Obvious FYI: I don't own anything that even remotely has to do with The O.C.!

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Ryan was back in his room by the time he woke up for the second time following the seizure. The first time he woke up, he was still on the table in the gym, but his return to consciousness was met with so much pain that he blacked out before he could answer any of the hundreds of questions directed at him.

"Ryan?" A puffy-eyed Kirsten asked urgently as she snapped her head around. She had been holding Ryan's hand since he was moved back and she noticed the slight movement of his head. "Oh, honey how are you feeling?" Kirsten prompted as she noticed Ryan's eyes open ever so slightly. Kirsten was on his right side so he could see her better.

"'Sten?" Ryan's eyes opened a bit more and he looked around. "Hhhhead. Where?"

Kirsten pushed the nurse's call button and was relieved to see Giana the English-speaking night nurse and a doctor arrive quickly. The latter had been in and out of the room checking on Ryan for the four hours while he was asleep and was anxiously awaiting his awakening.

"Yes, it's me. It's Kirsten. These people are going to help you. Just listen to them. I promise it will be ok," Kirsten soothed as she rubbed Ryan's right hand through its brace and moved over for the doctors.

"Ryan, my name is Giana and I am a nurse. You had an accident and you are in the hospital. Can you look at me?" Giana asked in a kind voice.

Ryan turned his head away from the nurse, his right ear and eye buried into the pillow, leaving only his left side of his face visible. He immediately twisted his head in the other direction after realizing he could barely see. He panicked and began breathing hard.

"Ryan, Ryan calm down," the doctor said loudly. "You have trouble seeing out of that eye. That happened when you hit your head. Can you look at me? Nod if you can hear me." Ryan nodded.

"Whhhat?" Ryan said, emphasizing the 't.'

"What? What do you mean, Ryan? I asked if you can look at me." the doctor asked looking at the women in the room.

"Whhhat?" Ryan repeated raising his eyebrows then widening his eyes in fear when no one understood.

"What happened?" the nurse guessed.

Ryan nodded. Hadn't he just said that?

"Ryan you slipped at the villa we were staying at. You hit your head outside and got very hurt. That was almost two weeks ago. Do you remember anything? We were at a different hospital before," Kirsten sat down next to Ryan who stared back blankly. "Ryan did you hear me?"

"Hhhead no feel gggood fffeel bad. Hhhurt." Ryan progressively got louder and more panicked with each word. He had been talking softly the whole experience and the doctors guessed it might have been from the damage to his inner ear.

"Calm down. I know you hurt, Ryan. We're going to give you medication. You're doing great with talking. I need to ask you some questions. Can you tell me where you live?" the doctor asked, hoping to asses Ryan's neurological state a bit further while he had a chance.

Ryan said nothing.

"Ryan what town do you live in?" Giana tried.

Nothing.

"Ryan, do you live in California?" Giana asked.

Ryan nodded.

"Can you say, 'yes,' Ryan?" Giana prompted.

Ryan complied.

"Do you play sports?" the doctor asked.

"Yesss," Ryan answered.

"Which ones?" the neurologist continued. Ryan said nothing.

"Do you play basketball?" Giana asked.

"Nnno," Ryan answered.

"Do you play soccer?" the doctor continued.

"Yesss. Bed." As soon as Ryan finished his statement, he was out.

"Why is he saying only yes or no?" Kirsten asked the two Italians. "He was saying objects yesterday and all day today!"

"Yes or no is simple. At Ryan's other speech sessions, they had him say objects in front of him where he could see what he was talking about. Our questions today were ambiguous, he couldn't see what we were asking him. When he was talking just now, he wasn't conversing, exactly, it was more like him saying what was on his mind. He's doing great, though. I'm surprised he stayed awake that long actually. He's becoming more aware. You should see more of his past traits come out soon," the doctor finished and looked down at his pager. "I'm being paged. I'm sorry. I will come talk further about this soon. He is doing well."

Giana offered her kind words and left as well.

"Whyyy?" Ryan mumbled. It was so soft that Kirsten thought he was talking in his sleep until he repeated the question.

"Why what, honey? What's wrong? Why are you here?" Kirsten was racking her brain to figure out what Ryan was asking.

Ryan shook his head. "Whyy yooou?"

"Why am I here?" Kirsten asked in surprise.

Ryan nodded. "Whyy comme mee?"

"Why did I come stay with you here?" Kirsten translated.

Again, Ryan nodded, his eyes opening a little more. "Workkk no beee mee." He said slowly.

"Ryan I'm not working now, remember? We are still in Italy. Even if we were in California I still would stay with you. I want to. Are you with me, Ryan?"

"You here awhileee beffooore thinkkk. Thankkk. No needed beee ifff no wanttt."

"I do want to be here! And you need someone to look out for you, for many reasons. Just relax and get better. That's all you have to worry about."

"Thankkk." Ryan nodded and fell back asleep.

Kirsten sighed. Traits of the old Ryan.

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Sandy let Seth go into school late on Thursday morning. Their flight had arrived behind schedule the night before and after the call about Ryan, Sandy and Seth were exhausted.

As Seth went to the front desk to check in, the secretary advised him that Dr. Kim had all of Seth's classmates in the auditorium. Curious, Seth opened the doors, not expecting everyone to stare at him. Dr. Kim had stopped speaking and the place grew quiet. Seth snuck in the back and slumped down in his seat. Great. Where the hell was Ryan when he needed him? Somehow it wouldn't have been as embarrassing if he were here. What was Dr. Kim on about now?

"As I was saying," Dr. Kim addressed the small crowd. "You must have noticed that one of your classmates did not return to Harbor on Tuesday with the rest of us."

Interesting, Seth thought. I wonder who she kicked out.

"I'm sure that many of you have heard by now, but Ryan Atwood was injured this vacation and will not be joining us for a while," Dr. Kim continued. She couldn't help but steal a look at Seth.

Everyone followed her gaze and saw a frozen Seth. His eyes were wide in shock. Why the hell was she saying this?

"Furthermore, I think it is important that we keep Ryan and his family in our prayers and do everything in our power to help him get better. Our school guidance councilors will be available if anyone feels the need to talk about this troubling time."

WHAT?! Dr. Kim asking everyone to pray for Ryan? Guidance councilors? What did she think she was pulling? Was she happy that Ryan wasn't coming back? Pretending to take pity on the foster child she so heroically let into the school, was it a way for her to look better?

"Does anyone want to add anything?" Dr. Kim finished. To Seth's surprise, she actually looked a little concerned.

No one said anything, but many students couldn't contain their curiosity and turned around to stare at Seth's reaction to Dr. Kim's speech. In fact, there were only a few people who actually knew about Ryan's injury. Everyone in Seth and Ryan's grade was interested and Seth wasn't prepared for all the attention he would receive.

"Seth! Seth what's wrong with Ryan?"

"What happened?"

"Why isn't he coming back?"

"Is it really that bad?"

"What'd he do this time?"

"Seth!"

"Seth!"

The faster Seth walked away, the faster people ran after him. It wasn't until Summer and Marissa pulled Seth into an empty classroom did he get some peace.

"Seth, I'm sorry about that," Summer began.

"That sums up our school for you," Marissa continued, pulling Seth into a desk chair.

"How are you doing?" Summer asked quietly. Seth didn't respond for a while.

"Seth, we're here for you, your family, and Ryan. Please know that," Marissa said with a sincere smile. She had tears in her eyes.

"He and my mom are still in Italy. They're going to keep him there for a bit longer until he's ready to travel home. Then he's going to go to another rehab facility around here somewhere, I don't know where. He was awake and aware the last I saw him. He's getting better," Seth said, looking at the floor.

"That's good to hear, Seth," Marissa rubbed his shoulder.

"What was with Dr. Kim? Praying for Ryan?" Seth turned to Summer and Marissa.

"She said other things before you got there, like start of second term stuff. She said she had 'sad news' to tell us. No one saw it coming. I mean, it can't hurt, though. We've been praying for him," Summer offered.

The bell rang just as Seth nodded in appreciation.

"If you need anything, we're here, ok?" Marissa said as the three left for the next class. This was going to be an interesting day.

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"Ok, everyone, settle down. Now, as promised last class, we are going to start programming," the computer teacher began. "You have your assigned partners from yesterday, Cohen, you're with Ward, and I'm passing out the assignment sheet now. You have two choices of projects. This is due at the end of the term. I'll give you a few minutes to decide and then report to me your choice of assignments."

"Hey, Seth," Luke said as he came over to sit near his partner. "How are you doing? I saw everyone chase you down. I wish there was some way you could tell them all at once, you know? Just say that it's going ok."

"Seriously. Thanks," Seth said honestly. "So what's on the paper?" The boys looked at the sheet.

"We can make a website for a made up company with…shit! How many things does he want for that?" Luke was amazed with the list of requirements.

"Or we could make a blog and 'update it frequently.' Do you remember that from last term? Blogging format?" Seth asked. "I think that would be easier…"

"What would we blog about? How boring it is to live in Newport? Your comic collection? The possibilities are endless," Luke sighed sarcastically.

"No, wait. We can blog about Ryan," Seth said standing up.

"What? Seth, even for you, that's kinda weird…like showing our feelings?" Luke was unsure.

"No, like updates. How he's doing, you know?"

"Is that something you can make public?" Luke still wasn't buying it.

"As support. Maybe people will read it and it will get them thinking about Ryan, in a good way." Seth was serious.

"And it will get everyone off your back, too," Luke added.

"True, but that's not the real reason. Dr. Kim says let's support Ryan, then this is how we do it. We spread his progress."

"Seth I'm surprised at you," Luke laughed. "You actually have interesting ideas."

"Yah, I'm more than just comics and made-up holidays," Seth replied leaning back in his chair and laughing.

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"Absolutely not, Seth! You want Ryan's injury public like that? Think about what Ryan wants! You can't blog about his injury!" Kirsten was surprised that Seth would propose something like that. Kirsten turned away from her conversation with Antonio's wife Megan to talk to Seth.

"But Mom, I told you, Dr. Kim already told everyone. This is a way to make everyone think about Ryan and I dunno, like support him and stuff," Seth pleaded. He needed Kirsten's permission so he could actually get the updates he needed while Ryan was in Italy.

"Seth, let's not talk about this now please. It's almost time for me to leave for the night. I'll call you tomorrow, ok? I love you." Kirsten shut her phone after hearing the same message from Seth.

"Kirsten," Megan began. "I didn't mean to overhear…"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Seth has to make a blog or something for a class. He and his friend want to make frequent updates on Ryan's condition. I can't believe he'd think something like that," Kirsten replied, shaking her head and pointing to her phone.

"No, what I was going to say was I think it's a great idea."

"You do? How?" Kirsten was skeptical.

"Well you know my son Mauricio, the one I was telling you about? Well a couple of years ago, his friend Gabriel got into an accident and had injuries just like Ryan's. Gabriel's family and friends were all over the country and his brothers and mother kept getting phone calls from people wondering about his condition and it drove them crazy. Gabriel was self-employed and had no insurance, so he was facing big bills as well. Gabe's friend set up a blog just like what Seth's saying so that people could pray for him. Updates about fundraisers were up there, too. They had prayer circles on the town lawn every night I remember. It unified everyone. The website was always positive and got thousands of hits every day, many from people who had never met Gabe. His mother would read all the comments to him every night. It was incredible and I think once Gabe knew how many people were behind him, he was even more motivated to heal. It was great for his family, too. They even raised enough money for half of his medical bills. Newspapers did tons of articles about it. I think you should let Seth create the blog. It's not making a mockery of his injury. It's letting people know he's improving. I can give Seth the link to the archive if he wants a model. Reconsider it, Kirsten. You'll see."

Kirsten thought on her way back to the hotel about what Megan said. Maybe it wasn't such a crazy idea. If it made Ryan heal…

"Seth?" Kirsten called late that night, Italy time.

"Yah, Mom?"

"Do the blog. Just promise me one thing. Keep it as a tool to spread support. Don't let it get out of hand. I'll call you again tomorrow. Love you."

"Excellent," Seth turned to Luke. "Now we've technically can do this."