Never Before-Ryan Reeves Fanfiction

Breaking In

Maria POV

"Maria?" called Mike, "A word please."
I got up from the sofa and headed towards his office. He was taking us all to a trip to Thornton towers, a new theme park which opened up last week. The whole DG was buzzing with excitement and were frantically packing their bags.
"Maria, I have a problem." said Mike shutting the door, "We're one ticket short. May-li and I are debating on the fairest way to drop out."
Normally I would have sighed that they came to me. Typical care workers come to typical agony aunt Maria and I'd come up with a sensible solution. However today I had a very simple answer.
"I'll drop out." I offered.
"Are you sure?" said Mike surprised
"Yes." I said determinedly nodding vigorously.
"Well..great, thank you Maria." said Mike slapping my shoulder, "I'll stop you off at the daycare centre on the way."
I forced a smile. The day centre was crap but was marginally better than swooping around those terrifying rollercoasters and I could always sneak off and into town or something.
"Hang on Mike." said May-Li flicking through the tickets, "You can't count. We're still one short. Someone else has to drop out."
They both turned to me. I sighed and thought hard before we agreed on the fairest solution.

"Pick your cards everyone!" announced Mike and everyone scrambled into the middle to pick up a card and stick it on their foreheads. I peered around the circle to see who would be joining me today. I was secretly hoping for  Jody or Tyler as we'd have a laugh but I knew it would be mean as they'd been desperate to go to the theme park.
"Sorry Ryan," said Mike patting his shoulder, "You're the lowest."
He shrugged but we could see the annoyance in his eyes as he ripped the card off his head. I have to admit I was secretly thrilled as I'd become quite fond of him over the last few weeks he'd been here, ever since we first properly spoke by the sink. He was arrogant and rubbed people up the wrong way but there was something about him which I just liked. It was odd yet amazing. I felt my stomach flutter slightly when he shot me a look from the other side of the room. Oh no, was I catching feelings already?

Mike drove us to the day care centre and dropped us off,
"I'll be back at five," he said squeezing our shoulders leaving us in the hands of an extremely scary mime, painted black and white.
I glanced at Ryan who mimicked my expression of wanting to leave as soon as was humanly possible.
We sat at a table where I dumped my bag, and watched a clown and mime perform a "comical" act which couldn't have been more cringey.
I checked my watch; we'd been here ten minutes. I looked at Ryan, "What you thinking?" I whispered.
"That I want to get out of here," he replied.
"Let's go," I stood up but he pulled me down,
"It'll look suspicious if we leave together." He said, "I'll sneak out and you follow."
I nodded and he slipped out. I stared at my watch and watched the five minutes crawl by before I ducked under the table, grabbed my bag and slid out of the door.

I got to Ashdene Ridge and knocked tentatively on the door which Ryan opened with a grin,
"You escaped then?"
"Thank goodness," I said dumping my bag on the table and throwing myself onto the sofa, "We've got six hours of peace before we're due back."
"Rather here than there," he
admitted sitting next to me, "Though I'd rather have gone to Thornton."
"I'm sorry  you missed out," I said, "it was just unfortunate."
"It's alright," he said, "Not your fault."
I smiled to myself, followed by an awkward silence which lasted several minutes.
"So what shall we do today?" I said swinging my legs off the sofa.
He shrugged, "I might go skateboarding or something."
"Oh," I wasn't so keen on skateboarding so we couldn't bond over that.
"You can't go on an empty stomach." I said smiling and he realised what I was saying. May-li kept secret snacks in the cupboard behind the sink.
"Come on, " I said and we ran to the kitchen.

We managed to reach the cupboard behind the sink when I suddenly heard a noise.
"What was that?" I looked up and craned my neck over the kitchen counter.
"Nothing." said Ryan, pulling out a packet of Lindors, "Yes."
I grinned and joined him as we sat leaning against the cupboard when I heard the door unlocking. We both jumped up and peered nervously around the kitchen door,
"Is Mike back already?" I whispered,"Or did he forget something?"
"I don't know," said Ryan, "Maybe he sent Shona over or something."
We saw two figures moving behind the glass and then the door opened so suddenly, Ryan pulled me back behind the door and into the kitchen where we crept under the table.
We heard footsteps and then two people speaking.
"So where is she?" Said one voice, a male.
"I don't know," said the other, a female, "But we saw her come in, so she's here somewhere. Come on Ginge where you at?"
I shot a glance at Ryan who pointed, confused to me. I'd recently dipdyed my hair with henna making it even more ginger and enhancing the colour. They meant me. But why? What had I done?
"Find that bag," said the female voice sternly, "It must be here."
The footsteps came closer and I brought my legs in closer to my chest and felt my heart beat so fast I thought my chest would explode. I breathed quickly in and out as silently as I could. I'd always had problems with anxiety. Panic attacks and similar reactions. It was from an old childhood event which triggered certain memories. I felt my hand shaking violently so tucked it in my sleeve. Ryan however noticed but surprised me by placing his hand on top and squeezing it gently until it slowed down.
"It's ok," he whispered barely audible, "They won't hurt you."
The footsteps had padded away upstairs and we emerged. I was touched by his gesture but it wasn't the time to discuss his sentiment.
"What is going on?" I asked out loud, "Who are they?"
"Robbers, thieves, something along those lines." said Ryan lightly, he clearly had them all sussed out, "Where's your bag now?"
"In the lounge," I said and we tiptoed towards it and I fished it out from underneath the table.
"What on earth is in it?" He asked me.
"Nothing" I said starting to unbuckle it, "Just gum and my phone and..holy mo."
I'd pulled out a package which fell out onto the floor and a stack of money rolled across the carpet.
"Oh my god," I whispered in disbelief as we crouched to look, "This is what they're after! Should we give it back so they'll leave?"
"Are you kidding?" Said Ryan, "Its obviously stolen. They'll take it and then can easily blackmail us for more stuff."
"So what do we do?" I whispered.
We heard the footsteps making their way down, "Well first we hide," said Ryan grabbing the money and dragging me behind the living room door, "Until I think of a plan."
I felt slightly affronted that he didn't think I could also come up with a plan but I decided now wasn't the time for anything other than trying to get out alive.
"Come on," said Ryan as they headed into the kitchen, and we headed upstairs.
"What are we doing?" I asked running after.
"We're going to trap them." He said
"Isn't that a little immoral?" I said, "And mean."
"Oh what and stealing a pile of money isn't?" He turned around, "You can't go soft on me now Maria, we need to be hard or we're not going to make it."
I followed him upstairs but paused by my room. The door was wide open swinging on its hinges. I stopped, my heart beating hard again, on the floor lay a pile of papers. Not any papers. All my artwork of all my friends, photos of my family, torn off the wall and in little pieces on the carpet. I checked my bookshelf and saw to my relief my diary was still standing. Even so, I felt the anger rise in my throat and tears spill down my cheeks.
"Maria? Where are you? We need to-oh." Ryan stopped at my doorway, and walked in awkwardly, sinking to his knees opposite me. He may be arrogant but he wasn't totally heartless.
"I'm sorry."'he said looking at me miserably shifting through the torn memories. His hands fidgeted awkwardly as he helped me pick them up and into smaller piles of individual photos. He was surprisingly humble considering how vigilant he'd been in getting away from the thieves, yet he stayed and patiently helped me sift through it all. It was incredibly lucky they were searching the whole of downstairs and didn't come up and find us.
"So what are we going to do?" I asked him.
"Hmm?"
"You know, to trap them." I elaborated and a grin grew on his face, "What?"
"I knew you hadn't gone soft," he said, "Come on, you need to go up to them."
"What? Why me?" I protested.
"They don't know I'm here," he said, "Which is our wildcard."
"Ok, " I said but before he could explain we heard them walking upstairs and we ducked behind my bed.
"How are we going to get downstairs now?"
"Through the window," pointed Ryan.
"No," I grabbed his jacket, "I'm.." I considered lying but one flash of his brown eyes and I couldn't lie to him, "Terrified of heights," I finished blushing with the shame of admitting it.
"Oh." said Ryan sinking back, "Too bad to go out of that window?"
I nodded vigorously, "I once had to run away from some people who broke in to collect money my brother owed him, and I had to jump out of a top floor window. I can't go near heights. Especially mile high rollercoasters."
Ryan listened to me and nodded, "It's alright," he said, "I understand. I'm not so keen either to be honest."
"Not a fan of windows either?"
He shook his head and sighed, "My sister fell out of one," I was surprised to see his eyes fill with tears. I placed my hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. It was the closest he'd ever said anything about his mysterious past. I was surprised by his sensitivity, clearly his sister means a lot to him.
We heard a door slam and a cry of, "What do these kids keep in their rooms?"
"She's in Mo's room," said Ryan and I laughed and he stood up, "That's on the other side of the corridor, we can go down now."
We snuck downstairs and into the washing room.
"Right," said Ryan, "You know what you gotta do?"
I nodded determinedly, "Yes."

We eventually managed to trap them both and called the police who dragged them away so we followed them outside where Mikes minibus was already pulling up.
"Oh no," I said, "They're back early."

"Do you have any idea how stupid you both were?" cried Mike in his office a few minutes later. He gave us a twenty minute lecture before we were let go with a stern warning.
"That's not entirely fair," I said crossing my arms, "We didn't ask for money to get chucked in my bag."
Ryan laughed, "Life ain't fair kiddo," he said patting my shoulder, "Learn that."
He walked off so I drifted off into the living room, thinking, he'd been so nice today. Different. I liked him even more. Maybe-
"Oh thanks Maria!" came Carmen's voice interrupting my thoughts, "For ruining our day cause you wanted to come back. What did you even get up to?"
"Oh nothing really," I said smiling, sinking into a chair and picking up my magazine. I glanced over at Ryan who'd joined us at the door.
He heard what I said and winked back at me, a smirk spread over his face.