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Chapter 3: Suspicion aroused

The first thing Seth did once his lunch with Dr. Roberts was finally over was to take in a slow, deep breath. He fought the feeling that his legs were going to turn into jelly, and let the grin shine on his face instead.

He'd gotten Dr. Roberts' blessing.

Actually, he hadn't just gotten the man's blessing, but he'd gotten his assurance that Summer would be insane not to say yes. It was the best endorsement Seth could ask for, and showed the great progress he had made since his first meeting with the man.

Now, he could ask Summer… Wait, no his father first, then Summer. Or maybe he should also—

"Seth? Seth, my otter-souled friend? Is that you?"

The voice had sounded familiar, but it was the word "otter" that had truly caught Seth's attention. His eyes widened as he turned toward the sound. There was no way it could possibly…

But there he was. Before Seth could even find his voice to answer, he was wrapped in Che's arms as the burly man gripped him in a vice hold and shook him from one side to the other.

"Seth. What are you doing here, my brother?"

"Having lunch."

"That's beautiful," Che told him, with a slowly, pensive shake of the head. He pulled away from Seth, but kept his hands on the man's shoulders. "That's just wonderful."

"What are you doing here, Che?" Seth asked as he looked Che over quickly. The tattered chinos, the faded shirt, the messy hair… It wasn't exactly up to the restaurant's dress code.

"I was also partaking in the food of this establishment."

"Really? You weren't freeing the lobsters, or setting loose the poultry or anything like that?"

Che wrapped his arm around Seth's shoulder and led him away from the restaurant. "I have reached a truce with my parents which obligates me to not do that when we're dining out together. It's a big demand on their part, but they don't eat meat in return, so we call it even."

"Great." Seth nodded.

Che grinned, nodding his head as well. He moved them along the sidewalk and through the crowd of people.

"Now, Seth, I was about to head out on a mission. A weekend with my parents always warrants a cleansing mission of some sort." Che pointed violently in Seth's direction, keeping the man close with the help of the arm he still had wrapped around Seth's shoulder. "Are you willing to join me?"

"A mission, huh?"

"Yes."

Seth looked around them, checked his watch, and contemplated his options. He could go with Che, risk imprisonment, bodily harm, a number of diseases and bites from countless animals; or he could ask Summer to marry him and risk the chance that she say no and break his heart into a million little pieces.

Seth shrugged and stopped offering the tiny bit of resistance he'd been giving Che's tugs at his shoulder. "Sure. I'm not in a hurry."

Summer was going to kill him.

Ryan groaned as he rolled over on the bed. He should have been expecting it. He should be expecting it every night for a number of upcoming weeks. If Seth was on the cusp of something as major as asking Summer to marry him, Ryan should be prepared to be woken every morning at an ungodly hour to listen to the boy complain and whine about everything that could go wrong but most probably wouldn't.

Without even bothering to open his eyes, Ryan reached out his arm and groped blindly until he made contact with the ringing object. He managed to turn it on without moving his head.

"Stop worrying. Summer loves you. Everything's fine."

"What?"

He froze.

"Summer?"

"Ryan?"

"What time is it?" Ryan asked, suddenly awake and sitting up in bed.

"I don't know. I don't even know what state I'm in, so time difference is beyond me. Did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but don't—"

"Well, you're up now," Summer dismissed. "What did Seth do?"

"About what?"

"Don't play coy with me, Atwood. I haven't been able to reach him all day, and when I finally call his brother to see what's up, you answer with something about how everything will work out because I love him and all that crap. What did he do?"

Ryan scooted up against the pillow, rubbing his eyes as he tried to wake himself. Talking with Seth early in the morning wasn't a problem, because it only required listening on his part. He barely ever had a chance to sneak a word in the conversation. Talking with Summer, however… that actually necessitated participation on his part.

"He didn't do anything."

"Ryan…"

"He's just being Seth. He's excited that you guys are going to be in the same town for more than two seconds soon, and he's just freaking out about how he can make that perfect."

There was a pause on the line, and Ryan winced as he hoped Summer was buying his story.

"You're lying," she finally said.

"Summer…"

"And with Taylor around to put doubts in my head—"

Ryan's back straightened quickly and his half opened eyes suddenly widened, fully awake. "Wait, what?"

He could hear her sputtering over the line as she tried to recover. "In my head. I said doubts in my head."

"You said Taylor and around. Is Taylor around?"

"When you say around…"

"In the country, Summer. Answer the question."

Summer sighed loudly over the line. "Yeah, all right. Taylor's back. She's going to her cousin's baby shower, and she's trying to decide whether she's going to stay around afterward, or go back to Europe."

"Hmm."

"That's all you've got to say about it?"

"Yeah."

Summer rolled her eyes and stopped herself from letting out another angry sigh. "Well at least you're both on the same page."

Ryan cleared his throat as he shifted under the covers. "She didn't have anything to say about me?"

"Nope."

"Well…" He nodded a few times though Summer couldn't see him. "Okay."

"Yeah, that's that unless you're planning on actually taking a break during your study week and maybe heading out to Kansas to see her."

"I'm studying."

"Right. Studying…" Summer shook her head. She stopped, however, when she noticed the pile of papers in front of her and realised she couldn't quite remember the last time she had taken a break either. "Well, when you eventually talk to Seth, please tell him to call me no matter what he did. I'll be mad at him later. Right now I just need to hear his voice to get me through the next few days."

"Crazy?"

"I didn't realise how hard trying to teach someone to be me could be."

Ryan squinted at her voice. She did sound tired. Tired and something else… "You sure that's it?"

"Well, I mean, it's not like anyone's making it easy on me to lea— You know what, just have Seth call me, please. I should let you get back to sleep." She paused, trying to think of some way to apologize since none of this was really Ryan's fault and he did have a right to his sleep. "I hope I didn't wake your roommate."

"That guy? He started study break a month ago and probably won't be back from Mexico for a while. Besides, you could walk a marching band through this place and he'd sleep through it."

"That's… That's weird, Ryan."

"At least he's not sleeping with everyone on campus."

"Yes, but I only had to live with my roommate part of a semester, Ryan. You've been with this guy what, three, four years now?"

"I know. There are times when I even miss Seth."

Summer felt a smile tug at her lips. It sounded like something she would say. "Sweet. Anyway, just have him call me."

"Will do. Night, Summer."

"Night."

He stayed sitting up in bed with the phone loosely hanging from his fingers even after he'd heard her hang up. He wasn't sure what about the conversation with Summer was bothering him the most, and before he could dedicate much thought to it, the phone was ringing again.

"Yeah?"

"What kind of greeting is that? That's how you answer your phone? Are you awake?"

"Summer wants you to call her."

"Is she mad?" Seth asked without even entirely processing Ryan's comment.

"No. I think she just misses you. She wants to hear your voice."

"That's…" Seth took a deep breath as he thought about it. "That's worrying. I don't think I've had one of those calls since her first few months with GEORGE."

"Yeah, well, she saw Taylor, so… yeah."

"What does seeing Taylor have to do with anything?"

"I don't know." Ryan paused for a moment, wondering why exactly he had mentioned his ex-girlfriend. Finally, he simply shook his head. "How were things with her father?"

"Great. I got his blessing and then some."

"Good. So you're done worrying."

Seth laughed. "We've met right?"

"So what are you worrying about now?"

"Actually, my dear friend Ryan, the worrying had to be put on hold for the time being."

Ryan stopped his hand which had been smoothing the sheets around him. He could feel his features freezing in place in fear of what Seth had managed to get himself into now. "Why?"

"I ran into an old friend."

"Taylor?"

Seth shook his head as he looked amazedly around him. "Ryan, are you willing to talk about you and Taylor yet?"

"No."

"Then stop bringing her up. No, man, I ran into Che."

"Che?"

"Summer's friend Che."

"Uh. And you said hi and moved along quickly?" Ryan asked, squeezing his eyes shut.

"No, Ryan. He's recruited me for a mission."

"Seth, the last time you and Che went on a mission, you ended up in jail for the night."

"Hey, it wasn't all bad. Che got to meet his soul mate."

"Is the soul mate with you?"

Seth scoffed. "No, they broke up."

"Seth," Ryan sighed as he got out of bed and started gathering clothes around his room. He put a hand to his forehead as he looked around the room. "Where are you?"

"On our way to Canada."

"Where are you exactly? I'm coming to see you."

There was a good chance that if she tugged at her shirt one more time, the hem would come undone and the material that was covering her top half would simply unravel. Despite knowing this was a distinct possibility, she couldn't stop the nervous movement of her fingers. Even after having made a life of her own for years, spending time with her mother still made Taylor nervous, and a nervous Taylor was never good, especially not for Taylor herself.

"Taylor, stop playing with your shirt. It might not be the greatest top there is, but it's hiding the baby fat you've never been able to lose."

"Hi, mom."

Veronica nodded as she moved her head to better contemplate her daughter. "You look well. Healthy. Everything is going well, I assume?"

"Everything's great." Taylor managed to squeeze out a smile for her mother. At least there was that.

Since the earthquake scare both women had come to understand that though they were completely incapable of expressing any emotions, they did care for one another and one another's safety as much as family members should. Everything else about their relationship was fairly the same with the added bonus that Taylor's mother insisted on hanging over her daughter's head the fact that she had stooped so low as to date a boy who had scraped his way out of Chino's woodwork.

"I was hoping you would wear black. Black is slimming and you wear it well."

"I look horrible in black," Taylor contradicted. "Besides, who cares? It's a baby shower. There's nothing but family here."

"Get with the times," Veronica told her as she moved across the room, grabbing a glass of champagne on a tray a waiter was floating by her. "It's the new modern family. These are joint affairs now. The husband attends, as do his friends. Even his single friends."

"All right, mother. I get it. You're not being very subtle."

"It's not a Townsend trait, dear. Now, let me introduce you to someone."

"I actually want to see Nicolette. I came all the way from Europe because she asked me to—"

Veronica sighed and rolled her eyes as she reached back for Taylor's hand. "It's her shower. She isn't going anywhere, Taylor. You'll have time to see her later. I—on the other hand—am not going to last very long. The men are too young, even for me, and the alcohol is never strong enough to keep me interested."

"That's charming, mother."

Taylor let her mother drag her along by the wrist. Once they had crossed the large room, Veronica stopped. It was only then that Taylor guessed why they where there.

"Taylor, this is Patrick. He's single. Good luck."

And then she left. She left Taylor standing awkwardly in front of a chubby man whose shirt was straining to stay closed and which was slightly stained. Patrick smiled up at her awkwardly, and quickly looked down as soon as their eyes made contact. Taylor worked her mouth open and closed for a few moments as she tried to find the best way to excuse herself.

"I… I have to go," she finally simply stuttered, all but running away from the man. Luckily, she only had to take a few steps before she met the only person she really wanted to see. "Nicolette!"

"Taylor! You made it. Fantastic." Nicolette grabbed her cousin's arm and moved her away from the crowd. "I just saw your mother leave the room, so you don't have to worry about her. I don't think she's going to be making another appearance."

"Unless it's to check up on me," Taylor sighed.

"Well, it's just for a few days, and then you're off again to Paris or London or whatever other wonderful location is your home for the moment. Just keep that in mind."

"Except…"

"Taylor?"

Taylor sighed as she took a look around the room at all the people joined together to celebrate her cousin's pregnancy. She lowered her eyes, but couldn't avoid the sight of the large hump that was now her cousin's stomach. She forced a smile onto her lips and looked up with exaggerated happiness.

"You know what? We'll talk about it later."

"Are you sure?" Nicolette asked, already distracted by the people waving and calling to her.

"Absolutely. Come on. Let's go hear what the latest gossip is."

"All right," Nicolette laughed.

Taylor smiled as she led her cousin toward the nearest group of women, but stopped quickly when she heard her phone ring.

"Oh, who…" her smile faded as she looked down at the caller ID. "You know what? I really have to take this. Go ahead and I'll join you in a minute."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah." Taylor shooed her cousin away with her hand. Once she was sure the woman was out of earshot, she flipped her phone open and pressed it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Cohen?" Summer asked as she answered her telephone. She was beyond looking at the caller ID, afraid that it would somehow prevent the number from being the one she longed to see.

"Sorry, it's just me."

Summer smiled despite her disappointment and shuffled in her seat to find a more comfortable position. "Hi, daddy."

"How are you doing, sweetheart?"

"I'm good. How are you?"

"Great. Are you waiting for Seth to call? Is this a bad time?"

Summer sighed as she shifted again. She'd been on the bus for over three hours now, and she simply couldn't wait for the next stop. Everyone else around her was sleeping, but without having heard from Seth in over twenty-four hours, she couldn't manage to find any rest of her own despite her best efforts.

"No. I just haven't heard from him in a while and I was hoping this was finally him."

"Oh." There was a pause on the line. "Well, you know Seth. He's probably just excited that he's finally got a date for when you'll be home with him, and he's letting himself get nervous."

"That was old Seth, dad. I thought we'd passed that."

Her father laughed over the line. "That boy is as in love with you now as he was the first time you called him by his real name. I don't think he'll ever be passed getting excited to see you."

"Let's hope so."

"But I called to talk about you. I already know all about Seth."

Summer sat up quickly at the words. "You do?"

"Sure." Neil coughed, clearing his throat. "We talk on the phone every now and then, whenever he misses you but feels he's annoyed you enough recently. If he can't talk to you, apparently talking about you with someone who loves you as much as he does is good enough."

"Well, when did you last talk?"

Again, her father hesitated. "I can't say I remember the last time he called me."

"Have you been able to reach him in the last few days?"

"I haven't tried to call Seth, Summer. I haven't had any reason to worry about him or call him."

"Right."

Neil bit his lip as he tried to stop himself from laughing at his daughter and having to think up even more ways of evading her questions without actually lying to her. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for his absence. But that's not why I called."

"I'm sorry. You're right."

"You sound tired, sweetie."

"Yeah," Summer sighed. "It's just a lot of work getting people ready for me to leave. I never realized how much I did until I had to show someone else how to do it."

"You're an important part of the team, Summer, but they have to understand that you can't live on a bus for the rest of your life and let GEORGE be all that you are. You have family and you have friends. You have a life to live as well."

"Yeah. It's just not that easy for these people to understand that sometimes, I guess."

"You're all right, though?"

Summer swallowed to stop her voice from cracking. She could feel the tears starting to prick her eyes, and blinked to stop any of them from falling. The last thing she wanted to do was worry her father when he was miles away and couldn't do anything to make her feel better, short of hunting Cohen down and making sure he finally called her.

"I'm okay. You're right, though. I am tired."

"Then you should get some sleep."

"Yeah."

"Call me tomorrow after you've gotten your rest."

"Okay," Summer agreed with one last loud breath.

"Good night. Love you."

"Love you, too."

She hung up the phone and let her head rest against the cool window of the bus, all too aware that she wasn't going to fall asleep until she was absolutely exhausted, or she heard Seth's voice.

"Seth?" Matthew asked her, peeking over the seat in front of her own.

"No. It was my father. I didn't wake you, did I?"

He shook his head and waved his hand to dismiss the thought. "So you still haven't heard from Seth, huh?"

"No. How did you even know that I was waiting to hear from him?"

"Small bus." Matthew shrugged.

Summer narrowed her eyes. Sure it was a small bus and there was no way of keeping a secret on the GEORGE team, but she couldn't remember having talked to anyone about missing Seth before the conversation she'd just had with her father. Summer shook her head, realising just how much sleep she must be needing if she couldn't even remember conversations she'd had earlier that day.

"But hey, I'm sure you'll hear from him at any moment, right?"

"Yeah. He'll probably call me as soon as he figures out the time difference between us." She moved her legs up so she could ball up on her side in the seat and find an almost comfortable position. "Night."

"Yeah. Good-night."

"So did your surprise visitor eventually reveal the reason for her presence in our normally serene household?" Sandy asked as he folded his pants to put them away for the night.

"She maintains that she was simply feeling lonely in that big house of hers with everyone gone for the week."

"So, remind me again. She's dating Frank or the Bullet?"

"She's dating Frank, she's working with Bullet. Or was working with Bullet…" Kirsten shook her head as she threw the sheets back to settle down for the night. "I don't know what they'll decide to do with New Match next month when Julie graduates and can start working in marketing probably wherever she wants."

"You think the Bullet's finally going to get the gun?"

"No. Kaitlin still adores him and apparently he and Frank are getting along great. Golfing and everything. I don't think he'll be going too far even if Julie would never date him again and if he never wanted to take up my half of the business when I left New Match."

"And she couldn't go to him with her loneliness this week?" Sandy asked as he slipped in to bed next to his wife.

"Sandy…"

"I'm just saying it's suspicious."

"A lot of what's going on these days is suspicious," Kirsten told him as she turned to shut off her bedside lamp. She kept her back to her husband as she sunk into her pillow.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

"Kirsten, are you seriously trying to tell me that you believe Julie Cooper-Nichol is only here for your companionship?"

"I'm saying," Kirsten said as she turned to face her husband, "that if you're so suspicious about it, you should do your own investigative reporting. If you want to know why she's here, you get it out of her."

"Maybe I will," Sandy told her with a determined nod and a kiss on the nose. He pulled away from his wife and narrowed his eyes when he wasn't met with the smile or content look that would usually adorn Kirsten's face when they were getting ready for bed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Sandy," Kirsten told him in a determined voice as she shifted in bed again so she wouldn't have to face him.

"Because you would tell me if anything was wrong, right?"

"As much as you would."

Sandy paused for a moment as his eyes travelled his wife's body. He took a deep breath and smiled before leaning in for another kiss.

"Good."

"Great."

"Now," Sandy continued as he pulled Kirsten against him. "Since Julie is your friend, maybe you should offer me some kind of reward if I can find out from her what exactly it is she's doing here."

"A reward, huh?"

"Absolutely. You do want to know what's wrong with her, don't you?"

"I'm all out of the party favours we gave Sophie's friends last week," Kirsten sighed.

"What? You have no more of the marbles or the toy cars or the crayons?"

"All out," Kirsten said with a shrug of her shoulders as she bit back her smile.

"Hmm… Well, what else could you possibly give me as a reward? Let me think…"

Sandy's eyes rolled away from his wife in thought as his hands wandered under the sheet to find her body. He played with the hem of her top until he could reach the skin beneath, and dropped his head to nuzzle her neck.

"I think I've found—"

"Hey, you two."

Kirsten and Sandy jumped as their door swung open and Julie suddenly appeared in front of them. The couple broke apart, though Sandy kept one hand against Kirsten, ready to pull her back the moment he felt it was safe to do so.

"I just wanted to thank you again for taking me in this week. It's so nice to have somewhere to go when that big house of mine is empty. I really do appreciate it." She stood there, watching them, waiting for something… Finally, when they still hadn't said anything after a few moments, her smile widened. "Well, I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Sandy…"

Sandy nodded his head as Julie wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Once the door was closed behind her, he turned unimpressed eyes toward Kirsten.

"The sooner you find out what the problem is, the sooner we can help and she'll be gone."

"I'll start tomorrow," Sandy told his wife with a sigh. "First thing."

Ryan sighed as he looked around the airport. He hated planes. He hated heights and he therefore hated planes. He was especially uncomfortable jumping on a flight that happened to have some extra empty seats on it, but he wasn't about to let Seth run away to Canada and get arrested. He especially wasn't going to let any such thing happen when stopping Seth would offer the perfect distraction from the thoughts of Taylor that refused to leave his mind.

He sighed again as he tried to figure out the fastest way to the ticket counter.

"Ryan!"

He looked up in surprise at the sound of his name. His eyes widened as he saw Kaitlin rushing toward him, bag in her hand and boy in tow.

"Kaitlin?"

"How did you know I was coming?" she asked as she looped her arm around his and started guiding them toward the exit.

"I didn't. I'm on my way to see Seth."

"Seth? You can see Seth any time. How often do you get to see me, huh, Ryan? Don't you think you can make a little time for me?"

Ryan shook his head as he let her lead him along. "Seth's about to let Che bring him to Canada for some sort of secret mission."

"Wow. Well, Summer's going to kill him for even thinking about that, so there's really no point in you getting involved now since you're too late anyway."

"Okay, so, why are you here?"

"I'm visiting you," she told him in a high, chipper voice.

"Why?"

"Can't a girl just visit her kind of brother?"

"Kaitlin," Ryan warned in an icy voice as he stopped moving.

She sighed, her hand still gripping his arm and helping her turn around to face him. "Fine. I need your help."

"With what, exactly?"

"With Colin." Kaitlin smiled and waved toward the man who had been following them. "This is Colin."

"Colin," Ryan nodded. He turned his attention back to Kaitlin. "What about Colin?"

"He's my husband."

"Kaitlin," Ryan sneered.

Kaitlin lifted her left hand so Ryan could see the ring on her finger.

"My husband," she repeated. "So, how do we get to your dorm room?"

"I really have to start avoiding you Cooper women," Ryan muttered as he let Kaitlin drag him toward the nearest taxi.