Haley sat curled up in her husband's lap, his arms encircled around her. Peyton sat in the chair beside the two, her finger constantly twisting one golden curl. Lucas lay with his head resting on the bed. His hand was clutching the hand of the sleeping brunette. Lucas lifted his head.

"The two of you should take off," he spoke to his brother and sister in law. Haley gave a nervous look towards the bed. "I'll call if there's any change."

"We should probably go pick up Jamie," Nathan told his wife. Haley unfolded herself as she stood up. Taking her hand in his, Nathan pulled her to the door.

"The minute there's any change," Haley told Lucas as she left the room. Monitors beeped as Lucas brushed a thumb over Brooke's face. For a moment his hand stilled, resting softly on her cheek. Her face so pale and beautiful. A sniffle brought him back to reality. He turned and saw that Peyton was starting to cry.

"Hey, hey what's the matter?" Not really wanting to, Lucas released Brooke's hand and moved to Peyton. He took up Nathan and Haley's chair, scooting it closer so that he could pull Peyton to him. She began to sob into his shoulder, her tears soaking through.

"What if she never wakes up?" she croaked through sobs.

"Brooke's a fighter. There's no way she's giving up. In fact I think she'll wake up soon and smack you for doubting her." A half hearted chuckle escaped Peyton's lips. A nurse walked in.

"I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over." Peyton and Lucas looked to Brooke.

"Can't we…" Peyton started.

"The patient needs her rest."

"Ok first of all 'the patient' has a name, it's Brooke," Lucas grumbled. "And secondly, she's unconscious how much do you really think we're going to disturb her?"

"I'm sorry, it's hospital policy. You can come back in the morning." The nurse stepped out of the doorway, her eyes never leaving the two young adults.

Trying to avoid a fight, Peyton tried to reason with the brooding blonde. "Lucas, we'll come back in the morning." Another grumble, but Lucas got to his feet. The two walked over to the bed, both planting a kiss on Brooke's forehead

"We'll be back soon," Lucas whispered to her. And then they were gone.

"It's sad really, poor girl." Brooke could hear the voices from a distance.

"Depressing more like. She had everything going for her and then…" the voice trailed off. Brooke wanted to call out and ask who they were talking about but she felt herself going under. There was a flash of blue and an indecipherable image in her mind before she succumbed to the darkness.

Birds. She could hear birds but the seemed to be so far. The darkness tried to pull her back but Brooke fought it, she followed the chirping of birds, reaching towards them. But her body wouldn't move. Blue. Suitcases. The birds were closer now. Brooke tried to move her hand. Unbeknownst to her four young adults in the room with her had noticed her feeble attempts at motion. Five were in the room but all but one were holding their breath. Finally Brooke fluttered her eyes open. The four let out the air they were holding in. Before Brooke really knew what was going on a body collided with her.

"Don't ever do that again." A dark headed boy came and pulled the girl off of Brooke.

"Let's give her some space to breathe," Nathan told his wife.

"I was afraid you weren't coming back," Peyton told Brooke as she walked up and gave her friend a much gentler hug. Brooke hugged back with a shocked expression. Lucas hadn't moved from his station in the corner of the room. Brooke blinked a couple of times, taking in her surroundings.

"Haley, what happened to your baby?" Brooke indicated her friend's stomach which used to be protruding. Everyone's face fell.

"Jamie? Brooke I haven't been pregnant in a while. Jamie…he's four now." Peyton put her hand to her forehead.

"No, no you're about…" Brooke did a mental calculation, "…five months along!" Haley shook her head, the tears beginning to fall.

"The doctors told us that this might happen," Nathan muttered to his wife. "With that kind of head trauma, it's hard to avoid memory loss." Why was he talking about her like she wasn't in the room? And what head trauma was he talking about?

"Brooke how old are you?" Peyton whispered.

"Eighteen," Brooke told her, confused that her best friend would forget her age. This time Peyton was crying.

"No." Peyton shook her head side to side. "No Brooke, you're twenty two."

"But that means that…that means that I've lost…." Brooke stammered.

"Four years," Lucas finally moved from his post in the corner. He moved to Brooke's side and took her hand. And then Brooke felt it, the small gold band on his hand.

"Four years for you to get married," she chided him. But that wasn't right, the last thing she remembered, she and Lucas were together. Unless. Brooke looked down at her left hand. There was a gold band just like Lucas's.

"It was a beautiful ceremony," Haley supplied.

"Everyone was there," Peyton continued.

"Everyone joked that apparently the Scott brothers liked to marry young," Haley continued.

"But I told them that that's just what you do when you find someone that you can't live your life without. The other half of you." He touched her cheek gently. "I love you Pretty Girl." He kissed her forehead.

"I love you too." She pulled him to her. Their lips connected and it felt right. This was something that Brooke could never forget; the way their lips knew each other. The four pulled chairs around the bed and Brooke began to interrogate them about their lives in the past four years.

"I'll see you all tomorrow!" Brooke called to her friends' retreating backs. "And bring that godson of mine by sometime," Brooke directed to Haley and Nathan.

"Yeah over my dead body," Nathan said just loud enough for Brooke to hear. She was taken aback by this. Sure she and Nathan had never been close, but she at least thought that he liked her a bit. But as she thought back to the visit, she remembered how cold he had been. How he had not participated in the conversation. Then again her two best friends had pretty much monopolized the entire time, maybe he just couldn't get a word in. Brooke laughed out loud. The nurse who was changing her iv drip gave her a look.

"Something funny dear?"

"Not really," Brooke told her as she instinctively reached up to brush a lock of hair from her forehead. But surprisingly there was no hair in her eyes. Brooke reached up and felt the top of her head. Short spikes poked at her hand. Amidst them was a long stretch of skin that felt as if it was scarred or at least in the process of forming a scar. "Do you have a mirror?" Brooke asked the nurse. The nurse gave her a strained look and then walked out of the room. A moment later she returned with a mirror clutched to her chest.

"I would wait if I were you," the nurse told her nervously.

"Please, I need to see." Brooke reached out a hand, surprised that it took so much effort. Reluctantly, the mirror was placed in her palm. She took a few inhales and then raised the mirror to examine herself. Her hair had been shaved off. Along the right side of her head ran a thin pink line, the remnants of a surgery.

"Personally, I still think you look beautiful. If I looked half as good as you, maybe I wouldn't still be single." Brooke hadn't taken her eyes off the girl in the mirror. Or rather, herself. She couldn't quite grasp the fact that this scarred GI Jane look alike was herself. A small tear ran down her cheek.

"What happened?" The nurse shifted awkwardly to her other foot. She glanced to the door as if willing someone else to appear and answer the question.

"A bullet," the nurse finally replied. "A bullet to your skull. But you're a very lucky girl it didn't affect anything major."

"Nothing major!" Brooke asked in disbelief. "I lost four years of my life."

"Most people would kill for forgetting it all. Be grateful."

"Grateful? I hope that whoever did this to me burns in hell!" Brooke spat."Don't be too quick to judge my dear," the kind old nurse spoke. "You don't know what was going on in that person's life. Sometimes things just get too hard."

"They never get that hard." Brooke crossed her arms. The nurse cocked her head as if she wanted to say something, but she held it in. "Why four years?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean I could have forgotten three years or five years or my entire life, why four?"

"Well I'm no psychologist, but it seems to me like the human body does some pretty incredible things to keep it safe both physically and mentally. Often times we suppress memories rather than deal with them. Perhaps this is your body's way of telling you that whatever happened to you four years ago is something you would like to forget." With that the nurse turned on her heel, leaving Brooke alone to wrestle with her thoughts.

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