Disclaimer: I didn't say it in chapter one, but you know the drill – Not mine, property of Josh Schwartz and FOX -except any new characters - which are mine

Seth stood in the foyer trying to regain his composure. He knew that the man outside was Ryan's dad and that chances were good that his arrival was going to screw up everything. Seth couldn't imagine his life without Ryan, yet it seemed every few months something came along that threatened their relationship. Before Ryan showed up, his life had been hell. Granted things weren't that much better now, since he screwed up everything with Summer. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and walked back to the table.

"Was it the damn press again?" His mom asked, as she began clearing the table.

"Um. No. It was someone for Dad." Seth mumbled, meeting her curious glance he quickly added "Someone I didn't recognize."

Kirsten wiped her hands and headed towards the door "Well, maybe I'll peek out the window and see if I can figure it out who it is. You never know, it could be someone undercover trying to get information about the case or the state of the Newport Group or…" She floundered.

"No, Mom, I don't think it's about that." Seth said quickly, grabbing her arm. "You're like super stressed out. Why don't you go take a shower, or read or tweeze something? I don't know…Whatever it is ladies do to relax." He said as he guided her out of the kitchen.

"Seth, you're acting weird, what's going on?" Kirsten demanded.

Ryan was clearing the table and watching Seth's odd behavior with amusement. He realized that Kirsten was stressed and he remembered how much she seemed to enjoy playing video games with him last year. "Hey, Kirsten? How about a rematch on the Playstation?" He asked.

Kirsten turned and smiled at Ryan, "I'd like that Ryan. Ninja game?"

"You're on." Ryan said, heading into the living room.

"What?!" said asked incredulously. "When have you two been playing the Playstation?" He turned to his mother. "I was wondering why you bought the new GTA while I was in I was in Oregon." He paused and added "My mom plays video games…Cool." He followed them into the living room.

Meanwhile, outside, Sandy lead Ryan's dad down the driveway without saying anything. He glanced back at the house before he started to speak. "Mr. Atwood, I'm Sandy Cohen, Ryan's guardian and attorney." He stated.

"Oh man. I didn't know you were a lawyer too." Ryan's dad said, rubbing his chin. "I guess you're the reason Ryan's not in Juvie or County like his brother." He stopped, and looked at the house for a moment. "He's definitely better off here. Thank you." He extended his hand to Sandy.

Sandy didn't trust this man, and was wary of how he had found Ryan, but he shook the man's extended hand anyway. "You're welcome, but it's not me you should be thanking. Ryan's a great kid."

"Not like I had anything to do with it." Ryan's dad replied glancing at his feet. "I've been in jail for a majority of the kid's life and even when I was around I wasn't really there if you know what I mean." He said shyly.

Sandy was again struck by how much like Ryan he looked. Especially his expressive eyes. "Mr. Atwood"-

"Jason."

"Okay, Jason, can I ask why you're here?" Realizing that sounded rude, of course Ryan's dad had a reason to visit his son; Sandy tried to rephrase his question. "I mean, when or um why…"

"It's okay Mr. Cohen, I'm sorry to just show up here. It's just that my parole came up and I headed back to Chino only to find that Dawn was gone. Not like I expected her to wait, especially since she hasn't been by to see me in years, but don't they say that your family has to take you back no matter what? You know, Trey and Ryan would come sometimes to see me sometimes, but then I heard that Trey was busted for stealing a car and now he's in County. I didn't know until I got out that Ryan was involved. And then the word on the street was that Dawn moved away without telling Ryan. Anyway, I was in a bar the other night and talking to some guys about maybe getting a construction job, when I told them my name, they asked if I was related to Ryan. They had nothing but great things to say about the kid. Made me proud, even if I didn't have nothing to do with his growing up, it's not everyday that people say nice things about an Atwood." He stopped glancing around "Mind if I smoke?" He asked Sandy, as he placed the cigarette in his mouth and lit it. "They told me that Ryan left Chino a few months ago and came back to Newport. One guy said something about your wife working for the Newport Group and you know with all the press they've been getting it wasn't too hard to find out where he was."

As distrustful as Sandy felt about Ryan's dad showing up out of the blue he couldn't help feel a bit of sadness for this man who had lost so much. He was at a loss as to what to do, he knew that there was no way Kirsten was going to let Jason into the house. After all, he was a hardened criminal. Sandy remembered the trepidation that Kirsten had expressed when he brought Ryan home. But, Sandy knew that he couldn't deny the man the chance to see his son. More importantly, even though he considered Ryan to be his son, he couldn't deny Ryan the opportunity to see his father.

"So, you decided to look us up." Sandy finished.

"Yeah, well I wanted to make sure my boy was okay. I can kind of guess that he is and I can understand if you don't want me here." Jason said, glancing at Sandy.

"No, it's not that. It's just Ryan just got back from Chino and it really seems like he's fitting in here. He's doing really well in school, taking a bunch of AP classes and his guidance counselor thinks he's got a good shot at a college scholarship." Sandy didn't want to go into details about the whole Theresa situation, plus he had a feeling that Jason already knew about it. "I just don't want to upset him, Ryan's future is important to us. But, you're his dad and I'm sure he'd want to see you. Come inside, let me introduce you to my wife and we'll decide how we should bring you being here up to Ryan." Sandy said. He started up the driveway, with his hand on Jason's back, "And call me Sandy."

Sandy opened the door and glanced around looking for the boys, not seeing anyone; he quickly escorted Jason to his office and asked him to wait while he got Kirsten. Heading back out towards the living room where he heard the boys playing video games.

"Take that man! My mom knows the unbeatable combination" Seth said "Mom, you rock at this game. This is obviously where I get my exceptional video game skills."

"Kirsten?" Sandy was shocked to see his wife and Ryan sitting on the floor playing video games while Seth provided commentary from the couch.

"Hey Dad, come check this out, Mom is totally kicking Ryan's ass."

Ryan paused the game and shot Seth a dirty look.

"Seth, don't say ass." Kirsten admonished. She looked up at Sandy and started to explain but Sandy cut her off.

"I need to talk to you in the office." Sandy said.

"It was the press – I knew it. What's Julie Cooper done now?" Kirsten asked, getting up. "Thanks Ryan, this was a bit of a stress reliever." She followed Sandy down the hall.

They started towards Sandy's office as Kirsten talked on about the Newport groups troubles. Sandy quickly stopped and grabbed Kirsten's arm and pulled her into the powder room.

"Sandy, what's going on?" Kirsten asked, clearly perplexed by her husbands odd action.

"Ssshhhh!" Sandy said, lowering his voice he added "Don't freak out, but Ryan's dad is here."

"Here, here? Like in the house, here?" Kirsten asked.

"In my office. Yes. He was recently paroled, and he wanted see Ryan. He's got no other family, Dawn's gone and Trey's in jail. How can we deny him the right to see his son?"

"Easy! Sandy, he's a criminal and we just got Ryan back, we don't want to lose him again. I don't think it's good for Ryan right now." Kirsten argued.

"Listen to me, Kirsten. If Ryan finds out his dad is out, he'll want to see him anyway. If he finds out we kept his father from him, he'll hold it against us. Ryan's a smart kid. He knows that his place is here with us."

As Kirsten and Sandy continued to argue in the powder room, Seth and Ryan sat in the living room playing video games. The phone rang and Seth paused the game to answer it. After a brief conversation, he tossed the phone to Ryan.

"It's Lindsay."

"Hey" Ryan said. He listened intently for a moment. "Okay, calm down, I'll bring you over my notes." He paused. "Yeah, I'll ask the Cohens and I'll head over. Calm down, it'll be okay." He hung up the phone.

"Is she okay?" Seth asked. "She sounded really upset."

"Yeah, she is. She can't find her notes for physics and she's kind of freaking out. I told her I would bring her over a copy of my notes. I'm just going to ask your folks if it's okay if I run over there real quick." Ryan said as he rifled around his back pack looking for his notes.

Seth assumed that his folks were discussing the visitor they had earlier, so he followed Ryan down the hall. "You know it's probably fine if you just take the car. I'll tell them where you went. It's not like they'll think you stole the car or anything."

Ryan turned around and glared at Seth.

"Sorry, man you know what I meant." Seth held up his hands in an apologetic gesture.

Ryan knocked at the door to Sandy's office. He didn't hear any noise inside, so he knocked again and pushed the door open. "Uh, Guys? Can I borrow the car to run over to Lindsay's real quick? I know it's late but…" He stopped as he was face to face with his father.

"Dad?" Ryan asked, clearly confused by the mere idea that his father was standing in Sandy's office.

"Hey, Ry" Jason replied.

As Kirsten and Sandy exited the powder room and found Seth blocking the doorway to Sandy's office.

"Hey guys, look Ryan's dad is here – in your office. With Ryan. Isn't that great?" Seth sarcastically asked as Sandy and Kirsten exchanged shocked look.