-1The Losing Battle

Summer spends two minutes pacing her foyer and wondering what in the hell has gotten into Ryan, and then the doorbell rings.

She yanks it open, not all that surprised to find him on the other side. That is, after all, his thing. You call, he answers. "That was fast," she observes nevertheless.

Ryan steps inside. "I was already on my way here," he says by way of explanation. "I wanted to give you a heads up, but something tells me you already know."

"About you dumping my best friend?" Summer says. "Yeah. I heard. Ryan ... what were you thinking?"

He's taken aback by her hostility. "What was I ... I was thinking that I couldn't keep lying to her."

"About us?"

"About everything," he snaps back. Hearing his own tone, he takes a minute to reign his anger in. "Okay. Summer, even if everything with you and me hadn't happened, things were wrong between Marissa and I. I told you that."

"But I didn't think ..."she trails off, because that's just it, isn't it? She didn't think.

"We're not the same people anymore." Ryan shrugs again, sighs. "I'm tired of ... of having to be the hero every five seconds. It's hard to live up to that, you know. And I like how I can be when I'm with you."

"How can you be with me?"

"You know." Words aren't exactly Ryan's forte. "I'm just ... myself. There's no pressure. I laugh more with you. And when I'm not laughing, you stick with me anyway. I mean, I've never ... she's never ... you stayed, Summer. Things got bad and you stayed. Through Trey, the trial, the funeral. Everything."

"No." She shakes her head. He's misunderstood her question. "How can you be with me? How do we expect this to work? Marissa's just going to wake up in the morning and be completely over you? I'll tell Seth I've fallen for his brother and he'll just laugh and wish us the best of luck?"

Ryan stares at her. He'd known she had her doubts about this whole thing. For all her acts of bitchiness, Summer isn't one to actually deliberately harm someone else. But he'd been so sure, after their date last night, that they were right for each other. That they would both do whatever it took to be together.

"Summer." He pauses, gathers his thoughts. "I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do. If you want to stay with Seth ... I can't stop you."

Saying it is a killer, but he means it. There's nothing he can do to discourage her if she decides this whole thing has been a waste of her time and she's better off with someone easier, more stable. There'll be an awful lot of holes in the pool house's wall, but he can't stop her.

"Either way," he continues. "I needed to end things with Marissa. It's not fair to her to lead her on like that. I don't feel the same way I used to feel. She deserves better than that."

Summer can feel her defenses faltering. Is this why she feels so strongly for him? Because his loyalty is a force to be reckoned with? Because he can somehow be honorable even when dumping his longtime girlfriend for her best friend?

"It's not that I -" Her throat catches and she has to swallow before trying again. "It's not that I don't want to be with you. I do. I just ... how can we hurt everyone we care about, Ryan? How can we do that to them?"

"Kirsten said that it won't matter, in the long run," Ryan comforts her. "I asked her about her and Sandy and Jimmy, and she said that they were just kids, that things changed for the better. She said none of them hold any grudges."

"You talked to Kirsten about this?" Horrified, Summer recoils. "You went to Seth's mother and asked her what to do? About me and you?"

"She's my mother, too." This, he says quietly, but his eyes could burn holes in her. "I needed to know what she thought."

"Well, that's just great." She throws her arms up in the air in exasperation. "You broke up with Marissa and you told Kirsten. This just keeps getting better."

"I don't want to argue," Ryan cuts in, before she can truly begin to rant. "My breaking up with Marissa was my own choice. I would have done it regardless of what happened between us. I just ... I want to be with you, Summer."

She melts. He says it like it's simple, like it's the only thing that matters, and how can she walk away from that? "I want to be with you, too," she confesses, all in a rush, because she wants it to be just that easy. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, everyone lives happily ever after. Isn't that how the movies always go?

"Well." A smile flits across Ryan's lips. It amazes her how just that one change makes him look like a totally different person. "That works out, then."

Their lips are almost touching when there's a noise at the door.

It's not a loud noise, just a scoff, really, but it's enough. They turn, in tandem, and then freeze. The door is still open and Seth stands framed in it, a portrait of disbelief.

"You've ... you've gotta be kidding me," he says. He makes another noise, a kind of strangled laugh, like they really might be joking. "You ... you're ..."

It's the first time Summer has ever seen him speechless. "Seth, it's not what you're thinking," she hastens to do damage control. "It's not - we can explain."

"I don't believe this," he mutters, and then he steps forward, fists clenched, and swings.

XXX

Seth's fist connects with Ryan's jaw and the world stops.

Ryan's head snaps back, his vision blurs. The pain registers, but not the reality behind it. Seth is punching him. Seth is punching him. Seth has caught him with Summer and he is angry, hurt, betrayed, outraged, and he is punching him.

Seth's knuckles feel like they explode, but he ignores the stinging sensation. He is running on pure adrenaline here, winding up for another blow without even a pause. Ironic, because he's never been a fighter and Ryan's a world-class champion, but he thinks he might actually be able to do some damage.

Summer is the one who finally steps forward to take control. She pounds on Ryan's back, tugs at Seth's shirt, demands that both of them stop acting like children.

But she is easy to push aside.

Ryan recovers quickly from the sucker-punch and fights back, because that is what he does. He bends to slam his shoulder into Seth's chest, sending his brother stumbling back. He is gearing up to hit again, because if there's one thing Ryan knows, it's how to win a fight - you don't stop swinging until the other guy does.

And then Seth stops. He is still falling backward, pushed off balance by Ryan's shove, and then the back of his skull cracks against the wall. Ryan pulls back, fist still clenched, and watches - horrified - as Seth's eyes roll black, as he slumps down to the floor.

Summer is screaming again. "Stay back, Ryan! Stay back!" It takes all her might - and a healthy dose of fear-driven panic - to drag him away from Seth's lifeless body. "Just calm down and call 911, okay?"

He notices as he dials that, this time around, she doesn't try to tell him everything will be fine. She looks just as scared as he feels as she arranges Seth so that her head lays in her lap and tries to find his pulse.

"I didn't -" He manages to meet her gaze as the back of his throat closes up on him. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Her eyes are darker than he's ever seen, and she looks at him like she doesn't even know him as she says, "I didn't, either."

They both thank God when the paramedics arrive.

The team works to lift Trey onto a stretcher and into the ambulance as a crowd begins to gather outside the motel room. A small scuffle breaks out between a distraught Ryan and the unwise EMT who objects to him riding along.

"There's only room for one," the EMT emphasizes, pushing him back.

Ryan sends a helpless glance over the man's shoulder, to where Summer is sitting beside Seth's stretcher, clasping his hand. Their eyes lock over his limp form and she says nothing.

The doors slam shut.