Title : Shiny Happy People

Author : Helen C.

Rating : G

Summary : Some glimpses into the Cohens+1 lives after (or during, depending on how you want to look at it) the finale.

Disclaimer : The characters and the universe were created and are owned by Josh Schwartz. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

AN. Many thanks to joey51 for beta'ing this and to fredsmith518, who totally inspired me to write this fic.

2009

Ryan and Sandy were sitting on a bench in the park, idly picking at their sandwiches while studying the people around them—students running, talking among themselves, reading or just sunbathing. The sun was high in the sky and for the first time that year, it was actually warm. Everyone seemed hell bent on enjoying it.

They had met once a week since Ryan had started college, even during the exams, if only to breathe some fresh air and take a break from what Sandy called, "the surrounding madness."

Ryan often thought that it was nice to have people as laid back as Sandy and Kirsten for parents. They wanted him to do well, of course, but they also helped him to get some perspective when everyone around him seemed to fall into "if I don't pass this my life is over" mode. Despite the fact that Ryan knew that there were worse things in life than struggling with a class, that kind of thinking got contagious very fast. It was easy to get caught up in the frenzy and to forget that there was more to life than college.

Ryan wouldn't have thought that he would be the kind of guy to fall into that, but it turned out that even he wasn't immune. He wondered how high Seth's phone bills climbed during midterms; his friend rarely called him or Summer during these times, knowing they both had to work as much as he did, so he called his parents instead.

Speaking of whom... "Kirsten told me about the art gallery," Ryan said, noticing the way Sandy immediately started to smile.

"Yes, a friend of ours in Berkeley, back in the day, opened one, and wants Kirsten to work for it." Sandy wasn't looking at him, but Ryan could tell he was relieved. Since the Newport Group had ended, Kirsten had seemed hard-pressed to find something else to hold her interest. Sometimes, Ryan wondered if she missed her days as a business woman. He had always felt she must be excellent in that role but for a long while, things had conspired to keep her in the house.

"That's great." He knew how much Kirsten loved Sophie, but being stuck in mom role for several years must have been frustrating for her, considering that she had been part of the corporate life for so long. "She seemed really excited about it."

"She is." Sandy smiled, leaning in to add, "She says it's about damn time she started working again, before she couldn't anymore."

Ryan knew what that was like. When he had deferred Berkeley for a year, he hadn't thought about how hard it would be to actually start studying again once classes actually started. He never minded attending classes, but sitting down with a pile of notes and memorizing them was harder work than it seemed, and he had had one hell of a hard time, in the first few months in Berkeley, developing that ability again.

"Did you know that Seth and Summer are back together?" he asked Sandy. Seth had called him in the very early hours of the morning (and Ryan had spent most of the day trying not to yawn too obviously in his classes), hyper and talking a hundred words a minute. "It's awesome," and "This is so great" had featured heavily in the conversation.

Sandy nodded. "Yes, he told us. It's about time."

They shared a look. Summer had broken up with Seth shortly after the start of Fall term. It had taken a trip to the East Coast and a lot of beer to get Seth to confess that he had cheated on her while she was protesting in Texas, back when she was travelling for GEORGE, and she had finally learned about it. Ryan didn't think Sandy and Kirsten knew that part of the story, but Taylor sure did, and had spent about ten minutes ranting at Ryan on the phone before he told her to call Seth and tell him instead. Seth hadn't thanked him for that.

He had tried to make amends for several weeks before giving up and hiding the hurt behind fatalism. "We started dating in high school; what chance did we have to make it to adulthood?" he often asked Ryan.

There wasn't much Ryan could say to that, but he had always hoped that one day, Summer and Seth would work out their differences, if only so Seth would stop bringing home Goth girls or politicians in the making—he wasn't sure which of the two had been worse, but he was leaning towards the politician. The other one had at least been tolerant and compassionate, in a depressed sort of way.

Ryan didn't know how Seth and Summer had finally decided to get back together (Seth had been suspiciously close mouthed on the subject) but he was glad they had.

"And what about you?" Sandy said. "I haven't heard Seth mentioning an intervention for a while, now." He looked at Ryan, teasing gently. "Does he know something I don't?"

Ryan ducked his head, wondering how Sandy still had the ability to him blush after all this time. "Actually," he said, "I kind of met this girl."

Sandy's smile brightened. "Ah! I knew it!"

Ryan grimaced. "Yeah." He took a gulp of his bottled water to buy time. It had been a while since he had been so nervous about a relationship. "Her name's Emma."

Sandy sat back to listen as Ryan told him more about her—how they had met through mutual friends, as they were trying to slink out of a party undetected. How they had ended up sharing a coffee and laughing about Ryan's roommate's dancing moves, if one could call them that.

"She's very quiet," Ryan said. "Not like Taylor or Becky."

Sandy snorted, as Ryan had known he would, at the mention of Becky—a red-haired girl he had met about a year ago and had dated for several weeks, before deciding that the mind-blowing sex wasn't worth ignoring the fact that Becky wanted to learn how to play the violin, and trained at all hours of the day. And the night, much to her neighbours' displeasure.

"She's quiet?" Sandy asked then, as if deep in thought. Ryan knew what he was going to say before he said it. "Who talks?"

"Who said anything about talking?" Ryan shot back with a wry look, enjoying the sound of Sandy's guffaws.

TBC