Chapter 22

"Yeah, yeah, ok, I'll do that, and we'll be there. Bye Dad." Seth hung up his phone and turned to his wife. Summer had a puzzled expression on her face after listening to one side of the conversation Seth had just had with his father.

"So? What's going on?" she asked anxiously.

"Uh yeah, honey I need you to sit down and I need you to calm down." Seth spoke calmly and evenly.

"COHEN!!! Stop with the molly coddling bullshit and tell me what's going on!!" Summer was anything but calm.

"Now, you see, this is not how I need you to be, Summer." Seth was pacing back and forth stroking his chin wondering how he was going to break this news to his wife without putting her into labor.

"You know for a writer, you're pretty pathetic with words." She chastised

"Ok, here goes, let's start slow. Ryan and Taylor broke up and she moved out yesterday." Seth paused for a reaction.

"Hmmm, well, we both knew they weren't really suited for each other and better they find out now than after they were married. Did it have anything to do with that kid Ryan's taking in? And don't tell me this is the big news. This is not labor inducing news, Cohen." She was staring at him as he paced back and forth, occasionally running a hand through his curly brown locks.

"Uh, no, nothing to do with the kid, really, although that might have been the catalyst…but er, it turns out that the social worker sent to check up on Ryan was kinda familiar." He paused again.

"So who was it? Someone he knew from Berkeley? Or Chino?" Summer was getting tired of the guessing games. "Spit it out, Cohen!"

"Yeah, uh, no and no, but it was Marissa" Seth had said it so blunt and matter-of-factly that it hardly registered with Summer at first. She sat for a few seconds trying to process what her husband had just told her.

"Coop is alive?" she finally said quietly tears welling in her eyes. "And she never called me in all these years? Oh, I'm gonna kick her ass! She made me have Taylor Townsend for a maid of honor!!" Her voice was getting louder and Seth could see her blood pressure rising as she moved into full blown sobs and screams of incoherent threats against Marissa.

"Uh, Summer, honey, this is not the part to go rage blackout on me. There's more, and please breathe." He imitated breathing exercises for giving birth. "I'm serious, this is a potential labor inducer coming."

"Ew, don't say that, please." The mention of labor seemed to bring Summer back from the brink of a complete breakdown. She wiped her eyes and took several long, slow, deep breaths and waited for her husband to continue.

"Marissa survived the accident, but lost her memory. She remembers no one, not Ryan, not me or you, or Mom or Dad. She even thinks Julie is her aunt." Seth was trying to relay the main points of what Sandy had told him without going into all the details immediately. "She's been going by the name Melissa Hooper and by some fluke she ended up as Ryan's social worker. He's been working with her this morning to try and help her remember."

"Whoa, so this is all since yesterday? Since when did Atwood work so fast where Coop was concerned? It's always taken him a great deal of brooding before going with a plan of action where she was concerned. I can't believe she's alive, when can I see her?" Seth was surprised by her sudden calmness and worried that she was not processing everything, and the worst was yet to come.

"Yeah, about that, this is the last part so remember, breathe….hoo…hoo." Summer rolled her eyes, and then gave the look that said 'speak!'

"Well, it turns out one person did know she was alive, and helped to manufacture this whole new life…"

"Julie" Summer finished herself. She knew. There had been times during the first couple of years after the accident that she and Julie had bonded over their common grief, but there had also been times when Summer had felt that there was something Julie was holding back or just didn't seem right. It all seemed to make sense now. Julie said she went to the grave everyday, but there were times when Summer had gone and the flowers weren't fresh, but Julie always said she had 'talked to Marissa' for hours and she had sounded so genuine. Apparently, she had spoken to Marissa…in the hospital.

"Yeah, how did you know?...Wait, did you know?" Seth had lost his train of thought with Summer's interruption and was now processing alternate theories in his head. He was really big on conspiracy theories and this would be the king of all of them. He was jolted out of his diversion by his wife thumping him.

"Cohen, you can be such an asshat sometimes! Of course, I didn't know, but who else would go to such lengths to keep Coop and Atwood apart. She thinks Ryan's all right now, but back then, she pretty much blamed him for all the drama in Marissa's life. So, you were about to tell me when I can see her." Summer was processing so many emotions she wasn't sure if she should be happy and laughing that her friend was alive, or hysterical and angry that she'd lost all this time.

"Yeah, she's at Ryan's house right now. He's been filling her in on the past eight years and they have a plan to help her regain her memory and call Julie on why she did this. They want us there for dinner tonight, and we can go early so you can see her and help with the plan, but remember, she won't know you, I mean she will, know you, because Ryan's told her now, but she won't, know you, know you."

"Cohen, you're babbling. Call Ryan, tell him we will be there in an hour. What plan?"

Seth moved to sit down beside her. "Are you done hitting me, now? Can we cuddle, and I can tell you the plan?"

Summer laughed and gave him a friendly slap. She slid up next to him and laid her head on his shoulder. "Tell me the plan, and then I want to see my best friend." Although she was laughing on the outside, on the inside, Summer was about as nervous as she'd ever been, including her wedding day, and the thought of giving birth. What if Coop wasn't Coop? What if she didn't like her now? What if she managed to kill Julie in a rage blackout and give birth at the same time? She nestled into her husband and listened to the plan. This would be interesting, she thought.