Ok here is the new story. I apologise for a part of it but bear with it and tell me what you think of it. God I miss the O.C! Oh btw, I've tweaked the OC time-line a bit. Enjoy.
Disclaimer – Don't own any OC character and never have.
Kirsten woke up once again to the California dawn and reached out for her husband. Usually at dawn he would be out surfing and mastering the waves of Newport Beach like a professional but today he was lying next to her with his hand gently on her hip where she noticed it for the first time.
Happy that her husband was in bed with her, she was disappointed that she wouldn't be woken up by his salty and luxurious kiss or get to see his toned legs sticking out from his surfing shorts when he walks to get changed. But maybe she will surprise him this time. She will be the one with the wet hair and long legs to stare at.
So she silently and gently crept out of bed and around to the closet where she exchanged her grey trousers and pink tank top for a black bikini which complimented her in every feminine curve and place possible. Then she went over to the bassinet where her baby daughter lay and saw that she was asleep and content. Kirsten gently rubbed the back of her fingers along the rosy cheeks of the child and gently smiled at her daughter's beauty marvelling at what she and Sandy had created together.
Then grabbing a towel she walked out to the back garden and set it down on the edge of the pool as she bent down to test the temperature of the water with her delicate and long slender fingers. It wasn't exactly cold but it wasn't warm either but she didn't care as she stepped to the edge and elegantly dived in. Several seconds later she came up for a breath and began to swim straight up and down the pool. Kirsten was however careful not to make too much noise because she didn't want to wake Ryan in the pool house or Sandy nearby as it was still early hours yet but she continued to swim quietly using her streamlined body to a great advantage.
After about half an hour to forty-five minutes of gentle swimming and about of a hundred lengths Kirsten pulled herself out of the water and quickly covered it with her towel. Sandy always said that she had the body of a goddess and it should be worshipped accordingly and in the 20 years of marriage and the 21 years that they have known each other, he has never failed to do so. Drying her skin briskly, Kirsten walked back into her bedroom where Sandy was still asleep. She threw her towel towards the closet and sat beside Sandy on his side of the bed as he had turned over and was now facing the closet. Then she leaned over him and let the water droplets from her hair fall onto Sandy's face and nose and watched as his face scrunched up as he flinched.
Pleased with her game, she lowered herself and gently grazed her lips over his and slowly his eyes opened to meet hers.
"What do I owe the pleasure?" he smiled wrapping his arms around her.
"This is your wake up call," she purred.
"I love your wake up calls cuz they always end up the same way."
"Yeh well that changed about 13 months ago," she smiled.
"I know."
They kissed each other good morning but their daughter had already inherited characteristics from their son and she always whimpered when they kissed. Today was no different.
"Seth must've brainwashed her already. I bet before long he'll have Ryan on his side too," Kirsten said breaking apart and resting her forehead on his chest.
"Well they say children share some traits."
"Yeh but does that include forbidding their parents to touch each other?"
"'Fraid so."
"Dammit," she cried into his chest.
"Sorry but I tried to keep Seth from her," Sandy laughed.
"Oh well, at least we still have Ryan."
Sandy and Kirsten remained like that for several minutes because Scarlett had calmed down the second they had parted and she now lay awake staring up at the ceiling and playing with her little hands and pulling her feet to her chest.
"I'm gonna take a shower."
"Ok, I'll watch Red while you're gone."
"Thanks," she said from the closet door as she untied the strap around her neck but she was in the bathroom before it was completely undone.
From the bedroom Sandy could hear the shower running and he wanted more than anything to be with her but Scarlett would cry hysterically if they were together. But looking at his 6 month old daughter he knew that he could not be angry at her and when he looked at her he just loved her more and more because like everyone told him, she looked so like Kirsten with her blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes.
Leaning over the edge of the white bassinet Sandy saw Scarlett playing with her hands and bending her legs and kicking them out thrusting her knitted blanket along with it. On her pink and white blanket were dots of baby blue sprinkled everywhere but on it in the top right hand corner where her initials embroidered into the material. In fancy writing were S.J.C standing for Scarlett Joanna Cohen. Then all of a suddenly Scarlett, or Red as they call her, looked directly at her daddy with big inquisitive eyes.
"Hey baby girl," he cooed.
Scarlett merely smiled at him and reached out her arms. Sandy, knowing what that meant, bent down into the bassinet and picked her up into his arms and leaned her against his chest and let her look around as he kissed her silky short hair.
"You wanna go outside huh?" he asked
Still holding Scarlett to him he padded his way out the door to the backyard and looked out at the horizon that he envied every morning since they moved to Newport over ten years ago. It was here at this horizon that Sandy and Kirsten introduced baby Scarlett to their friends. But as Sandy was standing in the garden he looked at his daughter who was entranced by the view of the ocean and pointed to it while her other hand was up against her mouth as if she was going to chew on it.
"Yes honey that's the ocean, daddy surfs there every morning," he said matching her line of sight, "maybe one day I'll teach you to surf."
"Better her than me," Kirsten said coming out of the house in a robe.
"Hey," Sandy replied as his wife walked over to them and kissed Scarlett on the cheek.
"Hey sweetie," she spoke as she stroked her baby's head.
"You think she might like surfing?"
"Well, it might be third time lucky getting one child to like it but once she's old enough . . . and don't try to get her on a board the second she can walk . . . or stand just to be safe."
"I'm not that stupid," Sandy playfully retorted but Kirsten has to restrain herself from making a sarcastic reply even though she was so tempted to speak, seeing the look on Kirsten's voice Sandy laughed, "What? I'm not."
"Scarlett? Is daddy stupid?"
In reply to her mother's question Scarlett plastered her hand against Sandy's face and giggled.
"Ok I get the point," Sandy chuckled kissing Scarlett's tiny hand.
By this point it was close to half seven and the boys would be getting up at any minute so the three of them went back into the house and got dressed and came into the kitchen where Seth and Ryan were plonked on the stools at the kitchen island reading their respected sections of the newspaper.
"Morning boys," Kirsten greeted as she walked into the room with Scarlett in her arms and she single handily poured herself some orange juice and sliced a bagel. She was dressed in one of her favourite business suits whereas she had dressed Scarlett in a yellow and green t-shirt and baby jeans with little pink baby converse booties which Scarlett will manage to kick off when she wants to.
"Morning," they both replied before putting a spoonful of cereal in their mouths.
Then Sandy entered, "Morning fellas."
"Hey," was all he got as a reply.
Then Sandy kissed Kirsten on the head and did the same for Scarlett as he did every morning even though he had just seen them 2 minutes before hand. And like normal he sliced himself a bagel and smeared it with cream cheese and began to read the news section of the newspaper as Arts & Leisure and Sports were already taken.
"So Sandy, am I meeting you for lunch today?" Kirsten asked before taking a sip of orange juice.
Sandy nodded because he had a mouth full of cream cheese and bagel and once he had swallowed it he continued, "Yeh, how about half one?"
"Perfect . . . so guys is Marissa picking you up?"
"Yeh she is," Ryan answered looking up.
The family spent the rest of their time in the kitchen talking about one thing or the other until they all had to leave for work or school and Kirsten left Scarlett with the babysitter before she left for the Newport Group.
Later that day as lunch approached Kirsten's eyes started to blur as she continued to stare at the computer screen and as she typed out the jargon she needed to explain her report to her father and then her stomach began to rumble. She had been looking forward to lunch with Sandy at his beach hut office since that morning.
She had always loved having lunch with her husband who was also her best friend because they could easily talk about anything and everything from recalling the moment they met at Berkeley and how precious their three children are to them and recently that was the hottest subject to talk about since the birth of Scarlett. But in recent months the lunch dates had been few and far between and they missed each other and neither of them realised it. Kirsten had buried herself in work so she wouldn't have to think about Sandy and how he made her go weak at the knees by a simple glance in her direction. Sandy on the other hand worked quickly on the cases he had and just hoped to see her when she got home at night but either she slipped in quietly while he was awake or he fell asleep and didn't see her. Either way, he missed deeply and they needed their lunch date to catch up after their near romantic morning.
Knowing all this Kirsten began to print off the finished document and as she waited, her gaze fell to the photographs that were scattered on her desk of her beloved family. The closest photograph was of a five-year-old Seth and Sandy. Seth and Sandy were in their backyard at Berkeley and her son was standing on the swing and Sandy was holding him steady. Then she saw a picture of Seth and Ryan at the Bait Shop on their anniversary earlier that year when Kirsten was seven months pregnant. After that her eyes settled on a picture her best friend Emily, or Emzzie as she called her, took of her and Sandy from when they were younger in Berkeley when they were dating. They were lazing on campus on a warm day and Sandy offered Kirsten a piggy-back so she jumped up and wrapped her legs around him and hung on tight. Then Emily held up a camera so Kirsten placed her head beside Sandy's and smiled because she loved him so much. Finally there was a recent photograph of Sandy, Seth and Ryan gathered around her as she held Scarlett from the introduced her to Newport.
So once her report was finished printing she gathered it all up and grabbed her purse after stapling the left corner of it and left her office leaving the report on Claire's desk.
"Oh hey Claire could you give this to my dad as soon as possible?"
"Yeh sure," Claire replied.
"Thanks, I'm going to lunch and I'll be back between half two and three ok."
Claire nodded and answered the ringing phone beside her.
Kirsten smiled back and then left the Newport Group offices and climbed into her Range Rover and drove off to Sandy's office near by.
As she drove she looked at the Newport scenery and everything held a hidden memory of when they brought a young Seth for walks or where they themselves went for long romantic walks together but then she began to slow down for a red light. While waiting for the light to change colour she began to tap her fingers on the steering wheel.
Once it changed she continued to drive on and a large black tinted van came up behind her and made contact with the rear bumper of her car causing her to pull over and get out to talk with the person in the next car and go through to whole rigmarole of swapping insurances and whatever else was needed.
"Oh my god I – am – so - sorry," a tall man exclaimed apologising as he came towards her.
"Oh don't worry about it, I'm sure it's nothing serious," Kirsten replied in her usual voice not giving the accident a second thought.
They both leaned forward and inspected the damage to both vehicles and it was minor, just a deep dent and paint scrapes exchanged but nothing that she couldn't afford.
"It's just that my friend and I were talking and I just didn't see you I'm sorry, are you ok?"
"Yeh I'm f-"
Before she could finish her sentence the man beside her firmly placed his hand over her mouth and roughly wrapped his other arm around her svelte waist and violently dragged her against her will to his car. Kirsten screamed loudly into his palm and fought as hard as she could to break free from his grip but even though she was stronger than she looked, her captor was too strong for her and her attempts to escape were feeble. Then the side door of his car slide open and Kirsten was thrown forcefully in. Landing on her wrist heavily she sat up and tried to get out but before she could, a hand fixed itself around her arm and a damp cloth was held over her nose and mouth. Kirsten tried to hold her breath but it was impossible so once she let her breath go she breathed in the fumes of the chloroform. The person holding her tightly was not about to let go of the cloth over her face until she was out cold and that is just what he did. Once the fumes had taken affect and she was unconscious, her captor let go of her arm but not after leaving bruises in the shape of his hand on her skin.
The assailant holding her, once he felt her go limp, just let her fall to the hard floor of the car and left her in the strange angle in which she lay. Then he climbed over her into the passenger seat of the car.
"Come on man go!" he ordered.
"Going!"
A scream of the tyres could be heard as they sped off down the road out of sight with their kidnapped princess, wife and mother of three unconscious in the back.
She was gone and no one knew about it.
Gone.
A one word syllable that will strike fear into the hearts of those who love her.
Missing.
A two syllable word which means 'you cannot find them'.
That's what she will be . . . missing.
Ok, what did you think? Was it worth the wait? Let me know what you think. I have other chapters lined up to be added and let me know if I should continue or stop. Thanks.