Author's Note: Hey everyone! Long time, no publishing, I know. So before I say anything else I just want to let everyone know that I'll be continuing writing CMM from now on. However there may be short breaks between chapters as school is getting increasingly difficult (I am completing year 11 and in Term 4 I will be starting year 12, or my senior year(?) for the yanks reading. I Heart Kid Chino

Cookies, Movies, and Mermen – Chapter Ten

Monday, 7:07pm

"Yes, I'm sure we'll be perfectly fine Mom."

Seth assured Kirsten as he informed her about the incident over the phone.

"Seth, sweetie I'm just not sure that you guys can handle this. Are you positive that you don't need your father and me to come home?"

"Yeah mom, I'm sure. The girls are packing some bags for Sophie and we'll be at the hospital within the next half-hour."

"Okay then, drive safely and call me if you need anything at all. Love you sweetie."

"Love you mom, bye."

'Click.' Seth hung up the phone and turned around to face Taylor and Summer standing in the kitchen, bags packed and ready to go. The tension was building in the house as Sophie seemed to be getting worse and worse, and was in so much pain that Ryan had to take her to the bathroom as she felt she was going to be sick. "We should get going guys." Taylor and Summer smiled sympathetically as it was obvious that Seth was becoming increasingly nervous and had just put on a smiley facade for Kirsten to stop her from worrying.

"Ryan, you ready to go now?" Summer called up the stairs, wondering if Sophie was finished in the bathroom. Ryan trudged downstairs, carrying a teary Sophie in his arms. "We need to get her to the hospital as soon as possible. She's in a lot of pain, Summer." Ryan frowned worriedly, glancing at Sophie's red eyes.

"Let's go everyone" Seth called from outside the front door, car keys in hand. Summer, Ryan and Sophie, and Taylor followed behind and climbed into the car.

Monday, 7:43pm

Ryan walked up to the hospital's front desk, carrying a now sleeping Sophie in his arms and rang the shiny silver bell, calling the receptionist to the emergency that had unfolded, while the others stood waiting nervously behind him. "Can I help you?" The receptionist asked.

"Yes, my sister fell off our kitchen counter and we think her arm is broken."

The receptionist glanced at Sophie's arm and gulped. "Yeah, I'd say it's broken." The woman scrunched up her face and tried to remain conscious while asking herself why she took this job. "Alright then, we should get little Sophie in to see a doctor as soon as possible. I'll just grab your details."

Ryan nodded, "okay".

"So you're Sophie's father?"

Sophie giggled as it became apparent that she was awake once again. "He's not my dad, silly. He's my brother." Sophie smiled. It was only until she went to lift her arm that she once again realised her intense pain and she shrieked.

"Shhh, it's okay Soph, we're going to get this fixed up now." Ryan soothed.

The receptionist intercepted, "Sorry, you're her brother?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. I'm afraid I'll need to speak to your parents then."

"No, you don't understand, they're not in town at the moment, and my brother and I are Sophie's legal guardians while they're away." Ryan gestured toward Seth.

"Okay well then I'm going to need to call your parents to confirm that you can make the medical decisions for her."

"Listen, my sister is in a lot of pain and is in urgent need of a doctor, I don't care if you need to speak to my parents, that's fine, just let us speak to a doctor. Right now. Please." Ryan pleaded.

"Okay, let me see what I can do." The woman made an internal call to an available doctor. "Dr. Johnson will see you in emergency examining room 2, while I grab your details off of your brother."

"Thank you." Ryan hurriedly took Sophie in to see the doctor with Taylor following closely behind.

Monday, 8:36pm

"Let me get this straight," Doctor Johnson began, "Little Sophie here fell off of the kitchen bench while trying to get a cookie from the cookie jar?" He raised one eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah." Ryan blushed, embarrassed that he let such a thing occur.

"We should have been watching more carefully." Taylor reasoned.

"Well, the good news is, she'll be fine. I've observed her x-ray and it seems to be a textbook elbow break. All it requires is a cast, and a few days of rest." He smiled at Sophie who was quietly sucking on her lollipop which had been handed to her by the nurse who x-rayed her arm.

The next half hour was spent getting Sophie's arm put in a cast, and by the time the three had finished speaking to the doctor, grabbed Summer and Seth, and climbed into the Range Rover, tiredness had consumed them, and everyone like a baby slept on the trip home while Summer drove. She sighed contently, looking to see if everyone was still asleep in the backseat in the rear-vision mirror, and then across at Seth who was curled up in a ball, head planted against the window, deep in slumber. Summer turned her head back to concentrating on the road, resuming the relaxing trip home. That was until Seth began to snore. Unfortunately for Summer, it wasn't a quiet little babies' snore. It was more of a huge, fat, ugly ogre's snore, each breath pissing Summer off just a little bit more.

When the noise became unbearably irritating, and louder than the car stereo volume could ever possibly be turned to, Summer decided to take action, and smacked her boyfriend across the back of the head. Seth jumped in fright as he was rudely woken up, and glared across at Summer who was smiling contently now that the noise had stopped. "What the hell was that for, woman?" Seth whined. Summer grabbed his ear painfully hard, leaned over and said, "call me woman again, and I'll hit you five times harder." She leaned back over, and with a final smack, hit him on the leg. "Ass."

Once home, everyone climbed into bed, and slept soundly. There wasn't a peep in the house. Well, except for Seth's snoring.

Okay, so kinda short, I know. Next chapter, Tuesday morning will be longer. Thanks for reading guys. Feel free to leave a review (good or bad) as usual.