Slipping

Disclaimer: I don’t own The O.C., but I do own a bottle of orange juice that tastes really weird, so I’m not gonna drink anymore of it.

Summary: AU flash ficlet, sequel to Honey and Coconut. Requested by jassylou at LiveJournal. Marissa’s pregnant, and all hell is about to break loose. RM.

Notes: My stomach seriously hurts. Waa. Anyway, who actually remembers the ‘Honey and Coconut’ oneshot I did ages ago? If you haven’t read that, this will make no sense. This was requested by jassylou at LJ. Enjoy.

OCFF#16: On the count of three, everybody run back to your fantasy.

Talk about bad timing.

“Shit,” Marissa Cooper cursed, staring at the home pregnancy test for a moment longer before moodily throwing it onto the bed, where it joined its five equally positive companions. “This is not happening.”

At the very least, Trey was on a business trip for the next few days, which meant Marissa didn’t have to hide this from him. She’d been suspicious for the past twenty-four hours or so, but she had also been suffering a bad case of denial. Finally, this morning, she had ventured to the grocery store and bought pregnancy tests. Multiple pregnancy tests. And despite the part of the eighteen-year-old girl’s mind that was running in circles while dramatically yelling ‘Nooo!’, Marissa had the brains to realise that six positive pregnancy tests didn’t lie.

As for the perfect timing? Ryan had dumped her exactly two days ago, and it was the morning after that when Marissa realised, despite her moping, that her period was late. She pushed it to the back of her mind, hoped it had something to do with the pill; but no, rather, she was doomed.

Some might point out that sleeping with two brothers was a very stupid idea in the first place. It wasn’t like Marissa and Trey had had the world’s most active sex life, seeing as she despised him and he preferred to get laid elsewhere. Going by probability, guessing Marissa was maybe six weeks along (wasn’t that around the time people usually found out?) the baby was most likely Ryan’s. However, bad luck had a way of striking her at the most inopportune times. And the last thing the world needed was a mini Trey Atwood running around.

What the hell was she going to do? Ryan definitely wasn’t talking to her. After their awkward confrontation/break-up thing on the beach, they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of each other. And if she walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, Ryan, I’m pregnant but I don’t have a clue if it’s yours or your brother’s’, that would…would do a number of things, such as give Ryan a heart attack. What if it seemed to convenient, and Ryan thought she made it up or something? What if he thought it was some kind of weird ploy to get him back?

It was his hypocrisy more than anything that got to her. Ryan had made it obvious that he hated the idea of her cheating on some poor, innocent, naïve fiancé; yet he kept fucking her, didn’t he? It pissed Marissa off a little, to be honest. Then again, finding out he was actually sharing his not-girlfriend with his older brother (like Marissa, he wasn’t in the Trey fan club) would scare anyone off. It had to hurt, too.

What hurt? Morning sickness hurt.

Marissa had barely cleaned herself up and gotten dressed when the doorbell rang. She found herself looking directly at two people she hadn’t seen since graduation; Summer Roberts and Holly Fischer. Her high school best friends. It was a few months ago, but it felt like a good couple of decades.

“Shouldn’t you be in college?” was the first thing that popped into her head.

Summer rolled her eyes in response, “Coop, it’s the weekend. We miss you, we barely saw you all holidays. We thought we could all hang out, maybe help with the wedding plans.”

Marissa would trust the brunette with her life, but not with the whole ‘Trey is abusive’ thing, which was why Summer’s face held a clueless smile. “Well, uh…I missed you too.” Marissa thought she sounded unintentionally fake, but neither of the other girls seemed to notice as they took turns hugging her.

They all sat down in the living room. There were plenty of questions. How were the wedding plans coming along? When were they supposed to have the damn wedding anyway? The answer to that one was a month. A month. Marissa blanched thinking about it, but at least she still wouldn’t be showing then. To be honest she hadn’t planned much of the wedding besides the obvious. The rest was taken care of by planners the Atwoods had hired.

After twenty minutes of typical conversation, Marissa asked Summer to help her get some drinks, leaving Holly in the living room to watch the latest E! news update.

“I have a problem,” Marissa muttered after pulling her friend into the kitchen.

“We can’t discuss it with Holly?” the petite brunette questioned, obviously confused.

“She’s not the brightest crayon in the box, and besides, she’d spread it around. Look…I’m pregnant.”

Summer’s eyes widened in shock, but then her face broke out in a huge smile. “Coop, that’s awesome! Right? I mean, you’re getting married, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“I wish. I’ve been sleeping with Ryan. As in, Trey’s brother Ryan.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, then, “What? Coop, are you insane?”

“Trust me, Summer, Trey isn’t as polite as he seems to be. Particularly when he’s drunk.” Realisation was starting to dawn on the Brown student’s face. “Ryan was…he was an escape, but when he figured out that my mysterious fiancé was actually Trey, he dumped me. Two days ago. And yesterday, I figured out that I was late. I took half a dozen pregnancy tests just then, and now, I’m pregnant. I don’t know who the father is, but most likely, it’s Ryan’s.”

“Trey’s abusive? God, Coop, you have to get away from that creep. Where the hell is he anyway? I’m about to go rage blackout on his teenager-loving ass.”

Marissa chuckled weakly at this. “He’s just on a business trip, he’ll be back. Unfortunately. I have to tell Ryan, and I’ll be fine with keeping Trey in the dark until I’m starting to show. By then, we’ll be married. Maybe I don’t have to tell Ryan.”

“So you’re keeping it?” Summer asked, still shocked.

Marissa stopped very suddenly on her way to the fridge. She had only been worrying about who the dad was – not the baby itself. “I…I don’t know,” she said truthfully. Adoption clearly wasn’t a possibility here. That left two things: abortion, and keeping it.

There was a beat of silence before Summer hesitantly suggested, “You could always…you know…take care of it.”

“I don’t know. I’ve always been on the fence about that kind of thing.” This was true. Marissa had, prior to today, thought a baby wasn’t a problem to be killed. Even if it wasn’t technically a baby at the time. However, if other people thought that was the solution, she wasn’t going to waste her breath stopping them. She spent a few moments considering. She wouldn’t have to tell either Ryan or Trey, there wouldn’t be any baby to worry about, and all would be right again. The question was if she could bring herself to do it.

“It’s your choice, Coop. You need to think, so, I think I’ll get Holly out of here.” Summer rolled her eyes as she glanced into the living room. “You’re right about the whole dim thing. I’ll just say you had an important meeting with the wedding planners or something. Call me if you need help, we’ll be at South Coast Plaza.”

Marissa nodded, forcing a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

She returned upstairs and went on her laptop, researching abortion. The methods admittedly made her feel nauseous. It made feel awful just for looking it up. But what was worse was the thought of what Trey would surely end up doing. It was Newport – the truth always came out. Eventually, Trey would realise that a) Marissa was pregnant, and b) it could be Ryan’s. Trey would surely be beyond livid, and if the stress or physical trauma after that didn’t make her miscarry, what kind of life would the child have?

Marissa pushed a shaking hand through her hair. She could do with a time machine.

---

A pair of dark Gucci sunglasses shielded Marissa’s eyes and made her feel slightly more confident as she stepped into the waiting room of the women’s hospital. She had opted for a major women’s hospital rather than shuffling into a relatively small women’s health clinic. It would be less likely for her to run into someone here. There were a few other people in here. They looked so…indifferent, like this was so ordinary, just another stop in their routine. Then again, abortion wasn’t some kind of mystical, rarely-done operation. Marissa even recognised one of the girls from high school, but thankfully, the glasses and Marissa’s uncharacteristic pallor prevented her from being seen by her former classmate. Not to mention she was wearing clothes that practically blended in with the simple colours of the waiting room.

Marissa sat down with the clipboard and forms the receptionist had handed her. There were a lot of questions. Her palms started to sweat and she nearly dropped her pen as she attempted to write the first letter of her name down. Still, her hands seemed stubborn on preventing her from writing the letter ‘M.’

There was this repetitive scraping noise that was slowly driving Marissa towards madness. She found it was a woman in her early twenties filing her nails. Like she wasn’t half an inch from passing out from stress already.

With difficulty, she completed the forms, and had started to approach the desk when she felt a hand on her arm that scared the living daylights out of her. It turned out to be….Ryan. Ryan of all people.

Shit.

Surely he didn’t know. Hell, he couldn’t know, unless Summer had worried so much she had told him. However, Marissa was certain that Summer wouldn’t do that, so…

“What are you doing here?” she finally managed to squeak.

“I saw your car…” Ryan’s voice trailed off, confusion written all over his face. “I don’t know, I thought you might be sick or something.” However, they both knew they were standing on the floor of all things pregnancy-related.

Damn it. Why did her mother have to get her a bright red Mustang? Why not grey or something? “And?” Marissa said coldly. “I’m trying to find out some things for Trey, Ryan.”

“Yeah?” he shot back, obviously not buying it. Marissa didn't blame it. She didn't even believe her own logic right now. “And what the hell might that be?”

“Just an appointment on preconception planning.”

In that instant, the fight seemed to seep right out of him. “You and Trey want to have kids?”

“We’re getting married in a month,” Marissa pointed out. It was obvious the words were cutting right into Ryan but she couldn’t tell him the real reason she was here. “The sooner the better, I guess. What the hell are you doing near this hospital anyway?”

Ryan seemed to mentally shake himself, and Marissa felt guilt stab into her again when she saw exactly how lost he was. “The company was thinking about updating one of the wings here.”

“Miss Cooper?” a kind-looking nurse questioned, and Marissa gave her ex-lover one final, almost apologetic look as silently followed the nurse.

“How far along am I?” Marissa asked the doctor once the door had closed. Mostly in spite of herself.

“About six weeks,” the doctor responded. She offered Marissa a reassuring smile that she returned with difficulty. “There is an option for an ultrasound beforehand, if you’d like one.”

Marissa knew full well that that was a bad idea. Before she knew it, the word seemed to have fallen right out of her mouth: “Okay.” She hadn’t expected the ultrasound to pick up anything even slightly interesting. And it wasn’t very…developed, obviously, but it was alive, and just like that she knew she couldn’t go through with it. Jumping off the table as if electrocuted, she stammered “I can’t do this” and rushed from the room, almost flattening Ryan in a hallway.

“I couldn’t do it,” she mumbled, feeling his body stiffen out of shock. He had barely figured out what she was really here for.

She had a lot of explaining to do.

A/N2: I’m behind on these flash fic things. There’s going to be a couple more chapters to even it out. As for requesting things, if you have an idea you want me to make an attempt at, PM me or check out my LJ.