1. The Kid (1/2)

disclaimer: not mine, borrowed and nurtured. a/n: this idea stemmed from what could essentially have been a s5 but set in during the berkeley years. i have only enough for random drabbles atm as i'm busy with work, and (trying) to write original stories, as well as any unfinished fics in my other fandoms, but i may as well put ideas on paper, as they've been maturing for decades.

berkeley series

i

the kid

the last you saw him; ryan atwood was an accomplished project manager with a degree in architecture from which he had studied at berkeley college. when ryan had left chino and found himself living in the pool house of the cohens, never would he have imagined he would end up with this future or would he have been lucky enough to call the cohen's his found family.

he'd seen his life flash before him when he'd seen a desperate child by the payphone. the child looked his age when he'd phoned sandy cohen (a cut to the lip, cheeks

uised after another fight with one of his mother's abusive, drunk boyfriends). he knew loneliness, he knew how it felt to be unwanted – he'd spent his childhood on the streets of chino, with his

other, trey.

he met sandy cohen, the da, after trey stole a parked car for a joy ride.

little did he know how much he needed to escape that life and create a home for himself.

"hey kid? you alright?"

everything that happened to him in those last few years, shaped him. he was proud of that man, and of everything he'd accomplished. sandy cohen was his hero, and his adoptive father – and he was a better man because of his kindness. the kid looked up, eyes wet with tears of loneliness or frustration, he was tight lipped, scared maybe, but ryan knew he had been the same, untrusting of strangers with good intentions.