Sandy stood quietly outside the half closed door, listening to his son talk. Ryan had been with them for over a week now. That was over a week and that was, at least Sandy thought, long enough to start settling in. He jumped when he heard a noise. Thankfully, the noise hadn't come from inside the room his two sons were in but from down the hall. He looked up to see his wife staring at him, smiling. So maybe 'thankfully' was a strong word.

"Sandy, what are you doing?" She wasn't really scolding him so much as laughing at him.

"What?" He made sure he was extra quiet as he walked to his bedroom from the door to make sure he wasn't heard by anyone else.

"Sandy."

"It's been over a week! I just want to make sure he's adjusting."

"It's been eight days. And I think he's adjusting just fine."

"He still never says anything." In fact, Sandy could probably count the times he had opened his mouth since he had been home. And most of the time he was just muttering 'sorry' or 'thanks.'

"Not all of your children are going to have the loud charisma that you do." She wrapped her arms around his neck, still smiling.

"And what's got you in such a good mood?"

"Rosie's at a playdate… Seth finally has a friend who isn't us…"

"I just…" Sandy looked towards the door longingly, but couldn't manage to tear himself away from his beautiful wife. He felt something warm on his neck and chill go down his spine. "I guess he's fine for now."

Time went by much more quickly when he wasn't spending his days alone in front of the TV. Ryan had hated summers ever since Trey was old enough to go play without him. They were boring and lasted forever and, to tell the truth, Ryan kind of liked school. He was good at it. He liked reading. He liked being carried off into the mind of someone else and forget about his own life, even if it was just for a while.

There were books all over this house. He had wanted so badly to go through them, maybe even take one upstairs to read, but he didn't. They weren't his. Thinking about the books made Ryan wonder if his last week was just a really good book he was reading. Ryan knew that he should have been listening to Seth, but he had to take a break every once in a while. Seth never really stopped talking so if Ryan didn't tune out sometimes, he was pretty sure his head would explode. At least he never noticed when Ryan stopped listening. Seth's talking didn't require listening. He was pretty sure that this was the closest Seth had ever gotten to someone actually listening to him.

He wondered if he would stay quiet enough to listen to Ryan talk. If Ryan ever wanted to talk, that was. As much as Seth talked, Ryan was pretty sure that if Ryan wanted a turn, he would get one. Instead of tuning back in to Seth, Ryan looked around his room. The room. Not his room. Although he was sleeping in it so technically it was his room. At least for now. He knew he was getting too comfortable. He knew that his entire life was about to go back to shit. But he kept pushing that thought to the back of his mind. He didn't want to think about it.

The Cohens were so nice. The house was so nice. Their lives were so nice. Ryan wanted to be a part of that, even if it was going to get ripped away from him. He knew that it was going to hurt. But he looked at the stack of clean, new clothes sitting on his dresser and he didn't care. He hadn't asked Kirsten to buy him clothes. He would have never done that. But she bought them anyway and she washed them and she put them in his bedroom. He couldn't bring himself to actually put them in the dresser like he had finally done with his own clothes and it was driving him crazy to have a not clean room, but he didn't think Sandy and Kirsten would mind.

Sandy watched his wife, sift through old takeout menus trying to decide what to order for dinner. He didn't think he would ever get over how beautiful she was. But noticing how beautiful she was didn't take his mind off of Ryan. At least for long.

"What-"

"Sandy…"

"You don't even know what I was about to say."

"I do so! Sandy, he's fine." He knew she was right. Yes, Ryan was fine. But Sandy wanted more than that. He wanted Ryan to be fully adjusted and fully acclimated and happy and… He sighed. He wanted to tell Kirsten all of that, but he knew that she knew. And he knew that all she would say is that he was being ridiculous and that he just had to be patient. And he knew it was true, he just was sick of being patient. "Did you call the school?"

He heard stomping down the stairs, followed by nothing. He knew that that nothing was Ryan. Seth was always so loud with everything he did. Ryan was always completely silent.

"What's for dinner?"

"Chinese."

"How's your knee doing, Ryan?" Ryan didn't flinch anymore when the attention was brought on him or when Sandy walked into a room, but he still looked uncomfortable.

"Fine. Thanks." Such a quiet voice... Sandy pushed the thought away.

"Hey, I was signing you up for school—"

"Dad! Don't mention the 'S' word! What's wrong with you?" Sandy couldn't be mad at his son for interrupting him like he usually would be. Because his son had done something Sandy didn't think was ever going to happen. His son had gotten his other son to laugh. It wasn't a big laugh, or a loud one. It wasn't even really a noise. But he had looked down, smiled, and laughed. And Sandy knew that that was enough. For now.