Since I got quite a few reviews, I decided to continue with this. I don't own anything. If I owned Ryan, I wouldn't be writing about him.

Thanks to my wonderful beta, Bessyboo!

Ryan and Marissa lay in her room in the dark, neither saying anything. Suddenly, Ryan's phone rang. When he saw that it was Sandy, he whispered, "I should take this."

Marissa nodded. "Okay."

Ryan turned away from her slightly, flipping the phone open. "Hello?"

"Ryan, it's Sandy. I, um...I need you to come down to the hospital."

He sat bolt upright, and Marissa looked at him with fear and question in her eyes. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"Kirsten was in a car accident."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"She's in surgery right now. It looks like she will probably pull through, but she's got a long road ahead of her."

Ryan sighed, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. "Okay, I'll be there. Is there anything else I can do?"

"I haven't been able to get ahold of Seth. Could you keep trying to call him for me?"

"Of course. I'll start heading to the hospital now. I've just got my bike, but maybe Marissa could drive me." He looked at her hopefully and she nodded without hesitation.

"Okay. Is..." Sandy hesitated, "Is Caleb there?"

"I don't think so." He turned to Marissa. "Is Caleb here?"

"I think he's down in his study or something."

"Marissa said he's probably here."

"Okay, Ryan could you...you know, let him know? He hasn't been answering his phone..."

"Yeah I will. I'll see you soon, Sandy." Ryan flipped the phone shut and was silent for a moment while Marissa looked at him, hoping for answers. "Kirsten was in a car accident."

"Ryan..." she wanted to say something, anything to console him, but she knew nothing would do any good right then. She wrapped her arms around him and he held her more tightly than he ever had before.

"I should go tell Caleb, and then we need to get going."

She nodded and took his hand, leading him down to Caleb's study. She knocked on the door, a bit apprehensive. "I'm busy!" Caleb's gruff voice replied. Marissa opened the door and Ryan entered behind her. Caleb glared at Ryan. "I said I'm busy. Get out."

Ryan looked to Marissa for help. "Kirsten was in a car accident," she softly stated.

That got Caleb's attention. His eyes shifted from Marissa to Ryan. "Sandy tried to call but..."

"How is she?"

"She's in surgery right now. Sandy said it looks like she's going to pull through, but she's got a long way to go."

"Okay, let's go, Ryan."

A slight look of terror crossed Ryan's features. "Actually Caleb, would it be okay if I take him?" Marissa asked, after glancing over at Ryan.

He shrugged. "Sure, just get the boy there. For some reason, Kirsten seems rather fond of him."

Both relieved at having gotten away from Caleb, Ryan and Marissa got into her convertible, and Ryan pulled out his phone to try to get ahold of Seth. When he didn't answer his cell, he tried the house.

"Hello?"

"Hey Seth, it's-"

"Ryan, buddy, where were you tonight? Nevermind that, are you on your way home? I need a pool house talk-"

"Actually, Seth-"

"I told Summer I love her and then I got into this fight with Zach and she-"

Clearly there was absolutely no room for beating around the bush. "Seth! Kirsten was in a car accident."

For once in his life, Seth was silent.

"They think she's going to be okay. Marissa and I are just getting to the hospital. We'll see you in a bit. Okay?"

"Sure, yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes."

Sandy looked over at Ryan, Marissa, and Seth, and smiled contently. The doctors had assured them that with time, Kirsten would make a full recovery. The boys wanted to be there when she woke up, but Sandy thought it'd be better for them to go home and get some sleep so that they could be there when he got worn out.

"Seth?" he gently shook his son awake. "Why don't you guys go home and get some sleep?"

Seth nodded, not entirely awake. He poked Ryan, who Marissa was using as a body pillow. "Home. Sleep."

Ryan shifted, causing Marissa to stir and look up at him. "Wanna go home? Get some sleep?"

Marissa nodded, but lay back down on Ryan's chest. He lifted her up and she nuzzled her face into his neck.

They walked out to the parking lot and got into Marissa' car as Seth called out, "See you at home!"

Since Marissa was still mostly asleep, they decided that Ryan would drive. However, on the ride to the Cohens' house she woke up some. Ryan handed her the keys and she moved over to the driver's side. "Are you going to be okay driving home?"

She nodded, but by the way she kept trying to snap her head back up, Ryan could tell she was too tired. "You wanna crash in the pool house tonight? Or you can sleep in the guestroom or whatever."

"Thanks," she replied, smiling weakly.

When they got into the house, Marissa headed upstairs to the guestroom. "There should be something in the dresser you can sleep in," Ryan called to her.

"Okay, thanks." She opened the top drawer and pulled out a nightgown that must have been Hailey's. She put it on, and thought to herself that Hailey had good taste. She imagined Ryan's jaw dropping if he saw her in it.

After saying good night to Seth, Ryan headed out to the pool house. All the blinds were drawn, and he didn't remember leaving them that way. When he opened the door and flicked the light on, he saw Trey sitting on the edge of his bed. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He held his hands up defensively. "I just wanted to explain and apologize."

"You tried to rape her, Trey." Hearing the word out loud made both of them wince.

"I was on coke, I was out of my mind, and I thought she was into me."

"You've been doing coke? I should have figured since you've been fucking that coke whore."

Trey took a deep breath to keep from completely losing his temper. "She's just been there for me lately."

"So have Marissa and I, and this is how you thank us?" Ryan yelled.

"Yeah, you guys have been great." Trey smirked, taking a few steps towards Ryan. "Treating me like I'm some kind of trash."

"After what happened, could you blame either of us?"

"You've looked at me like that for years, Ry." There stared intensely at each other. "How do you think it felt, always being second best? Always hearing mom tell me that you're the good one. Mom, Theresa, all our friends, and now Marissa."

"Marissa gave you every benefit of the doubt. She never thought anything bad about you until you attacked her."

"Maybe if she hadn't been always hanging around, acting like she wanted me, being such a tease, the little skank-"

Trey's words were cut short by a swift blow to his eye. Trey stumbled back, looking at Ryan in shock. "Get out," Ryan through clenched teeth.

The tense silence was interrupted by a soft knock on the door. Marissa stepped in wearing Hailey's nightgown with a sweatshirt over it. (While she was all about making Ryan's jaw drop, she knew that now wasn't the time.)"Hey Ry-" She cowered back when she saw Trey. She noticed there was a slight trickle of blood coming from near his eye.

Ryan took Marissa's hand. "Come on, let's go inside." He turned back to Trey. If he wasn't so drained, both physically and emotionally, he knew that his anger would more than make up for the fact that he wasn't as good of a fighter as Trey, but with the night he'd had, he felt a much stronger desire to curl up with Marissa than to pound Trey's face in and then get his own ass kicked. "If you ever come near Marissa or me again, I won't be letting you go with a black eye."

With that, Ryan turned and followed Marissa inside and up to the guestroom, stopping to set the house alarm on the way, just in case Trey tried to follow them. Marissa was on the bed, a few tears streaming down her cheeks. "You okay?"

She shook her head and rolled away from him.

"Hey," he said softly, turning her to face him. "I'm not letting him anywhere near you ever again. He can't hurt you anymore." She only sobbed harder and Ryan couldn't think of a single thing to say to make it better. "I'm going to go crash in Seth's room-"

"No," she replied, forcefully pulling him down beside her. "Stay here."

"Oh, okay. I thought you wouldn't want..."

"I just really don't want to be alone right now." She pulled down the covers, crawling in, and he followed. She rested her head on his chest as he protectively wrapped his arms around her. "Good night."

"Night," he whispered, kissing her forehead.

Please review!