A/N: Hi, all! You might know me from my Naley and Leyton fics; there's not many of them, but you guys have been really sweet about reviewing. (I am working on new chapters for those, promise!)
Tuesday's episode (8x11, "Darkness on the Edge of Town") was so emotional and intense that when the coda for it was so calm, I found my mind racing yesterday with what we might not have seen of the immediate aftermath when it came to Brooke, Julian, Nathan, Haley, and Jamie. Thus, this fic was born. It's my first time writing Brulian, so I really hope it turned out okay!
Enjoy and please review; I always appreciate it!
Disclaimer: I don't own One Tree Hill or its characters. Hell, if I owned Nathan, I wouldn't be here, and y'all know why. -wink-
In My Arms
They let him stay with her after she begs a bit. Brooke Davis hates begging, but she doesn't feel like she can be alone right now. Right now, when she's just barely changed out of her drenched clothes and into a hospital gown too thin to do much of anything against the cold. Right now, when her leg is aching from earlier and she knows the bruises are forming. Right now, when every breath still makes her think about those last moments before she'd gone under.
His hand is still tightly in hers, and she leans slowly back against the wall behind the hospital bed as the doctor drones on. She squeezes, and Julian squeezes back, twining his fingers tighter in hers. He's barely let go since they got here, ever since she argued with the nurses and doctors that he was her fiancé, and after everything they'd just been through, did the visiting hours really matter?
"We're going to keep you here overnight for observation," explained the doctor, finally getting to the end of it. "Beyond the bruises on your leg, though, you seem to be fine. We just want to make sure there's no injuries that we might have missed or any adverse effects from the trauma. All right? You'll be released tomorrow."
"Thank you, Doctor." She gives him a small smile and is about to close her eyes for a second, exhausted, when the doctor stops as he's about to leave the room.
"There's a family who's been asking after you. The Scotts?"
"I'd like to have them here, if that's okay," she says, getting ready to argue for it again, if she had to. She needs to see them, to at least make sure they're all okay. Nathan had seemed pretty freaked on the bridge; no doubt it had brought up some memories. Haley's pregnant and emotional, and Jamie… she doesn't even want to think about how close they both came.
"They can't stay for long," the doctor warns, before he leaves and Nathan, Haley, and Jamie come into the room. All of them seem a little worn out—they've all had their hardest night in a while. They've all changed into dry clothes, but they've still got that look of people who've just been through hell. Brooke tries to smile, wanting to not freak all of them out, especially Jamie. The kid's had enough near-death experiences; she doesn't want this one to traumatize him any more than it has to, and seeing Aunt Brooke in a hospital bed is probably enough to freak him out at least a little.
"As someone who's gotten involved in an accident on that bridge, I have to say congratulations for making it out of there," Nathan says, with a faint smile, though she can see the concern in his eyes. "You did good, Brooke."
She's about to say thank you when Haley stops her, walking forward and just hugging her, carefully in case she's hurting. "You don't have to thank us for thanking you," Haley says, quietly enough that Brooke might be the only one who hears. "Just… thank you. Both of you," she says, directing this to Julian as well, and they can all hear the tears in her voice, though Haley's doing a good job of not crying. "For getting him out. Thank you."
Brooke nods, on the verge of tears herself, and she feels Julian squeeze her hand again before he gets up. "I'm going to get some coffee," he says, before looking to Jamie and then to Brooke. Brooke nods, and Julian leads Haley and Nathan out after a silent signal, leaving Brooke alone with Jamie.
"C'mere, buddy." She pats the side of her bed, and Jamie hesitantly scrambles up, sitting beside her. It still amazes her how big he's gotten. Seven going on eight, and yet she still remembers him as a baby, or as the four-year-old she'd encountered when she'd first come back to Tree Hill. And today she'd talked to him about how much he likes a girl. Wow.
"Did the doctors say you'll be okay?" Jamie asks, and Brooke nods.
"Yep, they said I'll be fine. I just have to stay here for tonight. Have you heard about Miss Lauren and Chuck?"
"Mom talked to Mrs. Scolnik. She said Chuck's okay. I haven't heard about Miss Lauren."
"Well, I bet she'll be fine." She touches his face for a second, gently, giving him a smile. "You did really well in there, buddy. I know you were probably scared, especially when the levee broke. But you made me proud. If me and Julian get to have kids, I hope they're as awesome as you."
He genuinely smiles at that, and she feels glad that for now, at least, he seems all right. She'll have to keep talking to Nathan and Haley over the next few days, though.
"Can we come over tomorrow? After you get out of here?" Jamie asks, and she nods.
"Anything you want, as long as the weather's better."
"Okay. I'll ask Momma and Dad," Jamie says, getting down from the bed as Julian, Nathan, and Haley come to the doorway. Brooke holds up her finger for one more second and they all move back. Brooke beckons Jamie a little closer and leans down to his ear.
"Tell Madison you like her, okay?"
"Okay."
And she reaches out to hug him, holding him tightly for a second before he lets go and leaves, and she sinks back in the bed and really breathes for the first time in hours.
Home has never felt as good as it has right now. Haley pushes through the door and throws her keys into the bowl on the side table, exhausted in every bone of her body, but knowing she won't be sleeping all that much tonight.
After everything they'd been through in it, she'd always liked the rain. Now, she'd be surprised if she could ever go out in it again without being partly terrified.
They'd been doing so well, besides when she'd knocked over the can with the bolts and such for the tire. She'd been making jokes, he'd been changing the tire, and they might have even made out just a bit before they got going again. Everything had changed once they'd gotten to the bridge and seen Brooke unconscious and maybe not even alive, and once it had struck them how close Jamie must have come to dying as well.
Just when she'd been resigning herself to the fact that she'd eventually have to let Jamie go, she found herself fighting the urge to just hold him and have him be their little boy forever.
Case in point, the way she feels as he starts to go up the stairs to his room. "Hey," she calls, feeling Nathan put his hand gently on her back as he comes up behind her. "Why don't you sleep with me and Dad tonight?"
She can see it on his face—that conflicting impulse to be the big boy and not sleep in his parents' bed, warring with the scared kid who'd just been, literally, through hell and high water and just wants his parents.
But he gives in and nods, looking almost relieved, and she watches him head up the stairs and into their bedroom before she ducks into the kitchen.
Nathan follows. "Not coming to bed?"
"I am. I just… I need a second." Her hands are shaking as she gets a glass from the cabinet and fills it with water from the faucet, trying to drink, to do anything that will distract her from the mess of emotions running through her right now. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him come closer, moving behind her and putting one of his hands—steady, remarkably—over her shaking one and lowering the glass to the counter for her, before he puts his hands on her waist and turns her into his body, holding her close against his chest as she begins shaking with the tears she's held back all evening.
It's a mix of everything—of realizing Jamie's grown up; of almost losing him; of seeing Brooke, one of her only friends in Tree Hill, what with Lucas and Peyton gone, nearly dead. It's the hardest she's cried since they heard the heartbeat for the first time, since he found her in Jamie's bedroom the first time Carrie had taken him. Though he doesn't let her see, Nathan cries, too, just a few tears that he manages to wipe away with his shoulder before she can glance up.
After a minute or two, the tears subside and she's calmer in his arms, her breathing slowing and evening out again. He cups her face in his hand, wiping away a stray tear with his thumb. His other hand grabs hers and touches their hands gently to her stomach. They made it out okay. They all made it out okay.
She nods, tilting her face up to his and kissing him, before wrapping her arms tightly around him, a gesture he returns. And they stand there, holding each other close, before they break apart and head upstairs to be with their son.
It takes a week before Brooke can sleep through the night and not wake up gasping for air.
It takes a week for Julian not to wake up in a cold sweat, panicking until he realizes that Brooke is in his arms.
It takes a week of them watching movies when they're too keyed up to sleep to exhaust every James Bond film they hadn't seen that day.
It takes a week for them to kiss again without thinking of drowning.
The next time they get intimate is maybe ten days after the storm. It's still on their minds, but they can try and move past it. It's all they can do.
As he trails kisses further and further down her body—between her breasts, down her stomach, and even further—one of his hands brushes against her upper thigh and she flinches as his fingers graze the yellowing bruises. Damn. Talk about killing the mood.
He apologizes quickly, but finds his fingers stroking over the bruises gently. "Have I mentioned," he murmurs, leaning back in to kiss her, "how sexy you being so good with Jamie was?"
"Mmmm, why are we bringing this up now?" she murmurs against his lips, desperate as anything to get back to the kissing and not to talk about the damn accident.
"Because," he says, breaking their kiss and then nipping at her earlobe, "it means that you're going to be an awesome mom to our kids. All five of them."
"Oh, no. We are not having five kids," Brooke squeals a little as he bites her earlobe, laughing, and she realizes that this is why she loves him. He's able to take something so traumatic and turn it into something sweet and something sexy.
"You underestimate me, Brooke Davis. It'll happen."
"Don't push your luck," she breathes against the mouth that breathed life into her, and they keep going and get on with their lives.