Disclaimer: I do not own The O.C. or any of its characters. Everything belongs to FOX and Josh Schwartz.
It had been six months since Dawn had kicked out Ryan and now he found himself living in his third group home. And so far, this one was proving to be one of the worst ones. Ryan had thought the last home would have been hard to beat between the all the drinking, screaming, and crying that made him feel like he never left home; but he was wrong. This newest group home had a few more kids than the last one; most of them fairly young. Ryan was one of the older kids and that meant he took the brunt of the beatings; and the beatings happened nearly every day.
Ryan woke up with his head pounding on this particular Saturday morning; worse than usual. His eyes were barely open a crack and his eyes fell to the bruises on his arms. "Dick went nuts on you." Ryan's roommate, Kyle said when he noticed Ryan had woken up.
"It was my fault anyways." Ryan responded weakly as attempted to sit up. It took more of an effort than it should have.
"Well no shit." Kyle, muttered. "You know how he gets. He probably would have stopped sooner if you hadn't fought back."
"He had it coming." Ryan was aware that fighting back only made it worse. Their foster father seemed to get off on it. Though his body ached worse than it ever had, Ryan didn't regret it. He couldn't remember all the specifics of how the fight got started last night but he could remember him screaming and chasing Sylvie, one of the younger girls; she was only six years old. He stopped going after her once Ryan had tackled him. He beat on him until Ryan wasn't able to fight back anymore. Being one of the oldest, he had to protect the younger kids. And if no one else was going to do it, he would do it all over again.
There was a knock at their door. Ryan and Kyle both turned at the same time to the door, initially afraid of it being one of their foster parents. But they let out a soft sigh of relief, realizing that the knock was too soft for it to be them. The door opened slowly and Sylvie walked in, clutching her stuffed bunny that was falling apart at the seams.
"You okay?" Ryan asked her.
Sylvie nodded slowly. "Does it hurt a lot?"
It did. But Ryan figured she didn't need to know that. "I'll be okay." The only thing that mattered to him was that she wasn't the one that got hurt.
"I'm hungry." Sylvie whined.
Ryan chuckled slightly. Well, it didn't take long for her to forget about that and move onto a more pressing issue. And then not a moment later, Ryan's stomach growled. That proved that the six year old wasn't the only one that needed a meal. "Are they gone?" Ryan asked Sylvie, referring to their foster parents. She seemed to know that and nodded in response.
Ryan pushed himself up as Kyle stood and they followed behind Sylvie to the kitchen. "Not like you're going to get shit here." Kyle commented. He then took hold of one of the locks on the fridge. There were locks on the pantry and cabinets as well. The kids barely got a bite to eat and their foster parents made sure to keep their food out of reach by locking it all up. "How do you think we're gonna get in without the key?"
Ryan scratched his head for a moment and then turned to Sylvie, "Can I have that hair pin?" Ryan asked.
"This one?" Sylvie asked, pointing to the one holding a few pieces of her blonde hair back.
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Little Wonders l The O.C.
FanfictionAU: Ryan Atwood is seven years old and was abandoned by the only family he has ever known. Kirsten and Sandy are unable to have more children and have decided to give fostering a try. Little did they know, how much Ryan would change their family's l...
