Disclaimer: I don't own The O.C.

A/N-I had almost given up on this story because I had absolutely no clue where I was going with this story. Last night, I started reading the first two chapters and I finally have a plot. It's a lot different direction than I had ever intended, but I think it's going to be pretty interesting. It doesn't really happen in this chapter, but in later chapters, this will most likely become very AU, mostly regarding Summer's past. Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter, feedback on this chapter would be greatly appreciated!!

"Cohen, get up."

Seth rolled onto his side, groaning. He peeked an eye open and saw the bright red letters glaring 5:30 at him. As in the morning.

"Nooo."

She pulled the covers off of him. "Seriously Cohen. You have to get up."

CIt's 5:30. In the morning. I didn't even realize that there was one of those in the morning."

"Just get up."

"Why do I have to get up at this ungodly hour?"

"Because I do."

"And because you have to get up so freakishly early because you're a freak, I have to get up too?" he questioned, unhappily rolling off the mattress that was being used as his bed.

"I don't trust you alone in my apartment."

"Don't you mean our apartment Summer dearest?"

"No. I mean mine. I don't trust you alone in my apartment."

"Ours."

"Mine."

"Ours."

"You are infuriating did you know that?"

"I try."

It had been a week since the two had moved in together. The week had pretty much been hell for the both of them. Seth was falling in love with Summer while she was hating his guts more and more with each passing day.

All right. Maybe almost setting her apartment on fire the second day he lived there wasn't the greatest way to make a good impression.

And the third day he had been living there, letting her cat, Miss Kitty Fantastico, (yea, he wasn't even going to touch that one) out of the apartment, starting a search that lasted for three hours for the cat who ended up being curled in the neighbors apartment hadn't been the best idea either.

And then yesterday, when she was out running errands, attempting to set up his PlayStation to her TV, instead breaking the TV definitely was a really bad idea.

Okay, so maybe he could understand why she wouldn't want him to stay alone in the apartment. But at five-freakin-thirty in the morning? That was a little extreme.

"Seriously, Cohen, you have ten minutes to get ready and then I want you out until I come pick you up."

"Where the hell are you going so early?"

"It's none of your business."

"I live with you. Don't you think I should know where you're going at all times just in case I'm2 0dying on the side of the road or something and need your help?"

She just blinked a few times at him. "Just get your clothes on."

"Where the hell am I supposed to go?"

"Does it look like I care Cohen? Just go somewhere. I'll drop you off wherever. In a ditch. On the side of the road. Anywhere would be nice."

"You should think about pulling that stick out of your ass. You're acting like even more of a bitch to me than you normally do."

"Just. Get. Dressed." She turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

She hadn't turned around fast enough to miss the look that was in her eyes. It looked like it was mostly rage, but there was some other emotion, kind of like she was hurt by his statement. She probably was. Great. This living arrangement was going so well so far.

He pulled on what he thought was a clean pair of pants and a shirt then walked out of his room. He grabbed a Pop-Tart out of the cupboard (she refused to buy bagels, which was definitely a tragedy) and started to look for her to apologize to her. Sh e hoped that he wouldn't be totally pissed off at him. He seriously hoped she wouldn't be, as she seemed like she was the one person who was capable of killing him in his sleep and getting away with it.

"Sum?" He found her staring at the broken TV in the living room. He noticed she had a bag packed on the floor next to her.

"You're paying for it you know that right?"

He nodded his head. "I will. So…where you're going are you going to be staying more than one night?"

"Just overnight."

"Does that mean that I have to be out of the house until tomorrow too?"

"No. Here." She handed him a key. "You can come back to sleep but I expect to find this place in perfect condition when I get back tomorrow."

"Whoa, you're trusting me with a key? Isn't that a big step?"

"Shut it, Cohen. Let's go or I'm going to be late."

"Late for what?"

She didn't answer him, instead opting to leave the apartment. He rushed after her, deciding against badgering her more. He didn't feel like waking up dead the next time they spent the night in the apartment. Plus, it had only been a week. Maybe he should wait at least another two before she seriously wanted to kill him.

"Can you take me to Ryan and Taylor's?"

She looked at him, giving him a strange look. "You seriously want to go spend time with them? Even after they kicked you out of their house?"

"Well, I probably did deserve to be kicked out of their house. I mean, I was mooching off them for a whole year, but I was being their manny so you know they got a good deal out of the whole thing."

"You lived with them for a year? I didn't know that."

"Yea, well my girlfriend decided she liked girls way more than she liked me and decided that she and her new girlfriend got the apartment. And then I lost my job and things just went downhill from there."

"Wow. That really sucks."

"Tell me about it."

After that, the two both feel silent, which was really awkward. This reminded him of how little they really knew about each other. He wanted to get to know more about her than he already did. All he really did know about her was that he was in love with her and she kind of had her bitchy moments.

That definitely wasn't enough. He was going to press the issue of where she was going even more except the fact that she pulled into the driveway of Ryan and Taylor's house.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then. Please, don't burn the house down while I'm not there."

"I'll try not to, but I'm not making any promises," he smirked at her before shutting the door.

He walked up to the door, debating the best way of entering the house. They hadn't given him a key (something he totally couldn't understand why they would do that) and he wasn't sure of their alarm system so breaking in wouldn't be a good idea.

So he did what any normal person would do.

He rang the doorbell.

He was very alarmed by the fact that a dog started barking—until he realized that this was their new choice of an alarm system. He rang the doorbell again, just because he figured that they would finally wake up and come to the door.

He heard some grumbling and swearing coming from the inside and realized Ryan was coming to the door. Seth put on his cheeriest smile and waited for him to open it.

Ryan swung the door open, looking incredibly pissed off at someone being at his door at 6 in the morning. When he saw that it was Seth though…he looked rather livid. Seth couldn't really understand why though.

"Hey Ryan! I'm back."

So Seth had definitely learned his lesson on that one. He was stuck on Ryan and Taylor's front porch and had been there for the past two hours. It was a little embarrassing that he was stuck on their front porch with all of their doors locked. The paper boy had started laughing at him, and really, Seth didn't blame him. He would have laughed at some pathetic guy sitting on a front porch too.

The door opened up behind him and he turned to look. Taylor was standing behind him, a slight smirk on her face.

"Oh thanks for laughing at me."

"I'm sorry, Seth."

"Sorry for laughing at me or sorry for not letting me inside?"

"Sorry for laughing at you when the paper boy threw that newspaper at your head."

"That wasn't funny," Seth grumbled.

"From my point of view, it was pretty funny."

"Listen, can I come inside now? Summer kicked me out for the day and seriously, I don't have any friends, so that means nowhere else to go."

Taylor frowned. "Where did she go?"

"I don't know. She refused to tell me. She left with an overnight bag and said she would be back tomorrow. She gave me permission to sleep there, as long as I don't burn the place down. Oh and I finally got a key. You know, I've lived there for a week and she would make me wait until she got home because she didn't trust me enough to give me a key?"

"Wait, she went somewhere with an overnight bag?"

"Out of that whole little spiel, the only thing you care about is Summer going away for the night? Not the fact that your poor brother-in-law was being forced to sit on the front porch for hours at a time?"

"Um…yes. She didn't tell you where she went?"

"Like I already said, she didn't want to tell me."

"So she hasn't told you anything at all?"

"Um, I'm lucky she let me know which apartment was hers."

"Good, I'm glad you don't know anything."

"Do you know stuff?" Seth questioned, eyeing Taylor.

"Uh…no. Nope. I don't know anything."

"You so do."

Taylor sighed. "Okay, so maybe I do know stuff. It's from way back when I helped her, five years ago. I'm not allowed to tell you."

"But you know?"

"Yes."

"And you really can't tell me?"

"Seth, it's her private business. If she wanted you to know, she would tell you. It…it has a lot to do with her past, and I'm not the person to share this kind of stuff with you."

He sighed. He wasn't going to get anything out of her and maybe it was better that he didn't. He did have a bit of big mouth and he wanted her to be able to trust him. After all, one of his goals was to get her to fall in love with him.

Or at least let him stay in the apartment alone for more than just sleep.

"Will you not bug her about it when she comes home? Please? I really don't need you getting kicked out and having to live with us again."

"Admit it, Taylor, you miss me desperately."

"You keep telling yourself that Seth. Now, Hannah and Sam have been watching you for the last hour, and I thought keeping you out here any longer would be really cruel. You can come on inside, they want to play with you."

"Wow, I'm so glad you're finally going to let me in the house."

"Yea, we don't want the neighbors to start talking about our crazy relative. That's not the way to make a good impression. Gossip spreads through here like fire."

"Don't they have anything better to do?"

Taylor shook her head. "No, not really. You should listen to some of their stories though. Like I learned all about Mrs…but you don't care. Let's just go inside."

"I'm not even going to ask," Seth shook his head, letting himself inside the house before Taylor could say another word.

Seth yawned, stretching his arms over his head. It felt good to sleep later than 5:30, especially after the long day he had playing with his niece and nephew.

He knew Taylor and Ryan were really missing his manny services because as soon as he had gotten in the house, they had fled to their bedroom. He had laughed at their actions.

Even though they obviously missed him but wouldn't say anything, Seth wasn't too overly upset about that. It was nice to have his own room and not be woken up by a small child jumping up and down on his stomach.

So even though he missed his family, it felt good to be growing up.

And first on his list of things to do to officially be on his way to growing up, he was going to snoop through the apartment.

All right, as far as growing up goes, those actions of his pretty much failed. But really, wherever Summer had gone was starting to drive him even more insane as the night had gone on. A little innocent snooping wasn't going to do any harm.

He rolled off of his mattress and headed out of his room. After double checking to make sure she hadn't come home or anything while he was still asleep, he snuck into her room.

At first he was a little shocked at how impersonal the room was. The walls were bare, the comforter on the bed was white, and there was barely any color in the room. Even he had some pictures of his family in his room. It was as if she had no one in her life.

She had to have someone. He walked over the dresser, the only piece of furniture in the room besides the bed and a small rocking chair in the corner, and opened the top drawer. After getting over his awe that he was looking at Summer's underwear, he started moving things around, searching for something. At first he didn't think he had anything, until he found an envelope in the corner of the drawer.

He hesitated on opening it but slowly lifted the flap. He pulled out a small stack of pictures. So she did have a family.

They were mostly pictures of her, though once in a while one of a family member would pop up. He studied one, that had Summer, an older woman who resembled her, and a baby resting on the woman's hip. There was no writing on the back of the picture so it didn't tell him who was in the picture. Maybe she had a sister that he didn't know about.

Whoever it was, Summer didn't look happy to be standing next to them in the picture. She looked pissed, a look that Seth would recognize quite quickly. There was also a bit of sadness in her eyes. He wasn't sure why, because the other woman looked pretty happy to be in the picture.

He started to feel slightly uncomfortable, looking through all of her pictures. He carefully placed them back where he found them and walked out of her room. He sat down at the table after making some coffee.

He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with himself now. He had no way of getting to Ryan and Taylor's, unless he wanted to talk for a million years. He wasn't sure if Summer would want him left alone in the apartment or not. He thought about heading out, just so he didn't get in trouble.

He got his answer quickly enough, as he heard the front door open up. He jumped up from the table, nervous that she was going to yell at him for something.

He watched as she walked inside, resting her head against the door after she closed it. Seth wasn't sure if he should just leave the room or if he should say something.

He picked the latter, deciding his best bet would be to make some sort of noise to make his presence known. He walked right into the end table, knocking into the glass vase on it. It did the job as Summer turned around abruptly.

"What the hell are you doing?" she exclaimed, looking at him.

"Ah, sorry. I heard the door, wanted to make sure it wasn't a robbery or something."

"Oh. Sorry." He noticed her furiously wiping at her eyes. He decided to neglect the redness around them.

What he couldn't neglect was the sadness that was in them. It was the same one that she had in the picture and he couldn't shake the feeling that whatever caused her sadness in the picture was what was causing the same sadness at this moment.

"Um…I didn't destroy anything," he commented quickly.

"That's great. I'm going to bed."

She walked into her room without another word to him. He watched her go, not saying anything more to her.

He wanted to know what was making her so sad, what was making her beautiful face seem so hurt and broken. As much as he wanted to know what was happening, he wasn't going to press the issue at the time.

He would find out eventually, when she wanted to tell him. When she trusted him. It was something he was going to work at it.

Because really, to him, it just seemed like she needed someone to trust.