Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews. Again, a rather melodramatic chapter :P

Chapter 8

Sandy watched at the doorway as Ryan sat down on the edge of his bed. They'd decided to keep him in the guest room in the main house rather than the pool house. All three of them needed him close by, at least for now.

If Ryan had been quiet before, he was practically mute now. Sandy would often walk into a room to find him just standing by the window, staring out at the world.

They just couldn't get him to talk. Every time he saw one of them approaching, he'd look down at the floor and would reply to questions with only a shrug.

As he was watching now, Ryan didn't know he was there. Sandy saw him put his head in his hands, the cuts on his arms visible and taunting him. He watched as Ryan sighed deeply and ran swollen fingers through his blonde hair.

He looked so miserable, so alone and all Sandy wanted was to hold Ryan in his arms and not let anyone else touch him.

He knocked quietly on the door and Ryan jumped, looking around hurriedly to see who it was.

"Hey kid," Ryan gave no acknowledgement but Sandy moved further into the room. The blue eyes followed him as he moved closer.

Sandy sat down in Ryan's vacated desk chair. He used to do that all the time when Ryan used to sleep in the pool house. Well, the chair in the pool house wasn't a desk chair but the principal was the same. He used to get a roll of the eyes or a little grin. Sandy could tell that Ryan used to like their little conversations even if they were mostly one sided on Sandy's behalf.

Growing up without a father, Sandy knew what it was like to not have a father figure to look up too. He used to feel like he was filling that little part of Ryan's life that was missing. Now, whenever he was around Ryan he just thought that he was making everything worse.

Sandy cleared his throat slightly.

"So, I feel we haven't spoken in a while." he began, trying to keep the atmosphere light.

He watched as Ryan turned away from him and stared out of the window instead.

Sandy wondered briefly what he saw when he looked out. It could have been a way of signalling that he wasn't going to talk but Sandy had a feeling it was something more than that.

"Kirsten's just gone out to get a movie for us tonight. Unfortunately she won the coin toss, so we'll be subjected to another night of chick flick drama. She's getting pretty good at coin tosses, I swear she must practise in her free time…" Sandy muttered, wondering if it was his nerves making him ramble like Seth.

Although, he hadn't missed the way Ryan flinched though when he'd mentioned "coin tosses."

He was about to continue speaking when he heard the strange, now almost alien noise of Ryan's, slightly scratchy from lack of use, voice.

"I wasn't allowed to see the sun… or the waves." the eyes were still focussed outside of the window and Sandy had to bite his lip not to say something. He had to give Ryan time to let the words out without him interrupting.

"Sometimes I wasn't even allowed the light on. It was so dark and quiet when they did that… I could only hear the rats."

Sandy was glad he was sitting down, he gripped the arm rest of the chair, clinging on for dear life.

Ryan's focus shifted and he looked down at his swollen fingers. "I don't like rats." he said as an almost explanation. Sandy suddenly felt sick. His fingers had shown signs that he'd been scratching something and it made Sandy shudder at the fact that he could have been trying to scratch himself out, to get away from the other occupants of the room.

Ryan's voice was eerie, a little too calm. It sounded like he was almost under a trance.

Slowly, Ryan's head turned in his direction and Sandy could see the deep set purple under his eyes. They could hear him in the night, his bed creaking as he tossed and turned. They could hear him giving up and quietly padding past their bedroom as he went downstairs. They'd find him in the morning, in the living room, watching TV.

The eyes now looking at Sandy, almost seemed to be searching for his reaction.

Sandy cleared his throat nervously.

"You're safe now," he whispered and Ryan looked away again.

"I promise you, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe." Sandy needed Ryan to understand. He would not allow himself to fail Ryan again.

Ryan gave a little shrug. The room went silent and it was obvious that Ryan was done talking for a while.

Sandy was about to say something else when the sound of the front door opening and Kirsten calling out that she was home, broke up the tension.

"Thank you for talking to me Ryan. If you ever want to say anything else, no matter how small, just… you can trust me." Ryan ducked his head and for a moment it felt like the old days, when Ryan would duck his head at the slightest bit of praise. However this was different, Sandy hadn't given him praise, he had only offered to listen.

He decided to break the thick tension that had quickly built up again in the air.

"Let's go downstairs, see which chick flick Kirsten has picked out." he smiled sadly at Ryan hut the kid was turned the other way and didn't see it.

He stood up "You coming?" he asked and Ryan gave a slight nod, before also getting up.

What Sandy didn't tell Ryan was that all three of them had decided Kirsten's choice would be the safest option seeing as Seth's action films were at risk of sparking up bad memories for Ryan. Sandy knew if he was the one choosing, he'd also probably choose the most inappropriate movie by accident.

They didn't want to further upset Ryan into his shell.

He wasn't looking forward to telling Kirsten what Ryan had told him. He decided that conversation would best be had when they were in bed so that Kirsten wouldn't feel like she was walking on egg shells around Ryan as Sandy was sure he himself would be.

tbc…

Thanks for reading.