Wow, over 60 reviews! Thanks so much everyone.

Here's the next chapter. Though not everything (in fact not much) is found in this chapter, revelation of what Sandy is up to is soon to come.

Chapter 12: On the way

Summer growled at the papers spread out in front of her, cursing the report that was missing from the pile. She was sure she had it with her when they left the hotel. She had checked twice the night before to make sure it was in her bag. Now, here she was with her butt on the floor of the coach bus and papers flying around her, unable to find the projected budget report.

She growled again.

"Problems, princess?"

Summer rolled her eyes without looking up from the task at hand. "A little busy here, Matthew."

"What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm looking for the budget report for this afternoon's meeting and it's hiding really well."

"Oh, I have that."

"What?" Summer asked, dropping the papers she'd been holding.

"I grabbed it from your bag when you rushed off for your coffee at the last stop."

"You…" She took a deep breath to stifle the words that were trying to make their way out of her mouth. "Can you pass them back to me?"

"I need them."

"No, I need them to get ready for this afternoon's meeting. I'm the one who's talking about the budget at the meeting. I think I need it slightly more than you do."

"Yeah," Matthew sighed as he got up from the seat he'd taken next to her. "You're not talking at today's meeting."

"What?"

"You're not going to be speaking at today's meeting. Actually, you're not even going to be attending."

Summer reached out and grabbed Matthew's leg. She tugged quickly until he lost his balance and fell on his ass, brining him to her height. He shifted awkwardly between the rows of seats.

"What?"

"I didn't want to be the one to tell you this, Summer—"

"Like hell you didn't."

"But," Matthew continued as though she had never spoken, "there seems to be a problem with the numbers. Your replacement noticed it while working on the books. There's money missing and while no one wants to accuse you, you're the one who worked most closely with the numbers—"

"Since last month when Jeffrey left."

"And while we're all sure you had nothing to do with this. I'm afraid we can't let you continue working on the budget until your name is cleared."

"What?"

"Hey, look at it this way," Matthew reached out and patted her shoulder, quickly taking his hand away when he noticed the fire in her eyes. "You get to go back to Sean quicker."

"Seth."

He shrugged. "You get to run home to your fiancé—without a job or a reference, or anything to show for the last years of your life since you won't want to mention past employment that is looking into the possibility that you stole from them—but home. It's not like you needed a reference to become a desperate housewife anyway, right?"

"Listen here," Summer told him as she grabbed his collar and pulled him closer to her face. "You aren't going to get away with this. You and I both know that I didn't play with the numbers, if anyone even did for that matter. And I don't care if this has to go Townsend and Dean Hess or Veronica's evil plans for my dad style, but you are going down because while I could ignore how annoyed you were by Seth and me, this here is just going too far."

Matthew smiled and pried her fingers from his shirt. "I have no idea what most of that meant, but I hope you and your fiancé enjoy your time in the unemployment lines. You have no other work experience, but I'm sure an attractive girl like you can charm your way into a position somewhere… or with someone, if you will. You're employment here is done."

He winked at her and chucked her chin with a curled index finger. Summer narrowed her eyes, but somehow managed to keep herself from causing him any bodily harm. She would be stuck on the bus for a while still, and she didn't want to have to deal with the smell of blood during that time.

She left her papers where they lay on the floor and took a seat next to a window, her arms crossed in front of her chest and an unhappy pout on her face.

Ryan lifted his arm, causing Sophie to swing awkwardly as Taylor tried to match the height and strength of his grip. They let Sophie drop to the ground simultaneously, and she ran away from them launching herself against Kirsten.

"Mommy!"

"Hey, sweetie," Kirsten greeted as she bent down to kiss her daughter's head. "Did you have fun with Ryan and Taylor?"

"Yes."

"What did you guys do?"

"We had ice cream."

"Right before lunch?" Kirsten asked as she sent a stern look in Ryan and Taylor's direction.

"I wasn't supposed to tell," Sophie told her mother with a wide grin on her face.

"Uh oh."

"Oops?" Sophie shrugged up at Kirsten before heading down the hall toward her father's office.

"Don't worry," Kirsten called after her. "Ryan can't lie anyway, so we would have found out soon enough."

Ryan laughed and moved toward the counter where he picked up one of the carrots Kirsten had peeled before their arrival. "Sorry. She asked and how could I say no?"

"No. It's easy and simple."

"But then she pouts. And I get to see her so rarely."

"You see her practically every weekend, Ryan."

"I take her out so rarely?"

Kirsten shook her head at him though she couldn't hide the small smile on her face. "You really are horrible with the lies."

"Kiki," Taylor interrupted, her own smile on her face as she watched the two interact. "Is Kaitlin upstairs?"

"No, she left with Julie."

"Shopping?" Ryan ventured.

"No, they're headed back to school with Frank and Colin and Kevin."

"What?"

"They went back to school. Oh," Kirsten jumped when the doorbell rang. "Those are my flowers. Excuse me."

She rushed away, unaware of the look that passed between Taylor and Ryan.

"What?" Taylor finally asked after feeling Ryan's eyes on her for a while and fighting the guilty blush that had no reason to creep up her cheek.

"Kaitlin left," Ryan answered.

"Yeah, so?"

"Kaitlin left without us getting her divorce situation resolved."

"It would seem that way."

"Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

Taylor huffed as she stared at Ryan and tried to find words. She grabbed a carrot from the counter and pointed it in Ryan's direction.

"What exactly are you saying?"

"Nothing. I was just pointing out that it seemed weird that Kaitlin came to me with this big emergency, and then suddenly disappeared before we could actually solve her problem."

"And that's probably my doing, right? There's Taylor and she needed to see Ryan so she thought up a crazy plan to get him to see her, just like she thought up a crazy plan to get him to say he loved her and to fool him into making out with her and to—"

"Taylor, I didn't say those things."

"You didn't have to. You didn't have to say them any of the times you thought them because they were always hidden in everything you said."

Ryan huffed, threw his hands in the air and walked a few feet away from her. "It's always like this with you. Can't you get over it? Grow up like the rest of us did?"

"Grow up?"

"You're exactly the same as you were the last time we were together. All you thought you were back then was divorced and promiscuous and scheming, and it's all you think you are now. Taylor, you've got to get over it and be an adult. Even Seth and Summer got over their ever repetitive shit to find the balance they have now."

"So you think I should grow up?" Taylor asked. She dropped the carrot to the counter and swiped at her cheeks, making sure none of the tears she felt prickling at her eyes had fallen.

"I'm just saying that we've all learned from our mistakes and matured. Maybe you should too."

"I should mature? I should grow up?" Her voice grew icy as her chin rose and she tried to ignore how Ryan took a step back from her. "My father left my family when I was seven. My mother would bring me along to her work functions and make me sit in the corner with nothing to entertain me but magazines of the athletes she represented and their contracts. She ignored me so I had to take care of myself whether that be by going off to France and getting married or escaping Newport for England when I did finally find some kind of balance. Grow up? Grow up, Ryan? I've been a grown up since I was eight.

"Why do you think I never fit in? Why do you think it was so hard for me to make friends? It wasn't because I wasn't pretty or funny or smart. It was because I was always ten years older than everyone. So I'm sorry if I haven't evolved enough for you in the past few years that we've been apart and that you've apparently become this great adult of a person, but I had nowhere else to go. I have been in stasis for years now. And if you never really loved the person I was and can obviously not grow to love her, well then don't even bother explaining to me what's wrong because it's much too late for me to change now."

She pushed past him before he could think of an answer. He watched her fly away and tried to ignore the hitch he heard in her breath which he knew meant she was only moments away from crying.

When he could finally focus on his surroundings, he found Kirsten at the edge of the kitchen, watching him with worried eyes.

"Probably not the best choice of words," he told her. He offered her the only smile he could find in him—a sad, pathetic attempt at a smile—and walked past her and out the door. He didn't doubt Taylor would be able to find her way to wherever it was she would be heading next.

If it were five years ago, he would have sworn she was doing it on purpose. If it wasn't now and where they were in their relationship, Seth would have guessed that Summer was ignoring his telephone calls just to make sure he knew how she had felt when she couldn't reach him. It wasn't those days of their relationship however, and they had grown since that time. And so Seth thought it was completely acceptable that he should be freaking out over the fact that he couldn't reach his girlfriend.

He growled as he dropped his phone to his desk and let his head fall forward.

"Problem?"

"Understatement," he mumbled, keeping his head down.

"Did your phone die?" Samantha asked as she picked up the cell phone with one hand and pulled Seth's head up with a strong grip on his hair.

Seth swatted her away from his head and grabbed his phone from her. "No. I just can't reach Summer."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Is she having second thoughts?" Samantha asked her eyes widening and her voice dropping in pity.

Seth rolled his eyes. "No, she isn't having second thoughts. She's just not answering her phone. There's a perfectly good explanation for why she isn't answering her phone."

"Which is?"

"None of your business," Seth offered. He grabbed one of his sketches and a pencil to make some adjustments, focussing on anything other than Samantha.

The girl watched him for a moment and finally plopped down on a stool near his desk. She kept her eyes on him as he worked.

"Don't you have somewhere to be? Something to do?"

"No," she answered.

"Why don't you go pester Timothy? He's single now. He might find it endearing."

"Because I don't find him endearing. I'd much rather sit here with you."

"I'm working."

Samantha shrugged. "I'm just watching."

"It's actually—" Seth stopped himself when he heard his cell phone ring. He watched it for a moment, then suddenly seemed to realise that it required a reaction from him. He dove for it without stopping to look at the caller ID. "Summer?"

Samantha's eyes narrowed as she watched him.

"Che? What are you… Are you calling me from my own cell phone?"

"Well, now that you've gotten a new one, there really isn't a point in sending you this one. Why would you need two cell phones?" Che asked calmly.

"You aren't calling China with that thing, are you Che?"

"No, but I have been trying to reach Summer, and I can't. Do you know where she is? I had a dream that a little Summer-bear was in a downward honey spiral. It was very transcending."

"What's a Summer-bear?"

"It's a bit of a cross between a panda, a koala and a polar bear."

"What kind of temper does it have?"

"Angered grizzly."

"Sounds like her." Seth sighed. He swatted Samantha's hand away when she reached for a sketch that looked suspiciously like that of a credit card wielding super heroine. "I haven't been able to reach her lately either. I think she's really busy getting things settled before she's done with GEORGE."

"I think we both know it's more than that my little otter friend."

"I'm trying not to think about that right now, Che."

"Denial is a very strong temptation, Seth, but you cannot give in to it. Where would we be now if everyone had simply denied the crimes of our ancestors and never protested the atrocities, the sexism, racism, animalisms—"

"Animalisms, Che?"

"Those things that made our nation what we never wanted it to—"

"What is it you want me to do?" Seth asked, rubbing his forehead. "I don't know where she is and I don't know how to reach her. What do you want me to do?"

"I would like you to sing a song with me, Seth."

Seth's eyes narrowed and he wished once again that he could pull off with one of his looks all the emotion Ryan always managed to convey, even if Che was across the country and couldn't see him.

"I feel those eyes of yours, man, and I understand that you don't believe in what I'm doing, but this is about Summer."

"This is about Summer."

"And you want to make sure she's all right, don't you?"

"I do."

"Then sing with me, Seth. Sing with me a song to find Summer."

Seth's face contorted in confusion as what he assumed were words fell from Che's mouth over the line. He moved the phone away from his ear and offered an embarrassed nod to Samantha who was watching him and the phone closely. His embarrassment quickly faded into a wide grin, however, when he spotted someone entering the office and looking around in confusion.

"Summer?" He asked, closing the phone as he moved forward.

"Seth!" Summer's face brightened as she launched herself in his direction. They met halfway between the door and his desk and Seth swept her up in his arms before setting her back on the ground.

"What are you doing here? I've been trying to reach you all morning."

"Oh." Summer's hand dipped into her purse as she kept her eyes on Seth. "I had to shut my phone off for the flight. I guess I forgot to turn it back on in my rush to get here."

"You should call Che, by the way. He had a chant and everything going to find you."

"Let him keep chanting," Summer told him as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "I don't want to interrupt you at work, but—"

"Interrupt me at work, go on. I did the same to you. Though, aren't you supposed to be in Arkansas right now?"

Summer's face soften at the realisation that Seth probably knew her schedule even better than she did. "Yeah, but I'm home now."

"Give you the boot, did they?" Samantha asked with a wide smile as she leaned against Seth's drawing table.

"I decided I wanted to come home early."

"So you abandoned your coworkers and your team."

Summer smiled and leaned her head against Seth's chest. "I finished everything early. I settled everything that needed to be settled and I trained everyone that needed to be trained. So I figured I'd come home to real food, real showers, and my very real fiancé."

She smiled and leaned up to meet Seth's lips.

"I really like the sound of that. And hey, you're even still wearing the ring."

"Well have you gotten me another one yet?"

"Nope."

Summer shrugged. "Then I guess I'm still wearing this ring."

"You're making him buy you a new ring?" Samantha asked with a sneer as she watched the two cuddle together.

"He offered," Summer told the girl, her eyes narrowing and her voice becoming icy. "Who are you again?"

"I'm Samantha."

Summer shook her head. "Samantha who?"

"I'm Samantha, Seth's co-worker."

"Hmm. Doesn't ring a bell. Listen, Seth, I have to go shopping. Do you need anything?"

"Why are you going shopping?"

"I don't have any clothes," Summer shrugged.

"You have plenty of clothes."

"I don't have any clothes here."

"What about the clothes you were lugging around the country with GEORGE?"

"They're not here yet."

Seth's eyebrow rose as he moved toward his desk with Summer still attached around his waist. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Summer shrugged and smiled. "When I heard I could come home I was so excited that I got off at the next stop and found the nearest airport to get me here. I didn't bother waiting for them to find my bags with all the other ones on that bus. They'll send it to me when they find them."

"Oh." Seth looked surprised as he picked up one of his pencils to scribble on some paper while they talked. "I figured you meant the airport had lost them or something."

Summer smiled a tight grin, mumbling between her teeth. "That would have been a much better excuse."

"What?"

"Huh? Nope. So you don't need anything?"

"Nothing," Seth told her, leaning down to drop a kiss on her nose.

"Great. Well, then I'll see you back home." She gave him a kiss on the lips and finally untangled herself from him. She smiled sweetly as she passed his co-worker. "Nice meeting you, Samantha."

"You too, Summer."

Both she and Seth watched as Summer left the room.

"Dude, she was hot," Timothy offered as he passed by, dropping a few papers on Seth's desk and moving on his way.

"So where did you meet?" Julie asked as she looked over her shoulder, making sure Kevin was still asleep in the backseat and forming an obstacle between Kaitlin and her supposed husband.

"At the airport."

"And you just thought you'd volunteer him as your better half?"

"He talked to me first," Kaitlin shrugged. "Besides, this is Ryan we're talking about here. He wasn't going to believe anything I had to say unless I showed up with some hard proof. He's harder to convince than you two."

"Yet you convinced him you were pregnant," Frank said, glancing in the rear-view mirror to see Kaitlin.

"And married," Julie quickly interrupted before they could go much further down that road.

"I got game," Kaitlin shrugged. "Unlike Sandy. What is going on with him?"

"He was acting a little weird," Frank agreed.

"And Kirsten's definitely noticed it."

"I'm voting it's Seth and Summer related," Kaitlin piped up. "Sandy wouldn't get this involved in anything if it wasn't family."

"The Nana is gone," Julie agreed with a shrug. "And you never hear about Sandy's siblings."

"Maybe it's a case," Frank offered. "He wouldn't be allowed to talk about it if there were client-attorney privileges involved."

Julie shook her head. "He would at least tell Kirsten that he was working on a case. The only thing he would hide from her would be something that would make her worry, and the thing that would worry her the most, would be something wrong with her family."

"I still think I'm going to get to the bottom of it," Kaitlin said, crossing her arms over her chest and smiling over at Colin.

"From Newport?"

Kaitlin laughed. "You think I'm done with Taylor and Ryan? Please. Getting them to hook up is the easy part. But it's Taylor and Ryan. They're going to screw it up. And that's when they're really going to need me."

Frank shook his head as he sped up to pass the car in front of them. "God help them both."