Okay, off to finish the epilogue or last chapter or whatever. Thanks to Sister Rose for beta-ing.
I don't own it.

"So, do we just walk out?" Seth had his hand on the door knob. He was staring through the glass windows of the pool house, studying his parents snuggling on the patio chairs. "Actually, they look kind of…" He searched for the right word. "Engaged. They probably won't notice us."

Ryan closed the drawer of his night table, key safe in hand and peered through the glass. "True. But our objective is the pizza, which is sitting on Kirsten's lap."

Seth smiled. He supposed he shouldn't be smiling, but there was a lot to smile about. Ryan didn't say "your mom." He and Ryan weren't fighting anymore. They were friends. They were a unit again. All felt right with the world. He could even stand being grounded, especially since he knew that Ryan would be joining him for his two- week sentence.

"Well, if they don't notice us leaving, we could grab the car keys and get a fresh pizza."

"But we're grounded."

Seth thought of the time his parents had grounded him after he had hid Ryan in the model home and it burned down. He'd been ready to bolt then, too, so he could visit Ryan on his own. Of course, he'd been caught.

"That's never really stopped me before."

Ryan chewed on his lip. "Okay. Works for me. Let's go."

Ryan walked to the door and stealthily opened it. They tiptoed out of the room together, heads down, and passed Kirsten and Sandy. They made it all the way to the kitchen door before they heard Sandy call out, "Freeze." Both boys stopped in their tracks and looked up sheepishly. "Sit." Sandy pointed to the empty chairs on the patio table.

Warily, the boys walked back and sat down across from their parents.

"You made up." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. Kirsten could see it in the boys' posture and facial expressions. Ryan was sitting up just a little straighter. The lines around his eyes weren't so pronounced. And while Seth's expression remained contrite, Kirsten noticed that the tension in his back and shoulders that had been so pronounced since early September wasn't there.

Seth and Ryan exchanged quick looks and turned their eyes back to Sandy and Kirsten.

"We're okay," Seth jumped in, when he saw Sandy's expectant face. "Copasetics."

"Good." Sandy resisted clapping his hands together with glee. He took a deep breath, wanting to ask about what was going on in school, for both boys, but wasn't sure how to approach the topic. Luckily, Kirsten took over the reins.

"Seth." Kirsten turned to her dark-haired son, trying not to ignore the fair-haired one. "Dad and I were discussing the bullying issue."

Seth's entire stance changed immediately. His back grew rigid. The muscles in his face dropped, turning mouth into a frown. Seth wanted to escape. He put his hands on the arms of the chair, pushing himself half off his seat. He got halfway up when his mother put out her hand, gently pushing him back down.

"We have to talk about this," she insisted. "I thought things were getting better at school. Why didn't you tell us?"

Seth snorted. "I didn't even want to tell you the first time. You just found out, but your intervening didn't work. It only made things worse."

Kirsten's face paled. "Worse?"

"People like Chip and his buddies just don't stop. They're not afraid of Dr. Kim or the coach or the guidance counselor."

"Then we'll have to find another solution," Sandy interrupted. "Mom and I were discussing the idea of getting the DA to possibly file criminal charges. I don't think we can meet the burden of proof to make the charges stick, but it would make a point. Or we can try civil charges. That will make Chip and his parents stand up and listen."

Seth stood up so fast that his chair toppled behind him, making a loud clattering noise. Ryan started at the noise. "You cannot be serious." He drew out the words, said them slowly and carefully. "Do you need to make my humiliation any more than it is? It's bad enough I'm a total outcast at school, but you want me to stand up in open court, for public record, and admit to everyone what an incredible dweeb I am?"

"Seth Ezekiel, you are not a dweeb. Don't you dare put yourself down like that!"

"Whatever. There is no way in hell we're going to sue." He spun on his heels and ran back into the house.

Kirsten stood to follow him, but Ryan stopped her. "I'll go talk to him."

"Ryan, it's okay. Sandy and I will take care of it. I know you feel some sort of misguided responsibility for this."

He shook his head. "I wish this wasn't happening to Seth, but it's not my fault. And it's not Seth's fault and it's not your fault either." He brought a finger to his mouth and absently chewed on the extra skin. "Not every problem has a solution. Sometimes you just need to ride things out."

Sandy absently rubbed Kirsten's back, trying to soothe her. He knew she wanted to go into the house and console Seth, possibly even coax him into some action against his tormentors, but Sandy heard what Ryan was saying and Sandy thought that perhaps Ryan was right.

"I'll go talk to him," Ryan repeated.

Kirsten's head bobbed up and down, showing them that she had heard Ryan, even if she wasn't yet convinced.

Ryan found Seth sitting up in his bed, legs stretched out before him. He balanced Captain Oats between his knees, stroking the muzzle of the plastic horse.

"I'm not going to do it. You won't change my mind."

"I wasn't planning to. It's a bad idea."

Seth jerked up his head. He'd thought Ryan had come into his room at his parents' bidding.

"You think?"

"It's not going to change things. At least not for you. Maybe for some kids after you. You know, give them courage to stand up or make a bully think twice. But it won't change anything for you."

Seth creased his forehead. Was Ryan trying one of those reverse psychology tricks? It wasn't Ryan's style, yet he couldn't imagine what Ryan was trying to do here.

"I'm not the one who's going to try and make a difference for the ages. I just want to be left alone, you know?"

Ryan nodded. He did know. He thought of the different boyfriends Dawn had brought home while he was growing up. A few times he had considered going to a teacher and asking for help, but he knew social services would get involved and that it would be a long, drawn-out process. Ryan had just wanted the bastards to leave his family alone. He didn't want to be a martyr and get them off the streets so they'd never hurt other kids.

"You think if they see we're a team again," he asked Seth, "that they'll leave you alone?"

Seth shrugged. "I told you, I don't want to be your project."

"And I told you, you're not my project. Aside from that beach party my second night in Newport, I never stood up for you."

"What was today?"

Ryan cocked his head to the side. "Revenge." He tapped the wall. "Look, last year, the bullying stopped naturally once we started to hang out together."

Seth shrugged noncommittally.

Ryan stepped further into the room and swung Seth's computer chair so that it faced the bed before sitting on it. He leaned forward. "I thought of a plan."

Seth scooped Captain Oats in his hand. "What sort of plan? Because I'm not getting up on any coffee carts to profess — or rather to announce that I won't take the bullying anymore."

"Nothing like that. More like helping the rumors along. You know, the ones where everyone is speculating where I was the first few months of school."

Seth nodded. He knew what Ryan was talking about. He had heard the whispers in the hall and the restrooms. The rumors were wild. Ssome were pretty far out and some close to the truth. A few of the kids had asked him about it, but he had never bothered to respond. Ryan's life wasn't any of their business.

"What rumor did you want to spread?"

Ryan's mouth spread into a wide devilish grin. "I thought we would expound on my criminal record. Let everyone think I was doing time again in juvie. Maybe this time it could be for something violent."

Seth laughed.

"We could get Lindsay in on it and Summer, too."

Seth's eyes grew wide.

"What?" Ryan protested. "She knows a lot of people. And it seems like she and Lindsay have become friends."

"So your plan," Seth said, sliding his backside up against his headboard, "is to let everyone think you were in jail. Then when we start hanging out again at school, you figure Chip and his goons will be afraid to hurt me."

Ryan nodded. "It's simple."

"And stupid."

Both boys jumped at the sound of Sandy's voice.

"You are not going to ruin your reputation for this. It could backfire on you. If some overzealous parent hears this, they might try to get you kicked you out of Harbor."

"But it isn't true," Ryan objected. "They wouldn't – couldn't win."

"I don't want to go through the hassle." He bore a hole through Ryan with his eyes. Satisfied that Ryan looked penitent, he turned to Seth. "We'll come up with a solution. Mom and I aren't going to force you into court if you don't want to handle it that way."

"Good. Because I wouldn't have agreed to it."

Sandy sighed. "I know this his hard for you, but cut the attitude, Seth. It's not called for."

Seth nodded briefly but didn't apologize. He stood up and walked across the room and stopped in front of his CD collection. "Look, Dad, I appreciate that you and Mom want to help me. I know you just want what's best for me. But I really wish that you'd just leave me alone to deal with this. Really. You and Mom already tried to intervene and it just made a mess of everything."

Sandy sighed again. He hated seeing Seth so downtrodden and beaten. So resigned to just living with the bullying.

"It's just school, Dad. In two more years, I'll be out of Harbor. I can start over in college, and you know, who cares? In a few years, Saunders will be miserable working for his daddy, trying to please, and I'll be getting richer than Bill Gates. But most important, I'll be happy. I'll have my family."

Seth threw a quick look at Ryan over his shoulder and immediately turned his attention back to his CDs, trying to hide the color that was rushing to his face.

"I just can't leave it like this, Seth. Not when I know you're getting hurt. I'm sorry I didn't always know."

"Sandy," Ryan broke in, his soft voice delicately slicing through the tension in room. "Maybe for now we can do nothing. Let's see how it goes at school the next couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure things will be different if Seth and I stick together."

Sandy swiveled around to face Ryan. "I told you, I don't want you to start sending around ridiculous rumors about being in jail while you were really in Chino."

"And I promised you I wouldn't." Ryan retorted, using the same clipped tone that Sandy had used with him. "But everything you've done so far has made it worse for Seth, and everything you've proposed will definitely make it worse. Let's just try to do nothing for now."

Sandy leveled a finger at Ryan and then slowly moved it so that it pointed at Seth. "I know how the two of you can get when you team up. If I find out that you've decided to go through with this hair-brained scheme, you'll answer to your mother."

Ryan grinned, his lips spreading wide and his cheeks glowing. Seth turned around and moved to Ryan's side.

"Yes, sir," they chimed together.

Sandy narrowed his eyes, knowing that he was outnumbered and enjoying every moment of it.