AN: I know that it's been awhile, but I'm having a little difficulty finishing this up. But this chapter is a little longer than I usually write. Hopefully you like this one. PLZ R&R!

Disclaimer: See earlier chapters.

Chapter 23: Court Date 1

Ryan sat on the uncomfortable wooden bench in between Kirsten and Seth; both he and Seth were in suits, and Kirsten was in a pant suit. He and Seth had settled their differences the day before and Seth wasn't that upset about Ryan leaving anymore. Especially since before he left, Luke had invited both Seth and Ryan out to Portland to stay with him and his dad halfway through their summer vacation.

Sitting across from the three of them were Alex, and his grandparents, Reggie and Emma. Andrew was in the room just feet away from them talking to the DA; Rachel was in with him so the interrogation didn't get out of hand.

"How are you doing?" Kirsten asked him softly.

"I'm not sure," he looked at her.

"There's nothing to worry about. Rachel is here, so all you need to do is tell her that you're not comfortable if it comes to that."

"I know." He started shaking his leg up and down. "I'm glad you're here and everything, but where is Sandy?"

"He went to go see if we can schedule the hearing to revoke Dawn's parental rights."

The door opened and Andrew came out to them, and Alex went in the room. Andrew gave him a smile before the door closed behind him. He sat next to his gramps and lay his head back on the wall behind him. They all looked up when they heard scurrying feet and Ryan saw Sandy rushing down the hall towards them.

"Sorry," he slid into the seat in between Kirsten and Ryan. "That went longer than I thought it would."

"It's ok." Ryan told him. "So did you schedule the hearing?"

"Next week." Sandy told him. "We'll worry about that later, though. How are you doing?"

"I'm ok." He shrugged. "I just want this over with."

"I know, kid." They were all quiet once again for the next several minutes.

They all looked up as the door opened five minutes later and Alex came out to join his brother and grandparents. Ryan slowly stood up and made his way into the private chambers. He glanced back at the Cohen's one last time before the door closed behind him.

Ryan turned to look at the room that he had just stepped into. It was a small room with just one long wooden table; Rachel was sitting on one side and the DA was sitting on the other side.

"Hello, Ryan." The lady DA smiled at him. "Please take a seat."

Ryan slowly sat in the chair next to Rachel as the DA took out a blank notepad. He started to break out in a cold sweat and Rachel noticed this.

"It's ok, Ryan." Rachel assured him. "We don't want you to go into vivid detail about anything. We just want to know what happened."

"All right." He said softly as the DA started asking him questions.


Kirsten could barely sit still for even a minute at a time while they waited for Ryan to come back out. Sandy took her hand to try to calm her a little bit and she glanced at him.

"I wish we could be in there with him." She sighed deeply.

"I wish we could, too." He told her. "But he doesn't want us to hear anything about what went on."

"I know." She kept glancing at the door to see if it was opening yet.

Ten minutes later, the door finally opened and Ryan came back out to them looking totally drained. Kirsten immediately went to him and embraced him tightly as Sandy glanced at Rachel coming out of the room behind Ryan. She gave him a reassuring nod as Kirsten released Ryan.

"Are you ok?" she asked him.

"Can we just go home?" he asked softly.

"Of course. Let's go." They all said good-bye to Alex, Andrew, and their grandparents and made their way out to the car.

Seth silently climbed into the car and glanced at Ryan, who was silent as he leaned his head against the window and stared out of it mindlessly. They reached the house and Ryan immediately went inside.

"Are you hungry, Ryan?" Kirsten asked him.

"No." he mumbled.

"You need to eat something."

"I'm not hungry." He snapped.

"Ryan," Sandy warned him. "I understand that today was a long day for you, but that is no reason for you to be disrespectful."

"Sorry." Ryan looked at Kirsten. "I just want to go upstairs and be left alone for awhile."

"That's fine." Kirsten told him. "Why don't I just make you something and leave it outside your door for you?"

"Ok."

"I actually need to run to the office really quick." Sandy told them. "I shouldn't be gone very long, but when I get back I want to hear that you've eaten something."

"Fine," Ryan started up the stairs as Sandy turned to Seth.

"I know," Seth began. "Leave Ryan alone."

"Let him seek you out first, all right?"

"Got it." Seth walked into the den.

"What do you need to do at the office?" Kirsten looked at Sandy.

"I need to try to get a hold of Trey and see if I can get him out of jail for the hearing next weekend."

"Good luck." She told him as he walked out of the house again and she went into the kitchen.

Kirsten started to make Ryan a turkey sandwich as the patio doors opened and Hailey came in from the pool house.

"Hey," she sat at the counter. "How'd it go?"

"It was all right." Kirsten sighed. "Ryan's in his room though, so I'm making him something that he will hopefully want to eat."

"Just give him a little space. He'll come to you when he's ready."

"I know. It's just so hard." Kirsten sighed as she put the sandwich on a small plate and grabbed some iced tea from the fridge. "I'm going to take this up to him."

Kirsten started upstairs when the doorbell started to ring.

She set the plate down on the table in the hallway as there was harsh pounding added to the frantic doorbell ringing. She pulled open the door and stood shocked at the person standing before her.

"Dawn."


Of all the people that Kirsten expected to see when she opened her front door, Dawn Atwood wasn't one of them. The woman before her was totally disheveled; her hair and makeup were a mess, and she was trying to make her way into the house.

"Dawn-"

"Where is he?" she demanded. "Where is Ryan? I need to talk to him."

"He's in his room. He's kind of had a long day."

"I need to talk to him."

"Mom?" she looked back and saw Hailey and Seth standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine." Kirsten told them before turning back to Dawn. "I understand that you want to see Ryan, but he's in his room laying down."

"Why? It's the middle of the afternoon."

"I told you, he's had a very long day so far."

"What, was he out drinking all night? And now he's sleeping it off?"

"No, I wasn't." they all looked back to see Ryan descending the stairs.

"Ry, baby-"

"Stay where you are." He glared at her. "Someone call the police."

"I'm on it." Hailey snatched up the house phone.

"You would really do that to your own mother?"

"Why are you here Dawn?" Ryan demanded. "You haven't tried to contact me since you walked away from me. So why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you."

"Why now? Could it be that you received some papers and decided that you didn't want me to finally be happy because you're not happy?"

"Ryan, you're still my son."

"No, I'm not. I stopped being your son the minute dad was arrested. From that point on, I just became a play thing for all the losers you brought home."

"I didn't realize what was going on." Dawn pleaded with him. "If I had known-"

"You knew everything that went on." Ryan's voice started to falter. "You would stay on the couch drinking heavily with the TV up full blast knowing full well what was going on behind closed doors."

"It's ok, honey." Kirsten went to Ryan when she saw signs of a breakdown.

"I'm done." Ryan stated as he glared at Dawn. "Even if they don't adopt me, I will never return to you. Ever. I will tell the judge everything that went on while I was still living with you."

"Kiki-" they all watched the door open and Caleb came in. "What's going on here? Who is this?"

"Dad, this is Dawn Atwood." Kirsten told him. "This is Ryan's mother."

"Yes, I've heard quite a bit about you." Caleb glanced at the frazzled-looking woman and spotted the distraught state that Ryan was in as Kirsten held him tightly.

"Who in the hell are you?" Dawn demanded.

"I'm this boys' grandfather." He saw Ryan starting to calm down. "Are you ok, Ryan?"

"She's not my mother." Ryan stated, a little taken aback by the fact that Caleb called himself his grandfather.

"It sounds like the police are here," Seth saw the lights out the window.

"Why don't you get out of here?" Kirsten looked at Ryan. "There's no need for you to be here right now."

"I'll take you somewhere." Hailey told him. "Where do you want to go?"

"Take him to the Newport Group." Caleb told her as he handed over his car keys. "Wait for me in my office. There's something I wanted to show you anyway. Kirsten and I will meet you there after we talk to the police."

"Let's go," Hailey led Ryan out the back as Seth followed and they got into Caleb's car and pulled away.


Hailey let Ryan and Seth into Caleb's office and Ryan silently sat in one of the leather chairs in front of the desk.

"We might be here awhile so I'm going to go get us some snacks from the vending machine down the hall." Hailey told them as she walked out.

"Well if we're going to be here awhile-" Seth went to the desk and turned on the computer.

"What are you doing?" Ryan asked softly.

"Getting on the internet. I know grandpa's password." Seth told him. "Does that All-Star camp have a website? We could check out the facilities."

"Fine." Ryan joined him at the computer.

"Hey Seth," Hailey stuck her head in the room. "Do you have any change?"

"Yeah." He followed her out and Ryan typed the camp's web address into the browser.

He started browsing the site as he heard the door open again. He didn't look up, figuring it was Hailey and Seth returning with their snacks.

"What are you doing in here?" his head shot up at the unfriendly voice.

"I could ask you the same thing." He glared at her.

"I have more of a right to be here than you do."

"How do you figure that?" Hailey and Seth returned. "My father finally had the good sense to kick you out of his life."

"Hailey, I heard you were back in town." Julie Cooper glared at her. "So when will you be leaving again?"

"I'm here for an extended stay. My family needs me. And it's a bonus that it would drive you crazy."

"You don't have permission to be here." Seth went into the room with Ryan.

"And he does?" Julie turned to look at Ryan.

"Yes, actually." Ryan spoke up. "Caleb told Hailey to bring me here while he dealt with something. He wanted to show me something."

"He's probably going to drop you off at the bus station-"

"I certainly will not." Caleb came in to them. "What are you doing here Julie?"

"I needed to talk to Kirsten about something. Then I found this-riff raff-here in your office."

"That is no way to talk about my grandson."

"Grandson? Is this some new strategy? Get him to let his guard down and go in for the kill?"

"I'm not planning to do anything to Ryan."

"Really?"

"I misjudged him when we first met; so did you. It might be in your best interest to let your feelings about him go."

"Like that'll happen." Seth mumbled. "She's been harassing him since he got back home."

"You've been what?"

"Alex told me." Seth briefly glanced at Ryan before turning back to his grandfather. "We think she knows what happened to him in there."

"Of course I know." Julie told them. "Why do you think I had him sent to that place."

The entire room went silent as what Julie just revealed slowly sunk into them. Ryan started shaking as Hailey lunged at Julie. Seth tried to pull her back to no avail. Caleb stepped in to calm his daughter, giving Ryan the opportunity to slip out of the room. He ran into Kirsten and Sandy coming from Kirsten's office.

"Ryan? What's going on, kid?" Sandy stopped him.

"I need to get out of here."

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know. I just need to get out of here."

"Ok." Kirsten stepped in as she handed him the keys. "Go on back to the house, and we'll be there in a little bit."

"Fine." He bolted down the hall towards the elevator as they walked down the hall towards Caleb's office.

"What was that about?"

"I guess we'll find out when we get home."

They walked into Caleb's office and saw all the chaos. Julie was there; Hailey was screaming out names at her as Seth and Caleb both tried to calm her back.

"Aunt Hailey, she is so not worth it!" Seth finally managed to pull her back.

"What is going on?" Kirsten demanded. "And why did Ryan just run out of here as if the place was on fire?"

"Ask that bitch." Hailey glared at Julie. "It's all her fault."

"Why are you even here Julie?" Kirsten glared at her. "You should've gotten the paperwork by now."

"I wanted to know why you filed a restraining order against me." Julie approached her.

"Are you really that stupid?" Kirsten spat at her. "You have been harassing Ryan since he arrived in town. Constantly blaming him for all of your train wreck of a daughter's many problems, when really you should look in the mirror to see the cause of all of her problems."

"Mom," Seth looked at her. "She had Ryan sent to the facility."

"What?!" Both Sandy and Kirsten exclaimed.

"Kirsten-" Julie started.

"I'm going to call Harbor and have Marissa removed from all of Ryan's classes. If you even look over the fence between our houses, if you and Marissa so much as breathe in his direction I will have you both arrested."

"We should go find Ryan." Caleb told them all as they started out of the office. "I'll call security to have-this-escorted out of here."

"Ryan should be home by now." Sandy told them. "I think just the three of us should approach him right now."

"But Hailey stay close in case we need some backup." Kirsten told her.
"You got it." She started to follow them out to their car.

"Call me later and tell me how it went." Caleb told them as they all parted ways.


When they got back to the house, Hailey retreated into the den as Sandy slowly ascended the stairs by himself hoping that Ryan was up in his room. When he had arrived home earlier, his stomach dropped when he saw the police cars in the driveway. He thought something had happened again and Ryan was being taken away. As he climbed out of his car and saw Dawn Atwood being led out to a patrol car, he sighed with complete relief.

He rushed into the house and found Kirsten and his father-in-law talking to a police officer. After the officers left, Kirsten told him what happened. They made their way to the Newport Group to meet up with Ryan, Seth, and Hailey and to make sure that Ryan was all right after the run-in with Dawn. When Ryan practically plowed them over to get to the exit, they knew something else had happened.

He just never imagined that it was because of something that Julie Cooper did. The nerve of that woman doing everything that she had to Ryan; and all because she wanted him out of her daughter's life. He was a little surprised that Kirsten had kept herself so calm. Her reaction could've been so much worse.

Sandy slowly opened Ryan's bedroom door and saw no sign of him, but he heard a noise coming from the closet. He knelt down in front of the doors and slid it open. He had a brief glimpse of Ryan before the door slid shut again.

"I know what all happened today, kid." Sandy spoke through the closed door. "None of it was your fault, ok?"

"I know." He heard the whispered response.

Sandy looked up as he saw Kirsten come in with a plate of food for Ryan with Seth following behind her. He gestured to the closet and she knelt next to him and knocked on the door.

"Ryan?" Kirsten ventured. "I have something for you to eat."

"I don't want it." Came the muffled reply.

"You weren't able to eat lunch here today, and you didn't have any snacks. You need to eat something."

"No."

"It's grilled cheese." There was silence for a moment, then the door slid open and Kirsten pushed the plate into the closet before the door closed again.

"Ryan, I know a lot happened today." Sandy started. "I know you just want to forget about it, but I don't think that's a wise move anymore. So I think it's time."

"Time for what?" the whispered voice replied.

"Time for you to get everything out in the open. It's not good to keep everything bottled up."

"No."

"Here's the deal." Sandy looked at Seth hovering in the doorway. "We're all going to stay in this room until you're ready to talk. We don't want details; we just want you to talk about what happened."

"No."

"We'll all be here sitting quietly," Sandy looked at Seth. "Waiting for you to start talking."

Silence followed as the other three settled in near the closet for what they knew would be a very long wait. Seth picked up a nearby magazine and started flipping through it as both Sandy and Kirsten started checking the messages on their phones.

A few hours later, Sandy was startled when the closet door slowly slid open and the plate was pushed out. He turned to look at Ryan settled against the back wall of the closet behind some of the tuxes that he had worn to the Newpsie events in the past.

"Ok. I'm ready to talk."

AN: So what'd you all think? Just so you know the next chapter won't be too graphic. But Ryan will finally start the long healing process. PLZ R&R!