A/N: Hey everyone.I'm just here to remind you to review. Well, beg you really. Please, please, please review! See this? This is my begging face. I assure you it's convincing.

Disclaimer: I've been forgetting these. I do not own any of the characters from the OC.

Summer and Marissa sat together on an old park bench overlooking the sea. It was not unlike where they had scattered Seth's ashes the week before. Summer held Verity.

They had both faked sick. Summer and Marissa walked across the deserted basketball courts. Marissa flopped down on the warm courts, leaning back on her elbows and rolling her feet in.

"Well, that's elegant," Summer said sitting down neatly beside her.

Marissa looked up at the sky.

"What is it?"

"What is it?"

"What?"

"I can tell you want to say something, so just say it,"

Marissa kept looking at the sky, but all her attention was focused on Summer.

"I need for you to understand something. I need for you to remember this Summer. It's not your fault,"

Summer's gaze dropped down to Verity, who was sucking a dummy.

"And, I know, sometimes blaming yourself is easier. It's easier to put the blame somewhere…somewhere other than him. But in the end it was him. And he did die. Blaming yourself won't change it."

A beat.

A blink.

"You, you want to talk about…"

"Seth, Summer. I want to talk to you about Seth. He was the love of your life and, he died. And…you weren't there when it happened. You couldn't stop him. You couldn't save him. You couldn't die with him."

"I was the one who was supposed to die." She whispered.

A sigh.

Marissa glanced down at her friend then back at the sky.

"But, when he died, everything in me died with him. I shouldn't be able to go on living. I shouldn't be alive. But I am. Because he died."

"He made a choice Summer. I don't know if…maybe it doesn't work like that, but he died, and you're alive. Now, maybe you were supposed to die but, it was a fair trade, a life for a life. And there's no one else on this Earth who's precious enough for that gift except you. I need you, Sum. I need you to be alive. Not just to exist."

"I will. And that-that's what's frightening me. Deep down, I'm okay. He died, and I can deal with that. How can I be able to deal with that? He-I-All my life, no one has ever meant that much to me. Not in that way. And the world is still spinning. I don't understand how it could be. I don't understand how people can be living their lives. I don't know why I'm okay. And, when I look forward, I can still see the world spinning. And it shouldn't be. When I look forward, I only see me. I've never only seen me."

"Well, here," Marissa said pushing a big pink duffle bag towards Summer.

"This should be enough stuff for a week, and here are the keys to the apartment in New York, when you want to go and get the rest of her stuff."

"The rest of her stuff? Marissa-what do you mean? Why would I need a bag of Verity's things?" Marissa smiled and her friend, a very watery smile, but a smile.

"I'm going away for a while Sum."

"Away?"

"I have…need to find Ryan. I've tried forgetting, and it didn't work. Forgetting doesn't work."

"But, you have no idea where he went! You can't just-just take off Marissa! You can't just leave your baby!"

"Don't try it."

"Try what! You're being completely irresponsible!"

"Don't pick a fight with me so you don't have to say goodbye."

Marissa and Ryan stood outside the funeral home together.

"I'm going to go for a walk," he said.

"Don you want me to come with you?"

"It's alright,"

And there was something different.

She saw that.

So she hugged her husband tight.

And whispered.

"I'm not, for once, I'm stopping you running away from your responsibilities!"

"Summer, I can't do this, I can't keep waiting. Sandy and Kirsten need Ryan back, I need him back, I think you need him back too. Without him, Verity has no father. He doesn't even know she exists! If I don't do this, the world will stop spinning, and quite possibly fall off its axis. I just need you to take care of my daughter while I find her father."

"But…what'll I do without you?"

"I've been in New York and you went without me. You won't be alone. You get to play fairy godmother"

"This isn't a fairytale."

"It was never meant to be."

Silently Summer handed Verity to her mother. Marissa cradled her baby and walked.

She wondered that she could love so much, that she could love so hard. She loved that little girl so much it made her throat constrict and her breathing slow. Like her life was pouring out with her love.

"Verity means truth, remember that bubba. Truth. Love is eternal, remember that too. And nothing in this world has even been as loved as you."

"Are you ready?"

"Almost, I'm not leaving without saying goodbye."

"You don't need too, remember, 'Cheerio, not goodbye' ?"

"Goodbye this time," Marissa smiled.

Oliver had great songs.

"Well, goodbye then. Be careful and don't get hurt. And I love you."

And there she was, Marissa's dearest friend in the world, holding her baby and saying goodbye.

"Goodbye Summer. A thousand Seth's couldn't love you like I do, and no one ever will."

"Will you promise me something then?"

Marissa looked away.

"Promise me you'll come back" she said.

"I promise"

"I'll love you as far as you can count, for ever"

And on the otherside of nowhere, Ryan remembered what the last thing she said to him.

"Forever's longer than you think"