Thanks to melanie39 for beta-ing.

This is a short chapter, sorry in advance!

Disclaimer- I own nothing.

The Accidental Hero

Chapter 3

The police had arrived in record time. Caleb may be dead but his legacy still ran deep and Kirsten Cohen was a name to be reckoned with in Newport.

"Ma'am, we've put road blocks up around the immediate area but without having a clear description of the perpetrators or what vehicle they might be driving it's difficult."

"This is totally unacceptable, how the hell could they just vanish into thin air...with a teenage boy?"

"We're doing all we can Mrs. Cohen, rest assured. We've got patrols out….we'll find him."

Kirsten's worry made her shrewish and made her take her frustrations out on the police who were doing their best to find Ryan. In her mind she knew that they had little to go on and it wasn't their fault but Ryan had been missing now for forty-five minutes and forty-five minutes in the company of men like that was a lifetime.

The house was being covered in silver powder in the hope of finding fingerprints but unless either of them had taken their latex gloves off at some point it was hopeless.

Sandy had refused to go to hospital for his head wound. Instead, the EMTs had patched him up and made him sign a document stating that he had ignored their advice. He wanted to be near in case they got any news on Ryan. With each second that passed Sandy felt his control slip further away. He sat on the couch and watched as his wife took charge of the situation. How could she be so together after what had happened, after what was still happening to them? He admired her strong will but envied it at the same time. Why could he not get his head around this nightmare? Why did he feel so redundant? He wanted to be out there searching but he didn't want to leave Kirsten and Seth alone. He felt that he was letting Ryan down by not doing more.

Sandy watched his son. He was sat opposite him with the look of fear in his eyes but when Sandy caught his gaze he looked away, it was like he didn't want him to know how scared he was right now. His left foot tapping a frantic tattoo on the floor, he was also biting his thumbnail like he used to do when he was a lot younger and was worried about something. Sandy realized that so many of Seth's little nervous habits had stopped since Ryan had come to live with them. So much had changed; they were all different people now. And it was down to the complex person that was Ryan, this multifaceted individual who had taught them so much.

Why the hell had Ryan decided to play the hero? Why did he feel like he always had to save the world? Sandy was so grateful that Ryan had saved Kirsten from being raped by that animal but at what cost to himself. He was just a kid and now God knows what had happened to him. Sandy shut his eyes and tried to block out the image of the spray of blood on the bedroom floor.

He opened his eyes and looked at the clock… fifty minutes.

Kirsten sat down next to Sandy and grasped his hand in hers. She had seen him look at the clock. The same thing was running through her mind. It was almost an hour now.

She'd never forgive herself if anything happened to him. She'd left him and ran. Why had she listened to him? She was the adult, she should have been telling him what to do, not the other way round. That was the thing, fear had made her forget that he was just a boy, he had seemed so in control, and so commanding, like the situation was nothing out of the ordinary. That made her blood run cold when she thought about it…what it came down to was that he seemed generally unfazed by the violence of the situation and it brought home to her what his life must have been like before.

This was all her fault. What if she had gone to bed wearing her thick flannel pajamas? What if she had listened to her father who had told her to always sleep with a loaded gun nearby because you never knew when you might need it? What if she hadn't left him?

She had to stay in control because the alternative was not an option. Her body was crying out for a drink to numb the feelings of guilt that were assaulting her but she wouldn't give in. She made a pact with herself, she wouldn't touch a drop…unless…unless….

She shook the thought from her mind.

Seth got up and sat on the arm of the couch and held onto her other hand. She gave him a weak smile.

Seth took a deep breath. Why did this stuff keep happening to Ryan? Why when there were so many bad people out there did the bad stuff keep happening to Ryan who only ever tried to do the right thing? Seth laughed once when Ryan had mentioned the Atwood curse that seemed to dog him but nothing could deny that bad luck followed Ryan around like a black cloud. He listed the crap in his head, Dawn, Oliver, and Theresa – the one night of sex that may or may not have resulted in him making her pregnant. The summer in Chino, Theresa miscarrying, Theresa cutting him out, Trey stealing, Trey lying, Trey attacking Marissa, Trey being that close to choking him to death…Why did this stuff keep happening to Ryan?

And now? Seth didn't like to think what was going on now. He wouldn't think of what would happen if Ryan didn't come home again. What if he didn't bounce back from a run in with two psychos with guns? Seth felt so useless. They had divided, he hadn't had his back, not that there was anything he could have done but he wished that he could have been the one to save Ryan for once. No one ever saved Ryan. He bit the inside of his cheek hard and looked at his watch.

Sixty-four minutes.

Seth listened to the sound of the static from the police radios.

Ryan...he'd be fine. He had to be, because their family would never get over it if he wasn't.

TBC

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