Discl.: I don't own anything related to the O.C.
First I'd like to send all my thoughts and wishes to the people in my country who were evacuated, are homeless and have lost everything to the terrible floods, as well as to the people fighting "Katrina" in the US, my heart is with the relatives of the victims.
Second I'd like to thank all my lovely, lovely reviewers who truly keep me writing! Thank you to Leentje, Kym, uscrocks, kursk, smartiepantz, I-believe-in-the-Butterflies (J), jhhhjfjk89, brandyurastar, luvtheOC09, Marissa Atwood, Rainygal, Megan and Rachel.
Chapter 18
The chatter died when Ryan entered the living room, holding a nervous Alyssa on his hand. Only the clicking of the Jenga stones could be heard, until the two children on the floor realised, that something was going on and stopped playing, looking up, spotting father and daughter.
Colin and Cassandra both jumped up, the boy gulped nervously and gave Ryan a quick glance before he shyly inspected his sister.
Nobody spoke, as they didn't know how to introduce the two children to each other.
Ryan's eyes immediately searched Kirsten's glance, wordlessly asking her for help.
But before anyone could think of something to say, Cassandra ran to her best friend and hugged her tightly, taking Alyssa's hand, guiding her over to the dark blonde boy, introducing:
"Alyssa, this is Colin - he's Marissa's son! Colin, this is my best friend Alyssa."
Not waiting for any reply, Seth's daughter continued:
"Guess what, Colin told me, that they moved here, so he will be going to Harbor with us, ain't that cool! You know how we have always wanted a boy to hang with us, we will be the only girls to have a boy in our group and no stupid jerks will make fun of us anymore, I so can't wait to return to school and finally start High school - oh… of course only if you want to hang with us Colin " Seth's daughter rambled, her glance shifting forth and back from Colin to Alyssa.
While Cassandra babbled on, Colin nodded, overwhelmed by the fast and endless talking of the black haired girl. He tried to ignore her, concentrating on the girl that was staring at him, her sparkling blue eyes similar to his own, expressing exactly the same as he was feeling right now, nervousness, anxiety and helplessness. Colin realised, that as the big brother he was now, he had to take matters into his own hands.
The slightly irritated boy reached out and covered the black haired girl's mouth with his hand, forcing her to stop talking. Ignoring the shocked and confused look of Cassandra, he extended his other hand to a reluctant Alyssa, saying:
"I'm Colin…"
Alyssa just stared at the hand in front of her for a second, before she slowly shook it, her eyes shyly searching for his.
"Alyssa…." she whispered, not knowing what else to say, embarrassed about her feelings being exposed in front of all her family. When tears started filling her eyes and a chill went through her body, Colin took one step closer and carefully wrapped his arm around her, hoping she wouldn't pull away, whispering into her ear:
"Wanna talk somewhere else?"
His sister nodded frantically on his shoulder, before taking his hand and starting to run up the stairs with Colin in tow, totally ignoring the stares of the others.
"Hey!" Cassandra called, ready to follow them, when Seth caught her arm, stopping her in her track.
"Dad!" whined the black haired girl, giving her father a hurt glance, her eyes expressing betrayal.
"You gotta give them some time princess, they have a lot to talk about… Colin is Alyssa's half brother, you know?" Seth explained softly to his little girl, comfortingly stroking her hair.
"Holy shit!" Cassandra gasped, creating a moment of shock between the adults, before Sandy sternly replied:
"Language, little lady!"
"I'm sorry Grandpa, but that's crazy! Man! That's so not fair! I will never have a big brother but gotta wait another 10 years until I can show off my brother" she blurted out, crossing her arms over her chest, a sullen expression on her face.
The adults laughed, releasing a little bit of their tension, but still puzzled about the moment of sibling-bonding they had just experienced, which had happened so easily without any of their help.
Marissa got up and walked over to Ryan, shyly reaching for his hand, locking eyes with him and asking:
"Do you think they're alright?"
"I think it's better for them to talk alone…. after all, they're my kids…. and you know how I react to uncovered emotions around people" he smiled half-hearted, squeezing her hand softly.
Pulling away from her he placed himself on an armchair, closing his eyes, sighing deeply, various thoughts circling in his mind, but he was just too exhausted to focus on the family sitting around him.
"So… I believe it's time to come forward Ryan, before all different people will float through the house with condolences during the next few days, we really need to straighten things out, say that we all know the same about what's going on…." Sandy firmly explained, trying to suppress his insecurity regarding the new family formation.
Ryan lifted his head and gave Seth a look, wordlessly asking for his help. Seth just nodded, a small smile appearing on his lips, he could still read his brother like a book.
"Yeah, parents… See, Ryan has recently done a lot of talking, actually enough for him to now stay quiet for at least 6 months" he smirked.
"So I will answer all your questions, with Marissa's help of course, as I have no idea what exactly she promised to get him home and no- Marissa, we do not wanna hear all naughty details!"
Ryan just playfully raised his eyebrow, mocking anger, giving Marissa a reassuring smile, encouraging her to tell the others what had happened. He trusted her judgement enough to be sure, that she would only tell the important things and leave out the matters they still had to sorten out between them.
He closed his eyes when her soft, low voice started telling them what had happened earlier and it did only take a few moments before he doze off, finally letting himself drift in the desperately needed sleep his body had been screaming for.
Silence filled the room after Alyssa and Colin had been rushing in, closing the door behind themselves with a sigh, before the girl placed herself on her bed, hugging her knees, waiting for her half brother to start talking.
Colin tried to cover up his nervousness and began wandering through the nursery, inspecting the typical girl stuff, taking in the sight of the valley DVD's neatly placed in the shelf before closely examining the family pictures on the commode. Finally he returned to the middle of the room and let himself plop onto the four-poster bed, laying down across the mattress, shyly glancing at the strange girl that was now officially family.
"I'm sorry… about your mum…." Colin said in a low voice, hoping she would not start crying. He always felt helpless at crying girls, unable to give support when he felt uneasy.
"Thanks" Alyssa replied, her eyes wide open and her bottom lip trembling, but she stayed strong, suppressing the tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of her mother.
"How was she… your mum I mean" the boy asked, not trying to be polite, but trying to find a way to connect, trying to get to know the family which he was now part of, interested to know what had happened in the life of his new sister before he came along.
"She… she was my best friend…. besides Cassandra… we could talk about everything and I could ask her anything, she would never lie to me…"
Colin nodded unassertive, his glance wandering back to the commode, stopping at the photo of Alyssa with Ryan and Bernadette, all of them smiling happily into the camera.
"You know, it's weird… if we were two normal siblings, we would be fighting and disagreeing on everything, instead of avoiding to talk about what actually is going on here…." Alyssa whispered, following his view to her photos.
"Straight to the point… you definitely are Ryan's daughter…" Colin smirked half-heartedly, before sitting up and looking directly at the anxious girl.
"I don't know if we will ever be a real family… my mum and your… our Dad… have to figure things out between themselves… I just want you to know that… I'm here if you ever need a brother… if you need to talk, ok? I probably won't have the right answers like your mum used to have, but I believe that we gotta stick together here… besides… I always wanted to have sister to tease…"
Alyssa reacted instantly by reaching out and playfully slapping her brother's arm, slightly grinning, relieved that he had the intention to take this whole awkward situation with humour.
Still amused by the look of Colin's face mocking pain, she didn't notice that he had reached for her pillow until it hit her chest, causing her brother to triumphantly laughing at the surprised and shocked expression on her face.
"Oh boy, you're so gonna die!" she shrieked, before she jumped off her bed and ran to the closet door, which she ripped open, just to reveal a large stock of pillows. Colin's face changed from a big, self-pleasing grin to an expression of disbelief and shock. He hesitated one second too long and already the first pillow hit him across his head, sending him tumbling backwards before falling off the bed with a thud.
Silence filled the room again, Alyssa frozen in shock when no sound of Colin could be heard. The girl waited a few seconds before she forced herself to stop staring at the position where her brother had been sitting a few moments ago, and slowly she began walking around the bed to take a closer look at the motionless body.
"Colin? ...Are you ok? ...Colin? ...can you hear me?" Alyssa whispered when she found her voice back, scared silly at the sight of her brother laying in an up tangled position on the floor, his eyes closed.
The girl knelt herself down next to Colin, softly touching his arm, shaking him gently, a huge lump forming in her throat. Just when she was about to call for her Dad, Colin bolted upright, threw himself on his little sister and started tickling her with a triumphant smirk on his face.
"Got ya!"
"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!" Alyssa cried in between bursts of laughter, caused by the attacks of the boy.
After a few minutes of fighting and tickling they let go of each other and lay spent on the floor, surrounded by all of the girl's stuffed animals, panting deeply.
"I think it's gonna be cool having you around…." Alyssa finally revealed, turning her head and shyly smiling at Colin
"Yeah, I never thought girls could be so much fun" Colin smirked, gently squeezing his sister's hand, knowing that this was a good start for something he had been wising for all of his life.
Ryan woke up to the sound of soft chatter from the kitchen, unable to remember how he had ended up on the couch. Looking around he inspected the blanket laying on the floor, a second glance over his body made him realise that he was only wearing his boxers and a wifebeater. His head felt surprisingly clear and the exhaustion of the last few days had been replaced by still sorrow for Bernadette and David, but also by hope that his future was not useless anymore, with Marissa and Colin willing to be part of the family.
The architect sat up, rubbed his eyes and tried to find out, what he had missed last night. He remembered the long talks at the hospital with Colin and Marissa, the ride home, the discussion with Alyssa and finally the first encounter of his two children. But the rest of the evening was blurry in his memory and he figured, that he must have been passed out.
Seeing as there were no clothes detectable in the living room, he got up and started walking towards the kitchen, expecting to find Sandy and Kirsten having breakfast with Alyssa.
Ryan froze when he walked through the alley way and spotted Alyssa and Colin sitting next to each other at the counter, each a mug of coffee in front of them, picking at their bowls of cereals, laughing quietly, obviously aware of his sleep-over on the couch.
He retreated back to the living room and silently observed them chatting and laughing, blissfully enjoying that his two children had found a connection and were getting along great. It made him happy that Alyssa could laugh again, after everything she had gone through the last few days. Now that he was finally able to think clear again, he decided to take one step a time, coming clear about his own feelings, saying goodbye to Bernadette and David and to finally start enjoying that he had a son and a daughter now, that he had some kind of family, normality back. Once again he wondered where his desperate need for family came from. After everything he had experienced with his own flesh and blood, could it be possible that the Cohen's had turned him around the few years he had been living in their house as one of them?
Ryan flinched when Marissa entered the kitchen from the opposite door, smiling at the kids, gently running her hand over Colin's head who turned away quickly, embarrassed to be caressed by his mum in front of a girl. Smirking at her son, Marissa turned to Alyssa and gave her a quick hug, before also tenderly stroking her hair. Ryan watched the scene in the kitchen with amazement, feared to disturb the three of them and cause an awkward tension.
Realising, that this was his new family, that this were the people he wanted to be together with for the rest of his life, his heart was filled with love and thankfulness for the higher power that was obviously following a plan with his life, turning horrific experiences into wonderful new challenges. The ringing sound of the door bell sent goose-bumps down his back. Immediately the bad feeling in his gut returned, fearing that who ever was at the door meant bad news.
The architect didn't even bother to dress but sprinted to the door and opened it quickly, ready to face any new test without fear, knowing that he would get through everything with the newly united family having his back.
His face fell at the sight of the woman standing outside, sunglasses covering her eyes, her face pale, her hands slightly shaking.
"Hey boy…."
"Dawn…"
ok, hope you all like it, next update should be up sooner