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Disclaimer: Um the characters aren't mine.

"Come on man," Seth whined. "It's a party. A party that Summer invited me to. She invited me to a party! Do you understand that? Summer Roberts invited me, Seth Cohen, to go to a party with her…in public!"

"I understand, that doesn't mean that I want to go," Ryan argued back sighing as he flipped through his text book trying to ignore Seth. "I wanted to stay in tonight and study." Seth scoffed.

"Studying? You are going to stay in and study? Studying? When there is a party with hot girls?"

"You can go without me," Ryan said. Seth shook his head.

"You are coming. Whether or not you want to. You are coming out tonight with me. You are. There's no room for argument. I will not allow any arguments."

"Seriously Seth, I'm not used to having this much homework to do. And I need to do it."

"Tomorrow. You can study tomorrow." Seth clasped his hands in a pleading way and gave Ryan the best sad eyes that he could muster, and apparently it worked, because Ryan found himself nodding.

"We aren't going to stay late," he said warning Seth with a finger as he stood up to change his shirt.

"Got it. We won't stay late," Seth promised. "We'll just go, and see Summer, and chat a bit and go home. I'm going to go change and try to do something with my hair. I'll meet you in the front hall." Ryan nodded, resigned to his fate, and watched as Seth hurried across the patio in excitement. He finished changing and went into the kitchen to wait. Sandy and Kirsten were in the living room. Kirsten was resting on the couch, her leg in its cast propped up on a pile of pillows, her head resting on a pillow on Sandy's lap.

"Hey, kid," Sandy said as Ryan came in to sit in the chair next to them. "I hear you guys are going to a party?"

"Yeah, if that's okay?"

"It's fine," Kirsten said. "Just the usual rules apply. No drinking. No drugs. And if for some reason you do drink, no driving. Call us and Sandy will come get you." Sandy nodded his agreement with the rules.

"And be home by midnight."

"Don't worry, we won't be late," Ryan promised.

"Okay, good," Sandy said. "Well then have a good time. Keep an eye on Seth for us, will you?"

"Sure," Ryan answered shrugging. "Are you guys just staying in tonight?"

"Yes," Kirsten said turning her head slightly so that she could see him. "Sandy promised that we could watch whatever movie I wanted." She grinned at Ryan, and then smirked at her husband who sighed a huge, heaving sigh.

"And I've regretted that decision since then," Sandy said shaking his head sadly. "Have fun for me tonight will you? I'll be living vicariously through you." Kirsten punched him lightly in the chest. Seth appeared in the living room still grinning.

"You ready to go?" He asked Ryan, who resigned to his fate like Sandy had and got up to follow Seth. He couldn't help but think that he would rather be watching some girly movie with Kirsten and Sandy then going to a party with Seth while he goggled at Summer all night. "Keys Dad?"

"Let Ryan drive," Kirsten requested. She got nervous with Seth and Sandy driving with their arms in a cast.

"Fine," Seth said nodding. He was just happy that Ryan was willing to go out with him that night. That Summer had invited him to this party. Summer. Summer had invited him. He couldn't get over it. "Let's go."

Seth was pissing off the big water polo players. Ryan had a knack for being able to tell when someone was getting angry, and he could see that Seth, now drunk off of two beers, was a comment away from getting his ass kicked. Not that Ryan could necessarily say that Seth didn't deserve it, but he had promised Sandy and Kirsten that he would keep an eye on Seth, and so he put down his water, after all someone had to stay sober, and went over to where they were standing and tapped Seth on the shoulder.

"Seth, let's go," Ryan suggested.

"What? No!" Seth argued. "We're just talking here…I don't want to go yet." Ryan closed his eyes for a second and resisted the urge to punch Seth himself. He had been trying to get Seth to leave for the last half hour, they had to leave soon, they were getting close to the curfew that Sandy had set. Actually, they probably were already late for the curfew that Sandy had set. Ryan wasn't used to curfews, and wasn't sure how strict Sandy and Kirsten were about the curfew, but he didn't want to push it. Not only that, but he would also now have to hide the fact that Seth was smashed. Who knew that his tolerance was so low that it only took a couple beers to get him wasted? Had Ryan known that at the beginning of the night, he would have told him to slow down.

"Seth, come on," Ryan said grabbing his arm to pull him away.

"No! I'm talking to these guys, these guys who totally shave their chests," Seth said. He had walked up to the group of water polo players, spurred on by the alcohol and had told them that he, Seth Cohen, had been invited by Summer Roberts, and how did that make them feel? From that point on, Seth had chatted away, ignoring the looks of death that he was receiving.

It was after that comment that Ryan saw the one's arm swing back and knew that Seth was about to get punched in the face. He had barely time to react before the fist connected with Seth's face. Ryan reacted immediately, punching back, and for his efforts, got a fist in the face. Before a full-scale fight could break out, Summer, also drunk, tottered over and yelled at them to stop.

"Stop it! Stop it!" She screamed trying to balance. Like Kirsten, she had a walking cast, but with some alcohol in her system, she was having some trouble even with the walking cast. "Stop it!" Seth grinned drunkenly up at her for saving him, but after the water polo players had dispersed, she turned to Seth and shook her head sadly at him. "Go home, Cohen. Ryan…get him home okay?"

"Are you going to be okay getting home?" Ryan asked gingerly touching his cheek, and wincing. "Let me drive you home." Summer looked over at her friends, who were laughing at what had just happened and then back at Seth and Ryan.

"Fine," she said. "Let me just grab my purse." Ryan knew that driving Summer home was going to make them late for curfew, but he figure they were coming home with black eyes so being a little late was going to be the least of their problems.

God, Kirsten was going to be so upset. And Sandy, he had asked him to keep an eye on Seth, and what he had done? He had let the kid get punched. First he had gotten the whole family nearly killed, even though both Kirsten and Sandy kept reminding him, almost every chance they got, that it was Marissa's fault, and not his, and now he was bringing home their son, drunk and beaten up. God. He would be amazed if they didn't kick him out tonight. Surely Kirsten and Sandy had to have some line drawn, and he would imagine getting Seth hurt for the second time would be that line.

Summer appeared with her things and Ryan grabbed Seth's arm and pulled him out of the party and pushed him into the backseat. Summer climbed in and they drove home in silence.

"Thanks," Summer said when they pulled up outside of her house. She glanced into the backseat where Seth was slumped over, and sighed and climbed out of the car. Ryan waited until she was in safe before starting the car and driving away.

"Seth, when we get home, you have to be quiet okay?"

"Got it. All capture-the-flag champ at Camp Takaho. Because? Because I'm stealth. I'm super stealth." Ryan just ignored him, and pulled up to the Cohen's house and turned off the car and took a deep breath before climbing out. The door opened and Sandy stood there wrapped in a robe and tapping his watch. Ryan looked down at his own watch and realized that they weren't just a little bit late. He hadn't been paying as much attention to the time as he had thought he was. They were well over an hour past curfew.

"Shit," Ryan whispered under his breath and climbed slowly out of the car.

"Where have you guys been?" Sandy asked. "Kirsten and I were starting to worry."

"Starting?" Kirsten's voice interrupted. "No. I'm worried. I've been worried for the past hour. You guys have some explaining to do." Sandy had tried to reassure that she was just being paranoid, and that they were teenage boys who were bound to miss curfew, but Kirsten had been nervous about anyone in the family driving since the accident, and had checked the clock what seemed to Sandy like every ten seconds.

"Mom!" Seth said gleefully as he climbed out of the car and made his way over to his parents. Up until this point, Ryan had remained in the shadows, hiding his bruised face, but as soon as Seth stepped into the spotlight, his quickly turning black and blue eye was on display for his parents. "It's all good, no need to get your panties all into a twist. We're okay. We're a little late, sure, but don't you think that we need, as a society, to do away with the time restraints that we put on ourselves? Time is fleeting, Mother, we need to make the most of it."

"What happened to your face?" Kirsten exclaimed ignoring Seth's speech and taking his face in her hands to examine it. She took one whiff of his breath and her hand dropped angrily. "Are you drunk?" She looked back at Ryan, and motioned for him to step forward. He begrudgingly obliged, and Kirsten studied his face. "Were you drinking?" She asked Ryan.

"No," Ryan replied shaking his head. "I was driving. So I didn't drink."

"Good," Sandy said breaking into the conversation. Seth was at least sober enough to realize that he shouldn't speak up. "That's very good."

"Get in the house," Kirsten said barely concealing her anger. Ryan hung his head and went in first. He looked around the house, he wanted to get a good look, engrave it in his mind, in case this was his last night here. He was trouble, he got it, and he got why Sandy and Kirsten wouldn't want him there. And it just hurt, after all they had gone through after the accident, but he understood.

"Sit," Kirsten's voice was fierce and left no room for argument. Seth had quickly sobered up at his mother's angry tone and sat on the couch. Ryan lowered himself next to Seth and braced himself. "What happened? Why do you both have black eyes?"

"It's my fault," Ryan started. "I…"

"No," Seth interrupted. "It was my fault. I was being stupid, I was gloating to some big water polo players about the fact that Summer had asked me there. Ryan had been trying to get me to leave for the past like hour and I wouldn't go. I made us late for curfew, I provoked the fight. And we're super late because Ryan wanted to make sure that Summer got home okay." Sandy nodded slowly.

"Anything that you would like to add kid?" He asked Ryan.

"It's not all Seth's fault," Ryan mumbled. "I could have…" He trailed off. What could he have done? Grabbed Seth and pulled him out of the party kicking and screaming? Made sure that he didn't drink anymore? Kirsten shook her head cutting him off.

"Thank you for being responsible enough to not drink and drive, and while I don't condone the fighting, I think I get that Seth was the one who was provoking the fight and you just happened to get in the middle of it?"

"Well, I punched the guy," Ryan admitted.

"Because he punched me!" Seth chimed in. Sandy held up his hand.

"The peanut gallery will keep their comments to themselves until they are asked to speak," he told Seth.

"Well, still," Kirsten said. Her tone was soft. "We should get you something for that eye. Sandy? Go get them some ice packs?" Sandy nodded and walked to the kitchen. "Seth? You are grounded for two weeks. One week for the drinking, one week for the fighting."

"But Mom…" Seth started.

"Keep it up Seth, and I'll add a week for missing curfew," she warned. "Go drink some water, put the ice pack on your face and go to bed." Seth got to his feet, his buzz definitely gone at the prospect of spending two weeks in the house, took the ice pack off of his dad and stomped up the stairs.

"And Ryan," Sandy said. "Next time just try not to resort to violence?" Ryan nodded, a little confused as to what had just happened. They hadn't kicked him out. He wasn't even sure if he was grounded.

"So two weeks for me too?" He asked.

"Well, you were at the party, but you didn't drink, and you should get some points for that, and you got a black eye for defending Seth, and you only missed curfew because you were driving Summer home," Kirsten said. She looked to Sandy who shrugged. She was pretty sure that the night had been Seth's idea, and she didn't think Ryan had had much fun at the party, and so she really saw no need to punish him. "Maybe you can just help me make breakfast for the next week? For the fighting?"

"That's it?" Ryan asked surprised. "I mean, I can help, but shouldn't I be grounded?"

"Think of this as a gift," Sandy said. "We realize that Seth had been the one drinking and mouthing off to people way bigger than him. You should have left when you knew that there was alcohol at the party, but you didn't drink, and that's something. You shouldn't get punished for the stupid things that Seth does."

"I…okay," Ryan nodded. "Thanks."

"Oh? Ryan?" Sandy called out. "By help Kirsten make breakfast, we really mean make it for her. There's no need to punish all of us." Kirsten glared at her husband and Ryan grinned and waved goodnight as he went out to the pool house.