Chapter 7

Ryan pulled into the driveway of his house, turned the car off and looked at Nate. He thought about having him wait in the car while he talked to Taylor, but then decided he should just bring him in and explain it all with Nate there. Taylor would understand, wouldn't she?

"Taylor, we're home." Ryan called as he walked in the door with Nate following behind.

Taylor bounced up from the couch and ran to the front door. "Ryan, I was so worried"

She ran to him and through her arms around his neck. As she did, Nate appeared from behind Ryan. She quickly let go of Ryan and pushed him aside to look at Nate.

"Um, hi, I'm Taylor" she said quizzically.

"Hi, I'm Nate" he said. He didn't know what else he should say.

"Listen, bud" Ryan jumped in "take your bag upstairs. Yours is the room at the end of the hallway to the left when you go up these stairs. The bathroom's to the left of that if you want to freshen up at all.

"Thanks" said Nate shyly and went upstairs.

Taylor and Ryan watched him go upstairs and disappear down the hall into the spare room.

"Would you mind telling me what the hell is going on" whispered Taylor angrily.

"I saw him outside my project today, and I don't know, it reminded me of … well, me when Sandy picked me up in Chino. I just got the sense that something was not right and I gave him my card. Something happened with his mom, and he called me."

"Call you is one thing, but bring him to our home, Ryan? Do you know anything about this kid?" she was still talking in a loud whisper.

"Taylor, you could not even imagine the conditions that kid was living in. I couldn't leave him there. I told his mom I was going to be his guardian."

"You did what?! Now I know you've lost your mind. Who do you think you are? Sandy Cohen?"

"Yeah, actually, maybe I do" Ryan was getting angry. He had expected some resistance from Taylor, but he thought she would be easier to convince. "Look, someone gave Sandy a chance, he gave me a chance, now I pay it forward. I've got a good feeling about this kid, just like Sandy had about me."

"Pay it forward? What does that mean?" Taylor asked completely puzzled.

"You know, if someone does you a good turn, you then do a good turn to someone else, and they do a good turn to someone else and it gets paid forward. 'Karma' or 'what goes around, comes around'. I can't believe you of all people with your psychic Esmerelda didn't know about that."

"Ryan Atwood believes in Karma? Now I've seen everything. We're getting married in six weeks, starting our life together as a real married couple, maybe starting a family. I had a slightly different idea of how the next few weeks were going to go for us, and what 'starting a family' would mean!" She had calmed down but was almost whining in her tone now.

"Look, I told him I would contact his social worker tomorrow. He's got her number, it's a Ms. Hooper. We'll see what she has to say." He tried to soothe Taylor, but he was not going to back down on this.

"Fine. Well obviously he can stay until you sort things out with the social worker, but then I think we should talk about this. We're supposed to be a couple, you know, talk, discuss, compromise?" Taylor turned and walked away.

"I love you, Taylor Townsend" he called after her.

"Whatever" he heard her say.

Ryan went upstairs to Nate's room. He was unpacking what little he had put in his bag.

"She's pissed, huh?" he said

"A bit, but she'll get over it." Ryan said hopefully. "It's getting late, so why don't you turn in and I'll get you up when I get up in the morning and we'll sort some things out like talking to your social worker and maybe seeing if I'll need to enroll you in school."

"Ok, and thanks" Nate hung his head and shuffled his feet a bit. "Ya know, my mom's not really bad, she's just in a bad place right now." He added not wanting Ryan to think the worse of her.

"I know" said Ryan. "Believe me, I know." He smiled warmly at Nate. "Night" He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

He went downstairs and saw Taylor sitting in the living room. He didn't want to have another fight so he went the opposite way to the rec room. He made himself a 7 and 7 from the bar, turned on the big screen TV and the Playstation and sat in his big leather la-z-boy to play. He had so many thoughts going through his head.

Had he done the right thing?

Should he have discussed this with Taylor first?

Why wasn't she as understanding as he thought she would be?

Was he going to be able to be Nate's guardian?

What would he do if Taylor didn't come around?

He was jolted out of his thoughts by his cell phone ringing. It was 11:30 p.m., who could it be? He looked at his call display. Sandy. As he answered the phone, he heard Taylor go upstairs to bed.

"Hey" said Ryan

"Hey, did ya not think I might be worried about you?" Sandy said

"Yeah, sorry, we got back a little while ago."

"We? So you brought him home with you?" Sandy asked.

"Yeah, I had to Sandy. It was worse than you could have imagined where he was living" Ryan paused. "I told his mom I was going to be his guardian."

"Ya did, huh? That was a very 'me' thing to do. How did Taylor take it?" Sandy was curious.

"Uh, not too well, I didn't really talk to her about it, I just did it. Probably not the smartest, huh?" Ryan sighed. "But, it's a bit late now, and I had to do this, Sandy."

"I know you did, kid. I'm proud of you. Get some sleep, and call me if you need anything."

"All right, give my love to Kirsten. Night."

He hung up and downed his drink. He reclined in his chair and thought that he should probably sleep there tonight.