature horse, in his hands and looked at him. In his mind he was questioning the horse. No one could make him feel any better. Not his father, Ryan or even Summer. He'd lost his grandfather, the only one he'd been very close to. And to what? A heart attack in the pool? Seth shared a close relationship with the wealthy, old man, and he missed him dearly. You don't know what you've got until its' gone. Seth's mind sung along with the radio song by the Counting Crows. It was the only one that seemed to fit his recent time experience and feelings. He'd listen to more depressing songs, but he was too lazy to move.

"So, Captain Oats, suffered from any losses lately?" He spoke to the horse's dead and motionless face. He waited for a minute then spoke once again, "I thought so. You know, buddy, maybe it isn't so bad. Normally after deaths something better comes along the way." He allowed that to sink in to his partner. "Yeah, I thought to too. Very unlikely, isn't it?" He made Captain Oats nod his stiff head, causing his whole body to move up and down. Seth let out a loud sigh, he was bored and he was sad at the same time. All he could manage to do was sit around and talk to a toy horse.

"Seth, are you talking to Captain Oats again?" Ryan peeked his whole body away from the wall from Seth's bedroom door. "Because I swear I didn't hear any replies." Ryan smiled a little, trying to open up the mood to happiness. He tried and he failed. He knew his attempts of being happy, or trying to make others happy, were pathetic. He wasn't much of an entertainer.

"Ahh, Ryan. Oh yes, Captain Oats and I are just talking. Would you like to join in too?" Seth turned his face to Ryan.

"Uhh ..." Ryan didn't know if he was going crazy, or if he was turning into a bad boy Seth Cohen version, "I guess." He made himself sound more reassuring, "I mean, er, sure." Ryan walked in more, and straightened himself up. He stood at the edge of Seth's bed, unknown of what to do.

Seth lay in silence. All he did was stare past Captain Oats to his desk on the other side of his room. He was in his own world, a world of perfection. Ryan was with Marissa, Summer with him, his mother had no worries, and his grandfather was alive. A happy world of Orange County that would never be real. Never. But only in Seth's creative mind, did it rest in peace. In the hard times, Seth always referred back to his imaginary world, and where all of the people who had a great impact on his life were there. Either alive or dead. It didn't matter. They were all alive to him. And his sudden emptiness was only because of his grandfather. He did, in fact, feel a part of him change, yet he could not pin point the emotion or event.

"So ... how's Captain Oats?" Ryan decided to break the silence, and refer to the plastic horse instead of Seth, himself, as he knew the answer even if he hadn't spoken.

"Oh, Captain Oats is fine. He just lost his grandfather, that's all." Seth replied with a normal tone in his voice. He spoke to the horse and Ryan, looking at them both for an approximation of thirty seconds each before flicking to the other.

"Him too? You two are linked in all aspects of life. How did his grandfather die?" Ryan decided to play along, it was the only way to see how Seth was, by him referring to Captain Oats as himself.

"Same way. A heart attack, and he fell into the big lake."

"A horse too?"

"Yep. And there was nothing anyone could do."

"It was his time ..." Ryan concluded. Then silence filled the room. Ryan took a seat on Seth's desk chair by pulling it over from underneath the table and to the bedside, where he once stood. He and Seth sat or lay in silence. The only way they could.

There was no one in the kitchen, but only silence. The phone rang. No one picked up, but the answering machine. The voice message came on, and the message left was by a stressed Julie Cooper. "Er, Kirsten. Sandy. Cal's details for his," she choked on the word, "funeral, are ready. Give me a call when you can." The beep of the phone arose, as she hung up. Sad that there was no one to listen to the message, or even delete it. It only contained more pain neither Kirsten or Julie would ever want to hear, but it was Julie doing the talking, and Kirsten was the one who was listening.