I was so impressed with how quickly you reviewed, I thought I'd give you another. Enjoy !

What to do about Julie?

"Well you know I think better on a full stomach. So why don't you and Marissa go and get dressed and we'll take you out for breakfast and talk about it." Sandy suggested.

"I've got a better idea." Kirsten said. "Why don't you go and get us some bagels from the store and I'll put on a fresh pot of coffee. I think it might be better if we talk through this in private rather than with an audience."

Ryan looked at Sandy. "She's probably right."

"Okay then I'm off to the store. Any preferences? Sesame,plain?"

"Whatever comes is fine with me." Marissa answered.

"Same here." Ryan took Marissa by the hand and pulled her up. "Why don't you go and have the first shower. I just have to send a few emails off about work to let them know I'll be in late and to get a couple of people moving on a few things – like that child care idea you came up with. I'll be with you shortly."

---

Marissa showered and changed and when she went back in to the kitchen Kirsten was there putting on the coffee.

"I hope you don't mind me taking over your kitchen."

"No at all. I'm sure you know your way around it a lot better than I do."

"You'll get used to it quickly. I just want you to know how happy I am that you and Ryan are finally together."

"Thank you" Marissa frowned "but…."

"But what?"

"Did you really think I would be capable of aborting our child? I mean you mustn't think very much of me if you actually thought that I could do that."

"Well at the time it almost seemed better than the other option we had come up with."

"Am I even game to ask what that was?" Marissa said.

"You have to realise that we had no idea about what had gone on with Julie and the only other thing we could think of that would have Ryan so upset was that perhaps you had taken off on him again."

"But I didn't take off on him last time. Well not knowingly anyhow."

"We understand that now. But you must see how it looked to us." Kirsten explained.

"I guess so. I guess I now at least understand why everyone has been a little….what's the word…hesitant… around me. Even Summer. She has told me a couple of times that if I were to hurt Ryan she would never talk to me again. It didn't make any sense at the time but now I can see where she was coming from. But please understand… I love Ryan. I always have and I always will. And that's why I have no intention of ever talking to my mother again."

"That is a very very long time." Kirsten said.

"Not long enough in my book. I know that may sound harsh but you have no idea what I went through when I thought Ryan had moved on. I spent months with a shrink in London being treated for depression. He suggested that perhaps if I 'distanced myself from the problem' it may be easier and that was why I ended up moving to Paris. I was on anti-depressants for over 2 years trying to cope. I thought about him everyday and it felt like my heart broke again every time I thought about him. How could my mother watch me go through that without telling me that it was all a contrived plan of hers?"

"Oh Marissa." Kirsten couldn't stop a tear from escaping and running down her face as she thought about what Marissa had been through. It would appear she had been just as badly hurt as Ryan had been and Kirsten knew first hand what that was like.

Marissa took Kirsten in her arms. "Don't cry. I cried myself out last night. It's a wonder Ryan didn't throw me out thinking I was a complete loony."

"I'm supposed to be the one comforting you, not the other way around." Kirsten replied as she tried to pull herself together.

"Yeah. But I've had a few hours to think it all through. I am serious when I tell you that I don't want anything to do with her again. At this point I don't even care about how she managed to block my emails or even what she did with Ryan's letter. As long as I don't have to see her or talk to her then I can live with the not knowing."

"But what about ..." Kirsten started to say only to be cut off.

"I'm serious Kirsten. You're not going to change my mind. Ryan has already tried. I don't want this to cause problems between us but there is no way I am having anything to do with her. And that's final."

---

Julie got off her plane at LAX and collected her luggage. She called Marissa's cell again. It went straight to voice mail.

Julie hung up and tried Summer again.

"Hello" Summer said as she looked at her phone not recognising the number.

"Summer."

"Oh. Mrs. Coop…sorry Julie."

"Yes. Did you speak with Marissa? I still haven't been able to get hold of her and I'm at the airport."

Summer started to worry. She hadn't heard from Coop last night but she had left her a message. She started to wonder if perhaps Marissa and Ryan had stayed over in San Fran. "I haven't actually spoken to her today. No." Summer figured the less she said the better. That was usually the case when it came to Julie and she didn't think anything had changed from what Marissa had said.

"Well could you just give me the name of her hotel and I'll get a limo there and go and find her."

Summer began to panic. There was no way she wanted to be the one to tell Julie that Marissa had moved in with Ryan. From what Marissa had said about the way Julie still felt about Ryan she thought she'd definitely leave that privilege to somebody else. "Just give me a minute and I'll call you back. I'll just see if I can reach her." Summer replied.

"It really doesn't matter. Just the name of the hotel will do. I'll talk to her when I get there."

Summer thought fast. "Marissa will probably want to grab a limo and come and collect you from the airport once she knows you're there." Summer replied trying to buy herself some time. "I'll call you back in a sec." and she hung up and called Ryan's number.

---

"Would you like me to get that?" Kirsten asked as Marissa was busy carrying cream cheese, smoked salmon, juice and plates to the table.

"If you could that would be great." Marissa replied.

"Hello. Kirsten Cohen speaking."

"Kirsten? I'm sorry I must have pressed the wrong number on the speed dial." Summer said. "I was trying to reach Marissa and Ryan."

"No. You've got the right number Summer. Sandy and I.." Kirsten didn't quite know what to say. She looked up as Marissa re-entered the room. "I'll just put Marissa on."

She handed the phone to Marissa. "It's Summer. I didn't know whether you wanted me to say something or if you would want to tell her yourself."

Marissa nodded and took the phone. "Hi Summ."

"Um..I think we may have a slight problem. Did you get my message last night?"

"Yeah. Why don't you come up here. We've got something to tell you about." Marissa replied.

"Well that sounds really nice but this is a little more important. Like… your mum just called me from the airport. She wants to know the name of your hotel so she can go there and see you. I didn't know if I should tell her that you're staying with Ryan or not?"

"Yeah. Forget about her…She can wait. Just come on up. We've got a fresh pot of coffee on and Sandy's gone to get bagels." Marissa replied.

"Coop. You're sounding really strange." Summer said.

"No. I'm just tied. I didn't get much sleep. Come on up and bring Seth with you then we can tell you both at once."

"But what about your mum?"

"She can go rot in hell!" Marissa replied.

---

Summer went and woke Seth and said "We need to get up to Ryan and Marissa's right now."

"Why what's happened?" he asked turning over to go back to sleep.

"I don't know exactly but Marissa said she'd tell us when we got there. Your Mum and Dad are there and Julie just rang from the airport and Marissa told me that her Mother could and I quote 'go rot in hell' so I gather it's just a normal day in the life of Ryan and Marissa or at least a lot more normal than the quiet lovey-dovey it has been recently."

Set tried to take in all that Summer had said and he focused on one thing that stood out of it all. "What's Julie doing here?"

"I don't know. And if you don't hurry up, get out of bed and get dressed then I will go without you. And don't expect me to tell you later."

"Aw snookums. Surely you could go and find out and then come back to bed and relay the information as a little bit of pillow talk." Seth suggested not wanting to move from his cosy position.

"Seth if you don't get moving the only pillow talk you'll be experiencing is when I hold one over your face to suffocate you and you're screaming for help. Now get moving."

"You really are no fun when you're like this" Seth replied as he started to get out of bed.

"Well Sandy's gone to get fresh bagels if that helps."

"Well, why didn't you say so? Let's hurry before they eat them all. You know what Ryan's like around fresh bagels."

---

Just as Summer reached Ryan's door her phone rang and she realised it was Julie ringing again.

"Um hi." She answered.

"Summer. Have you seen her? Where is she?" Julie demanded.

"Um no I haven't seen her just yet. But I should be seeing her any minute. Why don't you just relax with a cup of coffee and I'll call you as soon as I've met up with her."

"I don't want coffee. I just want to see Marissa." Julie was starting to get angry. "Why are you keeping her from me? You have no right… If you don't.." Julie was tired and stressed and unfortunately she had decided to take it out on Summer.

Very ... Bad ... Idea.

Summer didn't take that sort of thing from anyone. And certainly not Julie Cooper Nicol. From what she could gather Marissa was obviously upset with Julie about something so Summer figured that Marissa wouldn't mind if she put Julie in her place. "Excuse me. I am not keeping her from you. If you persist with that tone of voice I'll just hang up and you can search LA on your own for Marissa. Would you prefer that?"

Julie was stunned. She wasn't used to anyone talking back to her. Well except for Marissa occasionally. But Julie had pretty much worked out how to manipulate her, except when the topic was Ryan. And of course Ryan. They rarely saw eye to eye. But Summer? She had always been so nice. Julie realised that she would need to keep her on side at least until she knew exactly what the situation was between Ryan and Marissa. She might need Summer's assistance if she was going to split them up again. "I'm so sorry Summer. Of course you're not. I'm just tired from the flight. I'll do exactly as you suggested. I'll go and get a coffee. If you could just let me know as soon as you've seen Marissa so I can get out of here. Airports are not exactly my favourite place."

"Fine." Summer felt good that she had actually stood up to Julie but she had trouble believing that Julie could change her tune so quickly. But maybe she was being too hard on her. "I'll call you as soon as I've spoken with Marissa."

---

After Marissa and Ryan had explained to Summer and Seth what had happened they just sat at the table stunned.

"I can't believe she would do that. I mean we've all known for a while that she is a piece of work. But that lying, conniving bitch. She's the one responsible for you being away all these years. Forget about Ryan, what about me? I lost my best friend and for what? And to think, I was actually civil to her on the phone before. I should have taken the opportunity to give her a piece of my mind." Summer stated verging on a rage blackout again.

"Well it's not as if we didn't know what she was like. I guess we all should have realised that she must have been involved somehow." Seth added. "I told you a number of times that she was a witch but you wouldn't believe me. But I mean even I wouldn't have thought she was capable of this."

"Seth. I think that's taking it a bit far. Next thing you'll have her in pointy hats riding a broomstick. " Kirsten said. "I'm sure she had her reasons. Although I can't for the life of me imagine what they could possibly be, for her to try to justify everything that's happened."

"Maybe I should go and get her and we can find out exactly what those reasons were." Ryan said trying to look for a solution.

"No Ryan. I don't want you to. Please just keep away from her. I know that she will just try to break us up again. I don't know how, but I'm sure that's why she's here." Marissa pleaded with him.

"You don't know that for sure and anyhow that's not going to happen." Ryan said and gave her hand a squeeze trying to reassure her that nothing would come between them again.

"It's not going to happen because I don't want her anywhere near us. Even back in England is too close for my liking." Marissa added.

Sandy could see that this was likely to build into an argument between Ryan and Marissa so he decided to interrupt.

"How about Kirsten and I go and collect her and we'll take her back to Newport with us. She'll be far enough away that you won't have to deal with her. And Kirsten can try to find out why she did all of this."

Kirsten looked at him and said "That may sound fine to you but I don't know if I even want to talk to her. I can't imagine why she would do what she did. Specially knowing how they felt about one another."

"Well you're not going to know unless you talk to her. And I think you should remember that she was, once at least, one of your closest friends and your mother-in–law. Surely you at least owe it to her to listen to her side of the story." Sandy added.

"I don't believe I owe her anything." Kirsten glared at Sandy.

Marissa stood up and walked away obviously upset that anyone was giving any consideration to Julie at all. Plus she could see that it was now causing problems between Sandy and Kirsten. Julie seemed to be able to poison relationships just by her presence in the same country she thought. They hadn't even seen her and she was causing problems for them all.

Ryan watched her leave the room and turned to Sandy. "I guess that sounds good if you don't mind. I'm not sure what else to do. I really have to get to work but I just don't know how Marissa's going to cope with even the thought of Julie being around. She's taking this really hard."

"Would it help if I hang with her for the day or at least until you can get home from work?" Summer asked. "I mean I've haven't got anything else on. We don't go back to work until Monday and we had sort of planned to go shopping today anyhow."

"Yeah. Thanks Summ that would be great. I'll just go and talk to her or at least try to talk to her. I'll see if she's still up for the shopping trip." Ryan replied.

Seth had been quietly sitting watching all this go on around him and he finally decided to have something to say. He turned to is father. "I can't believe that you are going to let that woman stay at our house. I think you should do her the same service that she did for Ryan. Put her back on the plane and send her back to England. Preferably deport her so she can't come back into the country again. We don't need her here ever again." he added.

"Yeah I have to agree." Summer added.

"But don't you see what Ryan was trying to say. She will be the grandmother of their children. He at least wants to give her a chance to explain what possible motivation she could have for doing that to them. Ryan has had to put up with a lot worse in his childhood than a few lies from his parents." Sandy said and looked at Kirsten to see if she at least was coming around to his way of thinking.

Kirsten looked at him and was again amazed at just how much he and Ryan were alike in the way they looked at things. They both always wanted to see the best in people and would help anyone in need. Even Julie Cooper. She guessed she owed it to her husband to try to do the same thing. "Well come on. If we are going to the airport we'd better go soon. I'm sure Julie can only drink so much coffee."

Just as she said this Summer's phone rang again. Summer looked up at them. "It's her." Summer obviously had changed her mind and wasn't keen to talk to Julie again.

---

"I'll take it" Sandy said and picked up Summer's phone.

"Julie." Sandy greeted her.

"Who is this? Seth?" Julie replied.

"No it's Sandy."

"Sandy? Um I was just looking for Summer. Well really I'm looking for Marissa but Summer has been behaving quite oddly. She won't tell me where Marissa is staying."

"Yeah. Well that's because she is staying with Ryan and Summer was scared it may upset you."

"What. Why would she be staying there? The studio had organised her accommodation at a hotel. It's totally inappropriate. What will people think? A single girl staying with a bachelor like him?"

Sandy smiled to himself. He thought he would enjoy this "Like him? I'll let that pass for now but be very careful with what you say. And to answer your question, I suspect they'll probably think that there is something going on between them." he smiled wishing he could see her face.

"Exactly. How could you let this happen? If you cared at all for Marissa's reputation you would not have let this happen. I'll hold you responsible if the papers get a hold of this and in any way besmirch her character."

Sandy didn't know whether to get angry with her or laugh at her. It was a close decision. "Julie. Firstly, Marissa is quite old enough to make her decisions for herself. If she wants to be with Ryan then so be it."

"Be with him. You only said she was staying with him surely their not…." Julie couldn't even say it.

Sandy smiled he was really starting to wish that he could see her face. Maybe he should have done this in person not over the phone. "Sleeping together? Having S..E..X.? I'd suggest yes. Probably like rabbits I suspect. Although, you'll have to actually ask them yourself, if you want to know for sure? It seems they have some lost time to make up for. About 7 years I'd guess. So I don't imagine they will surface for quite a while. Except for maybe water and nourishment, you know, to keep their strength up." He laughed as he heard her gasp at the other end of the phone. "Now are you hoping on the next flight home or are you intending to hang around for a while?" he asked.

"Sandy. Please. I need to talk to her." Julie stressed. She felt like she was ready to pass out as the images of Ryan and Marissa in bed together flashed through her mind.

"Well that's going to be a problem. Because strangely enough, she doesn't want to talk to you."

"I know that's just Ryan controlling her again. If I can just spend some time with her, I'm sure I can convince her to come back home with me."

"You really are a piece of work aren't you? Don't you realise the game's up. They know what you did. Ryan is the one that has been trying to convince Marissa to talk to you but she won't have anything of it. So I'd be careful of anything you say about him. I suspect he is the only chance you have of your daughter ever talking to you again. The best I can offer is that Kirsten and I will come and get you and take you back to Newport with us. Otherwise you are on your own."

Julie sat for a moment. She didn't know what to do. Was Sandy really telling the truth? Was Ryan her only hope of Marissa ever talking to her again? She may not have always agreed with Sandy over the years but she had never known him to lie so she guessed he probably was telling the truth. She needed to stay in LA and try to sort this out. Going back to England wouldn't achieve anything. So she'd better take him up on his offer.

"Well Julie, What's it to be?" Sandy asked.

"Okay. I guess I'll come to Newport with you." She stated.

"Smart girl."

"I really didn't have any choice." She replied, pouting as she said it.

"I know." He smiled. "Which terminal are you at? "

"Terminal 4."

"Okay give us about 20 minutes. We'll call you when we get there." Sandy put back the phone and looked at Kirsten.

"Okay let's go. It looks like we have got a house guest for the weekend."

"Just make sure she doesn't go into my room." Seth said. "I'd need to disinfect it after she left otherwise. I still can't believe you're doing this. Why should you be nice to her after what she has put them through?" He said motioning his head towards the bedroom where Ryan and Marissa were. "Hell all of us have been affected by what she did."

"I know son. But we have to look for the positives and right now, that is, that they are together. Let's just make sure that Julie doesn't manage to break them up again."

"She'll have me to answer to if she even tries." Summer stated.

"Me too." Kirsten added. "She wouldn't want to take on the Cohen women if she knows what's good for her."

"Um I'm not actually a Cohen woman." Summer looked at Kirsten shyly.

"Near enough is good enough for me " Kirsten replied putting her arm on Summer's shoulder. "And that goes for Marissa too."

They all smiled.

"I wonder if Julie knows just what she's letting herself in for." Sandy laughed.