Disclaimer: Not my characters, show or anything else.

Let them be happy

"Ryan," the whispered voice finally calls over the line.

His brow furrows at the sound. He'd been expecting the person to hang up just as they had been doing for days now after calling him and letting him hear their haggard breath on the other end of the line. This was the first time since the prank calls had started that someone actually spoke to him, and it took Ryan a moment to get over the shock and recognize the voice.

"Taylor?"

"Yeah," she whispers.

"Taylor, I thought you were in France."

"Yeah," she says again.

Ryan's eyes travel the room quickly as though he might find some clue as to where the conversation was going there. There's nothing, and he highly doubts heading into the house and asking Seth for his help would lead him anywhere.

"Are you okay, Taylor?" he finally asks.

"I don't want to marry him, Ryan."

"What?"

"I said I did, but I don't."

Ryan shakes his head. "Wait. What are you talking about?"

"I met this guy and he loaned me a subway ticket and then we got to talking and he took me to his parent's ranch and it was all so romantic and he asked me to marry him and he writes poetry and he said he loved me and I said yes, but I don't want to marry him. I really don't. I swear I don't, Ryan."

"Okay, okay, Taylor. I believe you. You don't want to marry the guy. So… don't. Don't marry him. Come back home."

"Home? My mother was turning my bedroom into a gym before I even finished packing my bags. You guys were all too preoccupied with Marissa's death to even realise that I'd stayed for the funeral. My father is AWOL with whatever woman he decided to make the flavour of the month. I don't have a home, Ryan. The only thing I had by the end of last year was being social chair, and that's gone."

He sighs, because he can picture the red rushing to her cheeks as she gets madder and madder at both herself and him. He can see her eyes roll as she wallows in despair and imagines her fingers pulling unhappily at strands of her hair.

"Call me with your flight information when you have it," he finally tells her. "I'll pick you up from the airport."

"Where are you going?" Seth asks him the next day, flipping a pancake over on the grill under Summer's careful supervision. "We made breakfast."

"I'm going to go pick up Taylor at the airport. She got in this mess and I'm trying to make sure she doesn't make it any worse before we can make it better."

"I thought Taylor was in France," Summer volunteers as she grabs a few blueberries from the counter. "I think Kaitlin said she sent a postcard to the house or something."

"That's why I'm picking her up at the airport and not at the bus station."

"I wonder what her postcard says…" Summer trails off.

She'd learned the news of Marissa's death the morning after the event, unable to believe what the Cohen's were telling her as she felt the pressure of Seth's arms around her tighten. The embarrassment of being found in Cohen's bed quickly washed away to make room for relief. She didn't want to have to move, and she'd rather be in bed than anywhere else.

She'd eventually gone home and tried to sleep in her own bed that night, but it was no use. The sounds of Julie and Kaitlin's grief were too much for her. She was back in Seth's arms before he had even thought of going to bed. She returned home a few times to pick up some things, but she'd never gone back for more than an hour. She met her father for supper at restaurants on some nights, but figured he had his hands full with two women to comfort.

Jimmy had come and gone, too overtaken by Marissa's death to be of much use. Julie didn't want to see him anyway. Jimmy and her eldest daughter were too much alike.

"How come you're picking her up?" Seth asks.

Ryan shrugs. "I'm all she's got."

"But I thought—"

"Nobody else needs me like that anymore."

Seth didn't say anything more, but he put some batter aside so he could make some fresh pancakes when Ryan and Taylor would make it to the house.

Ryan explains to his therapist that he likes taking care of Taylor best of all because he knows that she doesn't really need it. He knows that she can take care of herself, but that she really just needs someone around to give her a reason to do it—someone who can show her that she's not a teenage loser who only has friends because her mother forces her to participate in social committees.

Ryan's therapist smiles because it's the first time Ryan deviates from the subject that first brought him to the office—the subject of Marissa's death and the need for vengeance that was gnawing at his soul—without being told to do so. Ryan rarely talks about Volchok or Marissa anymore now that Sadie has told him she'd heard through her aunt that Volchok had died in Mexico. He'd gotten into a street fight he couldn't quite handle and hadn't been able to win the upper hand.

Ryan's therapist knows it won't be long before he won't be seeing Ryan anymore and thinks that's kind of sad because—as impartial as he tries to be—he'd like to see where the Ryan/Taylor storyline could eventually lead.

"I think we should sleep together."

Despite his best efforts, Ryan can't help but spit out the sip of orange juice he'd just ingested. He's gotten used to a lot of things in the past few months as Taylor's been living in the Cohen guest room. He thought he was totally over her forwardness and random declarations, but this one, he certainly wasn't expecting.

"What?"

"Well, I mean, you're hot and I'm horny, and, seriously, when's the last time you went on a date? You spend all your time baby-sitting me. I don't see why we shouldn't get it on."

"Did Seth talk to you?" Ryan asks because Seth had most certainly talked to him. It was only the night before that the subject of Taylor had come up during another PlayStation tournament.

"So," Seth had said as he pulled his upper body forward as though that would help move the little man on the screen, "you and Taylor. What's going on with that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's going on? Are you guys a couple or what?"

"Me and Taylor?" Ryan asked, pursing his lips as he tried to keep enough concentration on the game as to not get his ass kicked. "Why would you even think that?"

"I don't know, because you guys are always together? Because you share food off each other's plates? Because you haven't been out on a date with anyone else since she came back from France?"

"I haven't been on a date with Taylor."

Seth laughed and shook his head. "You go out on dates with Taylor all the time."

"What? No I don't."

"Get off it man. You guys go to dinner, the restaurant… you took her to the ballet. Guys don't go to the ballet with girls unless they are dating them, or not dating them because they're gay."

"There were a lot of guys at the ballet when we went."

"And I bet you a lot of them had sex that night for their sacrifice. Seriously man, the only difference between you and Taylor, and me and Summer is the sexual stuff. You can't tell me you aren't attracted to her; I've seen you check her out."

"Since when do you notice anything outside of yourself?"

Seth sighed and scrunched his nose at the action on the screen. "Fine, Kaitlin noticed and told me. But that doesn't change the fact that you've been checking out Taylor."

"So?"

"So? Dude, you're already in a relationship with her. Just take the plunge."

"Ryan?"

He shakes his head and blinks to bring himself back to the present. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

Taylor sighs. "That we should sleep together. But obviously that's totally freaked you out, so we're just going to forget I ever even mentioned it and go on with our lives as though nothing had ever interrupted our normal topic of conversation and that this was like just any other regular day and that I had never—"

"You want to go out?" Ryan asks loudly, interrupting Taylor's rambles.

"You want to be in public where there's less chance that I'm going to freak out? Because, I have to say, while that is a good plan, I don't have very much shame and I am liable to freak out in public despite however many eyes are on us."

"On a date. You want to go out on a date?"

"Oh." Taylor's eyes widen as she grasps his meaning. She clenches her hands into fists on either side of her to keep from clapping like a happy six-year-old. "Yes. Sure. Okay. Now?"

"Why don't we say six?"

Taylor takes a deep breath and looks down at her watch. Three hours to get ready.

"I'm going to go change, or shower, or both..."

She hops off the kitchen stool and rushes out of the room. Ryan is still shaking his head when she quickly rushes back, grabs his face with hands on either cheek and pulls him toward her for a quick kiss.

Ryan decides he is clearly not prepared for everything Taylor has to offer.

"So you and Taylor, huh?" Summer asks as she plops down next to Ryan, watching the socialites move among themselves for some charity that isn't quite on her radar.

"Yeah."

"Not surprising."

"What?" Ryan asks. Even two months after he first asked Taylor on an official date, he's still surprised that they found each other.

"It was bound to happen."

"How do you figure that?"

"When Seth left on his damn sailboat because you potentially knocked up some Chino girl, I was pissed. But then I thought about it and realised that you had always been my greatest threat. You, not Anna. Seth adored you. He still does I guess.

"Anyway, when you guys got back, I kind of saw how it went both ways. You adore Seth as well, and I started wondering why it was that you never hooked up with Anna. I mean, you get along so well with Seth, and let's face it, Anna was the female version of Seth."

"Okay?"

"But Anna left, and eventually Taylor came along. And then, she kind of took Anna's place, you know. She was interested in Seth and a whole lot of the crap that gets him rambling for no reason. Actually, Taylor rambles as well, so you can see the connection. Plus you know, she's got that whole comic book, sassy sarcasm thing going on."

"So, I'm dating Taylor because she's Seth as a girl."

"Right."

"So does that make you a female version of me?"

"I am probably the most likely to punch someone out," Summer offers with a shrug.

"Okay. I'm going to pretend this conversation never happened, because I don't want to think of Seth dating me, but thanks, I guess."

Summer smiles because she understands more than Ryan does his need for someone who truly knew Marissa to give him permission to move on. She pats his knee and lets a small smile play upon her lips before she scowls.

"Excuse me, now. I have to go save Seth before Taryn gets her claws too far into him. I'll talk to you later."

He nods at her exit and takes another sip of his drink. His non-alcoholic drink. The kind he always orders when Kirsten's near because he remembers the first party when she'd taken his seven and seven from him. He sits alone for a while longer before he realises his eyes haven't stopped on anyone in the room, which means Taylor isn't around. He leaves his drink with a waiter, and moves with the crowd, looking for his girlfriend.

"I was wondering where you'd disappeared."

"Sorry, I just couldn't stand to be around my mother anymore."

"I thought you guys were kind of getting along."

Taylor laughs and shakes her head as she scoots to the side on Ryan's bed so he has room to sit beside her. "We're getting along really well… mostly because we haven't talked to each other in longer than I can remember."

"I'm sorry," he says, dropping a kiss on her forehead.

"That's fine. It's not bothering me. What's bothering me is that she showed up with a guy who's father she once bribed to make his son go out with me."
"You're mother's dating a guy you once dated."

Taylor nods.

"Okay, that's awkward. You are officially allowed to hide."

"Thank you," she says, offering him a dramatic bow of her head. "What were you and Summer chatting about?"

"What?"

"You and Summer, out there at the party, what were you talking about?"

"How she and I, and you and Seth are apparently the same person."

"All four of us?"

"No, you and Seth are the same person, and Summer and I are the same person."

Taylor's brow scrunches and she bites her lip for a moment. "Do you ever get the feeling that Summer's smoking some of those natural herbs Che's convinced her are so good for her."

"She's with Seth; I've always questioned her mental stability."

"Hey," Taylor protests as she swats Ryan, "apparently I'm the female version of Seth, so none of that."

Ryan laughs and pulls Taylor against him as he shifts his body to be lying on the bed rather than sitting.

"Ryan?" Taylor asks after a few moments of silence.

"Hmm."

"Do you ever wonder how things turned out the way they did?"

Ryan chuckles and shakes his head. "I'm a kid from Chino who's living in a pool house in Newport and about to go to Berkeley to become and architect. I don't dare question things."

"Sometimes," Taylor tells him, biting her lip, "I think that no matter what would have happened—even if I had stayed in France and married that poem guy and Volchok hadn't died and everything—I think we might still have ended up together."

"Taylor?"

"Yeah."

"I kind of liked it when you were shy and awkward and unable to talk around me. I miss those days sometimes."

"Shut up," she laughs, swatting at him again.

"Oh God, they're already at the foreplay. I told you we should have just minded our own business, Summer."

"Shut up, Cohen. Like you know anything about foreplay," Summer says, giving Seth a much harder swat than Taylor had been giving Ryan. Seth's hand comes down from where it had been covering his eyes and rubs the red spot on his arm.

"Ow, woman. You're the one who always just throws me down and—"

"Seth!" Ryan interrupts urgently.

"Right. Sorry."

"What are you guys up to?" Taylor asks as she moves again to make room for more people on the bed.

"Cohen was rambling about comics," Summer says as she waves her hand in the air.

"Zach called. They want to bring new life to Atomic County. New villains, new characters, new storylines. We're going to go pick Kaitlin's brain later to see what kind of trouble the kids are getting into these days."

"You don't have any ideas so far?" Ryan asks, twining his fingers between Taylor's.

"Well, I did have an idea for a new sidekick to the team."

"Change the Fantastic Four?" Taylor asks.

"Just add on," Seth shrugs. "Maybe a new girl, with a sharp tongue, fluent in a few languages, persuading people with persistence and logic they can't quite make it through..."

Ryan smiles. "Aren't you afraid your role as the brain might be compromised?"

"Nah, I'm still the brains."

"I call the beauty," Summer adds quickly. "I deserve a promotion."

"What? She can't be the boobs," Seth says, vaguely waving in Taylor's direction.

"You're giving her the bitch?" Ryan's hand reaches out and blocks Taylor's fist before she can hit him again.

"Maybe Summer could be upgraded to the brawns and Ryan can be the bitch," Taylor says, happy that a previous late night conversation about Seth's comic gives her enough background to join the conversation.

"We need a new b word."

"How about the brat?" Seth asks as his fingers reached for Summer's rib.

"No. The bandleader."

"The baby."

"No…"

"What are you smiling about?" Sandy asks as he wraps his arms around Kirsten's waist. "I thought you were getting the kids."

"I think maybe, we should leave the kids alone."

"What? He pulls away from her and turns her to face him. "If I have to be here, they have to be here."

"Sandy, they're happy. It took a long time for them to be happy."

Sandy shrugs. "They're young. They have lots of time to be happy. I'm old. Why do I have to suffer?"

"Because I will make it up to you later."

"How?" Sandy scoffs.

Kirsten raises an eyebrow and gives a devious, crooked smile.

"Oh. Well in that case, let the kids be happy."