Still not beta-ed...Sorry!

Disclaimer - I don't own anything to do with the OC.

Once again, a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed. I love you all and want to have your babies.

The Accidental Hero

Chapter 6

Ryan opened his eyes; he stared up at the lightening sky in confusion. The night's events came screaming back into focus just before the pain did. He hauled himself up into a sitting position, wincing and holding onto his stomach. He wasn't sure if he'd passed out or just fallen asleep but however long he'd been out, it had played havoc with his bruised muscles. Everything seemed to have seized up and he could barely move. He grimaced as he inadvertently put his hand in the drying pool of vomit next to him; the abrasive quality of the sand came into play in a clean up operation. He couldn't remember being sick but he guessed that it had to have been him.

He wanted nothing more than to lay back down and not move again for a very long time but the rapidly changing sky was telling him that morning was approaching and he'd been out for too long. He needed to get back…he just wasn't looking forward to the walk.

He took a deep breath and got to his knees, he pushed himself upwards and stood unsteadily. It seemed a long way up from the ground all of a sudden and the feeling of vertigo assailed his body, he stumbled forward a few steps before he went down again. He rested his forehead in the cool sand for a while before he tried again. This time he managed to stay upright, in the loosest term of the word but he was up.

He started the long trek back up the beach.

The only way he managed to keep from giving up was by focusing on a point a little away ahead and promising himself a rest when he got there, what amounted to a thirty minute walk took him god knows how long. The first surfer of the morning had appeared on the shoreline in the distance indicating that the day had begun. He used him as a new focus spot, his confused state, his slightly fucked up brain turned the figure into a mirage of Sandy even though he knew it couldn't be him, and he thought that if he just reached that point then things would be O.K.

He felt dog-tired now and as he still quite a way from the surfer his legs gave out on him, if he had ached before, now it had reached a whole different level. The pain he was feeling was making him shaky and his legs couldn't hold him any longer… he crashed to the ground again. The surfer gave him a bored glance and continued to wax his board. Ryan knew that from this distance he probably looked like just another drunken teen back from an overnight bender. He didn't blame the guy for not giving a shit…he wondered if it he were in the same position whether he would have stopped to check.

He lay on the ground…this was stupid, he was so near the path that led directly to the house…he urged himself to get up and make the climb but his body was rebelling and for the first time that night he let himself wallow in the misery of self pity.

Kirsten and Sandy sat in the kitchen drinking coffee; it was only the caffeine and anxiety that was keeping them going at the moment. Ryan had been missing for over six hours now and the police had scaled down their operations at the house. With an apologetic statement that the search would be ongoing the majority of the police had cleared out. There was a blue and white posted out on the drive but the house was eerily empty now, like they were never there.

Summer sat silently at the kitchen table, Seth was slumped next to her with his head resting on his arms. They had had a lengthy discussion earlier on regarding whether Marissa should be put in the loop. Seth had been for…. Summer had been most definitely against. Summer's reasoning had been that she would find out soon enough and ignorance was bliss. She was trying to stay positive but the collective depression of the Cohen's was rubbing off on her.

She wondered what happened next…she had a vision of the house becoming like Miss Haversham's, complete with cobwebs and dust, while all the Cohens' waited silently for Ryan to return. She had never really given Ryan much thought before…he was just Ryan. When he had left for that summer with Theresa she had been so wrapped up in her own anger over Seth leaving that she hadn't really thought about how much Ryan had meant to this family. She was now seeing it first hand and it made her reflect on how little she really knew about him. The thought sickened her that she might never actually get to know the boy behind that complex exterior.

She needed some fresh air, she got up from the table and started to say where she was going but quickly realized that no one was remotely interested, they were all cocooned in their own thoughts and who could blame them. The enormity of the situation was just hitting her; she took an angry swipe at the tears that snaked down her cheek…who'd have thought that she'd be crying over Chino.

She walked out to the pool and gazed at the ocean, the morning air was crisp and clear, it was so peaceful out here that she had a hard time contemplating the horrors that had gone on in the house a few short hours ago. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried not to look at the pool house.

She broke her gaze away from the sky when she saw a figure in her peripheral vision she turned expecting to see Seth…she blinked a few times then ran over and caught Ryan as he stumbled. His weight brought her tumbling to the ground.

"Jesus."

She knelt next to Ryan and stared at him, taking in his bloodstained tee and the bruises that marred his pale face. He was shaking and his breathing was shallow, he looked like shit but she never felt like kissing someone so much in her life. The tears were streaming down her face in earnest now.

Ryan was here…. Ryan was alive.

She looked into his blue eyes and grinned, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"Are you looking down my top Atwood?"

Ryan gave a weak laugh then winced.

"Seth…. SETH." She yelled.

She felt like Santa on Christmas Eve as Mr and Mrs Cohen rushed out to the patio followed by Seth. The look on each of their faces restored her faith in human kind. She felt like she had given them their lives back.

Tbc

Sorry the chapters are short but real life gets in the way.