Summary: Dawn finds out about Trey's death.

Background Info: Obviously, the entire second season happened. This is not based on spoilers so don't worry.

A/N: I don't know what made me think of this, but I did and here it is. Just to let you know, in the next chapter, Ryan confronts someone. But it might not come for a while because I am currently in a very long day camp and then I leave to go on vaca on the 13th. So...yeah. BTW--that is the reason why I haven't updated Afterwards. That and I am having difficulty with the last chapter. Um, anyway, about THIS story: it was only going to be like a two part story, but I just got an idea for a third and possibly fourth part, so I'm making no guarantees about how long this story will be, other than that it will be at least three parts long.

I would like any and ALL reviews for this story! Please please please!

P.S.-- Thanks to those few who reviewed Yesterday, Seven Years Ago. It didn't get as many reviews as I felt it deserved (LOL, that sounds conceited), but then again, stories never do. You should go read and review too. Enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that has to do with the O.C. I do, however, own the story. Do not steal and do not copy.

Dawn was a mother.

Albeit, a crappy one, but a mother nonetheless.

What did being a mother mean, though? That she kept a close eye on her children?

Failed that one.

That she had motherly instinct and always put her children first?

Nope.

To Dawn, being a mother meant…well nothing most of the time.

Most of the time, she didn't consider herself to be a mother. What children did she have left to take care of?

One son was in jail, the other was living with an adoptive family.

Not because she had him taken away, but because she had asked them to take him in.

In some way, that was putting her children first. Although, it probably seemed to Ryan like it had just been her giving up on him.

Yesterday she had found out that she was now even less of a mother.

One child was dead.

Dead.

She knew the day would come when a child died, but she always thought that she herself would be dead before that.

Turns out she was wrong.

Dawn had found out from Theresa's mother.

Theresa's mother had found from Theresa, who had found out from Ryan.

Trey had died at the hand of his own brother.

Technically, she supposed it was at the hand of his own brother's girlfriend.

One shot, carefully aimed, and he was gone.

What was she supposed to do now?

Sure, she had driven away all of her boys, but she had always expected them to be there when she was ready to take them back.

She had been wrong.

Dawn was filled with an anger. An anger that she had never felt before.

At least not towards Ryan.

Ryan had always been her good boy, her honest boy, the only one who would go somewhere.

And then when hehad gotten arrested, her whole world had come crashing down.

Slowly, she had rebuilt it, although there were major cracks and holes in the bricks. She could have a better life, she could sleep peacefully knowing that at least one member of her family was doing well.

Then her world had come crashing down again.

Dawn was angry because Ryan hadn't had the nerve to tell her himself.

Dawn was angry because Ryan had provoked the fight.

Dawn was angry because she didn't know how to be sad.

Sad was not a word that was used lightly in Chino. Everyone was always sad, so why bother talking about it?

People in Chino didn't get sad over little things, such as a death.

In Chino, kids were always dying—at gunpoint, at knifepoint, at drug point. You can't be sad about something so mundane.

But see, Trey wasn't in Chino anymore. Trey had gotten out of jail and had, she had heard, made a good life for himself.

Well, except for the fact that he had been arrested for drug possession, helped bust another drug dealer, and then gotten himself killed.

Kids dying was very out of the ordinary in Newport. Kids don t die in rich places, or so she had always imagined.

They had money, they had medicine, they had police. All that and they still couldn't prevent an innocent death?

Dawn didn't even know what the fight had been about.

Theresa's mother had started to tell her, but Dawn had just hung up the phone. The only thing that had mattered was that Trey was dead.

It hadn't mattered why he died at the time.

But now, now it did. Dawn wanted answers.

She could have just called Theresa's mother again and asked her.

Instead, she had driven for an hour and was now sitting in the driveway of a magnificent house.

The house that housed a killer. A killer that went by the name of Ryan Atwood.

With shaking hands, she closed the door of her car and reached in through the window to lock it.

God, she needed a drink. But no, it had been a month since her last drink.

Who would have ever thought her biggest advocate for sobriety would be the one driving her to drink?

In awe, she looked at the mansion in front of her. She rapped on the door, positive that no one would be able to hear her.

To her dismay, moments later the door was opened.

"Dawn?"

"Mr. Cohen…"

"Please, call me Sandy."

"Can I come in?" Dawn tentatively asked.

"Of course," a perplexed Sandy said, opening the door wider to let the bedraggled woman in.

-----------------------------

Ryan pedaled up the steep driveway and almost got flung off the bike.

There was a beat up, old white car sitting in the driveway.

"Sandy?" Ryan called, stepping into the house.

"In here, Ryan."

Positive that nothing good could come of this, he walked into the kitchen and stopped short upon seeing the blonde sitting at the end of the island. There was a glass in her hand, and automatically his eyes scrutinized the amber liquid inside.

"It's ginger ale, Ry."

"Mom," Ryan stated simply.

"I'm just going to leave you two alone." Sandy excused himself from the kitchen, grabbing Seth as he did so.

"What…What are you doing here?" Had his mother somehow found out about Trey?

Shaking her head, Dawn answered, "You didn't even have the nerve to tell me."

"Who told you?" Ryan asked, stone faced.

"Doesn't matter," replied his mother scornfully. "All that matters is that it wasn't you."

"I…I was going to tell you." That was exactly what Marissa had said to him at the carnival.

"When, after the funeral? Is there even going to be a funeral?"

Of course there was going to be a funeral. Right after the feds were done with his body…

"Mom, you have to let me explain."

"You got him killed. You single-handedly got him killed." She shook her head in disbelief again. "He came here to be better, to make something of himself. Couldn't you at least help him?"

Ryan's head shot up at this. There was a fire in his eyes.

"You don't know what you're talking about. I did help him! I gave him everything he needed. Marissa helped him get an apartment and get a job. We saved him from going back to jail. We gave him a helping hand! And what does he do to thank us? He steals from a charity auction and rapes my girlfriend."

"What did you say?" Theft and rape had not been including in the phone call. Or maybe it had been, but Dawn just hadn't been listening.

"Didn't you even stop to wonder why Trey and I were fighting, Mom?" It was clear to Ryan that Dawn had no idea about the theft (although that was long in the past) and the attempted rape.

"That's why I'm here, Ry. To get some answers."

Ryan walked over to the island and placed his elbows on it. He rubbed his eyes, already tired and knowing that it would just get harder.

"What did Trey steal, huh? Why don't we just focus on the simple stuff." Theft was a regular thing in Chino. Rape…also common but a much bigger offense. One she never saw Trey committing.

"It doesn't matter. That had nothing to do with the fight."

"I want to know, Ryan." Dawn knew this was hard for her son, but she had to know everything.

"Trey stole something from a charity auction, but we got it back. Marissa lent him the money to move into an apartment, the apartment of one of our friends. I didn't want anything to do with him after that, but she just wouldn't let it drop. So we threw him a birthday party that ended with Jess floating in a pool and Trey being arrested."

A floating girl? Goodness, things did get crazy at Newport parties. And she had thought that her being drunk and upsetting a few chairs had been bad.

"I couldn't let him go to jail for something he didn't do. Marissa and I found a way to get him off the hook. Then I went away for the weekend and she helped him find a job. He wanted to celebrate and they got drunk."

Ah, yes, that sounded like the Trey she knew.

"Trey…he had hooked up with this Jesse girl before. She got him into drugs…coke. He took some and then…he attacked Marissa."

"What do you mean…attack?" Dawn asked slowly.

"What do you think I mean, Mom? He tried to rape her. He pushed her down, started kissing her…I don't even want to think about it. She fought him off. And she didn't tell me about it."

"Couldn't you tell something was up though?"

Insert famous Ryan Atwood glare.

"Marissa said nothing happened, and Trey said that she had come on to him. And then I ran into…"

"Tell me you didn't believe him." Ryan had always been smart, but the one thing he lacked was the intelligence to see that his brother had always jerked him around.

"At first I did. But then I let it go. Until Marissa told Summer, and Summer told Seth, and Seth told me."

"And you flipped out." Like father, like brother, like son.

"Am I that predictable? Obviously I am, because Seth told Marissa that I knew and she automatically drove over to Trey's house. Where I was beating the crap out of him."

"So wait, if you had the upper hand…" Dawn was confused.

"You know how Trey is, Mom," said Ryan, reminiscing slightly. "Almost always, he can get the upper hand in any situation. When Marissa ran in, Trey was on top of me, choking me. I couldn't breathe…" He shuddered just thinking about it. "She tried to get him off of me, but couldn't. He was going to kill me…So she shot him."

Wow. Dawn had had no idea that things got so complicated around here.

"Mom, I'm so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I…I don't know what I was thinking when I went over there, but it was stupid."

"Damn right it was, Ryan. What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was pissed off, Mom! Didn't you hear me when I said that he tried to rape Marissa?"

"What the hell did you think you could do about it? Marissa could have pressed charges, Sandy could have helped you…but no. You had to do it yourself. Once from Chino, always from Chino."

Ryan looked down ashamedly. The thing was, that was the exact same thought that had been going through his head.

"When's the funeral?" Dawn asked, changing the subject. She reached into her purse and took out a pack of cigarettes. Opening it, she offered one to Ryan who shook his head and mumbled something about no smoking in the house.

"I…I don't know. The cops have his body…it may be a while."

"The cops? The goddamn cops have my son's body? Why the hell do they have my son's body?"

Ryan snorted. "Mom, Trey was shot. It was murder. Marissa is a murderer. She's being tried right now."

"You know what you have to do, right?" his mother asked, looking moodily into her glass, wishing it was alcoholic.

"What?" he asked sharply, knowing it could be nothing good.

"You know who you have to tell, don't you?"

Ryan had totally forgotten about the other missing member of his family.

"Dad."