Cry to Be Found
Disclaimer – I own nothing to do with The O.C, they belong to Josh and the people at Fox!
A/N; Here is chapter five, back to the fluff and angst mix. This is a rather short chapter and it's a little jumpy but I thought you guys deserved an update. The chpaters now start to jump a little, so the boys differ in age from chapter to chapter. probably aiming for one a year so the boys are now two the next three and so on.
Thanks to all the reviewers you guys make me keep posting andI am enjoying htis story so much!
I don't want to go on forever but there were a couple of questions; kursk; M&S won't appear until the guys move to Newport but hang on in there, forgottenletters; this chapter and the next explore the issues of Ryan's birth, jen; the boys were around eight-ten months old in the last chapter and are now nearly two.
By the way all the chapter titles (except the first two) come from an album so they also don't belong to me. Well done to anyone who can name that album you have great taste in music!
Enjoy and please review!
Sandy lay in bed listening to the crackling on the baby monitor; the boys had been in bed for a few minutes now. After putting them down he had retreated to the bedroom to get some work done on his filing, Kirsten was held up at the gallery. He was barely paying attention to the papers spread before him distracted by the noises his sons were making.
Sandy soon realised though that only one voice was being heard, sneaking back toward the doorway he peeked into the boy's room. Seth was lying on his back babbling away, nothing in particular just general noises. A few days ago Kirsten was certain she had heard him say "mom" and had run around the room ecstatic, Sandy was a little more sceptical seeing as hadn't done it since. Seth had always been the noisiest, starting to gurgle from an early age and now it had become more and more defined. Both Sandy and Kirsten were pleased with his ramblings taking every available opportunity to encourage him engaging him in meaningless conversations.
What appeared to have slipped under Kirsten's radar though was that Ryan was making no such efforts. He had always been a quiet baby, often contenting himself rather than screaming for his parent's attention.
Approaching the right side of the room Sandy lifted a still wide awake Ryan up to his chest. Turning across the room he switched on Seth's night light, wished him goodnight and left closing the door over so only a crack of light shone through.
Entering the master bedroom, Sandy plopped Ryan down on the bed; he quickly crawled away heading toward the soft comforter pooled at the top of the bed. Lifting all the files off the bed and depositing them on the nightstand Sandy laughed as Ryan snuggled into the duvet, only a few strands of blonde hair stood out on the bed sheets.
Sandy lifted the sheets and climbed in next to his son, lifting him gently he placed him on his chest. "Hey little guy, your not sleepy yet are you?"
The little blonde head bobbed from side to side in answer to his father, gripping his shoulders Sandy lifted him up into a sitting position.
"Come on Ryan, speak to me come on buddy you can do it. Say 'No'." Ryan looked back at his father with perplexed eyes, Sandy sighed he knew that Ryan had heard that word it was one of Seth's favourites.
"Okay then how 'bout something simple, dada. Listen da-da, see Ryan dada." Sandy extended a finger toward himself but Ryan merely sat on his chest grinning. Sandy reached up and stroked a hand down his head and neck, Ryan smiled and lay back down on Sandy's chest. "Never mind little guy you'll get it eventually."
That was how Kirsten found them at midnight when she finally got home from work, both snoozing away peacefully. Smiling she stayed in the doorway for a while content to watch them sleep, eventually deciding that Ryan needed to be put back in his own bed.
Crossing the room she pulled back the covers from the two sleeping forms, this alone caused Sandy to stir and he wrapped his arms protectively around Ryan.
"Hey honey it's me, he needs to go to bed." She nodded her head down toward Ryan.
Still dazed Sandy lay still for a moment collecting his thoughts before allowing Kirsten to lift Ryan up from his chest. It was now Sandy's turn to watch in awe as Kirsten danced with their son glad to spend some time with him even if he was asleep.
Drawing breath Sandy decided they had to broach the subject at some point, "Kirsten?"
Kirsten turned round with Ryan snoozing on her shoulder; Sandy had never seen anything more beautiful. "Uh huh?"
"Have…have you noticed…well…that…" He couldn't bring himself to say the words.
"Noticed what honey?" Kirsten still hadn't twigged at Sandy's tone of voice.
Bite the bullet Sandy, just say it, it's for the best, "That Ryan doesn't talk?"
To his surprise Kirsten laughed, "What? Sandy he's only a baby…"
"Kirsten he's nearly two Seth started talking months ago, I think…I think we should take him to the doctor."
This got Kirsten's attention; she reached a hand up to Ryan's head as if protecting him from Sandy's words she stormed out of the room and returned moments later Ryan now gone. Reaching for the bedroom door she pulled it closed as though Ryan and Seth could understand what was being said, Sandy could tell she was angry but he also knew that she was upset. She had noticed all along that Ryan hadn't been speaking, she just wanted to ignore it not admit something was wrong with her baby.
"What?" Was all she could bring herself to say.
Sandy motioned to the spot beside him on the bed, "Honey you know Ryan should have starting talking months ago – maybe not full coherent sentences but something. Anything." Pausing Sandy could see the tears welling up in Kirsten's eyes. "He's not even trying honey, I think we should take him to see Dr. Gray."
"He's just quiet Sandy that's all." Kirsten desperately wanted to believe what she was saying was true.
"I know sweetie but we have to do something."
The Cohen family sat in the doctor's waiting room, Kirsten had Ryan in her lap anxiously straightening out his clothes every five seconds. Ryan was annoyed at being fussed over especially seeing as how Seth was allowed to sit on the floor and play with all the toys.
The speaker beeped and the receptionist looked up from her computer, she called Ryan's name and buzzed open the security door for them to make their way down the corridor.
Entering the small room Dr. Stephen Gray stood up from his desk walking toward them he greeted the nervous family. "Sandy, Kirsten. Hey Seth you've gotten really big haven't you?"
"Yeah." Seth nodded puffing out his chest to make him look bigger.
Laughing the doctor nodded toward the pile of blocks in the corner, "Bet you can't build me tower out of bricks. I'll bet a purple lollypop that it falls down – crash!"
As the doctor clapped his hands together Seth bolted off to the corner to set about his task. Collecting together as many blocks as he could find he began to pile them up as best he could.
"Hello little guy and how are you doing?" Stephen spoke directly to Ryan who was still protectively wrapped in his mothers arms, he smiled shyly at the family doctor.
All three walked over to the chairs, sitting down Kirsten placed Ryan across her lap, Ryan was clever and could sense the tense atmosphere. He snuggled deep in his mothers embrace, trying to keep his limbs tightly away from the doctor in case of surprise needles.
"So what seems to be the trouble today then?" The doctor tried to remain upbeat despite the parent's worried expressions.
Sandy took a deep breath, "We're worried about…Ryan's speech." The doctor merely nodded and gestured urging Sandy to continue on. "Seth's been speaking for a while now and Ryan hasn't even tried yet. I mean he does the little things you know laughing and stuff but never actual words."
Sandy realised how inarticulate he sounded for a lawyer but he was doing his best. Kirsten sat fearfully beside him. "He's always been a quiet baby though not loud - like Seth." She felt she had to add that in, hopefully they were just overreacting.
Again Stephen nodded reaching into a drawer to retrieve a scope, "Have you noticed any problems with his hearing? Does he respond to his name?"
Coming round to beside Kirsten he kneeled down to Ryan's height, twisting his head slightly he placed the metal instrument inside Ryan's ear. Kirsten was preoccupied with a wiggling Ryan so it was left to Sandy to answer.
"No nothing that I've noticed, he looks at us when we speak to him and giggles when we make funny noises. He always wakes up if Seth's cries so I don't think…" Sandy tailed off he wasn't here to tell the doctor what wasn't wrong with his son he was here to see if there was something wrong.
Twisting Ryan round on Kirsten's lap Stephen looked into Ryan's other ear, swinging back on his heels he smiled at Ryan and ruffled his hair. "Clever boy. I don't see anything physically wrong, he could just be slow on speaking but at his age you really should have seen some improvement. I think we should send him for some tests," Both parents gasped slightly their panic increasing a notch. "Just some simple hearing tests if they turn up nothing then we could arrange for Ryan to meet with a speech therapist. They could encourage him to talk through games and could show you exercises to do with Ryan at home."
Ryan had been attending the speech therapist for two months now, he went once a week for an hour and loved every second of it.
The hearing test had shown nothing was wrong with his hearing so the Cohen's had been referred on to a speech therapist. They had been worried that Ryan would panic when left with strangers and get worse instead of better. They were shocked but pleased when Ryan had absorbed everything he was being taught, either Kirsten or Sandy was allowed to stay with him during the sessions. It helped him to calm down and it meant his treatment could be carried on at home.
They had suggested several things, such as linking a word and action together while encouraging Ryan to join in. Then they started to include breaks in the play stopping the action until Ryan make some form of verbal communication; this built up until he said the word.. It took a lot of patience on the parent's part but the rewards were great when Ryan started to pick up words like, 'up' and 'clap'.
One idea which Kirsten had been against was separating the boys for a while, the therapist felt that Seth talked for Ryan. This gave Ryan an escape because Seth projected his needs there was no reason for him to speak. Kirsten had been adamant that nothing good would come of separating the boys but she had to change her mind when she noticed the change in Ryan after Sandy gave it a shot.
Ryan's confidence grew daily, he picked up more and more words and became better at using them in context to what he wanted. At the beginning he couldn't discriminate and would go through his list of random words until he hit the right one but now he could distinguish between them and enjoyed using his voice.
Kirsten and Sandy were sure of this because he had now picked up one of Seth's favourite words.
Sandy entered the living room disrupting the boys play, "Right guys bath time."
To his delight Ryan and Seth both called back, "NO!"
Yeah I finished it! that was chapter five all about Ryan finding his voice, hope you liked it please review!