Disclaimer- Still don't own it… still wishin'

Author's Note: I KNOW! IM AN AWEFUL PERSON! I'm SO sorry everyone- thank you so amazingly much for sticking with me on this!

Chapter 10

Kirsten watched as Sandy let himself out of the room. She heard a few words of Seth and then decided that once she talked to Sandy she would save Ryan from becoming deaf. But as Sandy walked over to her- she noticed he was looking a little rattled.

"What's wrong, honey?" she said, putting an arm on his shoulder. "Ryan's fine, right? Nothing is wrong- he's still fine. There weren't any complications were there?"

"No, sweetie," Sandy said. "It's fine."

"Then why the look?"

"It's just," Sandy stopped. "he was talking in his sleep… about stuff I don't think he would want us to know." Kirsten frowned- knowing what Sandy implied. She thought about it for a moment.

"Well, then I don't want to know," she said finally. "I'll wait for him to tell me." Sandy smiled.

"My thoughts exactly."

---

Seth's chatter has slowed slightly as he ran out of things to say. The truth is, aside from the pointless matters, he didn't know what to say. He had said, "I'm glad your okay," about 12 times, "We'll get you outta here in no time," 7 times and "It'll all be cool," 4 times. He knew he was avoiding the main issues- was Ryan really coming back? But somehow asking someone lying down, pale, with stitches in his arm in a hospital bed whether or not they were coming back to the place they ran away from didn't seem appropriate.

He tried not to act like he was worried at all. But, in the middle of one of Seth's Summer stories, Ryan slide his foot over and kicked Seth's knee.

"I'm coming back, okay?" Seth stared.

"How did you-" Ryan stopped him, smiling ever so slightly.

"You had told that story 2 times already."

---

Kirsten walked in the room; to find Seth stammering about how there was no way he could've told that story two times. Ryan noticed her first and Seth saw Ryan looking at her and saw her as well.

"Well, if you're here to take care of Ryan, I'm gonna get some food." Seth waved and walked out of the room.

Kirsten went to sit next to his bed, and pretended not to notice when Ryan inched away from her. Instead, she gently put her hand on him arm.

"Hey, Ryan, how you doing," she asked quietly. His eyes glanced down to her hand, flicked up to her face, before coming to a halt staring at his toes.

"Fine," he said quietly. Kirsten stopped herself from sighing. She had been hoping for a little more information than that. But she wasn't sure how far she could push him. She was ashamed to admit it, but she didn't know Ryan at all. At her house they had been polite to each other- nothing more. What was she supposed to say know?

She didn't want to touch on any bigger issues. She wanted Sandy to be with her when they tackled that- but what small talk was there to give?

"Don't worry, we'll get you out of here soon." Ryan nodded.

Kirsten bit her lip. Outside, she had promised to become the mother Ryan had never had- she was going to try and start over. But how? It was her fault he was here at all. Sure she'd gotten him out of jail, but she refused to let him stay at her house. How was she supposed to start over with him when she had already done so much damage?

'Well, you won't get anything done if you don't try,' a part of her said. So she took a deep breath and went for it.

"Ryan, I'm really sorry," his eyes flicked to her face, but she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "I should have let you stay from the start." She gave a nervous chuckle. "For once I should've listened to Seth. I really hope you can forgive me." With that, she patted his arm, and, not wanting to force him to say anything without meaning it, she left the room.

---

Ryan stared as Kirsten left, more confused then ever. She had seemed sincere. But, then so had his mom at public places. She couldn't really mean it- could she? He had tried to read her, but what he got was too absurd to be true. She couldn't really mean it.

She was rich- she was probably used to putting on acts for people. Heck, he'd seen her do it at his very first night. She didn't want to go to the fashion show, but he'd watched as she quickly became the dazzling super- Newport woman in an instant.

He glanced toward his arm, where she had been holding it. There had been no warning pinch not to talk. The pat when she left was just that- a pat. No harder than what he imagined a pat would feel like. His mom had always given him a warning pinch and his dad was a fan of the "fatherly pat."

Suddenly he found his eyes slipping closed. He was too tired to think about that now. Besides he was probably just imagining things- no one really cared about him.

Author's Note: Please excuse any spelling errors due to author's sever case of S.S. (Spelling Stupidity)

Author's other Note:I AM SO SORRY! PLEASE REVIEW!

I am hoping to get the next chapter up soon- because I have that one all planned out- this one was just kind of one so we know where everyone stands.

Please review! I love reading them!