Title : In The Beginning
Author : Helen C.
Rating : PG, I guess.
Summary : Ryan runs into some trouble.
Disclaimer : The characters and the universe were created and are owned by Josh Schwartz. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
AN : Written for finlee, who wanted, "Ryan helps an old lady - who turns out to be the most feared woman in Newport Beach (but is actually very nice-she just likes people to be uncomfortable around her)."
Many thanks to Joey51 for beta'ing this.
Chapter One
Ryan had stopped listening to Seth about ten minutes ago. It wasn't lack of interest on his part—Ryan didn't mind learning about comic books, since he didn't know anything about them. And he had to admit, Seth knew the subject inside out, backwards and forward, and he even managed to make it mostly interesting.
Unfortunately, Seth also had the amazing ability to talk for more than an hour without stopping and without repeating himself, and try as he might, Ryan just couldn't focus anymore. His mind had begun to wander when Seth had started on the parallels between Batman and Superman and now, whenever Seth paused to catch his breath, Ryan just made vague noises while observing what was happening around him.
He was trying to take it all in—the people coming and going on the pier, in and out of the stores; forty-something people, dressed in business suits or in shorts and slacks, but all hurrying as if their lives depended on it. People Ryan's age, dressed in expensive clothes, eating ice creams and, from what Ryan could overhear, talking about what everyone in Chino talked about too—sex, money and parties.
The nice stores, the beautiful houses, the beach and the sea… It seemed like a different planet to him, so foreign to what his life had been like just a few weeks earlier.
Every time Ryan's gaze shifted to the ocean, he wondered what he had done to land here, and how long it was going to take for the legendary Atwood bad luck to catch up with him and turn his life upside down again.
Every time Ryan saw the wealthy people milling around, he wondered if he would still be here at Christmas.
He didn't think his mother would change her mind—it wasn't the first time she'd told him to get lost, but this time, she seemed to really mean it. She wouldn't be back, Ryan knew, and he tried to push the thought away, tried not to think about the void she had left in his life, tried not to think about what would happen if things didn't work out with the Cohens and he found himself without a place to go again.
It wouldn't do him any good worrying about it beforehand, but Ryan couldn't help it.
Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice at first that Seth had stopped talking and wasn't beside him anymore. "What's up?" he asked, turning back to where Seth was standing.
Seth was frozen in place and looked scared, which seemed off to Ryan, who hadn't noticed anything threatening around them.
"Oh my God," Seth whispered.
Ryan frowned and followed Seth's gaze, his frown deepening when all he could see was an old woman who was staring through a store window on the other side of the street.
Ryan tried to catch his friend's attention. "Seth?"
"It's… It's…"
"It's what?"
"It's the S. O. L.," Seth managed to choke out. He still hadn't moved from the place where he had stopped, and Ryan was starting to wonder if he should be amused or worried.
"Okay, I know what S. O. L. usually stands for, but what does it have to do with—?"
Before Ryan could finish his sentence, Seth grabbed his arm and dragged him into the nearest store, whispering, "We need to hide."
All kinds of smart ass comments passed through Ryan's head, from Do you owe her money? to Has she made a move on you? He didn't utter the first one, since Seth didn't seem in the mood to joke. "Why? And who is that woman?" he asked instead.
"It's the scary old lady," Seth replied, as if that explained everything.
Ryan crossed his arms and glared at Seth, who finally seemed to understand that he needed to be more explicit.
"Her name's Mrs. Thyls. She's, like, the dragon lady of Newport."
"I thought Julie Cooper was the dragon lady of Newport," Ryan said.
Seth snorted. "No, Mrs Thyls is way worse than Julie Cooper."
Ryan bit back an incredulous laugh as the situation started to sink in.
Ryan had hidden a few times in his life—from Dawn, from Trey, from the boyfriend of a girl he had slept with once, but it had always been from a real danger.
Now…
Now, he and his friend were hiding.
From an elderly woman.
In safe and wealthy Newport.
If Arturo, if Trey, could see him right now, they laugh their asses off, and would remind him of this until the end of time.
Seth wasn't finished though. "Seriously, even my mom—even my granddad—avoid her when they have a choice. Even Julie Cooper is scared of that woman, Ryan, and you know what it means whenever someone scary gets scared, right?"
"Er," Ryan said, trying to follow Seth's particular logic, and trying not to die of shame at the thought that he was hiding.
From a woman who was probably well into her seventies.
"It's bad," Seth finished.
"But what does she do?" Ryan insisted, thinking that there must be something else to make Seth act like… this.
Seth shuddered. "She pinched my cheeks once."
"Don't old people always do that?"
"It was at a charity function. In publicman!"
Ryan winced in sympathy.
"She always looks at teenagers like they don't even deserve her contempt. She humiliates adults on a regular basis. She… she's just scary, Ryan, okay?"
Seth's voice was getting a little too high for Ryan's taste, so he raised his hands in surrender. "Sure. Yeah, I get it. Scary."
There was tense silence, during which Ryan mentally compared AJ to the old woman he had caught a glimpse of before Seth had dragged him in here, and wondered again about Seth's peculiar way of seeing life and people.
"If she sees us, she'll probably make snide comments about the wasted youth of today, and about my Mom's money, and about how she knew me when I was seven, and believe me, she knows lots of stories about me, and it'll be embarrassing."
Yeah, wouldn't want that, Ryan thought. But then, would meeting that woman be more embarrassing than hiding from her? Ryan doubted it.
"I think she's gone," Seth said, peeking through the window. He dragged Ryan back outside and started yapping about comic books again, as if nothing had happened.
"Yeah," Ryan said, when Seth nudged him.
He was too busy trying to understand what the hell was so scary about an old woman to pay much attention to what Seth was saying, though.
………………………..
For the next two days, Ryan kept his eyes open to try to spot Mrs. Thyls again, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Seth had told his parents about their "near-miss encounter of the scary lady kind," and Kirsten had gone white, then blushed, leading Ryan to the conclusion that she was as intimidated as Seth was. Sandy had seemed amused, but hadn't said much on the subject, which struck Ryan as odd since he had always assumed that Sandy, like Seth, had a lot to say about pretty much everything.
Ryan even asked a few of the other waiters at the Crab Shack if they knew about her, and noticed how they tended to pale and mumble whenever he broached the subject. Ryan couldn't decide if it was funny or disturbing.
After everything that had happened to him, an elderly woman didn't seem like much of a threat. On the other hand, seeing even Newport's "rightful owners," as he had taken to thinking about them, hide and/or pale in front of the woman was unnerving.
There wasn't much he could do about it, though. If Ryan had learned one thing in his life, it was to go with the flow, and deal with whatever shit was thrown his way. He'd deal with the scary lady if and when she crossed his path—he just hoped that day would never come.
………………………..
Three weeks after his arrival at the Cohens, Ryan got back to the house late in the afternoon to find Kirsten in the kitchen. It was almost two hours before her usual time, and Ryan felt his stomach do a little flip-flop, wondering what was wrong.
"Everything okay?" he asked. "You're here early."
"You too," she said without answering his question.
Ryan shrugged. "Another waiter wanted to switch shifts with me."
She didn't ask him where he had spent the afternoon if he hadn't worked, but he heard himself volunteering the information. "I took my bike and I rode around a little."
Kirsten nodded and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Did you have fun?"
"It was quiet," Ryan answered, unsettled.
He always felt a little uncomfortable around Kirsten, no matter how hard he tried not to be. He knew what Seth expected of him—a friendly ear, companionship, advice. He knew what Sandy expected of him—stop fighting and try to make a better life for himself.
With Kirsten, he wasn't so sure. She wasn't giving anything away, and he didn't know how he was supposed to act around her, what he was supposed to say to her.
"Kirsten, what's wrong?" Ryan asked again.
She sighed and shook her head. "Everything is fine. It's just that Seth tried to do something stupid on his skateboard, and fell."
Ryan winced. "Is he okay?"
"Broken ankle," Kirsten replied flatly, her displeasure obvious.
Ryan took a moment to process the news. "Sorry," he said at last, thinking that perhaps, if he had come back immediately when he had learned he wouldn't work today, he might have been able to prevent this. Unfortunately, he had been a little tired of constantly being with Seth, and he had wanted to spend some time by himself, and it was too late for second thoughts anyway.
Kirsten looked at him, surprised, then smiled. "He'll be fine," she repeated. She took a deep breath. "I told him, repeatedly, to be careful on that thing, but he keeps…" She gestured vaguely, looking exhausted. "He's grounded, by the way."
Ryan nodded, unsure how he should reply to that. "Can I—?"
"MOM!" Seth yelled from the den, startling Ryan.
"I'm coming," Kirsten called back, calmly, gesturing for Ryan to follow.
Seth was lying down on the couch, his left leg propped up on pillows. His eyes were red, and Ryan grimaced in sympathy.
"Sorry, but I'm thirsty," Seth announced.
"I'll bring you something," Kirsten said, heading back to the kitchen.
"Thanks." Seth finally spotted Ryan and waved at him. "Hey, man."
Ryan waved back uncertainly. "Hey. Nice cast."
"It itches," Seth complained.
Ryan looked at him doubtfully. "Seth, I've broken bones before, and it usually doesn't start itching that quickly."
"Yeah, well, it does," Seth said, sounding like a petulant kid.
Ryan briefly wondered if it was the pain or the painkillers making his friend act like a ten-year-old. Either way, he understood now why Kirsten looked so tired.
Kirsten came back from the kitchen with a glass of water, and sat down on the table in front of Seth, brushing his hair from his forehead. "This is the third time you've seriously hurt yourself on this thing."
"Yes, but I've had it since I was ten, so, it's only an average of once every two years."
Ryan stifled a laugh at Seth's logic, but he had to admit he was impressed. He had only suffered from broken bones twice himself, and he remembered well how much it hurt, and what a pain it was to wear a cast. Seth was certainly persistent—Ryan would have decided it wasn't worth the risk and would have thrown the skateboard away after the first accident.
"Seth…"
"Come on, Mom, it's not that bad."
"This time," Kirsten said. "It's not that bad this time. And I'm throwing that thing away, no argument."
Seth pouted, and Ryan could already predict that there would be arguments, no matter what Kirsten said.
"I need to call Dad, tell him I'm taking the week off," Kirsten announced.
Ryan almost blurt out, "Why?" but caught himself in time. Of course Kirsten was going to take time off to take care of Seth until he could move by himself. What was he thinking?
It kept hitting him, several times a day, how different his life was now. Sometimes, the differences were amusing, but most time it hurt, and only served to remind him of how screwed up his home life had been.
Watching Kirsten as she smiled at Seth and patted his shoulder, he couldn't help feeling a pang of envy.
Some people managed to make their families work, even in Chino.
Why hadn't his family been able to do it?
What had made his mom unable to care for him the same way Kirsten cared for Seth?
Feeling like an intruder, Ryan quietly retreated from the room, leaving Seth and Kirsten alone.
………………………..
"I want ice cream," Seth announced after diner.
"We only have vanilla ice cream left," Kirsten replied. "And you don't like that kind."
She sounded frustrated, and Ryan could understand why—she had specifically asked Seth earlier if he needed something from the store, and Seth had said no. Ryan was amazed at how calm Kirsten had remained through the whole day. He'd snapped at Seth twice already, and he had felt guilty both times when Seth had looked all chastened and remorseful.
But Kirsten seemed to have an endless supply of patience at her disposal, and only the slight tightening of her lips betrayed her frustration.
Looking at Kirsten's exhausted face and at Sandy's empty chair, Ryan got his feet. "I'll go get some," he offered.
Kirsten shook her head. "You don't have to, Ryan."
"Mom!" Seth said. "Thanks, man. It's probably the only thing that'll make me feel better."
Ryan shrugged. "I'd go with Demerol, myself, but hey… your body, your call."
Seth smiled slightly. "Very funny."
Kirsten shook her head at both of them. "Take the car, Ryan. And be careful."
"Mom, it's Newport," Seth said. "Not exactly a rough neighborhood. What could happen?"
"Famous last words. Don't tempt fate!" Ryan warned half-heartedly, grabbing the keys on his way out.
………………………..
Ryan was making his way to the car, the three cartons of ice cream in one hand, keys in the other, when he heard a man yelling.
"Look, lady, just give me your fucking purse and no one will get hurt, okay?"
Ryan stopped dead in his tracks, scanning the street. He spotted the man and an old woman at the intersection and mentally took notes on the thug—bad place for a mugging, there was too much light and too much traffic at that place to stay unnoticed for long. Clearly, the guy was either amateurish or stupid.
Or both.
Then, Ryan saw the guy raising his hand and hitting the woman.
Without thinking, Ryan dropped his groceries and ran to them.
TBC…