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Ryan calls for help

Ryan woke early the next morning. They hadn't got much sleep. Which actually wasn't all that unusual for them but usually it had been for much more pleasurable reasons. They had talked and Marissa had cried and he had held her trying to cocoon her with his love. He had lain awake since about 4 trying to think of what they should do but he really had no idea. He decided that he needed some help. About 5, Marissa had fallen into a restless sleep but she was at least asleep so he didn't want to wake her. He carefully removed his arm from around her and slid out of bed and put on a pair of boxers and quietly made his way out of the bedroom and into his study and closed the door to make sure he didn't disturb her. He dialled the Cohen's knowing that Sandy should be up by now and wanting to catch him before he went for his surf.

"Hello?" Sandy answered tentatively wondering who would call at this hour.

"Hi Sandy."

"Ryan? It's very early for you to be calling. Is everything alright?"

"Well… Yes and No." Ryan ran his fingers through his hair looking for inspiration as to just how to begin to tell Sandy about everything that had happened.

"Ryan. What is it? Is it Seth? Summer? Is everyone all right?" Sandy asked knowing that Ryan wouldn't ring at this time of the morning without a very good reason.

"Yeah….. I mean Seth and Summer are fine as far as I know…. It's Marissa."

"What?" Sandy felt sick. "Don't tell me she's taken off on you again? I can't believe that she would..." Sandy had been scared that this might happen.

"Sandy. It's nothing like that. We're closer than ever. But look, I... sorry… WE… really need your help. Do you think there's a chance you could come to LA. I think I need to tell you this in person and I don't want to wake Marissa. She's been awake crying almost all night and has just fallen asleep. But I don't think I can explain it over the phone."

"Sure kid." Sandy had a million thoughts going through his mind wondering what the problem could possibly be. But it didn't really matter. If Ryan wanted him in LA then that's where he was headed. "I'll be there within the hour. I'll just leave Kirsten a note and head out. You put on the coffee. What ever it is we'll sort it out together."

Ryan felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders just to know that Sandy was coming. "Um Sandy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that Kirsten would come with you? She might be able to get through to Marissa. I think she may be the only one who can."

"Sure. I'll just have to wake her up. We'll be there as soon as we can." Sandy put the phone back in its cradle and hesitated. He had no idea what was wrong.

---

Sandy walked in to the bedroom to get dressed and wake up Kirsten but she was already awake. The phone had obviously disturbed her.

"Who was on the phone at this hour?" she asked.

"Um it was Ryan. He wants us to go to LA as soon as we can."

"Has something happened to Seth and Summer?" Kirsten asked as she sat up in a hurry.

"No. All he said was that it's something to do with Marissa and he needs our help. Whatever it is, he wants to tell us in person."

"She hasn't up and left him again has she?"

"No. I asked the same question and he assured me that they were closer than ever. Apparently they have been up all night and she has just fallen asleep so he didn't want to wake her." Sandy explained.

Kirsten was already moving around the room getting dressed. "Well come on then. Hurry. Ryan doesn't ask for help often, so it must be important."

---

As Sandy and Kirsten drove along the freeway headed for LA both were lost in their own thoughts wondering what the problem could be.

"Do you think it could have something to do with all this Jake business?" Kirsten suggested.

"I don't know. I thought the same thing. I know when Seth called and said Jake had had another go at Marissa at the studio, I was stunned. But I understand he was arrested so it couldn't be him again."

There was silence in the car as both were lost in their own thoughts.

After a few minutes Kirsten added. "You know there's only one other thing I can think of."

"Yeah." Sandy nodded. "Unfortunately, I think I know what that is. I've already been thinking the same thing."

"But surely….it's not possible. They've only just gotten back together. Even if they have set some sort of record and jumped straight back in to bed, surely she couldn't be pregnant already?"

"Well, I know they have been sleeping together." Sandy said.

Kirsten looked at him amazed. "How would you know something like that?"

"Remember when I had to swap cars back on Tuesday?"

"Yeah?"

"Well we were having a little chat. And Ryan mentioned that the reason he was so concerned about the paparazzi was because he didn't know exactly what was going on between he and Marissa because they hadn't really talked yet."

"So?" Kirsten asked.

"Well I asked him how could that be? That if she had spent the whole weekend with him and they hadn't talked then what had they been doing. Well…. He didn't actually say straight out. But if you had seen his reaction and the colour of red he went, I think it could safely be assumed that a fair amount of last weekend was spent between the sheets…. getting reacquainted."

"Oh my." Kirsten sighed and looked out the window. "I'd convinced myself that that couldn't be it because they wouldn't have gotten to that stage yet."

"Yeah." Sandy added. "And I'm afraid it might be even worse than that."

"What do you mean worse? How can it be worse."

"Well. If our suspicions are correct and she is pregnant then I'm afraid that she may have decided to get rid of it. It would explain Ryan's reaction on the phone."

"What? But Ryan wouldn't let….." Kirsten started.

"I know what Ryan would want to do. But what about Marissa? I mean she is a famous model. Maybe a child is not in her plans for the future or at least the immediate future. Pregnancy would sort of play havoc with her figure. What are we going to do if that's what we're walking in to? Ryan did specifically ask me to bring you along. He said he thought you might be the only one able to get through to Marissa."

"It would break Ryan's heart if she aborted their child. You and I both know that he has always loved her." Kirsten commented.

"I know. Let's hope we're totally wrong and it doesn't come to that."

Kirsten looked at Sandy. "They were so happy when they were together on Sunday. They deserve to be happy. Please don't let something like this split them apart again."

"We'll just have to wait and see. It's not far now. Do you think we should stop and pick up some breakfast on the way?" Sandy asked.

"If we are even close to right then I doubt that anyone is going to be hungry." Kirsten replied and looked back out the window.

---

Sandy and Kirsten stood at the door of Ryan's penthouse. He took her hand in his. Neither of them was really ready to confront what they expected was waiting for them on the other side of the door but they both knew that they would face anything for Ryan. They loved him like their own son and they would help him in any way they could.

They pressed the door bell and waited for Ryan to open the door.

"Thanks for coming." He hugged both Sandy and Kirsten and then motioned for them to go into the lounge. "I've got that coffee ready for you just like you ordered. I'll bring some in." Ryan tried to smile but they could see that he hadn't had much sleep and the strain he was under was obvious.

He bought a tray into the lounge with three mugs of coffee and passed Sandy and Kirsten one each and sat down across from them.

Ryan looked into his coffee trying to find how to start to tell them about what had happened last night.

"I'm sorry I had to ask you to come up here. But I just didn't know what to do. I……" he hesitated and looked at them for inspiration.

There was an uncomfortable silence while Ryan tried to find the words to start to tell them what had happened.

"Ryan. We think we know what the problem is." Kirsten started, wanting to save him the discomfit of finding the words to tell them he had put himself in this situation …again. She had thought it would never happen again after Theresa.

"But how could you?" Ryan shook his head.

"Well we just put two and two together. If Marissa's pregnant then..."

"What?" Ryan said.

"What?" They all turned as they heard Marissa's voice from the hallway. They all turned to look at her. She stood at the entrance to the lounge wearing one of Ryan's sweatshirts. She emerged in to the lounge and sat beside Ryan.

He took her hand and kissed her lovingly. "I hope you don't mind. I asked Sandy and Kirsten here to help us with our problem."

She snuggled in to him and smiled. "No. But what's this about me being pregnant?"

"Well... we just thought…" Sandy started.

"What? That Marissa was pregnant. But I told you we had a problem?" Ryan said. Ryan couldn't see how that would be a problem.

"Yeah. Well we thought that maybe she was thinking about having an abortion and that you wanted me to talk her out of it." Kirsten added.

"I can assure you that if I am ever lucky enough to be carrying our child" she looked at Ryan and squeezed his hand just to make sure he understood how much the idea appealed to her "I will cherish it with my life." Marissa said and then looked at Sandy and Kirsten in disbelief. "I can't imagine how you would ever think I could do that."

Sandy and Kirsten sat there stunned.

"Then what did you need us here for?" Sandy and Kirsten were completely bewildered. It was obvious from their actions that Ryan and Marissa were closer than ever. So what was the problem?

"Well, I guess I need to go back and tell you what happened in final year of college for it to make any sense." Ryan started.

Sandy and Kirsten looked at one another. They knew how broken hearted Ryan had been when Marissa had moved away. They knew it would be difficult for him to talk about it.

"This is about New Year's? When you split up?" Kirsten asked.

"Well yes and no." Ryan said.

"I think I've already had one of those answers today and it led me to think that Marissa was pregnant. So I think you better be a bit more explicit." Sandy suggested.

Ryan smiled. "Well. You know I went to New York that New Year's to surprise Marissa?"

"Yeah. But you returned the very next day and wouldn't talk to anyone."

"Well…That's because Julie met me at the airport and told me that Marissa was on her way to London. She said she was sorry to be the one to tell me but that Marissa had moved on and that she had left early because she didn't want to have to tell me herself that she no longer felt the same way about me. That she had outgrown the poor college student from Chino now that she was a famous model and that I was holding Marissa back."

Sandy and Kirsten both started to understand just what had brought about the change in Ryan at that time and why he had changed so much almost overnight. They had always known that it was something to do with Marissa but never quite what.

"But it was all lies." Marissa assured them. "That night I was actually sitting at home beside the phone waiting for Ryan to call. I thought he was still angry with me because I had cancelled our holiday plans because of work. I was waiting to call him at midnight when my mum returned home and told me she had been talking to some friends from Newport who told her that Ryan was back with Lindsay."

"Lindsay? But Ryan hasn't …" Kirsten started.

"I know that now. But at the time…. I hadn't seen him for so long. And I guess I had always been a little jealous of what they had together. They were so smart and everything. So anyhow ... I took off for London the next day having no idea that Ryan had ever even been to New York. I sent a couple of emails once I was in London but they were never answered."

"We don't know quite how she did it but we figure Julie's responsible for that too. I had written Marissa a letter on the flight home from New York that I posted at LAX but she didn't ever receive it either. All we know for sure is that we never stopped loving one another." Ryan put his arm around Marissa and pulled her towards him so that he could feel her body beside his.

"But then this is wonderful news. Why did you have us so concerned that you had some sort of problem?" Kirsten asked.

"Well we only realised all of this last night when Marissa got a message from her mother to say she was coming here to see her." Ryan said.

"I hadn't told mum that I had moved in with Ryan." Marissa looked up and realised from the surprised expressions on Sandy and Kirsten's faces that they hadn't told them either.

"Oops." Ryan stated. "It only happened yesterday. Sorry, we would have told you but we were in San Fran for the day."

"That's okay. I guess we knew it was inevitable after seeing you two together last weekend. You certainly don't mess around. Well maybe that's a bad choice of words." Sandy laughed. "But then I guess you've got a lot of time to make up for. We're happy for you. Really." He assured them.

"So how did you work all this out?" Kirsten asked.

"Well, when I told Ryan that mum was coming, he said she could stay here. But I tried to tell him that mum still hated him and he was saying that they had come to an understanding when he had visited New York and we ended up putting it all together."

"So. The problem is?" Kirsten asked.

"Well Julie arrives in LA this morning sometime. Marissa has said that she will never speak to her again and I guess I'm just not sure where we should go from here. I mean part of me would be interested to find out just how much trouble Julie went to, to manipulate the split. I mean I don't understand why she hates me so much. But then another part of me feels like Marissa, that I don't want to have anything to do with her. We have lost so much time together because of her interference. But then she is Marissa's mother and she will be the grandmother of our children so…'' he looked up to see Kirsten smiling.

"What did I say that's so funny?" Ryan asked.

"Nothing. I just liked the way that came out so easily." She replied.

"What?" Ryan asked puzzled.

"Talking about your children. Do you two have any idea how I or should I say we, feel … right at this moment?"

Ryan and Marissa shook their heads.

"I know you have some issues to deal with but let's not forget the most important thing here. You two have been meant to be together since you first met. I can still remember walking in on you in the pool house the first time. I'm just so happy that even after everything you've been through; you never stopped loving one another. I can't wait to hold these children you're talking about."

Ryan looked at Marissa and smiled. "I guess your right….. But what should we do about Julie?"