"You do realize that you can't go on like this, right?" Taylor asked, folding her jeans and putting them into a drawer that Ryan had cleaned out for her. "First of all it's been over a week, and you haven't left the pool house, or unlocked the door. You need to tell Kirsten and Sandy about me staying here, you need to go make up with Seth because he did the right thing, and we need to go shopping for bunk beds."
Ryan held up three fingers and counted down as he answered each of her points, "Seth probably already told Kirsten and Sandy that you're here, I don't need to make up with him, because first of all we're guys, and guys don't make up, and second because he was not right. And this bed is big enough for now."
Taylor threw a rolled up sock at him, "Get up!" He threw the sock back and rolled over on the bed to face her, "You're gonna get bed sores, and you know what? It's Thanksgiving, so go into the kitchen and find out what the deal is for dinner and get me some breakfast because we have no food in here."
He sighed and pushed himself off the bed, "Bagels? Coffee? Cereal?"
"Sure." She said absentmindedly.
Ryan huffed into the kitchen not too happy about the mission for food Taylor was sending him on. He'd rather they just went to the grocery store instead of walking the twenty feet to the house.
As he opened the fridge to grab the milk he could hear Seth in the other room leaving Summer a message. Taylor had told him about the girl she found at Brown, who was so different from the girl he'd been friends with, and he felt a little bad for shutting Seth out in his moment of need. But then he remembered what Seth did and he had no problem giving the boy the silent treatment.
"Ryan." Kirsten said surprised to see him in the house, he muttered a hey and went back to pouring cereal in the bowl. Seth hung up his cell phone and Sandy walked into the kitchen, all aware of how awkward this was, "Coffee?"
"Sure." Ryan responded, and all four of them turned to watch the coffee filtering through the coffee maker, when Sandy's cell phone rang interrupting the silence.
" 'scuse me." He said going to the other room, "Uh huh, where are you?"
"OK, enough of this! No more tip-toeing, no more silences, it is Thanksgiving and this family is gonna get over what happened and move on with their lives." Kirsten said annoyed.
"I don't know if it'll be that easy." Seth said sparing an uneasy glance at Ryan who looked like he was ready to run for the door.
"No one said it was gonna be easy, but this family is gonna work together and make Thanksgiving dinner. You two, grocery store, together."
"I have to pick up Summer." Seth said.
"Yeah, and I have stuff-" Ryan started pointing back to the pool house.
Kirsten narrowed her eyes and folded her arms, watching the two of them, "Or we could go now." Seth said grabbing Ryan's arm and dragging him towards the door. Kirsten nodded while Ryan tried to protest more, but Seth kept dragging him.
"So what's next?" Seth asked, as he pushed the cart through the aisles.
"Parsley." Ryan sighed glancing at the list, "You don't think your mom will go into the pool house do you?"
"So what if she does?" Seth asked, "She'll find out you and Taylor have been playing house without the sex part. Is that really such a bad thing?" Ryan didn't respond and Seth was reminded yet again that they weren't on normal speaking terms. "Wow, this trip to the grocery store has been a real success."
"Well what do you expect? You think we can get over everything just because we're buying parsley?" Ryan asked rhetorically, though truth be told, he knew no question you direct at Seth can be considered rhetorical.
"It's more than a garnish Ryan. It's a good omen." Ryan closed his eyes and muttered, "Yeah." Seth pushed the cart further and Ryan heard him mutter under his breath, "Speaking of omens." He glanced up and saw Julie standing there.
"Julie." Ryan nodded.
"Ryan." She said in the same tone.
"Hello Julie. I wanted to thank you for that travel tip. Ensenada turned out to be the perfect vacation spot for the Cohen's. We may get a timeshare." Seth put in sarcastically, which led to Julie telling him to save it, Sandy had already given her the lecture, Ryan wished he'd sprung Taylor for this trip to the store. He'd have an easier time dealing with this if she was here. When Julie asked him to join her in the samples, he said yes and Seth went to get the sweet potatoes.
Damn it, where was Taylor, when he needed her.
Kirsten was leaving Sandy yet another message, when she spotted Taylor in her kitchen, "Oh my God. Taylor, I thought you were in France."
Taylor froze, the spoon about a foot from the pot, Ryan's gonna kill me, Ryan's gonna kill me! She didn't even lift her gaze to meet Kirsten's as she stuttered out, "I am... uh, I was. In fact what am I doing here where gay Paris beckons. Au revoir." She turned to rush back out of the kitchen towards the pool house but Kirsten's demanding voice stopped her.
"Hold it. When a kid is stealing stuffing in my kitchen, that's usually a sign that something's wrong." Kirsten said, when Taylor finally turned to face her.
"I would tell you Mrs. Cohen, but it's kind of… a long story, and…" Taylor bit her lip uncomfortably.
"I'm back." Ryan called entering the house, with all the grocery's, "Seth left to pick up Summer, and I'm just gonna bring some food into the pool house, cause the fridge out there is empty, and then I'm gonna go find Sandy. I-" Ryan stopped dead when he saw Taylor standing in the kitchen, only five feet away, "Oh."
"You knew she was here?" Kirsten asked, raising her eyebrow at him.
"You couldn't have stayed in the pool house?" he sighed at Taylor.
"You couldn't have brought me the food that I asked for?" she countered, folding her arms, and glaring at him.
"What is going on here?" Kirsten demanded.
Ryan placed the grocery's on the island in the middle of the kitchen, "She can tell you." He pointed to Taylor, "I have to go see Sandy."
"No you do not." Taylor said quickly. Whatever Ryan was in a hurry to do, it wasn't good. She could tell by his posture, and the edge in his voice, "Sit down."
"Taylor, I gotta-" She glared at him, and he sighed falling into the kitchen chair.
"I already explained the whole thing to Summer by myself. It's your turn." She turned to smile brightly at Kirsten, "You two talk. I'll start the turkey."
"Wait, I-" Kirsten started to interrupt.
"Oh, don't worry Kiki, I'm a wiz at cooking."
Kirsten turned back to Ryan, "Well?"
"Yeah, she's a good cook." Ryan nodded, and Kirsten adjusted her gaze letting him know that she wasn't asking about Taylor's cooking skills, "Oh right… well Taylor and I have been living together for the past five months."
When Ryan said nothing more Taylor groaned from the kitchen, "Seriously? That's all your gonna say?"
"What more is there?" he asked, and Kirsten grinned at their banter, as Taylor sat down next to Ryan and started telling her the reason she was now living in the pool house with Ryan.
After an hour of conversation with Kirsten and Taylor, Ryan was finally free to go find Sandy and pretend to apologize and be over the Volchuk thing. Well free if you didn't count the fact that Taylor had jumped into his car, to avoid having Kirsten take her to see her mother.
Of course Taylor knew he was up to no good. She definitely wouldn't believe him, if she heard what he'd been rehearsing in his head to say to Sandy.
"Why are you so quiet?" she asked after fiddling with the radio for a few minutes.
"I don't talk so much, that's you." He shrugged.
Taylor half grinned as they pulled up to Sandy's work, "Are we gonna relate the whole story to Sandy too? Because I'm pretty sure Kirsten will do it later."
"No, I need to talk to him." Ryan said getting out of the car, she followed suspiciously.
"Why?"
"Do I need a reason to talk to Sandy?" he asked, as she linking her arm through his.
"I thought you don't talk so much?" she countered, and looked around, "Besides, it looks like he's leaving anyway." She pointed to Sandy's car leaving the lot, and then gasped reaching to cover Ryan's eyes, but he had already seen.
"What is-?" His fists clenched together as he watched Sandy drive off with Volchuk in the passenger seat of his car.
"Ryan, don't-"
"Don't what?" he snapped, "Don't get angry? Don't react? I have to go." He shrugged out of her hold and started for the car.
"Ryan!" she yelled, "Don't do this, don't be an idiot."
"Taylor go home."
"I don't have a home Ryan." She said softly, "Please, don't do this."
"I'll send Seth and Summer to get you." He said opening his door, he pulled a twenty out of his pocket and handed it to her, "Just go get something to eat at the diner."
"Ryan." She tried again.
"I'm sorry." Was all he said, as he pulled away.
Taylor sipped her coffee idly. She just needed to come up with a new plan to kill Ryan. Something very painful. But then she realized she couldn't kill him. It was too cold in the damn pool house at night, and he was all warm and snuggly- in a totally platonic way, of course.
Maybe she'd just do something to make him suffer. Like cut up all his wife beaters and force him to wear turtleneck shirts, that in no way showed off his impressive chest.
She grinned at the sight of him weeping over his ripped up shirts, then shook her head knowing Ryan wouldn't cry over shirts.
It wasn't that she didn't get it, cause she did. He was mad at Volchuk, and who wouldn't be? But that was no reason to kill him. Send him to jail? Yes. Kill him? No.
"Taylor?" Seth's voice cut through her thoughts.
"Seth, hey. Thanks for coming to get me. Where's Summer?" she asked looking around.
"Waiting in the car." He said like it was no big deal, but they both knew it was. Summer hadn't been in the diner since Marissa died. "Why didn't Ryan just give you a ride back to the house instead of calling us to do it?"
"Cause Ryan's dealing." She said softly putting the money on the table and getting up, "Differently from the way Summer's dealing. But in no way healthier."
"What are we supposed to do?" Seth asked confused and hurt.
"I don't know." She answered truthfully, "But Ryan left me here so I wouldn't try to stop him, I have to respect that. I don't agree with it, but I do respect him."
"Summer wants to go volunteer at the soup kitchen." Seth said, as they started for the car, "I don't agree with that- not that I don't agree with helping the poor, I just-"
Taylor shook her head, "You don't agree with her way of coping, but you're gonna respect it and help her." He nodded, "Let's go. We'll deal with Ryan, when we get back to the house."
Ryan heard the door open and knew Seth and Summer were back with Taylor, but he didn't care he was mad. How could Sandy keep this from him? "Alright look you stopped me from going after him, that I get. But to defend him..."
"We're home and we brought some friends." Seth said shuffling into the kitchen with about ten strange, scruffy looking men, and the girls.
"Seth…?" Kirsten trailed of confused.
"I'm not defending him Ryan. I'm negotiating the terms of his surrender. And he's gonna get every bit of what he deserves." Sandy went on ignoring Seth and his new 'friends' that Summer was directing into the living room.
"Ryan, Sandy and I would only do what's best for you." Kirsten added, reaching for him, but he stepped back and walked into Taylor.
He expected her to be mad at him for leaving her in the middle of town, and she was he was sure of that. But it didn't show on her face. All that showed was concern, for him, "You wanna do what's in my best interest?"
"Always." Sandy answered.
"Just leave me alone." He said grabbing Taylor's hand and dragging her out of the room.
"Ryan… wait." Sandy started but Kirsten shook her head.
"Let them go, Sandy." Was all Taylor heard as Ryan dragged her to the pool house.
"Well?" he demanded, once he shut the door behind them.
"Well what?" she asked sitting down on the bed.
"You said that we'd talk about it in the morning." He started off softly, "It's been over a week and- and…Well get mad, throw something at me! I didn't listen to you! I went to Mexico even though you told me not to, I left you in the middle of town and told you I'd send Seth. Be mad at me!"
"Ryan, you're grieving. I am mad at you but I'm not going to yell." She said. Sure she'd been envisioning different ways she could hurt him in retaliation, but when it came down to it, she couldn't. Not when he was already hurting enough.
"Why not?" he yelled, "You're pissed, you yell! Or at least you used to, what the hell happened?"
"What happened?" she laughed bitterly, "What happened is for the past few weeks you've been obsessed with killing the man who accidentally killed your high school girlfriend. So instead of yelling at you like I used to I stopped to not push you over the edge."
"Accidentally?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, Ryan accidentally!" She was angry now, she picked up the remote that was on his bedside table and hurled it in his direction, "Because as much as you hate to admit it, Volchuk didn't try to kill Marissa. Yes it was his fault she died," Taylor picked up a hairbrush and threw it at him, "But he didn't do it on purpose!"
"I can't believe you!" he said, as he ducked to avoid getting hit by his alarm clock, "I'm going."
"Good!" she screamed to the slamming door. After five minutes Taylor calmed down, and regretted throwing things, but she didn't regret telling him Volchuk hadn't intentionally killed Marissa. He knew it, he just didn't want to admit it to himself. She grabbed her purse off the dresser and headed back into the Cohen kitchen.
"Taylor? Where's Ryan?" Kirsten asked craning her neck to see past Taylor.
"He's looking for Volchuk." She said matter-of-factly, "And I have to go after him."
No one said anything for a long while, until Sandy broke the silence, "Come on, I'll drive."
"Come on Ryan, really? You think I'd put him up in the Mermaid Inn?" Sandy asked as Ryan rushed out of the office, to find Sandy standing near his car and Taylor sitting on the hood.
"Had to check, right?" Ryan shrugged, "I've got a lot of other places to go so you mind?" he directed at Taylor so she'd get off his car.
"Actually I do." She put a hand in her bag, "You know you want me to express myself like I used to back at the bar. Now I don't keep a lot of things in here, but I have no problem throwing my lipstick and tampons at you."
"Taylor." He said reaching into his car to honk the horn, "I'm serious. I have to go."
"Ryan why don't you just come with us?" Sandy asked.
"Yeah? So you can take me home and give me one of your lectures?" He asked, then added in Taylor's direction, "And then you can go back to being the mute that I've been sharing a room with for the past week?"
"Oh, we're beyond all that." Sandy said, speaking for himself. He still had less of a grasp on the Ryan and Taylor situation than Kirsten, but he was gonna go with it.
"So where are we going?" Ryan asked.
"Come find out." Taylor said and Ryan ducked the flying tampon, and offered her his hand so she could slide off the car. The three of them walked to Sandy's car.
"If this is some kind of dare, I'm gonna take it." Ryan said as the three stood in front of a motel.
"I trust you." Sandy said.
When Ryan turned to Taylor she shrugged, "Just go, so we can move on with our lives."
Ryan walked up to the door and didn't knock, as he did in Mexico, but walked right in. Volchuk was sitting on the bed almost as if he was waiting for Ryan. He probably has been for a long time. Taylor's voice said in his head.
He shook his head, wanting all thoughts of Taylor gone for this. If he thought about how he'd been behaving towards her lately he might stop and go back out to apologize, and he couldn't do that now. Not when he had this to take care of.
"He still in there?" One of Sandy's friends, Otis asked.
"Yeah." Sandy replied and Taylor rung her hands together nervously.
"Maybe we should go in there." Otis suggested.
"Give him a minute." Taylor said, in a small voice, "He'll be okay." She added and believed it with all her heart.
"I don't wanna hear about how bad you feel. Tell me why you did it." Ryan said and he knew his voice was on the edge of pleading. This was it. This was when he heard the answer that made everything better. Why Volchuk killed her.
"Does it matter?" Volchuk asked. He was so tired, Ryan could hear it in his voice.
"It matters to me." Ryan growled.
"I don't know, OK? I mean, I was coming after you. You got the girl, I didn't, and that was hard for me to handle. I just... I wanted you to pull over. And it all just got out of control." Volchuk scrambled for an explanation, and Ryan thought the other man might cry.
"Wait so that's it?" It couldn't be. Was it what Taylor said? Just an- "It was all an accident? A mis- a mistake?"
"I know that doesn't change anything, so if you wanna finish this... I'm not gonna fight back."
Ryan gripped the broken bottle again, but then put it back down. It was an accident. He didn't mean to kill her. Doesn't mean he has no blame in this but- Taylor was right. "I'm not doing you any favors. You have to live with what you did. It's over." He got up and walked over to the door. He looked directly into her face as he opened the door. It was clouded with fear and worry for him.
Taylor rushed forward and embraced him, "I'm so mad at you."
"I know." He said, and almost smiled.
"I'm proud of you." Sandy said, clapping him on the back when Taylor pulled away, "So you two hungry?"
"Starved." They both answered.
Ryan grabbed Taylor's hand and walked back to Sandy's car, "I'll yell at you after dinner." She said softly.
"And throw things?"
"You're gonna need a helmet." She nodded, "Uh Mr. Cohen? We need to make a stop first."
"I don't know if I support this." Sandy stated as the two got out of the car.
"Sandy, it's no different than what I just did." Ryan said shrugging, "I have to go talk to her."
Ryan and Taylor walked up the steps of the Cooper-Robert's house and found Julie and Summer in the dining room, holding hands.
"Hey." Julie said softly, brushing away her tears.
"Summer, can I talk to you?" Taylor asked tilting her head towards the other room. Summer nodded and followed Taylor out, while Ryan sat down next to Julie.
"Can you do me a favor?" Julie asked Ryan softly, he nodded, "Can you- Will you tell me about her?"
"What?"
"Anything. Just tell me about her." Julie said in tears.
"I remember the first time I saw her. She was... she was wearing this white top thing, and I think she had jeans on. She was standing at the bottom of the driveway. And I thought... well that she was really hot. Really hot. She gave me a smile." They both laughed and Julie nodded.
"It was a really beautiful smile."
"Do you need a ride to the airport?" Taylor asked Summer, after she relayed the conversation she'd had with Seth after Sandy and Taylor left.
"No, I'm gonna meet my dad there." She paused, "I'll call him."
Taylor nodded, "Okay."
"Everything he said was right, everything you said was right. I need to deal with it, but I need to do it on my own. I'm sorry I'm such a mess." Taylor shook her head.
"Summer you miss your friend." Summer nodded with some tears.
"I'm gonna go." She quickly hugged Taylor.
"Call me." Summer nodded and left.
A few minutes later Ryan and Julie came out of the dining room, "So Thanksgiving?" Ryan asked.
Taylor nodded, "Let's go."
That was a long one. And probably my favorite so far. Hope you guys liked it.
Please review.
-Em