Chapter Seven
Seth felt like pounding his head against a wall. A strong, sturdy wall, one that could possibly bust open his skull knock him unconscious just long enough for the days to pass by. He's wasn't hearing this, he knew that he wasn't hearing this. It was a joke, a cruel and totally out of character joke that his mom was playing on him. But as he stared at Kirsten's sad eyes and pursed lips, he knew that it was no joke. She was sadly telling the truth.
"So what? They're going to hold him back because he got shot and couldn't take his finals?" Seth blurted, not bothering to hide the disgust in his voice. "It's not like Ryan organized this whole thing. We have what, four days left of school? I don't understand why missing four days of school is such a problem."
"Seth," Sandy intervened, seeing the look of utter helplessness on his wife's face. "They won't hold Ryan back. Dr. Kim just said that they can't pass him until he's taken some sort of test on the material he's learned this year."
"Oh that's great," Seth said, rolling his eyes in disgust. "So Ryan gets shot, nearly dies, and now we're piling this on top of him too. Oh he's going to love coming back to the realm of the living." Seth crossed his arms over his chest and sat there in the waiting room chair, pouting.
"Honey, when I drop you off at school tomorrow, I'll talk to Dr. Kim and see if there isn't anything else she can do. But honestly, we should be thankful they even gave Ryan that option. They weren't even going to allow him to do that much." Kirsten said, sitting down beside her son.
"Okay, A, I'm not going to school tomorrow. And B, yet another reason why this place completely sucks. Big time." Seth sighed at the looks his parents gave him. "I just don't understand why they're punishing Ryan for something he had no control over."
"It's not a punishment, Seth," Sandy said, but then shook his head. "Look, we'll deal with this tomorrow. And you are going to school tomorrow. We can't have you falling behind now."
"Dad, there's no way…"
"We'll call you if anything happens," Kirsten promised. "Besides, you can pick up Ryan's homework."
"He'll love that," Seth mumbled, but seeing his parents were about to get angry decided to just nod in agreement instead of continuing to argue. He was saved from a further scolding when Ryan's doctor came out. He was holding a clipboard and he was smiling. Seth took that as good news.
"Well," the doctor began. "His check up is done. It looks like he's recovering from surgery fairly well. There some slight swelling in his abdomen that we'd like to watch, but other than that, he's doing just fine."
"Can we see him again?" Kirsten asked anxiously.
"Yes, one at a time," the doctor nodded. "But really, Ryan's going to be out for the next couple of days. You should really go home and get some rest. Once he wakes up, it could get fairly tiring."
"I'd like to stay with him for tonight," Kirsten said, but turned to Sandy and Seth. "But he's right. There's no reason for all of us to be here. Sandy, you have work tomorrow and Seth, you have school."
"Yeah, because we're going to be able to concentrate so well," Seth's sarcastic comment was not lost on Kirsten, but she decided to pointedly ignore it.
Sandy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He suddenly nodded and clapped Seth on the shoulder. Seth groaned, knowing his Dad had just resigned. "You're right," he said to Kirsten. "We'll go home and come back tomorrow. I'll take half the day off and take over the night watch tomorrow night."
Kirsten smiled and they kissed while Seth looked on in defeated remorse. "Mom, maybe I could stay out here tonight and just drive to school in the mor-"
"Seth. Home. Now." Kirsten said, though there was a slight smile to her face.
Seth dipped his head, accepted a small peck on the cheek from his mother and made his way out the door, Sandy trailing quietly behind.
It was quiet and peaceful listening to the quiet, steady blip of the heart monitor. At first, she had thought that the noise would keep her awake all night. But now, she found herself anticipating the blips, feeling them lull her into a sort of half sleep as she sat beside Ryan's bed. She had found solace in the noise, knowing that as long as that machine still blipped, Ryan still lived. That thought along kept her from feeling any hatred towards the device. She thought about heading to the cot that had been laid out for her, but she was too anxious to leave Ryan's side, in case he should need her.
So when Kirsten suddenly found herself startling awake, it took her a moment to realize she had fallen asleep sitting up in the chair. Her back ached almost uncomfortably, but she ignored the pain for now went to examine the room to try and find what had made her wake so suddenly. She listened to the heart monitor, to see if the rhythm had fallen off or stopped, but it was still going, still in perfect rhythm, no discrepancies. Nothing in the room seemed out of place, except for the frown that now marred Ryan's sleeping face.
Kirsten was instantly alive when she noticed the bent eyebrows and the look of pain that kept Ryan from looking like he was merely asleep. She stood up, leaning over him and brushing back a bit of his hair. She was surprised to find that his skin was almost cold to the touch, clammy even. "Ryan?" She whispered, wondering if perhaps the nurses hadn't given him enough sedative. He was, a strong kid after all and it wouldn't surprise her if he was able to withstand a few sedatives. Ryan's frown seemed to increase and suddenly his hand was moving, clenching loosely and trying to break free of the restraints that held his wrists in place.
"Ryan," Kirsten said more solidly. "Honey, it's okay," she whispered, stroking his forehead. She reached up to hit the call button that would bring in a nurse or doctor before returning her hands to Ryan's head and arm, trying to show him that he was safe and wasn't alone. "You're okay," she said to him again.
Ryan's head suddenly jerked to the side and he let out a small distressed sound. The sound nearly broke Kirsten's heart. A tear slipped from one of Ryan's eyes and Kirsten frantically pressed the call button again and again.
Not a moment later, a doctor burst into the room, two nurses in tow. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked, immediately coming over to inspect the patient.
"I…I don't know," Kirsten stammered, as Ryan's head shook again, his whole body trying to break free of the restraints holding him down. She looked up at the doctor and saw one of the nurses already preparing a syringe. "He looks like he's in pain," Kirsten's voice was a bit more frantic than she would have liked.
The doctor quickly went to work inspecting the different monitors and IV's hooked up to Ryan's body. He lifted Ryan's hospital gown to inspect the wound and Kirsten snuck a peek. It looked terrible, but not as bad as it had been. Finally, one of the nurses came over and stuck the syringe into Ryan's thigh. He gave one last shake of his head, a small almost imperceptible word escaping his lips before his head once again lolled into a quiet sleep, but the frown never left his face. Kirsten had recognized the word from the formation Ryan's lips had taken. He'd said the word, "Mom." She felt her heart begin to race.
Doing one last quick check over, the doctor turned to Kirsten. "It's all right," he assured her, Kirsten's shoulders instantly dropping in relief. "He was having a nightmare. And a rather strong one I would say, considering it overpowered the sedatives. We've upped his dosage, so it shouldn't happen again. He's going to get a good rest."
"Thank you," Kirsten nodded to them all as they left. She sat back down in her chair and curled her fingers around Ryan's limp hand. She watched his face, wondering what nightmares he could have been having. Sandy had never really told her much about Ryan's passed other than it "wasn't pleasant" or "troubled." She'd asked to see his file once, after Christmukkah when Ryan had hinted towards his past. But Sandy had strongly informed her that it was indeed the past and it should be kept that way. She had almost asked again during the Oliver debacle, but had decided against it. Ryan was a part of their family now, and she felt that the less she knew about his past, the easier it was to pretend like it didn't happen.
But now, after meeting Theresa and knowing that Eddie and Ryan had, at one time, been friends, Kirsten was tempted to once again ask Sandy if she could see Ryan's file. There was no denying that Ryan had a past anymore, because it had finally caught up with him here in Newport. Kirsten sighed and laid her head on the bed, still watching Ryan's sleeping face. The frown had lessened somewhat, but hadn't gone away. She wished she could make it go completely away. No matter how much Ryan ran from his past, it seemed that whenever he had finally settled into his new life, something from his childhood would come back to haunt him.
Ryan had once said something about the Atwood family luck. Kirsten was beginning to see how it all played out. Was Ryan ever truly happy, she wondered? It was so rare to get a genuine smile out of the boy. He normally shot them half smiles, or play smiles, but she found that her fondest memories of Ryan were when she had seen his true smile. That morning when Dawn had left and Kirsten had announced Ryan would be staying with them. The day Dr. Kim had announced that Ryan had made it into Harbor. The smile had cracked at Christmukkah when they were taking the family picture and Seth had mentioned something about how Captain Oates would be jealous that Ryan was taking his place.
There were so few memories or Ryan truly smiling at them. Kirsten just wished she could make him smile more. She loved it when he flashed them that smile, how his face lit up as though he were only six again. She wondered if he'd smiled so big when he was a child, or he if reserved those smiles just for them. Running her hand along his forehead again, Kirsten suddenly felt tears prick at her eyes. She closed her eyes and kissed his cheek. She would give anything for Ryan to be all right again. She just wished he would wake up already and flash her that smile. The Ryan Atwood smile, underused and reserved for only the fondest memories.
Review Responses:
kikicohen: I know, poor Ryan. Hey, I hope you like this chapter. A little Kirsten/Ryan time for you. :)
knadineg: Glad it made your favorites! I love stories where something happens to Ryan too. And yes, that would have been totoally amazing if Kirsten would have slapped Dawn. Maybe in another story I'll have her do just that.
Dumbeblondi02: Thank you! I passed all my finals, so I've been partying hardy the past couple days, lol. And yeah, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ryan angst and pain, just so long as he doesn't die. I actually hate it in stories when main characters die (just in fanfics, though). Unless it's a future fic, where Ryan is old and gray and happy with his life, lol.
Vancouverite: Haha, well I thought I'd give you a couple days to catch up before posting this chapter, ;) LOL! j/k Yeah, I'm glad Sandy told her off too. It was so hard to keep him in character for that though, because there were so many things I wanted someone to say to her. But I picture Sandy just being able to hold his own and be cool about it. And the Florence Nightengale Syndrome is indeed a good syndrome to have hehe. I'm glad theres a club. ;)
steph: Yeah, Theresa's out of the picture for now, but probably not for good for this story. We may see her again soon.
I-Believe-In-The-Butterflies: I'm glad people are reviewing too. And I'm glad you continue to like this story. This chapter was a little slow, but the next one will be better. I might have it up real soon because I'm really in the mood for writing, lol.
Callie-Cat: Thank you! I can't tell you how happy I am that so many people are enjoying this story. But, honestly, I'm sort of dreading it when Ryan wakes up. I don't know how he's going to act when he finds out all that's wrong with him, and that his mom's gone, and that Theresa's gone, lol. Poor Ryan, that's a lot to handle. And maybe there will be something else I can throw at the poor kid. ;)
IY-ROX: Yay! I'm glad you like it!
slimkay: Hehe, I try to listen to what the reviewers want to see happen. I have it plotted out for the most part, but I feel like the reviews can have some sway in what I do with it. :) I'm glad you still like it.
xoleanderx: Haha! Yeah, I loved writing for Sandy when he was telling off Dawn. It's hard to keep the characters in character, but I'm trying really hard. And God, I love reading stuff that gets me so involved that I get nervous for the characters hehe. I'm glad I could be of service.
beachtree: I'm going to be honest with you, you make me nervous when you review, lol. I wrote this chapter for you, a nice, slowed down one. I have to really be in the mood to write reflection pieces. Usually, I'm an action writer, so when someone tells me to slow down, I always take it seriously, lol. Yeah, I'm keeping real close track on all the little dramas. For my next chapter, I'm going to spread the characters out a bit so they aren't all in the emergency room. That should help a little for me to play with the individual dramas. And of course, this wouldn't be a great story if I threw in a few more dilemmas, lol. Nothing big, but they'll need to be taken care of either way. :) Thanks for the long and helpful reviews!