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Entry tags:
Impending [Part six of the "Trials" series] ; R ; Ryan/Seth
Title: Impending [Part Six of the "Trials" series, a sequel to "Heal"]
Paring: Seth/Ryan
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,989 (this chapter)
Summary: Ryan and Seth are finally together, but now Ryan's got one very big problem. Something's stopping him from really being with Seth.
Disclaimer: Me = Poor. Josh Schwartz = Both very ballsy and extremely rich. Note the difference.
Spoilers: For everything. Literally.
Notes: This is a sequel to "Heal", which you'll want to read before you read this. All 12 chapters of "Heal" can be found here.
Part One can be found HERE
Part Two can be found HERE
Part Three can be found HERE
Part Four can be found HERE
Part Five can be found HERE
“Taylor?” Seth manages to squeak from his position. He’s suddenly very aware that he’s trapped under Ryan, and that he’s hard. Though that problem, at least, is rapidly fading, now that Taylor Townsend is now standing in the pool house doorway and gaping at him like a fish.
Ryan seems frozen to the spot above him, so Seth starts tapping on Ryan’s arm to get him to move. Finally Ryan glances down like he’s suddenly just remembering that Seth is there, and moves off, landing on his back on the bed and staring at the ceiling.
Seth climbs up off the bed, pushing his clothes back into place and trying to smooth out the wrinkles. Taylor seems to be staring at his hair, so Seth starts trying, to no avail, to smooth it down.
“Taylor,” he says again, hoping he sounds more manly this time.
“Seth,” she says, in the same tone of voice. “A word?”
Seth nods and follows her outside to the chairs by the pool. Taylor takes off her shoes and sits down on the side, slipping her toes in the water. Seth follows suit and trails his fingers through the water, trying to remember how to breathe.
“What are you doing here?” Seth asks finally. “I thought you were in Korea? And then the Sorbonne?”
Taylor sighs heavily and says, “I was in Korea and then it came time to leave to go to school, and I just couldn’t. Couldn’t leave him.”
“So why are you here?”
Taylor suddenly turns to him with tears in her eyes. “I just got Summer’s letter.”
“What letter?”
“About…about Marissa.”
“But she sent that months ago. It happened the night you left.”
“I know,” Taylor nods. “But Korean mail is really strict. I didn’t get it until two weeks ago. And I just today…or yesterday? Or…the time zones have me confused. But I just now caught a flight.”
“Afraid you missed the funeral and the subsequent fucking up of everything we hold dear,” Seth says.
“I saw that.” Taylor nods in the direction of the pool house. “When did that happen?”
“I’m not sure,” Seth tells her. “I guess…it’s been happening for a long time and I just didn’t know it.”
Taylor looks down at the water. “How’d Summer take it? The whole you-cheating-on-her thing?”
“I didn’t,” Seth tells her. “Well, just once, just a kiss, but…we were just drifting apart. With the funeral and all…I couldn’t be there for both of them.”
“So you had to choose,” Taylor finishes for him. “And you chose Ryan.”
Seth nods and sighs. “Yeah, I did.”
“What did Summer say when she found out?”
“Nothing much,” Seth shrugs. “She had already moved on. She’s dating Luke Ward now.”
“Oooh!” Taylor suddenly squeals. “He’s hot!”
Seth shrugs. “Julie Cooper didn’t take it too well, but her opinion is pretty much moot anyway, so…”
Taylor sighs and says, “So. You and Ryan.”
Seth nods. “Mhm.”
“Now I wish I hadn’t gone to Korea. I missed too much.”
“Trust me, it wasn’t that great to live through. You’re probably better off for it.”
“No, not that,” Taylor says, suddenly giggling. “I just mean that I have a Kama Sutra book for two guys, too, you know.”
Seth resists the urge to cover his ears like he did with his parents, but really, Taylor knows far too much about his sex life thus far for him to care.
“We haven’t…yet,” Seth tells her.
“Why not? Ryan’s hot.”
Seth laughs. “I know he is. Trust me, if I had my way, we’d be doing it right now.”
“So why aren’t you?”
“He’s not ready,” Seth shrugs. “Something about him wanting the trial to be over before we do anything.”
“Trial?”
“Yeah, that Volchok guy keeps saying Marissa’s death is Ryan’s fault. The jury’s been debating over whether or not Ryan’s a credible witness for…God knows how long.”
“Damn,” Taylor says.
“Yeah.” Seth feels awkward talking about the trial, so he opts to change the subject. “Does your mom know you’re home yet?”
“No,” Taylor says, looking down at her hands. “When she found out I didn’t go to the Sorbonne and I stayed in Korea, she…” Taylor swallows roughly and then continues, “she told me not to come home. Period.”
“Where are you going to stay?” Seth asks.
“I don’t know. I just…I got the letter and I…I felt like I had to come here. I mean, I just…”
Seth puts his arm around her shoulders awkwardly.
“Stay here, okay?”
Taylor nods and Seth heads inside to find his dad. He explains the situation and asks if Taylor can stay the night. When Sandy says yes, Seth heads back outside.
“Taylor? You want to stay here tonight?”
He can actually see the waves of relief wash over her. “Oh, thank you,” she says, hugging him.
“No problem. You know where my room is, right?”
“But where are you going to sleep?”
Seth nods towards the pool house and refrains from wincing when Taylor gives him a dramatic wink. When she disappears inside the house, Seth heads back into the pool house again.
“Hey,” he says, flopping down on the bed next to Ryan.
“What’d she want?” Ryan asks, scooting a little closer.
“She…she just found out about Marissa. The Korean mail or something.”
Ryan sighs. “She gone?”
“No. She’s staying in my room.”
Ryan looks confused, but finally he just sighs and throws his arm around Seth, tugging him closer. “Good night.”
“Night,” Seth says, settling into bed.
Taylor, his former sex cheerleader, has become his biggest cockblocker. Seems fitting.
*
Kaitlin sits down at her usual table and pulls out her lunch. Something seems off, wrong somehow, until she notices that Charlie isn’t there. She looks around for him, but doesn’t find him. Then she realizes that she doesn’t actually care where he is, not really, and continues eating her lunch.
Her day has been hell, but then again, most days at Harbor High are. She’s starting to see why Marissa would want to go to Newport Union and hang out with the poor people. As soon as the thought flits across her mind, she feels like vomiting, so she sets her hamburger down.
Suddenly there’s a thump as someone sits down across from her. Kaitlin is just about to look up and snap at them to go away when she notices that it’s Charlie.
But he’s not alone. He’s got a girl with him. The same girl that Kaitlin beat up on her first day of school. The girl gives a small shriek and looks ready to run away, but Charlie tugs her down next to him with a smile.
“Kaitlin, this is Jessica.”
Kaitlin sends the girl a glare and can feel her give a shudder of fear. Kaitlin likes that. The fear. The power. Marissa never had that.
“We’ve met,” Jessica squeaks. “You didn’t tell me this was your friend,” she whispers hurriedly to Charlie.
“I’m not,” Kaitlin tells her with a smirk.
“Whatever you say, Kay,” Charlie says with a smile. “We’re friends whether you want to admit it or not.”
Kaitlin sighs. She’s barely taken two bites of her food, and she is suddenly very done with her meal. “I am not your friend,” she says again, then stands up and heads back inside, throwing her hamburger in the trashcan on the way.
She tries very, very hard not to be pissed off at Charlie for bringing that girl to their lunch table, and fails.
Bastard.
*
“Morning,” Ryan says when Seth opens his eyes.
Seth blinks at him blearily before muttering his own greeting back, then sticking his head back under the pillow.
“I’ve got to leave,” Ryan tells him. “Today’s the last day. Either they give us a verdict or it’s a mistrial.”
Seth’s head suddenly pops up, eyes open. “Oh, right. That’s today. Um. Okay. So.”
“I know you want to come sit with me at the boring courthouse all day,” Ryan says sarcastically, laughing.
“Of course I do,” Seth says, sounding offended. “I have to be there when you get so bored you get to option three. You doing ‘Baby Got Back’ is a sight I simply must see.”
“Ah,” Ryan says with a smile, trying to sound more cheerful than he feels. “But you pulled a coffee cart for me and can’t come. So you’ll just have to miss it.”
“Courthouse cameras,” Seth says with a grin.
“Besides, you’ve got a guest,” Ryan says, nodding towards the doorway, where Taylor stands, watching them silently.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey,” Seth says, sitting up further in bed.
“I’ll…I’ll go back inside and wait for you,” she says, then turns awkwardly and heads back inside.
Ryan climbs out of bed and heads towards his bathroom. “I’ve got to take a shower. Save me a bagel?”
“Taylor’s a bagel fiend,” Seth says. “I’ll see what I can do, but when you find me battered and bruised by a Prada handbag, clutching a bagel bravely to my chest, you’ll have only yourself to blame.”
“I can deal with that,” Ryan nods, then heads into the bathroom.
As soon as the pool house door shuts, Ryan hits his head against the door of the bathroom repeatedly. He groans before stepping into the shower.
He’d never admit it out loud, especially not to Seth, but he’s petrified that today they’ll tell him that the last six and a half months will have been all for naught and that he’s about to have to go through this all over again. Worse, that he’ll have to skip out of Berkeley next semester. He knows that if he gives it up next semester, he’ll have no chance of going in the fall. And he doesn’t want to give up Berkeley. There are three things in his life that he doesn’t want to give up. Berkeley, the Cohens, and Seth, and he doesn’t know what he do if he had to give one of them up.
Especially over Volchok, who has already made his life hell enough. He’s beat him up, made him help steal a car, and killed Marissa. Taking Berkeley would be the last straw, so the jury damn well better put him behind bars today, or Ryan’s going to go vigilante on their asses and exact a little revenge of his own.
Of course, that would really only help with the losing Berkeley, the Cohens, and Seth thing, so probably not Ryan’s best idea.
He turns the water off and gets out of the shower, wrapping his towel around his waist and reaching for his comb.
“Here,” Seth says, and Ryan jumps around quickly.
“What are you doing here?” Ryan asks, taking the comb from Seth’s hand.
“Just wanted to come wish you good luck before you leave,” Seth says innocently.
Though, the innocence is countered by the way he runs one finger down through the water droplets still clinging to Ryan’s skin.
“Seth,” Ryan says warningly. “Later, okay?”
“Okay,” Seth grins. “Just wanted to say goodbye before we both left.”
“Where are you going?”
“Taylor wants to go shopping,” Seth says. “And apparently my recent bout with the Big Gayness has qualified me for the position of co-shopper.”
“Sounds fun,” Ryan says, running the comb through his hair as he turns to face the mirror.
“And um…”
Ryan watches Seth’s face in the mirror. He’s wincing.
“Um…she wants to go…see…um…Marissa’s grave. She…she wants to say goodbye.”
Ryan’s jaw tightens and he barely manages to get out, “Okay.”
“Um…have a…have a good day,” Seth says awkwardly before leaning in to kiss Ryan softly on the cheek.
Ryan watches Seth walk out to the pool, where Taylor is standing, waiting for him.
He runs the comb through his hair one more time before tugging on his clothes.
He consoles himself with the thought that at least, for better or for worse, this is the last day.
Sorry this chapter took so long. I finally got to see Pirates of the Carribean 2 and I was in such a piratey mood that unless you wanted Ryan and Seth to be saying "argh" and "Aye! Avast!", it was best I waited until I got that out of my system. Heh.
Paring: Seth/Ryan
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,989 (this chapter)
Summary: Ryan and Seth are finally together, but now Ryan's got one very big problem. Something's stopping him from really being with Seth.
Disclaimer: Me = Poor. Josh Schwartz = Both very ballsy and extremely rich. Note the difference.
Spoilers: For everything. Literally.
Notes: This is a sequel to "Heal", which you'll want to read before you read this. All 12 chapters of "Heal" can be found here.
Part One can be found HERE
Part Two can be found HERE
Part Three can be found HERE
Part Four can be found HERE
Part Five can be found HERE
“Taylor?” Seth manages to squeak from his position. He’s suddenly very aware that he’s trapped under Ryan, and that he’s hard. Though that problem, at least, is rapidly fading, now that Taylor Townsend is now standing in the pool house doorway and gaping at him like a fish.
Ryan seems frozen to the spot above him, so Seth starts tapping on Ryan’s arm to get him to move. Finally Ryan glances down like he’s suddenly just remembering that Seth is there, and moves off, landing on his back on the bed and staring at the ceiling.
Seth climbs up off the bed, pushing his clothes back into place and trying to smooth out the wrinkles. Taylor seems to be staring at his hair, so Seth starts trying, to no avail, to smooth it down.
“Taylor,” he says again, hoping he sounds more manly this time.
“Seth,” she says, in the same tone of voice. “A word?”
Seth nods and follows her outside to the chairs by the pool. Taylor takes off her shoes and sits down on the side, slipping her toes in the water. Seth follows suit and trails his fingers through the water, trying to remember how to breathe.
“What are you doing here?” Seth asks finally. “I thought you were in Korea? And then the Sorbonne?”
Taylor sighs heavily and says, “I was in Korea and then it came time to leave to go to school, and I just couldn’t. Couldn’t leave him.”
“So why are you here?”
Taylor suddenly turns to him with tears in her eyes. “I just got Summer’s letter.”
“What letter?”
“About…about Marissa.”
“But she sent that months ago. It happened the night you left.”
“I know,” Taylor nods. “But Korean mail is really strict. I didn’t get it until two weeks ago. And I just today…or yesterday? Or…the time zones have me confused. But I just now caught a flight.”
“Afraid you missed the funeral and the subsequent fucking up of everything we hold dear,” Seth says.
“I saw that.” Taylor nods in the direction of the pool house. “When did that happen?”
“I’m not sure,” Seth tells her. “I guess…it’s been happening for a long time and I just didn’t know it.”
Taylor looks down at the water. “How’d Summer take it? The whole you-cheating-on-her thing?”
“I didn’t,” Seth tells her. “Well, just once, just a kiss, but…we were just drifting apart. With the funeral and all…I couldn’t be there for both of them.”
“So you had to choose,” Taylor finishes for him. “And you chose Ryan.”
Seth nods and sighs. “Yeah, I did.”
“What did Summer say when she found out?”
“Nothing much,” Seth shrugs. “She had already moved on. She’s dating Luke Ward now.”
“Oooh!” Taylor suddenly squeals. “He’s hot!”
Seth shrugs. “Julie Cooper didn’t take it too well, but her opinion is pretty much moot anyway, so…”
Taylor sighs and says, “So. You and Ryan.”
Seth nods. “Mhm.”
“Now I wish I hadn’t gone to Korea. I missed too much.”
“Trust me, it wasn’t that great to live through. You’re probably better off for it.”
“No, not that,” Taylor says, suddenly giggling. “I just mean that I have a Kama Sutra book for two guys, too, you know.”
Seth resists the urge to cover his ears like he did with his parents, but really, Taylor knows far too much about his sex life thus far for him to care.
“We haven’t…yet,” Seth tells her.
“Why not? Ryan’s hot.”
Seth laughs. “I know he is. Trust me, if I had my way, we’d be doing it right now.”
“So why aren’t you?”
“He’s not ready,” Seth shrugs. “Something about him wanting the trial to be over before we do anything.”
“Trial?”
“Yeah, that Volchok guy keeps saying Marissa’s death is Ryan’s fault. The jury’s been debating over whether or not Ryan’s a credible witness for…God knows how long.”
“Damn,” Taylor says.
“Yeah.” Seth feels awkward talking about the trial, so he opts to change the subject. “Does your mom know you’re home yet?”
“No,” Taylor says, looking down at her hands. “When she found out I didn’t go to the Sorbonne and I stayed in Korea, she…” Taylor swallows roughly and then continues, “she told me not to come home. Period.”
“Where are you going to stay?” Seth asks.
“I don’t know. I just…I got the letter and I…I felt like I had to come here. I mean, I just…”
Seth puts his arm around her shoulders awkwardly.
“Stay here, okay?”
Taylor nods and Seth heads inside to find his dad. He explains the situation and asks if Taylor can stay the night. When Sandy says yes, Seth heads back outside.
“Taylor? You want to stay here tonight?”
He can actually see the waves of relief wash over her. “Oh, thank you,” she says, hugging him.
“No problem. You know where my room is, right?”
“But where are you going to sleep?”
Seth nods towards the pool house and refrains from wincing when Taylor gives him a dramatic wink. When she disappears inside the house, Seth heads back into the pool house again.
“Hey,” he says, flopping down on the bed next to Ryan.
“What’d she want?” Ryan asks, scooting a little closer.
“She…she just found out about Marissa. The Korean mail or something.”
Ryan sighs. “She gone?”
“No. She’s staying in my room.”
Ryan looks confused, but finally he just sighs and throws his arm around Seth, tugging him closer. “Good night.”
“Night,” Seth says, settling into bed.
Taylor, his former sex cheerleader, has become his biggest cockblocker. Seems fitting.
Kaitlin sits down at her usual table and pulls out her lunch. Something seems off, wrong somehow, until she notices that Charlie isn’t there. She looks around for him, but doesn’t find him. Then she realizes that she doesn’t actually care where he is, not really, and continues eating her lunch.
Her day has been hell, but then again, most days at Harbor High are. She’s starting to see why Marissa would want to go to Newport Union and hang out with the poor people. As soon as the thought flits across her mind, she feels like vomiting, so she sets her hamburger down.
Suddenly there’s a thump as someone sits down across from her. Kaitlin is just about to look up and snap at them to go away when she notices that it’s Charlie.
But he’s not alone. He’s got a girl with him. The same girl that Kaitlin beat up on her first day of school. The girl gives a small shriek and looks ready to run away, but Charlie tugs her down next to him with a smile.
“Kaitlin, this is Jessica.”
Kaitlin sends the girl a glare and can feel her give a shudder of fear. Kaitlin likes that. The fear. The power. Marissa never had that.
“We’ve met,” Jessica squeaks. “You didn’t tell me this was your friend,” she whispers hurriedly to Charlie.
“I’m not,” Kaitlin tells her with a smirk.
“Whatever you say, Kay,” Charlie says with a smile. “We’re friends whether you want to admit it or not.”
Kaitlin sighs. She’s barely taken two bites of her food, and she is suddenly very done with her meal. “I am not your friend,” she says again, then stands up and heads back inside, throwing her hamburger in the trashcan on the way.
She tries very, very hard not to be pissed off at Charlie for bringing that girl to their lunch table, and fails.
Bastard.
“Morning,” Ryan says when Seth opens his eyes.
Seth blinks at him blearily before muttering his own greeting back, then sticking his head back under the pillow.
“I’ve got to leave,” Ryan tells him. “Today’s the last day. Either they give us a verdict or it’s a mistrial.”
Seth’s head suddenly pops up, eyes open. “Oh, right. That’s today. Um. Okay. So.”
“I know you want to come sit with me at the boring courthouse all day,” Ryan says sarcastically, laughing.
“Of course I do,” Seth says, sounding offended. “I have to be there when you get so bored you get to option three. You doing ‘Baby Got Back’ is a sight I simply must see.”
“Ah,” Ryan says with a smile, trying to sound more cheerful than he feels. “But you pulled a coffee cart for me and can’t come. So you’ll just have to miss it.”
“Courthouse cameras,” Seth says with a grin.
“Besides, you’ve got a guest,” Ryan says, nodding towards the doorway, where Taylor stands, watching them silently.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey,” Seth says, sitting up further in bed.
“I’ll…I’ll go back inside and wait for you,” she says, then turns awkwardly and heads back inside.
Ryan climbs out of bed and heads towards his bathroom. “I’ve got to take a shower. Save me a bagel?”
“Taylor’s a bagel fiend,” Seth says. “I’ll see what I can do, but when you find me battered and bruised by a Prada handbag, clutching a bagel bravely to my chest, you’ll have only yourself to blame.”
“I can deal with that,” Ryan nods, then heads into the bathroom.
As soon as the pool house door shuts, Ryan hits his head against the door of the bathroom repeatedly. He groans before stepping into the shower.
He’d never admit it out loud, especially not to Seth, but he’s petrified that today they’ll tell him that the last six and a half months will have been all for naught and that he’s about to have to go through this all over again. Worse, that he’ll have to skip out of Berkeley next semester. He knows that if he gives it up next semester, he’ll have no chance of going in the fall. And he doesn’t want to give up Berkeley. There are three things in his life that he doesn’t want to give up. Berkeley, the Cohens, and Seth, and he doesn’t know what he do if he had to give one of them up.
Especially over Volchok, who has already made his life hell enough. He’s beat him up, made him help steal a car, and killed Marissa. Taking Berkeley would be the last straw, so the jury damn well better put him behind bars today, or Ryan’s going to go vigilante on their asses and exact a little revenge of his own.
Of course, that would really only help with the losing Berkeley, the Cohens, and Seth thing, so probably not Ryan’s best idea.
He turns the water off and gets out of the shower, wrapping his towel around his waist and reaching for his comb.
“Here,” Seth says, and Ryan jumps around quickly.
“What are you doing here?” Ryan asks, taking the comb from Seth’s hand.
“Just wanted to come wish you good luck before you leave,” Seth says innocently.
Though, the innocence is countered by the way he runs one finger down through the water droplets still clinging to Ryan’s skin.
“Seth,” Ryan says warningly. “Later, okay?”
“Okay,” Seth grins. “Just wanted to say goodbye before we both left.”
“Where are you going?”
“Taylor wants to go shopping,” Seth says. “And apparently my recent bout with the Big Gayness has qualified me for the position of co-shopper.”
“Sounds fun,” Ryan says, running the comb through his hair as he turns to face the mirror.
“And um…”
Ryan watches Seth’s face in the mirror. He’s wincing.
“Um…she wants to go…see…um…Marissa’s grave. She…she wants to say goodbye.”
Ryan’s jaw tightens and he barely manages to get out, “Okay.”
“Um…have a…have a good day,” Seth says awkwardly before leaning in to kiss Ryan softly on the cheek.
Ryan watches Seth walk out to the pool, where Taylor is standing, waiting for him.
He runs the comb through his hair one more time before tugging on his clothes.
He consoles himself with the thought that at least, for better or for worse, this is the last day.
Sorry this chapter took so long. I finally got to see Pirates of the Carribean 2 and I was in such a piratey mood that unless you wanted Ryan and Seth to be saying "argh" and "Aye! Avast!", it was best I waited until I got that out of my system. Heh.
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All supportive and cheering them on. And just being a friend.
I actually had to LOL at the "kamasutra for two guys"-part. :)
"Ryan’s hot."
You are so right, Taylor. He IS hot.
Now I just hope, the trial brings the wished end.
It's great that Ryan admits to himself what he wants and what he is not willing to give up for anything. He so often puts others wishes for his own, that I really liked that little change.
The Cohens and Seth - I don't think they would be willing to lose Ryan either. And Berkeley - even Marissa said to him that it felt Ryan for him to be there and if that's so he will find his way back there.
Glad you updated this.
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Great update!
no subject
Thank you. ♥