Summary: After the Oliver incident. Child services finds out about Ryan's trouble at school and takes him away. Sandy and Kirsten do everything they can to get him back with an unlikely source to help them.
AN: Another chapter for you guys. I worked on it as much as i could this weekend. I even gave up a night on doing my school work, which was probably not a good idea. But I'm happy about how this chapter turned out. Please enjoy and leave some reviews!
Disclaimer: I own no one. They all belong to Josh Schwartz and Fox.
Chapter 6: Therapy
Ryan awoke on Tuesday morning with his history book and notebook beside him. He must've fallen asleep as he tried to finish up his homework. He slowly got out of bed and got ready for school even though he still had forty-five minutes before everyone else would be up. He gathered his books for school and went down to the kitchen; he was surprised when he saw Kirsten sitting at the table with some papers around her. She looked up abruptly as he came in and put his book bag on the counter and sat on one of the stools.
"What are you doing up so early?" she asked him as he took out one of his books and a pen.
"I need to finish my homework." He told her. "What about you?"
"New development plans." She told him as they both got back to work.
They both got involved in their work and soon lost track of time. Sandy came into the kitchen and saw Kirsten at the table looking through some papers, and Ryan at the counter hastily scrawling in his notebook.
"You two are up early." He observed as he went to get a cup of coffee.
"Work." They both responded, not looking up.
"All right." He went to grab a bagel as Seth came downstairs.
"You know, you're really starting to make me look bad." Seth told Ryan, who looked up at him.
"I'm not even going to pretend that I was listening to you." He told him. "Is Summer coming to get us?"
"Yeah. She's on her way." He told him as he started to pack up his books and grabbed a bagel from the counter as they all heard a loud honk. "She's here already? That was fast."
"Ryan, remember-" Sandy started as they both started out of the kitchen.
"Therapy. Four o'clock. I know." He mumbled as he followed Seth outside.
"I'm surprised he hasn't tried to get out of it yet." Kirsten looked at Sandy as they heard the door close.
"I'm sure he'll try something before his appointment today." Sandy said.
"I'm sure he will, too."
Ryan walked to his locker to gather his books and met up with Luke as he was coming out of the office.
"Hey, Chino." He greeted him. "How's it going?"
"So far, so good." He sighed. "But it's still early."
"Come on. Let's go." They walked to their history class and sat down as the teacher arrived just as the bell rang. "So I hear you're hanging out with Taylor Townsend."
"Don't start. She's nice."
"I don't know. She's a little crazy."
"She's not as bad as Oliver."
"Ok. Good point." They passed their homework up to the front as the teacher turned on the projector and everyone started taking notes.
By lunchtime, Ryan was ready for any kind of break from all the other students. He walked into the library and sat on one of the cushion couches and sighed.
"Hey, Ryan. Ready to begin?" Taylor sat down beside him.
"Oh, right. We were supposed to study, weren't we?" he looked at her. "Is it ok if we do it tomorrow? I have a lot on my mind."
"What's going on?" she looked at him full of concern.
"I'm a little anxious about my doctor's appointment this afternoon."
"Are you getting your stitches out?"
"Not that kind of doctor's appointment."
"Oh. They're making you talk to a therapist, aren't they?"
"How'd you know?"
"They made me go see one after my dad left. It's really not that bad."
"No offense, but you like to talk. Talking got me in trouble when I was younger, so I learned not to unless I absolutely had to."
"You might find that it's helpful."
"Not a chance." He mumbled.
"You owe it to yourself to at least try."
"I guess." He sighed as he just sat silently beside Taylor the entire lunch hour, and then followed her to Chemistry.
At three-thirty that afternoon, Ryan was sitting on the curb outside of school as he waited for Sandy or Kirsten to come pick him up for his appointment. He just hoped they both weren't going to take him. He was anxious enough as it was.
"Waiting for Mr. Cohen?" he looked up and saw Taylor.
"Aren't you supposed to be in some kind of meeting?" he asked her.
"I was, but the social chair didn't show." She sat down beside him. "No offense to your ex or anything-"
"If anyone has anything bad to say about Marissa, I'm all ears." He looked at her. "But unfortunately, I have to go. There's Sandy."
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow." She told him as he stood up as the Jaguar pulled up to where they were.
"See you." He got into the front seat and Sandy pulled away.
"How was school?" Sandy asked him.
"Fine." He mumbled.
"Was that Taylor I just saw you with?" Sandy asked him.
"Yeah." He mumbled as he stared out the window.
Sandy sighed as they spent the rest of the car ride in complete silence. They all knew that Ryan wanted nothing to do with counseling, but he had at least agreed to come. Sandy was just waiting for him to make some kind of excuse to get out of it. It wasn't long before Sandy pulled up to an office building and turned the car off. Sandy climbed out of the car and came around to the other side and waited for Ryan to get out, but he remained where he was.
"Come on, kid." Sandy knocked on the window. "This was one of the conditions. At least give it a chance."
Ryan let out a deep sigh as he slowly opened the door and eventually climbed out of the car. He followed Sandy into the building and waited while he checked in with a receptionist behind a sliding glass window.
"He's ready for you." Sandy looked at Ryan. "Go on back. I'll be here when you're done."
Ryan nodded and slowly walked back as the receptionist directed him to a room. He walked in and took in his surroundings; it was a small room that didn't feel very welcoming to Ryan at that point. It was set up to look like a living room, with two chairs and a small couch. He opted to sit in one of the chairs and waited for the doctor to come in.
"You must be Ryan," the door opened and a man in a suit came in and sat in the other chair. "I'm Dr. Freedman."
Ryan nodded.
"The Cohen's told me you're not much of a talker."
Ryan shook his head.
"Well, you should probably try to get over that." Dr. Freedman opened up a file. "Now why don't you tell me why you're here?"
"It was one of the conditions."
"Conditions?"
"When Mr. Nichol got me out of the youth facility."
"Mr. Nichol is Kirsten's father?" Ryan nodded. "So do you get along well?"
"Not at all. He's hated me since before he met me. He thinks I'm after the Cohen's money."
"So if you don't get along, why do what he wants you to do?"
"Have you ever spent time in a youth facility?" Ryan challenged.
"No."
"Well if you ever did, you would agree to anything to get out of a place like that."
"So are you ready to talk about what happened?"
"No."
"Ok. So why don't you tell me about the Cohen's?"
"What do you want to know?"
"How do you feel about them?"
"I'm grateful to them."
"Why are you grateful to them?"
"Because they didn't have to take me in when my mom ditched me, but they did."
"So do you feel close to them?"
"At times."
"Give me some examples."
"Whenever Seth and me play video games, or do other things together."
"So you and Seth do things together a lot?"
"Not as much now that he has a girlfriend."
"Are you resentful towards him or his girlfriend because you don't spend as much time together as you used to?"
"No. I'm glad he has a girlfriend."
"Ok. Now let's talk about Sandy and Kirsten."
"What about them?"
"What are your feelings towards them at this point?"
"I-I don't know."
"Ryan, I assure you that whatever you say in this room, stays in this room unless you say otherwise."
"I'm not really sure how I feel about them right now."
"How did you used to feel about them?"
"I used to think that they would always be there for me. They wouldn't judge, criticize; that they'd always be on my side."
"And you don't feel like that now?"
"Well, they did seem to believe a practical stranger over someone they claimed was a part of their family."
"You're referring to Oliver Trask." Dr. Freedman looked through his file again.
"I'd rather not talk about him."
"Ok. How about your girlfriend? Marissa Cooper?"
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Why not?"
"It's another one of Mr. Nichol's conditions. Not that it took a lot to convince me to end it with her. She didn't believe me either."
Sandy sat in the waiting room as Ryan was in talking with the doctor. He impatiently flipped through all the magazines that were displayed on the tables as he counted down the minutes to the end of the session. The door finally opened and Ryan came out looking drained. It had obviously taken a lot out of him.
"He wants to talk to you in private before we leave." Ryan told him.
"All right." Sandy stood up. "Just wait here."
"Sure." Ryan sat on one of the chairs as Sandy went back to talk to him.
He walked into the office and saw the doctor going through his notes on Ryan. He directed Sandy to sit down in the chair across from him and he did so.
"First of all, I'm surprised I got him to open up at all after what you told me about him." Dr. Freedman told him.
"But he did talk to you?"
"With little hesitation, I might add."
"So what's the verdict?"
"He said he wasn't ready to talk about his time in the facility or the Oliver situation, so I had him talk about his family. And I'm definitely getting that he has trust issues."
"We've known that since we took him in."
"Well, those issues have heightened after what all has happened the past couple of months. You, your wife, and your other son will really have to prove yourselves to him in the coming weeks."
"We figured as much." Sandy sighed.
"And I'd also like to suggest a group session with your entire family once a month to try to resolve all this. Or at least to start to resolve all this."
"I think we can do that." Sandy listened to what all the doctor had to say, and then walked back out to Ryan.
"Can we go yet?" Ryan asked.
"Sure. Come on." They walked outside and climbed into the car, where Sandy realized that Ryan had a black composition book. "What's that?"
"The doctor gave it to me. He wants me to try to write in it twice a week."
"And are you going to?"
"I don't do diaries."
"It could just be a journal if that'll make it seem less girlish to you."
"I don't do journals either."
"If the doctor suggested it, I would at least-"
"Give it a try." Ryan finished. "I'll think about it."
The rest of the car ride was silent as they both thought about what the doctor had told them. When they arrived home, Ryan grabbed his things and went straight up to his room. Sandy went into the kitchen to wait for Kirsten to arrive home so they could talk about Ryan's session.
Kirsten arrived home with some take-out and found Sandy in the kitchen just standing near the counter. He looked up at her as she came in and tried to offer her a smile.
"Hey." She kissed his cheek. "So how'd Ryan's first therapy session go?"
"I think it went ok. Dr. Freedman suggests that we do a family session once a month."
"That's a good idea." She agreed. "So where is Ryan now?"
"In his room. I think he just wanted to be alone after therapy. Although I think Seth went up to see him as soon as he got home."
"Well, there's no yelling. So he must not be aggravating him too much."
Ryan lay on his bed just staring at his cell phone. He was thinking about calling Taylor Townsend to talk to her about his therapy session. She was the only one he knew of that had been to therapy before. Well, there was Marissa. But he wasn't going to call her. He sat up as there was a knock at his door and Seth came in.
"Hey, man. Do you want to talk?" he sat on the desk chair.
"About what?"
"You had your first therapy session today."
"And I don't feel like talking about my feelings anymore today. I just did that for the past hour."
"Ok. Fair enough." He said. "So Summer said that Taylor Townsend was wondering about you."
"I told her about me going to therapy. Actually, she guessed it. She's been to therapy before; when her dad left. We were talking about it a little bit after school before Sandy came to pick me up."
"Do you like Taylor?"
"She's starting to be a good friend."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know what you meant. I'm not ready for that just yet."
"Boys! Supper is ready!" they heard Kirsten coming up the stairs.
"I so don't feel like dealing with your mom's inquisition about therapy as well. Do you mind asking her if I can eat up here? Tell them I have a lot of homework."
"I got your back, man." Seth walked out and a little while later returned with a tray of take-out containers. "They said it's fine for tonight. I, however, am not that lucky. I'll see you after supper."
"Thanks." Ryan sat up and ate a little as he pulled out some of his school papers to make it look like he was doing actual work in case Sandy or Kirsten decided to check on him.
Kirsten headed up to bed early that night; Sandy was finishing up some work in his office, and Seth was playing a video game in the den before he went to bed himself. She decided to check on Ryan before she retreated to her bedroom for the night since she hadn't seen him since that morning. Seth had collected his dinner tray and she was happy to see that he had ate a little more than half that was sent up to him. She slowly opened the door and saw the lights out and a lump underneath the covers on the bed. A couple of his textbooks were on the floor below the bed.
She started to leave the room again until she heard a faint sound that sounded like crying. Since she had known him, Ryan had never cried. She crept towards the bed as he started tossing on the bed.
"Ryan," She slowly placed a comforting hand on his back and started to shake him. "It's ok. It's me, Kirsten."
"Kirsten?" he startled awake and turned to see her sitting there beside him.
"Are you ok?" she asked, concerned.
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"It sounded like you were having a very bad dream."
"It did?" he rubbed his eyes.
"You don't remember it?"
"No, I don't." he looked at her. "I'm sorry I didn't make it down for supper."
"I understand it was a long day for you. Don't worry, I won't ask you about therapy."
"Thank you."
"Just know that if you ever need to talk, I'm here. Just like Sandy and Seth are here for you, too."
"I know." He said softly.
"I'll let you get back to sleep. Good night."
"Night." He watched her leave his room and sighed.
He really hoped that she believed his little white lie about not remembering his nightmare.
AN: So what'd you all think? I'm going to start writing another chapter after I try to catch up on my school work. Please leave some reviews!
