Hi people!

Sorry that it took me a little longer to update, but I always like to have a few chapters written before I post one ;) And sorry in advance that this update is kinda short, it's the shortest chapter in the story, but it made the most sense to split the story like that. And it was actually the frst chapter I had written for this story, so yeah...

Thank you for your reviews, I appreciated all of them!

Since there were some discussions going on about how a person can be infected by HIV, here's an explanation: HIV can be given from one person to the other either by semen, vaginal secrets or by blood. The virus has to reach the blood circle to get a person infected, and so the chances to get HIV from just kissing are pretty low, yet possible. I hope that explained some things ;)

Please R/R!
Steffi

Dear God

When Summer came home in the evening, Seth was sitting in front of his laptop again, hammering angrily on the keys. When Summer saw the stressed look on his face, she felt terrible all over again.

She cleared her throat and walked over to Seth, who was sitting on the living room couch, the computer in his lap. She bowed her head and sniffed. "Hi." She said shyly.

Seth didn't react at first and kept on hammering words into the computer.

"I-I'm sorry." Summer said as she sat down next to him. "For how I behaved today."

Seth sighed and faced her. "What happened?" he asked, sounding tired.

Summer frowned. She hadn't expected such a peaceful reaction from Seth. "What, you're not angry at me?" she asked.

Seth shook his head. "No. Too tired for that." He replied and leant back into the couch pillows, taking Summer's hand. "You don't need to tell me if you don't want to."

Summer swallowed. She wanted to tell him, she wanted to tell him so badly, but something inside of her told her not to. She wasn't ready yet.

She rested her head against Seth's shoulder. "I don't deserve you." She said quietly and closed her eyes. "You're way too nice to such a bitch like me."

Seth closed his eyes as well, the exhaustion from the day he had setting in.

"I think you do deserve me." He replied and laid his head on top of Summer's. "You need someone like me to get your head out of the clouds and back into reality again."

If she hadn't been so tired, Summer would have started to argue with Seth right now. The comment he had just made wasn't true, but how could he know why she had been acting like that in the afternoon?

"These are much bigger issues I'm dealing with, Seth…" she said and felt how she slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.

Seth bit his lip at the comment his girlfriend had just made. "Then why are you trying to deal with them alone?" he asked and opened his eyes again. When he saw his and Summer's reflection in the window in front of them, he saw that Summer's eyes were closed.

A sad smile crossed his face, and he turned his head to watch Summer's chest steadily moving up and down. When she slept, she looked like an angel to him. Seth sighed and gave her a kiss on the head, before he took her into his arms and carried her over to the bedroom.

When Seth pulled the covers over her, Summer's small body turned into a ball. A faint moan escaped her mouth, and Seth stroked over her cheek lovingly. He sat down on the floor and rested his head on the bedside, his eyes never leaving Summer's face.

And the longer he watched her, the more worried he became. He knew that something was wrong with Summer, and it tore his heart apart that she didn't want to talk to him about it.

But now that she was asleep there was nothing he could do to change that.

Calls in the middle of the night didn't mean anything good. At least not back home in Newport Beach. Here, in New York City, where every fifth person was insane, it was normal to be called by strange people – no matter what time of the day it was.

But phone calls in the middle of the night were still unnerving. Especially when the person who called didn't give up the ringing for like five minutes.

Seth groaned at the shrill sounds the telephone made and put his pillow over his head. He didn't want to get up just to tell some pervert or crazy freak that he had gotten the wrong number, and that he didn't know how to contact the aliens that had kidnapped the person on the end of the line e few weeks ago.

He wasn't in the mood to tell Mrs Somersfield from the apartment above them that there was no shrill peeping in the house, and that she should just go to bed again. It was normal that Mrs Somersfield imagined things that weren't actually happening, and usually Seth didn't have a problem to talk nicely to the old and lonely woman who lived above them.

But not now. Not on a Monday night. And not the night before his first important English exam.

It hadn't been the first time since he and Summer had moved to New York that Seth had wished for an answering machine. Their entire apartment was furnished with only new and modern pieces, but the only missing modern thing was an answering machine.

Finally, the ringing had stopped. Seth smiled contently and turned over to his side, taking his head out from under the pillow. Just when he was about to drift off in the sweet world of sleep, the telephone started again.

Seth's eyes popped open and he sighed angrily, shoving the blankets and covers of the bed away.

Seth quickly checked on Summer who was still asleep. He wondered how exhausted Summer must have been all the time, given the fact that not even the urging ringing of the phone woke her up.

So Seth stood up and tapped into the living room. He switched the lights on and covered his eyes with his hands to shut out the blinding light that was created from the ceiling lamp.

When he was able to open his eyes again, Seth walked over to the couch table were the telephone was, slumped down between the pillows and pushed the green button.

"What?"

It was all that he could manage to say. Anyone calling at 5:30 a.m. didn't deserve a nicer answer.

"Sorry, who's speaking?" A female voice on the other end of the line asked. She sounded very upset, and Seth thought that the woman had been crying.

"Um, Seth Cohen. Who's asking?" Seth replied.

The woman let out a tiny sob. "Oh Seth, it's you. I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you in the middle of the night, but could I please talk to Summer?"

Seth frowned as he recognized the woman's voice. "Fran? What happened?"

Fran sniffed. "Oh God Seth, it's so terrible. Could I please talk to Summer?" she asked once again.

Seth scratched his head and peeked through the bedroom door. "Yeah, that's not good right now. She's sleeping. Really good for the first time in weeks."

Fran sobbed again. "Okay then… could you please tell her that I'm calling from the hospital?"

"Yeah…" Seth hesitated. "What happened?"

"Oh God, it's so terrible!" Fran cried out and started another round of sobbing.

Seth tapped with his foot on the ground nervously.

"We covered that." He answered.

"Tell Summer that Annie just died." Fran said, her voice shaking.

At that information, Seth's jaw dropped. "You're kidding!"

"No, I'm not. It's true. The nurses found her during their night rounds, hanging on the curtain rail of the shower. They tried their best to save her…" Another sob. "But they were too late. She died only minutes ago."

Seth sat up straight. He ran his free hand through his hair and sighed. "And do they know why?" he asked, his voice low.

Fran sniffed again. "No… she was on the way of recovering and…" she paused and talked to someone else. "Seth, I need to go, Annie's parents are here. Please tell Summer the news."

Seth nodded. Realizing that Fran couldn't see it, he replied with a tiny "I will." And pushed the "off" button.

Not able to stand up, Seth remained sitting on the couch and stared out of the window, seeing how the sun was starting to come up on the horizon. "Go figure," he said. "Cuz one bad thing can't come alone." He still didn't know what was bothering Summer, but he knew that the news of Annie's death definitely wouldn't be cheering her up.

"Who was that?"

At the sound of Summer's voice, Seth turned around. She stood in the bedroom doorframe, looking very sleepy. She was wrapping her arms around herself and narrowed her eyes.

"Fran." Seth answered and turned around, his gaze wandering up and down the horizon which seemed to be burning from the red morning sunlight.

"Now? Isn't that kinda early for a phone call?" Summer asked and walked over to Seth. As she saw the serious expression on his face, her heart started to beat faster. "What's wrong?"

Seth looked her into the eyes and sighed. "Fran called from the hospital." He said.

Summer frowned. "Is something wrong with Annie?"

Seth pressed his lips together and took one of Summer's hands. "The nurses found her tonight. She…"

He watched Summer's eyes widen in horror as she sensed what was about to come.

"She's dead, Summer."

Summer gasped for air. "What? Why?" she asked, her gaze desperate. "I thought the doctor's said she's gonna be okay!"

Seth looked down. "She killed herself." He answered, reaching out for Summer to hug her.

Summer flinched at Seth's touch and suppressed some tears. "I don't understand…" she said and stood up, her gaze wandering around the living room. "She seemed to be fine yesterday… she was going to be okay…" Mumbling to herself, Summer made her way back to the bedroom.

Seth stood up and followed her.

He watched Summer grab her clothes and making her way to the bathroom. "What are you doing?" he asked and sat down on the bed.

"I need to get ready. I need to go to the hospital." Summer answered.

"But the doctors take care of everything… there's nothing you can do." Seth said and stood up, walking towards her.

Gently, Summer pushed Seth's hand away, the words from her last conversation with Annie echoing through her mind.

"Don't let him come close to you."

"Don't… touch me." She said and turned around.

Seth held up his hands, a confused look on his face. What was that supposed to mean?

"I'm just trying to help…" he said, but Summer had already slammed the bathroom door in front of his face.

From inside the bathroom, Seth could hear Summer sobbing.

He turned the doorknob to find that it was locked. Knocking on the door, he urged, "Let me in, Summer. I just want to help!"

Summer sniffed. "I know." She said, resting her head on the door. "But I need to be alone right now, please."

Seth looked down at the floor and sighed.

"Please, don't be mad at me. I just… I can't do this right now." Summer's voice said through the closed door.

Seth traced the door with his finger and nodded. "Okay." He said and took a few steps back. "But I'm here for you, you know that?" he asked, his gaze pleading the goddamn door to open.

"Yeah. I know." Summer replied. "But please leave me alone now."

Without answering, Seth left the bedroom, closing the door behind him, wondering what he had done wrong.

Next chapter: It's Hope That Springs Eternal