A/N: The following story is set after 3.14 when Brucas are a couple. Nathan and Haley are back together but she is still currently living at the apartment with Brooke. The beginning of the story takes place before the school shooting and Leyton kiss. Therefore, Peyton is still missing Jake and is supportive of Brooke and Lucas' relationship. Everything prior to season 3 has happened as normal.

Brooke watched the scene before her silently from the blacked out windows of the car she was currently sitting in. She watched as Keith's car pulled up at the graveyard and as Lucas slowly exited, Karen holding onto his arm supportively.

From the drivers' side, she saw Keith emerge and wrap his arm around Lucas' shoulder as they made their way towards the crowd of people gathered around a freshly dug grave. From where she was sitting, Brooke could tell Lucas had been crying, she could see that he was hurting. As she watched Brooke felt tears form behind her eyes and roll down her cheeks, dripping onto the unmoving hand placed on her lap.

More than anything in the world Brooke wanted to get out of the car and walk up to him. She wanted to pull him into a tight embrace, to kiss him lovingly and tell him that everything was going to be ok. That she was ok and that she loved him and always would.

However, it didn't matter how much Brooke wished to hold Lucas in her arms, the fact was that she couldn't. The only thing stopping her from running up to him now, was the knowledge that he'd be safer with her gone. That they all would.

She could see them all now, gathered around what would soon be her final resting place. After today Brooke Davis would cease to exist and she'd have to start again somewhere else, torn from the people that she considered her family. Separated from the people that she loves more than anything else in the world.

Brooke watched as Haley cried into Nathan's shoulder. During the last year, they'd become roommates, and over time that had developed into a wonderful friendship. A friendship that was now over, that Brooke would never be able to call upon again. Brooke took comfort though in the fact that Haley would have Nathan to lean on through this. Recently they'd decided to make another go of their relationship and Brooke was more than happy for them. Deep down she'd known that they'd find their way back to each other, just as her and Lucas had done.

One noticeable absence from her funeral was Peyton and as Brooke thought about her best friend three words sprung to mind.

People always leave.

Brooke didn't blame Peyton for not attending the service. Peyton had been to enough funerals in her life without having to go to her best friends. Brooke knew that Peyton would be grieving in her own way and it hurt Brooke to think that this time she'd not be the person to comfort her and pull her through these dark times. Brooke felt guilty for her actions as she sat there watching her funeral, after all, Peyton was her best friend and following the death of her mom Brooke had promised that she would never leave her, that Peyton would have her no matter what.

If Brooke had any other choice than this she would have gladly taken it. However, this was her only way out, the only option that was given to her.

Two weeks ago, Brooke had discovered that her father had recently given evidence in court, which led to the conviction and imprisonment of a man who'd raped and assaulted a young woman. Following his conviction, someone close to him had threatened the life of both Brooke and her parents.

Shortly after the trial, Brooke's parents had received death threats at their home in California, warnings of what was soon to come. Fearing for their own safety as well as their daughters, Brooke's parents had been forced to give up everything and enter witness protection.

So it was that last week Brooke's father had killed her mother in a drunken rage before then killing himself. Or at least, that's what the papers had reported. The truth was that they'd relocated under different names, the government believing that the best way to keep them safe was staging their own deaths. Both her parents were now living a new life in New York City where Brooke would soon be joining them.

After the 'death' of her parents, Brooke had acted every part the devastated daughter and two days later a concerned 'neighbour' had found her unconscious on the bathroom floor of her apartment. A suicide note was placed on top of the kitchen counter, an assortment of pills and empty alcohol bottles left lying on the bathroom floor for her friends to find on returning to the apartment after learning of her death.

It had all been arranged methodically so that Haley was spending the night at Nathan's and Lucas was sharing a family dinner at Karen's café.

Brooke was happy with her life in Tree Hill and she'd fought her parents' decision until they'd finally worn her down, suggesting that whilst she remained there, all her friends would also be in danger, that she could be jeopardising their safety by staying here with them.

Finally Brooke had relented, and the events that followed had led her to where she sat now, watching from the back seat of a car while the people she considered family attended her funeral believing her dead. Since her supposed death, Brooke had thought that maybe it would have been better if she actually had died. At least that way she wouldn't have to live with the knowledge that she'd hurt the people she cared about, she wouldn't have to carry on with her life knowing that the people she loved were carrying on without her. That Lucas, her boyfriend and the person she loved was moving on without her.

As Brooke observed the solemn faces of her friends, she cried. Knowing that they were hurting and seeing Lucas in so much pain devastated Brooke, but this was for the best, or so she'd been told.

Finally the funeral came to a close and Brooke watched as Lucas and the others each piled a handful of freshly dug dirt on top of her newly lowered coffin. As people began to make their way back towards their cars and away from the grave, Brooke took one final look at her friends, committing every detail of them, every experience she'd shared with them to her memory.

When the majority of mourners had departed, Brooke watched as Lucas stood beside her grave and dropped one white rose onto the coffin below it, tears streaming from his eyes. He was alone now, Karen and Keith standing at a distance watching him as he said his final goodbye. From where she was sitting Brooke longed to be standing next to him, to have a proper goodbye, but as Lucas finally made his way towards his mom, the car slowly began to pull away from Tree Hill Cemetery and leave the only life she'd known behind her.

Brooke glanced one final time at Lucas as she placed her hand on the car window where she could see him. She watched until Lucas disappeared from view and once he'd vanished from sight she rested her head back against the car seat, closed her eyes and cried.