Change

By: Allison

Disclaimer: Not my players, just my playground.

Fandom: The OC

Pairing: None.

Spoilers: The Distance

Summary: Seth returns. Companion to "The Last Time". AU.

A/N: Just trying to get the muse working here. If you haven't read "The Last Time", you might wanna go ahead and do that.

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The house was empty when he walked in the door. Quiet. No one was home. He knew both his parents would be at work - he'd expected this, anticipated it, planned it. He needed time to work out what he was going to say to them. Time to think. All he could muster was, "Hi, I'm home" before running a blank. He wasn't prepared for questions, and questions is exactly what he would get.

Setting his bags down in the front hall and stuffing his hands into his pockets, he sauntered into the den. Home. It felt familiar - unchanged, stable. It felt good. He found himself aching for his father's corny jokes and his mother's overprotectiveness. "His mother," he mused. The Kirsten. She was going to kill him.

He ran his hand over the mantle, gazing at the photos adorning it.

He stopped.

Something was missing.

Someone was missing.

There were pictures of him. Photos of him at age two playing in the sandbox at their old house in Berkley. His first sailing trip when he was eight. Yearbook photos.

There were pictures of his father - Sandy, with the Nana and even one with Ryan.

The realization hit him like a sack of bricks.

"Shit."

Seth crumpled to the floor, a sob catching in his throat.

In the eight months he'd been gone, everything had changed.

Fin.