Lucky number seven, everyone. I think there are at least a few plot-advancements in this one, which is good. So read and enjoy. Also, please review! ....please? It'll make me write more! :)

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Alex woke the next morning to the unmistakable sound of a shriek. Without even opening her eyes, she turned over on her air mattress and groaned inwardly. I guess Summer's awake, she thought dully.

Her suspicion turned out to be correct. Feeling her mattress rock, she opened her eyes to find Summer had jumped onto it. "Ohmygosh!" the tiny brunette squealed, almost shattering Alex's eardrums. "It's my birthday, I'm nineteen!"

Abandoning all hope of going back to sleep, Alex sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Happy birthday," she yawned. "What time is it?"

"Oh, who cares?" said Summer happily, prancing off Alex's mattress and heading to her closet. "What should I wear?"

Still yawning, Alex ripped off her covers, and stood up. "How about an old t-shirt and sweatpants?" she suggested sarcastically. But Summer was clearly not listening to her, and was still busy cooing over several outfits which probably cost about as much on their own than Alex's entire wardrobe did put together. With a slight smile, Alex walked lazily over to the corner of the room where Marissa (the only one who wore her size) had dropped off some clothes.

She got dressed rather slowly, but was still finished before Summer had decided on an outfit. Wondering vaguely whether Summer was planning on being ready before her birthday was over, she wandered over to the bedroom door. "I'm going downstairs," she said, on the off chance Summer would hear her, and headed to the kitchen.

Yesterday morning, Alex had found the house unoccupied except for Summer's stepmother, who in any case seemed to be in some sort of a coma. Today, however, upon entering the kitchen, she found it was already occupied. A handsome, middle aged man whose brown hair was streaked with grey was standing next to the toaster, drinking a cup of coffee. When he heard Alex enter, he lifted his head.

"Hello, Summe-" he began, and then stopped, as he realized Alex was not, in fact, his daughter. "Oh," he started again, a bemused expression on his face. "I didn't realize we were entertaining."

"I'm Alex, a friend of Summer's," Alex said hurriedly, in case this man was under the impression she was some sort of slow witted burglar. "I'm just staying here for a few days."

"Oh," said the man again. He crossed the kitchen and held out his hand, smiling now. "I'm Dr. Neil Roberts, Summer's father."

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Roberts."

"Please, call me Neil," he corrected with a chuckle. "Now, did Summer show any signs of coming down here any time soon? I took the morning off work today so I could wish her a happy birthday."

Wow, that's a dedicated parent, thought Alex, a little jealously. "She's still trying to pick out an outfit," she said aloud. "I think she expects some sort of a fashion show as soon as she leaves her bedroom."

Neil laughed good naturedly. "This is Newport Beach," he said, pouring a second cup of coffee and handing it to Alex. "Everyday's a fashion show."

Alex accepted the coffee graciously, and took a sip. Then she heard Summer's voice coming from the hallway. "Alex?" called the voice. "Who are you talking to?" Bounding into the kitchen wearing a remarkably colour-coordinated top and skirt, Summer's mouth fell open. "Daddy!"

Neil's face split into a wide grin. "Happy Birthday, Summer!" He put down his coffee mug and walked forward to envelop his daughter in a hug. "That's a great outfit."

Summer pulled away from the hug, beaming. "Thanks, Daddy." She flashed a quick glance at Alex, and then back to her dad. "What are you doing home?"

"I took the morning off work today," Neil explained, picking up his coffee again. "I wanted to wish you happy birthday, and I have to go talk to Julie Cooper anyway."

Summer made a face. "Why?"

Neil laughed at his daughter's expression. "Business. The Newport Group is thinking of investing in our new office downtown." He checked his watch. "I should actually be going soon." He looked back at Summer. "Have a great day, I'll see you tonight. I'd give you your gift now, but I want to save it for your party on Saturday."

Alex raised an amused eyebrow. "Isn't that supposed to be a surprise party?"

Neil's eyes twinkled. "It's supposed to be." He gave his daughter one last hug, and then put down his coffee and picked up his briefcase. "Happy Birthday again, Summer. And nice to meet you, Alex." He smiled, and headed whistling toward the door.

"He seems nice," commented Alex as she heard the front door open and shut.

Summer nodded, smiling, and opened the fridge. "He's great," she agreed. She took out some orange juice, poured herself a glass, and then looked back at Alex. "Was he surprised to see you?"

"Yeah, I guess," she answered, taking another sip of coffee. "I mean, I'm some weird kid with tattoos who showed up in his kitchen at nine in the morning. But he was pretty cool with it. He didn't try to have me arrested, anyway."

Summer raised an eyebrow. "I don't think anyone would have you arrested just for sleeping over."

Alex smiled grimly. "Clearly you've never met Jodi's parents."

Summer let out a disbelieving little laugh. "They tried to have you arrested?"

"Well," began Alex, hiding a grin behind her coffee mug. "On that particular occasion, I wasn't just 'sleeping over,' if you catch my drift."

Summer rolled her eyes. "Ugh," she groaned, heading over to the cupboard for a box of cereal. "Way too much information."

Still grinning, Alex poured herself some cereal as well, and the girls sat down to eat and talk about what was to be the day's main focus; how to begin their investigation on the kidnapping.

"So you're sure he's never shown any car stealing initiative?" Summer was asking. "You'd never walk through parking lots and his fingers would get all twitchy?"

Alex snorted. "No, I told you, he never talked about cars." She paused, and took another bite of cereal. "Although, I guess that doesn't mean he wouldn't steal one if he needed it. He's.... he's like Julie Cooper. Evil wrapped in mystery with a fake sincere smile."

Summer laughed at the comparison, and drained her last drop of orange juice. And then she suddenly paled, as though all the blood in her face had leaked out. "Oh my god," she breathed.

"What?" asked Alex urgently.

"Julie Cooper!" blurted Summer, who had lifted herself out of her chair and was stuffing her half finished bowl of cereal in the sink. "That's who my dad just went to see. And he's a pretty chatty guy; there's a good chance he'll mention you're here!"

Alex stood up as well. "Not good."

"No it's not!" Summer was punching numbers into her cell phone. She held it to her ear for a moment, and then took it away again, increasingly agitated. "Marissa's cell is off, she's probably still asleep. And my dad's phone is never on-we've got to go over there, come on, I'll drive..."

The girls rushed out of the house, and Alex quickly strapped herself into the passenger seat. Her heart was pounding, and she impatiently tapped her fingers against the dashboard as Summer fumbled with the keys. How could they have let Dr. Roberts leave without telling him to keep quiet about Alex's presence? She fumed silently at her own stupidity. If Julie Cooper found out she was here, not only would she likely do her best to keep Marissa away from her, but she would also tell Ryan. And that would spell disaster in so many ways it wasn't even funny. Alex bit her lip. "Come on, Summer!"

"Okay, okay..." Summer finally got the car started, they pulled out of the driveway, and quickly started to make their way to Marissa's house. This route, if the speed limit was obeyed, and all stop signs were stopped at, usually took about five minutes. Summer and Alex made it in two.

As soon as the car was in the driveway (parked behind a large water feature), Alex made to take off her seatbelt. Summer stopped her immediately. "What are you doing?" hissed the tiny brunette. "You're going to storm into Julie's house to make sure she doesn't find out you're here? I don't know about you, but that seems like an extremely stupid plan to me."

Alex took her hand away from her belt. "Okay," she said impatiently. "Then you go in there and stop him."

Summer shook her head. "Too late, he's been in there too long. He's probably with Julie now, if I rush in there and ask to talk to him privately she'll get curious. And if she's curious, I guarantee she'll do anything to figure out what she's looking for."

Alex felt extremely frustrated. "So what, we're just supposed to sit in this car and do nothing?"

But Summer's eyes now had a mischievous twinkle. "Oh, I didn't say we were going to do nothing. Come on, follow me. But keep out of sight."

Summer got out of the car, and started creeping quietly toward the side of the house. Bewildered, Alex followed her, wondering what exactly was going on. Just as she was about to whisper that question in Summer's ear, the brunette came to a halt. "Okay," she said quietly, looking straight up at the side of the house that they were now standing next to. "This is it."

Alex looked up as well, not quite sure what she was looking for. They were at the left side of the house, staring up at a bunch of vine covered wall, and two windows. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, Alex turned back to Summer. "I don't get it."

Summer bent low to the ground, searching for something. She snatched something up, and straightened again. "That window on the right," she said, "is Marissa's room." Then she opened her hand, and Alex saw four or five small stones in it. Summer then pointed up to the window. "Your job," she explained, "is to throw these at the window and wake Marissa up. Tell her to distract her mom for a few minutes. In those few minutes, I'll sneak in and warn my dad to keep his mouth shut."

Alex just gaped at her. "You want to me to throw rocks at her window?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea how ridiculous this plan is? There are probably a million easier ways to do this."

"Probably," Summer admitted, dumping the stones into Alex's hand. "But at the moment, we don't have the time to think of them. So get throwing. I'll be waiting at the door, which I think you can see from here. When Marissa's gone to distract her mom, wave at me." With that, Summer hurried off toward the front door, leaving Alex with a handful of rocks and an exasperated look on her face.

Still feeling fairly ridiculous, Alex picked out one of the stones in her hand. She looked up at Marissa's window, and gave a fleeting sigh. "Oh well," she muttered. "I must be crazy, but here goes." And she threw the rock. To Alex's amazement, it made contact with the window. Tap. She waited for a moment, but no one opened it. She looked helplessly over at Summer, who was mouthing something at her from the front door. Throw again.

So she did. Again, the stone made the tap as it made contact, and again, Marissa did not wake up. Cursing under her breath, Alex tried again. Tap. Nothing. And then a fourth time. Tap. Nothing again. Now feeling as though she was certainly screwed, Alex threw the fifth stone almost angrily. But this time, about ten seconds after the stone made contact, the window opened, and a head of tousled light brown hair stuck out of it.

"Marissa!" hissed Alex, burying her surprise that Summer's plan had actually worked. "Down here!"

Marissa looked down with a stupefied look on her face. "Alex?" she said incredulously. "Why were you throwing stuff at my window?"

Alex waved a hand at her. "I'll explain better later," she whispered hurriedly up to the window. "Right now, I need you to do something. Downstairs in your house right now, Summer's dad and your mom are having a conversation. This morning, Dr. Roberts met me in his kitchen, and he could tell Julie about me at any second; Summer and I forgot to warn him to keep his mouth shut. We need a diversion; you need to distract your mom while Summer deals with her dad!"

If Alex was expecting bombardment with skeptical questions, she was mistaken. As soon as she had finished talking, Marissa just hissed, "I can guarantee you two minutes," and then withdrew her head from outside her window, leaving Alex standing somewhat shell shocked on the ground. Then, remembering her instructions, she jerked her gaze over to Summer, and waved. She watched as Summer gingerly opened the front door, and snuck in.

Alex had always found that time never seemed to behave properly in times of stress. She stood awkwardly outside Marissa's window for what seemed like an eternity; surely it had been two minutes, at least. What if Julie hadn't fallen for Marissa's distraction? What it Summer had been caught? Alex chewed her lip nervously. Was Julie interrogating every last detail out of Summer right now?

But just as Alex was giving up all hope, she saw the front door open, and two people stepped out. Quickly moving to hide behind a particularly robust bush, she peeked out to see that Julie and Neil were now both making their way down the driveway, having a conversation vaguely punctuated with polite laughter every now and then. Stock still, Alex watched them both get into Neil's car (thankfully not seeing Summer's, which was hidden by the water feature), and drive away. As soon as the car was out of sight, the front door opened again, and Marissa stepped outside.

Alex rose from behind the bush, and started to walk toward her. "What happened?" she asked, as she reached the front step. "Where did they go? Did it work?"

Marissa nodded, running a hand through her still slightly bed-mussed hair. "Yeah, it worked. Summer managed to tell her dad to keep quiet about you while I was distracting my mom. They went out to breakfast to discuss some work stuff."

Alex smiled, her stomach lurching. She was having trouble focusing on the conversation; Marissa had obviously not had time to change, and was still wearing threadbare pajamas, which were probably appropriate considering the heat, but were playing havoc with Alex's concentration.

Luckily, Summer chose that moment to intervene. "Hey!" she called from the kitchen, her voice traveling through the still open door. "Will you guys come inside? Aren't you supposed to be keeping yourself a secret, Alex?"

"Right," said Alex, shaking herself out of her brief stupor. She followed Marissa through the threshold and closed the door behind her. They made their way down the hallway, and into the kitchen, to be greeted by Summer, who was flipping through a magazine that had been left on the table.

"I can't believe that worked," said Marissa as she and Alex sat down.

Summer smiled. "You can say it; I'm brilliant."

Alex rolled her eyes, making Marissa giggle. "Yes, brilliant." She gazed over the table and was surprised to see a familiar newspaper sitting on one corner. "Why do you get the LA Times?" she asked Marissa, reaching over the grab it.

Marissa shrugged. "My mom likes to get subscriptions to papers she'll never read. She says she likes to be 'informed', but she always just ends up reading Vogue."

Summer gave a light laugh, but Alex was now staring at the newspaper, her eyes wide. "Oh my god," she breathed.

"What?"

Her mouth dry, Alex held up the paper, pointing at a small article on the third page. "Jonathan Booth," she said weakly, "Age 28, released early from prison due to good behaviour."

Summer frowned. "So?"

"I recognize that name," Alex explained, her heart thumping in her chest. "Jonny Booth. He was Adam's friend, he was always telling stories about him." Both Marissa and Summer's eyes widened. Alex pushed the paper closer to them. "Read the offenses."

Marissa took the paper, and read, "Physical assault, and car theft." She looked up, her eyes bright. "Oh my god," she said, excitement building in her voice. "This is him! This is our guy; it must be! Look, his release date was last week... The article says he's violated his parole! He's missing!"

"He got scared," Alex realized, sitting back in her chair. "He's gone into hiding since he kidnapped me; he left me in that car... he must think he's committed a murder!"

Summer got up out of her seat. "Well, he hasn't," she said triumphantly, digging around in her purse and pulling out a cell phone. "But we're going to find him anyway. I'll call Seth... you guys go upstairs, Marissa, you should get dressed."

Alex followed Marissa up the stairs, her heart now feeling like it was pounding in her ears. We've got a lead, she thought happily. This is actually going somewhere... we can do this on our own.

But as soon as she thought 'on our own' she remembered one more thing she was supposed to be figuring out. Stepping into Marissa's room, she found that her ex girlfriend seemed to be thinking the same thing. She was sitting on the bed, looking at her, not making any move to get changed. She wanted to talk. Alex took a steadying breath, and then crossed the room and sat on the bed next to her. "Hi," she said, not knowing what else to say.

Marissa giggled. "Yeah, hi." She looked down at her feet. "It's good that we found that out; about Jonny, I mean. We'll find him, and this will all be figured out."

Alex nodded. "I guess... we have something else we still have to figure out, though," she said slowly. "Right?"

Marissa looked up, meeting Alex's eyes. "Right," she agreed quietly.

Struggling to find words, Alex swallowed. "So... what happens now?" she managed finally.

Marissa didn't look away, just kept staring Alex right in the eye. "I don't know," she admitted. "I guess... I guess I have to find out who I can't be without." She moved a little closer.

Alex felt like her system was in overdrive. Her heart was thudding so loudly she was surprised Marissa couldn't hear it. She took a shaky breath. "And how are you going to do that?"

Marissa smiled, leaning in closer still. Her eyelids fluttered. "I think you already know," she whispered. Alex smiled as well, closing her eyes, beginning to close the space between them…

And then a voice announced itself from the doorway. A deep voice, and not one either girls were expecting to hear. "So this is why you cancelled," said the voice.

Alex whipped her head around, opening her eyes to see what she already knew. Ryan was standing in Marissa's doorway, his arms crossed, his blue eyes angry, but also hurt. "Ryan," Alex started, wanting to explain, "Wait-"

"No," he said, the hurt very evident in his voice now. He looked at Marissa, and though Alex had never seen him cry, he looked close now. His jaw was fixed, and he spoke with a distinct tremor. "I'm done waiting around. Maybe you'll call me when you've... figured things out." And then he turned on his heel, and left the room.

"Ryan!" called Marissa, getting off the bed and rushing to her door. But Alex heard a slamming sound, and knew Ryan was already gone.

"Marissa," Alex said hesitantly, standing up and walking over to her. She wasn't sure exactly what to do, so she held out a hand, placing it on Marissa's wrist. "I'm sorry."

Marissa turned, and her eyes were shining with tears. "Don't be sorry," she said quietly, moving her hand so it was squeezing Alex's. "It's not your fault." She smiled weakly, and a tear streaked down her cheek. "You're always apologizing when you don't need to."

Alex lifted her free hand to wipe away the tear. "Sorry about that," she said with a smile. She heard the door open downstairs, and voices start to converse; Seth had arrived. She sighed, and released Marissa's hand. "You should get dressed."

Alex started to walk out of the room, but then she felt a pressure on her wrist. Surprised, she turned around, to find Marissa had grabbed it. Wordlessly, she tugged on Alex's arm, pulling her in close. Completely unexpectedly, their lips met for a short, but incredibly sweet moment. Pulling away, Alex saw that Marissa was still smiling. "I just felt like you owed me that," the tall brunette said quietly.

Alex felt dazed from their kiss, but couldn't suppress her own grin. "Anytime," she said. And she walked out of the room, and made her way downstairs, knowing that things had just gotten ten times more complicated, and also that at this moment, she felt as though she couldn't care less.

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