Author's Note: As usual, thank you to all those that reviewd. I got more reviews for the second chapter, so that was very cool. I appreciate all your comments. I know that some of you are a little impatient to just get on with it and move into the meat of the story, but I think that a story that takes place this far in the future and has so much to history to discuss requires a lot of building up to. Don't worry, I am trying to move on as fast as I can. To help matters, this chapter has Summer and I tried to stay away from some of the heavy background information. Next chapter should finally introduce Ryan.

I must admit, I am not that fond of this chapter. While Summer is by far my favorite character from the show, I feel I just don't write her that well. I'm much more comfortable with Seth, so I hope this chapter satisfies.

Summer knocked on the door and then fished inside her purse for her cell phone. She needed to know the time. Looking at the screen she sighed and tapped her foot impatiently. She was going to be late. Why the hell had Marissa insisted she come over this morning? They usually met for breakfasts on Tuesdays and Fridays. Today was not Tuesday or Friday. "Come on, Coop." Summer muttered under her breath and knocked on the door again. She was going to be late for lunch with Nick.

Finally the door opened, Marissa's beaming face standing in the open doorway. "Hey, Summer."

"Finally, Coop! Do you have any idea what this humidity does to my hair?"

Marissa just rolled her eyes and moved to let Summer in. Summer gave Marissa one last glare, fluffed her hair slightly, and walked inside the house. "I don't see what the big emergency is. You seem fine."

Marissa waved a hand as the two of them walked toward the kitchen. "Oh there's nothing wrong with me. And there's nothing wrong with Ryan or Mikayla either."

Summer put a hand on her hip and stopped walking, renewing her glare from outside. "Then what's the big deal? You called me this morning, way too early by the way, to say you had some big news."

Marissa nodded her head vigorously, a smile slowly creeping onto her face. "I do. Believe me, this is huge."

Summer pursed her lips and gave Marissa an impatient look. "Out with it, Coop. I'm supposed to meet Nick in L.A. for an early lunch in two hours."

Marissa sighed and some of the mirth faded from her eyes. "You sure are a buzzkill this morning."

Summer sighed in response and forced herself to relax. There really wasn't any reason for her to get testy with Marissa. It's not like she'd never been late to one of her lunch appointments with Nick anyway. It was just that today he had something he wanted to discuss with her. At least that's what he'd told her last night. Her mind had been going crazy with all the different possibilities. It had taken her forever to get to sleep last night and she was more than a little anxious and apprehensive about what he might say. The fact that she was not anxious in a good way had only made her morning worse. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to be looking forward to whatever he suggested. She seriously hoped he wasn't going to ask her to move in with him again. Or God forbid, the other question. But she doubted he would ask that one during their weekly lunch. That was very little comfort however. "I'm sorry, Coop. This is just the day I have lunch with Nick."

Marissa frowned slightly and her face softened. "I'm sorry, I know. I completely forgot when I called you."

"It's fine, I should be okay if I leave soon." Summer regarded the enormous family room she was standing in. "This won't take long, will it?" There was something odd about the room. She couldn't ignore the feeling that something had changed since she'd last been here.

"I suppose not, although I'm not sure how much you'll want to leave once I tell you."

Summer arched a perfectly formed eyebrow. "Oh really?" She seriously doubted Marissa had news that big. Big news for Marissa usually consisted of something new and exciting Mikayla had done. And while Summer loved her pseudo-niece dearly and would do anything for her, she didn't consider her normal day-to-day activities to be of earth shattering import. Cute yes, but worthy of being woken up at 8 in the morning, no. Not that she didn't think it was completely adorable how much of a mom Marissa was, but seriously, sometimes even she found it annoying.

"Oh yeah. I am not kidding when I say that this will probably change your life."

Okay, so now Summer was intrigued. What the hell could Marissa possibly have to tell her that would actually change her life? And then her wandering eye processed the green duffel leaning against a wall in a corner and she snapped her fingers. "I knew something was different about this room!" She shifted her eyes to Marissa, pleased at finally figuring out what was bothering her. "Whose bag is that?"

Marissa turned to see what she was pointing out and she got excited all over again. "That's what I wanted to tell you!"

Summer shook her head and stared at the bag, trying to see if she looked at it long enough, its owner would pop into her mind. "Well spit it out, Coop!"

"Hey Marissa, are you sure it's okay that I use Ryan's razor?"

A voice drifted from the stairs and Summer spun around to see a man she'd never seen before. He was tall, with a wild head of dark curly hair. He had a completely unattractive beard that dominated his face, but his eyes were still very prominent. They were a very guarded dark brown. He was lean, not skinny, just all wiry muscle and defined edges. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and had on a pair of very loose pajama pants, almost as if he had bought them at a time when he had weighed considerably more. He had a towel wrapped around his shoulders.

An exasperated sigh escaped from Marissa and she walked over to stand in front of the man, a hand on her hip and the other resting on the stair banister. "I already told you three times it was okay."

The man blushed slightly, although it was hard to tell with all the hair in the way. "And I'm just saying, as a guy, I know I wouldn't be that happy if somebody completely destroyed my razor."

"For Christ's sake, Seth, it's only a disposable. Ryan has others." Marissa leaned against the stair banister. "Besides, I use his all the time."

"Yes, but you see, you have sex with the man. It's totally different."

Summer smirked when Marissa blushed at the man's comment. It was cute how Marissa still got flustered whenever the more intimate parts of her relationship were discussed. Summer liked to tease her all the time just to watch her friend squirm. She freely admitted she had a bit of a sadistic streak.

"Just use the damn razor." She huffed out a breath of air and glared. "I swear, if I have to look at that beard one more time I'll hold you down and shave you myself."

The man smiled and leaned toward Marissa, lowering his voice. Summer still clearly heard him. "Oooh kinky. I'm not sure Ryan would appreciate that."

Marissa let out a frustrated scream and shoved the man up the stairs, making sure he didn't stop moving. "Go!"

The man laughed and took several steps. He turned his head and yelled out, "And good morning, Summer!" Then he crested the top of the stairs and moved out of her sight.

Say what? How did he know who she was? She'd never seen him before, she was positive of that. Marissa appeared in front of her, shaking her head and muttering, but when Summer looked at her eyes, she could see Marissa was clearly amused.

"Okay, Coop, spill now. Why is there a strange man living in your house? And does Ryan know?"

"Of course. I called him last night. He totally freaked, like I've never heard Ryan so flustered and excited before. He wanted to come home right away, but he still had one more meeting this morning that he couldn't miss. I promised that I wouldn't let Seth leave even if I had to tie him to a chair or something." Marissa paused, thought about what she had said, and muttered, "Which the freak would probably enjoy."

Marissa was speaking so fast that Summer was having trouble processing the words. Ryan freaking out over anything was so hard to believe. He was practically unflappable. And wait a second, did she just say Seth? "Hold on a second, did you just say Seth?"

Marissa grinned wide and was moving into that stage Summer liked to call Marissa's funperkyannoyingtime. Marissa really should have been a cheerleader, because when Marissa got excited over something, she really got excited. "Oh yeah."

"Seth?" Summer had to say the name slowly because she could not believe that the man she had just seen was the same person she was remembering. "As in Seth Cohen?"

"Yes! He just showed up here last night out of nowhere!"

"Ryan's brother Seth Cohen? The same Seth that has been missing for forever?"

Marissa rolled her eyes. "Yes, Sum, because Ryan has so many other brothers that have ran away for eight years."

"Hey! Give me a break here, this is huge news." It wasn't Summer's fault she was having such a hard time taking it all in. It was Seth freaking Cohen. Her mind had kind of shut down after she heard that.

"I know!" Marissa shrieked and there was a stupidly happy smile on her face.

"Why are you so damn happy?" Summer kind of grinded out her words. It was starting to annoy her how pleased Marissa seemed to be. But she was even more annoyed by the fact that Seth hadn't seemed to care she was standing not more than 20 feet from him for the first time since he'd left her on her doorstep all those years ago. Didn't he remember her? She remembered him.

"Because! This finally means Ryan and Seth can talk and Ryan can stop being a brooding jackass whenever something reminds him of Seth. I mean, finally! I have been waiting for this day for years."

Quietly, Summer asked Marissa, "Is he okay? He looked kind of rough." He had looked rough, nothing like the boy she remembered. For one thing, there was the beard, but she knew that could be taken care of. Then there were the scars that marred his chest. They weren't puffy or glaring or distracting enough to stop her from noticing how good he had looked, but they were still unsettling. And there was the fact that he was even slimmer than she remembered and yet still managed to have obvious muscles.

Marissa blinked and calmed down remarkably fast. Summer felt kind of bad for harshing Marissa's buzz, but she had to know. "Honestly, Sum, I don't think so. You should have been here last night, it wasn't very pretty."

"What's wrong with him?" Summer could think of a hundred things that were wrong with Seth Cohen. But none of them actually frightened her. She usually just found them annoyingly quirky and part of the whole Seth Cohen package. But – well, what if something was seriously wrong with him? Summer didn't know what to think about that.

"I don't know, but I don't think he's had an easy life these past years." Marissa lowered her voice, like she was afraid someone might overhear her if she spoke too loud. "He's taking a lot of pain medicine for God knows what and I don't think he's eaten very well in a long time."

Summer felt a small hole in her stomach begin to grow. Was he sick? The thought made her feel nauseous and she had to sit down. She walked over to the nearest chair and kind of just collapsed onto its cushions. She ran a trembling hand through her hair and tried to stop it, but she couldn't. "I should talk to him."

Marissa had a worried look on her face as she sat on the couch across from her. "You okay, Summer?"

"Huh?" Summer focused her eyes on Marissa and frowned slightly. "Oh I'm fine."

"Do you want some water?"

Summer gestured distractingly and turned her eyes toward the stairs. "You don't think he forgot about me do you?"

Surprisingly, Marissa laughed and Summer spun around to glare at her friend. "What's so funny?" She didn't think the idea that Seth had forgotten her was so amusing. It terrified her actually. There was no way he, out of everyone she had ever met in her entire life, would forget her. She had counted on that.

"You guys are so alike sometimes." Marissa laughed again. "Last night Seth said he didn't know who you were."

Summer felt her face drop and she moved a hand to rest on her stomach, trying to staunch the rumbling feelings in her stomach. She refused to believe it. There was no way she had remembered his pathetic, freakish, loser, desperate ass and he had forgotten her. No way. She actually felt like crying.

Marissa was laughing harder now. "Oh my God, the look on your face."

Summer burned, her face flushing hot. Why the hell was Marissa being such a bitch? Didn't she see how this was affecting her? And she was laughing like it was the funniest thing ever. "Shut the hell up, Coop!"

Marissa finally clued into the fact that Summer wasn't finding the whole situation quite as amusing as she did and she sobered. "Summer, he was lying! I can't believe you actually thought Seth forgot about you." Marissa said that like it was the most absurd thing she'd ever heard.

Summer was no longer hurt or depressed, but pissed. "Fuck you, Marissa!" She tried to make her words caustic and harsh, but she couldn't stop a bit of a chuckle from slipping through. Marissa's eyes just shined. "What was I supposed to think when I was standing in front of him and he didn't even look at me?"

"Hey, at least he recognized you."

Okay, Marissa had a point there and Summer hated that. She glared at her best friend and sat up a little straighter in her chair. She no longer felt like she couldn't support her own weight. "Oh ha-ha, Coop. It's totally not my fault. He looks like a homeless person!"

"Maybe because he is one?"

That thought deeply disturbed Summer and she said distraughtly, "You don't think –" She didn't know what to say. She couldn't finish her thought. She refused to. The idea that Seth might have been homeless, living desperately for all this time, made her extremely scared and sad.

"Yeah, I think so."

"That's – I don't know what to say."

Marissa nodded her head in affirmation. "I've tried a few times to get him to open up, but he just shuts me down. He's changed a lot from what I remember."

"Seth Cohen refusing to talk? Are you sure it's really him?"

Marissa chuckled but it was clear she didn't find the situation that funny. "I know." Suddenly her mood did a total 180 and she smiled. "Oh but you should have seen him with Mikayla. He was great. I mean, I kind of sprung her on him, and they didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but he handled himself better than I expected."

That didn't surprise Summer very much. She had always thought Seth would have been great with kids. Not that she had ever given much thought to the idea of Seth with kids. Not even a little. She just figured he would be great. If he ever had kids. With anybody. "It's probably because they're on the same intellectual level."

Marissa laughed, her eyes dancing. "You're so mean, Sum."

Summer grinned and looked toward the stairs again. "I'm just trying to be honest."

"What are you doing?"

Seth was in very deep thought. So that was Summer, huh? She looked pretty fucking fantastic. Her hair perfect, her body amazing, her face still as beautiful as he remembered. But he didn't want to dwell. He couldn't. He had known that this was coming as soon as Marissa had mentioned her last night. It was inevitable he would run into her. He just had to make sure he didn't fall into the same trap he had as a teenager. He was not going to let himself become obsessed with her again. He had done it once before and it had practically ruined his life. Not again. So, while it had taken every bit of his will power to act nonchalant and unaffected when he saw her while talking to Marissa, he was going to keep his distance. He was a different person now and he was no longer in love with Summer Roberts. But God she had looked amazing.

Seth pushed that particular annoying thought into a far corner of his mind and focused on the task at hand. Namely shaving. He almost didn't want to shave his beard off. It had taken him a very long time to grow it, and it was almost a symbol of his resiliency against the world. It had been with him through a lot and it would be like erasing a part of his past. Which he figured wasn't actually a bad thing, so he forced himself to pick up Ryan's razor. Then the voice. Seth startled and dropped the razor he was holding in his hand into the half-filled sink. He dipped his hand into the warm water and pulled out the now slippery razor. He turned toward his questioner and his eyes widened slightly when he saw Mikayla standing just outside the now open door to the bathroom. He could have sworn he had locked the door. And how did she open it without him hearing?

He looked at his niece with admiration. She was a lot more stealth than he thought it was even possible for a five-year-old girl to be. She was dressed still in her pajamas, a simple violet ensemble. He was a little surprised she didn't have themed jammies, he thought every kid did; he still remembered his Star Wars pajamas from when he was five. But then Mikayla had been surprising him since he met her. She still looked a little sleepy, but she had a very curious look in her eyes.

"I'm – I'm trying to shave." At Mikayla's blank look he added, "Haven't you ever seen your dad shave before?"

Mikayla nodded her head, her hair swinging around. "Uh-huh. But you look like Santa Claus!"

Oh. Seth looked at himself in the mirror and moved his head around, trying to get different angles. He sort of did look like Santa Claus. Well, he at least had a beard that was somewhat similar. "Yeah, well, I also look like an Orthodox Jew. And while the old Jewish man living inside of me may be pleased at my newly found love for the Torah, I don't think your mother appreciates it as much." Seth knew he was rambling but the way she was looking at him was very unnerving.

"You're weird." She giggled and walked right up to his leg, looking up at him.

Seth smirked and reached down to pick up Mikayla, setting her down on the counter next to him. She laughed and squealed and he smiled at her. "Just because I'm weird doesn't mean I can't do this!" And he started to tickle her, causing her to laugh and squirm all over the countertop. Seth made sure that she didn't fall off.

"Stop! Stop!" Mikayla tried to push his hands away.

"Say the magic word." He continued his assault.

"Pleeeeeease!" Mikayla laughed the word and Seth gradually died down his lethal fingers.

"So am I still weird?" Seth couldn't help but feel triumphant. So he had won over a kid, so what?

"Yes!" Mikayla kind of contorted into a ball, expecting a renewal of hostilities. Seth just laughed. Realizing she wasn't going to be attacked anymore, Mikayla looked at him funnily. "What's an O-Ortodox Jew?" She couldn't quite pronounce the new word correctly and she frowned, her face screwing up, and Seth thought it was very cute.

"Oh he's just some guy named Malachi." Seth really didn't feel like going in-depth about the concept. Mikayla probably wouldn't understand it anyway. He barely understood. In an effort to change the subject, Seth sprayed a very large helping of shaving cream into his hand and spread it all over his face, making sure most of it covered his beard. "Now do I look like Santa Claus?"

Mikayla laughed and leaned closer, sticking out her hand to play with his now white beard. "Where's my presents?"

Seth snorted and danced out of reach of Mikayla's hand. She really was the daughter of Marissa Cooper. He was sure Summer had had some influence on her too. "I don't know, have you been a good girl?"

Mikayla crossed her arms and looked at him seriously. "Of course! I'm always a good girl, daddy says so."

"Well if daddy says so, then it must be true." Seth was only being partly sarcastic. He placed both of his hands on Mikayla's shoulders. "I tell you what, when I get done in here, I've got something in my bag downstairs to give you."

"Really?" Mikayla kind of bounced up and down and indicated she wanted to be put down on the ground. Seth obliged her. "I'm gonna leave you alone so you better hurry!" Then she ran out of the room, yelling for her mother.

Seth shook his head and turned back to look at himself in the mirror. He picked up the razor again and sighed. This was not going to be fun.