Thanks once again for all the reviews. I've got this story written out to the end now and am simply reviewing the next chapters, so no worries about it being abandonned. Enjoy this chapter while I work on the next.

Chapter 13: One week later

"You typed that word already."

Ryan looked up from his computer screen. He gave his roommate only a quick glance before focussing on his monitor, and seeing the word "later" repeated five times. He closed the document without saving it and let his head drop to the desk.

"You all right?"

"Sure," he mumbled without raising his head.

"You don't really look all right."

"Don't I though?"

"What's wrong? I thought you were done your exams. You should be swimming now, dude."

Ryan sighed and lifted his head to look at Timothy. "I don't know."

"It's that girl you brought here the other week, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Who is she?"

"Ex-girlfriend."

Timothy got up and moved around the room, gathering clothes to stuff in his backpack. "How long have you guys been broken up?"

"I'm not really sure."

"You're not sure?"

"We didn't exactly break up. We kind of just… parted, I guess."

"So, she's really just your girlfriend?"

"No."

Timothy sighed, his hand on the doorknob and his backpack hanging from his arm. "Dude. Call Seth or something. Just… don't wallow. There's a difference between brooding and wallowing, and you're on the wrong side right now."

He left before Ryan could protest.

Ryan stayed at his desk, staring at his phone and trying to decide if calling Seth really was a good idea or not. Surely Seth would have something to say about the situation—Seth had something to say about every situation—but that didn't mean it would be something Ryan would want to hear.

Seth had been on cloud nine since Summer had accepted his wedding proposal. He kept spewing about romance and high school destinies and more things than Ryan could follow when he was trying to understand the mumbling.

Maybe calling Seth wasn't a good idea.

Before he could make up his mind, however, his phone rang. Ryan jumped back. He gave a quizzical look at the caller ID before bringing the telephone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Ryan, hey, it's Kirsten."

"Hey. How's it going?"

"Good. Listen, you forgot your watch when you were here. Or, maybe it was kidnapped because I found it in Sophie's room. But either way, your watch is here."

"Oh, great. Um… so…"

"Sandy's going to be on campus this afternoon to wrap things up. If you can meet him outside his office, he can just pass it over to you. Or it can wait. I mean, you've already gone a week without it and you're going to be moving back for the summer in a few days, but still… If you wanted to see Sandy."

"If I wanted to see Sandy?"

"Well he hasn't really been around here much. So if you wanted to see him, you could."

"Are you all right?"

"Sure," Kirsten sighed. "I'm just sorry I didn't notice Sophie had taken your watch."

"Don't worry about it. Listen, I do have a few meetings at this new job to wrap up. I figured I'd get those done before moving back home because this is closer. So, I guess I can meet San—" Ryan's voice faded as he heard someone in the background asking about vegetables and pans. "Who's that?"

"Huh?"

"Who's that in the room with you?"

"Oh, you know…" Kirsten's voice fluttered. "Taylor. So you're okay with Sandy bringing the wa—"

"Taylor?"

"Yeah?"

"My Taylor?"

"What did you just say?"

Ryan coughed. "What is Taylor still doing there?"

"She didn't have anywhere else to go. I figured we might as well let her stay here for a little while longer while she figures it out rather than have her running off to find the first guy who offers her a bus token."

"You're not in the same room as her anymore, are you?"

"No. I'm in the living room. Listen, Ryan, don't worry about it. Taylor's fine, she's just finding herself a little."

"She was the only girl who knew herself when we were in high school." Ryan sighed. "How is it that now she can't find herself?"

"She was a completely different person in high school. You know that. Now don't worry about Taylor. You're done school. Settle your job, come home to celebrate, and we'll just see what happens from there."

"Kirsten…"

"Ryan, the last time you and Taylor had a break up it set you back badly. I don't want to see that happen to you again."

"It wasn't about that the last time," Ryan sighed again.

"Well, what was it about then?"

"I just… It was a bad time."

"Exactly and I don't want you to—"

"It wasn't Taylor's fault."

"I know that, sweetie. It was no one's fault. I'm just saying that I don't want you two to go back to where you were."

"Tell Sandy I'll meet him outside his office tomorrow morning."

"Ryan, I didn't mean to—"

"I'll talk to you later, Kirsten."

"I didn't take his watch," Taylor immediately said when Kirsten returned to the kitchen.

"What?"

"I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation, which I'm guessing is why you left the room. Anyway, I didn't take his watch so he would come back or anything. I'm not doing that anymore."

"I know," Kirsten smiled and patted Taylor's shoulder. "I meant Sophie probably kidnapped it. She has a habit of stealing things from her brothers to try to get them to stay longer. Usually she chooses more wisely and hides their keys or cell phones so they really can't leave."

"Oh." Taylor sighed. "I bet I did that as a kid."

"I'm sure you had many creative ways of getting what you wanted. Most children do. Especially when they don't have siblings."

"But I wasn't spoiled."

Kirsten smiled as she cut some peppers. "I know Taylor; I've met your mother."

"I just want you to know that I'm not this horrible person who only thinks about herself. I don't know what Ryan told you or Seth or Sandy or—"

"Taylor, stop. Ryan told me what happened, but only after I guessed, and he didn't tell anyone else. Seth and Summer have no idea why you two broke up. No one knows."

Taylor looked down at her hands, fiddling with the towel she held. "You probably think I'm a horrible person, don't you?"

"I don't."

"Oh, come on, Kirsten. Even you have to be able to get mad sometimes, and this is something to get mad about."

"Taylor—"

"But I'm not a horrible person, and I'm not terrible and I didn't—"

"Taylor, the only reason I guessed, is because I was in the same situation once."

"What?"

Kirsten sighed as she grabbed Taylor's hand and led her to have a seat at the kitchen table. "I had an abortion when I was young and getting ready to head off to university."

"You?"

"Yes. I had an abortion and broke up with Jimmy and met Sandy and Julie got pregnant and… here we are today, I suppose."

"That must have been so hard for you," Taylor said, reaching out a hand to pat Kirsten's.

"As hard as it must have been for you."

"It wasn't," Taylor said with a determined shake of her head.

Kirsten smiled sympathetically. "Taylor, even if you try to pretend that having an abortion didn't have an effect on you, you have to realise that—"

"No, I… God, losing that baby—that baby that belonged to me and Ryan—that had a definite effect on me. But I didn't have an abortion."

"What?" Kirsten asked, her back straightening quickly.

"I told Ryan I was thinking about it because I wanted to give him an out. I wanted him to make his own decision about whether or not he wanted to be a father. And he acted upset, so I figured he'd be okay with me keeping the baby, but before I could tell him the truth, I lost the child. I tried to tell him that I lost the baby, but he didn't look like he believed me and so I just left. He didn't want to believe me; what was the point of trying to convince him?"

"Taylor…"

"He probably never would have forgiven me even if he knew that I really had lost the baby."

"Taylor, didn't you think of what Ryan must be feeling, considering everything that happened with Theresa?"

"Theresa?"

Kirsten's eyes widened. "You know about Theresa, right?"

"Theresa Ryan's childhood friend who comes up in conversation every once in a while? His prom date?"

"Theresa Ryan's childhood friend who he slept with, thought he got pregnant, went back to Chino to take care of, and then who lied to him about having a miscarriage so he would come back to Sandy and me."

"Oh." Taylor nodded one hard, quick bob of the head. "No, I guess I didn't know about that Theresa."

Kirsten reached over and took hold of Taylor's hands. "Sweetie, I have a feeling that Ryan didn't so much react to you as to the familiarity of the situation. To the fact that the last time someone told him they were having a miscarriage, it was just so he would leave and take care of himself. Which you have to admit isn't actually all that different from what you did here."

"I guess I would have freaked too if I were him. But he never told me…"

"It's Ryan," Kirsten shrugged. "He doesn't really tell anyone."

"And if I hadn't been so paranoid that he was just waiting for an excuse to hate me and would have taken the time to realise that he was still around, I would have had time to explain and so would he and we would probably still be together all happy and perfect. Damn me."

"But instead you went to France, Ryan went to Berkeley, and somehow, you both found each other again."

"Oh, we're not back together or anything," Taylor hurried to explain.

"Maybe not," Kirsten shrugged as she rose from her chair. "But you aren't exactly apart either."

"So what are you going to do next?" Seth asked he dragged Summer's shopping bags through the front doors. She had told him it was fortuitous that they meet at the entrance of the building just as she was arriving. From the way his muscles were already screaming, Seth wasn't so sure he agreed.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, now that you're done with GEORGE and had a week to settle, what are you going to do?"

"Well I'm going to live with you," Summer shrugged.

"And then?"

"And then what?"

"Well," Summer sighed and looked around her. "I'm going to redecorate first, because this just isn't going to work."

"Because you think we're going to be staying here?"

"What?"

"Summer, we talked about this."

"I'm still in ten different time zones, Cohen," Summer whined her familiar excuse as she moved over to the kitchen and stuck her head in the refrigerator. "I'm not all here. Explain."

"We talked about how I was just staying here while you were with GEORGE and that we would see when you were done where you wanted to find a job and relocate based on that. Remember?"

"God. I'm barely off work one week and you're already hounding me to find a job."

"I'm not hounding you; I just want to know what your plan is." Seth moved toward her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against him. "If your plan is to lay low for a couple of months and just take care of me and every one of my little needs, well that's fantastic. But if you're looking for a job and we're going to have to move in a little while, then there really isn't any point to you redecorating this dump when we're going to be leaving so soon."

Summer looked up at him with wide eyes, and then buried her head against his chest. "I don't know what the plan is. I'm tired and I'm sad that I left GEORGE and I'm happy that I'm here and I just want to decompress for a little while longer before I take any big decisions."

"Then that is what we'll do." He dropped a kiss on her forehead, then went back to her bags to drag them into the bedroom.

"You love me, right, Cohen?" Summer called after him.

"I sure do."

"And you'll love me no matter what, right?"

He smiled and moved back toward her. "I loved you when you hated me. I loved you when you were chasing me. I loved you when you weren't sure about me. I loved you when you tried to pretend you didn't love me. I loved you when you were angry, when you were sad, when you changed your entire lifestyle to forget about Marissa, and when you left me so you could save the world—though not in the super hero way that would have been totally cool. I even loved you when you refused to marry me and when you asked me to take care of your rabbit for a few years—"

"Our rabbit," Summer interrupted.

"Our rabbit," Seth agreed. "There is nothing that would stop me from loving you. Not even when you become insecure and distant for reasons I don't understand."

"Good," Summer told him with a hard, determined nod.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to find somewhere in the bedroom for that mall of stuff you bought today."

"No," Summer said, pulling on his shirt to keep him near her.

"Summer…"

"Those are heavy, and you need your strength for something else."

"You haven't already started buying new furniture, have you?" Seth asked with a groan.

"No, but I don't think you're done welcoming me back yet." She smiled a grin that left him no doubt about what she wanted.

"Now that, I can do."

"Sandy? Sandy!"

Sandy's head jerked up at the sound of his name, and he looked around a few times before he found Ryan only a few feet away, staring at him with a worried look on his face.

"Hey, kid. Here's your watch."

Ryan accepted it with a nod but kept his eyes on Sandy.

"Are you okay?"

"Me? Sure, yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because I called your name about ten times before you heard me and you look like you're about to run away at the first loud noise that might come along."

"Hmm. That's interesting."

"Sandy."

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

Sandy sighed and passed a hand through his hair. "Nothing. Really, there's nothing wrong."

Ryan's eyes first narrowed, then suddenly widened with fear. "Is this about Taylor? If there's something wrong with Taylor, or if you just heard about something that had been wrong with Taylor, you should tell me. You should tell me now."

"Nothing's wrong with Taylor. But I'm happy to see you're completely over her."

"Yeah, Seth and Kirsten are already all over that, I don't need you working that angle as well."

Sandy raised his hands up. "Fine. I was just pointing out what I noticed."

"And so was I. So what's wrong?"

"It's a family thing."

"I'm not family?"

"No, not like that," Sandy quickly answered, reaching out to rest a hand on Ryan's shoulder. "Of course you're family, Ryan. But I meant it was a grown-up family thing. I wouldn't talk to Seth about this either."

"Who are you going to talk to? You obviously don't feel like you can go to Kirsten about this, and you can't talk to Seth about anything serious, really. Where else are you going to go? Julie?"

Sandy chuckled and shook his head. "I shouldn't be bringing you into this."

"It's about Hailey, isn't it? You've always tried to protect Kirsten from what happens to her family, and Hailey's all she has left. I may not have spent a lot of time with Kirsten's sister, but I spent enough to know that only she could cause this much trouble. Has this got anything to do with her?"

"When the hell did you get so perceptive?" Sandy shook his head and let out a big sigh. "It's really the only thing I can't talk to Kirsten about."

"She's in trouble?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Someone's in trouble, and it's the nearest I've come to finding Hailey since she stopped talking to us a year ago."

Ryan started back. "Why did she stop talking to you?"

"It's Hailey," Sandy shrugged. "She just falls off the map sometimes, and you have to wait until she decides to appear again."

"Except this time it's worrying you."

"This time it's really worrying me," Sandy agreed.

"Anything I can do?"

"Just don't let on that you know anything. And be ready for me to call, because now that you know, you're the only one I can talk to about these things."

"All right, I'll do that."

"Good." Sandy patted Ryan on the back as he moved toward the door. "Listen, I'm going to be late for a meeting with the Dean."

"Sure, hey, Taylor didn't mention how long she was going to be around or why or—"

"I don't have time to worry about Hailey and you, Ryan, when this is something you can easily fix. Talk to Taylor and work it out. You've been better in the few days you guys were stuck together because of this Kaitlin thing than the entire time you were apart. Whatever happened, you guys can find a way to work it out."

"I don't know." Ryan shrugged. "It just feels like I'm falling into the same plotline over and over again, and Taylor doesn't look like she's offering me an out from that."

Sandy laughed and nodded at a few students as they walked by. "As far as I remember, she's the only girl you dated that didn't require you punching someone out. That's a start right?"

Ryan's eyebrows rose and he offered a shaky nod, but had no answer for Sandy. The man offered once last wave before ducking into his classroom, and Ryan headed back to his dorm, shaking his head and hoping that something useful would drop out

"Kaitlin," Frank all but growled as he walked into the living room.

"I didn't do it," the girl protested without looking up from her book.

"You don't even know what I'm about to say."

"I haven't done anything lately. I've been studying, taking exams and I went on one date with Colin. That's it. There's nothing you can accuse me of unless you want to dig up something from way too long ago for me to still be on the hook."

"Where's your mother?" Frank asked as he stretched his neck to see into the kitchen.

"Out. She's grabbing groceries and supper. Why?"

"I can't find her ring. Are you sure you didn't take it again just to make me panic?"

Kaitlin smiled as she rose from where she'd been sitting on the floor. "I told you I had a reason for taking it the first time. Ryan would never have believed I was in trouble unless I brought proof, and he would never have met up with Taylor unless he thought it was absolutely necessary. Those two are pathetic without each other. I don't see why you aren't happy that I'm trying to help."

"The ring."

Kaitlin reached up in the bookcase until her hand grasped the ring box behind a row of dusty paperbacks.

"If you stopped changing your hiding place every five minutes, you wouldn't have this problem."

"If your mother wasn't so damn curious," Frank told her as he snatch the ring from her fingers, "I wouldn't have to hide it."

"She's just trying to figure out what you're hiding," Kaitlin shrugged. "She's trying to decide whether or not you know about her secret."

"What's her secret?" Frank asked as he leaned in.

"If I'm keeping yours, it's only fair that I keep hers."

"What's fair would be if you—"

"Daddy!" the pair heard Kevin yell as the door to the house flew open.

Frank fumbled with the ring until he could get it in his pocket, then turned warning eyes to Kaitlin.

"We're home," Kevin announced as he jumped on his father.

"I see that."

"What were you and Kaitlin doing?" he asked.

Kaitlin smiled and raised an eyebrow to Frank.

"Waiting for you," the man finally answered as he hoisted his son higher on his hip. "Let's go see if your mom needs help with the groceries."

Kaitlin shook her head as she watched them leave the room. "As soon as I'm done with Ryan and Taylor, those two are next." She narrowed her eyes at her book and flipped to the next page. "I wonder if Colin can help…"