100This chapter takes place during the episode The Blaze of Glory (2x16). This particular scene features Julie speaking with Ryan in the pool house, trying to talk him into convincing Marissa to essentially break up with Alex so she would start going back to school. I always thought that was unfair to put Ryan in that position, not that Julie cared at all. There was another story here written by jonsmom14, Finding a Family. In it, Sandy takes Julie to task for asking him to do that. I figured this was a perfect opportunity for Kirsten to come to Ryan's defense when she walks in on Julie talking with Ryan.
Ryan couldn't remember the last time he was so upset at Seth. To make matters worse, whenever he had been upset, he could almost always talk to Seth about it; use him as a sounding board, of sorts. But it was so frustrating being upset at the person you could use as an outlet. He wasn't sure why, but his thoughts kept drifting to Trey.
He could remember all sorts of times when he would get upset at Trey. So many times, Trey would do such stupid things, rash things, that would get him, or both of them, in trouble. Sometimes with their parents, other times with the authorities; ironically, which is why he was here in the pool house, laying on the bed throwing a little ball in the air trying to think things through. He had to smirk as he tossed the ball again into the air, at what Trey would think and the crap he would give Ryan for such a childish thing to do. He almost laughed out loud but was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Ryan let out a frustrated sigh. Of course, Seth wouldn't know to give him some space after barking at him in the kitchen. He needed to think, but he couldn't with Seth around. "Not now, Seth, I'm busy!" he called through the door. He started to get even more upset as he heard the door open but was startled when he heard the voice.
"Hi. Sorry, to interrupt you doing whatever… it is you were doing. Brooding, is it?" Julie Cooper asked, rather condescendingly as she entered his room.
He stopped short of throwing the ball at the intruder, as he looked at her, almost in shock. At this point, he was really wishing it was Seth. He did not want to deal with the Dragon Lady. "Yeah. Right now, I'm in the middle of a major session, so if you could…" he motioned to the door, trying to get her to take the hint.
All she did was stare at him with a look that almost matched Sandy's eyebrows; almost, but not quite.
There was a part of him that was still more than a little intimidated by Julie Cooper. He knew that she still held quite a bit of influence in the community, and despite being a member of the Cohen family, did not want to risk putting himself in her line of fire. He resigned himself to this particular conversation, "What's going on?"
Realizing she had Ryan right where she wanted him, she continued, "Well, actually, I'm very glad I caught you before you go to the bonfire."
Ryan returned with a humorless laugh, "I'm not going to the bonfire."
That did not sound good to Julie, "But you have to go."
Ryan was really getting tired of this routine, "You and Seth on the same team now?"
She didn't quite understand what Ryan meant by that, but she didn't really care, either. "No, I'm on my own mission. I need help. With Marissa. For whatever reason that I don't quite understand, she listens to you. She needs help."
Ryan couldn't believe it. "Even when she's asking for my help, she still insults me!", he thought to himself. He didn't like where this is going. "Maybe she's happy where she is."
But Julie was not going to be deterred. "Do you think that Marissa knows what she wants right now? She is in so far over her head with this relationship. She's skipping school, staying out all hours, risking everything important to her to prove a point."
Ryan could feel himself slipping into the abyss surrounded by Marissa. He really did care about her, and Julie was hitting all the right buttons for him. "Okay. So, what do you want me to do about it?"
She could tell she was starting to make headway with Ryan, so she went in for the kill. She wasn't above pulling out the water works to close this particular deal. "I know that she wants to come home. But, if she does it for me, she's letting me win. But if she does it for you…"
Kirsten was standing right outside the pool house, listening to the conversation. She made sure that Ryan couldn't see her. She had come out just a moment ago and thought it would be weird for Julie to be in the pool house talking with Ryan, so she decided to take a page from her curly-haired son and eavesdrop by the door. She was glad she had, because she couldn't believe what she just heard!
Kirsten couldn't take it any more and entered the pool house. "I'm sorry, Julie, what did you say? Did you seriously just ask my son to get back with your daughter so that she would go back to school?"
When Julie saw the fumes coming from Kirsten, she tried to backpedal quickly. "Now, Kiki, let's not overreact."
Trying to placate The Kirsten was not the wisest choice. Even Ryan took a step back with his eyes widening. "No, I don't think I am overreacting. It's not my 17-year old son's responsibility to get Marissa to go to school. As her mother, that's your job; not his! Just like it's my job to protect my kids from those that would otherwise try to take advantage of them." Kirsten's glare pinned Julie to the wall, and for a moment Julie actually seemed scared of Kirsten.
Kirsten continued her glare at Julie, "And the next time you have something to say to my children, I would recommend going through myself or their father!" Her tone was scalding and left no room for maneuvering. Kirsten didn't really give Julie an opportunity to recover. "Now, I do believe Ryan has already asked you to leave."
That was just about the worst slap in the face for Julie; not only did she fail in getting Ryan to speak with Marissa, but the little punk had gotten her kicked out. But she also realized that she couldn't risk upsetting the other woman any further. She thought it would be better to retreat to live another day and nodded as she practically slumped towards the door. Ryan had to stifle a grin; he didn't think he had ever seen Julie look more defeated.
After Julie was out of sight and Kirsten was sure she was out the front door, she took her glare away from Julie's retreated form and started pacing in front of the pool house doors. Ryan hadn't ever really seen Kirsten this upset before. While Ryan truly considered Kirsten his mother now, there were times where she still intimidated him; and this was no exception. He kept his head bowed a bit but was watching her through his bangs. He could tell she was silently counting to ten, perhaps multiple times.
Finally, Kirsten asked, more to the room then Ryan, still upset, "Can you believe her? Of all the unmitigated gall?" She, then turned her attention to her son, "Asking you to get back with Marissa, just so that she would start going to school again?!"
Since Kirsten was now addressing him, Ryan felt it was safe to talk. "Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt just to try to talk with her?" he hedged.
The way Ryan said it caused all the ire to evaporate from Kirsten. Julie had been taken care of for the moment, so she could now address the reason she came out in the first place, and maybe help with the fallout from Julie's little visit.
Kirsten sighed and sat on the edge of Ryan's bed. "Come here, honey. Sit down." She motioned for him to sit next to her. He was a little unsure of how upset she still was, so he slowly made his way closer and gingerly sat next to her; almost afraid that any sudden movements would unleash The Kirsten full force again, this time on him.
She knew she had to tread somewhat carefully. "You know, one of the things I love about you, is how eager you are to help other people. And, a lot of times, how quick you are to please others, often times at the sacrifice of your wants, better judgement, or even your safety."
She noticed that got his attention. He sat up a little straighter and could see him watching her from the corner of his eyes. He was on alert. "Let's try and think this through… Have you tried talking to Marissa about this before?"
"Well, not really. I mean we worked on this bonfire thing together, but we didn't talk much about school or anything."
Kirsten was listening very carefully to what Ryan was saying, not just with his words but his body language as well. He seemed to be somewhat comfortable. However, that could change any moment, especially considering where she was planning on going next. "How do you think Alex would feel about you talking to Marissa about this? How it might affect their relationship?"
That really got Ryan's attention; she hit awfully close to home with that question. He racked his brain to figure out whether he would have let anything slip about his encounter with an angry Alex last night that almost involved a beer can to the side of his head. Suddenly, it hit him! Seth! Ryan was mad at Seth all over again. Why couldn't he just mind his own business?! For a second, Ryan forgot Kirsten was sitting right next to him, and he muttered, "Oh, he is so dead!"
Kirsten expected Ryan's reaction and took it with stride. Looking at him, with her best Mom look, she said, "No, he's not!" She took a breath and hoped she could explain this situation. "Seth did not come and tattle on you, or anything like that. He's worried, worried that he did something that would damage his relationship with you. I mean, he came to me for advice! That has to tell you how worried he was!" she tried joking a little bit. She chuckled lightly when Ryan rolled his eyes at her lame joke but tried to hide a small smile.
She continued, "I love him, but we both know that Seth can be very single-minded at times. Sometimes, he gets these ideas in his head and pursues them to the point of selfishness. But, honey, your brother loves you!"
'Your brother loves you!' Those words struck Ryan the most. Suddenly, he was hit with another realization. Seth really was his brother. The missing pieces from earlier that he didn't even know were missing finally fell into place. He was able to make the connection at that point why he had been so mad at Seth and kept thinking about Trey. Because the same brotherly anger that was once aimed at Trey, was now directed at Seth! "And, you know what," he thought, "I'm just fine with Seth as a brother! I could do a lot worse!" He smiled at those remembered words from what seemed a lifetime ago.
Ryan was pulled from his thoughts by Kirsten's hand on his. "Honey, you still with me?"
He shook his head a little bit to bring his focus back to the pool house. "Um, yeah. Sorry, I just drifted off there for a second."
Kirsten looked at him funny for a second, waiting to see if he would elaborate. She wasn't surprised when he didn't. She continued, "Honey, one of the things you have to remember about Seth is that he was an only child for 16 years. It's taking him a little while to get used to having a brother around the house. That is not an excuse for his behavior. Getting involved in your relationships, especially if you and/or Marissa aren't ready, is completely unacceptable. And I told him as much."
Ryan understood and appreciated what Kirsten was telling him. "I guess I can see that. Things really did change around here when I moved in, and it couldn't have always been easy for Seth to make those adjustments, like now sharing you guys and stuff. I mean, I've always had a brother, so that part wasn't so much of an adjustment for me." He looked at her with a sly grin and almost a glint in his eye, "I guess I can make an exception for him, in this case!"
She gave Ryan one of her smiles that could light up a room that she saved for when she was proud of one of her boys. "Thank you, honey! That is very gracious of you." She threw an arm around him, pulled him closer, and planted a kiss on his temple. With her arm still securely around his shoulder, she continued the second part of their conversation. "Now, back to Marissa…"
Ryan slumped his shoulders and gave a sigh to signal that he wasn't exactly happy to return to such a touchy topic. Kirsten picked up on all of his tells, not that he was being very subtle about the change in subject, but she needed to finish this.
Understanding that he probably wasn't going to be very forthcoming, she continued, "So, you said earlier that you wanted to just talk with her. Is that what you really want to do? What you feel is the best thing to do?"
Ryan just knew that Kirsten would want to talk this through thoroughly; she was after all a Cohen. "Well, I mean, Mrs. Cooper is kind of right…"
Kirsten wasn't that surprised that he came back to Julie's conversation with him. "Ryan, stop! I told you earlier not to worry about Julie. If she tries anything, and that is an awfully big if, your father and I will not allow it to affect you. Now, back to my original question, is that what you really want to do? What you feel is the best thing to do?"
He figured that his mother wouldn't just accept the easy answer. It felt good that he actually had parents that were looking out for him and weren't going to let anyone hurt him. He smiled again as he looked at her, "I guess, after everything we've talked about, maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea. Alex did seem more then a little angry last night. I doubt anything has really changed."
She gave him another one of her smiles. "I'm glad to hear that. Based on what I do know of the situation, it probably isn't in your best interest to get in the middle of Marissa's relationships. I know that you care for her, but she has to be responsible for her own decisions. Just be her friend and let her come to you once in a while to talk about things. Ok?"
He really did see the wisdom in what Kirsten was telling him. He did feel a little bit of relief that he didn't have to go and face Marissa, and possibly an even angrier Alex tonight. He nodded, "Ok. Sounds good."
Kirsten squeezed Ryan's shoulder a little bit and stood up, "Good! Now, let's go pick out dinner with your father. And I'm sure Seth wouldn't mind playing some video games with you. As bad as he was feeling earlier, he might even let you win a few times!"
He followed her up and glared at her with mock indignation. "Hey! I'm getting a lot better at those games. I only have to cheat about half the time to win now!", he joked.
Kirsten laughed, thrilled that he wasn't brooding anymore. They both made their way to the main house, her arm laced in her son's and laughing all the way.
