A BRAND NEW LIFE (Chapter 7)

[brassebouillon]

Summary : What if Ryan had entered the Cohen’s life when he was five years old?

Beta : I couldn’t have published this chapter without two incredible people who helped me a lot.
So I’d like to say a huge thanks to anne35 for all the really pertinent suggestions she made. Some of the sentences of this chapter are totally hers! They're really making this fanfiction much better!
And a huge thanks to

ally_1423  who’s had the infinite patience to correct all the grammatical and spelling mistakes and all the errors in punctuation!
So thank you!

Disclaimers : The characters and the universe were created and are owned by Josh Schwartz.
All mistakes are my personal property.
No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Sandy picked the phone up.
“Hello! I’d like to speak to Sandy Cohen, please.”
“Speaking,” answered Sandy.
“You’re Ryan Atwood’s foster father?”
Sandy swallowed hard.
“Yes, I am. Is there anything wrong with Ryan?”
“I’m Mrs. McCallister’s secretary. From your sons’ school,” she added. “Ryan’s been involved in a fight and is waiting for you in Mrs. McCallister’s office.”

“A fight? What kind of….Is he all right?” asked a frantic Sandy.
“He’s refusing to talk to us. Truthfully, he’s not talking at all. There were three other boys involved in the fight and we can’t get any information out of them either. We would like the parents of all the children involved to meet and see if we can’t get this sorted out. Is it possible for you to come down to the school this afternoon? Say in about an hour?”
“Of course. I’m on my way.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sandy walked into Mrs. McCallister’s office and shook her hand.
Luke’s parents, Carson and Nancy Ward, were already sitting near Luke and two teenagers Sandy identified as Luke’s cousins. They were in fifth grade. «Twins…just like Luke’s new baby brothers,” he thought.
He sat down next to his foster son. Ryan briefly stared at him, his emotions flickering through his eyes. The kid looked totally defeated. Sandy tried to put a reassuring hand on his foster son’s shoulder, but he jerked away...
“What on earth is going on?” a frantic Sandy thought.
Interrupting Sandy’s train of thought, Mrs. McCallister began:
“I don’t think I need to explain what a serious offense this is. Violence will not be tolerated. It is simply unacceptable. I want to know how this fight started and I want to know now.”
She raised her voice slightly and gave each of the boys a hard look that was enough o send chills down each of their spines.
“Ryan, could you tell us how the fight began?”
Ryan shook his head and lowered his eyes to his lap. “She sold you to the Cohens. She needed the money to buy her booze and her drugs.”
“Luke? Martin? Thomas? No one? What am I supposed to do? Nobody’s going to leave this office before telling me, telling us, what happened. Do I make myself clear?”
Ryan swallowed hard. Sandy knew from the rapid rising and falling of the boy’s chest that the outburst had scared him. He tried to make eye contact with Ryan, but he was steadfastly studying the floor.
After a few more minutes of silence from the boys Mrs. McCallister gave an exasperated sigh. “Well, since no one here seems to be in a talkative mood, I’ll have to ask someone else. Mr. Cohen…” She looked at Sandy. “With your permission I would like to ask Seth to step in the room.”
“Seth? I wasn’t aware that he was involved in the fight.”
“Not directly, but he was a witness. Perhaps, he’ll be able to shed a little more light on the matter.”
“Yes, of course, have him come in.”
“Thank you.” She opened the door and asked her secretary to bring Seth to the office. Shortly, the woman returned with Seth in tow.
“Seth, come in, please.”
A shy Seth walked in the office.
“Seth, I understand that you saw the fight. Is that correct?” asked Mrs. McCallister.
Seth nodded.
“So, tell us what happened, please.”
Seth glanced over at Ryan. He wished that his friend would at least look at him, but Ryan kept his head bowed, still refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Then he looked at Luke and his cousins and shivered, thinking of all the different ways they could hurt him. Seth had seen what they did to tattle-tales.
“Seth,” Sandy said. “You need to answer Mrs. McCallister. I know you want to protect Ryan, but we need to know the truth. All of you boys are only making it worse by not talking.”
Sandy studied his son’s expression while he seemed to gather his courage.
Seth took a deep breath and shot one final look at Ryan before returning his attention to his father.
“Is it true?” There was a certain pleading tone to his voice.
“Is what true?”
“Did you and Mom really buy Ryan from his mother?”
“What? No! What on earth made you ask such a thing?”
Seth looked again at Luke and the older boys. There was no turning back now.
“Them.” He pointed at the other boys. “They told Ryan that his mom sold him because she was a drunk and that she needed to the money for alcohol and drugs. They said she had a lot of boyfriends and that she likes them better than Ryan. They said she was going to end up dead with needles in her arms and drool coming out of her mouth.”
“Seth, stop it. Now!” exclaimed Sandy.
“But Dad, that’s what Luke’s cousins saw in the movie. The woman takes powder by his nose and she drools a lot. Then someone sticks a big needle in her chest and….”
“We get the picture, Seth. You can stop now.” Mrs. McCallister was visibly upset. Her eyes were wide and she was clutching the end of the desk. “I think it might be best if you go back to your classroom.”
“But I want to know what’s going to happen to Ryan.”
“Seth,” Mrs. McCallister said firmly. “This no longer concerns you. Return to your classroom….now.”
“I’m sorry, buddy.” Seth hoped that Ryan wouldn’t be too mad at him. When he still received no acknowledgement from him, Seth lowered his head and slowly walked out the door.
For one of the first times of his life, Sandy was speechless. He saw Ryan cringe and fold into himself. His entire body was rocking slightly, backwards and forwards, his lips were trembling, mouth slightly open and his eyes were wide and glazed. Sandy rose from his chair and knelt down in front of him.
He tried to put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder, but he jumped backwards.
“Ryan,” whispered Sandy.
The only response he received was to have the boy draw his knees up to his chest.
“I am so sorry,” finally said Mrs. Ward. “Mrs. McCallister, please understand and believe me when I tell you that Luke, Martin and Thomas will be punished. Ryan, I am so sorry. They lied to you. They just wanted to scare you. Sandy, I don’t know what to say.” She turned to Luke. “You, young man, are grounded. You won’t be going anywhere for quite some time. And that includes Marissa Cooper’s birthday party.”
“No! That’s unfair!” yelled Luke. “I didn’t fight. It’s not my fault if his drunk mom sold him to the Cohen! I wanna go!”
Ryan’s face crumpled. He jumped up and lunged toward Luke. Sandy was barely able to grab a hold of him before he could reach the other boy.
“She did not! You’re lying! Take it back!” Ryan swung his arms wildly, still trying to reach Luke. “Just you wait. She’s coming back for me and the three of us are going to live together…just me, my mom and my brother. You’ll see. She promised.”
His chest was heaving from anger and humiliation, and he could barely see from all the tears streaming down his face.
“Ryan,” Sandy said gently but firmly. He held on to the squirming boy by the shoulders. “Look at me. It’s going to be okay. I’m here. You need to calm down, kid.”
“She promised. He’s lying.”
“I know he is. Everyone knows that, Ryan. Your mother didn’t sell you.”
At the mention of his mother, Ryan was able to break free from Sandy’s hold and bolted out the door.
“Ryan!!” called Sandy, before running after his foster son.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Have you seen a blond five year old boy? He’s wearing dark blue jeans and a light blue T-shirt with a small Aladdin picture on it,” asked a frantic Sandy to the janitor.
“Honestly, mister? All these kids start looking alike after a few years. But I can tell you no one has been out these doors in the past fifteen minutes,” answered the man.
Sandy looked anxiously around him. Ryan seemed to have vanished. The last five minutes had been the longest of his life. He didn’t think that 300 seconds could last so long. What if the janitor was wrong? What if he hadn’t seen Ryan walk out of the school? What if Ryan had crossed the street without looking? What if there was a pervert in a car?
Sandy shook his head trying to clear his thoughts from going in every direction. He needed to find Ryan. Now was not the time to overreact. He decided to head to the gymnasium, maybe Ryan was hiding under the bleachers. He jogged down the steps and looked around seeing nothing. Suddenly, he caught sight of a small figure huddled near the brick wall. “Thank God,” he thought.
He looked at the boy, trying to figure out what to do, what to say. How do you treat a child who’s been told that his mother had sold him to strangers to buy drugs? That his mother had chosen the bottle over him? That his mother lied to him? That even if she wanted to she was not going to get him back…ever. Not if he had anything to say about it.
He walked slowly over to Ryan. Making sure that Ryan knew that he was there. The last thing he needed was to startle him.
“Hey, kid, I was worried. You’re a fast runner. The fastest one. We really should look into signing you up for some after school sports programs. Basket ball? Tee-ball? Soccer? I’m sure you’d do great.”
Ryan didn’t look up. He was sitting on the floor with his knees drawn up against his chest and his head leaning on his knees.
“Ok, that didn’t work,” thought Sandy before cautiously sitting down beside Ryan.
“Ryan,” he called quietly. He was worried about the boy. Ryan wasn’t looking at him, but that wasn’t what concerned him. Sandy knew that avoiding eye contact was Ryan’s favorite means of defense. What bothered him was that Ryan was shaking….hard.
“Ryan,” he said softly.
“I think we should talk about what happened in Mrs. McCallister’s office,” Sandy began. “And about what Luke and his cousins told you before.”
Ryan buried his head deeper into his knees, seemingly shrinking before Sandy’s eyes. The sudden urge to reassure him became overwhelming.
“Ryan, you’re not in any trouble. You’re not going to be punished for getting into a fight. I’m not mad at you. Nobody’s mad at you. I know you’re upset. I want to help you.”
Sandy placed his hand on the boy's back.
“I’m here for you. Ryan, Kirsten, Seth and I, we love you so much. To help you, we need you to try putting some of what's going on in that head of yours into words, Ryan. We'll do anything for you, if you'll let us."
Ryan didn’t look up. He seemed completely unaware of his foster dad’s presence. Sandy bit his lip. He had no idea how to deal with Ryan. He looked down at the frail shape of his foster son and gasped. His left hand was bleeding and beginning to show signs of swelling. Sandy couldn’t remember to have seen his foster son’s hand hurt in the office.
“Ryan…kid…what happened to your hand?” he asked gently. He carefully grabbed his foster son’s hand. It was badly scraped, but it didn’t appear that Ryan had fallen: his pants weren’t torn apart and only one of his hands was hurt.
Ryan briefly looked up and Sandy tried to catch Ryan’s eye, but he quickly turned away, burying his head once more. He heard Sandy explain that they would have to put ice on his hand, but he made no recognition of hearing him.
“Do you want to ask me some questions about what they’ve said? Ryan, I’m here for that.”
Ryan shuddered and Sandy put his arm around his shoulders, pulling him close to lean against him.
“I know it’s scary for you to begin a brand new life with us. With another family. In another town. Another school. You’re a really brave kid. The bravest one.”
Ryan looked up at his foster dad.
Looking into his eyes Sandy couldn’t help but think about how lost Ryan looked. He tried to smile reassuringly down at the boy. “You’re not gonna cry in front of a five year old child who’s just been told that his mother had sold him,” he chastised himself.
Ryan’s lower lip trembled and right before Sandy’s eyes, the boy’s defenses crumbled. A muted sob tore from his throat, and he tried to curl himself into a ball. Sandy reached out and gathered Ryan into his arms, feeling hot tears soak into the shoulder of his shirt. He felt the boy tense up against him.
“I don’t want her to die,” he sobbed. “It would be all my fault. I should have never left her. I’m her special helper. She always says so. I should be there. She needs me.”
He was trembling violently and Sandy was afraid that he might start hyperventilating. 
“Its okay, Ryan,” he whispered in what he hoped was a soothing voice. He brushed Ryan’s hair back. “She can’t help it. She’s sick.”
Ryan pulled away from him.
“If she’s sick, I need to be there. She’ll need me to help. I can bring her chicken soup.”
Sandy’s heart lurched at the desperation in his voice.
“No, kid. This is a different kind of sick…a grown-up sick. She needs to be by herself. If you were with her she would worry about you. Right now she needs to concentrate on getting better and taking care of herself.”
“I…I don’t want her to have all those boyfriends. I want it to be just her, me, and Trey. She promised. She didn’t sell me…she promised…I don’t want her to die…the drugs…”
Ryan was crying and shaking so badly he couldn’t finish.
“Ryan, it’s all right. Those boys, they wanted to upset you. They don’t know you or your mom. Sometimes people say things to hurt other people. I don’t know why. I’m sorry.”
Sandy only hoped that his words offered some comfort to Ryan. He hoped and prayed that Luke and cousins would be proven wrong…for Ryan’s sake. He held his crying foster son tightly, a hand resting in his tousled blonde hair as he felt Ryan’s fists clench tightly at his back, grabbing handfuls of his shirt like they were anchors, hanging on for dear life.
Sandy kept rubbing his foster son’s back and murmuring soothing words he wasn’t sure he still believed in until Ryan’s hold weakened. He felt his foster son’s body go limp and his breathing become slow and regular as an emotionally worn out Ryan fell asleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Kirsten heard Sandy’s car pull in the driveway, she rushed to the front door. She was half-way down the steps when she was met by Sandy carrying a sleeping Ryan. Her concern grew when she looked at Seth. The usually energetic and talkative boy silently followed his father into the house with a somber expression on his young face.
“Nancy Ward just called. She wanted to tell me that she was sorry for what Luke and his cousins said to Ryan. She didn’t tell me what they said to him. What’s going on?”
Sandy nodded reassuringly and mouthed, “I’ll explain everything.”
“Seth, go to the kitchen,” said Kirsten. “Rosa will give your after school snack. I’m pretty sure she talked about chocolate chip cookies…”
As Seth made his way to the kitchen, Sandy carried Ryan upstairs and laid him carefully on the bed. A worried Kirsten took her foster son’s shoes off and pulled the covers up to his shoulders. Silently, they both watched him for a moment before exiting the room quietly. Kirsten gently pulled the door until it was nearly closed and shot Sandy a concerned look.
“What’s going on? Is he all right?”
“No, honey, he’s not. Luke Ward and his cousins have told him atrocious things about his mother. His biological mother,” Sandy added.
“What kind of things?”
“That she sold him to us to buy alcohol and drugs. That she was too busy with all of her coke addict boyfriends to take care of him,” he explained. “And they described an overdose to him in detail. We can be thankful to Quentin Tarantino and his ever-so-descriptive Pulp Fiction.”
“Oh my god!” exclaimed Kirsten. She slowly opened Ryan’s door again. She needed to see him.
“Sandy, what happened to his hand?” she whispered.
“I don’t know. The school called me to tell me about the fight with Luke and his cousins, but when I got there I’m almost positive his hand wasn’t hurt.”
“He’s been fighting? My 5 year old son has been in a fight?”
Kirsten felt sick. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. They were supposed to give him a better life…without any violence.
“I’m afraid so. But that’s not the worst part. What really concerns me most is that Ryan seems to be convinced that Dawn is going to come get him and he wants her to. I know she’s his mother, but I had hoped that bringing him here, letting him see what a real family is like...” He shook his head. “I just want him to start thinking of us as his family now.”
“What are we going to do? How can we possibly explain to him that his mother’s drinking is not his fault? And how can we break the news to him that his mother is never coming back. He’ll be devastated. Who on earth would have told him that?”
“I don’t know if anyone told him. It’s clearly written in his file that Dawn has given up all parental rights. However, he has been taken from her in the past. I suppose she could have told him that she would always come back for him. I doubt she knew what she was saying most of the time. From everything I gather she was drunk more often than not. There is the chance that Ryan made it up. It can’t be easy for a kid…thinking that your own mother doesn’t want you anymore. Maybe this is his way of dealing with it.”
“What’s going to happen when he eventually realizes the truth? How are we going to comfort him?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I had no idea he was thinking his mother was going take him back.”
“That’s why he still hasn’t unpacked…,” Kirsten realized. Tears were welling in her eyes. Sandy put his arm around his wife’s shoulders.
“He hasn’t?” he asked softly.
“No, his backpack’s still full of clothes, books, photographs and according to Rosa, food.”
“Food?”
“She’s the one who’s been monitoring Ryan’s backpack, I guess.” Kirsten sniffled. “He has packed some cereal bars.”
She began to silently cry. Sandy hugged her, putting his head on top of hers. After a few moments she pulled away, wiping the tears from her eyes. They stayed silent before Sandy murmured:
“What I want to know is how three elementary school kids found out about Ryan and his mother.”
“After we made the decision to bring Ryan into our home, I told Julie Cooper about it. You know Julie. She didn’t want some child from a bad family coming into our community. She even went so far as to say that’s why we had fundraisers for those type of kids. So we could help them without getting involved. I told her about Ryan’s background. I hoped it would make her understand why Ryan needed a home…a family. Instead all it did was fuel her desire to gossip. She must have told Nancy Ward while Luke was eavesdropping. This is all my fault.”
“Honey, it is anything but your fault. If you want to blame someone blame the Newpsies.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have…”
Kirsten was cut short by the ringing of the phone. She quickly picked up the receiver so that the noise would not awaken Ryan.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Sandy entered the kitchen he saw that Seth was munching on his cookies explaining to Rosa that Summer also had a plastic horse, a pink one called Princess Something.
He looked up when he heard his father enter.
“How’s Ryan?”
“Still asleep.”
“I shouldn’t have told you what happened with Luke?”
“Seth, you really helped. We had to know what happened between Ryan and the other boys. I know Luke can be a bully. It was very brave to tell the truth. I’m proud of you.” He gave his son a one-armed hug. “Now about these cookies…are they as good as they look?”
“You bet they are!” He handed one to his father.
Kirsten joined them.
Kirsten came in the kitchen carrying her briefcase and looking flustered.
“Mom, what’s the deal with the briefcase? You don’t have to go back to work tonight do you?” There was a definite whining to Seth’s voice.
“I’m sorry, sweetie. But I have to work with grandpa on an important job.” She turned to Sandy. “The clients are new and very influential. Dad’s pulling out all the stops for them.” She shook her head. “I only came home because I wanted to see how the boys’ first day of school went. I had no idea that all of this would go on. I feel so guilty about leaving Ryan. I’m tempted to call my father and tell him that I can’t possibly commit to a project this size right now.”
“Honey, it’s ok, I’ll take care of the boys, you can go,” assured Sandy
“Thank you. You’re the best.” She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
“I know.”
Kirsten quietly waked up the stairs and slowly opened Ryan’s bedroom door so that she wouldn’t wake him. To her surprise he was sitting up in bed clutching his injured hand to his chest.
"Honey, you’re awake.” She approached him cautiously, like she would have if he were a frightened animal. She looked at Ryan’s scraped and swollen hand.
“Oh sweetie, your hand is really swollen. I bet it hurts, huh?” She carefully pulled Ryan onto her lap.
Ryan looked down and didn’t answer.
“Sandy,” she called out. “Could you please bring up some ice for Ryan’s hand?”
A minute later Sandy entered the bedroom, carrying two blue flexible icepacks.
“Honey,” Sandy began as he placed the icepacks on the dresser. “You can go on to work. I’ll take care of things here. You don’t need to worry.” He sat on the bed and tried to take Ryan from her. “Besides it’s a guys’ night in. No girls allowed. Right, kid?” He looked at Ryan and winked.
“Well if you’re sure you can handle things…”
“Yes, I’m sure. Now go.” He motioned toward the door.
Kirsten kissed the top of Ryan’s head. “I’ll be back later,” she promised as she handed him over to Sandy.
After Kirsten had left, Sandy placed the cool icepacks on Ryan’s hand.
“This will help with the swelling. Okay? You trust me about that don’t you?”
Ryan nodded. He was exhausted. He quietly leaned against Sandy, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“His mom is gonna take him back.” Seth’s paroles were echoing in Sandy’s head when he went back downstairs. Sandy had been given Ryan’s file when he moved in with him, but he had not yet read it. He knew that Ryan had been subject to a lot of abuse in his life. However, Sandy hadn’t really wanted to know the extent of it…until now. He realized that they had to know what exactly they were dealing with. He checked that Seth was with Rosa and went into his office.
He sat down and opened the red folder Viviane had given him three weeks ago. He realized that Ryan had only been there for three weeks but now he couldn’t imagine his life without him. He loved the kid and he loved to watch the impact Ryan was having on his wife and son. Seth was becoming less self-involved and he was amazed to see how tactful and sensitive Kirsten was with their foster son. Ryan helped him re-discover his family. He had been the missing piece in their family.
He took a deep breath and reaching out a slightly shaking hand, flipped the top of the folder over and let it fall open. Closing his eyes for a moment, he prepared himself the best he could before starting to read.
Sandy gasped at the photographs that were clipped to a hospital record. The pictures were of Ryan when he couldn’t have been any more than two years old. It had been taken by Social Services to document his injuries. The first picture was of Ryan’s face, one of his eyes purple and swollen shut. He was sucking his thumb and looked terrified. The next photo was of Ryan’s chest, the right side bruised an assortment of colors with several cuts in the middle. Most of the files were hospital records. Broken arm, leg, ribs, fingers, a couple of concussions, and a severe case of pneumonia last year were the most severe of the cases. Sandy couldn’t believe the amount of hospital records. Seth had gone to the hospital only for a high fever when he was a baby. With Ryan, he’d lost track.
He couldn’t understand why Ryan had stayed that long in that family. How could have Social Services been that blind? No one could have possibly believed that the injuries had really only been accidents. They practically screamed abuse.
The last paper turned out to be a short copy of Frank Atwood’s file: several cases of “Domestic Abuse”, some “DUI” and “Armed robbery”.
Sandy shook his head. He felt sick.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kirsten walked into the house to find Sandy sitting alone in the living room. The room was dark, except for the moonlight shining through the patio doors.
“Hey,” he greeted. “Long night?”
Kirsten practically fell on the couch next to him. She was clearly exhausted.
“You have no idea. I thought for sure you would already be asleep. I can’t believe my dad made me work until now.”
“I’ve told you for years the guy’s a slave driver.”
“What about our guys?”
“Upstairs. Ryan fell asleep right after you left and never woke up. I put Seth to bed about two hours ago.”
“Can I switch the light on?” asked Kirsten.
“Sure.”
She gasped when she saw his face. He was pale and his eyes held a look of intense worry. “Sandy, what’s wrong?”
He looked almost ashamed.
“I know we said that we weren’t going to look at Ryan’s file. But after his behavior the last few weeks, and now what happened today…I just thought we should know what was in it?”
“How bad was it?”
“We knew he had a tough life. But honey, it’s worse than you can ever imagine. His hospital records are an inch thick. I don’t even know how the kid managed to survive five years of that hell.”
Kirsten placed her hand over her heart. She had an overwhelming urge to go check on Ryan to make sure he was safe.
“Are you sure he slept through the evening? Maybe I better go take a look.”
“I know you want to go check on him, but he’s asleep. I’ve looked in on him ever half hour or so. When it looked like he wasn’t going to wake up for dinner I left a peanut butter and jelly sandwich by the bed with a glass of milk. Neither have been touched.”
They sat in silence, holding each other’s hand, when a terrified scream came from upstairs. “No!! Don’t!!