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: It is sooo good to have my cable and internet back! Although I did spend the last couple of months reacquainting myself with my OC DVDs. But now I can post a new chapter for you guys. And the first chapter of my new story as well. I didn't really expect to get any feedback from my last post since it wasn't a new chapter. So I was a little surprised to have so many responses in my inbox. I'm glad you're all such loyal followers of this. Anyway, onto the next chapter...
Disclaimer: See earlier chapters.
Chapter 13: Discussions & Bonding
Ryan lay in bed for awhile before getting restless and venturing downstairs. He heard Sandy and Kirsten conversing in low tones in Sandy's office. He silently went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. He passed Rosa as she was coming into the kitchen as he headed for the front door.
"Where are you going, young man?" she demanded.
"For a walk." He mumbled. "Let them know I have my cell phone with me. I don't want to disturb their talk in there."
"I don't want you to scare them like the last time you took off." She told him firmly. "So you be sure you answer the phone when they call you."
"I will. I promise." He smiled at her as he walked out the door.
"Hey, Atwood." He looked up and saw Seth and Summer getting out of her car. "Someone missed you at school today."
"Who?"
"Taylor Townsend was asking where you were." Seth told him. "I collected your work for you."
"Just leave it on the desk in my room." Ryan told him. "I'm going for a walk."
"Hey. How'd your appointment go?"
"I don't want to talk about it." He mumbled. "I'll be back in awhile."
"Is he ok?" Summer asked as they walked inside.
"He hates hospitals and doctors, so today was probably hard for him." They walked inside as Sandy came out of his office.
"Hey. How was school?" he asked them.
"It was ok." Seth told him. "Is it ok if Summer stays for supper?"
"Sure." He smiled at her. "It's good to see you, Summer."
"Sandy?" Kirsten came from upstairs. "Have you seen Ryan? He's not in his room."
"We ran into him in the driveway." Seth told them. "He said he was going for a walk and that he'd be back in awhile."
"We knew he'd have a reaction like this." Sandy told her. "Just let him have a little while for himself."
"You're right." Kirsten sighed. "Let's eat. We'll heat up Ryan's for him when he comes back."
Ryan slowly walked along the beach as he kicked at patches of sand every so often. He spotted a few people scattered around the beach and started to walk back to the house.
"Chino!" he turned around and saw Luke coming out of the water pushing a jet ski onto the shore. "Missed you at school today. You feeling better?"
"Sure." He shrugged. "How's the water?"
"Perfect for jet skiing." Luke told him. "So what are you doing here?"
"Needed a break from all the drama."
"Then why don't we go back to my house? I think supper should be ready soon. We can play video games after. You'll just have to put up with my younger brothers."
"I'll have to call Sandy and Kirsten." Ryan took out his cell phone. "Hey, Kirsten. It's Ryan."
"Hey. Are you ok?"
"Yeah. I was hoping it would be all right if I had supper over at Luke's. I ran into him on the beach."
"I think that'll be ok. Just be back here by nine. You still need to do your homework, and we need to talk."
"Thank you. I promise I'll be back by nine." Ryan hung up and followed Luke to his truck.
They got to Luke's house and were immediately greeted by Luke's brothers, Eric and Brad, having a wrestling match in the front entrance hall over a football.
"They're always like that." Luke told him as he saw his mom come out of the kitchen. "Hey, mom. Is it ok if Ryan stays for supper?"
"Of course." Meredith smiled at them. "It's good to see you again, Ryan."
"Thank you," Ryan smiled at her politely.
"Come on. We can play some Playstation until it's ready." Luke took him into the den and set up the system.
Sandy and Kirsten were sitting in the living room anxiously waiting for Ryan to come home. Seth had gone to his room as soon as supper was over and Summer had gone home. He was no doubt upstairs talking to her on the phone right now. Sandy kept glancing at his watch as it got closer and closer to nine o'clock.
"Relax, Sandy." Kirsten looked over at him. "He still has fifteen minutes."
"He's avoiding us." He told her.
"He's not avoiding us. He just needed some time by himself. And to hang out with his friend so he doesn't have to think about everything that's going on with him right now."
"I guess." Sandy sighed as they heard the front door open and looked back to see Ryan coming into the house.
"There you are." Kirsten got up off the couch.
"Sorry." Ryan said softly. "Luke wanted a rematch on the Playstation after we ate."
"It's ok. You're not late." Sandy told him. "Come in here. We need to talk."
"Can't it just wait until morning?"
"Sorry, kid. You got a free pass for a few hours, but we need to talk about what happened today."
"Fine." He reluctantly joined them in the living room and sat across from them.
"Now you should know that I went out and filled the prescriptions that the doctor recommended for you." Kirsten told him and he sighed. "Wait. Hold on before you get upset. We won't make you take any of them for now."
"What do you mean for now?" Ryan looked at them.
"It means that we're going to be keeping a pretty close watch on you right now." Sandy told him. "And if we see any signs that we think indicate that you should take any of them, we'll take action."
"Ok." Ryan said softly.
"We also just want you to remember that you can talk to us." Kirsten told him. "There will be no judgment whatsoever. We just want you to open up to us."
"So Dr. Jackson told you about me being on antidepressants before, right?"
"Actually, no." Sandy looked at him, surprised. "He hinted at it, but he didn't confirm anything."
"You were on antidepressants when you were younger?" Kirsten went to sit next to him.
"I don't want to talk about it." he said softly. "I don't like to think about it."
"No one is going to force you to talk about something that you don't want to." Sandy told him. "But we'll be here when you are ready to talk. No judgments. And it will stay between us. I promise."
"Ok." Ryan said softly. "Can I be excused yet?"
"Not quite yet." Kirsten said. "Since last night's dinner didn't go as planned, we scheduled another one for tomorrow night."
"Fine. Now can I go?"
"Go ahead. Don't stay up too late."
"Got it. Good night." Ryan walked upstairs and walked into his room, shutting his door tightly.
Ryan spotted the homework that Seth had collected for him sitting on top of his desk. He looked through it and saw that they would be starting a research project in History and his subject was already chosen for him; the American Revolution. He decided to start on some of the research that night and bookmark some good websites. He was getting ready to turn off his computer when his buddy list popped up.
TayTown 33: got time to talk?
RyAt45: Not long. What's up?
TayTown33: Just making sure you're ok. Missed you in Chemistry today.
RyAt45: Wasn't feeling well. Kirsten made me go to the doctor.
TayTown 33: Everything ok?
RyAt45: Fine. I'll be back tomorrow. We can catch up on our lab reports at lunch.
TayTown33: Sounds good.
"Ryan?" he heard Kirsten as she softly knocked on the door.
RyAt45: Kirsten's coming. Have to go.
TayTown33: Bye. Pick you up in the morning?
RyAt45: That'd be great. See you in the morning.
Ryan logged off and turned off the computer as the door opened and Kirsten came in. He packed up his completed work in his bag as he looked up at her.
"Sorry. Lost track of time." He told her.
"It's fine. But you should get to bed now."
"Right." He got out of the desk chair and started to walk past her to get to the bathroom.
"Well, good night. We'll see you in the morning."
"Good night." He told her as she eventually left his room.
He came out of the bathroom and turned out the light as he climbed into bed.
The next night, Ryan was sitting at the table in the dining room waiting for this latest torture-fest to begin so it could end. Sandy and Kirsten were finishing up getting supper ready while Seth was told to set the table. Ryan continued to sit glumly as Sandy and Kirsten brought all the food in.
"Cheer up, kid. It's not that bad." Sandy told him.
"We're all here with you." Kirsten told him.
"Well, where is he?" Ryan grumbled. "Let's get this over with."
"I'm here." Caleb came in followed by Rosa, who had obviously let him in. "I hope you haven't started without me."
"I wanted to." Ryan mumbled.
"Ryan," Kirsten warned.
"What?" he grumbled.
"Ok." Sandy interrupted the impending argument. "We have chicken parm. No fish whatsoever."
"Since we know that you like this, you are to stay at the table until at least half of your share is gone." Kirsten told him firmly.
"Fine." Ryan sighed as Seth brought out some drinks and sat beside Ryan.
"So how was school today?" Sandy took the lead.
"Fine." Ryan mumbled as he stabbed a piece of chicken with his fork.
"Anything interesting happen?"
"Nope." Ryan mumbled.
"There's a dance coming up." Seth offered.
"Really?" Kirsten smiled. "What's the theme?"
"It's going to be a Hawaiian Luau thing."
"And it's three months from now." Ryan told them. "For the end of the school year."
"Are you guys going to go?"
"Well, yeah." Seth told them. "Summer loves the dances."
"How about you, Ryan?" Sandy looked at him.
"What's the point?" he grumbled. "So I can be the third wheel? I've been one of those before. It didn't work out so well."
"You can always go with Taylor-"
"We. Are. Just. Friends." He emphasized firmly.
"So you can go as friends."
"Whatever."
"Who is this Taylor girl anyway?" Caleb finally saw an opening in the conversation.
"Taylor Townsend." Kirsten told him. "Her mother is Veronica Townsend."
"The sports agent?"
"That's her."
"She's also on the school board." Seth added. "She tried to get Ryan kicked out of school."
"She really doesn't like me." Ryan made eye contact with Caleb.
"Without getting to know you first?" Caleb asked.
"Kind of like someone else I know."
"You opened yourself up for that one, Gramps." Seth said as Sandy tried to hide his amusement.
"Ryan, are you going to the batting cages again this weekend?" Kirsten asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from any possible tension.
"If it's ok with you." He mumbled.
"It's fine." She smiled at him.
The rest of the meal went much the same way with Ryan offering up very minimal interaction. As soon as he ate the required amount, he shoved his chair back and left the room without saying a word to any of them. They heard some loud music blast from upstairs as they all started to clear the table.
"It went better than I thought it would." Sandy commented.
"I expected him to slug grandpa." Seth told them.
"I think we all were expecting that." Kirsten sighed.
"Nice of all of you to say." Caleb grumbled to them.
"Sorry, gramps." Seth looked at him. "But you have a tendency to bring the worst out of people."
"Do you guys have this?" Kirsten looked at them. "I'm going to go see how Ryan is doing."
"We'll take care of it." Sandy told her as she walked out of the kitchen and started up the stairs.
Kirsten got to Ryan's door and knocked loudly. After getting no response, she walked in and saw him lying across the bed with one arm covering his eyes. She went to the radio and turned it off.
"I was listening to that." He grumbled as he took his arm away from his face and sat up.
"Well, now you're not." She stated.
"Look, I did what you asked. I had supper with him."
"You were also supposed to be civil."
"That was me being civil. You don't want to see how I react to him when I'm upset."
"Ryan-"
"Why are you so upset? This wasn't one of my conditions."
"What are you talking about?"
"I agreed to sports, counseling, and no Marissa. No one made me agree to meals with him. You made that agreement with him, not me."
"I want you guys to get to know each other. You might find out that you have some things in common."
"Doubtful." He mumbled. "Are we done? I should start on my homework."
"We're done for now." She told him. "Remember I'm here if you need to talk to someone."
"Yeah. Got it." He took his homework out of his book bag and started on it as she left his room.
AN: So what'd you all think? I'm kind of at a loss at where the next chapter should go. So if anyone would like to give me any positive feedback about it, feel free to drop me a post. And as always, please R&R!
