Chapter 20

After the initial shock for Sandy and Kirsten, the four of them had decided that a break from the intensity of the situation was in order. Ryan had put on another pot of coffee, and Sandy had taught Marissa the art of the cream cheese 'schmear' on a bagel. Sandy, Kirsten and Ryan had all smiled ironically realizing this was not the first time Sandy had shown this to Marissa. They had all tried to have a carefree conversation about the weather, the Forty-Niners, the Raiders, anything to alleviate the tension a little. They knew there was work to be done, but the sleep-deprived foursome had all appreciated the coffee and food.

During their breakfast Nate had woken up and come downstairs. He was shocked to find Ms. Hooper in the kitchen and a little uncomfortable to meet Sandy and Kirsten. Marissa had been able to put her professional hat on briefly to observe Nate's interaction with Ryan. They seemed so comfortable together, and Sandy and Kirsten were just so easy going and friendly, she wished she'd had parents like them. They had all told Nate that 'Melissa' was there to observe as a surprise visit. Kirsten had offered to take him shopping so the others could sort out the 'legal details' of the guardianship transfer. None of them liked the idea of lying to him, but thought it best not to burden him with what was really going on.

After Kirsten and Nate left, the remaining three went back to the living room. Sandy had a file folder full of faxed documents and Ryan had a stack of papers that he had printed from the internet and some pictures.

"Are you sure you're ready to do this now?" Ryan asked Marissa warmly.

"If not now, then when?" she replied. "I think I need to hear what you and Sandy have to tell me."

Sandy opened his file and then looked at Ryan. "I think we should start slow with what you have," he said cautiously.

Ryan nodded, fully understanding what Sandy was implying.

"Ok," Ryan began. "Let's start easy." He pulled the pictures out that he had looked at the night before. "Here are some pictures of me and yo…Marissa when we were teenagers."

Marissa looked through the pictures taking in all the detail. When she came to the one in the Tiki Hut she blushed slightly and smiled at Ryan.

"Uh, perhaps that was a bit too much, too soon." He smirked connecting with her gaze.

"Maybe, you guys should do this without me." Sandy interjected, winking at Ryan playfully.

"No, no, it's fine" she said moving on the graduation picture. "Who are these people?"

"That's Seth and Summer. Seth is Sandy and Kirsten's son and Summer is…was…your best friend." He had now given up trying to separate Melissa from Marissa. "They got married just over a year ago and their expecting their first child now. You and Summer used to do everything together, especially tanning and shopping."

"So they were high-school sweethearts like you and…" Marissa looked down embarrassed and then caught Ryan staring at her "you and me?" she finished after a long pause.

"Yep, except, they had slightly fewer breakups and reconciliations than we did." He chuckled.

"So we had a bit of drama in our relationship, did we?" she flirted.

Sandy squirmed a bit again. "I'm gonna get some more coffee, while you guys do all this mushy stuff. Call me back in when you need me." He was smiling widely and patted Ryan on the back as he got up.

Ryan's eyes followed Sandy out of the room and then he turned to Marissa.

"Marissa, we don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'm not trying to make you fall in love with me again right now. I just thought it might inspire some memories." Ryan was serious and sincere in his tone.

Marissa chuckled. "Well, I did tell you that I was crushing hard on you after I met you yesterday, so who knows, you might just get lucky and have Melissa fall for you as well as Marissa." She was flirting again, and thought briefly of how it was probably inappropriate, but it seemed so natural to her, she only wished that the pictures had evoked some sort of memory for her, but they hadn't.

"Ok, moving on." Ryan said taking Marissa's lead in lightening the mood. "Next I printed some articles off the internet with details of the crash and how it happened. I haven't given you any background on who, or how or why. My bias on this could be very damaging and you need to put this part together by yourself." He handed her the different articles from the local papers.

Marissa sat cross-legged on the floor reading intently through each one, going back a couple of times to re-read or look at the pictures that had been printed with the articles. She read one particular article about four times and then stopped to look at Ryan who was sitting in front of her leaning back on his arms. He had been staring at her the whole time she was reading, still trying to take in that his Marissa was sitting right in front of him.

The article she had been reading was one that reported on the arrest of Kevin Volchok, the driver of the other vehicle that had caused the accident.

"So the guy was caught and arrested, but not until six months later." She stated

"Yeah, he fled to Mexico after the accident. Seth and I tried to find him down there. Seth actually spoke to him and told him he should turn himself in, but ultimately it was Sandy who got him to do that and brokered the deal for him." Ryan deliberately omitted any mention of him wanting to kill Volchok or that they had found him because of a private investigator that Julie had hired.

"Um, it doesn't say here why he ran you, I mean us, off the road." Ryan had noticed she was now talking as if she was Marissa.

"Yeah, well, you had dated Volchok for a while and then broke up with him for making out with another girl at the senior prom. He wanted you back, and wanted me out of the picture, so he followed us when I was taking you to the airport."

"Airport? Oh yeah, I remember yesterday you saying that …" she paused and stressed the next pronoun "I was leaving to go to Greece to seem my dad."

"Why did you take me? I mean, you said we weren't together anymore. Why not my mom, or the Cohens or Summer even, if she was my best friend." Marissa was probing for clues as to where things had been left between them at the point she lost her memory.

"Well, I'd asked if I could since you were the first person I met in Newport, I wanted to be the last one you said goodbye to, and we had finally become friends, I guess." Ryan paused and then leaned forward to look into Marissa's eyes searching for any sign of recollection.

He choked on the lump in his throat as he remembered their final farewell. "As it turned out, I was the last one because of the accident. I held you and I wanted to go get help, but you wouldn't let me leave you, and all I wanted to do was tell you that I loved you and everything was going to be all right and…" he stopped realizing that he was now leaning so far forward to her he was a matter of inches from her face.

"And what?" Marissa said softly looking from his eyes to his lips and back again. Even though she still remembered nothing other than what she had seen in her dream, she felt the undeniable chemistry between them, and started to lean in closer.

"And I wanted to do this…" Ryan brought their faces so close there noses touched. Their lips had barely come together when there was a crash in the kitchen. It jolted them apart.

"I'm okayee" yelled Sandy. "I just dropped my cup in the sink and it smashed."

"S'all right" Ryan yelled back moving away from Marissa who was looking up at the ceiling awkwardly. Their eyes met again for a second and each seemed to know what the other was thinking. Without any words being spoken, Marissa nodded her head.

"Uh, Sandy, I think we're ready to see what you've got now" said Ryan and Sandy appeared in the doorway from the kitchen. "I'm just gonna go throw some proper clothes on quickly." He added quickly getting up and running upstairs.

In their moment, Ryan had become painfully aware that he was still wearing his baggy pajama pants and needed to put on something more 'restrictive' like jeans. If there was any doubt before that this was Marissa, there was now absolutely none. No one else had ever been able to make him react with barely a kiss.