Here's the next chapter. Sorry this one took a little longer, I was having some troubles with it. I hope that you enjoy it, and please review and let me know what you think. Oh! But help me out too. I bought these shoes, and I love them, I mean LOVE them, but they didn't have my size so I had to get a size bigger and in the store it seemed as if it would work, but I got them home, and no, they're definitely too big. But I hate to part with them, becuase I love them. So do you think I should suck it up and keep them and just deal with the fact that I feel like I'm little and wearing my mother's shoes, or should I try to take them back? Anyway, let me know. And review! Thanks.

Disclaimer: After my little shopping excursion today I own two pairs of jeans, a new pair of shoes, a bunch of groceries, and a new book, but no OC characters, sadly.

"How's she doing?" Sandy asked as he walked into Kirsten's room, startling Seth, who seemed to jump a mile when his father placed a hand on his shoulder. Seth shrugged and looked back down at his mother. Sandy leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Hey, Summer's going to stay with us, her father's away on business. When you get a chance, maybe you can run home, get the Range Rover, and take her to get some of her stuff?"

"Sure," Seth answered. "But I kind of wanted…"

"To be here?" Sandy asked. Seth nodded and Sandy smiled at him. "Whenever you get a chance, Seth. It doesn't have to be right now." Seth nodded again and leaned in and gave his father a hug before slipping out of the room leaving Sandy alone with his wife. He pulled up the chair and pushed the hair off of her forehead.

"Oh gorgeous, I really need you to open those eyes for me," Sandy said sighing and closing his eyes. "Your father is going to be here soon, and you know that I do not like to be alone with him. We need a barrier, and you, my darling wife, are like the Berlin wall. Solid, strong, a nice little demilitarized buffer. But I guess that's not the best example, because the Berlin wall fell, didn't it?" Sandy sighed again, opening his eyes and leaning forward, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. "Jesus Kirsten, I can't do this without you." He heard a knock on the door and looked up to see Caleb standing there. For the first time, it seemed that his father-in-law looked a little unsettled. Caleb was always in control of situations. It was almost irritating to Sandy that Caleb never seemed to falter; even when he made a mistake, Caleb always had this way of making it seem like he had meant to make the mistake. Sandy could only remember seeing Caleb like this once before, and that was the morning of Kirsten's mother's funeral. Caleb had stood in the middle of the kitchen looking lost. And here he stood, looking down at his daughter with the same expression that Sandy had seen on that morning.

"Sandy," he said nodding at his son-in-law, but never taking his eyes off of the still form of his daughter. Sandy stood up, reluctantly letting go of Kirsten's hand so that Caleb could take the coveted seat next to her. Caleb crossed over to her and picked up her hand. "Kiki…"

"I'll leave you alone, I'm going to go check on Ryan," Sandy said.

"Is that boy all right?" Caleb asked looking at Sandy for the first time. Sandy ignored the fact that Caleb didn't call Ryan by his name, but instead focused on the fact that Caleb had showed an interest at all.

"Yes, well…he will be," Sandy said. "I'll be back. Come find me if anything changes." Caleb nodded, and turned back to his daughter as Sandy slipped out of the room and down the stairs to Ryan's room. Ryan was awake, and was quietly talking to Seth and Summer when Sandy walked in.

"Hey kid, you're up," Sandy grinned.

"Is Kirsten doing okay?" Ryan asked immediately.

"She's doing…" Sandy wondered if he should lie to Ryan or not. Ryan was bound to find out the truth, and he would just be angry with Sandy for not letting him know what was really going on with Kirsten. As much as Sandy wanted to shield Ryan until he was better, and could better handle the situation, he knew that wasn't fair to Ryan. "She's doing the same. They're not sure when she's going to wake up. Broken leg, broken ribs, and apparently there was some pretty severe internal bleeding." Sandy suddenly remembered the doctor's words. We thought we were going to lose her. He shuddered and pushed the thought, the words, to the back of his head.

"I'm so sorry Sandy," Ryan said closing his eyes to ward off the tears that suddenly had sprung to his eyes.

"For what kid?" Sandy asked. "This is so not your fault."

"I knew, I knew that I shouldn't let her drive! I knew that she was acting strange, but I let her go anyway. I let her drive even though I knew better," Ryan cried out. "And now because of that, because of me, Kirsten is hurt." Before Sandy could reply, open his mouth to tell Ryan that it wasn't his fault, that yes, he shouldn't have let her drive, but he didn't know that she was drunk, and it was Marissa's fault. And Ryan had to let Marissa take the blame.

Seth beat him to the punch.

"Dude, listen to me," Seth said. "This isn't our fault okay? We can sithere and go through a thousand scenarios, each one ending with us telling Marissa to hand over the keys, and each ending with my mom totally okay, ordering Thai and yelling at us for saying the word ass. But it doesn't do anything, Ryan. It just makes us feel worse. This was totally not your fault. Or it if is, it's my fault then too. And Summer's. But really, it's Marissa's. Maybe the three of us hold a little bit of the blame, like five percent each, but it's Marissa's fault. Marissa drank, and then got into the car, and she hit my parents' car. She put you and my mom in the hospital. She did this, Ryan. She did it." The room was quiet for a moment, and no one knew quite what to say, before Summer finally spoke up.

"Cohen? It's really like eight percent our fault," she corrected. Seth turned to look at her, a smile threatening to break out on his face, and then nodded seriously.

"Eight percent."

"Can you deal with taking only eight percent of the blame?" Sandy asked Ryan, and his voice was playful, but his eyes were serious. Ryan studied his hands, and then looked back up at Sandy.

"Do you think she's going to hate me?" Sandy paused for a moment, not knowing if he was talking about Marissa or Kirsten, and then decided that it must be Kirsten, and fought the urge to cry out in frustration. If Ryan had been with them longer, then he would understand how much he meant to Sandy and Kirsten, but as it stood, Ryan hadn't been with them very long at all. In fact, he had been with them really for only a little over a week. That was not nearly enough time to become secure in a situation, in a new family.

"No," Sandy said softly. "No, of course not, of course she's not going to hate you."

"But if I wasn't…if I wasn't here, then she wouldn't…" Ryan struggled with what he was trying to say. Everything traced back to him, if he hadn't been there, Kirsten and Sandy wouldn't have been driving back from dropping his mother off at the rehab, and they wouldn't have been in the car with Marissa.

"Listen to me Ryan," Sandy said firmly. His tone left no room for argument. "Kirsten and I are not sorry that we brought you into this family, and that's what you are. You are family. You are my son. You are Kirsten's son, and when she wakes up, and that's when, and not if, when she wakes up, she will not even consider blaming you, because she will be too relieved that you and Seth are both okay. No one blames you. This is Marissa Cooper's fault. She did this. Do you understand me?" Ryan didn't answer, and Sandy put his finger under Ryan's chin forcing him to look up at him. "Ryan, do you understand me?"

"Yeah," Ryan said. Sandy kept eye contact with him for another couple of seconds before nodding, and removing his hand.

"I'm going to go back upstairs to sit with your mother," he said to Seth. "You'll let me know when they're going to release you Ryan. And then the three of you can go home, and I'll call you if anything happens."

"But Dad…" Seth started at the same time that Ryan said,

"I want to stay here." Sandy shook his head.

"No, there's no point in you just sitting in the waiting room. Go home, get some sleep. Get something to eat. I'll call as soon as something happens."

"Dad," Seth said softly. "I don't want to leave you here alone in case…""In case what?" Sandy asked turning to look at Seth. Seth shoved his hands in his pockets and scuffed his foot at the floor. "She's going to be okay Seth." Seth just simply nodded, and turned away from his dad. Sandy looked at his sons one more time, before closing the door and hurrying back upstairs to his wife. Not one of the three kids said anything until Ryan finally spoke up.

"What's going to…happen to Marissa? Do you know?" He looked over at Seth. Seth shrugged.

"She'll lose her license, for sure," Summer spoke up. "She's under 18. And if your mom…well…I mean…"

"If my mom dies," Seth said bluntly. Summer nodded slowly.

"If that happens. It could be vehicular manslaughter. She's in trouble." That was the understatement of the year, Ryan thought. Marissa. Why hadn't he stopped Marissa? He didn't care what Sandy said, that was fine if Kirsten was okay, but if Kirsten died, then he would be to blame. More than Summer and Seth's decided 8 percent.

"God," Seth said plopping himself down into one of the chairs by Ryan's bed. "Marissa's really had a hell of a year."

Sandy found Caleb exactly where he had left him, sitting next to Kirsten's bed, her hand in his. The sound of the door against the floor caused Caleb to turn his head to see who was coming in.

"Anything change?" Sandy asked as he sat in the other seat across from Caleb. Caleb had gotten the hospital to bend their strict one visitor policy. All he had to do was to throw around the Nichol name and everyone bent to his will. Sandy was glad for once; he wanted Kirsten to have the best care possible. He wanted her to have the best of everything.

"No," Caleb said softly as he looked down at his daughter. In a display of affection that Sandy had never really seen from Caleb, Caleb brushed a piece of hair off of Kirsten's forehead. "The same." He stood up, gently placing Kirsten's hand back down on the bed. "I'm going to go get some coffee and make some calls." Sandy nodded and watched as Caleb left the room.

Sandy absentmindedly drew circles on the palm of Kirsten's hand with his finger. While he had been telling the truth, he did not for a single second regret their decision to bring Ryan into their home, into their family, he would admit that since Ryan's arrival they hadn't had a dull moment. Sandy glanced down at Kirsten's leg, propped up and in a cast, and let out an audible sigh. No, certainly not a dull moment.

Sandy felt exhausted suddenly, the events of the day catching up with him. He closed his eyes, his good hand wrapped tightly around his wife's and fell asleep finally.

Okay, so review and let me know what you thought! Thanks!