Here you go people. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: This story is purely fictional and any huge indisrepancies in any official procedures are mine. It my fiction so na na na na:)

Beta-ed by the fab melanie39. (Must say I fiddled with this so all mistakes are now mine!)

Breaking The Cycle

Chapter 5.

lj-cut text"Mike was a bastard and Ryan knew what could happen when a man like that got his feet under the table. If he had no compunction about hitting Becky, it would only be a matter of time before Mike would lash out at Danny."

Ryan rode around for a while not knowing what to do. He had worked himself up thinking all sorts of scenarios in his head. The problem was he knew what could happen, he'd lived that life. Why the hell had he listened to people? He should know by now that he needed to trust his own instincts. Becky was a great girl but she so desperate not to be alone that she had let her judgement be clouded. He couldn't let anything happen to Danny, he didn't deserve this. Mike was a bastard and Ryan knew what could happen when a man like that got his feet under the table. If he had no compunction about hitting Becky, it would only be a matter of time before Mike would lash out at Danny. Becky needed help, she needed her friends around her, but she was cutting them out.

Ryan pulled up and got out of the car. He would do this right.

"Sandy?"

Ryan strode into the kitchen. Time to test his guardian. Sandy had told him that he never had to face things alone again. Now he'd find out if that were true.

"Hey kid, I thought you'd be with Missy."

Sandy was making himself a sandwich and was busy concentrating on layering cold cuts onto a slice of bread.

"I need your help." Ryan could hear the strain in his own voice. Sandy obviously could too. He turned to Ryan and frowned, his sandwich forgotten.

"What's up, kid? You okay?"

The floodgates opened. Ryan paced as he told Sandy what he knew. Shame made him leave out the part where he'd slept with Becky. It felt good to let all the fear and misgivings of the past few hours out. Sandy listened gravely until Ryan finished; he then grabbed Ryan for a quick hug.

"It means a lot that you came to me with this, Ryan."

Ryan nodded. He was trying to change and this was bigger than he could cope with. Danny needed help and he couldn't do anything on his own. He'd tried but no one seemed to know where Becky had gone.

"We've got to find them, Sandy."

Sandy nodded.

"We will kid, we will. I've still got contacts at the PD's office." Sandy got that steely gleam in his eye, the one that said he was not going to give up until something was done. "Leave it to me."

"Thank you."

"That's what I'm here for, and don't worry Ryan, we'll find them. Danny will be okay. Got it? Leave this to me…do nothing."

Ryan stayed silent.

"Ryan promise me that you will leave this in my hands," Sandy reaffirmed.

"Okay." Ryan hated saying it but he had a feeling that he could do nothing even if he wanted to. He'd already spent hours driving around Chino and asking all the people that he could think of if they knew where Becky could have gone, and drawn a blank.

------------------------------------------------

Ryan did his best to relinquish control of the situation, but after over a week of not hearing anything he was officially going out of his mind. Sandy was being evasive with him, he just knew it. Whenever he asked him what was happening and if they had been found, Sandy just said that 'things take time'.

Ryan knew that he was being treated with kid gloves at the moment. He was also aware that his moods had been, at best, rude and abrasive, but he was fed up with the situation. If Sandy had inside contacts, then why hadn't they at least tracked them down? California wasn't that big a place when you had a network of professionals at your fingertips like Sandy did, and he didn't think that Becky would have uprooted Danny out of state again.

Ryan felt bad that Seth was bearing the brunt of his behavior at the moment. All his friends were, even Missy hadn't escaped unscathed, but Seth, more than most, had caught the worst of it. He knew that he was being snappy with Seth but he couldn't seem to switch off the images going around his head. And although he knew that Seth was only doing what he thought was best, trying to distract him at all costs from what was going on, Ryan didn't want to be distracted. Seth didn't understand how bad he felt at having let Danny down. And not just Danny, he'd also let Becky down badly too.

Ryan might have been building this up in his head, but whilst there was any possibility that Mike was living with them, then the threat was very real in Ryan's mind. It was by being selfish and turning his back in the first place that this had happened and he wasn't about to let his guard down again.

Ryan waited outside by the SUV for Seth. School had finished for the day and he wanted to just get home. Tonight he was going to confront Sandy and find out what was going on once and for all. He was not going to be fobbed off again with platitudes and a pat on the shoulder. Summer and Seth trotted down the stairs; they were prodding and tickling each other.

"Hey dude, help me out here!" Seth called out to Ryan, as he tried to stop Summer's arms attacking him.

"Don't you dare Ryan, this is war between me and Seth, do not take sides." Summer giggled as she went for Seth's weak spot, under his arm.

"Ryan, we need to stick together on this one…she'll crumble under a joint attack," Seth called again.

"Can we just go?" Ryan immediately felt like a shit for barking at Seth. He saw the look that passed between the two lovebirds as they stopped their fooling. He was just about to apologize when a car came screaming up to the curb.

Ryan recognized the car; his stomach lurched as he saw Becky. All the searching and she came to him. He felt relief wash over him.

The door flew open and Becky marched over to where Ryan stood. Before he had a chance to open his mouth, she slapped his face. Summer gasped and Seth looked horrified.

"You bastard," she yelled at him and punctuated the statement with another loud slap to the side of his cheek.

"You fucking bastard." She pulled her hand back for another slap but Ryan held her wrist before she could strike again. A small crowd had gathered around to watch the little unexpected afternoon drama unfolding in front of them. "How could you do this to me?"

Ryan held onto her wrist as she struggled to get free and take another shot at him.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Don't act all innocent you fucker. They've taken Danny from me…"

Ryan released her arm in shock.

"What!"

"They won't let me see him. I'm under fucking investigation and it's all your fault, you and that do good lawyer you live with. I want my son back…do you hear me?"

"Becky …I…." Ryan stumbled over his words.

"I don't want to hear what you have to say. You're a Judas, Ryan…I thought you were my friend but you enjoyed stabbing me in the back didn't you! Is this just because I wouldn't let you see Danny? Is it?"

"No. No… I just wanted Sandy to trace you…I swear I didn't want this."

Ryan felt desperate. This was not what should be happening. Becky turned to leave but as she strode to her car she turned around for a parting shot.

"You really are a piece of work Ryan, you fuck me for sport because you had an argument with your girlfriend and when you can't handle the fact that I might actually have feelings for you, you go and fuck up my life… You're an emotional cripple Ryan, you know that? I wish I'd never set eyes on you." She was crying now. She got in her car and gunned the engine before roaring away. People started muttering before dispersing, realizing the show was now over. Ryan stood rooted to the spot, aware that Seth and Summer were staring at him. He felt a hand on his shoulder, he shrugged it off. Luke turned him around so he was facing him.

"Chino, that was harsh, man. You okay?"

Ryan ignored Luke and focused on Seth.

"I need the keys."

Seth looked uncomfortable.

"Dude I don't think that..."

"Seth, just give me the fucking keys…. now!" Ryan shouted the last words.

Seth's eyes bugged. Ryan saw Luke out of the corner of his eye nod to Seth. Seth reached into his pocket, pulled the bunch of keys out and handed them to Ryan. He snatched them and unlocked the car. He drove off. If he'd looked behind him, he'd have seen three pairs of worried eyes following his tail lights. But he was only focused on Sandy right now. And he was pissed.

------ -------- -------------- ----------------- ---------

Of course Sandy was waiting for him. As soon as he pulled up at his office and marched in, he knew Sandy was prepared for him. Why the hell did people feel the need to call ahead for him? First Missy, now probably Seth. Was he really that much of a loose cannon that they felt people had to be warned?

"Look Ryan, I didn't want you to find out like this." Sandy tried to placate him.

"So you lied to me. I didn't want this. I wanted you to find them, not call social services. You knew that."

"I get that you're angry with me but what could I do? You were worried enough about the boyfriend to ask for help. I couldn't let this ride, you know that. The guy has a record for violence and that alone was enough to flag up the warning bells with the agency. That, coupled with what you told me about him hitting Becky. Danny had to come first."

Ryan shook his head.

"So you let them take him? How is that helping him? God, Sandy, do you even know how that feels for a kid of his age? Did you not think of how Danny would feel being taken away from his mom and shoved into a home? I do… and it's terrifying. I didn't understand what I'd done and no matter how much my mom screwed up I didn't want to be separated from her. I loved her and Danny loves his mom. What the fuck have you done!"

Sandy moved around the desk making gestures for him to calm down.

"We felt that it was for the best…Danny had bruises."

Ryan swallowed hard and shut his eyes momentarily.

"For the best? No, Sandy. Becky made a mistake, she needed advice, she needed understanding, but you took away the one thing that means anything to her. God, you don't get it do you? She's been feeling so low. I mean, I fucked up big time there, and then this guy comes along and offers her the world, it happened to my mom so many times. These men are plausible… they beat the crap out of you one minute and blame it on loving you too much the next. They say that it will never happen again and you believe them. Becky wouldn't deliberately put Danny at risk, but sometimes things aren't black and white for these women, Sandy. There is a support network at the refuge, we could have done something. You didn't have to call social services."

Ryan paused to catch his breath. He was shaking as he remembered how he felt the first time he and Trey had been taken away. They'd been passed from pillar to post for almost two months before they had been allowed home, and it had been made worse by the fact that he and Trey had been split up for three of those weeks.

"Ryan, I'm sorry but that's not how it works. If a kid is in trouble, then they have to act."

"I trusted you with this, Sandy!"

Why had he thought that Sandy would understand? What it felt like for a kid Danny's age to be separated from all he knew? Unless Sandy had laid awake at night as a kid in a strange bed wondering if he'd ever see his mom again…unless he'd spent sleepless nights going over and over in his head thinking about what you'd done to make your mom leave you then maybe Sandy would have thought twice about going down the road he'd gone. As stupid as it was to an adult, Ryan would have put up with all the beatings in the world if he could have just gone home to his mom.

"Strangers can never replace your own family, Sandy!" He spat the words out. Ryan wanted to lash out… he wanted to hurt.

Sandy's face fell at his words and he knew that they hit home.

Ryan turned and slammed the door to the office as he left.

Sandy arrived home to a pow-wow session going on n the kitchen. Kirsten sat with Seth, Summer and Luke drinking coffee. His son leapt up and immediately started with the questions.

"Where's Ryan, what happened?" Summer and Luke eyes were on him also waiting to see what went down as were his wife's.

Sandy sighed.

"I saw him, we had words, and he drove off."

"Great dad…and you let him go! This is like his dad all over again. He's going to go all tonto, do huge quantities of coke and probably overdose again! Why did you not just tell him the truth at the start…Ryan's got a big thing about people lying to him, I thought you guys knew that by now."

Sandy exchanged a look with his wife; they had already had many discussions about the subject. Seth looked upset with him, it seemed to be the natural progression of things today that his kids were angry with him, whoever said being a parent was hard was so right.

"We weren't lying we were just trying to protect Ryan, he shouldn't have to deal with this Seth, I was trying to sort things out before I told him." Seth looked unconvinced.

Kirsten jumped to his defense.

"Seth, your father is as angry as Ryan is over this. He tried to stop social services but once they got involved there was nothing he could do."

Seth folded his arms.

"Did you tell Ryan that you were as pissed as him about this dad, or did you just let him think that you'd igonored what he asked you to do... he …he kinda has this huge conspiracy theory thing going on that he thinks everyone is out to shaft him. If you'd have told him that this whole thing back fired on you as well then he would have calmed down 'cause Ryan isn't entirely irrational about such things. What really would have gotten him riled was thinking you went behind his back on this one. So by the look on your face I'm guessing you didn't tell him right?"

Luke nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Ryan shows great solidarity when dealing with fuck ups the authorities make…'scuse my language."

Summer scrunched up her face in agreement and nodded also.

Sandy rubbed his forehead. Seems a bunch of kids knew how to read Ryan better than he did.

Kirsten tried to look positive.

"Ryan will come home when he's cooled down I'm sure. Seth this isn't your fathers fault, he's been working flat out for days trying to sort this mess out, and we even put in a request that we temporarily foster Danny until Becky's case is looked further at but we were turned down."

Seth frowned and looked indignant.

"Why, you got guardianship of Ryan with no problems? Why would they turn us down?"

Sandy sat down on one of the chairs.

"Unfortunately Ryan's criminal record was the reason social services blocked our request Seth. His record is going to dog him in a lot of ways."

That was one of the reasons he'd tried to sort this before Ryan found out, he knew that the kid had a real problem with how his having a criminal record was going to screw up his life.

Summers nervous throat clearing broke Sandy out of his thoughts. She was looking embarrassed and nodded towards the door. Sandy knew before he turned around who he'd see there.

This day was just getting better and better.

TBC