I told you I had more chapters written. pats self on back And chapter 08 is at the beta shop! Thanks to Sister Rose for beta-ing.
I don't own it.

Ryan glanced over at his alarm clock, surprised to see that the hours had whizzed by and that it was already 4 o'clock. But Seth shouldn't be home, thought Ryan. He was always busy with after-school activities until 5 p.m. at least. Though now that he thought about it, with the grief Seth was getting at school, why would he hang out there? But Ryan didn't have time to dwell on it, because Seth was angrily jabbing his finger at his shoulder.

"I don't need you to be my knight in shining armor," he was saying. Screaming really. "I don't need a savior, Ryan. I was fine before you came to live with us in this G-d forsaken town. I was fine when you left, and I'm fine now that you came back." He poked Ryan's shoulder, emphasizing each word.

His eyes blinked rapidly as he tried to digest Seth's anger and figure out how to respond. Ryan just stood there dumbly. Finally, he shook Seth off, took a small step back and whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Just leave me alone, Ryan. Leave me the hell alone."

"No." The word surprised even Ryan. But he repeated it again, loudly and firmly then he added, "I won't leave you alone. We make a good team. What was it you said when I first moved in? Together we're unstoppable. Separately-"

But Seth cut him off. "Shut. Up," he hissed between clenched teeth. "I don't want to hear it. I don't need you. I never did. It was nice last year. It was fun. But that was last year. I don't give a damn. Live here. Go to the same school, but just stay the hell out of my life, okay?" Seth's voice grew softer, as if the fight was slowly leaving him. He turned his back to Ryan as he uttered the last words, and Ryan thought he heard Seth's voice crack just the tiniest bit. Was Seth going to cry?

He watched as Seth started to leave. And Ryan didn't know what it was, but something inside him snapped and he ran in front of Seth, blocking his exit from the pool house.

"I will not leave you alone," he fumed. "I never have. Isn't that what made you forever loyal to me?" he questioned, the sarcasm dripping in his words. "Even though you totally dissed me in front of everyone, I came back and defended you when Luke, and Saunders and their goons started harassing you on the beach. I didn't turn my back on you."

"But the minute you thought you got a girl pregnant you ran!" Seth's eyes were wild, reminding Ryan of a strung out drug addict. "You didn't turn back. Not even when she lost the baby. You came to Portland and when Theresa called with the news, I asked you to come back with me. You knew my mom was on her way to take me home. You knew she would force you to come and instead you hid behind Theresa, but you knew she was moving to Atlanta."

Ryan looked down at the floor, studying the pattern on the pool house floor.

"I really did go back for Theresa," he started quietly. Ryan sank down to the floor, still blocking the pool house door. If Seth was insistent, he could easily get past Ryan. He didn't think Seth had much fight left in him. "When I got back, her mom had all my bags packed. She told me Theresa had already left for Atlanta to her cousin and that I should go back to Newport. It was the first I heard about Theresa leaving.

"I took my bags and walked to that same payphone. I called your dad from that summer after mom kicked me out of her house. I called your phone, but you wouldn't pick up. I kept trying, but you kept sending it to voicemail. I could have called your parents, but hell, if you wouldn't have me back, what was the point of going back? The only reason your dad took me in was to prove a point and your mom did it because you badgered her and she felt sorry for me when my mom ditched me for the second time in a week. You were the only one who wanted me in Newport just for me."

Ryan hated the naked emotion that was in his voice. He felt bare and exposed, yet he didn't feel like he had a choice. He felt like it all had to come out, as if he needed to purge it all. "So I found a place to live. I still had my job and some money that I had put away for the baby. I told your parents I was staying with Theresa and they didn't check up on me. Not right away at least. And every time I wanted to talk to you, you ignored my calls. If I e-mailed you, you didn't answer. What the hell was I supposed to think?" Ryan jumped up again, so he could meet Seth eye to eye. "I abandoned you? You abandoned me!"

Suddenly, anger and hurt and confusion all roared and pulsed in Ryan's ears. He shoved Seth. "It's not always about you. Sometimes there's more to a story than you realize," and he shoved Seth again.

Seth stumbled backwards, more from Ryan's words than from the shoves. He blinked, once twice and the third time Ryan raised his hands to shove him, Seth lifted his arms to block the onslaught.

"Don't push me." He placed his hands flat on either side of Ryan and pushed hard.

Ryan came at him, like a bull going at a matador waving a red cape. Smoke came from his nostrils, his blue eyes blazed with fury, like a torrent of angry waves crashing on shore. He rammed his entire body into Seth, and Seth slammed back with his full body weight so that the glass door swung forward with a sharp crack and they collapsed onto the patio, rolling and punching and snarling at each other.

Seth landed the first good blow squarely on Ryan's jaw. It stopped Ryan only for a brief moment, and he pulled back his hand, thumping Seth in the gut, which he figured was weaker from the ball that had hit him earlier in the day. A whoosh of air left Seth, like air leaving an over inflated balloon. They grunted, and rolled, kicking and snarling at each other.

They didn't hear the clatter of Kirsten's heels on the patio floor or her hysterical cries for Sandy. "Boys. Boys. Stop it, this instant," she demanded. She watched them tumble and roll and grunt, and tried to get between them

Sandy, hearing his wife call out for him, came running out, skidding to a stop at the sight before him.

"Ryan! Seth," he barked. "Stop this right now." He grabbed at the first shirt that was in his reach, - it turned out to be Seth's - and tugged at the struggling figure. It took all of Sandy's strength to get Seth to a semi standing position. All the while, the boy's feet and arms were flailing wildly, slashing at the empty air.

Ryan didn't even notice that he had been separated and continued to lash out violently at the empty space before him. Until he felt Kirsten's gentle restraining arms around his and her soothing assurances that it was okay to stop.

Separated, Ryan and Seth looked like wild dogs, foaming at the mouth, growling and scratching at the ground with their paws, itching to resume their fight.

"What's going on here?" Sandy yelled, hauling Seth to an empty chair and clunking his son down unceremoniously.

Kirsten gently guided Ryan to the other empty chair so that the two boys faced each other. She stood behind him, her hands firm but tender on his shoulders, keeping him in place. Immediately, his whole demeanor went on the defensive, and he slouched down in his seat. Sandy could see the ugly, huffy scowl forming on his lips. He ignored it.

"Someone better start talking or there's going to be a hell of a lot of grounding going on." The impatience was apparent in Sandy's voice. "Scratch that. The grounding is going to happen anyway. The length and severity is yet to be determined."

"Seth," Kirsten prompted. "What happened?" When he didn't answer, Kirsten walked around so that she faced Ryan, without letting go of his shoulders. "Ryan? Will you tell me?"

He shook his head.

Kirsten sighed. "Does this have anything to do with what happened at school?" She saw both Ryan and Seth freeze and grow rigid. She knew she hit on a nerve. Yet neither boy was willing to talk.

"Okay." Kirsten shucked her nurturing mother mode and reached for the role she was more familiar with, the disciplinarian. She let go of Ryan and stood between both of them, her arms crossed against her chest. "One week's grounding for both of you. And Ryan, we haven't even touched today's incident at school. Every minute we sit here without a word or an explanation adds a day to the grounding. It'll also add another consequence, like no driving. No cell phone. No computer or Internet access."

Her eyes flitted back and forth between the two boys, who were still breathing heavily from their fight. They eyed each other through the narrow slits of their eyes, daring the other to go first. Kirsten wondered who would break first. When would she hit on something that mattered to them? Something that would get them to break?

"If someone doesn't talk soon, I'm going to send the both of you to my father and Julie's for a week."

Ryan sat up abruptly. He opened his mouth to say something, but Seth beat him to it.

"This isn't Ryan's fault. And neither is what happened in school today."

"Explain." Kirsten's voice was crisp and clipped. Yet she felt like skipping now that finally someone had said something. Who knew that Julie Cooper could instill fear into the hearts of children? Sandy sidled up beside her and squeezed her arm. She could tell he was equally pleased that one of the boys had started talking.

"Some of the kids were harassing me in PE, and Ryan decided he wasn't going to let it go."

"Was it Saunders and his friends again?" Sandy asked.

Seth nodded, looking down at his lap the entire time. He studied the scrapes and abrasions on his hands.

"I thought they'd stopped," Kirsten accused.

Ryan snorted. "Stopped? The only thing that's been going on is that Seth has been avoiding them every chance he gets. But it doesn't help, because they've just reached out through cyber space to continue the stalking.

"What do you mean?" Sandy turned to Ryan and placed his hands on his hips.

"They've been threatening Seth though e-mail and IM."

"Is that true?" Kirsten couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Seth shrugged.

"How long have you known about this, Ryan?"

Ryan dropped his gaze to the floor and refused to meet Sandy's insistent glare. "I found out last night," he mumbled.

"So today, you saw the boys bothering Seth in gym and it raised some red flags and you decided to punish them yourself," Kirsten filled in. "Is that how it happened?"

"Pretty much," Ryan said with a shrug. He didn't sound apologetic.

"So how does that have to tie in with what happened here?"

The boys resumed their silence. Each glanced at each other, egging the other one with their silence to explain what had happened.

Kirsten glanced at her watch. "That's one week and two days. And you're going to clean out the garage." When they still didn't speak, she continued, "One week and four days, the garage and the attic," though she knew both those jobs combined would take the better part of a month. "Two weeks," when it still didn't elicit a response, "No car privileges for a month. And if someone doesn't talk in the next two minutes, you're both going to spend a weekend at the house on haunted hill."

Seth spoke again. "I got angry at Ryan for today. I don't need him screwing up his record to protect me. We got into it when I got home, and it got heated. I was jabbing at him, poking him hard, and it escalated."

"Fighting in this house, for any reason," Sandy started, "Is entirely unacceptable. Regardless of who started it."

"I know. I'm sorry." Seth bowed his head in contrition.

Ryan followed suit and mumbled an apology.

"The thing is," Sandy continued, "The distance between the two of you has brought a pall onto this house. Everyone has been dragging their feet, tiptoeing as if on thin ice. This is just the straw that broke the camel's back. It's going to stop. I don't care if I have to throw you into a locked room, but before the sun comes up tomorrow morning, the two of you are going to work things out."

Ryan's head snapped to attention. Seth's too.

Sandy looked to his wife for approval and he saw he had it. "Both of you move into the pool house. Your mom and I will bring you provisions, but neither of you is coming out until this is settled for good."

When neither of the boys got up to move, Sandy stomped his foot down hard on the patio floor and shouted, "I said into the pool house. Don't play with me when I'm mad."

Seth scurried first, not used to his father's anger, and from the corner of his eyes he could see Ryan scurrying after him. As soon as they were inside, Sandy yanked the door shut, and procuring a key as if from thin air, locked the boys in.

Ryan and Seth stared with wide eyes and then both boys collapsed onto Ryan's bed in a fit of giggles.

"Should we tell him we have a spare key in here ever since Aunt Hailey locked us in on New Years Eve?" Seth asked through his laughter.

Ryan wiped away a tear. "No." He shook his head. "That would just ruin your dad's fun."

And together they continued laughing