Chapter 10

"Hey Kim, this is Nate, " Ryan said as the two of them walked into the offices of ATCO. Nate barely had a chance to say hi to Kim as he tried to keep up with Ryan who was walking briskly to his office.

"Hey…er…Nate" Kim called after them.

"Ok, have seat there" Ryan indicated to a couple of chairs at a small discussion table in his office.

He put his briefcase on his desk and came to sit down with Nate. Nate sat staring around the office. It was huge with all black and chrome furniture. One entire side was windows looking out over the city, and the other side was a glass wall with Venetian blinds so you could see people walking through the hall.

"I want to make sure you're ok with all this before I call Ms. Hooper." Ryan said nervously. "I don't know how hard or how easy it's going to be, but I know I want to help you, and I want you to stay with me….and Taylor while your mom gets her act together, if she gets her act together. I'm not putting any time limit on this. The only I expect of you, is that you try hard at school and stay out of trouble. You don't strike me as the 'bad boy' type like I was" he smiled "but I want you to take this opportunity and use it, ok?"

Nate was leaning on his elbows on the table fidgeting with his fingers. He looked up through his shaggy blondish hair at Ryan and nodded. "I want this" he said quietly. "I won't let you down, I promise."

"I know you won't, bud. Ok, you got Ms. Hooper's number?"

Nate pulled a rumpled card out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Ryan. Ryan looked at the number on it and started to dial. The card only said M. Hooper, so he didn't have a first name. After a couple of rings, the phone was answered.

"Marissa Cooper speaking" said the voice on the other end and it sounded familiar.

Ryan froze, his lip quivering, he tried to speak, but couldn't get any words out. It couldn't possibly be… Nate was staring at him puzzled.

"Hello?" said the voice again.

"Um…er…I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?" Ryan stammered.

"This is Melissa Hooper, who am I speaking with?" Ryan breathed a sigh of relief at the name. Of course, it couldn't be, he thought, but that voice. He heard that voice in his dreams. His mind was playing tricks on him.

"Er, Ms. Hooper, my name is Ryan Atwood and I'm with one of your ….cases….I guess is the word to use. Nathaniel Davies?" Ryan waited for a reaction to his name. If it was her, which of course, it couldn't be, there would be the same breathless silence at the other end, right?

"Ah, yes, Nate," came the immediate response, no pause, no reaction, no awkward silence. It obviously wasn't her. 'Of course not, Ryan, you idiot' he thought.

"Yeah, well" Ryan continued trying to focus on Nate "there was an incident last night with his mom, and he called me. I'd like to discuss a transfer of guardianship."

"I see" said Melissa. "That is a serious undertaking, and of course, we will have to perform an evaluation and discuss further before any formal transfer could be made. Is Ms. Davies aware of your intentions?"

"Yes, she is" replied Ryan. Still that voice. Why was his brain doing this to him?

"Ok then, we need to set up an appointment to meet for your evaluation and an interview with Nate. I prefer to meet outside of my office to see how the child interacts in their new environment. Where do you live?"

"Um, in Berkeley" stammered Ryan "but could we do it this afternoon at my office downtown? Nate is here with me now."

"Well, it looks like I could be there around 2:30, would that be ok?"

"That's fine." Ryan went on to give Melissa the address to the offices. He hung up the phone and looked at Nate. "Ok, it's all set. C'mon. I'll take you on the tour of my empire" he laughed. "and introduce you to the wicked step monster." Ryan laughed even harder.

Nate looked a little puzzled, but followed Ryan out of the office and down the hall to the next largest office where Julie was playing with fabric swatches. She saw Ryan come in and approached him with two pieces of fabric.

"Mountain grey, or charcoal grey?" she said thrusting the pieces of fabric at him.

"Uh, Julie, that's your job remember?" he said laughing. "I build it, you decorate it. But I came in to introduce you to someone." He stepped aside to reveal Nate behind him and pushed him forward. "Julie, this is Nate. Nate this is my ex-adopted step-grandmother, my adopted brother's almost could've been step-mother-in-law, my ex-step-mother, oh yeah and my business partner… Julie." Ryan laughed as Nate stared blankly with the look of "Huh?"

"Perhaps a bit too much information, Ryan" Julie chuckled "but I'm pleased to meet you, Nate." She extended her hand and they shook.

"Pleased to meet you too." Replied Nate shyly.

"Uh, Julie, Nate's social worker is going to be here at about 2:30 to evaluate me as a guardian, so I was wondering if Nate could come hang out with you while that's going on. It's a Melissa Hooper."

Julie had a look of terror wash across her face which did not go unnoticed by Ryan. He walked up to her and whispered. "I know, I did the same thing, I guess 'cos the name sounds so similar."

"Yeah, I guess it does" Julie sputtered out over the lump in her throat. "No problem, Nate can come in here. 2:30, right?"

"Thanks, Julie" Ryan said as he and Nate left her office.

Julie walked around behind her desk and sat down in shock. She had a call to make. Ryan had thought her reaction was due to the name, but it was much more than that.

Chapter 11

"Cindy?" Julie was frantic. "I need to ask you something and you need to tell me the truth."

"What's got you so freaked out Jules?" Cindy hadn't talked to her sister for almost three years, and had a feeling what the call was about.

"Cindy, where's Melissa?…I mean Marissa, oh god, I don't know what I mean right now. Anyway, where is she?"

"Uh…I actually haven't talked to her in a couple of years" said Cindy.

"Years? Your supposed to be her mother, and you don't know where she is?" Julie was beside herself and couldn't believe what she was hearing from her sister.

"Oh yeah, riiiight, and you're supposed to be her cool-to-hang-around-with aunt. How come you don't know where she is? This was all your plan, so shouldn't you be on top of it?"

Flashback

When Julie got the call, she was beside herself barely able to put enough of a coherent sentence together to tell her fiance, Dr. Neil Roberts what had happened. She had raced to the scene and found Ryan in an almost catatonic state not able to communicate and her daughter being put into an ambulance. Although, Ryan had held her while she breathed her last breath, the paramedics had begun CPR and resuscitation efforts.

Sandy and Kirsten had arrived to take care of Ryan so Julie had got in the ambulance with her daughter. She had begged the paramedics to continue doing everything they knew how to save her and by the time they reached the hospital, they had managed to regain a heart beat and weak pulse.

It had been the longest journey Julie thought she had ever taken, but as she rode a plan began to formulate. She was not going to let anyone know about the revival efforts. Everyone at the scene already thought Marissa was dead, especially Ryan. It seemed to Julie that Marissa's troubles although apparent before Ryan's arrival in Newport, had worsened since she had known him. She didn't realize that Marissa's life was only good when Ryan was in it. Julie rationalized that it was likely that Marissa would not survive so there was no point in getting anyone's hopes up, but if she lived, she wanted her daughter to have a fresh start. No drama, no drinking, no Volchok, no Ryan. She would let everyone think Marissa was dead and have her shipped off to Jimmy in Greece as soon as she was able to travel!

And so the plan took shape. Marissa was on life support in a coma. Julie had her on lock down thanks to the influence she was able to exert with the hospital staff. She was the widow of Caleb Nichol after all…as in the Nichol Wing of the hospital. As far as everyone else was concerned, Marissa was dead. Ryan was devastated and disconnected from everyone completely. Julie was relieved that he didn't attend the funeral. The grief she showed was genuine, because although Marissa was alive, she was still not out of the woods and Julie felt the loss.

Then one day a few weeks later, the miracle had happened, Marissa had opened her eyes, and Julie had been there. "Hi sweetie," Julie had said tenderly.

"Hi" Marissa had replied weakly. "What happened to me? Who are you?"

Julie was stunned, but the wheels kept turning. This was better than she'd hoped. Marissa didn't remember Ryan or her, so the plan evolved. What if she could fix her relationship with her daughter? What if she didn't have to send her half way across the world to keep her away from Ryan? That's when it came to her…

"I'm your Aunt Julie, sweetie, don't you remember anything?"

"No, I don't even remember my name. Who am I?" Marissa questioned emotionally.

Julie was thinking on her feet. "Your name is …Melissa Hooper, sweetie, your mom, Cindy Hooper is my sister."

"Oh, where is she?" Marissa looked around.

"She needed to go back to Riverside to take care of some things, but she's been here every day. She'll be devastated to know you woke up when she wasn't here. I'm going to go call her right now."

"Ok, and then I want you to come back and tell me everything about me…um…Aunt Julie."

Julie stepped outside the hospital room and quickly called her sister. She explained her plan to have Marissa go to Riverside with Cindy as her daughter and invent a completely new, better life for Marissa as Melissa Hooper. Cindy was reluctant at first, but when Julie threw a dollar figure at her, she had agreed.

And so it happened. Julie and Cindy created an entire life for Marissa that did not include any of the people she had know in Newport. The doctors had advised that although it did not seem likely due to the nature of Marissa's brain trauma, there was a possibility she could start to remember in the future. Julie pressed ahead with he plan anyway. She would take that chance to give her daughter a new start. Julie was Marissa's aunt and her best friend and they loved hanging out together. Cindy was her mom, not the best relationship in the world, but they got along.

While all this was going on, Julie's life in Newport was becoming complicated. She had enlisted Ryan's help to catch Volchok, taking advantage of his rage, but was never once tempted to tell him the truth. Her engagement to Dr. Roberts had ended and Ryan's father had shown up in town. She'd bounced back and forth between dating Frank Atwood and dating a billionaire named Bullit, eventually settling on neither and going to college, even after giving birth to Frank's son. She had changed and fixed a number of things in her life including her relationship with her younger daughter Caitlin as well. It seemed that by changing Marissa's life, she had changed her own. She did eventually marry Frank, feeling the need to give there son, Jamie a father. Unfortunately, Frank did not turn out to be the reformed soul he presented and they divorced very quickly. Despite this, Julie managed to form a relationship with Ryan. He was, after all, her step-son, and he had warned her about Frank at the very beginning. She no longer blamed him for all that had happened to Marissa, and thought a few times of telling him the truth. Once he and Taylor became engaged she had dismissed this as she knew he would choose Marissa over Taylor in a heartbeat.

Through all of this, she drifted away from Marissa, but made sure to get updates from Cindy. When she moved to San Francisco to start ATCO with Ryan, she decided not to tell Marissa and had not spoken to her now for almost 3 years. She felt guilty sometimes, but knew that the life her and Cindy had invented for Marissa, was better than the one she was living before the accident.

"Yes, it was my plan, but you were supposed to keep an eye on her. I think she may be here in San Francisco and about to see Ryan!"

"Oh my god" was all Cindy could say.

Julie now had the spite in her voice that had stung so many "I suggest you start calling every number you ever had for her and find some way to stop her from coming to this 2:30 appointment she has with Ryan."

"Jules, she won't recognize him. What's the big deal?" Cindy was apparently oblivious to the ramifications of this meeting.

"Hellooo? Earth to Cindy? Ryan will recognize her!!!!!" Julie shouted. "Call me if you find out anything. I'm going to start damage control here."