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missmara13Title: We All Fall Down
Fandom: The OC
Characters: Ryan Atwood, Oliver Trask,
Prompt: 027 - Drop
Word Count: 986
Rating: R (For some violence and major character death)
Summary: Everything falls.
Author's Notes: AU from 'The Truth'. This isn't exactly what I originally planned when I looked at the prompt, but... it's what ended up coming out once I started typing...
We All Fall Down
Ryan thought it was over when Oliver began to lower the gun. He let out a tense breath and let his eyes slide closed. Then everything seemed to blow up around him. Sandy was yelling, the hotel security guards were yelling, Marissa was screaming. Ryan opened his eyes again to see the gun pointed right at him, and he only had time to take one breath before Oliver pulled the trigger.
Ryan stumbled back for a second as he felt a burning pain in his chest, and he raised a hand to touch it, pulling it back to see red covering his fingers.
"Ryan?" Sandy asked, his voice seeming far away as Ryan continued to stare down at his hand. At his blood. Then he dropped, hitting the floor with a dull thud as Marissa kept screaming and Sandy was yelling, and someone yelled for an ambulance. Then it all went dark.
~~~~
He came to as he was rolled into the ER, Sandy running behind the gurney while the paramedics called out his vitals and the doctors began to hurry around him. He didn't understand most of what they were saying, but he understood when they said he was loosing blood, and he understood the rest was just as bad when he caught a glimpse of Sandy standing outside the door, blood all over his clothes, pale and shaking.
He saw a nurse try to put a clipboard in Sandy's hand, forms that needed to be filled out, but the board and the pen simply fell from Sandy's hands as he kept his gaze locked on his foster son. Ryan looked over at a doctor, who caught his eye for a moment and seemed to convey a silent apology before dropping their gaze.
The last thing he understood in that trauma room, was the nurse reporting that his blood pressure was dropping.
~~~~
He had to go to rehab for months afterwards, trying to regain use of his left side, something he had lost thanks to suffering a stroke on the operating table. He tried to hold a ball steady in his left hand, but it always dropped from his numb fingers. He took his first steps 3 months later, and his left leg gave out after a few steps, making him hot the floor.
But 6 months later, he could hold a glass in his left hand and take a sip before his hand started to shake. 8 months after the shooting, he could walk across a room if he had a cane to steady himself. He stopped dropping things as often, and he stopped falling, but it didn't change the fact that the bottom had dropped out of his world. The tough boy from Chino was no more.
~~~~
It went to court over two years after the shooting, and the judge dropped the case against Oliver. The boy was clearly unbalanced, the judge said, he had felt threatened, and he had lashed out without understanding the consequences.
So Oliver Trask walked out of the Courthouse, flanked by his parents, and on his way to a 'hospital' in Europe that everyone knew was more of a resort than anything. Marissa came up behind Ryan and took his hand, but he dropped hers like he'd been burned. She wasn't willing to believe him when he needed her to, and he wasn't willing to forgive her for that.
~~~~
Marissa wrote him letters from college daily for the first year, but Ryan dropped every single one into the trash without reading them. When she called he dropped the phone back into it's cradle or turned off his cell and dropped it down onto a table.
Seth still seemed to think the old gang could be whole again, but everytime Ryan looked in the mirror at his chest and saw the scar from his surgery, he knew he couldn't forgive Marissa for what she had done by pushing him aside, then pulling him back. It was Summer who got Seth to drop the topic, and Summer who introduced Ryan to a girl in her med school class.
~~~~
Ryan pretended to drop the ring when he was the best man at Seth and Summer's wedding, and later he got a smack on the back of the head from Isabella for the prank. He made it up to her when he took her hand and placed a small ruby ring, her favorite stone, into the palm. "I don't drop the important stuff," he whispered with a smile.
~~~~
Ten years after the shooting, Ryan held his newborn daughter Lily for the first time, scared he would drop her thanks to his still shaky arm. But he didn't drop her, he held her close and smiled as she waved a fist in the air. He slowly dipped his head down to drop a gently kiss on her forehead.
He didn't drop things anymore. At least not the important things.
~~~~
Twenty five years after the shooting, Ryan dropped a glass while walking through he and Isabella's house, and he heard her voice, still as beautiful as ever, teasingly calling him a clutz. He tried to call back a response, but nothing came out as his legs gave out and he dropped to the floor, dropping the other glass he'd been holding. He heard Isabella jump up, her book falling to hit the floor in her hurry to get to him.
~~~~
In the ambulance, a paramedic called out that his blood pressure was dropping.
~~~~
In the hospital the doctors said his heart rate was dropping.
~~~~
Isabella held one of his hands, Lily held the other, and they held on tight while telling him to hang on for them. When the alarm went off, they didn't want to let go, and held on until the doctors and nurse's forced them away. Forced them to drop his hands.
They never had the chance to pick them up again.
THE END
Fandom: The OC
Characters: Ryan Atwood, Oliver Trask,
Prompt: 027 - Drop
Word Count: 986
Rating: R (For some violence and major character death)
Summary: Everything falls.
Author's Notes: AU from 'The Truth'. This isn't exactly what I originally planned when I looked at the prompt, but... it's what ended up coming out once I started typing...
We All Fall Down
Ryan thought it was over when Oliver began to lower the gun. He let out a tense breath and let his eyes slide closed. Then everything seemed to blow up around him. Sandy was yelling, the hotel security guards were yelling, Marissa was screaming. Ryan opened his eyes again to see the gun pointed right at him, and he only had time to take one breath before Oliver pulled the trigger.
Ryan stumbled back for a second as he felt a burning pain in his chest, and he raised a hand to touch it, pulling it back to see red covering his fingers.
"Ryan?" Sandy asked, his voice seeming far away as Ryan continued to stare down at his hand. At his blood. Then he dropped, hitting the floor with a dull thud as Marissa kept screaming and Sandy was yelling, and someone yelled for an ambulance. Then it all went dark.
~~~~
He came to as he was rolled into the ER, Sandy running behind the gurney while the paramedics called out his vitals and the doctors began to hurry around him. He didn't understand most of what they were saying, but he understood when they said he was loosing blood, and he understood the rest was just as bad when he caught a glimpse of Sandy standing outside the door, blood all over his clothes, pale and shaking.
He saw a nurse try to put a clipboard in Sandy's hand, forms that needed to be filled out, but the board and the pen simply fell from Sandy's hands as he kept his gaze locked on his foster son. Ryan looked over at a doctor, who caught his eye for a moment and seemed to convey a silent apology before dropping their gaze.
The last thing he understood in that trauma room, was the nurse reporting that his blood pressure was dropping.
~~~~
He had to go to rehab for months afterwards, trying to regain use of his left side, something he had lost thanks to suffering a stroke on the operating table. He tried to hold a ball steady in his left hand, but it always dropped from his numb fingers. He took his first steps 3 months later, and his left leg gave out after a few steps, making him hot the floor.
But 6 months later, he could hold a glass in his left hand and take a sip before his hand started to shake. 8 months after the shooting, he could walk across a room if he had a cane to steady himself. He stopped dropping things as often, and he stopped falling, but it didn't change the fact that the bottom had dropped out of his world. The tough boy from Chino was no more.
~~~~
It went to court over two years after the shooting, and the judge dropped the case against Oliver. The boy was clearly unbalanced, the judge said, he had felt threatened, and he had lashed out without understanding the consequences.
So Oliver Trask walked out of the Courthouse, flanked by his parents, and on his way to a 'hospital' in Europe that everyone knew was more of a resort than anything. Marissa came up behind Ryan and took his hand, but he dropped hers like he'd been burned. She wasn't willing to believe him when he needed her to, and he wasn't willing to forgive her for that.
~~~~
Marissa wrote him letters from college daily for the first year, but Ryan dropped every single one into the trash without reading them. When she called he dropped the phone back into it's cradle or turned off his cell and dropped it down onto a table.
Seth still seemed to think the old gang could be whole again, but everytime Ryan looked in the mirror at his chest and saw the scar from his surgery, he knew he couldn't forgive Marissa for what she had done by pushing him aside, then pulling him back. It was Summer who got Seth to drop the topic, and Summer who introduced Ryan to a girl in her med school class.
~~~~
Ryan pretended to drop the ring when he was the best man at Seth and Summer's wedding, and later he got a smack on the back of the head from Isabella for the prank. He made it up to her when he took her hand and placed a small ruby ring, her favorite stone, into the palm. "I don't drop the important stuff," he whispered with a smile.
~~~~
Ten years after the shooting, Ryan held his newborn daughter Lily for the first time, scared he would drop her thanks to his still shaky arm. But he didn't drop her, he held her close and smiled as she waved a fist in the air. He slowly dipped his head down to drop a gently kiss on her forehead.
He didn't drop things anymore. At least not the important things.
~~~~
Twenty five years after the shooting, Ryan dropped a glass while walking through he and Isabella's house, and he heard her voice, still as beautiful as ever, teasingly calling him a clutz. He tried to call back a response, but nothing came out as his legs gave out and he dropped to the floor, dropping the other glass he'd been holding. He heard Isabella jump up, her book falling to hit the floor in her hurry to get to him.
~~~~
In the ambulance, a paramedic called out that his blood pressure was dropping.
~~~~
In the hospital the doctors said his heart rate was dropping.
~~~~
Isabella held one of his hands, Lily held the other, and they held on tight while telling him to hang on for them. When the alarm went off, they didn't want to let go, and held on until the doctors and nurse's forced them away. Forced them to drop his hands.
They never had the chance to pick them up again.
THE END
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 10:14 pm (UTC)Don't listen to me, I'm rambling. Great story.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 02:25 am (UTC)And thanks!
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Date: 2006-10-26 10:50 pm (UTC)Loved it. You know how to surprise. It was sad, I have to tell you that but it made it even more beautiful. I like angst.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 02:31 am (UTC)Thanks so much... I like surprising... and angst rocks... :D
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 12:49 am (UTC)*hates you right now*
You should better write more Ryan/Summer instead of doing such a mean, evil thing. *sobs*
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 01:03 am (UTC)And there's some good Ryan/Summer coming in both WAW and AD, but you gotta wait a chapter or two for them... lol... and hey, I don't think I plan on killing him again (It's painfully to do! lol), so there's a bonus! I got it out of my system! lol
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 01:24 am (UTC)Why is everyone picking on the woobie again?
I can't handle this!
:(
Lovely, gorgeous fic - except for the part where you are eeeevil. (!) ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 01:33 am (UTC):( Yup, I'm still sad, by the way. I think you need to go update your other fics that I read and lurk evilly in (I'm naughty like that).
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Date: 2006-10-28 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 03:09 am (UTC)I'd always thought there was so much wrong with the Oliver Twisted arc from its ridiculous focus on "M" to monopolize screen time, confuse viewers about what the real issue was, distract and divert attention away from the areas of primary importance: trust, acceptance and belonging. This could have been accomplished far better with superior writing and different choices. If TPTB were going to insist on taking the route they did, there needed to be follow up within the Cohen family and that meant emotional and maybe physical consequences.
It always bothered me that no one, no adult paid to be in authority or no adult who was supposed to be legally and morally protecting Ryan (ahem, Sandy) did so. He was a prime target and no one intervened to reduce the risk. He was left vulnerable and that's what makes your scenario not only plausible, but likely.
Your sequence of events is gripping, with Ryan's still calm, measured, astute perspective providing such a vivid picture, replete with details that depict the anguish, guilt and terror that a panicked Sandy felt too late. The progression is equally as frightening, even with Ryan's defining stoicism. His own awareness and revealed fear at his powerlessness is so apparent as he so accurately reads the doctor's eyes and faces the hurdles and subsequent challenges with determination. Nothing in his life is easy, simple or predictable. The same struggle that he's confronted as the outsider in every family and community, haunts him and has put him in peril with emotional and physical scars and wounds that will never heal and will continue to gnaw at him, inflicting far more hidden damage over time.
You almost taunt the reader, and Ryan, by giving him the gift of those additional years and experiences. I doubt he was lulled into the same sense of false security, however. In all situations in his life, he considered himself on borrowed time and always had to perceive each new warning as the one that could tear down the house of cards- it was only a matter of how.
As I was reading this, I was hoping you'd go back and fill in the gaps. However, after reading the outcome, I'm not so sure!
Still, the format, pace and rhtythm were perfect complements to the tone and content. This was a bittersweet story that was so poignant because it was so engrossing. Who could resist hoping for Ryan to overcome each obstacle and find the life he deserved? Then you snatched it away!
This does make me hope you'd consider backing up and focusing on the time immediately after the scenario you've posed. There's a tremendous opportunity there with so much to explore that's pivotal to who Ryan is and what his relationship is with the Cohens- and what they mean to one another in the context of these events.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 03:40 am (UTC)I kind of saw it that to some degree, Ryan was in shock during the first few sections, he could process the information to a point, but the emotions weren't really kicking in, the fear wasn't there because it simply wasn't clicking into place for him...
I didn't EXACTLY mean to taunt anyone with it... lol... and you're right, he has always considered himself on borrowed time (his comment to Kirsten about wanting to 'be 17' was pretty evident of that, even when you consider that it makes no sense since he was only 15 1/2 or so at the time... why not want to be 16? lol)
I may actually go back and write some stories to fill in the spaces, though if I do I may not be able to bring myself to actually kill the boy in the end... lol...
I know it was cruel to kill him after all that... but it just didn't have any impact if it ended with 'and he lived happily ever after'... lol... but as I said, I am tempted to go back and tell the story in a more traditional format. Show the reactions of everyone else to the tragedy. Show whether the incident at the courthouse when Oliver was let off was the first time Marissa made an overture towards Ryan, or if it was just one of many times. Show how exactly, beyond being introduced by Summer, Ryan and Isabella met.
Dang it... I guess I am gonna be one of those people who has a dozen fics going at once because now I wanna start the expanded fic RIGHT NOW... lol... I'm officially gonna blame you... lol
no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 04:14 am (UTC)That Sandy would allow a 15-year-old kid in his care to even be put in that situation? Never with Seth- not even on the table for discussion. Just how valued should Ryan feel to know that he is still expendable? What if he knew that Sandy had just asked Kirsten if he had made a mistake by bringing Ryan into their home? He'd be devastated (even more) that the man he sees as his savior, mentor and hero thinks so little of him- although he has proven it. I wanted to shoot Sandy and there should have been emotional consequences that we saw played out. If that meant there had to be physical repercussions to necessitate it, then there were ways to handle it without being extreme, but to make the possible outcomes very, frighteningly real.
Ryan would have been in shock, but he's been in so many precarious situations that I think he would still have that sensation of time slowing down, as it often seems to in those cases, and any images he did hone in on would have been painstakingly vivid with connectivity and detail.
Ryan definitely lives in the moment as the survivor he is and as the kid who has never had the luxury of worrying about the next day. His plate is full enough and he knows too well how quickly everything can be transformed so unpredictably. It's not that he expects not to live, but he knows that family, a roof over his head, and so many basics that people take for granted are fleeting in his world. He can't count on anything or anyone from one day to the next. After what's happened to him, anything is possible. My take on his comment to Kirsten was that he chose the age that should have been the ideal. At 17, kids can drive and are at the pinnacle of their freedom without the responsibilities and tranisitions that follow at 18- typically. At 17, most are carefree, reasonably, enjoying the end of high school and still don't have the worries that come with the next phase of life. That wouldn't have been the case for Ryan, since no year fit that bill, but I think he pegged Kirsten as someone who had that idyllic sort of growing up and probably was the homecoming queen, prom queen and still treasured that year when she looked back. For him to have said 16 would have been too pessimistic. If he had said 15, then he would have been trying to just act his age- which he knew wasn't possible.
I do hope you go back and just don't go ALL the way to the bitter end. I would really like to read how you would expand each one into a much more developed story with multiple perspectives- meaning the Cohens as well to really flesh out their role, their awareness of their grave, costly errors and how this changed them.
Blame me!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 05:01 am (UTC)I think I am gonna go back... lol... I wanna explore how it went down as far as others saw... I wanna see if Sandy acknowledged vocally how many mistakes he made, most critically lettign Ryan into that room... as you said, Seth never would have been allowed to step foot anywhere near that door once they knew Oliver had a gun, Sandy would have pulled Seth down the hall away from the situation. But no, Ryan he lets walk right into it... Ryan he lets step front and center, seperated from everyone who could protect him... Ryan he lets be the one who talks to this dangerous kid who's waving around a gun... I don't think Sandy has ever really acknowledged his true mistakes when it comes to Ryan... and bringing Ryan home most certianly wasn't one of them...
And yeah, I'm totally blaming you... gonna put it in the author's notes: 'Blame Beachtree for me writing another multi part fic...' lol
no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 05:40 am (UTC)More later...
no subject
Date: 2007-07-09 09:03 am (UTC)It was really great for the major part of the story, but damn : you killed Ryan !! How could you do such a thing :( ? Poor, poor Ryan, but he still got to have a family on his own with Isabella and Lily.
Thanks !
no subject
Date: 2007-07-09 02:41 pm (UTC)