Disclaimer: I don’t
own the characters of The OC, they belong to FOX. So, uh, don’t sue.
A/N: My first
Summer/Seth. Circa first season. Right after their trip to Tijuana.
Rating:
PG-13
Genre: Romance/Humour
Created:
October 25/03
No One Knows
Seth felt panicked and
inadequate as he waited to hear news on Marissa. Summer was still clutched to
him. Tears no longer streaming down her face but her eyes were hollowed with
sadness.
He watched Ryan stalk in
front of him. The frustration bristling from his best friend was intense and a
little scary. He felt useless too, Seth realized. He wanted to help but
couldn’t.
“Seth,” the quiet, soft
voice didn’t sound like Summer’s. He looked down at her and was still somewhat
shocked to see that she was there, in his arms. She was looking up at him, eyes
wide, mouth pulled down in a frown and he wanted nothing else but to kiss her
forehead and tell her everything was going to be all right. But he didn’t.
He waited for her to
continue and she did after she sighed and pulled herself out of his arms. “Can
we…walk somewhere?” Seth didn’t know how to treat this hesitant, quiet Summer.
He nodded. “Yeah,
wherever you want.”
Ryan looked over at them
as they stood up and Seth said quickly, “We’re just going to go walk. Okay?”
Ryan nodded. “I’ll go see
if there’s any more news.”
They headed down the
hallway of the small hospital and walked towards the garden outside. The night
was fresh and Seth thought how unfair it was that the stars were shining so
brightly outside when his friend could be—could be dying.
They walked around the
garden, that was surprisingly empty and without verbally agreeing to a
destination, seemed to find themselves heading towards a bench nearby.
They sat in silence for a
while, each not wanting to disrupt this small sense of peace, this quiet.
Seth gave Summer a
sidelong look. Her head was back, her eyes closed and her hair was swaying in
the wind to an unheard melody. It was poetic. It was beautiful. It was…sick. He
was sick. Even now, all he could think about was touching her. It felt wrong
somehow in the situation. Wrong to think of anyone or anything besides Marissa.
He looked at her again.
This time her eyes were open and those big pools of brown were looking directly
at him. “Seth, do you…?” she stopped and looked away.
He took her chin between
his hands and turned her back to face him, an un-Seth like gesture but they
were both acting out of character tonight. “She’s going to be ok, Summer.”
“But what if she isn’t?”
There was anger now beneath the sadness and fear.
“I don’t know.” Seth
sighed feeling completely helpless in the situation.
Summer got up and started
pacing in front of him. “We’ve been friends forever. Coop and I have been
through everything together. We got our first manicures together and our first
bikini wax, which was a nightmare. And she’s like, my best friend. She can’t die.
What would I do, Seth? What would I do without her?” she said the last quietly,
dejectedly.
Seth got up then, and
wrapped his arms around her. He didn’t offer any more words of comfort. He just
physically let her know that she wasn’t alone. That he was there.
He wasn’t sure how long
they stood outside like that, wrapped around each other but one moment they
were alone and the next he could see Ryan and the expression on his face was
enough for him to know.
“She’s going to be ok,”
he said again, his voice muffled in her hair. And this time he knew it was
true.
*