A/N: This is a short chapter. I decided to cut a chapter in two. I didn't have a lot of time to type this weekend, and I really wanted to update. I hope it's ok (fingers crossed).

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 9: Gone, Baby, Gone

The cab traveled along the streets heading toward the Townsend house. Ryan sat impatiently in the back, nervously tapping his fingers on his knees, watching the light from the streetlamps rhythmically illuminate the interior of the cab.

It was just after 4 am.

When his cell rang, he almost didn't answer it for fear it was the Cohens tracking him down and wanting him to go back to the hospital (something he didn't intend to do). Despite that brief hesitation, he took the phone from his pocket and looked at the ID. It was Seth.

"What?" was his greeting.

"Yeah, hey man. Look, I just left Taylor's a few minutes ago. I know why she's been weird-er, lately..."

"I know-" Ryan cut him off. "She has amnesia."

"What the hell, Ryan?" he huffed. "How do you know?"

Despite the pull he felt to quickly get to Taylor, he did feel his cheeks flush at the thought of watching The Valley, and vowed Seth couldn't, wouldn't, ever know. "I'm not stupid." he said, even though he totally felt it. "I just thought about – never mind – it doesn't matter."

"Look, I'm heading back to the hospital now so we can figure this out."

"Don't bother. I'm not there."

Ryan heard Seth's breath catch. When he finally did speak, his tone was darker than he had ever heard from is brother. If he had taken a chance to really think about it, it would have scared him. As it was, he just heard, "What did you do, Ryan?"

"I've gotta go, Seth."

"No wait!" Seth called. The urgency of his brother pulled his hand back to his ear. "Seth, I'm not going back."

"Ok, I get it. Fine, whatever." he didn't mean it, but what did it matter now? "But there is something you need to know."

"What?"

"Taylor's mom knows about her-- condition. She's been using it-- to lie to her."

From the rear view mirror, the cabdriver saw Ryan's eyes flash red. He wanted to ask what was going on, but knew it was none of his business and really didn't want to mess with the boy in the back. He felt bad for the person who had ticked him off as badly as he was. "Lying to her how?" Ryan asked through clinched teeth.

Seth recognized the scary 'Atwood' tone and hesitated to tell him more. "You have to promise me that you won't do anything stupid."

"Seth."

"Fine!" Veronica probably deserved whatever Ryan dished out to her anyway. "Taylor's mom told her that you two had broken up-- among other things."

"And she believed her?"

"Dude, she doesn't know what to believe. She was confused-- crying--"

"She was crying." Ryan cut in. He hated seeing or hearing about a woman crying. He'd seen his fair share of it between Dawn, Marissa, even Kirsten at times, it was the worst feeling in the world, and what made it worse with Taylor was that she was crying because of him. Because he couldn't protect her during the earthquake. Because he couldn't protect her then and he couldn't protect her from Veronica's lies. She'd hurt Taylor and that was something he was not about to let go.

He removed the phone from his ear. He didn't hear Seth calling his name on the other end, and hung up before he could hear his warning of, "Don't do anything stupid!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It took everything he had not to kick the damn door down and run to Taylor's room – to hell with Veronica. He squelched that urge and instead banged as hard as he could on the opulently decorated door. Veronica Townsend's house was a magnificent structure with lots of windows and lots of old world architecture. It reminded him of the house Marissa used to live in when her mom was married to Caleb Nichol.

None of that mattered right at the moment, though. His hand beat harder on the door, the impacts causing his back injury to scream. The pain irritated him more, making him take more of it out on the defenseless door, which was taking quite a beating.

Just when the first flecks of blood spattered from his fist onto the door, it opened. Veronica stood there, pulling her robe tightly around herself, her eyes blazing fire. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Get out of my way." he started to pass her, but she shifted in front of her.

"Over my dead body." she countered.

"Don't tempt me." his voice was cold, stoic.

Her mouth gaped open. "Are you threatening me?"

He took a breath, backed away, and dropped his shaking fists in his pockets. He had to calm himself, take a second to cool off before he did something he'd (most likely... someday) regret. "Where's Taylor?" he asked, this time his voice was strained, barely above a whisper.

"Where do you think, idiot?" she spat. "In her room. Sleeping." she waved her hand around outside in the dark as if her sleeping should have been obvious, it being dark and all.

When her unwelcomed visitor didn't respond in any way, shape, or form, she rolled her eyes in annoyance and began to shut the door. At the last second before it clasped, he raised his hand and shoved it open with all he had causing her to stagger back. He took the opportunity to rush past her. He'd never been to that house before, had no idea where Taylor's room was, but he wasn't about to stop until he found it.

He vaguely heard Veronica screaming at him (over his own yelling Taylor's name) that she was going to call the police. It was possibly the fifth or sixth door he tried, but once opened, it was obvious it was Taylor's room-- and from the open window and lack of the person herself, it was also obvious that she was gone. Ryan searched the room for a note, a clue, anything, but came up empty. There was nothing but an unmade bed and a broken picture frame with a waded up picture of her and her mother lying discarded next to it on the floor.

"... boy trespassing in my house." Ryan heard Veronica stomping down the hall toward him- no doubt on the phone with the cops about her 'trespasser'. He stopped her as soon as she entered the room. "She's not here."

"What? Of course she's..." Veronica removed the phone from her ear and began searching the room, cautiously at first then turning frantic. "She's not here, Veronica."

"Stop saying that!" she demanded. "What did you do with her?"

"Me? Nothing. She was gone when I got here."

"And I'm just supposed to believe--"

"Believe whatever the hell you want? I'm going to go find her." when he was almost to the door, she yelled at him, "This is all your FAULT!"

He froze and surprised himself by how slowly he turned to face the evil woman. "My fault? My fault?!"

"Yes, your fault, you stupid boy!" Veronica forgot all about the 911 operator on the other end of the line-- who had already dispatched a car to the Townsend residence.

"The hell it is. Who lied to her? Who was trying to brainwash her?"

"I was giving her a better life!" she yelled back, wiping away the stupid tear that dared fall down her cheek.

"A better life." he scoffed.

"Yes. One where she would go to college. Have a good, solid future. Not dwell on her disastrous past at Harbor, her farce of a French husband-- and you." Veronica had to breathe, had to calm down. She leaned on Taylor's dresser for support. When she spoke next, her words weren't so sour. "She had no past. I was giving her a future. What would you want, Ryan?" Her eyes pierced his, not with anger, but with total and complete-- worry would be the only word for it. Yeah, he hated seeing a woman cry. He felt her pain, but said nothing. There was nothing he could say so she, instead, went on. "I know about you, about your home life in Chino. What if you had the chance to forget it all? Forget all about your drunk of a mother, your dickhead of a father, all of your mistakes and just start over? Wouldn't you want that?"

"No." he answered quickly, but something in his voice told her it wasn't a definitive answer.

"Ok, then." she straightened and wiped away her streaming tears, promising herself that she wouldn't fall apart on him again. He wasn't worth it. "I know that you got a girl pregnant a few years ago." He flinched when she said that. Of course she knew, everyone knew. She went on. "If that baby had of lived and you could have done everything in your power to give him or her a better life, to make a better future, wouldn't you do it?"

He took some time before answering, considering the possibilities. "I would never manipulate my child-- no matter the reason." his mind again fell to Taylor and his anger with Veronica began to rise again. "You may think your motives were justifiable, but they weren't. You can't mess with people's lives like that. It's not right. Your lies caused her to run away to God knows where."

They heard sirens coming from the distance. "I'm going to find her. Tell the cops about Taylor and forget about me. Do something good for once."

He left her standing there, hoping he had enough time to run from the house before the cops showed up to arrest him, racking his brain to try to pinpoint exactly where a Taylor with amnesia would go.