I guess I need that 'I don't own the OC or any of the characters' thingy, don't I? But really, since the Season 1 Cohen+1 no longer exists, why can't I have them? Please? I'll play nicely with them. Sort of.
Still for annie35, still because she asked.

Oh, and before you say anything -- I know aspirin isn't good for Ryan to take. I know -- there is a reason for it, though.

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Ryan groaned as he slammed his hand down on the annoying alarm clock. He knew he had to get up early, shower, dress and get out of the house before the Cohens got up. He needed to stop by the drug store before school. Plus, if the continuously throbbing and stiffness that kept him up for the better part of the night were any indication, Ryan knew it would be difficult to walk without a limp.

Once again, pulling the bandage off caused his leg to bleed, and Ryan noticed that the bruises looked even darker and were now raised lumps. He once more showered the blood off but used toilet paper to dry off his leg, not wanting to ruin another bath towel.

He picked up the used bandage and tried to find a way to use it one last time. But upon closer inspection, he noticed that it was pretty dirty and too covered in blood to be of any use. For the second time that morning, he opted for toilet paper - this time to cover the wounds, using more strips from his wife beater to secure it in place.

The kitchen was still dark, but Ryan thought it was safer to walk around the house and down the driveway. He was clearly limping and didn't want to bump into anyone, like Sandy going out for an early morning surf.

By the time Ryan walked from the Cohens' to the pharmacy and then to school, he was tired, sore and seriously limping. He was also nauseous. Skipping breakfast and popping aspirin on an empty stomach made Ryan feel a whole lot worse. First he knew he needed to stop in the bathroom before he could get something to eat. He could feel the warm blood running down his leg into his sock through the toilet paper bandage. He sighed, adding new socks and possibly new jeans to the growing list of what he had to replace.

Once inside the bathroom stall however, Ryan realized he couldn't get his pant leg up over the raised bruises and swollen cuts. Even in a locked bathroom stall, Ryan knew there was no way he could pull his pants off. If someone were to come in, he'd be able to see Ryan's boots, socks and bare legs.

Ryan ran through some other alternatives. If he went to the nurse's office, he'd have to explain everything to her, and she would put it on his record. Ducking into the locker room meant running the risk of seeing the coach. If the coach saw Ryan trying to stop the bleeding with more bandages, then he would know the cuts were a bigger deal than Ryan let on the day before. That could very well mean getting benched again.

Frustrated and annoyed, Ryan stuffed the medical junk into his backpack and stormed to the student center. With an iced coffee to cool him down and a blueberry muffin to settle his stomach, Ryan sat on an empty couch, stuffing one of the school's pillows under his continuously throbbing leg.

Once settled, Ryan concentrated on the homework he hadn't finished from the day before. There was still an hour before his first class. If he stayed off his leg, the bleeding would stop and the throbbing wouldn't be so bad, making the rest of the day almost manageable.

Ryan grunted and then glared when Seth came in and proceeded to hit Ryan's leg as he plopped down next to him. "Mystery solved."

"What mystery?"

"Mystery of the missing Atwood."

"Seth…" Ryan was not in the mood and hoped his threatening tone would be enough to stop Seth. It wasn't.

"Seriously, Ryan. We all get up this morning. We all meet up in the kitchen. We all get our morning cup of caffeine. And we all await your grand appearance, but alas, no grand appearance. Dad checks the pool house but no Atwood. Now I'm under extremely strict orders to call as soon as I found you."

Seth pulled his cell phone from his pocket and handed it to Ryan. "Here. You call. Mom first and then Dad."

Ryan stared at Seth for a moment then at the cell phone, not sure if Seth was intentionally trying to annoy him or if he was simply exaggerating. "Why?"

"Because if you don't call, Mom will come here to look for you personally, and nothing ruins a rep more than having a 'rent come look for you."

"Seth, we don't have reps."

"And how can we improve that situation if you allow Mom to show up here?"

Seth smirked when his cell phone started to ring. "Ah, the Kirsten calls. I do believe it's for you."

Ryan didn't get much of his "hello" out before Kirsten started to talk.

"Ryan? Where are you?"

"School."

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. I, um, just wanted to get some studying done."

"Oh, okay. If you're sure…then, have a nice day, and I'll see you boys tonight at dinner. Call if you need anything."

Ryan hung up, trying to figure out if Kirsten was mad, irritated or relieved. He didn't get a chance to ask Seth when the cell phone started to ring in his hand again. It was Sandy.

"Hey, kid. So I guess Seth found you."

"Yeah, sorry. I'm at school."

Sandy chuckled. "Don't be sorry to be at school. We just didn't know where you took off to so early. Maybe next time you could leave a note."

"'Kay. Sorry."

"No problem. Call if you need anything. Bye."

Ryan handed the phone back to Seth. Since it didn't appear that either Cohen was mad at him for leaving early, he tried to go back to studying. Seth had other ideas. "So we're safe from a 'rent raid?"

"Yeah."

"And you really disappeared this morning because…?"

"To study."

Ryan kept his face down in the book, hoping Seth really would take the hint and leave him alone. He didn't.

"Come on, you really need to study here? What's wrong with home?"

"Well, you weren't here. I could study."

"So you're saying you can't study at home because of me?" Seth tried to joke. "Ryan, I'm wounded! How could you say that?"

"Am I getting any studying done now that you're here?" Ryan knew it was a hurtful thing to say but at the moment, it was how he felt. He wasn't in a joking mood and was clearly becoming annoyed.

Seth, however, didn't seem hurt. He hopped over the back of the coach, slapped Ryan on the shoulder and said, "Point taken. So then I guess I'll leave and let you get back to studying. I'll catch up with you later."

As Ryan watched Seth go, he couldn't help but feel guilty. Guilty that he told Seth he left early to get away from him. Guilty that for some reason it bothered Kirsten and Sandy that he left early. Just so damn guilty.

Somehow, Ryan managed to make it through the day. His leg still throbbed almost continuously, and he had to duck into the bathroom to take more aspirin every couple of hours. It was hard to walk without a limp, but the few times he caught himself, no one else seemed to notice or care.

It helped that Ryan had very little trouble avoiding Seth, but it made him wonder if Seth wasn't trying to avoid him as well. Ryan figured it would be better not to wait until they were home to apology. Besides, he needed an excuse to be late for soccer practice.

Seth was in the parking lot and only stared as Ryan approached. He didn't look mad, but he wasn't saying anything either.

He waited for Ryan to talk first. "Look, about before, I'm sorry. For what I said. You know, this morning."

Seth continued to stare at Ryan, still not saying anything and again waiting for Ryan to talk. "It's just… It gets kinda hard to keep up sometimes, with soccer. Games. Practices. You know."

Again, Ryan got nothing from Seth so he had to stumble on. "It's just… your parents paid a lot of money for me to come here. I don't want to disappoint them."

It wasn't until Seth shrugged his shoulders that Ryan realized he wasn't mad about the morning, but there was definitely something on Seth's mind.

Finally Seth said, "I heard the game was really rough."

At first Ryan could only manage an "Um…" as he waited for Seth to say something else.

When Seth didn't, it was Ryan's turn to shrug his shoulders. "Not too bad."

"Yeah? You sure?" It didn't sound like Seth was even remotely convinced, and that made Ryan uneasy.

"Yeah. Look, I gotta go. I'm already late for practice. See you at home."

Seth merely waved as he watched Ryan jog back towards the school, figuring if Ryan was able to run and go to practice than what he heard the jocks talking about earlier must have been grossly exaggerated.

By the time Ryan got to the boy's locker room, he was sweating profusely, and his leg felt as if it was on fire. He had no idea how he was going to make it through practice.

About all Ryan could be relieved about was that since he was late for practice, there was no one in the locker room. He would finally get the chance to replace the morning's toilet paper dressing with some real gauze.

He shouldn't have been surprised by the look of the back of his leg, but he was. The angry looking raised purple bruises, the even angrier deep red gashes that were hot to the touch, the little bits of toilet paper stuck to the oozing wounds. Definitely worse than even he imagined.

Ryan limped over to the showers with the bottle of peroxide and poured it down the back of his leg. It fizzed and bubbled and burned, but Ryan knew he had little choice. He gritted his teeth and poured more over the cuts. It burned again, but Ryan knew as long as he continued to clean it with peroxide, the infection shouldn't get any worse.

He used one of the school's towels to dry off before carefully covering his calf with the gauze and medical tape. He decided to stuff the towel into his backpack, figuring he could use it at home instead of Kirsten's expensive ones.

Ryan dressed quickly, swallowed four aspirin and got out to the soccer field as quickly as he could. He was able to limp while still in the locker room, but he know once he got out on the field with everyone else, he'd have to suck it up and not let anyone see him in pain.

The rest of the team was already scrimmaging, and Ryan was about to join them when he heard the coach's booming voice. "Atwood!"

Ryan was apologizing even before he finished jogging over to him. "Sorry I'm late, coach. I…"

The coach cut him off, not bothering to wait for his excuse. "Got your note?"

"Um…note?"

"Your doctor's note, Atwood. Where is it?"

"I, ah…" Ryan tried to think of a lie but could only come up with, "I haven't seen the doctor yet."

"Then I can't let you practice. Not until the doctor clears you. Sit on the bench and watch."

As Ryan was once again benched, his thoughts swirled around in his head. He couldn't play until he saw a doctor? But where was he going to find a doctor? He couldn't even remember the name of the guy Kirsten took him to for his sports physical, not that Ryan could afford the guy. He doubted there were free clinics in Newport – not like Chino.

By the time Ryan hobbled home from soccer practice, he finally decided his best bet would be to tell the Cohens what happened. He hoped they wouldn't be too upset that he once again got himself in trouble, but he honestly did not know what else to do. This wasn't Chino. He couldn't go to the free clinic down the street where no one knew or cared whom he was or how he was hurt or ever expected payment.

He waited in the pool house until he heard someone call him for dinner. Ryan had hoped Sandy would be home first. Sandy was much easier to talk to and would let Ryan know right away if he was disappointed in Ryan's conduct. Kirsten tended to just stare at him, and he was never sure what she was thinking.

But it was Kirsten who was home, and Kirsten who was calling him to dinner. Sandy didn't come in until after they were already sitting at the table.

It was clear from the moment Sandy walked in that something was going on between the Cohens. Ryan looked from Kirsten to Sandy and back to Kirsten. He didn't know what was going on, but there was obvious tension between them. The few things that were said came in short questions, clipped responses or one-word answers.

The tension increased when Kirsten reminded Sandy that they had the Newport Environmental Conservation Dinner the next night, and they were expected to join her father at the club at 7:00pm sharp.

Sandy then reminded Kirsten that it would be extremely difficult to be seen hanging out with the defendant in his latest case, causing Kirsten to snap, "Are you talking about just my father, or does that mean me, too?"

She left the table without an answer from Sandy, but not before letting the boys know that they did not have to come to the dinner if they didn't want to. The way she said it meant that neither boy was expected to want to go or even invited to go.

It definitely was not the time to tell either one of them that he had trouble the day before.

Ryan took the phone book from the kitchen drawer and made his way out to the pool house after everyone had gone – Sandy left for his office; Kirsten went to hers, and Seth went upstairs, seemingly indifferent to his parents' fight.

As he scanned the yellow pages, he was surprised to find that there was a clinic down on the pier. If he couldn't go to soccer practice after school, he might as well go down to the clinic then. He'd be able to get the note to the coach before Monday's game, and that way if Kirsten or Sandy did manage to make the game, Ryan would be playing.

Before going to bed that night, Ryan again cleaned the cuts with peroxide, changed the gauze and was happy to see some of the swelling was going down. It still looked somewhat infected and was still bleeding every time he pulled off the bandage, but once Ryan got it checked out at the clinic, it would be okay.

The next morning, Ryan didn't try to leave early. He didn't want to risk freaking the Cohens out again, and he wasn't really limping all that much. The infection didn't look like it had gotten any worse and the throbbing had subsided to a dull ache.

He was relieved to see Kirsten and Sandy acting like the loving couple he was used to seeing. Even with Seth's "Ew, gross!" comments, it didn't bother Ryan knowing that the Cohens had obviously made up during the night.

Not only did they apparently make up, but sometime during the night, they decided to have a couples only Saturday at the Spa that further kicked up Seth's EW! response and made both Cohen parents smile and laugh.

Ryan made it through the school day with few problems. His leg was still bothering him, but he knew that was because of the infection. It wasn't a new feeling to him, and he knew the clinic would be able to give him something a little stronger than the peroxide – probably an antibiotic that Ryan hoped wasn't too expensive.

Unfortunately, a Newport clinic was nothing like the one in Chino. It wasn't a clinic at all. Nope – it turned to be yet another private doctor's office.

The receptionist behind the desk was not happy to see Ryan walk in without an appointment and immediately demanded identification from him. The fake id he had from Chino had been confiscated in juvie, so Ryan tried to tell her he forgot his wallet. She then demanded to know how old he was, and openly laughed when he said eighteen. She finally told him without identification, a parent or guardian, proof of insurance or money, Ryan would not be seen by anyone in their facility.

Ryan weighed his options as he walked home. He couldn't tell Sandy or Kirsten when they got home – they had their fundraiser that night. He couldn't tell them in the morning – they had their couples only day. He would either have to wait until Sunday or… wait… their couples only day meant they would both be gone all day, together, in one car. Ryan could take the other car and go down to the Chino clinic. He didn't want to wait until Sunday to get his leg looked at. The infection wasn't that bad, but Ryan knew the sooner it was looked at, the better the chances that it wouldn't get any worse. A doctor was still a doctor, whether from Newport or from Chino.

Once he made it back to the pool house, he cleaned out the cuts again, put clean bandages on it, and headed for the house. He and Seth decided on pizza and play station as Sandy joked about feeling ill, only to have Kirsten drag him from the house.

It was good to see them still getting along, and it was really good to put his leg up, grab some pizza and kick Seth's butt at Play Station. Having everything planned out, knowing that he didn't have to bother either Cohen or interrupt any of their plans made Ryan feel better than he had since the game from hell.