Advent Challenge

[anne35]

Title: The Meeting
Rating/Warnings: This is very tame, just a little bit of the angst, of course.
Beta: loracj2 Who took time away from her own writing to help me. Her challenge was due today as well. *waves*
Disclaimers: I own nothing in relation to the O.C. Also, I know nothing about how the social service system works. I made everything up so that it

Comments

[loracj]

I do love the Kirsten using her Nichol skills. If Caleb did lots of bad stuff (and he did), at least he gave her the proper negotiating skills :)

[anne35]

THanks loracj. I only wish they had shown more of Kirsten being the bad-ass business woman in canon. It seemed like when they showed her at work she was being overshadowed by Caleb or Julie. Kelly is such a great actress it could have made for some really good scenes.

[fredsmith518]

I especially liked, The kid could write a book, thought Sandy. The Floors of America. It is really hard as someone ,Mel? once said to find a new way of describing Ryan looking at a floor!

[anne35]

You're telling me! I have the first very rough draft of chapter 4 of Twist done and it seems like every other paragraph I say "Ryan looks at the floor" or "Ryan stares at the carpet" That's what he does, and I want to keep it that way, but I just wish I could be a little more creative in the way I say it.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

[zbyszko]

What a nasty social worker and I like that Kirsten lit into him.

And loved Sandy's 'good father" talk. :)

[anne35]

Yes, the social worker should have been called a few other things other than a jerk. Poor Ryan he never catches a break. It was the only way I could think of to have some good PDP. Kirsten wouldn't be comfortable enough to handle the big stuff, but I thought she would be in her element being the tough businesswoman.
Thanks for commenting.

[yessi_5]

I seriously couldn't love this more, it was just perfect. I've read the story three times now and after commenting I guess I have to read it again. It's addictive.

Stories about Ryan's file or Ryan and social workers are always great, but this one has just everything. Various ways of parenting, a Sandy-Cohen-uplifting-talk, THE Kirsten, evil social workers (loved that description), being confronted with his past and his insecurities, some humour, the Cohens fighting for Ryan - I could go on and on and on...

Her name is Mrs. Young and we meet with her next Friday…at our house.
This is basically screaming for an epilogue! *nudges*

[anne35]

Thank you! You are just so sweet. I love mentions of Ryan's file too. We all know it had to contain some horrible things. I love writing The Kirsten it is just such fun. I almost gave Mr. Sloan bad breath too, but I was afraid it was a bit much. Season One Sandy the dad was just fabulous and I miss him so. It does sound like we are getting him back this season. It was difficult to come up with something for that speech. Ryan's insecurities aren't going to go away quickly, but I hoped Sandy gave him something to think about.
As for the epilogue-originally, I had planned on there being one more paragraph with the new social worker but I decided I liked the simple line of Kirsten's as the ending. Plus, I have to start spending some serious time on Twist of Fate. I have the next chapter hand-written. It is twice as long as I thought it would be, and I didn't even reach the stopping point I wanted. I just had to cut it off before it never ended.
Anywho, thanks again for such a nice review. Comments like yours just make my day.

[katwoman76]

This was great.
The only thing I would have wished is being a fly on the wall, while THE Kirsten took that jerk down.
He was an asshole. Not much better than Dawn's boyfriends. After all these reports and display's of abuse he let Ryan stay with Dawn over and over again and now that he has a home, he wants to take him out of there?
And he blames Ryan for the bad stuff? *smacks evil socialworker*

This was a great mixture of Angst and bonding, talking about Ryan's past and insecuritues and letting the Cohens do some good parenting.

And your icon matches the story perfectly.

[anne35]

Thank you so much kat. I'm so glad you liked it. Honestly, I tried to write THE Kirsten's smack-down, but I couldn't do her justice. So I went with trying to stick close to Ryan and his POV.
I am sure real social workers try their best with the limited resources they have, but in this story he had to be a complete ass to make the story work. Plus, I just can't have anything in Ryan's life go too easy. I am an angst addict, you know.
I thought the icon matched as well. It is how I pictured Ryan sitting in the hallway before and after meeting Mr. Sloan. That scene from "The Heights" is tied as my favorite scene from the show. The other is the dinner and the following scene in the pool house with Dawn in "The Gamble". I guess I should say these are my favorites for the first three seasons. I get the feeling Season 4 will have me reevaluating the best scene ever.

[katwoman76]

I love both scenes as well. :)