AN: I'm sorry it's late! But to make it up to you, I'm gonna post a bonus new chapter on Sunday!
Rosie always turned into a hyperactive mess when Sandy and Kirsten took her out for ice cream. Seth had been the same way until he was eleven or twelve. Ryan was different than them, so much different that Sandy knew he couldn't even begin to comprehend. But he could have sworn he saw a glimmer of excitement in Ryan's eye as they pulled up to the parlor. It filled Sandy with excitement.
The first years of Ryan's life had been full of pain and mistreating, but Sandy was fixing that. He still had so many more experiences to have with Ryan and he was going to have them. That man claiming to have custody of Ryan didn't have shit. At least that was what Sandy was hoping, thinking, assuming. Even the best lawyer around probably couldn't get that man out of jail and into fatherhood. It wouldn't be a hard case for Sandy, proving that Ryan was better off. Even without having to prove that Ryan should stay with him for his emotional wellbeing, a judge should easily be able to see the history of abuse compared to the stable home environment Sandy was able to provide and the great school that Ryan would inevitably do great in.
There was no chance Ryan would get stuck with that scumbag even if Sandy didn't have anything to say about it. Did he really even have to tell Ryan what was going on? Couldn't he just enjoy going out to ice cream with his son without ruining it with the truth? But the truth was what it was and could he really hide that from Ryan? Would he have hid it from Seth if the situation were the same? But Seth and Ryan were different. Ryan needed the truth, but the last thing Ryan needed was to question his permanence in Sandy's home.
Ryan had memories of his dad (His real dad? First dad? Stepdad?) taking him and Trey out for ice cream. He had a lot of good memories with his dad. The man had raised him and Trey, kept them clothed and sheltered, took care of them and their mother. He may have done some things a little differently than other people, but he wasn't a bad person.
Ryan felt a little like he was betraying his real dad for his new one. But this wasn't really his new dad. He was a part of a temporary situation Ryan had gotten thrown into. It was getting harder and harder to remind himself of that. His life with the Cohens was like a good dream. Everything around him was unbelievably perfect and he knew he was going to wake up any second and be thrown back into his real, shitty life.
In the beginning, he had wished that it would end quickly so it wouldn't hurt as bad when it all got taken away. Ryan was past that point though, switching his mindset from survival mode to something else. He wasn't sure exactly what it was; he was trying really hard to just not think about it. Maybe if he kept ignoring the reality that was bound to come, the dream wouldn't end.
Sandy stared at Ryan, trying to read his expression. He felt that he had mastered at least one of Ryan's expressions –the one he used most often – fear. Ryan didn't look scared as he sat and slowly ate his vanilla ice cream covered with hot fudge. Did 'not scared' mean he was feeling something positive? Could he really just have two emotions: fear and neutral? No, it was a ridiculous thought. Ryan might have shut down showing his emotions out to protect himself but there was no way someone as young as him could shut down having emotions. Right?
Sandy tried telling himself that he really didn't want to ruin their first ice cream outing with telling Ryan what was going on, but he was lying to himself. If he didn't do it right then and there, he was just going to keep putting it off until Ryan found out about it himself. He just had to make it sound as casual as possible so Ryan would know that there was nothing to worry about. He opened his mouth… and started rambling about Seth and Rosie instead of just telling him. He cursed himself as he was doing it, but didn't stop.
Ryan listened to Sandy. It sounded like he was smiling as he was talking. Ryan glanced up to see that he was right, then went back to focusing on his ice cream. A couple of minutes later, it sounded like he was still smiling. Ryan looked up again to see that Sandy was, in fact, still smiling. Ryan was transfixed with the way his constant stream of speech flowed and he found himself staring.
"…it was absolutely the last time too. The only way we could get him back in the water was by promising him he could learn how to sail. He still won't go anywhere near a surfboard though. Have you ever been surfing?" Ryan jolted out of his trance and shook his head, looking down. "Well, maybe once we get that cast off, we can give it a try." Sandy took a spoonful of his melting ice cream.
He talked almost the entire time they sat at the table. He finally forced himself to throw it in as they were getting up to leave.
"Oh, and I got a call the other day about some paperwork that's going on. There's a little delay. It's nothing to worry about or anything. I just thought I'd keep you in the loop with what was going on." Sandy blushed at himself. He couldn't believe he had spent twenty minutes rambling about basically nothing only to be as vague as possible when he said what he needed to say.
He waited for Ryan to ask for the specifics. He didn't. He should have planned it out better. He glanced over to Ryan who was again showing his one visible emotion: fear. He kicked himself. Before getting into the car, he stopped Ryan and tried as hard as he could to make eye contact.
"But hey. I promise no one is going to take you away from us. Ever." He put his hand on Ryan's shoulder only to receive a slight flinch. It was progress. "You're stuck with us until the day you go off to college."