"Ryan? Ryan can you hear me?" A voice was saying. Slowly Ryan opened his eyes and the world above him, full of bright lights came into view.

"What? Who are you? Where's Kirsten?"

"Thatta boy, gave your mom a bit of a scare when you wouldn't wake up," The man dressed in green said, he was holding a light over Ryan's eyes.

"Can you tell her I'm okay?" Ryan asked, following the light being flashed over his face with his eyes.

"Of course," The man dressed in green smiled down at him, but Ryan was too tired to smile back.

"So young man, what happened?"

"I dunno... I remember some guys showing up at my house, I guess they were EMT's... And then the next thing I knew, I was here..." Ryan mumbled, his eyes already sliding shut, his body craving sleep.

"I'm sorry young man, but I can't allow you to do that." The doctor told him gently, "And I was asking how you hurt your knee,"

"Oh right... I was skiing, and I fell. It hit the ice pretty hard."

"If you had to rate the pain, on a scale of one to ten? One being a twinge ten being the worst pain you've ever felt in your life..."

"I've taken some stuff, but it's been really bad..."

"What did you take?"

"I dunno, the doctor gave me some, I think it was called Vicodin,"

"Well, that explains the drowsiness... Judging from the x-rays the other hospital sent us, it looks like you probably twisted it slightly on your way down, and then when it hit the ground in that twisted position it fractured. I want to do another round of pictures, because I'm seeing deformation that isn't in the early e-rays and then we're gonna do an MRI, okay? Just to make sure there's no ligament damage." Ryan sighed, and wanted to cry, his knee hurt, he was exhausted and he just wanted to go home.

"Can Kirsten come?" He pleaded, struggling to push himself upright on his elbows. He noticed there was an IV line in his arm.

"I'll send her in to say hi, but then we need to get moving." Ryan nodded and lay back down.

"No sleeping now, okay?" The doctor warned.

"Right," Ryan promised, struggling to keep his eye open.

"Hi Sweetie," Kirsten's soft voice was by his side moments later, her hand gently brushing his forhead.

"Hi," He said tiredly.

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired and my knee hurts,"

"I know, I'm sorry... Do you want something for the pain?" Ryan shook his head,

"It'll just put me to sleep."

"I was worried about you, when they couldn't wake you up in the ambulance,"

"I'm sorry, I was just really tired."

"Don't be sorry, I'm just glad you're okay. The doctor said it was probably just exhaustion, pain and dehydration. Once we get you home, you can get plenty of rest."

"Couldn't get to a bed at the lodge... Couch was really uncomfortable but it hurt to much to move..." An orderly appeared.

"I'm sorry Ms Cohen, but I need to taken Ryan now."

"I'll see you as soon as your done," Kirsten gave him a kiss on the forehead and then Ryan felt the wheels underneath him start moving as the bed he was lying on was brought to the xray lab.

Left alone, Kirsten immediatly dialed Seth. "Hi Mom, how's Ryan?" He asked when he answered the phone.

"I had to take him back to the hospital," Kirsten told him, her voice was flat.

"Oh..."

"Seth, how could you not have told me how bad it was?"

"Mom, he seemed fine, really!"

"How can you say that? Seth, were you paying any attention to him at all?" Kirsten was very annoyed, at Seth, at the world. Okay, maybe Seth didn't know but if Ryan had looked even half as bad when he was at the lodge, Seth should have known something was wrong! And he was dehydrated and he had admitted how little he had slept, in part because he hadn't been able to get to a bed. He hadn't had anything to drink because he had been afraid of having to go pee.

"I was Mom! But he kept insisting he was fine!" Seth argued. Kirsten could hear the guilt in his voice.

"We'll talk about this when you get home. Are you leaving tonight?"

"Uh... We were gonna stay another day..."

"What?"

"Well, it's been kind of a rough trip so we were thinking one more day of skiing maybe..."

"Seth Cohen, you get in that car and you start driving. Ryan is in the hospital! You need to be here..."

"Right, got it Mom..." Seth said, sounding like a pouty child. Kirsten clicked her phone off angrily. It was good that Seth had a brother- maybe he would learn what it meant to think about someone besides himself.

"Hey guys," Seth slid his phone back into his pocket. "That was mom, I gotta go home."

"What? Why?" Oliver groaned. "I was just feeling better and I wanted to actually go skiing!"

"Well, Ryan's in the hopsital and my mom thinks I need to be there..."

"He's in the hospital, why?" Marissa asked, looking up anxiously.

"Oh, I don't know- maybe because he has a broken leg?" Seth suggested, he had just suffered through the guilt, now it was time to pass it around.

Oliver sighed, "He already went to the hospital, your mom is just overreacting."

"Well, if his mom wants him to come home, then he needs to go." Anna came to his rescue.

"Right, I need to go..." Seth dejectedly wandered back to his bedroom and started packing.