Thanks once again for all the reviews and comments. I love it!

I know nothing about law, and so it's a total cheat that all the legal stuff will be happening behind the scenes and kept to a minimum in both this and the next chapter. Also, let's face it, there's really no reason for Che to be here other than the fact that I think he's adorable and wanted to bring him back.

There's only one more chapter and an epilogue after this, so resolutions, they are a coming.

Chapter 16: Fix this

"You should have called me."

Hailey jumped back at the sound of the voice. Her face softened and she bit her lip to stop herself from crying.

"I was hoping you wouldn't find out," she told Kirsten. "I guess I should have known better when it came to you and Sandy, right?"

"Hailey—"

"I know; I know… You can't deny I was always good at screwing up."

"But I never feared for your safety before." Kirsten moved forward until she could pull her little sister into a hug. "Are you okay?"

Hailey nodded weekly. "Now."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Almost since I came back from Japan," Hailey shrugged.

"Sweetie…"

Hailey shrugged. "I didn't know what to do. The company crashed and burned and I felt like a failure again. I didn't want to come home licking my wounds, especially if I couldn't ask dad for more money and would have to ask you after everything you've done for me. I just kind of got stuck in this situation and didn't see any point in getting myself out."

"I should have come after you. I should have looked for you," Kirsten told her as she moved them toward one of the double beds in the hotel room.

"You couldn't have. You couldn't have known you had to. I would go missing all the time. There was no telling that this was different."

Kirsten shook her head, but couldn't find the words or the voice to say anything more.

"So, what exactly is Sandy doing right now?" Hailey finally asked, her eyes tracing patterns in the carpet beneath them rather than try to make contact with Kirsten's gaze.

"He had a friend who works here. He wanted to be there when they where talking to Nick this first time. From what Sandy says though, you have some neighbours that are willing to testify about what they've seen and heard. He doesn't think you'll even have to stay around to get this guy behind bars."

"That's good." Hailey nodded. "We always did have really good neighbours."

"So why didn't you go to one of them?"

Hailey shrugged. "I guess I was just having a little trouble admitting that I still couldn't make it on my own.I didn't want to have to ask anyone for help."

"And now?" Kirsten asked. "What made you change your mind?"

"Now," Hailey told her with a smile as she passed a hand over her stomach. "Now, I'm not on my own, and I didn't have just me to take care of."

"You're…"

"Four months."

"Sandy told me, but hearing it from you… I'm going to be an aunt. This child is going to be spoiled rotten."

Hailey shrugged. "I suppose it's better than him or her having an aunt who shows up at random moments and trashes the house."

"Well, I probably won't be known as cool aunt Kirsten, but I'll make my mark. I've learned to bake, you know. This child will be chubby."

"I think I'd rather you be a bad influence than make my child eat your cooking."

Kirsten smiled at her sister and shook her head.

"So how are your kids?" Hailey asked as she made herself comfortable.

"How? I barely know where my kids are."

"Do tell…"

"Does it really have to be this elaborate?" Summer asked as she looked over the papers. "Besides, where are we going to get a grappling hook, a pacemaker and a ferret?"

"I have two of those three," Che told her.

"That's frightening."

"But useful."

"Right, I have to agree with Summer," Jess interrupted. "While this plan sounds nice and elaborate, there are other ways to do this."

"Like?" Che asked.

"Like we pretend that you're applying for a job, and while Matthew is talking to you, Summer and I sneak into his room and find what we're looking for."

"That will never work," Che argued.

"Well, we're going to try it anyway, because I already told Matthew you were coming to talk to him about a job." Jessica looked out of the room where she stood at the door and straightened when she noticed something. "He's coming."

She rushed into the room, grabbed Che and pulled him out before Summer could interrupt or ask what was happening. She moved quickly, following them, but was stopped when the door slammed shut in her face. Not to be deterred, she stood on her toes, watching them through the peephole and listening through the door as Jessica introduced Che and suggested the guys go out for coffee together.

Jessica waved and watched them leave until the elevator doors closed behind them. Then she opened the door and ushered Summer out.

"All right, I'm not sure how long that's going to take, so we'll be safer if we just hurry up."

"Not a problem. So, how do we get in his—" Her eyes widened as Jessica pulled out a key and opened the hotel room door. "Where did you get that?"

"I've been booking the rooms, and Matthew happens to be sharing with Shawn right now."

"So, Shawn is on the plan."

"No," Jessica answered slowly.

"Then why would you have his room… Oh, you've been getting naughty while Matthew is out being creepy with the hot new girls."

"Okay…" Jessica answered as she blushed. "Not why we're here."

"Right. Some kind of proof." Summer sighed as she looked through the papers on Matthew's bed while trying to disturb them as little as possible so he wouldn't know she had been there. She cringed at some of the things she found, while trying to ignore the variations of ew and ooh that came from Jessica whenever she found something new of interest. Never, had she imagined that the fate of her career would come down to rifling through the possessions of a man who, for some reason, had a DVD of the Simple Life hidden among his luggage.

"Anything?" Jessica asked from the other side of the room.

"I don't even know what I'm looking fo—"

"What is it?" Jessica asked as she made a face at a pair of underwear before throwing it back in its suitcase.

"I think I've just found our proof."

He held out the flowers despite the confused look on her face that was a little too close to a scowl for his liking. He smiled.

"Summer?" she asked.

"Seth."

Taylor nodded. "Should have known."

"Summer didn't know anything about this," Ryan told her as he moved the flowers away from her, and then pushed them back toward her until she had no choice but to accept them from him. "So you shouldn't get mad at her if you're about to get mad at someone."

"I'm going to get mad at you if I decide to get mad at someone."

"I got you this as well," Ryan said as he handed her a plastic, red ball.

Taylor looked at it sceptically, and pulled out a keychain. "Thanks?"

"It's apparently a Cohen family tradition to give women objects that come from quarter machines, even if you don't necessarily win it."

"Summer's engagement ring," Taylor said with a nod.

"And Kirsten's. But that's not the point."

"Yes, what is the point, Ryan? Because the last time we spoke I thought we were still at an impasse. I thought you still hated me for what I had done and that you could only be my friend, nothing more, and that even that was a struggle for us. I thought that we were to remain status quo, and I—"

"I just wanted to talk."

"You just wanted to talk?"

"That's right," he told them both, reminding himself that that was why he was there, and that his presence had nothing to do with the tight jeans and form-fitting blouse she was wearing.

"Fantastique. Conversation with Ryan Atwood. Just what I've always wanted." She moved around a table and found a seat. "What would you like to talk about?"

"Literature," Ryan told her without missing a beat.

"Literature? Great. Read any Flaubert lately?"

"No, but I was scoping the web and I read about how this girl I was dating miscarried and never bothered to tell me."

Taylor's jaw dropped. She looked down at the table and began moving her utensils. "I thought you never read blogs. I thought you weren't into reading people's diaries because that's their personal lives and that you shouldn't be prying into things that people don't want to tell you right out."

"My roommate read a part to me and I got interested."

"How nice of him." Taylor bit her lip.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You wouldn't have wanted to believe me."

"I would have found it hard to believe you. I went through something a little too similar to this once before—"

"I know. Kristen told me." Taylor nodded her head patiently.

"Good. I just… I wish you had told me Taylor. Even if you had to move away and be apart from me for a while before you could. I wish you could have told me that you lost the baby. I wish I could have been there for you."

"I couldn't." She shook her head. "I felt guilty and I wanted you to make me feel even guiltier so I wouldn't have to do it for myself. I didn't want to have to think about it every day, so I ran away."

"You could have come back to me at any time."

He reached for her hand, but stopped before any contact was made. He knew what touching her hand would mean. He knew what it would do to them.

"You were so mad."

"I was." Ryan nodded. "I was at myself, because I figured I must have been doing something wrong if all the women in my life were getting rid of me when they thought they were carrying my children."

"All?"

"Two is enough. I mean, when Summer thought she was pregnant, she agreed to marry Seth. There's a difference."

"You didn't ask me to marry you."

He shrugged. "I thought about it. Seth even lent me… Oh shit, remind me to call Seth later."

"Okay…"

Ryan shook his head. "Anyway, I knew we weren't ready for that and that you didn't need me to get by. I knew that you'd be fine with us even if we weren't married."

"I'm sorry I lied," Taylor said, finally looking up to meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry I was such a guy about it."

She smiled and flipped through her menu, hiding her face behind the cardboard.

"So, for future reference, are you still fine? I mean, can you still have kids and stuff?"

"Yeah," Taylor answered with a shy smile.

"That's good to know."

"I mean, physically my body can, but being single and all, it would be a little hard."

"Single?" Ryan asked. He leaned forward, stretching his arm. He didn't grab her hand, but opted rather to let his fingers trail along the skin of her arm, smiling at the goose bumps he knew would form there. "I don't remember us ever breaking up."

"You don't? And we've been faithful to each other all this time?"

"Different area codes don't count." He shrugged.

Taylor bit her bottom lip as she tried to keep a smile from cracking her cheeks. "You know, I'm sure the champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries we can order from room service at either of our hotels are as good as anything they serve here."

Ryan smiled his first genuine smile in a long time. "Grab a cab. I'll call Seth. There's no way I'm going to remember to call him once we get to the hotel room."

"Why do you have Summer's ring?" Seth asked as he moved around the house and toward the room that was usually Ryan's when he visited. He winced when his foot collided with a side table, but kept from making any noise as he had just managed to get Sophie to bed.

"You leant it to me when I thought about getting more serious with Taylor."

"Right. Whatever happened with that?"

"She got pregnant, told me she was going to get an abortion, lost the baby, never told me that part, and we kind of got mad at each other."

Seth chuckled, shaking his head as he moved around the room. "You can take the kid out of Chino…"

"Shut up, Seth. I'm trying to help you here."

"I know." He nodded as he opened the top drawer of the dresser and took out the plastic eyeball ring. "I appreciate that."

"I thought you would. Listen, I really have to go."

"Getting back together with Taylor?"

"Technically we never really broke up."

"So you can jump in the sac together right away?"

"That's what I'm hoping," Ryan answered with a nod. "Listen…"

"You have to go?"

"Kind of."

"I get it. Thanks for the help with the ring, man."

"Thanks for the help with Taylor. I'll see you in a few days."

"If not sooner."

"I'd ask you what that means, but I have to go."

Seth turned off his phone with a final shake of the head. He stared at the ring for a moment, and suddenly jumped when his ringer went off again.

"Shh," he answered.

"What?"

"Sophie just fell asleep and the last thing I want is for her to wake up again."

"She drag you around all day?" Sandy asked with a chuckle.

"I made the error of telling her that the day was all about her and that we could do whatever she wanted. If she could have stayed up longer to make me do more things, she would have, but thankfully she fell asleep in the car."

"You didn't leave her in the car, did you?"

"No, I didn't leave her in the car. I carried her to her bedroom."

"By yourself?"

"You're a funny guy, dad. Reason for calling?"

"Right," Sandy said with another laugh. "Your mother just wanted me to check in."

"My mother?"

"I might have been slightly worried as well. The last time we let you baby sit we came back to a daughter with a head full of peanut butter.

"It's not like I put it in her hair," Seth whined. "Anyway, have you found Aunt Hailey?"

"Yeah, we did. She's with your mother."

"How's she doing?"

"She's all right," Sandy told him, bobbing his head from his end of the phone line. "A little shaken up, but she's doing all right. She's pregnant, so she's adjusting."

"Isn't it a little weird that she was never pregnant before?"

"Seth…"

"I'm just saying… Anyway, I have a busy day tomorrow, so I better get my beauty rest."

"You have no idea what a busy day you'll have with that little sister of yours."

"Yeah. And to think that I turned out so normal."

"Normal? Sure… that's one way of looking at it. I'll talk to you tomorrow, son."

"Sure thing."

Seth hung up and took a deep breath. He looked down at the ring in his hand once again, and smiled.

"Where's your daughter?"

"AWOL once again. Why, did she take more of your money? Should I be handing you five dollars?" Julie asked with a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Kaitlyn never stole any of my money," Frank told her as he settled next to her on their bed.

"So you lied to me?"

"As much as you hid from me the fact that she borrowed your positive pregnancy test."

"She told you—"

Frank shook his head with a laugh. "Are you defending her or blaming her? She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Your eating habits are peculiar, but never to the point they are slowly become, and your temper is definitely going to get the better of us both if you're going to be like this the entire time you're pregnant."

"I become weepy later on."

"That sounds better."

Julie sighed as she pressed a button on the remote in her lap to turn off the television. "So why did you lie to me?"

"Because, I wasn't ready to give you this," Frank told her as he showed her the diamond ring he'd been holding behind his back.

"Kaitlyn's ring?"

"She needed proof that she was pregnant and that she was married."

"And she got that—"

"From my office desk where I'd been hiding it until I found the courage to ask you to marry me."

"To… you want me to…"

"I wanted to years ago when you announced that you were marrying the Bullit. I think that failure just spurred my fear this second time."

"You aren't going to leave me?" Julie asked, shaking her head as she tried to understand.

"No, sorry."

They paused for a moment, watching each other.

"Are you actually going to give me that ring?"

"Are you actually going to say yes?"

"Are you actually going to ask me?"

"The quicker we get through this, the fast I can go get us some ice cream."

Julie grabbed the ring, slid it onto her ring finger and grabbed Frank's face to give him a kiss all in the same moment.

"Great. I'm ready. Where's the food?"