The Parents' Worst Nightmare.

"Georgia! Turn it down!" Georgia sighed and turned the volume on her itunes down slightly. "What was that noise you were listening to?" Sandy asked.

"SOAD." She answered.

"Who?" Sandy asked again confused.

"System of a Down." Georgia spelled out. "Dad you're so…"

"Whatever happened to good music?"

"The 21st century happened." Sandy rolled his eyes.

"Hey." Ryan popped his head into Georgia's room. "Alright BYOB." Georgia looked at her dad and grinned while he rolled his eyes again.

"Ryan, have you made plans tonight?" Sandy asked him

"Well uh." Ryan started.

Sandy put his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "Cancel them. I need you and Seth to watch Georgia tonight."

"Hey! I don't need a babysitter!" Georgia yelled slamming her hands on her bed.

Sandy put his hand up to her as if to say 'talk to the hand…' Georgia humphed crossing her arms.

"I'm taking Kirsten out for a meal. You can bring the girls round, I'll give you money for food, do whatever you like as long as you are all in the house." Ryan nodded then left. Georgia just about turned her music up again when Sandy turned it off.

"I was listening to that." Georgia frowned.

"I need to talk to you." Sandy said to Georgia sitting beside her on the bed. Georgia listened up because he sounded serious. "Ok." She said.

"I need you to tell me how your mom was while I wasn't around. She's looking very frail and her skin is awfully white. I'm just worried she's ill or that she's in pain."

Georgia tilted her head at Sandy. "Dad her heart broke when we had to leave the hospital without you." Georgia said. "I've never seen her in so much pain…but you're back now and I'm sure everything will be fine." She ended with a sweet smile.

Sandy sat and thought for a moment. Georgia wondered what he was thinking. After a minute Georgia sighed and spoke up. "She didn't eat." She stated and Sandy turned to her. "A whole lot anyway. I don't think she could, she was so miserable. And she never slept. She went back to work a few times but I think it was too much. The physio wasn't going well either. Everything was just going down-downhill." Georgia looked at her clasped hands in silence for a moment. "If you hadn't woken up the other day I think mum may have given up completely."

Sandy asked Georgia quietly. "Do you mean hurt herself?"

Georgia was about to answer when it hit her that Kirsten almost had. She remembered that her mum wanted to drink. She didn't know how much her mum had planned on drinking if she had found some alcohol. Perhaps just a small glass to drown her sorrows and help her relax but Georgia doubted that with the situation the way it was and Kirsten's history.

"I don't know." Georgia said eventually. Something inside told her that she shouldn't tell her dad about that night. She felt like she was laying a lot on her mum. She had been through enough already; she didn't need dreading thoughts about returning to Suriak.

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After Sandy and Kirsten left, Georgia went into Seth's room while he was listening to 'That's what friends are for' sulking.

"What are you listening to?" Georgia asked.

"That's what friends are for." Seth said emotionlessly.

"It's got to be the most uberly cheesy 80s song I've ever heard. What happened, you used to have taste?"

"Summer happened." He sat up. "I hate her. Well I don't hate her I love her. This is all my fault really. If I hadn't been so smart and gone to a different college than Summer I wouldn't have 'fallen' on another girl's lips."

"Seth I know the idea of telling Summer is scary but believe me when you start hiding things that's when the trouble starts."

Seth frowned at Georgia. "You sound way too much like dad for your own good."
Georgia smiled. "It's not so bad. So you want pizza, I think Ryan's ordering?"

"Yeah and get pepperoni, Summer likes pepperoni. Or does that look suspicious? Getting her the pizza topping I know she likes? No, no just get plain." Set rambled on. Georgia started laughing and left him by himself.

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Georgia went into her room and signed into MSN, talking to her friends not only in the OC but in Scotland too. After a few minutes she got a pop up that someone added her. She didn't recognise the address or the screen name but she added the person anyway.

"Hey." She said. "Who's this?"

"Is this Georgia?"

Georgia paused. "Yeah…who's this?"

"Mike."

"Oh, hey do you go to Harbour?"

"No my brother does."

"Cool stuff. How old are you?"

"Older than you." Mike said.

"And how would you know?" Georgia asked suspicious.

"You're a Cohen right?"

Georgia put up a frowning emoticon. "…how did you get my addy?"

"So you are Georgia Cohen."

"Who did you say you're brother was?"

"I didn't."

Georgia decided she didn't like the sound of the guy she was talking to so she blocked him. A little freaked out, she looked out of her bedroom window but saw nothing. She knew she was being silly.

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At The Arches Sandy and Kirsten were having a perfect romantic night out; the food was great, they were talking and laughing non-stop and always looking admirably into each others' eyes. It was like they were back in college again and just starting their relationship.

However Kirsten only had one thing on her mind the whole evening. She waited and waited for the right moment to tell Sandy. Then, while she was watching him eat his dessert after feeding her hers, she realised she could tell Sandy anything and there wasn't a right or wrong time. So she smiled softly at him and took his hand in hers.

"Sandy I need to tell you something…about me and when you weren't here." She held onto his hands tightly. "I almost relapsed one night." Sandy was speechless. He could see that Kirsten had not been taking care of herself but he still did not expect her to say that. "Uh…"

"I didn't drink." Kirsten convinced him. "I just…everything – I seemed to be falling into this black hole I couldn't get out of. I know there's no excuse and I only have myself to blame. I've Georgia to thank for making me see straight."

"Georgia?" Sandy repeated. She knew about this and she didn't say anything? Sandy questioned himself.

Kirsten took a drink of her water. "Yeah. She was there the whole night; Stayed with me, made sure I was ok." Kirsten smiled. "We have an amazing daughter Sandy; she's so smart. She knew exactly what to do. I don't know how she got it so right."

Sandy frowned. Why didn't she tell me? "Yeah…smart…" Sandy repeated.

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"Cohen…I have to tell you something…" Summer geared herself up to say after spending an hour in her boyfriend's bedroom. "When I was at college-"

"I kissed another girl." Seth announced standing up.

Summer jumped up. "What!" She grabbed a pillow and started beating him with it. "You kissed another girl! Oh my god! Cohen! Do you know how horrible that is! That hurts! Seth Cohen I hate you!" Seth grabbed the pillow out of Summer's hands.

"I know Summer I'm so sorry. I hate myself too. It meant nothing. I was just really drunk but nothing happened, ok? As soon as I did it I pushed her away because I realised I didn't really want to hurt you. Cause I love you Summer. And I really want to make us work. Even if we're apart. We can work harder. Please?"

As he spoke Summer realised she was just as bad as him and that she also wanted them to work as bad as he did. Summer sat on the edge of Seth's bed and pulled him down beside her. "No it's ok. I kissed someone too."

"You kissed someone?" Seth asked. "I guess we're just as bad as each other."

"You remember before you left we promised each other we would do whatever we had to do to make us work but…it's not working is it?"

"Well maybe there are things we can do to change that." Seth said optimistically. "I know I could visit more often…Ryan and I can drive down."

"I can call between classes…"

"We can always meet up here…I know my mum and dad would like to see us."

"At Chrismukkah you can with my dad and I skiing in Aspen."

Seth raised his eyebrows. "Ok?"

Summer smiled and rubbed his nose. "Yes Cohen, we're ok." She said then kissing him.

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Georgia sat in her room looking around for something to do. Couldn't go on msn; she was too creeped out by 'Mike', she couldn't call Braden because he was acting strange so she thought she should give him space, she couldn't call any of her friends in Scotland because they would all be sleeping and she wasn't allowed to leave the house. She felt like exploring. Georgia realised she had never been into the attack in her house in the plus year she had lived there.

So she went up to the attack. She had a look around. It was a pretty big attack. She saw a lot around her; many of Seth's old toys, a lot of video games and videos and many Chrismukkah décor. She followed the dimming light to the back of the attack where there were many crates. Firstly there were photo albums and loose pictures. Georgia had seen them all before so she looked further. A box marked "Seth's Schoolwork." Georgia sat down and had a quick glimpse through. Several projects he did over the years. She laughed at some of the stuff her wrote. "Very dorky Seth." She smirked.

She looked where she had put a project on DNA from the 4th grade and found a more interesting box; a box full of home videos. She read over the titles smiling. 'Seth's 1st Birthday', 'Seth's first steps', 'Seth's without stabilisers', 'Disneyland 1992', Chrismukkah 1995'. There were more underneath. She decided to take the crate downstairs and choose some to watch.

She finally got down to her bedroom when she realised she didn't have a video player so she had to go into Sandy and Kirsten's room to watch the tapes.

As she looked for her first choice she found to distinguishing ones that made her smile. The words 'Our Wedding' and 'The Birth of Seth' were written in the handwriting of a young twenty-something Kirsten on separate tapes. Georgia picked these two to watch.

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"Excuse me man, excuse me." Sandy said trying to get the male nurse out of his way. "We're having a baby here."

"I know that's why I'm in here." The male nurse said.

Sandy frowned at him. "What are you a pervert or something?"

A female nurse corrected Sandy. "This is Mr Gregory, he's the midwife."

"He's a dude!" Sandy yelled.

"I'm a fully trained midwife Mr Cohen. Now can you please, move out of my way?"

A tired, hot and sweaty Kirsten sighed. "Just let him do his job Sandy."

Sandy gave an evil glare to Mr Gregory. "No, he's a dude!"

Kirsten screamed at Sandy. "I don't care if he's a trained monkey, get outta his way!"

"Alright, alright." Sandy said. He pointed his finger at the midwife and raised his eyebrows intimidating him. "But you just watch it, alright?"

Georgia laughed as she watched the video of Seth being born. The video cut through different times. Georgia guessed it skipped at least an hour or two forward. Her mum had said that Seth was breech and not an easy birth. Unlike herself who just 'slid out'.

Kirsten took a deep breath in through a gas mask. She handed it back to one of the nurses. "How much longer is he going to be?" Kirsten asked exhausted. Sandy rubbed her back comfortingly. "It's alright baby, you're doing great. You're doing amazing. He'll take as long as he needs to. He just wants to get everything right; he's a perfectionist. Just like his daddy."

Kirsten smiled. Anytime now Sandy was going to be a daddy and she was going to be a mummy and they were going to be happier than she ever could have imagined.

"Mother nature will take its course Mrs Cohen." Mr Gregory said. "When the baby is ready to come into the world, he'll let us know." Just then, Kirsten screamed in agony through a contraction.

Sandy held Kirsten's hand. "This is it baby. You're doing great. Just remember everything you learned in prenatal class."

Kirsten screamed in pain again. "You're never coming near me again Sandy Cohen!" She yelled out.

"Guess giving birth isn't all it's cracked up to be is it?" Sandy joked with one of the nurses.

Georgia laughed.

"Here we go Kirsten; big pushes now, come on." The midwife told her. Kirsten did squeezing Sandy's hand very tightly. "Good, good, now you're going to have to push harder now Kirsten to get the shoulders out."

Kirsten whimpered and shook her head. "No, no, I can't, Sandy…" Sandy kissed her hand and her forehead. "Yes you can, baby, yes you can. Just one big push and it'll all be over and we'll have a beautiful baby to cherish and love for the rest of our lives." He smiled sweetly. "Does that sound like an ok plan?"

Kirsten smiled and nodded sitting up again. "Yes."

"Good, good baby. You can do it I know you can." He kissed Kirsten's temple.

Kirsten gave one strained long push and then finally sighed and fell back into the bed. "He's here. Well done Kirsten." The female nurse said and Kirsten smiled. She then looked over to Sandy and started crying. Sandy slid on the bed beside her and wrapped his arm around her. "Well done baby. I'm so proud of you." Kirsten looked around for her new baby.

After a minute the nurses handed a newborn Seth to Kirsten. Sandy and Kirsten both stared at him in awe.

"It's a baby Kirsten." Sandy said.

Kirsten laughed. "Yes, Sandy, I was wondering what that bump was."

"We've got ourselves a beautiful baby Kirsten." Sandy frowned. "What is it?"

Kristen smiled and pulled back the wee blanket their tiny child was wrapped in to see what gender it was. She smiled and nodded, getting all teary again. "A boy."

"Well he's not gonna be afraid to change in the showers, is he?" Sandy grinned.

Georgia cringed and choked on her juice, spraying it out. "Ugh…TMI!"

Kirsten took Sandy's hand and held it above their little baby boy. Sandy took a moment and stroked his tiny chubby arms. Then unexpectedly the little guy wrapped his whole hand around Sandy's Wedding finger, above his ring. Sandy grinned. "He's perfect Kristen. He's got perfect fingers and perfect toes. Only could have come out of you."

Kirsten grinned. "No yelling…" She whispered. "But he still needs a name."

Sandy paused and thought. "What about Seth?"

Kirsten thought. "Seth? Seth. Seth Cohen." She looked down at Baby Seth. "Little Seth Cohen." She grinned. "That's perfect. Hi Seth." Seth reached his tiny arms up to his mummy. "Yeah that's you. You're our little Seth Cohen."

"You're such a lovely little boy, you are yes you are." Sandy rambled on to his son. "You're a lucky little boy; you've got two parents who think you are the most precious thing in the whole wide world. Yes you are. And maybe one you'll have a little brother to play with too."

Kirsten opened her mouth. "A little sister." She smiled and raised her eyebrows. "I'm not going to have three men in the house and then just little me by myself."

"Not right now…but a miniature you… maybe one day, eh?" Sandy asked smiling.

Kirsten gave him a loving smile. "We'll see…" They both then went back to looking at young Seth.

Georgia smiled. "We'll see." She repeated.She rewound the tape and looked through the box deciding what one to watch next. She then heard some footsteps and her mum giggling as Kirsten and Sandy came up to their bedroom. Georgia jumped up. "I'm in here!" She yelled. "Stop whatever you're doing please!" She shut her eyes tightly as Sandy and Kirsten came in.

"Hey sweetie", Kirsten said who was being carried by Sandy. He put her down on the bed. "What are you doing?" She then looked at the TV screen. "Is that Seth being born?" She got excited. "Oh press play; I haven't seen this in ages! Sandy, we haven't watched these tapes in ages!"

"Dad you were so funny when Seth was being born." Georgia said giggling.

Kirsten rolled her eyes. "Ugh god, don't remind me!" She said taking off her shrug.

"I didn't bug you during childbirth!" Sandy said.

"No, but you bugged me during conception." Kirsten said and Georgia laughed. "Well night, night." She said and kissed her mum's cheek. "Night dad."

Sandy followed Georgia out and shut the bedroom doors behind him. "Hey, I wanna talk to you."

Georgia turned around as she walked. "About what?"

Sandy swerved in front of Georgia. "You didn't tell me your mum almost relapsed one night." He accused her angrily. Georgia looked up at him with a guilty look on her face. "Why not?"

Georgia looked away. "Because I didn't want you to get mad at her."

"Princess, I love your mom very much. I know she was going through a tough time. I wouldn't get mad at her, that wouldn't make anything easier for anyone; you know all I would want to do is help her."

"Well nothing happened; she didn't drink any alcohol." Georgia said walking past Sandy but her grabbed her arm and spun her around. "That's not the point Georgia. You know it's a big deal! If she did relapse she would probably have to-"

"Go back to rehab; yes I know!" Georgia screamed.

"Shh!" Sandy said pulling Georgia into the living room. "Keep your voice down."

"Sorry, I just don't want mum to go back."

Sandy softened his voice. "Well no one does, especially your mom." Sandy sighed. "Just don't lie to me again, ok?"

Georgia half smiled. "Yeah, I'm sorry." She paused. "Can I go?" Sandy nodded and sighed as he watched he go up the stairs.

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"You alright honey?" Kirsten asked when Sandy came back in the room.

Sandy sighed, shutting the bedroom door behind him. "Yeah just…Ok I asked Georgia about how you were when I wasn't around."

"What?" Kirsten asked.

"She didn't tell me about the night you almost relapsed-"

"Sandy, you should have asked me. Don't you understand how put on the spot Georgia must have felt? Of course she didn't tell you about that night that's my place. If she told you before I did wouldn't you have thought I was trying to hide it from you?"

Kirsten looked at Sandy and then gave him a reassuring look. "Sit down." He sat down on their bed beside her. "I would never lie to you honey, ok? I understand why you asked Georgia, I do, and I respect that but please don't be angry at her for not telling you. She didn't mean any harm."

Sandy smiled and nodded. "I know."

Kirsten leaned in and kissed Sandy briefly. "I love you, you know that?"

Sandy rubbed his nose with Kirsten's. "Mmm…" He grinned. "Perhaps you'll have to remind me."

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"Hey Braden it's me." Georgia said as she poured herself some Tropicana and waited for her bagel to toast the nest morning. "You ok? You left in a hurry yesterday."

"Uh yeah I'm cool. Thanks." Braden said down the phone.

"I was wondering if it's cool if I still come round to your house today."

"Actually I'd rather you didn't just uh…busy around here."

"Oh uh ok." Georgia frowned. "Well do you want to go to the skate park? I've almost got the hang of that half pipe. We could meet Elle and Ash and then-"

"I can't Georgia, ok? I gotta go. And don't come round. Bye." And with that Braden hung up.

Georgia stared at the phone for a second confused. She was pulled out of her questioning trance when her bagel popped up. She jumped and screamed. Ryan and Seth came in from the poolhouse then. "You ok?" Ryan asked.

"Fine." Georgia said smiling.

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It was 7:15 and Kirsten grudgingly sat up in the bed and swung herself, starting to get up.

"What are you doing?" Sandy asked opening an eye to watch her.

"Getting Georgia up for school. It's after seven; she'll be late."

"It's Saturday" Sandy told her.

Kirsten paused, finally getting her thoughts together. "Oh that's right cos yesterday was Friday."

"Well done..."Sandy applauded her sarcastically. He laughed. "You don't know the days of the week."

Kirsten lay back down and buried her body under the warm covers. "Oh goody an extra 2 hours of sleep."

Sandy grinned devilishly and rolled on top of Kirsten. "Minus 5 minutes of pure heaven" He said and Kirsten giggled as he planted his lips on hers.

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Georgia wasn't going to sit around and wait until Monday to see Braden again and ask him what really was going on.

The doorbell rang and Braden answered it. There was Georgia standing on his porch, waiting to get some answers.

"Look, I thought I told you not to come round here." Braden said.

"You did but I want to know why. What are you hiding?"

"Nothing…I'm not…there's nothing i-in…n-n-nothing."

Georgia raised her eyebrows. "Men are the worst liars. You know that?" She pushed passed him, walking into his house. She looked around. "Wow. Your house is really nice. I don't see what you would want to be hiding."

"Georgia please, just leave. I'm not doing this to hurt you or push you away I just need you to leave. For your own good."

Georgia frowned. "Braden is there somebody here?" She whispered. She turned around accidentally knocking over a photo-frame. "Oh, sorry." She bent down to pick it up. She looked at the photo.

"Give me that." Braden said. Georgia turned away trying to hold onto the photo. "Georgia, give me it!"

Georgia ran away from him upstairs and into his bedroom. She got into his room before him and managed to have a good look at the photo. She saw a face that filled her with fear and anger. "Oh my god…" She said under her breath.

"I told you not to look at it!" Braden said snatching the photo out his hand.

"Is your brother Michael Hawk?" Georgia asked.

"Step-brother." He said, obviously not proud. Braden shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie to you and I just hate him so much and I was scared of what he would do to you if he found you here."

"So why haven't you turned him in?"

"Because it would kill my mom…he's family."

"Braden, he murdered 33 people! My dad almost died and my mum is paralysed! How can you be protecting him!" She yelled.

"Wouldn't you do the same for Seth or Ryan?"

"That's different, Ryan or Seth have never murdered people before! They never will."

Braden smashed the photo frame into the ground and the glass shattered everywhere. He started marching around. "Are you scared of him?" Braden glared at Georgia but didn't say anything. Georgia walked over to him slowly. "He's hit you before, hasn't he?"

"Just when I did something to disrespect him." Braden said, like he thought he deserved it.

"You've got to say something to the police. You could be arrested; he's a fugitive, you know? And what about your mum?" Braden started to pay attention. "If he can murder 26 people, what's one more?"

"I can't!" Braden said through gritted teeth. "I'm sorry."

Georgia sighed and on the foot of his bed thinking. Braden eventually sat down beside her. "You gonna tell your mom and dad?"

"I don't know…" Georgia said softly. She turned to him. "If I lie about this I'll be grounded for life but if I do tell them, they may never let me see you again…"

Georgia put her hands on Braden's. "Come on, I'll help you clear up the glass."

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"So boys how's college?" Sandy asked at dinner.

"Good." They both answered mutually.

"We did this awesome experiment in chemistry the other day; we got to see ." Seth said grinning.

"Doesn't that give off a lot of radiation Seth?" Kirsten asked.

"Yeah we wear led vests." He answered.

"Also used incase Superman wants to peek at your knickers." Georgia joked.

"I'm not wearing any." Sandy winked and the kids all groaned.

"But Seth doesn't like chemistry anymore." Ryan added.

"Why?"

"Cos his lab partner is gay and he thinks he is 'in love' with him." Ryan said mockingly.

"Hey, you've seen the way he watches me when I add chlorine to metals." Seth said.

"Gay people are no different to any other; you shouldn't have a problem with this kid Seth." Kirsten said authoritively. "My 3rd cousin Rona is gay." Kirsten added.

"What?" Sandy said.

"You knew that." Kirsten told Sandy.

"I most certainly did not!" Sandy defended himself.

"Why do you think she never got married?" Kirsten asked.

"Cos she looks like a pit-bull." Sandy said. Kirsten frowned at him but he and the kids laughed.

As Georgia helped to clean up dinner, she listened to Sandy and Kirsten ramble on about some party they went to many, many years ago.

"Well I wanted to have my hair nice for the party." Kirsten said. "It was fancy dress Sandy."

"It wasn't just 'nice' Kirsten, it was big." Sandy said and Georgia grinned. The doorbell rang and Georgia walked out of the kitchen to get it.

"You said I looked beautiful." Kirsten said raising her eyebrows.

"What can I say? I was young, in love and the rest of you looked beautiful." Sandy said with a cheeky smile.

Kirsten waited then smiled "You never have been a good liar."

"Pass me the plates?" Sandy asked grinning. Kirsten did. "Georgia!" She called out. "Who was at the door?" There was along pause with no answer. Ryan and Seth walked in from the poolhouse. "Georgia?" Sandy yelled. They all frowned at each other when there was complete silence. Then there was the sound of car tyres screeching. Ryan sprinted outside.

"Georgia? Georgia? Georgia!" He called out, looking all around him for any sign of his baby sister. All he saw was a black 'TV licence' van speeding out of the Cohen's drive.

"Oh my god! He took her!" A neighbour was screaming.

Ryan chased after the van down the street but he didn't run fast enough to keep up with the speeding van. When the back of the car was out of sight he stopped in shock.

Georgia had just been stolen from them.

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Nice long update for you? Sorry it's been a while and I don't know how long it will be until I next update. What with New Year and all. SO thank you so much for all your reviews and taking time over Christmas. Hope you had a great one!

Please tell me what you think :)