A/N Sorry for the delay, thanks for the reviews and apologies for the shortness. More coming soon! So keep reading!
Summer was angry. No, scratch that she was furious. She stormed through the automatic doors through the hospital lobby, her heels clicking against the tiles and her umbrella dripping steadily on the floor.
Marissa had been her best friend since kindergarten and she loved the girl she really did but sometimes she was so…selfish. She had used her dad's car to drive around to Johnny's to find Marissa and told her everything. She'd been expecting a huge Marissa Cooper meltdown but instead she got nothing. Sure she'd looked upset but she'd just made excuses about Johnny having a fall and needing to look after him.
She'd made some comment about her not being able to do anything for Ryan yet anyway.
He was her fucking boyfriend.
So she'd left with some choice words and stormed over here.
She had never been really close with Ryan but she he was one of the most decent guys she knew and she knew he deserved better than this.
She strode over to the receptionist and tapped on the wood surface of the desk to draw the girl's attention.
"Excuse me? I'm looking for Ryan Atwood?" She said.
The girl tapped at the computer and stared at the screen for a few seconds before looking back up.
"He's in Trauma One, if you're not family you'll have to wait in the waiting room." She drawled.
Summer didn't respond but strode away from the desk following the signs to trauma one.
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Seth stared down at his muddy shoe laces and sighed. He felt bad for not going back into the room and sitting with his parents and Ryan but he didn't think he could go back in there and see Ryan like that.
It had been bad enough finding him.
Why was this happening to Ryan? Hadn't he been through enough already? He'd had to fight his way through life and it wasn't letting up.
Seth didn't want to think about what would happen if Ryan didn't make it through this.
It was too terrible to think about. He hadn't realised how much he took Ryan for granted, how little he really knew about him. Seth had always been a self-involved person but he knew he should talk to Ryan more. He kept everything inside. He had barely spoken after the Trey incident.
Seth looked up upon hearing the sound of clicking heels and couldn't stop the breath of relief coming from his mouth as he saw Summer.
He rose to his feet unsteadily and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"Cohen, how is he?" She asked into his shoulder as she hugged him tightly.
Seth closed his eyes breathing in her sweet perfume feeling grateful just to have her here with him.
"Not good, he needs surgery." He said shakily as Summer pulled away and studied his pale face.
He looked terrible. She could see tearstains on his cheeks and his eyes were red, his hair was dishevelled and he looked exhausted.
"Where's Marissa?" He asked suddenly realising Summer had come alone.
Summer looked up at him darkly.
"She wanted to stay with Johnny instead, apparently he fell today and he has no one else to look after him so she's staying with him. She said she might come and see Ryan later." Summer said bitterly and Seth stared at her incredulously.
"What?"
"I know."
"She's supposed to be his fucking girlfriend and she's staying looking after some other guy when Ryan could…"
He trailed off unable to say it. Summer pulled Seth into another hug, seeing him growing upset.
"He won't Seth, you know how stubborn Chino is." She said as Seth trembled in her arms.
They stood there in each other's arms for a few moments until Seth pulled away and swiped at his eyes quickly.
"We should go and see him." He said.
Summer nodded and slipped her hand inside Seth's.
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Kirsten stared at Ryan's chest as it rose and fell steadily, she could barely wrap her head around the fact that he couldn't breathe without help.
He looked so young and small buried under the heaps of blankets. She stroked the back of his hand softly, enjoying the contact she wouldn't usually have with him.
Looking at his bruised face and the dried blood on his ear she felt another wave of unbearable guilt. This was her fault.
She looked across at Sandy and saw her own expression of hopelessness and fear reflected on his face.
"How did we let things come to this?" She whispered.
Sandy looked up at her.
"How did we let things get this bad? It takes one of our children ending up in hospital for us to realise just how far we've grown apart." She said her eyes brimming with tears.
Sandy took her hand gently.
"I don't know. But all I know is it wont happen again. We're gonna get through this. Ryan will get through this." Sandy said trying to keep the tremor from his voice.
He'd taken Ryan from a life of neglect, promising to give him a better life but he was just as bad as Dawn.
Kirsten leant against Sandy and he wrapped an arm around her.
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Summer stared through the window into Ryan's room and she swallowed with difficulty.
It didn't look like Ryan. She knew things were bad because of what Seth had told her but she had never imagined them to be this bad.
Ryan was surrounded by various machines and she could even see from here how pale he was, how bad he looked.
He looked…he looked like he might…die.
She felt tears spring to her eyes.
Ryan was her friend. He was her friend and he was lying in hospital and his girlfriend couldn't even be bothered to come.
A warm tear slid down her cheek.
Ryan didn't deserve this.
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Kirsten and Sandy sat there in silence, the only sound was the hissing of the ventilator and the steady beating of the heart monitor.
Sandy stroked Kirsten's arm gently. He couldn't take his eyes from Ryan. Knowing this was his fault was eating him up inside.
Ryan was the glue holding this family together. If they lost him….
His thoughts were suddenly punctuated by a shrill, piercing whine from one of the machines and Kirsten immediately flinched next to him. She stumbled to her feet her eyes wide with terror and Sandy moved back from the bed.
He froze not knowing what to do when the door burst open and doctors and nurses hurried in.
Numb, he felt himself being ushered from the room but his eyes didn't leave Ryan's still body.
Kirsten stared through the windows in horror, tears blurring her vision as Seth looked at her terrified.
Barraging her with questions, wanting to know what was going on.
She wished she could answer them…