AN – This isn't the chapter I intended to have posted by the end of June. It's only a fragment of it and a fairly small one, I think. But RL in the form of company and my decision to participate in the OC Sentence Challenge kept me distracted for most of the month. This does form a coherent piece and does move the story along, if only incrementally. (My faithful reader said I should go with it.)

I'll try to get the rest up as soon as possible. Would you prefer to have the rest of this chapter posted as scenes are finished or wait for the whole piece? I'd be interested to hear from anyone with an opinion.

VAMPING THE OC

Part 1

The Real Chino

The Roach Motel, part 1

"Let me through! I know him." Just as The Nana had shown him on his last visit to New York, Seth used his elbows to clear a path through the crowd of curious patrons who'd gathered around Ryan. He wasn't on a hunt for bargains at Macy's in the after Thanksgiving Day Sale now. This time it was something important. "He's my friend."

"Ryan, are you okay?" Seth dropped down to one knee beside Ryan and shook his shoulder gently.

"How is he?" Justine asked. She stood behind Seth watching as he tried to locate Ryan's pulse in his neck. Seth tried to remember how they did it on ER . If only he hadn't abandoned it forCSI , which was like a totally useless source of helpful information in a situation like this. Everyone they dealt with on that show was already dead.

i Ryan can't be dead /i . He knew that Ryan couldn't be dead.

"What you're looking for, the carotid artery, is a quarter inch to your left" An amused voice said from behind him. Just as Seth found the pulse point, Ryan groaned.

A noise distracted Seth momentarily from his concern for Ryan. Looking up he saw the guard Justine had referred to as Christian stumble down the stairs. He caught himself at the bottom and stood swaying there, his eyes wild. He clung to the railing with a death grip that left his knuckles white. As the confusion faded from his face and he took in the scene before him, the color drained from his face.

Seth turned back as Ryan groaned again and stuck his hand into Ryan's face. "How many fingers am I holding up, Ryan?" He began to wave excitedly in front of Ryan.

From behind him a hand came down and locked Seth's arm in a powerful hold. "He might be able to answer you, boy, if you didn't keep changing the number of fingers you held in front of him," a man's deep voice suggested impatiently. Seth rubbed his forearm, trying to restore feeling to it after his arm was freed. Looking up he saw Justine's other guard watching him with a look of disgust on his face.

"Right, of course." Seth held up two fingers a few inches away from Ryan's face. "How many fingers now, Ryan?" When Ryan didn't respond immediately, Seth reached for his sunglasses. "Cool shades, dude. Where'd you get them? I've been looking for…" He felt the toe of Justine's slipper prod him sharply in the leg. "You probably can't even see my fingers through them. I'll just hold them for you."

Seth's hand was suddenly yanked away from the glasses. "Leave the glasses alone!" Seth's hand was pulled upand found himself dangling, his toes just touching the floor, in the grip of Justine's other guard, Christian. Christian's gaze was fixed on Ryan and he seemed oblivious to Seth's struggles to free himself. His hand had begun to lose feeling when Christian ordered, "Ask him again!" There was desperation in his voice.

"Right," Seth whined, "but can I have my hand back first? That is if you're not planning on taking it as a trophy? 'Cause I'm really kind of attached to it right now."

"Christian!" Two voices spoke in unison. One voice belonged to Justine. The other voice, a man's deeper voice, snapped with the force of someone used to instant obedience. Seth fell back to the floor. For the second time Seth had to rub a body part to restore circulation. He wondered to himself what was up with the bodyguards and the casualness with which they inflicted pain on Seth Cohen tonight.

As Seth returned his attention to Ryan, he saw that the crowd of diners that had surrounded them had returned to their tables. Now only Justine and her two guards remained with him beside Ryan. "Does the boy need an ambulance?" Jason asked impatiently. Seth directed a blistering look at him that would have done justice to Cyclops.

"No. The 'boy' doesn't need an ambulance." Seth's attention snapped back to Ryan at these soft words. Ryan's head was up off the floor and he was attempting to lever himself into an upright position.

"Hey man. Take it easy." Seth put his hand on Ryan's chest and shoved him down. "Stay where you are. You might have broken bones, a concussion, or something. You weren't saying anything there for a while to my questions. Admittedly this is not an unusual state of affairs, I mean people not answering me, but dude you seemed totally out of it. If you lost consciousness or blacked out that might mean you have a concussion. We should take you to a hospital. Get you x-rays, and MRI's, and CAT scans, all that stuff."

"No hospital, Seth. I…I can't afford a hospital. I'm fine! " Ryan said emphatically as he tried to sit up again. His body would not cooperate in the performance of this simple maneuver, however. Each time he tried to lever himself up his hands would not support his weight and he slumped back to the floor. Ryan finally settled for supporting himself on his elbows. He slowly surveyed the faces of the people gathered around him.

"Ryan, you should go to a hospital just to be sure." Justine tried to kneel beside Ryan but found that the designer of her evening dress had never considered that a maneuver such as squatting down might ever be called for by anyone who wore it. All she could do was bend over him. "We're insured for accidents. That's right, isn't it, Jason?" She looked questioningly toward the older guard who, after a pause, slowly nodded in agreement. "Don't worry about the cost. The restaurant will be responsible for the hospital bills." Seth heard a strangled sound from Jason but a look from Justine kept any comments he would have made unspoken. "You should let someone check you over."

With Ryan's eyes hidden behind the dark glasses, Seth couldn't check them for clues to his feelings but the stubborn set of his jaw was clear enough - Ryan was not going to take her advice. He watched curiously the way Ryan's face turned away from Justine's and tracked Christian's movements as he walked around to his other side and knelt down beside him. Seth couldn't decide what the strange vibe was that passed between the two men.

Before Ryan could reply, Christian looked up at the young woman and answered for him, "Miss Justine, that decision is the boy's. If he doesn't want to go, you should accept that." After he said this Christian gave Seth an appraising look and reached into the pockets of his tuxedo coat and pulled out a pair of thin, black leather driving gloves. Seth watched him as he got to his feet and slipped them on.

The look of relief Ryan gaveChristian persuaded Seth. He didn't get why Ryan didn't want to go to a hospital but he definitely got the message. "He's right, Justine. I'm sure everything will be fine." He turned to Ryan for corroboration and reassurance. "You're okay, Ryan, right?"

Ryan nodded. "Everything's fine, Seth."

A gloved hand reached out to offer Ryan help up. Ryan stared at the hand and its glove without making any move to take it. Ryan's forehead wrinkled in indecision, as he considered the hand.

Seth, for his part, blinked at the two-inch wide black leather watchband that was visible on Christian's left wrist as his coat and shirt sleeve slid up on his arm. The incongruity of this band with the Versace tuxedo and the gold glinting at him from the cuff of his white silk shirtpuzzled Seth.

Seeing Ryan's hesitation, Seth stood up and held out his own hand to him. Ryan grasped Seth's hand. That Ryan would prefer Seth's help both surprised and pleased him. Seth pulled but it still took Christian's help, who gripped Ryan under the arm and lifted, to get him onto his feet. Seth felt Ryan flinch away initially when Christian touched him but the reaction was only momentary. Together the two men got Ryan up where he stood leaning weakly on Seth's arm.

Seth took the opportunity to whisper sarcastically in Ryan's ear, "Gee, man, I'm glad you're so okay. Otherwise we'd have needed a block and tackle to get you up and a wheelbarrow to get you to the car."

The weak smile this earned him from an obviously struggling Ryan caused Seth to smile in a totally foolish and inexplicable fashion. His smile vanished as Justine's concern registered and he took in the look of suspicion on Jason's face.

"He'll be fine as soon as I get him into bed." This earned Seth a painful squeeze from the hand that Ryan held on to him with. He guessed from the way Ryan's head came up that it also earned him a sharp look from behind the dark glasses that still coveredRyan's eyes. "Not that I'm going to like undress him or help him into bed or anything because that would be totally weird and really minty," He said looking at Justine. "I'm just the taxi service. The public conveyance thing is totally within my level of expertise." Ryan's boot came down on the insole of his foot and Seth let out a little gasp of pain.

Jason gazed thoughtfully at the two boys and then addressed Christian. "Make yourself useful, boy. Bring their car up to the front door." Seth didn't argue. Ryan needed increasingly more support from him just to stay on his feet. Seth dug into his pants pocket with his free hand and tossed his car keys to Christian who snagged them out of the air with a careless ease that Seth totally wished he possessed. Without a word Christian turned and left for the parking lot.

"Hey, don't you need me to tell you…." Seth called after his back.

"He'll find the right car, boy. Don't worry." Jason seemed confident of this. He gestured to a busboy that hovered just out of earshot of the little group around Ryan and requested a chair be brought for Ryan while they waited.

Privately, Seth doubted the wisdom of allowing Ryan to sit down. Ryan's strength seemed to be ebbing and it had taken the two of them to get him off the floor. Seth worried that even with help he might not be able to get him back on his feet a second time. Seth swallowed his concerns when the chair arrived.

The expression on Justine's face, however, was such a mixture of worry and apprehension that Seth could tell that if Ryan gave her any excuse she'd certainly override his desire to stay away from hospitals. As Seth took in Ryan's wobbly condition, he didn't know that he didn't agree with her. I hope Ryan knows what he's doing with the hospital thing.

Christian returned so quickly that Seth didn't have an opportunity to fret too much or to fall into any more embarrassing verbal holes of his own digging. It did take the two of them to get Ryan on his feet just as Seth had feared; and much to Seth's dismay, Ryan continued to refuse Christian's help as they walked to the restaurant's entrance. Christian, nevertheless, kept pace with them on Ryan's other side but took care neither to touch him nor offer any assistance.

Justine followed alongside them and kept up a running monolog of worries and concerns about Ryan's condition and the wisdom of what he was doing. Jason trailed along behind her, back in guard mode again. A disapproving scowl clouded his handsome features. When they reached the door, Justine tried one last time to change Ryan's mind.

"Ryan, are you sure you won't let Seth drive you to the hospital? No ambulances, no EMT's, no drama. Just, you know, you humoring me about making sure that you're okay."

"I'm fine, really. Don't worry about me. All I need is a little rest."

Seth thought Ryan's self diagnosis would have been more convincing if he hadn't needed Seth's very obvious support to get even this far. As Ryan waited patiently for Justine to finish, he rubbed his free hand across his forehead. He'd done that several times since they'd gotten him to his feet. It wasn't a gesture that Seth had seen him make earlier in the evening and its cause worried him. But he knew that he needed to go along with Ryan's wishes in this. It was part of the unwritten code. Friends had each other's backs even when it didn't make sense.

Justine sighed in frustration and turned away back into the restaurant. As she walked away Jason directed his attention to Christian who still waited at Ryan's side.

"Do you think you can see that they get to their car safely?" He asked sarcastically. "I want to see you tonight when you return to the compound."

Without waiting for any answer, Jason turned to the two boys. "I would advise you to go home, both of you, and to stay away from this restaurant in the future. And you boy," he pointed a finger at Ryan, "do not misunderstand Miss Justine's concern. She has a gentle soul and sees only the good in people." He snorted. "It's a weakness that got her parents killed and one that she has to be protected against. I know what you are. Stay away from her." He threw a last sharp glance at Christian before turning and striding away rapidly, intent on catching up with his charge.

With relief Seth saw as they exited the building that, as promised, the Range Rover waited just outside the door of the restaurant. That last couple of feet was, Seth thought, about as far as he had left in him. Ryan was a little shorter than Seth but his body mass of muscle made him at least as heavy as Seth's taller, leaner frame. Seth would have welcomed Christian's help but he soldiered on alone supporting Ryan's weight, keeping him upright and moving toward the truck.

Ryan leaned against the truck by the passenger door, his chin resting on his chest, while Seth searched frantically in his pockets for the keys. Seth supposed that Christian found it amusing to watch his increasingly frantic search for his car keys before he produced them from his pocket and tossed them toward Seth. Moses and Jesus must have both been on duty because Seth caught them cleanly and so escaped the humiliation of dropping them in front of Ryan and loosing whatever cool points he'd earned tonight. He opened the truck's door and Ryan all but fell into the passenger seat. It took Seth's help for him to lift his legs into the car.

Once he was in the truck, Ryan reached up slowly and removed the sunglasses and held them out to Christian who stood watching him.

"Thanks," he said softly. "My glasses are here. I won't need these any more."

Christian brushed the hand holding the glasses gently aside and leaned into the truck. He whispered something to Ryan that Seth couldn't hear. All Seth could see was Ryan's head shake answering no to whatever Christian said to him. Christian stood up with a frown and stepped away from the door to allow Seth to close it.

Seth glanced in at Ryan to see how he was doing. Ryan had replaced the glasses on his face and now sat back in the seat. His head was tilted back supported by the head rest. Seth reached in, pulled the seatbelt across Ryan's chest, and locked it into place.

As Seth stepped away from the door, Christian handed him a card that he'd taken from the inside breast pocket of his tuxedo coat.

"If you need any help, this is my cell phone number."

Seth arched an eyebrow and gave him a 'yeah right, when Hell freezes over' look before shoving the card into his pants pocket without looking at it.

Christian moved out of the way so that Seth could close the passenger door but he didn't return to the restaurant immediately. He remained by the truck watching. His eyes scanned the parking lot in what Seth recognized as his bodyguard mode. Seth paused for a moment and looked around the lot himself before walking to the driver's side. He wondered what Christian had been looking for so late at night.

As soon as Seth snapped his own seatbelt closed and put the key in the ignition, he realized that he didn't know where they were going. He only knew where they weren't going. They weren't going to an Emergency Room.

"Ryan, where to man?" Seth asked before suddenly smiling broadly. "You know, I could take you home. We have this big empty pool house you could stay in. It has a kitchen, a bathroom, futon (that's a bed, you know)," at the scornful look Ryan sent his way Seth hurried on, "but you probably already know that, and a living area. My aunt lived there for almost a year. That's what my Mom called it, at least. Dad said she was freeloading while she worked on my grandfather to give her more money. You could stay there as long as you needed and I could like keep an idea on you (but not in an intrusive, privacy invading way) until you were feeling 100 again."

Ryan slowly turned his head toward Seth. "What about your parents? What would they think about you bringing home a stranger from Chino to live? I might be a thief, or a murderer, or worse." He smiled weakly. "I don't think so Seth. I'm not OC material. Just take me home."

"Which is where? You haven't exactly told me where you live. In fact you've been pretty evasive about the whole Ryan Atwood abode thing tonight. Give me an address and Gypsy, that's my name for my GPS unit, will get us there." He gave the mechanism on the dashboard an affectionate pat. "But who's going to look after you there? I don't think you should be alone. My idea is still better. Eight hundred thread sheets and a heated pool just outside your door," Seth urged in the voice he used when he tried to talk the parental units into something they'd already said no to. "You should come home with me."

Ryan's sunglasses stayed trained on Seth for a beat and then Ryan turned his head back toward the front and slowly gave him the address to The Chino Motel. Before Seth could offer any more arguments his cell phone went off startling him. Seth checked the clock on the dashboard for the time.

"Shit, it's the parents. Good thing I told Mom I wouldn't be answering the phone if she called after midnight." He removed the phone from its holder on the dashboard and hit the off button. "Don't need to be hearing that all night. Sometimes Mom can get a little obsessive. So are you sure, man? Chino?" Ryan nodded yes and Seth programmed the address to The Chino Motel into Gypsy.

"Okay then, The Chino Motel it is."